Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Hour: Wake-Up Call in the Crease

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee reflect on the Leafs' 3-2 win over the Ducks on Thursday night. They dig into Anthony Stolarz's injury, his 'day-to-day' timeline to return and a big-picture view of his knee injury history. Should the Leafs have started Stolarz off one day's rest? Then, they get into Jo Woll's relief effort, Morgan Rielly's struggles and Max Pacioretty's 3-point night. Later, they dip into the mailbag and answer your Leafs 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.

all right let's bring this week home on the real kipper and born show this is the leaf hour edition on this friday Nick Kiprios. Justin Bourne. Hello. Sammy McKee, Derek Brandeo, and just Jake Schultz. Just Jake. No, didn't get a nickname today? No nickname today. I've been just really impressed with him recently, so we're dropping the serpent for now.

We are live on Sportsnet 590, the fans, Sportsnet 360, and Sportsnet Plus. We go large on the Toronto Maple Leafs in this hour. And then the top of the hour, we'll welcome in Doug McClain for a little off the rails. And also Jason Bukala will join us to put a big ribbon on this week. So just not Friday. Friday the 13th.

Oh, it is, yeah. Are you guys like those type of guys to go a little slower today? No. No? It is funny you mention this because as you guys both know, I am very jinx wary. Yes. Extremely. You'll go home the same way. Yeah, i'm very like when it comes to sports i'm

very like i respect the hockey gods deeply deeply deeply deeply and i don't know if you want to get into this right away but i feel like i should address it because i've been getting barbecued on all social medias because of this but i said this about anthony stoller's I think on Wednesday's show and talking about Friday the 13th are you superstitious listen to this clip listen to this clip two and a half million bucks

I think they've already got their money's worth if he stopped playing tomorrow which I hope he doesn't their contract was worth it they got nine wins out of them already oh my god. Are you nuts? Are you nuts? Honestly, I'm so

sorry, hockey gods. It's my fault. I will never... Everybody tweeting me being like, it's your fault. I agree. Totally my fault. I'm sick. My favorite leaf of the year, my favorite story of the year, I go out there, I start talking like that, I'm getting too confident, and they smite me.

We were talking about him being up with Bill Borilko and Tim Horton up in the rafters in Legends Row. The pitchers with his name up on the rafters was the nail. The nail. You text whoever one of your friends made that, they did it. As mentioned, Anthony stoller's injury kind of overshadows uh a win max patcheretti had a big night i'm not sure that we'll get to it in the next hour based on watching anthony stoller's uh go down last night and uh

not one of those where right away we're all sitting there going oh that was bad that one kind of just snuck up on us a little bit but those are the worst right are they well i think it's it's better when you see some sort of impact and you go that's where it happened you tweak this but when something just kind of goes something just kind of quits on a guy i think that's a little bit more scary although it sounds likeip, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, you're maybe not as concerned today as we were initially. Why don't we go to head coach Craig Berube, who spoke on Anthony Stolarz today, and we'll start with his update first.

What's your goaltender and status? Good. Well, I thought we got good news on him day-to-day right now. Obviously, he didn't go on the ice today, but we'll see tomorrow if he can get out there. What's that? Do you expect him back next week? Still there? Yeah.

Yeah, I do, but in saying that, again, he's got to get on the ice. But it was good news overall. So let's just leave it at that. Right now it's day-to-day. Oh, we were fine up until he gave us the dreaded day-to-day. Day-to-day. Day-to-day. Today's not the day.

Tomorrow's probably not the day either, but it'll be a day. It is a day. Don't read into anything like that. It's a day. it could be this day could be a lot of days from now is it the austin matthews three and a half weeks day today is it the jake mccabe five games day today that's not for today this is this is the exact problem in saying that guys don't have issues with like their injuries or not being forthcoming with your injuries because every single person as soon as another guy gets hurt and you say it's not serious and it's day-to-day i don't believe you it's not right i don't believe you i don't i don't have any trust in you i don't think there's any way that it's actually day-to-day i truly believe that you're going to see him in february like. I don't believe you. I don't have any trust in you. I don't think there's any way that it's actually day-to-day.

I truly believe that you're going to see him in February. Like, I don't. I have zero trust in the organization being forthright about any of this now. They've lost me. So this does not make me. This update does not make me feel any better about it. Does not change my perspective at all. Here's the good news so far with all the injuries for the most part i'm not talking about every guy and

there's a camp who's been out for quite a while and then yarn crock they never told us day-to-day with him did they did they start out day-to-day with him no the day-to-day guys were matthews okay and uh matthews and but they have recently avoided the... He's going to be out a while or week to week. So I do believe that they believe that we don't know if it's going to be two days or 21 days. Right. So far. Which, I'm sorry, I can't go on your side in terms of, you know, they're lying.

Yeah, they don't know. They just don't know. Okay. The one thing that we did the game last night, and the one thing that needs to kind of be stressed here is that this guy has got some knee injury issues. That knee. Right knee.

Both knees. Both knees. Both knees. That's too many. But one, probably a little bit more. He's had multiples, surgeries. It got to the point where he lost a year. Remember the Valley story?

Yeah. How much smaller the one leg was than the other and all that stuff? Yeah. It's been an ongoing challenge for him his whole career are his knees. I think what happened last night is that he felt something, and he may have gotten spooked a little bit. Yeah. And he just, for cautionary reasons, took himself out of the lineup. Great call.

Please, God, let you be right about that. He then goes, gets some further testing, either last night or this morning, today. They come back. They say, structurally, you're fine. And then, like Mike Medano, they drop the stretcher he was on, and his knee snapped. That's one of the best clips all time.

It is. Let it settle. Take a couple of days off. Don't think we'll see him this weekend. You should be fine. That's how I read the tea leaves today. But. Okay.

But. But he is a guy who has had knee issues. Okay, now we're getting the big picture stuff. We are. Okay. has had knee issues okay now we're getting the big picture stuff we are okay he is a guy who's had knee issues and he felt a little some some discomfort in a knee the first time that they said let's go back to back here with him and see what he's got if he can be the guy so does it change how you feel about him and what had become the goaltending situation was

it felt like his net as 1A with Wolos 1B. To answer your question, yes, I do feel differently. I'm not going to pull a Sam McKee or a Don Cherry and need to go back to the tape of what I said the other day. But I do believe in some way, shape, or form, besides the scheduling, look at where you want him and Wall to fall in the game started over the weekend.

It was a chance to have a bit of a test here for him. And unfortunately, he did not pass the test, which in and of itself can tell you how you want to move with him moving forward. I think based on this, I don't know if you can ever envision Stolarz being a guy that can play every other night for four weeks. Six to eight weeks to win a Stanley Cup. Mm-hmm.

Like, to think that he could take that type of... Yeah, 25 games, eight weeks to starts. Taxing every other day on his bad knees is not that realistic. So I think... We didn't feel like that two days ago, did we? No, I kind of felt like maybe he was building towards something that he could look like a true number one guy. To me, that's a guy that could play every other night for a month,

month and a half. And he did that for the start of the season, right? In October, he did. Did he have, did he ever, the one thing that bothered me, and I know you guys felt the same way, is that we didn't look at Tuesday night. Seven starts in October.

So, I mean, that's a starter's workload over a month, right? It is. But the one thing that stood out for us and why the three of us collectively agreed that it's interesting that they didn't go to Wall. I wanted them to go to Stowers. That was my whole thing. Was the night that he had in New Jersey. That was just not a normal game. That was it had to have been I don't want to speak for the man, but that

must have been the most taxing night of his career. Can you imagine he said no, I've been busier or I've had busier nights than that night? So to go back

to him with one day's rest was rather surprising and maybe it was to see if he could handle it yeah you've said that and i think that's given them a lot of credit you know like i don't know that's to me it feels like goalie good goalie go in not like hey let's see what we got here and maybe maybe it was maybe they deserve the credit there of that i don't i don't think i'm giving him credit i'm just saying that if it it might have just been an okay that's another reason why to to to start him yeah besides that we don't want wall to play two out of three on the weekend between december 2nd and december 23rd that's

22 nights the leafs have 12 games 12 games in 22 nights that's a ton of hockey we've talked about these guys workload and i think on this show yesterday i just said wool's playing very well i just you know why not just they're both going to play a ton let's just alternate go back and forth whatever i didn't say that because i thought stolars would get hurt i just you know like a so it's not revisionist history as you and jd called us last night it's not at all revisionist history because i said it before the game happened that it should have been an alternating schedule i don't think because he played, that's why he got injured. I don't know that if Wall had gone in, he wouldn't have got injured.

Or if Wall had gone in, he played bad. No, but the chances of Stolarz getting hurt more than were there based on how taxing he was Tuesday night and his history of his knees. Right. Sure. So it's not even for me it's this guy the chances the percentages of Stolarz getting hurt last night were a lot higher than Wall see I just I think that's just so easy to say now because of course it's it's the easiest thing in

the world to say now Kip like if he had started Saturday and he got hurt would you be saying the same thing like I just could have happened in any game. I just felt. The guy had the best game of his life and the coach rewarded it for him. So what? Like, it's pro sports. But that's not. But managing these guys is part of why they're cheating. Like, you're talking as if there's no knee issues or there's nothing.

I know. You're just having them even. And you can never do that. You can't do that. The guy earned a start. That's what happens in professional sports. You play well, you earn a start. He thought he'd give him the best chance to win.

He's available. The coach says, hey, which guy's playing better? The guy that made the best save. Sammy, if it was Tuesday night to maybe Friday night or Tuesday to Saturday, I'm with you. From Tuesday, 48 hours later, to put that guy in 48 hours later off that workload surprised me. And it surprised you too.

It did surprise me. It wasn't based on just another start. That was a very tough night for him. Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's impossible for me to sit here and say like, you guys are wrong because how would you know? But like, I mean, it's impossible for me to sit here and say, like, you guys are wrong because how would you know? But I'm not even saying that's why he got hurt. I could never sit here and say that it was the wrong decision to start Anthony Stolarz last night.

Well. I will never sit here and say that the guy who, like we said, play good, go in, play bad. But I'm not that guy. I've never been playing good, go in. But the coach is. The coach is that old school type of guy. Right.

He watched his guy give him a absolutely amazing start that won them the game, and he went back to them. And the point I made is that exposes you to critique when it goes wrong. And it went as wrong as it possibly could go. We're still talking about a guy that's never played more than, what, 40 games in his career? 27 is a career high. Yeah, okay. No, that's wall. Oh, career? Yeah. 27 is a career high. Yeah.

Okay. No. That's wall. Oh here we go. That's a career high. We are talking about a guy that's never played. At the level he's playing right now. The reason he's 2.5 million.

And not 10.5 million. Is that he's never done the starters workload. And so once he's done that. If he continues to be the best goalie in the league. As he has been the last couple of years. You go okay. And I'm the first couple of years, you go, okay. And I'm the first one to say, yeah, Kipper, hindsight's 20-20, right? It's easy.

Look in the rearview mirror. But we are factoring all these things in. I'm way more worried about Joseph Wall's health than I am of Anthony Stolar's health. Yeah. So you start Joseph Wall in that game, it's maybe more likely that he gets hurt in that game. So, like, I think he needs more time off. That's fair. So now we have a story.

Because you feel like Wall is the risky one. For sure. To put in. Yeah. Stolarz has now demonstrated. I got Stolarz as the risky guy. Now Stolarz has demonstrated that it's at least a concern now. Multiple knee injuries. On a non-play he got. Now Stolarz has demonstrated that it's at least a concern now.

Multiple knee injuries. On a non-play he got. That he thought his career may have been over, that he would never get himself healthy again. We are talking about a very long list of knee issues the man has had to get to this point. So whether it's Wool or whether it's Stolarz, that's more concerning. The Leafs have two of these guys, and they're the best goalies in the league. They're first and fourth in, say, percentage in the NHL.

And so this is a very unique conundrum. It's like, we have amazing goalies, but who can we play? Who can we get over the finish line? And who's going to be left to go to battle? What was the number one talking point about these guys at the start of the year? We've completely papered over it because of how incredibly they play. I don't think we papered over it.

No, no. At the start of the season, when we were doing our preseason shows, we talked about these guys have the potential to be great but the we kind of stopped talking about it since wall's been back and you're kind of just cruising along cruising along and then one of these guys getting hurt on a wrister it's like a cold glass of water thrown in your face you're like oh my god that's exactly it but we're not going to sit here too and be the when they're going well it's going yeah just wait wait till they get hurt. Oh, yeah, Sammy. Enjoy while you can.

That guy's going to get hurt. We're not going to do that either. I just, I thought, okay. I'm fine with not criticizing Stolarz going in. I'm fine with that. I thought it was, he, it's a nice move by a coach for the guy that carried him throughout the early part of the season. He had a great start and he earned it. And he's going to have to make a career high in saves.'m sorry and starts anyway so what's one extra but i think it exposes they

don't have that luxury they don't have that luxury of going into it mindless best guys in like they have to do real management the rest of the way yeah and if you were a little relaxed like we've been and the fan base has probably been in it's a wake-up call it's a wake-up call to say you guys better be perfect on when these guys need a rest and when they don't well and i think what's really important here is that you're gonna get dennis hill to be a game this weekend presumably and i think you very likely, between the two goalies we're talking about, to have Hildeby as your backup in playoffs now. And are you comfortable with that?

Because if one of the two of them, you know, between the two of them, it's likely you're going to have an injury at some point. Hildeby is, I think there's a 30% chance Hildeby plays playoff games. Oh. You know, and so do you not want him in now to have this problem now, get him into games, get him feeling comfortable at the NHL level, seeing these shots, getting him a part of it, if you think he's the third best option.

Can't agree with you more that, he's he's he's in the wheelhouse i mean you know actimov is having a great year but it's his first year in north america and they want to develop him they want him playing i don't i don't i i see them trying to protect him him and matt murray got hurt last game i'm not sure if you know that fourth in the on the depth chart you know at the mob is you know i think the same age as he'll to be and he's got an 801 record a 184 and a 929 but i guess he's just way more green like he just hasn't had he played uh very limited games last year somewhere he's never i'm not saying that they call him up i'm just saying that like you know they're comparable they're comparable age and he's having

a way better season at T-Muff. But I feel like you're also saying that he is a bit of a chip for them, right? Like a potential... I don't see them... I don't see them trading him. But I think

the Leafs will continue to get calls on their depth in net. Well, they may be less interested in picking up that phone now. To your point that I wouldn't have anybody as an untouchable if I get an offer I can't refuse. Like, again, I'm trying to win a cup that we haven't seen here since 67. The good news is Joseph Wall is awesome. And you do have Joseph Wall.

He's been tremendous this year. 9-21. He was great last night. And now you're, you know, you thought you were worried about every shot going in before. Like, towards him. Yeah. Now it's like every time you watch a game with Joseph Wall and that, you're just, oh my god. Another game. Hey, I love Freed.

I love gals. I love Cuthbert on the broadcast. Just chill with the e-bug talk. Oh, my God. They're like, the e-bug, the e-bug. Let's do a vignette on the e-bug. I'm like, holy. I already cursed them enough.

Just enough e-bug talk. Good Lord. It's like Wall is super durable. Just enough e-bug talk. Good Lord. It's like, well, super durable. He's never been hurt ever. But like, let's definitely talk about the e-bug some more. They want to see another one. I'm a broken man. Like, I'm a broken man.

I can't have another e-bug in there. This time for the Leafs. Let's listen to some coach clips. We got Berube on wool and Hildeby. Who would you like to go with first? The clip about wool and relief is good. Let's do clip four. It's important. I thought Wolsey did a real

good job coming in. That's never easy. He made a couple big saves for us. One in the third and later on in the third he made a real good save. He did a good job coming in. um yeah it's important and we're lucky we're fortunate to have two guys that have played extremely well this year i would have gone waller but extremely yeah but it's nice it's a nice it's really good that they have wall because you know he was very good last night actually there's some breakaways on him. Another hockey game where we said if they had someone else named Samsonov.

Poor guy. He was like a 900 or something. That's a loss. Yeah. That's a game. The previous years that they would have once again found a way to lose. Yeah. For sure.

He was very good. And it was, you know, you, did we do the pack on Riley? Yeah, we did the pinches at the end of the first period. That's the first time for me where I saw signs of old Leafs. And someone else over here was text us that the 44-95 pairing didn't make you feel very comfortable. I would say that where you have reached or the sort of point of the Leafs season,

the annual time where the heat is rising on Morgan Rielly. Yeah. Where the fan base is, I would say that he is the whipping boy at the moment. People have him in the crosshairs. It hasn't looked great. Him and Oliver Ekman-Larsen, whatever whatever the opposite of chemistry is that's what they have

like it just doesn't look good together and people are people are on riley you know the core four has always taken a lot of the heat for not rising or you know when they play a bad team they don't perform particularly well but riley looked maybe not as bared down at times last night. And the scary part is the rushes against, the misreads on pinches and stuff. I thought he had good offensive plays in the first little bit. And it's like he thought it was going to be a runaway. It was 2-0. He started sniffing around.

And all of a sudden, that ends up being a much closer hockey game than we had hoped. Going into it, we kind of thought that might be a bit of a Leafs route. And they played fine. They're the better team. They deserve to win. But, you know, certainly could have gone the other way. He had a helper last night, but the points aren't coming probably as, you know, if he ends up with 40 points, is that a disappointment for you?

For sure. I think, you know, he's paid handsomely. And I think his... It doesn't help that he's off the power play. No, for sure. And I think, well, if you saw it today at practice... Oh, is he back? Yes, sir.

The Riley, Marner, Nylander, Matthews, Tavares is back together. It didn't work a hundred times. Let's try it one more time. Maybe this... Nyes got the boot. Yeah, Nyes went back down to the second. Maybe he's just... He's pressing for a little bit more offense. Out ofiley but or just that is that play better if you get caught

it's the only reason why you're up right yeah just to help create and support and maybe get on the score sheet maybe that's what we saw a little bit last night from him. Take Matthews off that unit. Killing it. All right, let's go to Craig Berube. Did we do an overview of the game yet? We did. I think we did. Didn't we?

I can't remember. No, I don't think we did. Okay, we did not. We did not. Sorry, I was yelling about it. No, we went to. We went goaltending early. Pretty good game. You know, a really good third, I thought, you know, with the lead.

Well, it gave up one chance in the third. But, you know, we had lots of opportunities to score. We didn't put it in the net enough. But, you know, I thought our game was pretty good. I agree with him in the third. And they've been good this way, shutting down and getting great goaltending. Best team in the NHL when leading, when scoring first. I think they're 12-1.

Yeah. They do well with the lead. I mean, overall, kind of stop and start kind of plays and sustaining. I didn't think they got out of – two days ago, he was talking about cleaner outs instead of his own zone. I didn't see too many. No, we were trying to stay positive on the broadcast so we didn't show the uh couldn't make a damn pass pack that we were building but to beat it to a square in the offensive zone i just you know i did i thought i moved the puck better than the leafs last night i did the ducks game back-to-back

nights wednesday thursday and ottawa made them look silly in the O-Zone, running the play up high, Stutzle taking it up there and, you know, zipping it about. And the Leafs definitely looked like the beef stew sort of team. You know, they're just chunking in, hope for the bounces, patches, tips a couple in. They survive.

It's a playoff-style win. Yeah, they kind of look the same against every team. Yeah, that's true which i think is okay regardless of like really good or really bad they're just kind of in a close game in the third period and they kind of win it's they just keep really not the most thrilling brand of i actually think they've been playing some of their worst hockey of the season at a time their schedule has been softest which has been really nice they've played but they would have blown leads to lesser teams but fortunately well they're playing less Chicago Nashville Anaheim uh who would they beat before Anaheim the other night

someone else not great god my brain earlier this week no one else that's good whatever that's before Jersey they beat Jersey oh that's right. They lose Jersey. Jersey's good. Never mind. And they got absolutely caved in by them and got saved by Stoller. But, you know, Chicago and Nashville. So, yes, the point is I think that their poor play has coincided with a soft schedule. They're getting wins. They need to figure it out because the schedule won't be soft forever.

Although this weekend is pretty soft again. No, we... You want to go to break? No, we can talk about patches for a little bit here before we go to break. Okay, and then we'll do games after? Yeah, we'll do it after. It's fine. All right. Max, patch ready.

Before the game, we were talking about the Leafs and the inability, not just this season, but probably in the last five, where so much focus is on secondary scoring, third and fourth lines not producing but overall just how tough it's been over them getting production out of the left side now they've got matthew nyes and it looks like matthew nyes should be on the pace that he's at probably around 40, 45 points, which if you ask me, a guy that's played 109 games in his NHL career.

And 27 of those might be goals too. He's 22 years old. It's not bad. No. But is it bad when you're trying to win a Stanley Cup on a contending team and you're it? And outside of Matthew Nyesyes there hasn't been much over the last little while and then now max patch ready comes along going in last night just two

goals i think yep now provided three points last night including two goals and i don't know newfound money here yeah i i mean he's a lot like stolars and wool for me big time you know just gonna say the exact where it's like i worry if you're gonna go they rolled them out 18 plus minutes last night they're gonna play x amount of times before christmas can he do it that much because he he does look good like he you know gr hits, can shoot it in the net, has some offensive sense, tons to like. Can he do it? Over and over and over without snapping like dry rubber bands. Just listen to this clip from Pat Tretti himself on his role from last night,

which he's a really good talker, and I found this clip very interesting. So Pat Tretti, clip one, please, on his role. I've got to make sure that I balance everything in terms of being hard to play against and playing straight lines. And I can't get away from that no matter what the outcome is. So, I started to feel that fade a little bit, but then the third got back to that. And, you know, I think that's definitely where I'm helping out the line and the team the most. But I definitely, you know, there are areas where I can maybe get lost a little bit and try and get a shot off

it's interesting because if you're patch ready like he knows how he can play offensively he knows he can still shoot it like it takes some real humility to just become this hitter guy but i'm sure in his mind he's like are we sure i'm worse than tavarez you know like you guys give me his opportunities and see if my stats are much different like those two guys together yeah me too and with willie with them it really feels like a good mix well those two guys are are similar for me whereas once you get them in that area of six to eight feet on a radius around the net, they're good.

They're below the dots, too. They can win battles on the boards and stuff. It's strong sticks and compete for loose pucks. The challenge is if you're not around that six-foot radius or in their certain wheelhouse, they can kind of get lost too. They both have great beard density. Oh, they do. Which is really impressive.

They both would have full beards when they shave in the morning. Yeah. No, I totally see what you mean. Willie is a nice, like, change of pace on that line. Yeah. And, you know, ends up with a – I thought Willie was good last night. Brinkley is galore.

I don't know how many shots he ended with, but he had five, six, seven, eight at least. Wow. I mean, that's when Willie's... When he's gone, he's gone, right? The cheating-ness. Yeah. Right? He had the cheat dial revved up.

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food for kids, 50, 50.ca or text the word cash to 590, 590. And we'll send the link right to your phone. It's the 50, 50 fortune supporting food for kids, standard message and data rates apply Ontario only. Kip, if you won 700, would you notice like if i just put 700 in your various accounts would it would you notice do you think if you check your statement uh yeah i would i would that's a lot of golf yeah yeah that's immediately i'm like what course am i joining yeah a few green fees that rose would cover a couple okay we'll take a quick break when we return more on the toronto maple leafs including who's getting healthy more of real kippern born after the break hey it's alish for a fire and i'm justin cutford join us as we discuss the most important sports stories of the day and tee up the biggest games of the night it's the fan pre-game 6 p.m weekdays on sports

sports at 590 the fan and wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Kipri, it's Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. You getting much of a response over your jinxing? Yes. Anthony Stoller's? Yeah. Front of the show, Josiah Bosch, just sent me a screenshot of me with my hand in my hands.

Yeah. And below it on the screen on the ticker is the Anthony Stolarz news. So pretty perfect. Anyways, game time. It's game time presented by Bet365. Visit the app, and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 plus. On Terra only. Please play responsibly. So

the Leafs have a couple games this weekend that you'd think that they should probably get a couple wins, but we'll focus on tomorrow night in Detroit, which your boy will be in person for. You know, you really hit the eye in Detroit. Detroit? Yeah, I can't say it. Detroit.

Detroit. So I will be. And Elliott does that too. It's the eye, yeah. It's the eye. He's very Canadian, I think. The Toronto Maple Leafs are minus 180 road favorites in that game uh looks like they you know it's gonna be huso tomorrow the red wings just came off a brutal loss to the

philadelphia flyers and i saw someone say that they're off for four days after that game if they lose in bad fashion to them don't you you always recall a ton of goals? Yes. Just always a ton of goals. Marner scored. They won 10-7 there once. Marner scored. Didn't he have six points? Didn't he score four? Always. And then Buffalo, there's always a ton of goals too.

Patrick Kane, three goals in 24 games for Detroit. And this game time is just another opportunity for me to brag. And then on Sunday night, I will be at Ford Field to watch the Buffalo Bills take on the Detroit Lions. And the Detroit Lions in that game are minus 140 favorites over the

Buffalo Bills. They are two and a half point favorites on the spread. And that was game time. Resetted by Bet365. Visit the app place to find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. So where did you get your Bills tickets? I don't know.

My buddy bought them. How much? I have no idea. A lot. Like, I mean. Your buddy buys them. Yeah, so like. And you can't at any point go, how much am I paying for this?

He, to his credit. Are you that rich? To his credit, my good buddy Keegan. He gave us all a total for hotel tickets to the Leafs game, tickets to the Buffalo game, and he said, here you go. This is the total. We all paid it, and away we go. What a great group.

Let's share with the class. Oh, no. What's your total? My mom listens to this show. I'm not telling you that. Are you nuts? She'll kill me. That's such a good answer. I don't need to answer this multiple times. I already had to answer to All show. I'm not telling you that. Are you nuts? She'll kill me. That's such a good answer.

I don't need to answer this multiple times. I already had to answer to Allie. I'm going home for Christmas for three days and she'd be like, you spent how much? I'm like, no, I'm not telling you. Not telling you. How much did you spend on her present? On my mom? Yeah. What percentage of what you're spending on this trip

did you spend on her present for Christmas? Anyway, so I got some tweets here, boys. He's asking. Did you spend a Gino on the bills? South. South of that. South of that. Okay.

Not by much, but South. Canadian? Yeah. Good question. It was Canadian. Okay, last one. I'll tell you in the break. So do you want to do some tweets?

I don't even know if you saw me do this today, Kipper, but I sent a little mailbag question for our Leaf fans to do on our Leaf Hour because I know you love that. Our first one here is from at Max Domi Enjoyer. I don't know if that's Kipper's burner, maybe. Which prospects picks should we be willing to trade away for a solid 3C along the lines of a Brock Nelson type guy, assuming the investment upside of creating a better line for Domi to excel on.

If he's not getting top six minutes, feels like we might have to give a lot, give up a lot for that. Well, I would believe that if you're Lou Lamorello and you want to give up Brock Nelson, who's still very good and he's a good goal scorer

and I see him as a legit top six guy. I don't see him as... You would have that flexibility to move him out in with maybe a John Tavares on some nights you want to move him to the wing or...

He's that good. But to me, the only names you'd be asking for would, you're not, you're not looking for a goalie right now. Are you, if you're the Islanders? Uh,

Sorokin's pretty damn solid. Varlamov's very good. Okay. That's a great point. Right? Yeah. Like, so I'm not going there.

The home run for me, I'm not getting cowan i believe i can ask for him i would ask for cowan and settle for minton on on brock nelson yeah yeah i you know i i think that's the only answer there's no other answer like was it one of you take doer and steve's like the actum all of you just said they got goalies like i are we what do we take Dewar and Steve? Like, who, Aktyamov, you just said? They got goalies? Like, are we, what do we, where's, we got Bukes later. Let's ask him about Cowan. I don't know where he's at. Like, I have such a good concept of where Minton is at.

He got absolutely rocked in a game against Oshawa. But he was fine. Yeah, but he's at the camp. Yeah. But he's skating alone at the camp, and he's, like, in a non-contact jersey. He got rocked. Yeah, he did. At the camp. Like, the in a non-contact jersey. He got rocked. Yeah, he did.

At the camp. At World Juniors. Yeah, right. But outside of that, there's really, to JB's point, you can't window dress me. Topi and Roni? Yeah, you can't go. There's not too many places you'd want to go.

I'm giving you a guy to help you win the Stanley Cup. Brock Nelson's goal totals the past three years are 37, 36, 34. He's already got 10 this year. Those are. And they're crease goals. That's not third line stuff. No. And they're crease goals.

He stands in the paint and he's big and strong. You know, like he's. He can play center of the wing. He plays every game, which helps. What's the Leafs pick situation? I don't know how to look that up anymore. Cap, wages? Yeah.

The Leafs pick situation is they have... It's not bad. I mean, it's not bad. No, no, no. It's awful. They're one in the second, one in the third, fifth, sixth, seventh. And then they're first for 26 and 27 they have. Yeah. They're first for 26 and 27 they have. Minton, to me, between now and the March deadline is,

okay, where are we realistically thinking he's going to be? Yeah, it's scary. It's scary because he looks like he's going to be an NHL hockey player who's going to get. Who might be a year and a half away from really being an impactful guy. But you worry that he's going to be impactful in a way that not many guys are like Sorelli or like, you know, like a thoughtful two-way conscience. That ceiling is, he's not Anthony Sorelli.

I'm not saying he's not. Plug your ears, Craig Berube and Minton. If Minton has to be part of the trade for to get Brock Nelson or Kadri or one of these, like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right?

Right. Are we all being serious here? Yeah, we are. We are. Right. I'm in. I'm in. There's only one.

I really like Minton. I do, too. I've been impressed. You're lucky if you got three pieces, you know, in your organization that teams want. Leafs for sure have two. Gobenkin, like, he would intrigue me if I'm another team willing to deal with the Leafs. Residual Robertson value?

No. Yeah, better than nothing. Here's a question from AlDavisis 49 on twitter just win baby just win why does craig berube continue to play ryan reeves he doesn't bring a ton to the table you know i don't mind he's also not playing this is the best the best i've seen him as as a leaf in this stretch without fighting that's's the thing though, Kim, like you don't have to fight every game and no one, there's not a guy to fight every game.

Okay. But it's almost Christmas break and he hasn't fought. Okay. It's not even to be fair to him. The era of needing to fight just to stay relevant is gone. I understand. So you tell me between beginning of the season, give me like one or two examples where he needed to fight and he didn't.

No. I can't recall. No, I can't either. But this is, we've talked about the Leafs not being reactionary and being the punch first team. And it doesn't feel like he's a threat. Like he's, I don't know, like he's a threat like he's like people like he's i don't know like he's been fine i don't have any problem as a hockey player yeah but like he hasn't

been like other teams no god raves is out here like he's good he wants to kill us yeah like he's just he's done his job as a forward maybe don't ask darnell nurse about that but well that hit is a different uh different animal to me than what we're talking about yeah by the way the bottom six of mcmahon minton domey mcmahon minton domey i like that uh holmberg doer lorenz i also think that's a pretty good fourth line i like the bottom six like that i think they would get some more offense out of it yeah if you just slid old brock nelson right in between the domey and mcmahon it's like oh boy that team's looking that would change the look team's looking a lot better yeah sorry sorry to sweet uh want to take a quick break and listen to bruby talk about uh mcmahon coming back sure i also

would just like to say as a guy who follows the islanders i would be probably okay with that arrangement rather than just losing nelson like i like men but you mentioned though that if they were going to trade nelson like they'd have to be out of it and him you have to pry a lot i i don't know if is lou wanting to trade him feels like he's more likely to extend him for eight years than he is to play who is not giving up he took two points last night off of chicago well they tried to lose lou will not pack it in he's not gonna pack it in i don't if i'm talking about like you trade a guy like brock you're packing it in you're packing it in oh i'll just you know what i'm saying no no lou will never so yeah i think it's a maybe a bad mistake by the organization. Will Lou pack it in?

Resign. Yeah. You mentioned in your article that you thought that that was... Physically pack it in. He was saying, well, just that you thought... I think they're leaning towards him... Doing it on his own. Doing it on his own.

Eventually. Quick, so we don't have to fire you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They missed the playoffs again. Can come back no in september i told i had listened i'm a proclaimed ageist when it comes to hockey yeah yeah speaking of my mom we love you lou but like your team needs something new now they haven't changed their identity at all for years and it's not good enough we had rap on yesterday he said the worst thing that happened to them was getting

to the conference finals it's just uh maybe if we tried the same group what if we tried the same group okay it's bad it's really bad uh this is from c cx piri on twitter you guys keep saying this team feels different and is better suited for the playoffs, but what gives you any confidence that they will be able to score more than two goals per game this year? Lack of scoring has been their biggest downfall.

I think the type of goals that they're focusing on this year. I also, let me go ahead and get ahead of this. Okay, get ahead. I think their elite talents are going to have a year. Wow. I think Mitch Marner... are going to have a year. Wow. I think Mitch Marner. No, a half a year.

No. Because that's all that's left. No. Playoff year. I mean, in the playoffs. Oh, playoffs year. Okay. Mitch Marner is an elite hockey player,

and I think they're going to have a year where it just works. At some point, these guys are good. I don't know that there is a case in history where guys as good as matthews and marner and nylander have elite stats in the regular season and never find it in playoffs i'm not as confident as you you're not not with with the offense and we'll stand by it feels differently because again last night's an example that they find ways to win with these lulls or these these moments when it would have caved them in in the past and they still find a way to get through that

is there it's been there since the beginning of September and I think it'll continue I am not as convinced that the light switch will go on and all these world class talented players will click on a 25% power play and everybody's going to fill the net i think there's something going on there that needs

addressing i can't necessarily put my finger on it but between the power play and the lack of production on the left side and needing somebody else in there. You know who I said I'm an ageist? There's something that needs to be done. You get to these ages and these guys tend to just get that little bit stronger, better, tougher, more experience. And last year, where they come within a goal, Matthews misses two games and he's dealing with something marner or

sorry nylander's got migraines and he misses a couple games you got mcmahon's not in the lineup like i don't think they have to be that much different to score more than two in a game in the postseason um here's where yeah i think they'll get someone else too for in a trade here's why i know it's going to be different because this is the year that Marner is going to absolutely set the world on fire. The Leafs are going to go to the conference finals. And then he is going to walk for $16 million to the Chicago Blackhawks. How much? $16 million.

Because he's going to get hot. And you're going to be talking about how he's the best when we're doing shows live on location with the Stanley Cup final. You're going to be like, oh, he's got to, I don't know, they've got to get him under contract. And it's going to be $16 million. He's going to sign with Chicago. They'll figure it out. They don't need me. I'm just telling you, that's what's going to happen.

He's going to have his best season ever than Leaf. Well, hey, would you not take that? No, I mean. Would you not take Kawhi Leonard? Hey, if there's silverware, 10 times out of 10. And without silverware, it's going to suck. The last thing I'll say about the offense is, and I've kind of harped

on this and i still feel this way is just their inability to move the puck crisply with everybody together you know who doesn't solve that problem brock nelson brock nelson brock nelson is a do it like the other guys shoot shoot it, be in front. Yeah. Like, who's a connector? Can you get Braden Point? Again, I think part of the problem is, is outside of Marner or Willie Nylander, you know, Tavares cannot make plays outside of six or eight feet around the net. Yeah, he can make good passes around there,

but outside of that. But outside that, he's not quarterbacking a power play. You don't want him being set, you know, up at the top of the circles, or you don't want necessarily Matthews either. You want him kind of set up to eventually shoot the puck. I'm fine with him with it, but I get your point. Just, they got to start involving each other better passes. three four consecutive passes that's personnel to me chris passing uh this is the last one because

we gotta go uh is brandon's this is from jimmy 63614 is brandon saw to target for the least for dev scoring i don't mind him. Think it's that ship sailed on him? St. Louis, right? It's amazing you do the show with him. No, he's still in his prime. This is commentating prime right here. Yeah, it's true. If I needed him to be on my third line,

it's different. His best years are behind him. Yeah, I don't need another like Pacioretty patch ready tavarez type where you're like hopefully squeeze one more year out of this what about four-time goal scorer last night and scott uh you could talk me into scott lot and very easily like his contract three million this year and next get them to retain a little bit brennan saw it as four goals this year he's making 4.5 million dollars yeah we're okay on but no But no, I mean, I, you know what?

I would be the worst pro scout ever because I saw that clapper on the breakaway. From Lawton? From Lawton. Get him. You're good. Get him. Whatever else he does.

First round pick on the table. Whatever. Bar down clappers. I don't know if it'll take that much more than a first rounder. Yeah, I would hope not. And Grbenkin. A first in Grbenin for Scott Lawton?

Maybe. I don't like that at all. Too much? It's a lot. I think everybody's a little bit too horned up about Grubankin. Well, that's why you got to cash that chip. He's okay. He's a second in Grubankin.

But he's going to do all those late hits after the game outside the building. Yeah, fan first network. They're going to be like, what the hell? He's fine. We need him. Yeah, he's... Could be're going to be like, what the hell? He's fine. We need him. Yeah, he's... Could be untradeable. He played seven minutes a night.

Yeah. Careful. Okay. That is one full hour on the Leafs, and we solved nothing. Not even close. But we got another hour to try when we go national. Doug McClain on off the rails.

And Jason Bukala to put it all together. And we're sending, Sammy. And where are we sending you, Sammy? Don't worry about it. We gotta go. You're not telling me how much you're spending. You're not telling me

where you're going, Sammy. I don't like it. Okay? I don't like it. I'm going to the Oshawa General again. I'm the parent here. More when we return.

Real Kipper and Born.