Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs Look to Keep Tampa at Bay

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee open with the Leafs stealing Game 3 from the Lightning on Saturday, Ryan O'Reilly's playoff leadership, confidence levels in Samsonov, Andrei Vasilevskiy's struggles, Morgan Rielly's hit and the ensuing scrum, Sheldon Keefe's comments about Tampa's 'manipulating' and Kyle Dubas' confrontation with Lightning fans. They are joined by Jim Ralph, who is on the call for Game 4 tonight, and he discusses the Leafs rallying in Game 3, Morgan Rielly elevating his game for the playoffs, Matthew Knies making an impact and potential consequences to Keefe's post-game comments (45:28). Later, Tampa Bay Times' Ed Encina discusses the Lighting's injuries, their blueline depth and his concerns for Vasilevskiy (1:09:06). Finally, Kyper, Justin and Sam look around the league's playoff action from over the weekend. 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.

This is real Kipper and born on Sportsnet 590 the van. Welcome back. What a weekend. Four games on tap tonight in the National Hockey League. All four series with the ability to go 3-1. Including your Toronto Maple Leafs versus Tampa Bay. Nick Kiprios. Justin Bourne.

Hello. Derek Brandeo. David Siss. Boom Boss. Sammy McKee. We are live on Sportsnet 590, the fan. Sportsnet's YouTube channel. Sportsnet Now.

Look at bad news. iTunes. Where are we not? No Brandeo. Austin Mackey we not what no brand new i screwed up i walked in here today and saw that damn great that brand day i wasn't on burgundy's reading the script all i did was carry the momentum from saturday night right into monday and you've screwed up it's all it's austin mackie who's here with us today all right and austin mack daddy in the house i don't know where derrick is there's the show right down to a screeching hall we're barely on the air i know

sorry is that possible that i could bring your overtime win saturday night sammy to a screeching halt or is it impossible oh god that was awesome it was just awesome like uh we all get into the nuts and bolts of what happened obviously but that's just a really really enjoyable moment playoff overtime goals when your team wins there are few things like that in sports i mean there's you know just the finality of it flutter from the from the the point goes in i i really enjoyed that on saturday toronto maple leafs outlasting the tampa bay lightning 4-3 in overtime JB, I'll start with you here. Is this just a little bit of a balancing out from the hockey gods here?

Just a tad where you go, eh, the Leafs shouldn't have won that. They weren't the better team. They were outmatched. The ice was tilted at times, but hey, guess what? Not the best team on a particular night doesn't always have to win. Yeah.

You know, you can look at the least recent history and watch them pour 15 pucks on carry price in overtime before one goes back the other way and goes in. You know, you've seen it go the other way a lot. And I don't know whether they're built in a way that's better able to withstand that sort of heat. Or if it is just luck sometimes, whatever reason. They hung around. You know, that game could have got away from them.

And they left themselves in a position to have the luck go their way for once. And boy, being here with the Leafs up 2-1 after the way Tampa Bay played that Saturday night is a significant development. All right. Let's just jump right into it with Sheldon Keefe. First Kippers Clipper of the Week on just Saturday night and just staying with it. Credit to our guys because Tampa gave us absolutely everything that they had here tonight, and our guys stayed with it.

We get a clutch goal to get us to overtime and then i mean you're you're right there so uh i really liked how our guys stayed with it you know you look over the last number of years we've lost this game a lot of times today our guys stayed with it made sure we got the win they took their big punch kip yep and i agree with him that they would have they would have lost this game in the past last year they would have lost this game what was the difference for you there's a couple but which is the obvious biggest one? They got the saves. You know, Samsonov was no good. I think the three of us would all agree in the first,

we sent each other enough messages, not just the two goals against, though one is gag, but he was not looking like the Samsonov that makes us comfortable. And there was some debate in other group chats I had about, should he come out to start the second? And sure enough, he came out and start the second and sure enough he came out and boy he looked like a difference maker from then on see i i won't argue with you because it's just the eye of the beholder you're not wrong when you say big saves was the biggest difference maker

saturday night mine ryan o'reilly 100 so you'll be the tiebreaker that's what i was gonna say ryan o'reilly he what a showing he that is why you trade what you traded for him at the trade deadline is for a game exactly like that he was unbelievable he was to me just that that that calming force that they have not had in the past if this is the leafs without trading for ryan o'reilly and you played saturday night with austin matthews and john tavarez you lose i think it's as simple as that you lose there austin and tavaris were not good enough without ryan o'reilly saturday night you know john tavarez in particular i thought was you know he followed up his hat trick with not much of a showing if his hat trick thursday night was his best playoff game in his career that might have been his worst saturday night you know when that

game is uh being decided they're down three two and they got six men on the ice you know who's on the ice matthew nyes not john tavarez like sheldon saw it and they got six men on the ice. You know who's on the ice? Matthew Nyes, not John Tavares. Like, Sheldon saw it, and they left him on the bench for a pretty significant moment. So it wasn't his night, no doubt about it. O'Reilly, you know, wins that draw clean on the O'Reilly goal in OT. I don't know if Braden Point touches the puck on the faceoff. It's such a clean win.

You know, he's available as a decoy on the Achari goal to start the game on the rush yeah he was an absolute all facets of the game star for them and yeah it is really unique to see the leafs trade for someone important have them be important i know we're going to get into that uh the grit and the fisticuffs and all of that uh but samson off ryan o'reilly honorable mentions for you for me luke shan for sure just that presence uh i know the guys on on the crew on hockey night we're we're talking about just being that guy that can kind of absorb in between the pier uh the benches yeah and just his you don't think lilligran would have done that if he were in that same spot? No, the lily pad, no, would not have.

Yeah. It's funny because I don't think that the Leafs need guys to go out and punch people in the face, but I tell you what, they have needed someone to answer Tampa's pushes. When Tampa has tried to take it to them and change the game with intimidation, at least the Leafs have been able to hang in there which they haven't been able to do in the past so uh a refreshing change of tone from this group every time like Luke uh Shen was so good in the overtime period with just puck handling the puck handling solidness making the right decision off the glass and out good snap

pass like him on the ice in overtime was a complete breath of fresh air every time, and I didn't think I would say that coming into the series. You know, hey, like, that's the part that surprised me, the poise with the puck. Yeah. He broke pucks out, and, yeah, just he's been excellent. Yeah. Things that you didn't like overall.

Their game. Yeah. Most of the game how about like just the icings we've had oh my god conversations guys all season i don't know if anybody else i've never seen anything like the same conversations but this is not new to our show we've we've met like icing i like geo usually leads it yeah but no and everyone curling no touch can anyone get one halfway down the ring three quarters of the way the the the I like geo usually leads it. Yeah, but no one ever curling no touch. Can anyone get one halfway down the ring three quarters of the way the the inability to move

your feet and then start looking for a 60 or 80 foot pass and you know, not to pick on John Tavares and his minus three, but did you see the icing that he had that led to the third goal i mean i can't remember the specific one but it was to willie nylander that he couldn't have caught it with a lacrosse stick yeah well there was a number of plays and i totally agree with you is that the d are getting the puck in behind the net and then they're looking like start going north while you're looking you know then you have some so meant to some momentum if you get the chance to beat somebody it's just a lot of guys getting the puck stuck in mud in that second period in

particular where tampa bay had 28 shot attempts or whatever it was too many guys stuck in mud to me that was the turning point of the game for them to play as horribly as they did in that second period like i you know outside of the first period of the first game of this series i can't remember them playing as bad as that all year they were so bad and for them to come out of that period only down one the massive turning point in the game yeah uh okay and saying that where do we really go here uh do we talk about the finish to the first period that led to that horrific second period and the momentum shift off of that that late goal um whether or not uh referees are calling uh whistles too early or not uh or too late what did you think about uh the conversation about uh the shot and the progression of the puck that led to a 1-1 score

i mean the 2-2 at the end of the first period yeah yeah i'm sorry 2-2 at the end of the first period good goal obviously had to count i had zero problems with it oh yeah well by the way we do have clips on uh o'reilly if we wanted to go back to that we also have uh some stuff on samson are you guys noticing though that the refs aren't like they're even if they don't necessarily know where the puck is they're not blowing the whistles like they used to for the goaltenders just in you think? Just in case it's the puck still moving? Yes. It's like basketball now. You just get to shoot it and wait for... I think I'm okay with it because, you know,

they can go to the video review. Risky for goalies. It is risky for goalies. You're 100% right. That guy's stabbing the pucks in the crease. Yes. But I think the referees have a comfort zone that they can always go to video review or...

Say I had intent to blow. the guys in the office to say, okay, the puck was loose the whole time. So it validates them. But I don't mind it, to be honest with you. Yeah, that one, my God. How hard would you have to try to get out of the way of that puck that went in, that second goal Tampa scored? You're right, the puck is still moving. Samsonov kind of corrals it back through his own legs somehow not a good goal i was that was one of those ones where i just thought oh god it's just

you know we had some prognostications about goaltending potentially hurting them and i had the moment i was like don't let it be this way not this way all right let's follow up with sheldon keep on samsonov sat night. Let's go there. I mean, along the way, you need that. That's just the reality of it. You know, we're playing in a team here. You know, Tampa Bay Lightning, obviously they've won a lot, and they are who they are for lots of different reasons, but part of that is their goaltender has performances like Sammy had tonight.

You need part of that. So that's another thing performances like sammy had tonight that's you need part of that so that's another thing that comes through here tonight uh on the road like i said at times we definitely needed our goaltender to bail us out and it was great for him he should feel felt really proud of his effort tonight have we seen enough of samson off to understand that I don't know if anybody will ever feel good about him. He is on a per goal basis. Couldn't agree with that more. Yeah. It's minute to minute.

It's shot to shot. It's period to period. Whatever small measuring stick you want to do with him, it's a very per shot basis. Yeah. Don't you think? Oh, no. i wouldn't have said it if i didn't feel that way no like borny i am it's just he's such a it's just not uh fundamental at any time yeah you know it's it's interesting because there's games where you feel like he's a little

he's composed tonight like he's kind of got it obviously that wasn't the game but he did find it a little bit a couple times you know he got lucky whether the genoa breakaway i thought you know he kind of got lucky to get a piece of there's one he finds on his elbow but he starts feeling it after that i thought that was a really good save i thought did you know one yes yeah it's like i don't have to catch it i'm just blocking me over top you know um hey you want you want to have the perfect shot i'll give it to you make it but he didn't have it yeah and i was in position to stop it it's just a couple of times where you felt like you were watching the end of the the game the way kucherov came across on that

backhand or even how about uh backdoor radish missed one in overtime where samsonov gets over pretty good makes him hit a perfect spot he misses the net the whole bench the whole tampa bench was on their feet there just landed on his stick in the spot that you think it should go in the net so yeah you know that he hung around was impressive he's not talking by the way should we hear this clip on uh so we haven't heard remember for game one he comes out and says i played like you know the s word uh not talking to reporters so they they keith was asked about that on sunday about why he's not talking anymore. We usually hear from him after the games. I'm just wondering if there's a reason

why he hasn't talked to the media in a couple of days. Have you been talking to Vasilevsky at all through the series? Well, we've never talked to the other goalie anyway. Well, let him just play golf. Keefe was feisty in the postgame, eh? Interesting. That was yesterday at practice. So, interesting that they followed up like he's not the pr guy yeah if you want to talk to the coach

where is the pr guy i don't know but the pr guy should be fielding that question not the hundred not the coach it's an insane question why are we not talking the goalie it's like i don't know can i do x's and o's please yeah like i don't know talk to steve keel about that don't talk to me about that listen we're gonna get into kind of that whole thing like i don't know talk to steve keel about that don't talk to me about that we're gonna get into kind of that whole thing i i don't want to do it right now because i just think we we gotta get into the game well yeah for sure we got to just finish off here just in terms of uh samsonov and and now vasilevsky um and and just the whole goaltending but there is a conversation to be had on that yeah if they If they panicked and put in Wohl to start the second period,

I think you lose Vasilevsky, and you have no idea what you're going to get from Wohl. Good patience by Keefe leaving him in. You mean from Sancenov? That's what I meant. Yes. Yeah. Now, everybody says that Vasilevsky's the best

and would not underestimate his ability to hit a switch. But, boys, he's been horrific. And the Leafs are up 2-1. You can say anything you want about the hockey gods, all of it.

He has not hit the switch and if he does not find a way to do what he's done in the past, this one will be all Toronto Maple Leafs from here on in. I'm shocked at the goals that go in on him. And maybe since January. Yeah. I mean, the O'Reilly one under his arm, you know, to tie it up there. The O'Reilly one over his shoulder. Sorry, the O'Reilly one over his shoulder sorry the riley one over his shoulder and ot marner under his pad the slapper like

there's been somewhere like boy not vasilevsky like would you like to hear his numbers through three games so far sure he has one and two obviously with a four two two goals against an eight five three say percentage and the whole thing with him has been this bounce back aura right like he's the bounce back god 21 and 2 after you know giving out you know losing the game he's this and then the next game he he's not there for them starting to shatter some myths here yeah and i'll note that a couple of the ones he lost um of that 21 and 2 now 21 and 3 were in the finals last year you know maybe it's slipping away a bit here maybe and and just the mere fact

that he's got a blue line that is probably the weakest in depth in a very long time for him that has to be a factor here for him yep but boy headman makes a difference eh yeah he's got everything okay i mean i'm not i'm absolutely shocked, to be honest with you. That he played? Not that he just played, but he's playing on one leg, and he's still finding a way to control when he's out there. I'm just absolutely blown away by his ability, his IQ, his smarts. his breakout plays change it for tampa they go the other way so much more when he's on the ice it's it's incredible yeah well he only played 32 35 so

i can't play two days prior they put him out there for half an hour half an hour oh my god on one leg yeah it's crazy he was really good really. So was Kucherov. So was Point. Listen, you sit here and when the other team, their best players play well and they don't win, you go, oh, you got a chance here. Okay, let's get into it because that's what a lot of the focus was on Saturday night is how physical it was. The Leafs ability now to stand up to that sort of thing the uh the hit of the night obviously was morgan riley on braden point what'd you think uh a hard hockey play yeah uh there was nothing malicious at all out of morgan there were former teammates i think in moose jaw so interesting yeah i found it rather interesting that uh you know right away they the feeling was that he was done they escorted

him off the ice right he went point no morgan oh morgan yeah yeah you got the five right right it was it did have a feel like he was he's gonna get thrown out of the game did you know but you mentioned the refs not making the calls around the crease knowing they can review this they called the five yes giving them the ability to review a pretty intelligent reffing call there yeah and like that's two of the fastest guys in this series hip to hip right a tough play Tough play. So that led to Sheldon Keefe going on a real rant on Tampa Bay and how, well, he'll use the M word. Let's have a listen. But the fight itself, I mean, it's a classic example of a veteran championship team like Tampa Bay manipulating the officials and taking advantage of a situation. They know we're basically already going on the power play because of the Kucherov situation, so it's a free-for-all.

They can do whatever they want, and they just know the way the games get called, they're not going to get another penalty. You watch that sequence back. To say that we shouldn't be on a five-on-three is... I mean, the official is literally holding Stephen Stamkos with one arm and his other hand with no glove

on is punching Austin Matthews. Not the Red Lions. I mean, the referee who calls the penalties was holding Stamkos while this was happening and it's five and five instead of us getting another penalty there. So credit to Tampa for recognizing that situation.

It's a free pass. You do what you want. And not only do they get out of it unscathed, but they take Matthews and O'Reilly with them to the box. Brilliant play by the Lightning there. And we met the Lightning in that situation. That's pretty close to fine territory. Brilliant.

I think it was stupid. For him to say that yes let me let me have it no you go ahead first well like i agree that you probably shouldn't be that critical at this juncture of a playoff series but i also think he's right like i do think what he said's right but i don't think you can be right all day long but like you have to you know you spent three hours you spent days preparing to start a series that's your job as a coach to prepare your team what do you what do you do to him to come off an overtime win and take that angle and start attacking that situation. So it's one thing if you want to go on a podium and you want to get a shot into Cooper or Tampa Bay.

Yeah. But why do you have to take the officials with you and the NHL office with you? Manipulating. Like, that, did you say,

did you just say that's so close to being a fine? I did, yeah. I'm surprised they haven't fined him on that. You're suggesting now the refs are so stupid that they can be manipulated into those calls. Maybe he thinks they're so stupid he can manipulate them into giving some back later in the series.

It doesn't work that way. Okay? All it did, in all honesty, is dig you in a hole even more he does not have a strong reputation amongst the way he treats officials or sometimes the things that he says all this did was dig them deeper yeah i mean that that i don't really have a strong opinion on how it will affect him or them or whatever it does feel like one of those ones where you get a win in a place where you probably shouldn't and it's you know there's not really a need to address it you you're telling the officials they're so dumb they can be manipulated how how can that go anywhere but in a negative way sure

yeah yeah that's fair but i do feel like a lot of the time in his postgame pressers we listen to him all year long that he does take the high road on officiating it's on ice that's great but no but i know but is it more because you said he has a bad reputation amongst officials and more is on ice behavior yes okay and the yelling yeah okay because said, he always, 85% of the time, he takes the high road when it comes to officiating. This is the first time I've really heard him even address it. I wonder if it's like more personal seeing their, you know, really important people involved in the aftermath

and sitting in the box and not being available, if that's part of why. Like you can hear he's genuinely, we listen to him all the time. He's upset. His voice is shaky when he's talking to why. Like you can hear he's genuinely, we listen to him all the time. He's upset. His voice is shaky when he's talking to us. All he needed to do was just say, hey, listen, we didn't play our best. We're glad for the win. We're going to be better.

And then just go home. Go have a meal and go get ready for the next day. I just don't think that was necessary for him to go down that path. Do you want to hear Cooper respond to Sheldon Keefe's? Oh, yeah. This is just warming up. Here's the thing, though, Cooper. If Cooper said that about the rest, he'd be like,

oh, what a veteran. What a guy. Two Stanley Cups and a final. Yeah, I know. Not equal, bud. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let's hear the clip. Manipulated the referees.

I'm not sure what that means, but I would say this. When that hit happened, I think everybody watching at home and everybody in the building thought including us thought we were going on a power play and so our two best power play players i don't think they would ever sit there and take themselves off a power play unless they thought something unjust happened so i don't i'm not sure that us taking Austin Matthews doesn't kill penalties. So I don't know how that actually worked against us, to be honest. Now, we ended up being shorthanded after that,

but I don't think anybody thought that was going to happen at the time. So I don't know. That one's a little different for me. Oh, God. He's back in my kitchen, boys. The pots and pans are being banged around. Air fryer French toast this time. Oh, my oh my god he's giving ali a shoulder rub which which leads us to the domino of what happened after the hit and tampa bay's reaction yeah do you think it's legit that

that the feeling was for kucherov and Stamkos that they were going to go on the power play. So why would they do that? I think it's pretty bold to make that proclamation when he says, you know, unless they thought something unjust happened. Which they thought. Sure, but Stephen Stamkos doesn't think Austin Matthews,

he's not exacting justice, you know, for something Matthews did. No, no, no, 100% you are. 100%. Oh, that's what that is. That's you got our No, no, no. 100% you are. 100%. Oh, that's what that is. You got our guy, we'll get your guy type of thing. 100%. Okay, I can see that.

You go after our best player. I'm going to go pick on you or your best player right now. And that's all Stamkos did. And listen, it's not like this is new to them. They've been acting like this for years now. This is who they are you go after one vasilevsky remember that one the the wolf pack yeah yeah response tampa has done this so this is very consistent from tampa bay yeah for sure for sure anytime there's something

like that this team is quick to shed the myths listen it was pretty convenient to me that you know point came right back to the game right after they figured out that he wasn't getting a major like he comes back out there colton's diving all over the place like they're they're acting like it too here like it's it's going both ways no yes listen he's hurt i'm telling you right Point. They called him a game time decision tonight. Whatever the case is, he's feeling something tonight. Hey, did he not look like he got shot in an old west with a six shooter on the way to the bench? Oh, my God.

Oh, but he's not making fun of it. It's just a miracle of modern science. He made it back to the game. How can you not have bruised ribs, broken rib, cracked rib? Oh, I bet he's very uncomfortable. Separated shoulder. I mean. You don't get hurt in this region, and then the next day you're like, well, that never happened.

Like, I'm sure he's hurting a great deal. We've often talked the last few years about Austin Matthews and not wanting to engage or get ragdolled by Montreal Canadiens. His response better. Yeah, I think that's... There was one.

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. You look at how it's gone when there hasn't been one, whether it's Matthews and Sherratt or it's, you know, the Sedins on Marchand or whatever. And, you know, itins on marsh and or whatever and i you know it's just nice that there was one you know so i it was weak as hell but at least there was one i

mean the guy was skating away from the melee with three sticks in his hands he starts getting punched in the face i don't think he really saw it coming up yeah he was cleaning up yeah the it had pretty much quieted down and stamp Stamkos manipulated the refs. He hates that, though. Yeah. It took Stamkos to absolutely pull him in. Well, it was the point where it was going to be embarrassing if he didn't. And he did.

He got back at it. It took him a while, though, too. Yeah, for sure. I'm not saying you have to turn into Wendell Clark, but sometimes maybe throwing an early punch could really help that situation. Yeah, I do. I agree. It'd be nice to throw that early one.

Read the tea leaves. He's coming after you. Yeah, for sure. No, I agree with you there. I thought it was good. I like the whole sticking up for one another has been a theme for this Maple Leafs team more recently. And it's funny.

They're finding their way through some games they maybe don't deserve to win you know i don't know if that stuff's connected but there's no doubt it's happening kipper the you know i'm just upset that my call of austin matthews first career fight against um rasmus dalene was incorrect and it was the first fight in history between two 60-goal scorers, and it certainly looked like it came in. It's not pretty. It wasn't pretty, but. I mean, I don't think Stamkos was exactly Wendell Clark. He was flailing around like Alex Semen, too. But he's the aggressor for sure, right?

And he's going to get him. He's handpicking Matthews, probably because he knows he's. Not going to go him. He's not going to go him. He doesn't like that stuff. And he didn't get an instigator that he deserved, and it was fine. It'll be interesting to see if that fuels their fire to go after him even more. Nah.

I mean. This game four, if they want to chase around Matthews, who actually answered last time, I think that's just fine for the Leafs. But, well, hey, hey listen better than what we've seen in the past at least he's there at least he finally found a way to the gloves came unglued push back yeah and he's a bigger guy you know they're down on the ground and he's not trying to get to the bench he's trying to get back at him a little bit i think that's uh yeah there's some encouraging moments there yeah as long as there's growth with it though right

because i i think he's been okay but still not dominating for me austin yeah yeah maybe not i thought you know their best player in the in game three for a little you know for the first period again ryan o'reilly ends up taking that mantle but So what did you make of Stamkos not getting an instigator there, Kip? I mean, it's crazy. It is instigating. It's a clear instigator. Yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't have given five-minute majors in all honesty.

Okay, I mean, that's fair. It wasn't a real fight to me. It was not. It was just like. But if you're going to call it a five, you've got to give a two to Stamkos. Yeah, you're not kicking Stamkos out for that. You're not. For grabbing a guy and punching him in the face when he's not kicking stamp goes out for that well you're not for grabbing a guy and punching him in the face when he's not looking

gloveless gloveless yeah anyways yeah all right kind of a slap fight it was it was not pretty like i said it was not one that either of them are gonna want on their highlight reel get myself in trouble comparing it to anything so like what do you think it was not uh yeah it wasn't exactly vinnie versus aginla let's just say that yeah yeah um anything else from that uh overall uh melee or uh no not for me Unless you have anything else on it? No. Matthew Nyes. Yeah. Still green as hell.

And there are signs that two weeks ago he was playing in college. Sure. But still see a lot of upside there. what's the world where he doesn't play for your team at this point but he is their best left winger i think you're right that he is it's no you're 100 is i i've gone all season long on yarn crock and kerfoot not huge fans hey 20 goals good on them yeah okay but now have you seen them are you seeing would you like to see more out of them yeah or are they just giving what they're capable of giving i think you're right as it tightens up those guys are less likely to find you the big moment um what's crazy about nize is how he can make nhlers miss you know like not many guys in the nhl can make the

opposing guys miss one-on-one when defending them and nize you know him and willie had a little two-on-one rush that he created something you know he got through the d by kind of like chipping it past the guy beating it you know getting a little breakaway he can create his own shot i i you know he's like lamar jackson like you know guys can get through and he's the quarterback he can create his own shot i i you know he's like lamar jackson like you know guys can get through and he's the quarterback he can make a mess it's nasty to your point he makes some mistakes with the hockey puck yes you know hang on to it a little too long like son they're coming but boy is he he's got offensive ability kipper did you see the backwards between the legs pass he made in overtime to the point high in the zone yeah i my b-hole clenched when that

happened i'm like oh my god just waiting to see which player out of screen is there and like please oh god think about like he's got some ice in his veins to even want to try that yes he does where's that thought process come from in overtime in a nhl playoff a very just doesn't deep belief in himself deep belief in himself and like hasn't had to learn to play his not preferred way ever he's just been awesome you know eventually you get there and you're like i would love to make this play but it's ot maybe i'll just keep her hang on to it for a minute he hasn't learned that yet all right in about 18 minutes we're going to welcome in jim ralph toronto maple leaf radio color analyst he's been watching this as closely as anyone we're gonna be real happy to get his thoughts on and in the

second hour ed and cena lent uh tampa bay lightning beat writer uh we'll get his side of the story on all of this yeah always nice to have a little bit of balance it is we like to provide that here we won't get the majority of the things he says but that's okay get some updates on point and headman and all that stuff so good so any major concern the big takeaway from that game for me kipper aside from o'reilly being good samsonov good a little melee yeah is like why does tampa bay look that much better than the leafs for such a huge portion of that game i got a pretty good reason i think their top pair was no good and brody fought it the whole night i didn't think mccabe was very good you know that we talk about brody's guy never we never mention him he hasn't been no the stabilizing force this series he has been for them all year playing with

a broomstick it just he's fighting it bouncing off of them the whole game yeah yeah i here's what i basically seen out of the two games at tampa bays i'll play toronto out of the three is that and i've talked to you about this all season long too yeah is leafs do not pass the puck as well as tampa yeah're not, they're okay. Their strengths are they're shooters driving to the net. And, you know, for the most part, that six-foot radius on get pucks to the net, second opportunities, redirects, strength of Tavares, strength of Matthews is shooting the puck. Sometimes Matthews will take a 40-foot shot that I'd rather see him move the puck, in all honesty.

And that's the one thing that stood out for me, especially in game three, is how Tampa, they disguise angles, shots, and they move the puck yeah as skilled as they are as as fast as some of those guys are nothing moves faster than the puck yeah the leafs are a little behind on that yeah and their ability to like once they did get it back to make a play with it all the icings and the desperation kind of left them on the ice for long shifts and then tampa's passing it around them we do have a clip from keith on brody and mccabe you know one of the pairs that we'd like to see them break the puck out a little better why don't we listen to that one and get his take well i thought they had a tough game the other night um you know uh coming coming out of our end which has been a real strength of theirs they have just have to get

back to that but those guys to play i've played a lot, take on real difficult matchups. You know, they played extremely well for us down the stretch. I think that they can play better collectively. I believe that they will, and that in itself will help us greatly. Well, getting a win where they're not great that's uh that's a freebie yeah i don't recall brody having um all season long moments like we've seen this this series it's one of the jokes that we make is that he is legitimately a top pairing for the toronto maple leaves and we never talk about him yeah right like it's like the he's at his best when you're not thinking about him or noticing him and i'm noticing him quite a

lot through three games yeah yeah and mccabe you know going for the hit on the goal that radish skates out to the front of the net like rather than just kind of playing body position rub them out a little bit so yeah that's you know they can be better and they will be better nice that riley and shen have been a reliable pair because that's a pleasant surprise. Still got a few minutes before we go to break. I mentioned earlier in the show I wanted to follow up a little bit on, and we did talk about Sheldon Keefe

and how I did not like his post-game comment on Tampa Bay's ability to manipulate the officials. But you mentioned PR, and,'s an instance where your PR guys got to work with Sheldon and make sure that he doesn't put himself in a position like that, or at least guide him. The other one that bothered me a little bit too was Kyle Dubas' episode with engaging with the fans. And that ran like wildfire this weekend.

And Kyle just, he just lost it on one fan. He was MFing. Hard Fs. Like big F bombs, which, you know, that's not Kyle. We've not seen signs of that. And however many years he's been with the Leafs now. Yeah. I've mentioned it several times in this show that that is a factor of his personality.

He has a hair trick. He's hidden it really well then to the public. Yes. I mean, we don't hear from him much right he speaks what three times a year you can you can tell if someone's got a little bit of a hot head yeah he's never come off like that i've told the story on this show before about him smashing pitcher frames after we lost the the one year like he's he he's got that in him no doubt about it it's he he doesn't play staff shinny because he's afraid

he's not going to be able to control himself and he's going to hurt a staff member can i i love that can i say but can staff members hurt him back too i'm not sure how that would work well first of all why the hell is the gm's box in the second row in tampa Yeah, it's... This is way too close. Can I just say this? He's not the first GM to get into it. Well, how could you not? Like, if there's a bunch of greased-up Florida men down there just screaming at you all game, guess what? I'm going to respond, too, and tell them to go somewhere bad.

I would say the... It's way too close to the crowd. The other thing that kind of stuck on me, too, was, like, here you got the richest organization in hockey we know there's like 5 000 full-time staff you can't find one person to be there with kyle there either a security guy a pr guy did you see spezza there he was sitting back kyle's just f you and the fan to death yeah he's ready to looks like he's going to jump out spence looks like he's reading an ad on the on the scorecard i think it's not a not even flinching i think spezza knows this isn't good

i don't want to be implicated in this. Whether it's right or wrong, I'm cutting in for Kyle. If you're Spezza? I love it. I love the scrum. Get in there. If I'm Spezza, I'm coming in for Kyle. You're Stamkos? You're just coming in there?

I'm coming in. Okay. I think there's a lot of Leafs fans who saw that and went, I like that. that i like what just happened can i tell you that i liked him the most in that moment that i think i've ever liked him that's my one theory is if i was spetsa i would have jumped in my other theory is spets is so used to people ripping on him his whole career it's like a walk in the park for me kyle have a seat man i've got 20 years of people spitting on me and telling me i stink come on just relax the player experience of hearing it on the ice a yeah thicken the skin a bit right yeah but okay so is that a sign that how much pressure is on kyle dubas there i would say mr dubas is feeling quite passionate about this

hockey series yeah well you saw when they tied him up and they cut to him, he had a very emotional reaction to the goal. The guy, you know, say what you will about him, but that press box showing told me more about him than I've ever felt about him in a way. You think the league called or would fine him for that? I would imagine so. Yeah, someone's got to be like, hey, I know you know this, but like... But not a fine? You can't do that. For sure.

Not a fine? Maybe 5K or a buy or all that works. Let me ask you this. If that was a player coming off the ice and he stopped and got into it with a fan like that, do you think the league would have a different feel for a player? Just verbal, probably not. I don't think so.

I mean, Pat maroon was about to hit a fan of the stick before cory perry stepped in and they didn't do anything with him so i think it'd be fine you got you got an interesting way to stretch things out it's true he had his stick over the box and perry grabbed him before he was about to whack old bumblebee all right so i almost i almost did something well they were in having interactions with the fans as well so i don't think it's listen i probably deserves a fine but as a leaf fan and all my leaf fan friends in my life absolutely loved it so he did some good pr work with leaf fans that don't like him let me tell you that it's all about the passion this

time of year and he's passionate i'll showed it. Speaking of passion, Sammy. What do you got for us, Sammy? Well, it's time for Playoff Picks, presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds. Did my weekly Con Smythe check in for the odds? Leon Dreisaitl, still 25 to 1. His odds have gone down. So another great performance from him last night

in which the Oilers get a huge win. So keep an eye on that. Mitch Marner, Kipper, thes' favorite, all the way up to 14-1, so I know that'll make you happy. Mitch Marner, 8 points. 8 points, 3 games. But has he been 8 points good, Kipper? Like, honestly. Listen,

there are some times when they're better stars in general, including Mitch, and they got like two points. Yeah, 100%. Three points. Yeah.

A thousand percent. You take this on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Let me just say that too. Generally, that's the game, right? I'm watching now. Every team thinks they're getting screwed by the officials.

And let me tell you something. I've watched in the first round some horrific calls. Terrible. Foligno on one. Was it Heisken or whatever the other night? It was like tripping. It's not just the Leafs that are getting bad calls in games. Every game there's horrible calls.

Did you watch Fiala's blue line hit last night? And then they called the penalty on it when he was going down on a two-on-one, which led to an Edmonton comeback. A horrific call. But listen, at the end of the day, kind of finds a way to balance it out. And, you know, you just hope that they can be better. Yeah. As this moves on.

The next thing I have for you, this is just straight for the passion, the passionate people here. I cooked up the passion parlay for tonight. For the Ryan O'reilly goal john taveras point and a leafs win plays plus 650 so almost seven to one on that one and the last thing i have is the most goals in the series for leafs tampa willie neilander only one back of john tavaris and he's five to one seems to own vasileski seems like he scores on back to one he's leading the leafs in shots as well he's got 13 shots did you like him saturday night no no no you know that line that line yeah it was tough you know what they tried to fix that line by being like okay kerfoot you're off we're giving you nice like nice is becoming a guy they're trying to use to get a spark that line

is one of the biggest concerns for me it's know what's funny is like, I think Tampa's fairly comfortable going with the Nick Paul line against them, which is, you know, they should win that matchup. So gonna need better out of that line for sure. That's one of the places that they need better. All right, and that was playoff picks presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds.

After the break, Jim Ralph, radio color analyst, and a guy that's been there all season long for us on the Real Kipper Inborn Show. We're back after this. Hey, give us a rating and review. If you're liking the playoff show, we want to hear about it. Back after these words.

Smart takes on the biggest stories in sports. The Fan Drive Time with Ben Ennis. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Real Kipper and Born on Sportsnet 590, The Van. Game four, set to go tonight. With that call today, tonight, have we got Ralphie?

We got Ralphie. Let's welcome in Jim Ralph, who will call the game with Joe Bowen tonight. Ralphie, hope you're doing well. Lots of excitement. We're not even halfway through a best of seven right now. Just your thoughts on maybe the hockey gods

weighing it out a little bit here, or Leafs just got lucky in game three? Yeah, I think a little bit of both. You know, the good thing is the Leafs admitted it. Sheldon Key said, you know, we stuck with it, but we got to be better.

Yeah, I think they acknowledged that they were fortunate. And to be honest, even the Braden Point goal that was called back in the second period, I thought for sure that was going to count. You know, I didn't think that Samsonov had it covered. And I saw the Leafs score earlier this year. It was after a whistle, but they reviewed it and saw that it was in continuous motion. So, I mean, and that and that would have I think made it 4-2 at the time and obviously the Leafs probably don't come back from that so yeah I think there was uh there were a lot of things that that weren't great if they found a way to go up 2-1 in series you know for that to have worked in their favor you know they get a couple of calls a couple of

breaks and so the call is one of them but on the other end of it is samsonoff kind of finds himself after that goal you know that no goal he doesn't let anything else in and looked really good along the way what did you think watching him at the start of the game to the end of the game ralphie uh i'm with you borny i thought i thought the first half um and i said to joe of the game, Ralphie? I'm with you, Barney. I thought the first half, and I said to Joe in the second intermission when it was 3-2, now he had made some big stops at the end of the second period,

but I thought, you know, I don't know what the trust level is right now because he seemed to nap and then be off balance on a couple. And then it was like he flipped a switch like everybody else. And as much as he might have been balance on a couple and then it was this you know it's like he flipped the switch like like everybody else and um and as much as he might have been a big part of being down three two uh he was a huge part of being up four three when it was over

ralphie uh morgan riley becomes the first defenseman to score an overtime winner since i think thomas caberle game game three in the early 2000s versus the Flyers. Big night. Can you name the other Leaf defense in Leaf history that have scored overtime goals? Ian Turnbull?

Nope. Boria? Nope. No. The only one I didn't get was Rick Lanz, who scored in the 80s for the Leafs. But Todd Gill scored. Corey Cross.

Bobby Bond, when the Leafs came back from down 3-0 against Detroit. And there's another one in there as well. Corey Cross versus the Ottawa Senators. Game three. There you go. Attaboy. Besides that, overall, it's been a good feel for Morgan Riley with the record of the four assists.

And it just seems like, you know, lots of pressure on him to rise his game up for the most part it has. But is there been a drop-off we've mentioned uh tj brody here all of a sudden not looking as as comfortable as he did throughout the regular season is there any concern back there at all for you from what you watched the other night no i wouldn't say yet um although i do think morgan riley uh i thought game two played his best game as a Leaf. You know, I know he's had some great moments and some great games, but where he seemed absolutely dominant.

And, you know, the overtime winner, I don't know, you'd say it was the Brent Burns blast from the point. You know, they won in overtime, but, you know, again, makes the right play in the moment. So, yeah, you're right with Brody. I thought even Sheldon Keefe sort of said that he had a tough time in Game 3 and was looking for a bounce back as well. But I don't think it's a concern. I think it's one of those things that if you have guys struggle in certain areas and still found a way to win a game, I think that's more of a positive than, you know, trying to critique everything that happened around that. What do you think is like is more telling for this Toronto Maple Leafs team?

You know, they win game two looking dominant and great. Game three, they don't look like they can hold a candle to Tampa. There haven't been long stretches of this series where you feel like both teams are playing well at the same time. I know there's not a lot of room out there, but if this series progresses on and there's a lot of five-on-five hockey, do you feel good about the Leafs going up against this Lightning team? Well, you know what, Borny? What I find on, and talking to people about this,

and even, you know, even Joe after game three, and then the comments that came out after, I said, I don't know. Maybe I haven't followed Tampa's runs in the last three years as closely as I thought I did, but I don't recall Tampa chirping as much as they have and scrumming as much after whistles. And they, I guess for lack of a better word,

their composure seems to be rattled. It doesn't, you know, Maroon's chirping at Luke Shen. I know there's a history there between them, and he's chirping at Ryan O'Reilly and Janot's. You know, even with, you know, at the moment, I'm sure the O'Reilly hit on Brighton Point. You know, for Tampa, you would think, okay, worst case, the Riley hit on Brighton Point. For Tampa, you would think,

okay, worst case, we're going on a power play for two. In the moment. And yet, no, it breaks out. And Kucherov and Stamkos take themselves off the ice. Obviously, it wasn't even a penalty for Riley. But in that moment, you would have thought they said, okay, we're getting a power play here. Let's just go grab somebody and hold on, and hopefully we get a two- or five-minute power play.

Instead, it's a big brawl, and your best guy's off the ice. And I don't know if I've seen that from Tampa in the last three years, going to the finals, where you're thinking, boy, it seems like they've got the frustration of a team that feels like things are starting to slip a little on them. And whether I'm right or not, I guess. No, I think that's a great assessment. You are right.

And I'm going to lead you down a path here because it's a path that's not been taken a lot by Tampa Bay the last few years. And that is the fact that this reliable safety net named Vasilevsky all of a sudden has struggled and is struggling in this series and has struggled since January. So when does the conversation go from, well, he could hit a switch at any time to, no, he's just not that good right now. I think we have that conversation when they're shaking hands after game five you know because i think that's always there that

you know even last year you know through the first six games he wasn't unbeatable and then you only have one on him in game seven i mean that was i remember last year you're thinking i mean he's new for a shutout or a one-goal game. And, you know, sure enough, he finds it in game seven. So I think from a Leafs standpoint, you've got to make sure, you know, you stay far enough ahead that, you know, that one game isn't going to, you know, turn the series around. Yeah, it's been a different look.

That Tampa Bay team just really seems to focus on the tough stuff. You know, the Leafs have put themselves in a good spot here getting a win in a game where they're not the better team um and certainly can play better how have you felt about the the lines with matthew nyes involved you know this is a guy who has really seemed to make a difference in terms of creating something and pushing the play the right way. Yeah. And even, you know, his work on the boards has been good. He actually saw some moves coming through the neutral zone that there were some patients and creativity, you know,

that he was able to get it in and create something off the rush. So I was, you know, I think what you're seeing is he gets more comfortable. You're starting to see more of the raw talent that had him so highly thought of when his college career ended. I think that's what you want with every young player is a sign of improvement. But for him, you go back to his first game in Florida with three games left in the regular season and compare it to now, and it's incredible, the difference for him. So yeah,

I think it seems that whoever, whoever you throw them out with, even, you know, throw them out with Matthews, the odd time that, you know, he does something and you know, like, like Sheldon keeps it, you know, he'll still make the odd mistake, but for the most part, you're starting to see a big body that's got some skill in hockey sense. Talking to Jim Ralph, Toronto Maple Leaf radio colour analyst. Earlier in the show, Ralphie, I was critical of the words that, or the path that Sheldon Keefe took in his post-game comments.

A few people out there probably think I'm negative Nelly here on it, but I was really surprised that he chose to go down the path of the officials being manipulated by Tampa. A good thing, not a good thing. How did you see it? Well, I guess you can go back to when he said that Kyle Dubas was going to talk to the league about Michael Bunton. Which never happened.

Well, it didn't exactly work out the least favor. Bunting's still suspended. So it's not like they said, oh, yeah, we got you. Sorry about that. So, yeah, I'm kind of with you on that. You've got to be really careful. Because usually if you think you're going to get an edge by saying or doing something, a lot of times the resistance is, no, we're not.

Because now, let's say the Leafs all of a sudden get a lot of calls in their favor. People are going to say, well, it's because they complained. But it's not baseball where the manager comes out and argues and hopes you're going to get the edge in the next call so yeah I was a little surprised that at this time of year that you would even touch that the questionable

spots in game three kind of hinge for me on the team's D if you were to say who is the best Leafs defenseman in the series you give it to Morgan Riley Luke Shen might be next I've got a little bit of concern about the D and the Tavares and Nylander line like do you see that as areas this team needs to improve if they're going to finish this series off at some point yeah but I you know I still think it's the same thing as,

you know, look at Stephen Stamko says in SWARC, and you're saying, you know, eventually he's going to break through. And then I think you feel that with, you know, the players you just mentioned, that eventually there's going to be another breakthrough game or another big moment. And let's not forget, I mean, Willie Nylander, they scored in all three games against Tampa

in the regular season, the first two games of this series. And then he has one moment with a minute left where he throws it to the net and Ryan O'Reilly scores. So I think you always know it's the law of averages that eventually somebody's going to start to click. I mean, there are times, obviously, you guys have series where they aren't very productive. You look at the leading scorer in the league

is not putting up the same numbers in Los Angeles in that series either. I think that's always that fear that eventually it's going to click. Well, a fear if it's the opposite, but it's certainly hope if it's your side. Got anything on the factor, Ryan O'Reilly? If that's what they're calling him, I'll just add no risk factor. Well, I will say this.

It's not like we reinvented the wheel or anything I remember we said on the air when he was playing in Buffalo that isn't he the perfect guy you would love in the playoffs you know just the warrior mentality and he just he looks like a guy that you know you'd go to war with and you know

obviously wins a conspite and wins a cup with St. Louis but I just think he's one of those guys character wise that um how can you not love you know a guy you really think is built for the postseason yeah john cooper uh had a pretty good quote on that which we'll get to after laughing at the whole factor uh nickname um tampa bay's injury situation braden point can't be feeling great headman plays 32 minutes on one leg you know there's chernak is out do you think there's the leafs are sort of gaining an advantage through attrition here at all or is playoffs these guys will needle it up or

you know painkiller it up and be fine yeah no i i think that's always dangerous when you think you have an advantage because of other teams injuries yeah how's the florida boston series going right yeah yeah you thought here was their chance um you know with with creche and bergeron under the lineup so uh no i i think it it should make you more aware that you have to be better when they've got guys out of the lineup that you've got to take advantage of've got guys out of the lineup. You've got to take advantage of it by saying, you know what, we play a certain way and that should be enough

based on our personnel as opposed to theirs. But I think that one moment you sit back and go, oh, thank God Cherenak's not out or Hedman is going to miss a game or Braden Point's not on. Remember, Point didn't play game seven last year. Right.

He got hit a couple of times and was hurt, and it didn't matter. Nick Paul scored us two goals. So I think, you know, the moment you relax, and sometimes it's the other way where you get guys back and you relax a little bit. You think, oh, good, you know, we've held the fort. Now we got them back. I remember when the Leafs played Carolina

in the conference finals in the early 2000s. It was the same thing. You know, they were up 1-0 in the conference finals, and now you get Sunbeam back and Darcy Tucker and everybody, and all of a sudden you lose the series. So I think, you know, when it comes to who's in or out of the lineup, I think that's something that you shouldn't even pay attention to, in the least.

And for the record, Justin's not endorsing painkillers. No, 100%. I'm just suggesting that maybe they are used in the postseason. What was your painkiller? Like a Molson's? Actually, my painkiller didn't come legal until a couple of years ago. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, my painkiller didn't come legal until a couple of years ago. All right.

On that note, stay away from painkillers on your call tonight, okay? All right, boys. Thanks. Jim Ralph. Thanks, Ralphie. Our reliable voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs with Joe Bowen. So good. Ralphie has a great pulse of what's going on with this team uh kyle playing coy a little bit on lineup changes but he said they're contemplating it what was uh kyle i'm

sorry shelvin okay there's some game time decisions for tonight is what he said can't see it unless there's an injury i i was thinking like they must want to get these dn that have everybody finished everybody finished game yeah there's no three like who all of a sudden can't come to the rink and play the only the only guy that i would have any concern what for would be mccabe after getting absolutely body bagged from behind by maroon in overtime that's the only one that i can really think of yeah that uh that was probably a penalty would be McCabe after getting absolutely body bagged from behind by Maroon in overtime. That's the only one that I can really think of. Yeah, that was probably a penalty.

Yeah, that's all day long a penalty early in the game. You can commit a war crime in OT, you're not getting a penalty. That's like really pushing the envelope on that. You got to shoot the puck over the club. Well, actually not in Edmonton. You can get a penalty in overtime in Edmonton, but not in Toronto. Hey, you did the joke about the Factor thing. O'Reilly's nickname is the Factor. O'Reilly Factor used to be a Bill O'Reilly show 10 years ago, 20 years ago.

It was terrible. But it's a funny nickname, and Mark Master has asked Cooper about it and tried to weasel it in kind of cutesy. It's actually very funny. Let's play the Mark Master's clip on that. All right, so what stands out to you about Ryan O'Reilly and the Factor he brings to this series? Oh, did you use factor?

That was really good. Kudos, yes. For all of you at home, his nickname's factor. Listen, I'm not going to get into a practice here of talking about the Leaf players. They're not our team. I'd rather talk about our guys. I had O'Reilly, though, so I'll give it a break because I've coached him.

And he's a fabulous kid. And I'm going to stay away from his hockey side of things, just as the human being. I really enjoyed coaching him. He's got naturally born leadership skills and um you know you just the guy you'd love to have in your team plus if you need somebody play the guitar he'll do it see this is where cooper that's a hilarious clip like really smart because guys like sammy just want to hate him so much no i do i don't want to i do and then he he switches it on you yeah he pulls the old he pulls the old i'm gonna just play the human

being side here yeah and then he throws in the guitar he go he went hey stop it coop stop it just Stop it, Coop. Stop it. Just make Sammy hate you. Be the villain. All the time. He's going with the Manoa heater at the top of the zone. Then he comes in there with that goddamn slider. I'm like, oh, God. And Children's got to learn this. Yeah.

He's got to learn this. I don't think he could ever be this. He could never work the media like Cooper could. He's got to learn from it. Like, again again after game three wow champions you could tell like we they we we are our backs games well you could see why they won they're so good you know and just hey they're the best they're the best until we're we're shaking hands and they're done not us they're the best i'd listen this is more on the

human side as well i just don't think keith has the personality of john not many of us do there's not many people in the world here yeah play the underdog card don't care what everybody says don't care about the standings three stanley cup finals us first round exits it's all on them did you yeah that's the right call cooper also talked about the disallowed goal after the game on on saturday night and and um ralphie brought it up there yeah with the the point one did you want to hear yeah sure yeah let's go to it yeah okay cool sorry i i threw mac into the bus here. My bad. I don't know.

It was whatever. I have zero idea why he blew the whistle. It was shocking. He was sitting right in the entire building. There was 20,000 people, so I was sitting right there. What I don't get is I don't know what the ref had to gain by blowing the whistle. Listen, that's not why we lost. You can look back now, but I just don't get it.

And I can sit here and you go through the league of quick whistles. That has to be the number one in the league. But I just didn't know what he was gaining by blowing it so fast and when it was clearly the way the puck was delivered to the net it was bouncing all over the place i just it was uh you know obviously unfortunate for us but again not why we lost i mean it was that would have helped but it's not why we lost you don't want to put the goalies in jeopardy. You said it best. Sticks, spear in, sticking. You don't want that. But I'd say most of the time, just through the body language of a goalie, you'd have a real good indication if he's got it or not.

I feel like I maybe saw this one differently than other people. To me, the puck is under the goalies pad, whether he knows it's there or it's moving or not. The ref doesn't see it. It's under the pad. Like that's commonly a whistle to freeze the play. So I, you know,

there seems to be this like, ah, the quickest whistle in the league. And like, I don't know. I was watching it. I didn't see the puck. It looked like it was under him to me.

I get why he blew it. But then you get like three different angles and you can clearly say that it's not covered up, that it's loose. Yeah, I mean, it probably is technically loose, but like refs make the call when they don't see the puck anymore. That's how they call frozen pucks. Maybe we should just calm down on that a little bit. I like the extra second or two. And I'm speaking in general here yeah i hate i hate to admit something here but i do agree with john on this one that was a that was a quick trigger after seeing it in real time and watching them play

it back it was a quick trigger i think that they got the call right to not call it a goal but the whistle was wrong you know if you watch that play not knowing goal no goal watch the replays you probably would say goal you know like if you if you didn't know when the whistle was blown or whatever i could see the argument hey leaf's got a break what a concept yeah it's kind of hockey right and then we never do this on the other side of it no it's always like how the leafs got robbed to one so there you go yeah remember once upon a time there like a defenseman can go in the corner, put his knee between your legs and hold you and hold. No,

no, no. Freeze the puck. Yeah. The puck against the wall. Yeah. And now you could have a scrum there for 30 seconds. Move it.

Move it. I ain't blowing that. You're not getting the whistle. Well, my commentary on that was when they could, they would teach D if the puck was in your skates against the wall, to pin you with one knee between your legs and against the boards. And they could just hold you. There was never an end to how long the guy could hold you there.

It was wild. Okay, thank God that's over. Oh, well, as a not strong person, that was very cumbersome, let me tell you. Okay, let's go to another quick break here, and then we're going to bring back Ed Encina from the Lightning Beat Writer. We'll get his thoughts on where this series is going. Concerns on Vasilevsky. We'll get his thoughts.

In the meantime, give us a rating and review. How about a thumbs up here? Again, almost 3,000 viewers on our YouTube channel. That's awesome. If we can get up around 500 likes, I'd be a happy man. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne sammy mckee back after these words the best blue jay show out there period blaren barker be sure to subscribe and download the show on apple spotify or wherever you get your podcasts

this is real kipper and born on sportsnet 590 the van shout out to all on youtube almost 500 likes they're all for you jb now we're humming they all think i'm full of crap but as long as they're listening i don't care what they think of us oh they're listening and they're excited all right as promised from the new uh tampa bay times let's welcome in ed and cena uh ed thanks for joining us uh be great to get your thoughts teeing up game four tonight and you know for for a team that's gone to a stanley cup final three years in a row uh probably nothing new to them but what's the feeling on how critical this game is as a game five heads

towards Toronto? Yeah. Thanks for having me guys. I think the, you know, the feeling of the lightning locker room is one that, you know, they they've been through this before,

you know, obviously they were, they were in the same situation in this series last year, down to one and obviously down three, two last year. So at the same time, I think that they don't want to go down 3-1 because that's a little bit uncharted territory for them over this past three-year stretch here.

But I do think that when you look at game three, they feel that they played more than well enough to win. And they ran into a high goaltender. But for the last 60 minutes of play, pretty much, they felt that they had the edge. And then at the end of the day, just with the exception of the scoreboard, they outplayed the Leafs. So going into game four, it's one of the things where it's like,

can you duplicate that? Can you duplicate that effort, the possession, the offensive charge that they had, and in this time get the W. So there's no panic or anything. Like you said, these guys have been through this before. But they know that there's a very thin line between the talent on these two teams. And when you go back and look at it,

either one of these teams can win the Stanley Cup. But to them, they use the these teams can win the Stanley Cup. But to them, they use the term process over outcome all the time. And they look at Game 3 as kind of a process game, and now they want to get the outcome in Game 4. Speaking of process, I thought, just as an outsider's view, I thought Braden Point was probably their best forward. I thought Victor Hedman was probably their best D-man. Both guys fairly hurt. What are the

injury updates going on in Tampa Bay? We're expecting to see both guys again tonight, and is there anything else lingering with the team? Yeah, for sure. I think that obviously the Braden Point injury was a scary one, and I don't think anyone by any means thought that Morgan Riley's hit

was a dirty one on point. I think he was just kind of caught up. But when you're there you hear that impact and that's pretty scary when you see it. Obviously Brayden trying to come out of the corner and kind of stumbling there was even scarier. But the fact that he came back, Brayden Point is not the

biggest guy but he's, I think you go in the Tampa locker room and they'll tell you he's one of the toughest because it's really hard to keep him out of the games which says something to the fact that how he had to miss a lot of the postseason last year but um he played 82 games this year he was healthy scored 50 goals probably one of the more quieter 50 goals that you'll see um and obviously like you said he's he's their best you know goal scoring uh forward and i think he's been great this series. But obviously, anytime you see that kind of injury, you never really know.

He did come back. I think he only missed like five minutes, five, six minutes or so of game time, and then he came back. But, I mean, this is one of the things you've just got to kind of keep an eye on. He's a game-time decision, but I think everyone expects him to play. As for Hedman, I think that he you know, he's one of the guys, he just makes that defense go, you know, he's the engine that makes it go. So, but all signs, I mean, he's another guy. It's hard to keep him out of the lineup.

And especially the one, another word, these guys always use a sacrifice. And I think anytime you win cups at the end of the day, you know, you kind of count your wounds. And when they've, this is a team that's played the last game of the day you know you kind of count your wounds and and when they've this is a team that's played the last game of the hockey season three years in a row so they've had to kind of overcome a lot of injuries play through a lot of stuff and uh with both of those guys i think those are guys that you don't want to have that wear and tear this early in the playoffs but there's no doubt that i think that both of those guys are going to grind through it because they

know how important these games are and especially now now with them being down in the series. So I think both of those guys are going to play big minutes tonight. And the one guy that they're not going to have still is Eric Chernak, their top right shot defenseman. Obviously he's been out since Michael Bunting hit in game one, and we still haven't seen him on the ice. So I don't really know if there's much of a timetable on him at his return we're starting to learn about uh some lesser names including nick uh uh per mick bix

all of a sudden he became real important i'm gonna i'm gonna get to know his name a whole lot better if uh turnax uh nowhere to be found yeah for sure i mean nick purpose and Derrick Raddus are two rookies that, to be honest, didn't even make this club out of camp. But they were kind of on the short list. And obviously this D-line, this blue line, has kind of had to be rebuilt a little bit. They lost Ryan McDonough. They lost Jan Ruda.

So you kind of had to rebuild it a little bit. And both of those guys have come in and they'll be big minutes. And especially when Hedman went out the other night, both of those guys really stepped up and obviously without Chernak. I mean, but they're, they're funny because they're rookies, but they're both kind of older guys, you know, Radish played like four or five years in the AHL. Purbix is a college guy,

but both of these guys have really good makeups. And I think it's one of the things that's been really amazing is even though they don't have that NHL experience, like from watching them play, you couldn't really tell their rookies. Cause you know, I mean, this is a defenseman, you know, you know, when you're playing quiet and no one's really talking about you, that means you've had a good game. So both of those guys are, have played well, but they're also guys who can jump into rush,

which fits the lightning style. Radish has a great shot. Both of them have a great shot, actually. So, you know, those guys are really part of the future. No one really talks about the Lightning's prospects because they've traded away so many draft picks over the years. But these are two guys that, you know, one guy who's like a six-round pick in perfects, another one who was basically a free agent guy that they picked up a couple

of years ago who had been, I think, in the Blackhawks and Rangers organizations before that. So they have a good way of finding guys, you know, whether it's draft picks like Andre Pallad who are seventh-round picks or guys like Yanni Gordon and Tyler Johnson who are kind of like these free agent guys that they pick up. So that's one thing that the Lightning probably don't get as much credit for because they have so many you know big guns we hear about all the you know the guys who are high draft picks in this organization but

you know they've done a really good job of that and I think that's been key to sustaining the success they've had. Yeah it's crazy I think Radish had played less than 20 NHL games before this series and he's playing 26 minutes a night the second most on the Lightning almost five minutes more than the third most in Ian Cole. So he's been important. And it's made Zach Bogosian have to kind of get involved and be a part of it. You know, he was briefly at Toronto Maple Leaf.

What does his season look like as a guy who's now playing 16 minutes a game all of a sudden and really picking up the slack for Chernak? Yeah, I think with Bogo, he's one of these guys, I think he missed probably the first 10 weeks or so of the season. He had a shoulder surgery during the offseason, so he had a slow start to the year, and

he's kind of been in and out of the lineup, but I think the big thing with Bogo is that he's just a dependable guy, and he's been through it. It's amazing to think of how long he's been in the league. We've had a lot of milestones with Stephen Stamkos this year know, it's amazing to think of how long he's been in the league. We've had a lot of milestones with Stephen Stamkos this year, and it's funny to think that, you know,

that Boga was like the three-two pick later in that draft in 2008. So he's been around the block. He knows how to do it. You know, and I think, you know, when you have guys like, you know, Victor Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev, who are these guys, who are these two-way defensemen who are offensive-minded but play back and forth on the ice. Some of these right-shot guys, you need them to be these stay-at-home guys. And Bogo's played with Hedman a lot, and I think they were a really good mix.

He's not playing with them now, but I think, like you said, the big thing with him is he's an experienced guy. He's trustworthy, and he's not going to hurt you in your own end. I think he's a great depth piece that they have right now, and he's an important one because, to be honest, their depth defenseman-wise beyond those guys isn't really great. It's like Hayden Fleury, and after that, on hayden flurry and after that as you know on the left side and after that you know you got to dig pretty deep so you know when you combine guys

like bogo and the rookies we just talked about you know these guys have been really important you know i mean this is this is the biggest question mark going into the year was really kind of how the how this this blue line was going to be rebuilt so when you think about the way it's really kind of evolved it's been a a really surprising, not necessarily surprising, but it's been a really fortunate thing for the Lightning. We're talking to Ed Encina from Tampa Bay Times, teeing up game four between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Ed, where is the concern about Vasilevsky? And it's one thing if, you know, he's having a bad week or a bad few weeks but compared to what we've seen over the years uh this is a rather long stretch since January um what's the vibe down there on on his game right now right so I mean obviously first off you know this team is it will be hard to get out of the first round without Andre Vasilevsky. I think most guys will tell you that. You know what I mean?

He's the rock back there. So he obviously needs to play well. And I think this year it was a little bit different. I think that he recognized, everyone talks about the wear and tear that he's had the past three years of all the games he's played. And I think this year he kind of recognized that. And he's had some time off.

Obviously the team in general didn't play very well in the second half. And it was a little perplexing because, you know, you wonder, they always talk about this 82-game dress rehearsal. And, you know, it matters now. But, you know, you're just kind of trying to find your game, you know, going in. But obviously, Vasilevsky hasn't had the best year in the regular season. But the one thing about him is he is, just like the rest of these guys, they're able to kind of flip the switch in the playoffs.

Obviously, you know, he had that bad game too. And he had a really bad game too in the Stanley Cup final in Colorado. And he rebounded from that. And I think the one thing about Vasilevsky, Cooper mentioned this the other day, is that he might start off a little bit middle slow, but he gets better as the postseason goes along. And that's really what he's done.

So it's a little bit too early to kind of judge what he's done so far. And I think that he is a guy that just kind of gets better as we go along. And obviously he's going to play a huge role in this thing. And I think when you look at game three, it's a little bit less. I think he wanted those two, last two goals back for sure. But at the end of the day, like I think game three,

a lot was about how great Samsonoff played. You know, I mean, he, the Lightning had tons of chances against him. And, you know, he, you know, he locked it down for them. So, you know, obviously

a 4-3 game to overtime, you know, their whole rule is always, you know, you hold them to two or more or to two or less, you've got a chance to win. And I'm most excited Vasilevsky has done that for the most part. Obviously, you win games different ways in the postseason, but I don't think there's much concern there about Andre Vasilevsky

just because he's a guy that's gotten him here. And, you know, they're going to ride him. He's the most important player for them right now. And, you know, he's going to ride him. He's the most important player for them right now. And, you know, he's going to play a major role in it. Ed, you've probably heard John Cooper talk 3,000 times over your career there, covering him in the playoffs and all that. Anything different in his tone, demeanor, anything? Or is he cool as a cucumber like always on the Tampa side?

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I think like both sides, it's been a little bit frustrating with the officiating a little bit on both benches. But outside of that, you know, I think he was a little frustrated with that goal, the point goal that was disallowed. And, you know, because you look at that, that ends up being a really big goal in game three. But, you know, I think this team is, you combine John Cooper, who just has such a calm presence about him, and you combine the room, which is such a veteran room that has really, you know, kind of been through it all.

And, you know, this team was made, like the confidence that this team has made has really rooted. I mean, it always goes back to that, you know that 2019 postseason when they got eliminated by the Blue Jackets and they were at the top of the, which is one of the President's Trophy. It all kind of roots back to that. It was a gut check for them. They realized that they had to kind of do things a different way, both mentally and on the ice. I think after that, they saw the success. Guys talk about it all the time.

Once you win a cup, like, you know the formula, and it just comes, this confidence and experience just comes with it. Like I said, this team's played the last, you know, the last game of the hockey season the past three years. So I think they always believe in themselves until it's just not there for them anymore. I remember game six in Tampa against the Avalanche, and even then, there was no doubt in my mind that they believed

that they could pull this thing out until they no longer could. And I think that's when it hits these guys. But for them, it's just kind of – they handle it so businesslike. I remember seeing them come up the ramp after game one and how much emotion was in that game in Toronto. And it just looked like – the way they walked into the room, it looked like it was game 51 out of 82, you know. So they handled it a certain way.

Ed, enjoy game four tonight. Really appreciate your time. Thanks for having me, guys. Anytime. Thanks so much. Ed Encina from Tampa Bay Times. Did we play Sammy Cooper on his team performance? Did we do that already?

We did not play that. Okay, play this one because I don't know if Cooper believes everything that he says. Okay. And maybe we'll get that feeling listening to this clip. I really liked our game. Honestly, it's two really good hockey teams out there. We had ample chances to score some goals and puck didn't go in for us, you know, as many times as we needed it to. But, you know, I leave that game unfortunate, you know, that we lost the game.

But I loved our guts. In the three-game series, the adversity of this team that's hit them in three games, and we've gotten one of them. We've taken another one to overtime. So it's a gutty group, and I'd never bet against the gutty group that's in there because it's impressive to watch him. It was impressive to watch him in the locker room afterwards

and the confidence they exude. I know he believes most of it, but is there a sense that deep down he's like, okay, when are we running out of gas here? Yeah, it reminds me. Feels like he's pressing. It reminds me of when you're trying to big up your friend who's going through a tough time

and everyone's giving him all the compliments. He's like, you're the cup champion, guys. You're the gutty group. You're the guy, you never go away. Oh, you guys. I mean, he's trying to remind them. Hey. When you got to use honestly

in what you're trying to say because maybe what some people don't think that you're honest yeah well he said that a lot i don't know if that's just a like a speech ticket his but no honestly honestly he's see that's he's a master though you got to give him that like he does that was we would i wouldn't last a year doing kipper clippers on john cooper all season long he would drive it would drive me nuts oh i agree because i can't read the tea leaves on him like i can on sheldon it's a lawyer sheldon you're right he's a book he's an open book you can read him pretty well coop no idea what he's trying to say half the time um tonight is gonna say a lot about both teams isn't it tonight they're gonna be the leafs will be so much better tonight guys they'd be honestly it'd be hard to be a lot worse

you had to come to the rink yesterday and today knowing that we we dodged a bullet here leafs haven't excelled though kip when it looks like things are going their way they're great when they poop in their pants and then the next day they have to clean it up and show that they're big boys they're really good this is the opportunity to take advantage of an opportunity and say hey yes you know grab a hold this thing here's some stats for you. It's from Anthony Petrelli. This is the first time since 2017 the Leafs have gone into a game four up to, sorry, the fifth time since 2017 the Leafs have gone into a game four up to one. Fifth time.

They are one and four in those five games. Sorry, they have five times. Tampa Bay blew them out last season boston went up five to two in 2019 washington went up four to one in 2017 they have not performed well in this spot and out of those games how many was ryan o'reilly in the dressing room absolutely none and you think that that'll help i do the factor did you work back um i did not i call and i refuse to i'm calling him fresh air because every time he's on the ice it's a breath of fresh air yeah i can live with that i like that i just think he he has a a beat on it and i'm not saying that John Tavares doesn't,

but I heard him in his post-game comments after Saturday, and I said, we're going to enjoy this one. And it's like, ugh. Ryan O'Reilly would never say that. Did he say that? I think I did catch him saying that. That's really weird. He's usually an – like, I don't even bother listening to him.

It wasn't like he was celebrating. He just said it was it's it's a good win that we hung in there and we'll enjoy it and we'll come to the rink tomorrow yeah and i just i would never after that performance winning like that the way we did it's just it wouldn't be what i would choose to say and i don't think ryan o'reilly would go down that path that you know it's just he's just a different guy in that room that's my that's my whole point i'm not trying to put john down yeah but he's just it's even though sometimes it's cliche but it's the right cliches at the right

time with the right tone you know and i just i just love him right now on this team. Yeah. No, I think that's a worthwhile point to make. You know, this team I mentioned that they haven't typically taken advantage of opportunities like this. But typically it's because I think they think it's going to be easy. Like anytime it can be easy, they try to take it easy. There's no way you look at that Tampaa bay team go this is going to be easy i don't care who's in the lineup like they fight and they punch and they jaw and they scrap and they play defense and they have a good goalie there's just no way you can look at them say it's going to be easy so i'm with you i think you get a better leafs performance tonight

as much as you expect tampa to push i think a good low-scoring game tonight. It's so daunting to get to that final whistle where they are the victors over Tampa Bay. It's just so hard for me. Each game or the series? The series. Like, I just, even regardless of who wins tonight, I still feel like it's going seven games. They're up three to two in game six on Tampa Bay.

Why would you expect anything less after what you've been through as a fan? Yeah, yeah. Or these players have. Learned behavior there, for sure. It's almost, yeah. Anyways. All right, let's just, we got a few minutes left here. Let's run around the league a little bit here.

Quick non-hockey update. Aaron Rodgers trade to the Jets. The Jets, baby! Official. Happy about that? Bring us the Jets is official. The Jets, baby. Official. You happy about that? Bring us the QAnon lunatic guy. J-E-T-S. And they gave up a first and a second round pick in the trade.

It's a big... I'm just excited to get to watch good Jets football. They got a lot of good players right now. Conditional second. I don't care about that guy right now. Sorry. Sorry, my bad. Okay.

It's a big deal, though. Maybe the fact that Boston's got an opportunity to close out Florida might give the Leafs a sense of urgency to win tonight and try to do the same thing back home here. This is a team that, and I speak of Boston, that no question the most adversity they've had all season long is now. Yeah. No Bergeron, no Krejci, but do you want that team resting right now with Tampa and the Leafs

kick the crap out of each other? You probably know what I'm going to say now, but it's the whole like imagine looking to the next series as the Toronto Maple Leafs. Imagine. Yeah. Where they've never been. I do.

I do. To me, if you don't look, you only look because it can help you now. Yes, but, like, I don't think they're devoid of motivation to try to win games.

Now they're like, well, now tonight we'll try. They lack motivation Saturday night. I got to be honest with you. They lacked a ton of it, and they dodged the bullet. I mean, if you think they need motivation, they got big problems. I do agree with the idea that to handle Boston, you can't be limping in at a game seven while they've been eating sushi.

Are you surprised they were able to do what they did against florida yeah a little bit yeah i i am i i thought florida kind of found it towards the end of the year a little bit um you know coming off a great season before had barkov and bennett which they've had success in that spot boston's missing guys it was an easy like bet florida to steal one situation but we't bet against Boston. We said on Friday's show that this is where, if Boston is Boston, they go down there. I think we actually said win 5-0.

And they win the first game 5-0. Sounds right. They're around there. They won 6-2 yesterday. They just kind of imposed. How about a little love for former MVP of the league, Taylor Hall? Four points last night. And a guy that no one will ever look at as a superstar,

but can still find ways to look like one on occasion. Yeah. And that just speaks to the depth of the boston bruins when this guy makes six million or something like he makes but listen he's not he's not a frontline guy for them when they're all healthy he's on the third line yeah for sure wonderful performance um i don't know if they're gonna get Bergeron back now for the fifth game, but the problem in the belief of wanting Boston to lose a couple is like Florida's just shown no ability to handle any adversity. Like they've just gone away.

I understand they did win their way into the postseason late, but in Boston game five, do you have any faith? This is a six game series. I don't. Loves to be wrong. I thinkoston rolls big time tonight yeah all right all right by the way hockey game tonight's 7 30 puck drop sam i know you can't handle the extra 30 but i hate the 7 30 puck drop oilers holy dodged a major bullet needing three games in a row. They avoided that. They go down 3-1.

Did you hang in there or no? I made it two and a half periods. Two periods roughly. Couldn't do it. I'll put toothpicks between my eyelids to not go to sleep. It sucks. I want to watch the Oilers. I watched. I'm just

physically unable. You should do it. I gotta be up at six of the kids. I can't do it. I'm lying there. I gotta sit up. Then my eyes get heavy and I'm slouched over. But I do it. You do it. I do it. I stayed up the whole game. The whole game. Oh my god.

So what's your takeaway here? The Kings teams have three nubs game oh my god and so what's your your takeaway here um that king's team's a three nothing against that power play like you're never out of it you know when that game turned for me and this is not because of him but when jack campbell goes in and he is a fish out of water for like three sequences in a row and they just can't find it and put the fourth one away and then they go make it three one okay that's when i bet the oilers now literally now we're having a conversation here because uh skinner gets pulled jack cleans up did he earn game five start in edmonton now The Kings hope so Oh yeah

You gotta put him in Campbell? Oh yeah Absolutely Dude Skinner's been their guy No man Yeah but he stunk in 3 games 4 games

Those Kings goals I saw those Kings goals Those were not garbage goals I I'm going Campbell You know I We all love Jack And I

Openly cheer for him but i cannot give him that start wow no i can't either it's just skinner is they won nine in a row down the stretch with him as the dude like i and that's it you put more stock in that and it's one thing for a guy to come in and try to clean up i think the the mental part of the game put him in a position where i haven't really got anything to lose here i'm i'm the backup goalie and i'm down three nothing here i think that that played way better in his hands than now you're the guy Now you're the guy again. Now you're the guy again at home. You can't tell him until one minute before puck drop.

Literally tell him he's the back end goalie, then taff him and be like, you're in. When you're actually going out on the ice for opening puck drop, it's your start. Line change, first shift. God, he wasn't very good when he came in. I was watching. There's a lot of pressure too on the management of the coaching staff to say that you know we

we did pay 25 million dollars that's true that's true there is like you can't tell me that that doesn't factor in they would love for him to step in now and be the hero we played a tight seven game series last year at least at least some playoff experience you know it's just the path through for the Oilers is just so tantalizing if you get past a very good Kings team that you want to get this right don't you like the abs are not the team they were who else is there it's wide open wide open you get this one right you got the exception of the boston bruins still you go flip a coin yeah any series left is flip a coin yeah you're gonna get the the wild the kraken could the three teams in the atlantic should probably be the favorite

right until they beat each other up in theory but i you think Tampa, if they got past the Leafs, couldn't beat Boston? No, I mean, they certainly could. Yeah. And on the other side, 200 feet away, I told you I was never a huge Corpus Allo fan. I give him a lot of credit because when he is on, he's making saves out of his mind. Yeah.

But. OT goal. Stinky. he's making saves out of his mind yeah but ot goal stinky like like a horrible goal wrister from the top of the circle i i it went through him completely through him and that should hit him in the chest and you just you can't allow that you got to find a way to shut down a three three cob lead yeah. Yeah, 100% you do. That's big. Okay. I mean, the other ones, like the goals that they scored to get it to tie,

you know, the fourth one was Kane to tie it up, but like Dreisaitl was literally in the blue paint, scored both of them. The Bouchard, that Bouchard may have the hardest shot in the league from the point. It was a 93-mile-per-hour bomb. Posting in. Yeah. Guy can fire it. Just scary power play.

Scary power play. So scary. And Nuge just is like in his comfort zone feeding Dreisaitl in the slot. It is really otherworldly watching what they do. McDavid just kind of does a thing and everyone has coverage issues. There may be something to other teams have guys like McDavid who can skate and handle it. Could Mitch Marner skate it around the top a little bit?

It just creates such chaos for the defense. Part of the reason why we think it's completely wide open is because of the struggles of the Colorado Avalanche. Of course, they're doing everything they can to get through. Nathan McKinnon is so good. So good. Oh, my God. He's dragging them through.

So good. Yeah. And Makar, so good. Truly. But strange one in terms of Nikushkin. And the story is that he was in Seattle and then left with security and didn't play. Any insight? You didn't see any of that? No, I saw it, but any insight?

Nothing. Weird. Nothing. And there's all sorts of speculation. Where is he? I haven't heard that, really. Oh, yeah. Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah. So pretty important that. Yeah. So, pretty important player. Yeah. Big time star for them in their Stanley Cup win. They've had all these injuries all year, and now he disappears. And he is not on the ice today for practice. I'm baffled. I know this is the radio.

I'm supposed to say things, but he gone? He gone? I did hear, though, that Colorado's going to have to address this in the next 24 hours, 48. They just can't leave this a mystery here. They know it and they got to get ahead of it. So expect

something to be said sooner than later out of Colorado here and he may not be available for them in the foreseeable future. Okay. Wow. We will keep our eyes and ears open on that. Hearsay from some people around the biz.

Not telling you what you know. Not telling you what's going to happen. Just telling you what I'm hearing. So this is a big story. It is. Unless you have more on that, do you want to hit some more do not the jets lose josh morrissey to a knee injury moments into their last game they fought back hard they did oh what a great game the energy in that building was unbelievable and then it's michael

amadio the old leaf off of a giveaway from Sandberg. It was just a bad bounce. Yeah, hit someone's skate and bounce to the wrong spot. No, no, boys. Bad luck. No, that's just a guy forcing a pass. Go up the boards, right? Little inexperienced there. Got a little excited.

That's experience there. That's a guy that can just take a calm breath and not try to force a pass. Yep. Well, that was unfortunate. I feel bad, but a learning experience. Hopefully, you know, he can rebound well. And, you know, he plays a lot. He plays a lot.

I felt bad for him. They're still in that series. Oh, for sure. Brassois is not great. No. Hellebuck. Hellebuck, eh, you know what he can be. But I, like, Brassois, I haven't seen a whole lot out of being that great in that series.

So I think they're still in that big time. Yep. Eichel. Nice. Had a good game. Yeah, right after we barbecued him and called him a punk. He's been hot. How much better is Eichel just because stone is back in the lineup

he doesn't have to be the sole focus of the opposing team exactly that helps that helps a lot the devils got one they got back against the the rangers in terms of five on five goals scored the devils the second worst team in the nhl right now has four the devils have one they scored one goal on the rangers at five on five that's crushing them uh leafs leading the postseason and goals four per game interesting stat here from sportsnet stats uh morgan riley and dougie hamilton the first pair of defensemen to score postseason ot goal on the same day since april 10th 1985 mark howe and lee uh fogelin oh yeah there you go pretty interesting little stat there good job by sports Mark Howe and Lee Fogelin. Oh, yeah.

There you go. Pretty interesting little stat there. Good job by SportsCenter. How the hell did they look that up? You know, should have been Justin Halls just to put it in everyone's face. The Hall haters are out in full force. He's been pretty decent as far as Leafs do. That's like a seen-eye scene eye dog single wasn't it

watching it go that's the one when it doesn't go in i was like leaves yeah that's the one that's the one you look back at and they zapruder it and go no that's that had leaf win written all over going into overtime you know the least are doing a good job creating that traffic in front for vasilevsky you know marner uh takes the shot for it's their wheelhouse like they've done a good job getting it's their strength yeah they floated in when they're good they block shots too at the other end yeah and you know what you're doing it against radish and purbix and you know coal and like you know it's not you can stand there i the radishes it's personal with me and them and junior they're so good on the otters.

Killed my attack. Are we all in agreement they're coming home 3-1? No. No, we'll never say that. No chance. Oh, God. You guys. Not agreement.

I'm the downer guy today. If the Leafs are different, they win this game. If they're the same, they lose. How's that? I mean, it's fine. Thanks, tips. Yeah. If the Leafs are going to win this series, they're going to win a game, a big game.

I don't know. I don't have a clue. I'm not even making a call tonight. I got no idea. Our thanks to Jim Ralph and Ed Encina from Tampa Bay Times. Enjoy the game. How much time do I have there? Come on, you Leafers.

Give us one. Enjoy the game how much time do i have there uh come on you leafers give us one enjoy the game everybody we're back tomorrow