Real Kyper & Bourne - Lineup Limbo

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

It's Off-the-Rails Friday, and Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee open with the Leafs returning to practice, their game tomorrow against the Oilers, the 11-forward-7-defencemen lineup and the line combinations on offence. They are joined by former Flyers defenceman Chris Therien (21:11), who breaks down the news of Philadelphia firing GM Chuck Fletcher and promoting Daniel Brière in the interim, why the decision was made, the timing of the move and what comes next for the team. Doug MacLean joins the show for his weekly visit (41:25), and weighs in on the situation in Philly, the coach-GM relationship and the Leafs lineup combos down the stretch. Later, Bob Stauffer, host of Oilers Now, tees up tomorrow's Leafs vs. Oilers game, the impact of Mattias Ekholm's presence, Edmonton's recent hot stretch and Jack Campbell's reduced role (1:06:25). The guys close by answering some listener questions.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

This is Real Kipper and Born on Sportsnet 590 The Van. Off the Rail Fridays is upon us yet again. Are we going to start with the show on the rails or just never get it on the rails? I'm taking it off right now. The PGA Championship's on our TV. Or Players Championship, whatever. off right now the pga championships on our tv or players championship whatever which means that there's a really good excuse if we're not paying attention to each other uh kip kipper kipper i said something squirrel squirrel who did we have on remember when we did the show

during uh canada's first game with the world cup oh Oh, yeah. And who did we have on? Someone we utterly disrespected. I can't remember who it was we had on. And I remember watching the YouTube video back and neither of you guys listened to one word they said. You're both just staring at this. This is a big tournament for Canada. Yeah, yeah. Maybe that won't be the case

because we do have a terrific lineup for you. Chris Terry and former flyer defenseman's going to be joining us about 20 minutes to tell us what the hell is going on in philadelphia chuck fletcher out as general manager of the philadelphia flyers danny briere named interim general manager i only got one question for Bundy. Why now? Like, are you kidding me? I think why now with the caveat that why not sooner? Oh my gosh, I guess.

You know, to me, I said this in our group chat, but like the JVR not getting traded. What are we doing here? Like, you can't just have an asset. You're trying to be bad. He wants to go play. You're trying to be bad he wants to go play you're trying to stockpile assets how do you not move them somewhere someone would have taken them no i i don't think so no one wanted james and reams nobody wanted jvr and if you did

how could you have made the money work that's just it even if you wanted him the seven million dollar price tag says you got a double retainer you're like what do i want you for really you're coming in as a frontline guy no they couldn't give him away wave him are you are you coming to my team to like run somebody over in the playoffs no i i'm i'm trading for sure that there's enough examples aside from that one, but I am shocked to hear that that to me felt like the straw that broke the camel's back. Well, we'll find out for sure as Chris Terrian will join us in about 18 minutes. Doug McClain also in on his regularly slotted Friday. We'll get his thoughts on Chuck Fletcher.

Tampa Bay struggles or Tampa Bay's newfound muscle as they've gone to another level with their brawling these days. I want to tell you guys more about that. I wrote about it today. So whenever you're ready for me, you tell me. We'll get that as well. And then the Edmonton Oilers coming in town on an all-time high. Bob Stauffer, host of Oilers Now, will join us to get us ready

for what should be a very fun Saturday night in Toronto where McDavid comes into town. Does he hit 70 goals? Does he get a few Saturday night? We'll get all of that out of Bob. In the meantime, the Leafs on the ice for the first time for how long, Sammy? Uh-oh, did I screw it up? The first time since

returning from their five-game road trip. Yeah, no, you didn't screw up. Okay, good. I was reading back. I was like, oh, God. I know it's a natural feeling. Johnny journalist was like, oh, no. And got to be honest with you. I'm like, okay, how many storylines can we throw around today coming off on a Friday and for that reason where they haven't even practiced and yet.

Oh, we got storylines. It just kind of writes itself with the new look Toronto Maple Leafs, i.e. not faces, but lineup. And I got to be honest with you, never saw this lineup on a Saturday night after a very good win against New Jersey. This is the last lineup I probably would have thought I'd see going into Saturday night. You want to rifle them off there, Sammy?

Well, so there's a few things, because this was before Keefe spoke, that this was the lineups that people were tweeting out. But they are going to 11 and 7 tomorrow night. Again. Which I despise. Every single person involved in this show, Sis Boomba hates it, Randeo hates it, I hate it.

My mom's not into it. Everyone I talk to hates it. I feel like they even hate it. Remember Keefe was like, I don't love it. Yeah, that was the first thing he said about it. But they want to get all these D in. At first I saw Simmons involved and I was like, oh my god. They're really searching for something.

But he's just placeholder. They're just keeping him involved, I guess, in the lineup. So I guess he won't be involved. But they're going to put Gustafsson in. They're sticking with Laverty, Nylander, and Jarnkrok together because they like the way that looked. They want Tavares and Bunting to play together. I got to tell you, boys. It's just you're doing too much for me.

It's just can we just play a normal hockey lineup with some lines here? I know you're trying to keep people involved and all this, but you weren't really looking forward to keeping Rasmus Sandin involved and now that you got another guy, you want to keep him involved? I don't know. It's just really weird what they're doing with the lineups. I don't understand.

I'm trying to. But I'm not arriving there. Middle of March. I don't, I'm not arriving there. Middle of March. I don't understand it, bro. Closing in on middle of March.

Can we just have some sense of pretend playoffs are starting tonight? What would it look like? You know, like if I, if I'm Keith, that's gotta be the thought. Like what's the best lineup we can create out of this? Are we under the impression that Bunting and Tavares are on the third line here?

Or are we just married to the fact that there is no one, two, or three? Well, we know one. Yeah, we know one. We don't know two or three. So Tavares and Bunting, they don't have a set winger on the right side as of right now? Last we saw. So Keefe talked about it. We should listen to Keefe on 11 and 7, and we'll go from there, okay?

Mm-hmm. Let her rip. I mean, it certainly demands more of the coaching staff and the players in terms of you making a lot more decisions, in terms of who's going to play with who, what the right matchups are, who to get with different people, but you're also monitoring energy levels a lot more than you would be in a normal game when you're rolling four lines.

It's generally just because of the pace and the rhythm of the line changes. You have a good sense of who's going to be ready and who's not. In 11-7, you're a little more in flux there, and you are trying to keep some lines intact, so some players aren't as available because you do want to have some continuity. So that's just on me to manage that and for the players to show some patience with it.

But I do think there's some good opportunities there as well. Obviously, look at Tavares and Bunting and the way you've got things lined up because I do like the Lafferty group. I would like to continue with those guys playing together and try to build on what they did the other night. But, you know, it gives me some real opportunity to play around

with Tavares and Bunting there and that pairing and who I can play with them and see how that goes for us because I do think we've gotten some real good shifts from Kempf and Achari and Aston Rees. I don't know what the hell he just said. I'm thinking it through as he's talking about it

so he he really liked Nylander, Lafferty, Yarncroft and he wants to see him again that's fine but here's my question if he likes it, likes it could he see that as a third line for them keep Tavares and O'Reilly as a second line

with someone and you know that's a pretty good third line right, if you willie on it there i don't know maybe you want to see that i am curious about the idea that he said is there a world where you see kerfoot starting game one with matthews there is a world it's not one i want to live in that's the world I one day don't want to live in. But yeah,

he said there's some guys that'll be less available because you do want some continuity. So his point is he's going to have a couple of lines that he wants to keep solid, and he's going to be using the other lines then to kind of shuffle. Sounds like they're going with three forward lines essentially, and they'll be shuffling guys through. Assuming that means the kerfoot spot

is available for looks from other guys bunting included maybe tavarez at times i don't know i think it's just as sammy said too much i think it's just overthinking and i know the game's changed over the years, but I don't think what's changed is players coming into the dressing room going, oh, my God, can you just leave us alone for five minutes? Can you just, like, this is middle of March. You've got Maroon, Belmar, and Corey Perry on the other side that have been there together all year and know exactly their roles they they're just they're locked in and you're treating now the the last 18 games like you're starting game one in the regular season yeah i think when you have

massive turnover like this you know there is some figuring how you want it to look obviously the necessary caveat to all this is the two injuries make it really hard like o'reilly being out and devara is being or missing a game so just o'reilly makes it very hard it shouldn't it shouldn't no no no not one guy well you didn't minus anything off your roster not one guy should change this whole thing it should should not be turned upside down for one player so it's the d though that came in that are turning this upside down it's because they want seven in more than anything it feels like right correct? Correct. Would you like to hear Sheldon talk about that? Yes.

Absolutely. What a producer. Got a lot of explaining to do, Lucy. Yeah, I think it's less about finding who works best with whom. It's more about just keeping the guys involved, specific to the defense, you know, because we're healthy back there. And, you know, with Shen in the early part of that road trip there, you have eight, you know, with seven here now, plus Timmons who comes in as our eighth now.

There's a lot of guys there to manage. And you've got Gustafson who's, you know, he was thriving in Washington. You know, he was playing a ton and running their power play and lots of points and feeling really good about his season. And then it's been tougher for him coming here. Now he's playing behind lots of guys and trying to find ways to keep him involved and keep him working in because I do think

he offers our group some things not unlike what Sandin brought us in terms of ability to move the puck and help us on the breakout, help us in the offensive zone, help us on the power play. So I think it is important that we keep him involved. And for right now, it's in the 11-7 mix. He doesn't care if they play well.

He's just got to keep everybody in the mix. Yeah. You know, I have some sympathy for the idea that you tell everyone and the team agrees you need 8d you need however many d and then you get 8d these guys are like hey we're pretty good like i'm not watching forever so they want these guys to play but it's tough by the way him talking about gustafson feeling good in washington i don't know if you saw my tweet i think you may have retweeted earlier, Sammy, but Sandin played 30 minutes last night. I saw that.

30 minutes. And so. This guy had been in the playoffs. I know. So the point about Gustafson had been, you know, going along well and playing lots in Washington. Have you seen the decor? Like you would expect a guy when they don't have anyone behind him to play a lot. So I'm sorry for Gustafson that it's harder now on a,

the fourth best team in the NHL, but I think he would have some understanding if he were to be healthy, fairly regularly. No. Okay. Like I, I can think of two right off the bat players. I'd rather have Morgan Riley with, I can't think of two right off the bat players I'd rather have Morgan Riley with.

I can't think of too many I would not rather have him with than Gustafson. Is he with him, though? He's drawn up there with him, yeah. All I see is, I do see Gustafson and Riley. Yeah. According to the lines today. Yeah. Right side.

Nightmare. Right side. Nightmare. Left shot. Not known for his own zone. Oh, he's known for it. Just not in the way you want him to be known for it. He's infamous. Good point. I mean, I don't understand this one.

Lilligren to me or Brody right now to help him out. So I put on Twitter today, you know, people are complaining about Kerfoot playing with Matthews and Marner. Hi, I'm people. Hi, they're people. And you, I think our boy, Jake B leaves tweeted something to the effect that like Fraser McLaren had a higher points for 60, 60 than Kerfoot does.

Yes. So the question is coaches who fall in love with a player and play them to a degree where you think the team would just be better off if they took that player away from the coach. I don't know if. Oh, I don't know if Kerfoot. God bless you. Thank you.

I don't know if Kerfoot is that for Keith exactly, but can you think of any guys that, you know, of this throughout history? I put it on my Twitter feed. The amount of responses are unbelievable for people saying, yeah, this coach just fell in love with this guy. A lot of Sutter and Lucic, you know, where you might be better off if you didn't have a guy in the lineup.

Babs. Babs. Who are we talking about? Just if, is there any coaches that you can think about? Yes. That fall in love with one player to a degree where it hurts their lineup? Always you go, okay, like enough of that guy. Yeah.

And Kerfoot has become that here for the Leafs. Is he not? Yes. Yeah. But again, beggars can't be choosers when you look at that left wing side. No. can't be choosers when you look at that left wing side no but i mean the decision to go to 7d let's just say for one second that you don't move sandin for gustafson is there any world that you would have seen now sheldon go to 7d with Sandin in the lineup? No, because their relationships was no good.

In my outside view. Yeah. They're trying to make these new guys, give them a chance to fit in. And Gustafson, you fell in love with Gustafson so fast. What are you getting out of Gustafson? They're doing the thing they always do. Right. What we talked about yesterday with Nyes.

What we talked about with, like, listen, I know he's not. He's like us. I know he's not playing on the top line or playing 25 minutes a night or whatever. It's not the same situation as playing on the top line. But a guy that comes in here and is not one of your best six guys, pretty clearly, right? They have six guys that are ahead of him. Yes. Probably seven with Luke Shen, who is not available because of still baby-related reasons.

They're playing him for the sake of playing him to make him feel welcome and get him in the mix and get him in the mix. It's like, well, it's frustrating to me that they're doing this. Shen's not available, hey? No, he's still in Vancouver, apparently. Let's listen to what Sheldon had to say about uh luke shen no update other than to say that he's still he's still home in vancouver with his wife and nothing's changed uh there they're still on baby watch and you know it's it's a difficult situation

in terms of in terms of uh him and joining the team and such because it's so far away and and it's so important that he's there for his family so it's it's a tricky one to navigate here but obviously what's most important is that he's there for his wife and his family and we're in full support of that he's remaining on the ice and and staying ready and such and and once there's some movement there then he'll rejoin the team yeah that's hard too i mean it's hard as is this time of year getting traded and uprooting now he's got luke's got to deal with that yeah right that's people got to remember that's not an easy thing to do and like maybe it's a good thing for an older guy like luke have a little bit of rest here at this time of year before a grueling playoff battle. But the, the distance is a good point.

Like you can't put your wife on a plane and bring her out here at that point. You're not going to drive across the country. You can't, you just kind of have to be there. So here's what it is on that one. And I mean, Hey,

what would they do if he was here? Play eight. I mean, you can't, we can't get in anyway. It works for him just fine right now. All right. We've got Keefe on

Austin Matthews. Do you want to sit on that one? Well, I mean, it's just he's talking about how he thought he looked hurt against Vancouver and he thought he looked better against... It's an interesting clip. He mentions Kerfoot in it, so I want to play it. We'll play it quickly before we get to Bundy. Just from me watching, I think it was very clear

it was impacting and affecting his skating in Vancouver in particular. I felt in New Jersey, in fact, he looked to be skating as well as he skied in a long time. And I think it's not necessarily even because of the leg or the shot block or anything like that, but more so just the way the game went. His line came out of their own zone and through the neutral zone with a lot of speed. And I think that's part of what Kerfoot brings to that group is his ability to make a play and then break out and get us through the neutral zone and get Austin skating. And I thought he was flying through the neutral zone. So I had sort of forgotten

about the fact that he was nursing something like that. But I do know from some experience that those things do take some time to really go away, but it didn't seem to be affecting his ability to really push the pace the other night. Kerfoot drives him through the neutral zone and makes him fly up the ice. To me, he just put that in there just to, like, justify. Kerfoot. He's like, oh, you see? he's like austin was so hurt and the only thing that could fix him it's like the seal it's like it's like uh you know you love will ferrell kipper it's like uh saturday night live more cowbell

more cowbell more cowbell oh my god yeah there's no question that was uh manipulated that comment for the sole purpose he's feeling it's like i know i'm gonna hear about this but you know he can't say what do you want me to do guys what do you want me to do anyone else it's so who is that then yarn crock yes okay yeah yarn crock would make you happier with matthews and marner yeah a few nice matthew nice bring us the boy what's the deal are they in the final four or something now what's going on i don't know i don't know i'm not i'm not keeping an eye i'm trying not to really think about matt and eyes until it's here i don't want to hype it up anymore i don't know. I don't know. I'm not keeping an eye on it. I'm trying not to really think about Matt Nyes until it's here. I don't want to hype it up

anymore. I don't want to think about it a whole lot until I'm knocked out though, right? Oh yeah. Go whoever Minnesota's playing. Oh, 100%. Let's see. Let's see when Minnesota the Badgers, right? No, the Golden Gophers. No, they're the Badgers. Oh, don't

question me. I played in their division. Why did I think they're the Badgers? Wisconsin. So we got Chris Ter're the Badgers? Wisconsin. So we got Chris Terrian in a minute or so. We're going to lock down Chris Terrian. He's going to have a wonderful crisp line. So Sammy could play out the rest of the week. There should be like a prize for a perfect week for Sammy. Like, you know, staying employed.

And for sure, Doug McClain is going to come in and out on a few sentences. But that's Doug's fault. Doug tends to hit an island in the Caribbean for a phone call. Staffer's going to come up in the second hour. You know what we're going to do in the second hour? Oh, God. We are going to put all the Leaf numbers in my hat, and we're going to draw lines. And see if the lines make more sense?

Yes. Okay, we're going to do Sheldon's bingo-bango balls. Okay. And we're going to hand-pick a line, three lines, three and a half lines. Whatever they got. Whatever they got. And we're going to see if our line comes up better than his

for tomorrow night. I'm worried for him. There is a really good article once. Do we have Bundy before I go on? All right. All right. I wonder if Bundy picked lines out of a hat that ended up being better than torts this season.

Let's welcome in him. Chris Terry and former flyer defenseman snow, the goalie, a podcast that is number one in our books. I don't know how it's doing on the charts, but we're happy to have you on board here. Bundy, how are you, pal? Doing good, Chipper.

Good to be on with you guys. Yeah, I mean, listen, this is odd times again, but there had to be somewhere to start to get things right again. You know, there's just too much, guys, I think. I think the fans, I've got to tip my hat a little bit to the fans here. I mean, this is something that started, I think, after the, I don't know, Torch's combo for the trade deadline. He didn't really find, you know, too much humor in the fact that people were, you know, really drawing their eye towards Chuck

for the failure of the deadline and not getting rid of Van Dreams. Again, I don't want to just throw that one thing out, but that seemed to be like there had to be a stick that broke the camel's back type of moment, and that, for me, might have been it. Those are the type of things that you've got to probably do work on long before, and even when you get up against it, you've got a guy who's here, you're trying to dump some salary. You know, you probably would take a stick bag for him in 2027 if you could get that.

But, you know, again, that was a product of the system at the end where, you know, I think other teams look to, and in fairness to what Torch said, where can you use him? That's essentially what I said in plain English. You can't play him on the top two lines of a Stanley Cup contender, and you're sure the hell not going to play him on the bottom two. So where does he fit in your lineup? And then there was the other stuff that just went on. I just think, guys, it's just been a body of work over the course of a few years

where the Flyers fans, and this has been an organization that looks and feels very ticked in the last three years. And I'll be honest with you, the fans were looking for a body somehow, some way. And I think it was a matter of them getting to Dave Scott and saying, listen, we've got to do something here. Because when you start going to town halls, and they wouldn't be the first GM boot at one of these guys, but, I mean, it was loud, and then they started to bring the house down to just about everybody.

And I think when you open your eyes to that, it's pretty obvious what's going on and that changes need to happen. Yeah, once the people who pay the bills, as in buy the tickets, have spoken that publicly, it's not a good look. Do you think that, you know, I know that Fletcher had some bad luck with injuries. I know when Patrick was hurt all the time and they had a Ryan Ellis thing, he was hurt all the time,

but like, do you think this is ownership dictated where he would have wanted to rebuild it and start over, but instead was kind of forced into this half retool thing that never really took. That's a really, really good question. And I'm going to go with the no on that.

That is not, no, I don't think so. I think Chuck was pretty stubborn in his own right. Again, I'd like to find out more. I think what happens after something like this goes down, you start to get a little bit more truce come out. I'd like to know who advised him on these signings, long-term deals. He acquired injured guys. You can blame the Noel and Patrick

on Rod Hextall. You can say what you want about it. It didn't work out. It's super unfortunate. It sets your franchise back in depth of years. You can't make up for your number two pick not panning out. But the other guys that they got here,

we acquired injured players. make up for your number two pick not panning out. But the other guys that they got here, you know what, guys? We acquired injured players. Right. You know, we signed guys that were here a while that had some broken down parts of them for long-term contracts. This is a team, to be just quite honest with you, it's still like this is one thing that happened. I said it was like an asteroid hitting the earth. You know, the first thing that happens is the asteroid hitting the earth,

and then there's a million other things that happen in the months after. You know, like that goes around it. So, you know, how do you get out of the cap hell? How do you get out of improving your roster if you've got salary guys that nobody wants because either they're paid too much or they're injured and you don't know the standing of their health. And they have a ton of those guys that you're really hitched your wagons to. You know, again, I said it earlier in the year, guys,

if some other guy was healthy or a couple more guys were healthy, I still don't think it was going to make a difference at the end result of this team. This is not a team that was going to all of a sudden get two or three of those guys back, and next thing you know, they're third in the conference. It's just not happening. It wasn't realistic. I've been honest for three years since I saw the 2020 bubble game in the Game 7 and even going back to the Giroux years. This may need to tell their fans in probably 2019 at the latest,

we need to start rebuilding. We need to have the vision to rebuild stand with us. I know maybe you're not expecting it. The retool would have been the easy thing to do. The hard thing is to say we're going to rebuild and then go and execute the plan and do it right. But I don't think that there – I think a little bit of what you said is true. They probably said, hey, listen, we need to make sure that the corporate side

say we want to have the building filled. But I don't think that that was the case by the signings that Chuck made and the long-term extended contracts that he gave to some guys that there's a lot of question marks to right now. We're talking to Chris Terry, a former Flyer defenseman who does a terrific job covering the Philadelphia Flyers. Big news today, Chuck Fletcher out as general manager, Danny Breer in as interim. I'm just wondering, Bundy, about the timing and all of this.

There was heat months ago to get rid of Chuck Fletcher. Now you're in under 18 games to go, maybe a handful at home. Why now, a week after a trade deadline? Why not just hang on for a few more games and then just clean this up in the summertime? Is it, is it the, the, the trade deadline? Is it not getting rid of JVR was the driving nail here? I know. I think it was accumulation of stuff, Nick. Like I, you know, we've talked about it for a couple of years and there's been a lot of weird stuff that have gone on.

And, you know, I think last year was kind of the eye-opener to people. We're like, wow, like, people are stopping coming. The building was as empty as I'd seen it. By the way, that side of things has changed. The business side has done a really great job. And where we're hoping the hockey side would come together, there appears to be a disconnect to some degree but at the same time like at the end of the day it's about the product on the ice you know all

the other things are fine and dandy and everything and people's opinions and you know visions of all we should do this or that but at the end of the day this is a real hockey market that the fans are very passionate about and they want to see a good team um with you know with hopes of doing well in the spring in the tournament and that's really what where they're at and they haven't seen it i think the biggest frustration from where i look at the fans and even my end is what was the plan here like i don't know what the plan is and i think that that frustration mounted and i'm sure over the course of the last few days the senior advice senior people at the advisor senior business side have made the decision that they were going to move on from chuck um interestingly enough though if you're like a new guy coming in

like if you're a breer and you're in there as an intern uh to find out what you can do this is really an odd stage to give a guy a glimpse because there's not this is probably the deadest two months of the year in the National Hockey League. You know, it's not trades. There's really, you know, maybe minor deals in the playoffs sometimes that sneak by you don't even pay attention to. But, you know, it's just a very, very interesting time for anybody to try to give a guy a glimpse because I'm not really sure that he can do anything up until probably before the draft. And that's maybe the next time that the GM will have a look at what to do with this club.

Yeah, maybe that gives him a little bit of runway to get to know the names of the people who do things around there and figure out the whole job. And after that, though, I wonder what you think is going to happen in terms of what his interests are. Like, John Tortorella is a very particular type of guy for a very particular type of GM. You know, is this someone that Danny Breer is also going to want to help run the organization? I should note, he's done a tremendous job. He's probably had them outperform their true talent.

But I am curious to know what comes next for Torts. Yeah, well, see, guys, that's another part of it for me. Like, you know, when you I didn't even get into Torts yet. Like when they hired him last summer, I knew the team was below mediocre, and I knew that Torts would actually put them in a spot that was going to be one of the worst in the league. He was going to leave them about seventh or eighth left in the league, stuck right between 17 and 25.

That's, again, a GM making a mistake. Why would you better your value of your team by the coach when the talent level doesn't dictate that? If you're going to tank, just be tanked all the way and be bad, and just let the players take care of it themselves, like Chicago or Anaheim or Columbus. I don't think Columbus saw that and made sure and not gotten Gaudreau in the summer to make sure they would have absolutely had that one pick. But, you know, again, those are all speculative stuff.

But that was absolutely – Torch has done a good job here with his team. Too good. Not everybody likes perhaps the way he's done it, but he's done it in a way that he's done it his whole career, and he's made the team better than they were supposed to be. Too good. He took them out of Conor Bedard. He did.

He messed it up. Well, there's people that would say that. And again, I'm not one of those people that like to live up to coin flip or percentages, but he certainly removed them from the equation of having a better chance. You know, when you know by December just how bad you are, you're kind of saying, you know, at that time, and you've got four guys in a draft that apparently are really,

really bona fide talents, you're thinking to yourself, well, how do I get to that point? It's like the reverse of winning, except you can't do that in certain markets and you sure the hell can't do that in Philadelphia. Alright pal, well listen, I know it was short notice getting you on, but

it was great getting some detail on big news in Philadelphia and this probably takes a lot of heat off the Comcast group, correct? I would think so, yeah, for sure. I mean, at least it gives them a little bit more runway. Because I will say it again, the experience at the games has been good this year. I railed against them for a couple years.

Our guys on the thing did just from the changes. But it's been different. It's been a lot of fun at the games. There's been that relic, a little touch to the past, but they've got to move into the future with a team that this city can be proud of. The Philadelphia Flyers are an important

team in the National Hockey League, and when they're better, it makes for I think the product in the league to be better. They're just that valued of a franchise. Really appreciate your time, man. Thanks for doing this. Chris Terrian. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Good detail. Good energy.

Good interview. What did you think? We haven't talked about the replacing of Chuck Fletcher. Well, first of all, I think Daniel Breer will fall exactly the way popular guy today can be. I know. I'm going to shut it off. Trade deadline every day. Daniel Breer will fall exactly the way...

Popular guy today, Kippy. I know. I'm going to shut it off. Trade deadline. Every day. Just, can you guys remind me to put silent on before the show? Like, you don't have many jobs to do. And oh, by the way, Chris Terrien kind of came in and out.

I know, Kippy. I thought you were done. Kippy, I was... Sweating. My palms right now are drenched. kind of came in and out. I know, Kippy. I thought you were done. Kippy, I was sweating. My palms right now are drenched. Daniel Breer will fall into Tommy Fitzgerald and Kevin Adams, right? Both of them kind of don't really know much about them

in this kind of scope, and we're going to dip our toe in the water with the interim. No question, he's going to be the toe in the water with the interim. No question he's going to be the guy. Interim makes me crazy. What would he have to do to not get the job? The team is currently bad. How does he do, how does he show what? What can he do to not become the

actual GM? So interim bothers me. Just give the guy the job. But I am curious about the Torts thing. Not that I think he'll outright fire him. Torts has done a good job, but like are they going to try to turn around and be good now? They're going to try to be good next year? Yeah. Or are they going to try to lose, in which case they don't feel like Torts helps them

because he has helped them. I don't know. Yeah. I know we mentioned that it's going to be quiet two months here but when when you need to alleviate money and and work on deals and kevin hayes is a prime example another seven million dollar guy that they tried to get rid of at the trade deadline it's just too hard but if you want to come back now and move them in the summer or get rid of that you got to start putting the work in now. And Hayes has a no trade that kicks in this summer? I think so.

If you're the Flyers, you want nothing to do with that Hayes contract now. He's just where he is in his career arc. I think it's $7 million. JBR's done, right? He's at the end. Correct. But Kevin Hayes is at $7 million. He is at that.

And I know they put him on the All-Star game this year, which was great for him and his family. And you love that, but he's. Yeah. He has three seasons after this one. It's 7.14. Wow. So, and he's 30 years old right now.

And I don't think he had the best season. Yeah, JVR's up. Who would you think, before a team would look at Kevin Hayes? Hayes has 49 points in 64 games on a crummy team. It's pretty good. But you're envisioning now, can he help you win as a contending team? Yeah. But what is that?

How much would you have to shave off that to bring him in? To me, he's a Nick Foligno type. You know, without the edge. Can you eat 40% of that contract? Does Comcast want to pay $3 million to someone for nothing? Probably not. But yeah, it might be better than having him. Daniel Breer and his staff may need to make a hundred calls between now and the nhl draft well and at the draft they have you know eight picks or nine picks this year so um just like to welcome the people and fan 590 just joining us after the blue jays

game after another blistering two and a half hour baseball game for the Toronto Blue Jays. Rob Manfred, president. It's a lock now, eh? Two and a half hours. Yesterday was 205, Kev. No. Yes. Oh, delightful.

So yeah, welcome. They might kick it back to a 16 second clock. We're not trying to do 90 minutes. What's Sportsnet going to do every night in the summer with all that extra time? More Kipper and Bourne reruns. Yeah, I was talking about the... More Ken and Ivanka.

There he is. More Ken and Ivanka. That's in their contract. But it is a lot for the Philadelphia Flyers to try to figure out what comes next. Like, if I was... This roster, boys, it is lean. Oh, is it lean?

I don't know how you don't trade Konechny. I don't know how, at the deadline, I don't know how you don't trade... I know you think JVR stinks, but get a sixth, get a fifth, get something. Like, you don't think there's anyone that will give anything for him? But to your point, he also didn't trade Kevin Hayes. He also didn't trade Konechny. Trade them all. You suck.

You're going nowhere. And those guys are too old. By the time you're good. Can that market withstand two years of just being really bad? Two more years of being really bad? They also, they have no contracts that are that, you know, significant up front aside from Hayes. Like, Farabee makes $5 million.

After that, the next highest deal is $3 million up front. It's on the back end where they've got issues. They're paying Ristolainen $5.1 million until $27 million. Why did they do that? D'Angelo's making five sheets. Sanheim makes $6.2 million. A disaster trade. I know you're not an analytics guy, but I can't remember a time when the analytics community

so clearly came together and said, that's the worst deal we've ever seen. He was, by some metrics, one of the worst defenders at the time of the deal. And they gave him $30 million. Why does Joel Farabee make $5 million until 27, 28? You don't have anyone. You talk yourself into people.

Sean Couturier like where is that guy he also is on a new deal is he not and he's got like multiple back issues he's on i miss some guys that were on he's making a 7.75 until 2028 you don't like that one they could akinson's hurt. Konechny's hurt. Is he scheduled to come back and play again? Why would he? What's he coming back for? Get healthy. Actually, no, I'm just saying, is a career-ending situation here?

Is his career in jeopardy with multiple back issues, I guess? He is actually an excellent hockey player. Great. When he's healthy, I guess. Dr. St. Anthony, the back of the enemy. He is actually an excellent hockey player. Great. When he's healthy, he's really good. He seems like someone Tampa would have. But yeah, Ellis also makes 6.25 until 2027. Another bad back, I think. He's maybe career ending.

Why? I am confounded by this cat-friendly page. It's the worst mess outside of the canucks i don't like any of their players and they have no cap space i don't get it montreal montreal is up against the cap but they're terrible yeah but at least they're yeah doing it the right thing they're sucking they're clearly got a direction yeah so all right we're gonna take a quick break we'll get out uh and we'll bring back Doug McClain for his segment. Also, in the second hour, we're going to take some tweets or some YouTube questions. Yeah, text questions.

590-590. Text us there. And before we go to break, since we're back on Sportsnet 590, the fan, time for some rivalry train action, boys. Ooh, big bar set yesterday to clear. Oh, boy. Here we go now. Molson Canadian wants to give you and a friend the ultimate hockey fan experience

through their Molson Canadian rivalry train contest. This includes a round-trip train from Toronto to Ottawa to go see your Leafs take on the Sens on April 1st. With food and beverage included at the game, as well as overnight hotel accommodation. To enter, all you have to do is listen to today's code word and then text it to 590-590. Today's code word is

Ottawa. Text Ottawa to 590-590 right now for your chance to win. This is your last chance to enter, so be sure to text in Ottawa to 590-590 right now. You must be at least 19 years of age in Ontario to enter.

Didn't you get a guy begging you for the mystery word? Yeah, a couple of DMs. He said, I swear to God, I've been listening since 3 p.m. You know, that read is a little bit like Augusta National in that once you get through the early part, I think you're okay. Like round-trip train comes early, and if you get through round-trip train, that's the fourth hole. I think it's easier after that. Once I get to the text, it's like I'm on 13. I'm making an eagle.

You've got a couple back there. Although they lengthened 13. The dumbest thing I've ever heard. Who wants to see Tiger going for it in two? It's the most exciting shot in the history of golf. Let's make it a layup. That's what everybody wants. I hope that doesn't happen.

All right, well. Okay, let's take a quick break. Doug McClain, when we come back, we'll get his thoughts on 11-7 out of the Toronto Maple Leafs and how many times he did that in his career. Doug McClain and more

real Kipper and Bourne after these words. to know about the Blue Jays, Blair and 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. Fridays like this hurt even more knowing where our next guest is. Closer to that than that. He's not far off the players in where Jacksonville. Yeah.

And I'm really hoping it's about 62 and overcast and cold. That sounds great to me. Where our next guest is, but it's miserable 62 and overcast and cold. That sounds great to me. Where our next guest is, but it's miserable up here. Snowing, cold. Come on, Mac. Tell me you're basking in terrible weather, please. That's funny you say that, because I just barely turned the air conditioner up a little higher.

It's damn hot here. There you go. It's damn hot here. There you go. It is so hot. I told you I played in that tournament last week or the other day. It was five hours. It was so hot. But I came in second. We got second place, so it made it feel a little cooler when I was getting my gifts.

You're having sort of an athletic renaissance these days, Doug, between pickleball and golf and yoga and all this, aren't you? Well, you know what? I figured out today why I do this show. It just hit me. I was reading a study, a Harvard study on retirement, and they said the number one thing in retirement that you miss, it's not the money, it's not the work,

it's the relationships you had at work that you really desperately miss. And I thought, that's why I'm doing this damn show. I heard a lot of relationships improved at Sportsnet once you left. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. They improved so much even the boss left. How is the relationship with the Philadelphia Flyers? Have you ever seen a general manager get fired a week after a trade deadline? That's a new one for me.

But you know what? You know you're in trouble when you get booed at the season ticket renewal party when they introduce you. You know things aren't that good. I remember when I was sitting in the press box looking down and I saw two guys on our glass seats, which were expensive seats in Columbus, with bags on their head that I was in trouble. So it's very similar than when you get booed at a season ticket renewal function. So it's been coming and it's too bad. I mean, but, you know,

you go through a trade deadline and then you make the change i mean i guess you might as well wait till the end of here but obviously the criticism is you know that they've been after chuck for a year or more in chile they're a tough group they're a tough group fans are tough there and it's been a horrible a horrible four-year run for him it really has and how much of that do you attribute to luck versus just him not doing a great job they've certainly had their share of injuries over that time has it just been bad luck well i don't you know i mean i think they they went with the idea first that they were going to retool which is the in vogue rule of word and then i think he got halfway

through the retool and then he decides they've got to rebuild and in the meantime you hired Tortorella like I'm not sure he's the guy you want for a rebuild with patience so you know I think he got caught in between there and you know is it bad luck anytime you

get fired it's a little bit of bad luck and it's hey guys it's a tough it's a luck. And it's a, hey, guys, it's a tough gig. It really is a tough gig. I'm telling you. But I've told you guys all along, and nobody ever believes me on this. I watched a game last night, Boston Bruins and Edmonton Oilers. The Boston Bruins have 12 of their own draft picks in their lineup,

and the Edmonton Oilers have 10 of their own draft picks in their lineup, and the Edmonton Oilers have 10 of their own draft picks in the lineup. And to me, Edmonton's got to be considered a favorite in the West with the way teams are playing out there because they haven't been very good to West, and Boston looks like they could be a favorite. I mean, and these teams that keep trading away their picks, like what if Chuck gave up to get D'Angelo when it was a useless pickup?

Why would you even go there? And then I look and see what the kid did in Washington last night with the Leafs. Why do you even go there? By the way, Kip, Howard Berger accused you of being a homer today. Throw away end of thought note. See, that's why it's off the rails Friday when you can go from one thought to, oh, by the way, Howard Berger threw me under the bus.

Well, you know what the good thing is? He lists everybody that got fired at sports, and then he keeps leaving my name up. So that's how much he's forgot about me. Oh, you're a beauty. Getting it back on the rails here for a second when you think about guys like tom fitzgerald coming in and kevin adams in buffalo and now daniel briere it's one thing to come in and you know get acclimated and and get your feet wet and it's another one to have a guy like Tortorella right beside you.

I mean, how big of a challenge is it for Daniel Breer to know that, I mean, even if I wanted to get rid of this guy, I don't think I have that power. Well, you know, and I've heard that Breer will probably be the guy that gets the job. He's been in the organization for a long time, and he looks like he's been groomed for this role. So if he wants it, I hope he gets a chance at it.

He's always been a good player, but also a pretty good guy. So I don't know. I mean, Tortorella's funny. I think the one thing, I don't know that you can ever say that Tortorella's not a loyal guy. I've never, I know I've never heard a GM ever say that he wasn't a loyal guy. So I don't know. But it's just that his expectations at this stage in his career probably aren't to go through a rebuild. That's the only challenge that I can see there.

I don't think it has to do with loyalty, but just the mere fact that Tortorella has so much power, much when I look at Daryl Sutter in Calgary, and at times I'm sure between Daryl and Brad Tree Living and now Daniel Breer to come in and say, okay, the shape of the team and what we want to look like and the players that you want to coach. It gets tougher when you have the clout of a Tortorella or a Sutter to deal with. Well, the clout typically comes with contract and term of contract.

And you can say that about Daryl Sutter because he's on a new three-year deal, apparently. And Trey Living's deal has expired or it's up at the end of in June. Breer would come in with a new contract, which I suspect is a longer term than Tortorella's.

Tortorella's out of state. Why would you fight the GM at this stage of his career? It's probably his last job. I don't know that that's going to be a problem. I never heard of Kekeleinen ever had a problem with Tortorella or vice versa. So I don't see that being an issue. But what about a philosophy of players, though, Mac? Who you want, who you don't want, who you like, who you don't like.

That's the challenge, and sometimes that's tough. But that's the GM's job. that's tough but that's the GM's job that's not the coach's job that's the GM's job and the hockey operations group and that's that's always a battle between the coach and the GM especially if the coach has too much power but that job of the GM is to put the team together, sure, with consultation with the coach. But it's the end of the day. It's got to be the GM's job. Listen, Scotty Bowman, every day in Detroit, in his first year with Brian Murray,

every day after practice, brought a list of five names he wanted hired up to Brian. He wanted traded every day after practice. And the number one guy on the list every time was Steve Iserman. Okay. So, you know, and, you know, you've got to, coaches get high and low on players, and that's why the GM's role in player acquisition has got to be in the GM's hands. Now, Stevie didn't get traded. Luckily for Scottie, he got to win a couple more Stanley Cups.

Well, the coach has to deal with what the GM provides him. We're looking at the Toronto Maple Leafs today, and they're once again going 11 forwards and 70. Coach has to deal with what the GM provides him. We're looking at the Toronto Maple Leafs today, and they are once again going 11 forwards and 70. Gustafson will be in. And then that leaves a first line right now, Kerfoot with Matthews and Marner, Lafferty, Yarncroft, and Nylander. What are your thoughts on how the Leafs are deploying their lines here in the lead-up to playoffs?

Well, I mean, they're doing it because of the injury and a couple of injuries. That's the main reason why they're doing it. But I don't like the look of it. And to me, I don't get the Gustafson trade. I can't for the life of me figure that out. I've talked to people that have watched him play a lot this year and they tell me he's been awful and that he can't really play. And I'm thinking, what was that

move all about? To give up on a young draft pick. By the way, they've gone from 10 draft picks the Leafs to now down to 6 or 7. So, if my philosophy works out right, they don't win the cup. Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but we'll see. Anyway, they don't win the cup maybe i'll be proven wrong but we'll see anyway i i don't get that move and i i'm not augustus and fan so and i'm not a certainly

not a fan of kerfoot on the first line i mean third line maybe but not the first line neilander lafferty and yarn crock had a good game against New Jersey. It looks like they're slotted as the second line, which leaves Bunting and Tavares floating a little bit here. Would Tavares have his nose? Don't tell me that's the second line. That's a makeshift second line. That's got to be the third line you just named.

Seriously. No, it looks like ithift second line. That's got to be the third line you just named. Seriously. No, it looks like it's the second line. Yeah, well, it's the second line with a number, but it's not a second line. I know you're a big Lafferty fan for whatever reason, but it's not a second line story. Would Tavares have some issues here if he gets bounced around a little bit?

You know what I mean? Guys have pride. I mean, I watched his numbers, you know, when O'Reilly came in and he drops down like, what, four minutes a game almost? I mean, do you think that doesn't piss him off? I got to believe it does. I mean, you know, he's an $11 million player, and he's already behind Matthews

and Marner for me anyway, but, you know, to drop down that kind of minutes, I wouldn't think he'd be very happy about it. And you know what? He's been a good player for the Leafs, the Bears. Say what you want. He's been a good player for them. So, yeah, he wouldn't be happy. I mean, I know he's a team guy, but a team guy ends when your ice time drops four or five minutes. If it goes up four or five minutes, you become a better team guy. Yeah, that simple. So the immediate opposition for the Maple Leafs is the Tampa Bay Lightning, who have three wins in their last 10 games. They're punching everyone in the face.

It's kind of a different look lately out of the Bolts. What are your thoughts on, I don't know, they're reeling a little bit. The brawlers. Yeah. Well, I told you last week I was nervous about their goaltending because it has not been very good. It really hasn't. Everybody's raving about Cooper benching his superstars.

I've never seen that that works very often for very long. Don't think that Kucherov and Point and Stamkos would not be pissed off about that. You know, things aren't rosy there right now. It's the same as things aren't rosy in Colorado. So what gives with these teams? I mean, they've got a short period of time to get ready

to go to a whole other level at playoff time, so you don't like to be reeling this time of year, no doubt about it. It doesn't really matter anyways for Tampa or even Toronto because I'm watching Sportsnet last night and everybody had the Edmonton Oilers versus the Boston Bruins

for the Stanley Cup final. Oh, my God. I sent that tweet out last night. It was, like, unbelievable. I said, could this be a possible Stanley Cup final? But interesting. Who do you pick in the West? Like, I look at L.A. Kings.

L.A. Kings are a pretty good hockey team right now. I see Deneau get to 17th and 18th of the year last year, a valuable guy that went from Montreal there. They're a pretty good team right now. I see Deneau get to 17th and 18th of the year last year, a valuable guy that went from Montreal there. They're a pretty good team right now. Gabrikov's playing well on the blue line for them. I mean, Corpusalo's giving them some good goaltending.

By the way, I pulled a fast one on Rimmer yesterday. Jeff Rimmer? I sent a note and I said, Jeff, even Bruce doesn't want to play in Columbus. And he phones me and says, Bruce, what do you mean? Who? Who?

Bruce who? Bruce who? I said, Bruce Springsteen canceled his concert last night at Nationwide Arena because he was sick. Oh, he was so upset about that. But anyway, that's, you know. COVID, I think. I don't know what it was, but he canceled in Columbus. was sick. Oh, he was so upset about that. But anyway, that's, you know, things are bad. I don't know what it was, but he canceled in Columbus, and I thought,

oh my God, even he doesn't want to go there. But, I mean, look, got to fix that real fast, because they're going to get Bedard, and that's my prediction, Bedard to Columbus, and then things will take off. Just watching last night, and I'm watching Ekholm hammer a few guys on the blue line, and could one guy make that big of a difference, Mac, for Edmonton?

Because last night I'm envisioning Edmonton playing that game without him, and, man, he was that big of a difference maker for me. I think it was a great move. And, look, he's always been a real good player in Nashville. And Kenny has desperately needed that component. I had heard he was in the Chickren sweepstakes, and I thought, okay, that would be good as well. But, I mean, to pick up Ekholm at this time

of year, to go with the young blue liners he's got there, I think it's a really good move for them. And yeah, it made a difference to their team. Their team played a tighter, defensive game. I mean, they were good throughout that game. I don't know, get down to a 2-0 lead, but they shut the neutral zone down really

well last night. They were checking well. They were responsible. Skinner started off slow and comes back with a good, solid performance to end the game. So, hey, I look at the West, and I'm thinking, okay, L.A. is playing pretty good. Colorado's up and down. Edmonton's got the talent.

How do you look by Edmonton? I know their goaltending is a major question mark. I get that. But who else in the West are you going to pick to come out of the West? Seriously. When I look at it, there's not much to pick from, is there? No. No, it's Edmonton and Colorado for me.

Minnesota's on a roll here. They ate 0-2 in the last 10, but they don't score. Yeah, they don't, but you're right on that. That's a 13, but I'm thinking this is a pretty thin group. I'm thinking watching Boston and them last night, wow. Who knows how far

Boston's going, but they look pretty good and pretty deep, although I love Montgomery's comments. We were totally outplayed. We were totally out-checked. we're totally this and totally that i'm like what you've only lost three games in regulation relax for god's sake oh my god i couldn't believe that what goes on with these guys you know relax you've lost three games in regulation all year do you worry about their goalies at all having no experience? Allmark has two playoff games, both losses in his career.

Well, I mean, I said that about Jack Campbell when he came to Toronto, so I guess I have to say it about Linus. But, I mean, I'm shocked at how good that goaltending has been. I would have thought that was a concern. Allmark has been wiped out all year Hardly has had a bad game. So it's hard to go against them. But the experience is something you can't look past. I looked at it with Jack Campbell a couple of years ago.

We've said it about Freddie Anderson for years, although he's had some good experience but always could hurt. So, you know, there's big tests all over the league when it comes to that. Big, big tests on goaltending. Listen, Toronto, tomorrow night, Toronto and Edmonton, similar scenarios with unproven goaltenders this time of year. And I didn't like the first two goals Skinner let in last night, and it could have been down 3-0 if it wasn't for an offside by a whisker.

Yeah. But he did bounce back. He showed up when the game was still on the line. And he's done that a lot for them this year. He's bounced back a lot. I mean, from taking the number one job, then Campbell gets a little bit hot. I mean, that's just still a big question mark. But if you're looking at them in L.A., there's still a question mark with that.

Marc-Andre Fleury in Minnesota, you've got to say there's a question mark there as well. He's been up and down in his last number of years, and especially at playoff time. So there's questions on the West, on the goaltending, all the way around. And then you say Boston's inexperienced. You know, Vasilevsky looks like the best of anybody still. And then you go to Carolina and you say, what about their goaltending? They're just not 100% sure about their goaltending.

Jersey, are you sure about their goaltending? I mean, it's all around. I love Jersey's team with 11 draft picks on it, by the way. And I love how they play and I love the speed they play, but their goaltending is a question mark as well. How big was Ottawa's win last night against Seattle? Yeah, it was a huge win. And now, you know, now they've got to go with the two kids in goal

essentially for the rest of the season. And, you know, they're lucky that their core group... I'll tell you what. This Stutzel is something else. I saw Mark Mathot make a comment the other day. Mark, by the way, a draft pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets. A six-round pick, a great player

and a great kid. Makes a comment he'd rather have Stutzel than Matthews. Oh my god. Did he get hammered by Leaf fans? But you know what? Stutzel's turned out. We talked about him the other day. Stutzel and Kachuk, you talk about two great, great, young, talented players.

I mean, really. It's hard to believe how good they've become and how important they've become. And that group of players, you know, now if they just do as I told you, put Red Kelly Jr. up on the wing, they'd be better. Oh, we know what that means now. No, but they're, you know what, Ottawa's a fun team to watch, Nick. They really are. They're a fun team to watch.

And you know what, I hope the kids can, you know, keep them in the mix. And then I look at what about Pittsburgh? I was texting with Berkey last night before the game, and I thought, oh, man, you need a win tonight. And then they lose it in overtime, blow a 3-1 lead. So there's so many teams around the league that are just giving it up at the wrong times, you know? All right, well, listen, I thought your golf game has improved so much

I'd actually see you on TV playing in the players right now. You know what? you know? All right. Well, listen, I thought your golf game has improved so much. I'd actually see you on TV playing in the players right now. You know what? I, I had an 81 on Sunday and I, and I made $4. Is that gas money for the RV? No,

no gas money. It's away right now. Anyway, lots of fun. No, it's good. It's so nice talking to you guys. And again, I really appreciate the relationship building.

Us too. It's the camaraderie among friends that means so much to us, Doug. You read that Harvard study. It's really, really important. It's really important in your retirement year. So I appreciate you guys having me on. Well, listen, it seems to be working for you. Not us at times during this segment, but it's working for you. And you know what?

Howard Berger was right, by the way. You cave to the Leafs. You cave. Like the rest of the Toronto media, you cave. All right. Good way to leave the segment doug mclean former nhl president gm head coach and uh ball buster yeah i'd say there's a lot of leaves fans out there who disagree with doug that you've caved i don't know if uh yeah if howard kind of read my article correctly listen i wasn't saying that

austin's the second best player in the world now. We've had this conversation all season long. He needs to get back to that place. When he is at the top of his game, it's him and McDavid, is it not? He just won all the trophies. I don't think it's ridiculous to imply he's in the handful of people. Kipper, Berger must be just a reader and not a listener. Because if he listened to the show I don't know

He's the second best player on the team Howard did imply that whoever hired me at the Toronto Star should get a raise Howard's in my good books I think we should all just get a raise Just a quick Players Championship update if I may

It's getting spicy. The leader was Chad Ramey at one point. I never heard of him. Made a quad on 17. Hold on, hold on. Before you go on, when we looked up at the board and he was at minus 9, do you remember what I told you?

Minus 10. Do you remember what I told you? Yeah, he said it wasn't going to last long. And what's he at now? He's plus 3 on the day. He made a quad on 17. So, yeah. You know, you start to get towards the weekend

and you see yourself three up on real big names. The pressure, eh? He's acting like an NHL goalie. But the most exciting part of this now is Adam Svensson, good Canadian boy, has now vaulted himself into second place here. He's at seven under. And Adam Hadwin has a kickin to go to four under so and uh taylor pendrith also floating around at four under so lots of canadian content at the players championship this weekend could be a lot of

fun for canadian golf and you know a lot like the carter effect for basketball in canada this is the weir effect in canada with all these good canadian players so it's exciting christian whatever his name is your back channel way of promoting your golf program. No, I didn't even mention it. Golf Guys. Yeah, Golf Guys. Saturday mornings at 8am. 9am. But it doesn't start until the Masters

officially, but me and Gunnar are going to do a pod on Monday and if it's a Canadian that wins the Players Championship, it'll be a rather fun live reaction pod. That's an excellent plug. Thank you. i wasn't even trying to just i'm pretty excited for you thanks bud appreciate it anyways we should go we're gonna take a quick break bob stopper host of oilers now they come in hot red hot is that not a good thing for the leafs whatever be fun though it's not a be all end all game it's great

it's great they need to play good teams they need to see what they got here promise me if uh sammy if edmonton does have their way with the leaf saturday night you're not going to come in monday morning with your your like tongue dragging i'll be fine people love the podcast when the leaves disappoint them yeah it's we get like double the viewers what should i be mad at right. We got Bob coming up after the break. Hey, listen, if you're enjoying it, give us a rating and review. We'd love to hear from you. Hit the like button for us on a Friday off the rails. We're back after these words.

Real Kipper and Born. conversations covering the Leafs, Jays, Raptors, and the NFL. The J.D. Bunkins Podcast. 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. Hockey Night in Canada. Must watch TV Saturday as the edmonton oilers come to town to play against the toronto maple leafs now joining us bob stoffer host of oilers now does a terrific job as a panelist on the nhl on rogers regional broadcast stop are you just gonna just take the rest of the season off and then just join up the Oilers when they play in the final

against the Boston Bruins? Is that the game plan? Nick, I think you might be getting a little ahead of yourself. Oh, no, no, no. I watched Sportsnet last night. It's a done deal. Well, you know what? Sometimes the best laid plans,

you know how that works. I mean, if you had told me last year in game two against Calgary, when it was 3-1 for the Flames after they'd won 9-6 in game one, that Edmonton was going to win four straight games, I would have told you I had some slum land in Alberta, in northern Alberta, where it's about minus 23 right now. So anything can happen, you know. Like, you know, you guys are sitting here in Maple Leaf country.

You guys are in the pool of death. Like, you got a tough division to run the gauntlet. Your general manager went up. He made significant, I think, significant additions and stepped up. But at the end of the day, if the other team gets better goaltending or you have a couple guys having out-of-this-world experience like Connor and Leon did against Calgary last year, anything can happen.

It was a good win in Boston. It was a good win because, number one, the way Skinner bounced back from just a real tough first period. I love the medal that he showed. Your listeners get that. Character isn't defined by what you do when things are going good.

It's how you handle adversity. And he had some adversity last night against a good team. The guy is the proverbial, you know, cool as a cucumber. His teammates love him. You know, Connor told us after the game, he's not surprised. And this guy is a drafted. I saw this guy play when he was 13 with the Southside Athletic Club, which is the same team I played for 35 years earlier.

So, you know, they've got, I don't know if they got, you know, a stone cold more to walk. Number one goaltender, top five in the league. But they got a guy that they believe in right now. They got to get Jack Campbell going right. Their defense is vastly improved. And they do have the top dogs, but they have way better support scoring this year than they've had in the past. Way better support scoring, and they get Matthias Ekholm at the deadline, which seems to slot all the D into better positions.

What has the addition of Ekholm done for the chances of this Oilers group? Well, it's done a lot, and Justin was a hard trade to make. Like, you know, Ken Holland has not been a guy that's been super active at the trade deadline. His last, I looked at it, his last big-time move that he made was getting Brad Stewart back in 08. The last three years in Detroit, he sold players off. The year before that, they did nothing.

At the deadline, the last year they were in the playoffs, the first three years in Edmonton, he made smaller moves. But Nick will appreciate, the Oilers had a prospect named Reed Schaefer. He's probably the closest player to Tanner Janela to the Western League in the last 15 years. That was a big player to lose.

I think the Oilers stole a guy there late in the draft. I think he's going to play. I know he didn't kill it in the World Juniors. Not his game. And they gave up a number one. And Barry was a very popular player. But Eckholm was the right player for Edmonton. He just changes.

When they put Atcom and D'Arnais in the first PK unit, now Darnell and Cody Ceasar are in the second PK unit instead of being in the first unit. It eases the workload on Darnell. Darnell can play with a little bit more edge because he's got another guy that can play 20-plus minutes on defense. And so Darnell can keep a couple guys a little bit more honest out on the ice. He's totally settled down Evan Bouchard,

who's going to be a real good offensive defenseman. So you nailed it, Justin. It just slotted everybody in the perfect spot. So you slot everybody in a perfect slot. You go into Boston. You do something that they've rarely done before, and that's lose, and they haven't done it, giving up a first goal or going into the third with a lead. And I'm just wondering now, not that you overplay one game, Stoff,

but where does this stand, this win against Boston, the way they did it, in terms of, I don't know what the right word is, validating this team as a contender as far as an emotional win? Where would last night have ranked over the last few years? Well, Jay, the Oilers developed a coach, Nick, out of Toronto guy, Jay Woodcroft, and he's had to fight for everything that he's ever got. He got promoted last year on February 10th. Edmonton has the best winning percentage in the Western Conference

since Jay Woodcroft took over as coach. That's last year in February. Since Christmas, the Oilers are 18-7 and 6. That's the best record of any Western Conference team. So they've actually been playing pretty well. They've cut the goals against down. Their power playing goals speak for themselves.

I mean, since Jay's been the coach, they've been the leading scoring team in the NHL. They've vastly improved 5-5 play. But last night was a big deal. Like, it was. I mean, Boston's a good team. For whatever reason, the Oilers win there. They've won six of their last seven games in Boston.

I think what happens is Boston opens it up a bit more at home, and the Oilers just go out and play. And when Edmonton plays at home against Boston, because the Bruins have won a bunch of games at Edmonton, the Oilers try to entertain, and Boston displays that mature, smart game and waits for the Oilers to make mistakes, and then they execute on them. So, it

was a big game, but guess what? Tomorrow is a big game, too. There's a lot of Ontario kids on the team. They're not kids. They're men. You know, Connor hasn't played in front of fans here in Toronto since he undressed Morgan Riley back, I think it was January 6th of 2020.

This is going to be a big night. It's going to be a fun night, and Toronto's got a real good team. They're way better at home, and the Leafs, you know, they're a good home team. The Oilers are actually a really good road team. Edmonton's 20-10-3 this year in the road. They're a team 4-3 in their last 20. We're all looking forward to it.

God, hockey's fun sometimes. Finally, this is a great Saturday night matchup. We are, as I mentioned mentioned we're excited about it when you know considering the the division that they're in and the conference that they're in i think the oilers are the best team in the west colorado can make that case when they're healthy but right now the oilers are in this in the first wild card slot you know a step behind seattle la vegas but only four points out of the division lead. How important is it for Edmonton to get to the top of this group by the time playoffs start?

Well, Justin, I think Edmonton can get there because they've got a substantially easier schedule for about their final 12 or 13 games, and the Oilers totally in the last three years have been a second-half team. So, you know, they're running the gauntlet of an eight-game stretch where they've got Winnipeg, you know, a couple weeks out, were playing pretty good hockey. You know, they got Winnipeg twice, the Leafs twice, and Boston twice.

So they beat Boston. They beat on the road, you know, when the Bruins hadn't squandered a lead, third-period lead all season. They handled Toronto probably easier than any other time in a matchup between the two teams over the last, like Toronto was 9-0-1 in Edmonton. Yeah. Like, own them, own them, right?

And the Oilers were way better than the Leafs that night. And it was, and the level, here's another thing for you guys, the level of engagement from the Oilers players in that game against Toronto. Back home had come in. Yeah, Tyson Berry was a popular guy, but I think the players showed their appreciation for what the manager did. David and Drysaddle

spearheaded at the start. They had ratcheted up the intensity, and it culminated with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins sticking up for Kyler Yamamoto and working over Justin Hull. They were engaged. So, you know, they had a tough eight-game stretch. They pulled some wins out of here.

And I actually think Evanville will come in first and second in the Pacific Division. I don't know if they'll end up top spot. I do think it's important to at least get home ice for the first round. So the decision not to play Jack Campbell against the Leafs last week, the decision not to play him tomorrow night, a handful of games coming up in the next couple of weeks. Where is there opportunities for this guy to feel good about himself going into a Stanley Cup situation where if Skinner falters,

he's got to jump in? You know, it's funny with goalies because to me goalies, unless you have one of the top three or four guys, they're like relief pitchers. You know what I mean? They have a good run, and then they don't, unless you've got Rivera. So Vazileski, Shisterkin, we're talking about different caliber guys. I don't think it's set in stone that Skinner's the guy for the playoffs.

If Stewart has two or three poor starts in a row, Jack's going to get his opportunity. It's been a difficult year. They made him change his equipment a bit, modernize on that front. I don't think there's quite the same pressure at Edmonton as there is in Toronto, but he signed a big ticket.

And Skinner is the most poised. You guys both played. Goaltenders at times can be unique personalities. Stewart Skinner's the antithesis of this. He's 24 going on 29. He's just a mature, calm, relaxed, easygoing guy. And his teammates, they've watched this evolution from, we had people in the organization three or four years ago

that didn't think this guy could play in the NHL. You know, the pandemic here was huge, that 2021 season. Because he got a taste of the NHL being around Mike Smith and Koskinen, you know, a 39- and 33-year-old goaltender. And then he went down, and the Pacific Division was the only American League division that had a playoff, and Bakersfield won that. They beat Logan Thompson and Vegas' farm team in Henderson that year.

So he's just taking quantum leaps, but it's the poise. I don't like goaltenders that are frenetic and are up and down. I like guys that are consistent. It's just ironic. It's hard to

believe because they've been so poor. To put things in perspective in drafting, they have not drafted. The Leafs have the only player that the Oilers have drafted in the last 20 years after round one that's had a 60-point season in the NHL. You know who that is? No.

Eric Gustafson. He's offensive. They haven't drafted one forward. Stu McGregor was my head coach in Edmonton. He ran the draft. And I bring this up because lots of teams miss on goalies. There's people that say, don't draft goalies. Just go and sign them.

But this is the exception. An Edmonton area product that they drafted, developed, and to a large extent, in spite of the brilliance of Conor McDavid, we haven't even talked about that, to a large extent, Skinner has been the guy that's kind of salvaged things for Edmonton because Jack Campbell right now, if you go to moneypuck.com,

is 93rd out of 95 goaltenders in expected goals, you know, in terms of goals saved above expectation. 93rd of 95 minus 20. Some people think between 9 to 11 points this year with his start. That's what's been cost. Oilers would be, you know, if they'd had average goaltending. Now, don't get me wrong. Jack's pulled the Oilers out in a couple games.

But Skinner's played a huge part in a modicum, and I use the word modicum of success that Emerson's had this year. We're looking forward to a great night, Stoff. Thanks for doing this, man. Really appreciate your time. Hey, awesome, guys. Take care. Enjoy the game. Thanks, Stoff. Appreciate it. Bob Soffer, host of

Oilers Now. Everybody's gearing up for tomorrow night. Should be a dandy yeah yeah so it's an interesting oilers team well the one thing that stood out for me last night beating the boston bruins is they didn't need connor mcdavid or dry saddle to carry the offense like they found a way to win without those guys lighting it up going down and without those guys lighting it up they get a win in boston it's very impressive but i do you know they're they're deeper now with cane since the pickup of cane they have an extra bit of grit and scoring

hyman taking a step nugent hopkins having a career year like it's all kind of firing at the right time now are cody cc and evan bouchard and brett kulak and vinnie deharnais you know like are those guys going to be i don't know awesome indeed you're just rolling the dice right but maybe it doesn't matter in the west as much you know you finish first in that uh but it the vision just a matter of some guys if they can handle the pressure too like you can look at it and say it's wide open but you know evan bouchard a young player tremendous upside he's the man now might be a turnover in there where you're like right so it's like hey evan i'm not sure if you're quite ready for this but we need you to help win us the stanley

cup right now but again it's not like they're playing boston and tampa or the rangers or the devils or the whatever it's going to be seattle or the kings or you know like it's not that those are bad teams but they're not the game last night yeah i thought skinner's two goals were horrible. Awful. The one at the end of the period was like just a killer. Horrible goal. Horrible goal. Second left.

And he already screwed it up behind the net. Yeah. He passed it to the front of the net. You got to be so pissed on the bench. He picked it off. Yeah. That was vile. And then I'm watching the game winning goal on Swayman from Darnell.

The one they shot there was crest. And I'm like, you could show me that on replay a hundred times, and a hundred times I can't figure out how that got through him. No. Yeah, it's like someone swallowing a sword. I'm like, what's the science on that? Can a puck go through your chest? I don't understand the technicalities.

But it's in the net. So, do you guys done with the Oilers? I got a couple things I want to bring up with you. Yeah, I think so. Sure. So, last night, I was quite interested because Eric Comrie gave

up 10 goals. All 10? All 10. So, I was interested in how many goalies had actually surrendered 10 goals in the history of the NHL. So I asked our wonderful stat department, how many goalies do you think in the history of the NHL have given up 10 goals? Oh, God, 100? I feel like it happened all the time.

I think it might be under 50. You're getting pulled. You're not lasting. Wrong. 123 goalies have allowed 10 or more goals in a game. Okay. All right. Ken McCauley had 11 games where he allowed 10 goals.

Oh, come on. Yeah, man. What a record that is. Ken McCauley. And I mean, his pictures on Google are black and white. What year? What year? I mean, he played, like, I don't know, his hockey DB.

He played for a team called like the Wanderers or the Millionaires. He played for the Rangers from 43 and 44 and 44 and 45. See, I'm going to give him a pass. He was using, you know, a chunk of redwood for a stick. Howard Lockhart did it seven times and the guy, the trophy

for the best goalie is named after George Vesna gave up 10 goals six times see eric comrie can go listen george vesna did this six times own sound legend i had to bring it up harry lumley the rink is named after him he was my next door neighbor he gave up 10 five times he was your next door neighbor yes he was how small is owen sound seven people no no no he's my next neighbor for a long time and greg millen gave up it was five times he did 10 goals and in the last row mills he under the bus he's on the list and in the last 25 years there's been so since 97 98 there have been five goalies to allow 10 goals in a game eric comry last night jonas jonah uh the guy from colorado

jonathan yeah johansson he gave al montoya steve valicat oh valley gave up valley gave up 10 and 0809 and billy ranford in 98 we gotta get valley back on oh yeah we'll get valley back on there you go okay we're gonna get to uh some some texts and tweets but we gotta pick lines well first i want to i got stats for you okay give us tampa bay stats so i wrote an article today on sportsnet.ca about how much should the toronto maple leafs engage with tampa's physical nature in the playoffs because tampa's gonna try to drag them into the alley and i was thinking about it they really yes they are so i was thinking about it. Are they really? Yes, they are. So I was thinking about it.

I was like that. Or just a few guys. Well, I don't know. So I thought, boy, that team, gritty, physical. They seem to do this a lot. So I started looking into it. First in the NHL in PIMS per game this year, the Tampa Bay Light. First in the NHL with 12 minutes and 10 seconds of penalties per game.

So I looked into it with this group. You know what they finished last year? First in the NHL in PIMS. Going back 11 years, they were first nine times and second twice. Never outside of the top two in PIMS while John Cooper has been the coach. Who's been the culprit? Because Corey Perry hasn't been there that long. So Cooper's got to be a part of it.

He must like some of this um our stars take penalties there's a ton of penalties he's a greasy you know what you have to go back to hold on you have to go back to 2005 for them to be out of the top five in pims in tampa bay weird isn't that bizarre who has been leading them in penalty minutes i don't know all these years so last year what's headman's pms give me give me headman's pms it's only going up over the last six years their their pims are 10 23 10 40 11 11 16 11 30 10 12 10 i find this fascinating gritty gritty and so this year they go all the way in. The only reason they finished second last year, they were two seconds behind Nashville because Tanner Janot led the league in majors.

So who'd they get this year? Tanner Janot. They want to be the muckiest, grimiest, grittiest team in hockey. We're going back to Stevie Eisenman days. And like, it's been a consistent thing. Yes. So this year, Pat Maroon the way with for them with 105 cory perry 76 ian cole sergachev bogosian eric turner these guys they're just all sergachev is

greasy bogosian is greasy yeah it's a greasy team so turn that taggle if you're the toronto maple leafs and you picked up achari and and Lafferty and McCabe and Shen, how much do you, how much attention do you give to those guys who become more relevant when you give them attention? I think the answer is clear because you went out and got those guys. You didn't get them to turn the other cheek, but it just feels like that's a game you're gonna lose against tampa

bay i think the difference between i'm just gonna pick on angvall because angvall got benched last night because he played eight minutes for the isles by the way i'm just gonna pick on him yeah he's gonna go away when he gets pressed like that he did they chirped him all playoffs last year because he wouldn't fight haggle he's gonna go away and the guys they brought in aren't necessarily gonna engage and you know i don't think they're big fighters lafferty and you know and shanwell He's going to go away. And the guys they brought in aren't necessarily going to engage. And I don't think they're big fighters, Lafferty and Shan. Well, Shan will drop them, but I don't think he's necessarily a brawler. But I don't think they're going to go away when these guys are leaning on him.

No, they're not going to turn the other cheek. That's what I mean. They're not. But there has to be enough of a thought process that says, we don't need to go toe to toe with them every time. We can pick our spots and then we're going to have to hope like hell that we are leading a charge enough where the officials can read that they're trying to engage us. They're trying to hold us back from playing the game. And you get the calls that you're hoping to get. And you kill them on the power play.

That's the problem though, right? Is that's the answer. Is that you have to make them pay for that style of game. And the Leafs haven't shown that they can do that you know that's it to me a big question here so i mentioned in the article uh when i was in junior hockey our coach would write up you know we're playing a playoff series against this team circle a couple of guys and say every time we're on the ice with them we're in their ear and say we're coming for you every shift and then there's guys that you just ignore and that would be perry and maroon and belmar and whatever you don't even acknowledge them but you can't not

acknowledge a guy who's punching you in the face the way matthews did charotte or you know sadin did marchand you have to acknowledge it so i think that's a big test for the leafs is how much is stay focused and play hockey versus not getting pushed around fighting back yet? So one thing that I didn't have in my article this week on, on things to do in the next 18 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs is get in a couple of brawls, get in a couple of five on fives, muck it up,

like learn, learn how to just play the game a little bit without taking yourself out of your lane or your rhythm but work on it you remember that get a little greasy saturday night if if need be that game last night tampa's down three to one with six minutes and 40 seconds to go they have a five on five brawl it doesn't become all about that they stay in the fight they pull their goalie they score twice on the power play they tie the game up you know like tampa can play within the confines of that emotion and the leafs haven't shown that they are able to yet so anyway that's something i'm watching luke shen in front of the net couple cross checks and then a scrum we had that look last week in calgary yeah

yeah it's uh it's there for them maybe maybe they'll find it a bit down the down the stretch okay i'm dying for a brawl well just listen i'll i'll punch you after the show not that kind of brawl volunteer as well i just i like i watched the highlights that game last night And there's just few things that Make me feel Excited about all the guys just getting really mad And all the gloves coming off It's actually funny because

Perry's trying to fight someone And someone's trying to grab Perry And Bogosian's trying to grab the guy off Perry That was great It really was a good dust up You like the juice I like the juice. Okay, you want to pick lines and see if you can...

I just feel like we're going to waste time preparing this. Oh, we didn't prepare? Oh, you did prepare. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. We're good. Hey, I'm a professional. Air quotes.

Derek, you got any bingo- bango sounds for us i'm evolving bingo bango i'm picking three is that zisboomba love it go ahead all right i'm picking the first three names here the first three numbers we got 52 we got 29 oh. Who's that? And we got 16. Oh, my God. So we got Achari Lafferty Marner. Yes. No, it's 29.

29? Or 29 is Holmberg. Holmberg. Okay, Achari Holmberg Marner. You got Holmberg in there. Oops. I'm coming up with something way better than that. Do you put him back in?

Oh, yeah. I'm going next. Oh, yeah. I'm going next. Oh, okay. I'm picking a line now. Okay. Oh, my God. You say them all right. Who's the first guy I picked?

16. Oh, Flex Seal. Flex Seal. I cannot believe. Alex DeFurfoot? I got him now. Number one left winger. All right.

Okay. I'm not going that guy. Okay. He literally winger. All right. Okay. I'm not going that guy. Okay. He literally put a name back in. No. That ruins the exercise. All right. With Kerf.

Oh, my God. 16. We got Mitchie. Oh, my God. Mitchie's playing with Kerf on his top line. Oh, my God. And Bunce. My line's better than yours.

For sure. You got to play Bunce on the wing, better than yours. For sure. You got to play Bunce on the wing, Kerfoot in the middle, and Marner on right then. Okay, go one more time. Okay. Give me these three. I grabbed three.

All right. I got Kampf. I got Matthews, and I got Achari. Oh, that sucks. Matthews, Achari. We found a winner yet.

That's the worst line you can put together in the Leafs. Oh, my gosh. I got a charmer. We found a winner yet. That's the worst line you can put together in the Leafs. Oh, my gosh. I got Tavares. I got Simmons. And I got Yarncroft. All right, this exercise is over. Yeah, guess what, guys?

Keefe's better than this. No, no. Keefe's not that far off to this. This is ultimately what the coaches are doing in the morning. You had Tavares, Simmons, and who? Yarncroft. Yarncroft. Oh, I like it. I like it.

By the way, is Simmons in the mix or is he not in the mix? Great question. I think he's just there getting some reps. I get the fact that he doesn't want to play for the Marlies. It's just a pride thing, I'm sure. It's in the city. I don't understand why he wouldn't play a few games just to try to stay sharp.

Well, I think he would. Oh, with the Marlies. Yeah. Has he ever played in the American League? I don't know. That's a good question. I'm looking up. That's a pretty, that's a, you know.

Is that the reason why you're not playing for the Marlies? Just to stay sharp? Like, if the team needs you and you need to go in, don't you want to play a few games? I actually was thinking. He has never played a game in the AHL. I was thinking if it came down to like last game where they got to have Holmberg and Steve's, like give me Simmons instead of Steve's.

Like just give me something. I'm okay with Simmons needing to come back in. I just don't understand how he can sit for two weeks and just shoot pucks in practice every day yeah two months yeah and and play once every two and a half three weeks and not be in the rhythm of a hockey game yeah yeah it's not easy i wouldn't envy that position when's the last time he played why would they not press him to play? Two, three weeks ago.

Not that long ago. Hey, listen, we may need you in the playoffs. Can you go play a few games and just stay sharp? Yeah, the last time he played was February 1st. It's a good point. It's a good point. You know, like if... It's not like we're asking you to go to St. John's.

Yeah. Well, Utica's not great. Across the street. You're right. If there's a home game here and you can just go across the hall and... Yeah. Well, Utica's not great. Across the street. If there's a home game here and you can just go across the hall. Yeah. You don't want to go play in Lake Erie Monsters or something. You know what?

If I were Simmons, I don't know if I'd have a hard time being like, I'm like 14 years into my career or something. I feel the same way. Listen, I get that, but you're all trying to win a Stanley Cup here. Can you check the egos at the door here? Yeah. No, listen, your point resonates with me because a lot of times I think we do too much tiptoeing around egos.

Like, it's your hockey player, you're part of the team, then be in shape in case we need you. But. Wayne, if you win the Stanley Cup this year, no one's going to remember the three games you played for the Marlies. In fact, they may say, look at this guy's commitment to being a champion. There you go. Okay, what do we got?

Not a whole lot, if I'm being honest. Okay, let's just sit here for the next 12 minutes and watch the golf. No, I got one for you. Ramey made another bogey. No, this is not live. This is now a replay because they blew the horn. Okay. They blew the horn. Unlive. a replay because they blew the horn. Okay. They blew the horn.

On live. On live. They blew the horn. Unfortunately, Adam Svensson had just made another birdie to go to minus eight. Wow. He was red hot. And they blew the horn. So his momentum.

On what? Darkness? What's going on? No, no. Bad weather. Big storm coming in. The play is completely suspended today. Oh, good.

They're not starting until tomorrow morning. Why should we be in bad weather and them not? It's still snowing, eh? Good Lord. Alright. This is an interesting question from Warrior Womp, who is a contributor to our show on YouTube. Yeah, 100%.

Tavares, Gio, and O'Reilly were all captains on their former teams and came to play for Toronto. My question is, towards the end of his career, would Stamkos ever consider putting on a Maple Leafs jersey? It's a good question. I'm taking no.

I feel like the rivalry has been too direct. The decision not to come here was already made once. I feel like, I don't know, that's a big slap in the face to your one team your whole life playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Don't you think? I'm't know. That's a big slap in the face to your, you know, one team your whole life playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Don't you think? I'm with you. I don't see ever a scenario where Stamkos is coming.

And if he is, then it falls into that same routine of getting great players at the end of their careers. Just want to do it to do it. Well, it's just like a looking for retirement jobs yeah oh i see within the organization i don't know if that's necessarily the case but just something convenient and you know makes your family happy and it's just it is funny like the opportunity was there for stamp coast to be to be a Toronto Maple Leaf prior to Tavares. He said, no, thank you.

And that's where it stands. And he will retire at Tampa Bay Lightning. Yeah, he's a one-team guy to me. But it is interesting. Like, if Muzzin is hurt-hurt and can never play again, he'll probably end up in the organization in some capacity. If he chooses. You know?

And Spezza has done that as well. Yeah, I know. But you're only as comfortable as the people that have brought you in. And if by chance, you know, Kyle Dubas isn't there anymore. Right. All bets are off on a lot of people in the staff.

True. Ex-players or analytic departments. Everybody's on the line here in the staff and true ex-players or analytic departments everybody's on the line here in the first round a lot of livelihoods and paychecks hanging on the balance of an outcome here's one for you this is a good question what's up sammy and boys i guess you guys are the boys got a great two-part question for you wow he, he's really pumping it up. We'll decide how great it is, pal. Compared to last year, would you say the Leafs are worse, the same, or better? And what about Tampa? Question mark.

Great question. What do you think, boys? I'm going to take the Tampa side because I wrote about it today. They're worse. Okay, and I'll take better for the Leafs. Okay. The Tampa Bay Lightning have not been outside of the top 10 in any goals for or goals against category for five years. They're 15th in goals against in the NHL right now.

Like, they're porous. They're giving up goals like crazy. That has not been the case with that decor in the past. As far as the Toronto Maple Leafs, we just go back to last week and the players that they brought in, legitimate. There's no tryout feel for La there's no there's no tryout feel

for lafferty there's no tryout feel for achari they're proven uh depth guys they they're battlers they give you a playoff feel and look and that's something that uh i think's been missing the last few years the only thing i would say there is just that the leafs best not best only their best players but two of them matthews and riley were kind of waiting on right like they had better seasons last year we felt better about where they were at so need them to kind of come around a little bit so this is a great question with the oilers in tomorrow then one that'll sure to piss off oiler fans i know this has probably been asked a thousand times but will mcdavid come to toronto

and that's from colin and barry i gotta see i gotta believe not but if he you know if things don't go well in edmonton for long enough and he ever wanted to go somewhere The Oilers are only a couple of years away from that feel that Leaf Nation has now with Matthews and Nylander and Marner after, I think, two years. And that is what's going to happen on new deals for McDavid and Dreisaitl. And it's not that far off. on new deals for McDavid and Dreisaitl. And it's not that far off. Dreisaitl is, I think, a year behind Matthews. So Matthews gets to renegotiate and potentially sign an extension in July. Dreisaitl comes a year later.

But we're talking, guys, 15-plus million for both of them. And here's something to keep in mind. That there was a projection of a salary cap going up in the foreseeable future. But there's a little bit of a hiccup going on with regional television and as many as a dozen, 13 teams that are really affected. It won't affect the salary cap next year, but in two years, this hiccup with that bally regional sports network can come back and really throw a wrench

into where the salary caps is in year two three or four from now yeah which which which affects which affects mcdavid dry sidle matthews all of them but with the oilers and mcdavid if the salary cap were 84 million or 94 million they would give him 20 of that in a heartbeat just to make sure he stays you know you can't be the team that gets rid of he doesn't want that but he doesn't want that because if it costs you dry sidle yeah why do i want to stay and carry that burden by myself yeah yeah i you know i don't i don't think he harbors some secret desire to do it or anything but all i know is i saw his face when edmonton won the draft lottery and he knew how in the mix toronto was that man's dream is to play for the toronto maples leaf Leafs show. There's your red meat,

folks. Listen, you can say, hey, you can come out to me while there's Twitter. It's his dream. It's always been his dream. And I don't know where he stands on if he feels like he's okay being the best player on the planet and not really getting the same

international love as other top athletes of their sport. I can't think of someone who wants attention less than McDavid. Then maybe he stays in Edmonton. But as far as the league's concerned, Edmonton's not a great place to have the best player on the planet. And the Wayne Gretzky factor was that, you know, you're not getting as much love being an Edmonton Oiler as you ever did

with the LA King and that trickle effect in the U.S. You got a cartoon and a cereal. And I don't know, where would the league be? You think the league would really want McDavid in Edmonton the rest of his career? You think they want Bedard in Arizona? Yeah. They do because they want to save their stupid team down there.

I mean, these are all factors to consider. Such a fun show, and now we're going to get killed for this. I love it. No, it's fair points. You have not said one thing that I disagree with. John Tavares is $11 million off the books 2024, 2025. Conor McDavid, a free agent in 2025, 2026. Not saying, just saying.

Oh, yeah. Sorry, after 2025, 2026. Not saying, just saying. Wouldn't... Sorry, after 25-26. And how much is Mitch Marner making? Because you lost... You lost who? Lost Tavares. Won't he want to make that up? Yeah, that's fine. But the cap will be up... Is Matthews gone in your books when McDavid comes to?

Or just Tavares? That's the dirty little secret here that I don't know. You don't know. I don't know that part. I'm looking. I'm looking into my crystal ball. And that part is unclear so far. That part's unclear to me.

Who's the fan that asked that question that totally is going to kill us for the next five hours on Twitter? Who? What do you mean? Who asked it do you mean who asked it yeah who asked it oh some guy and uh it was a guy on the text line calling him barry calling calling him barry thanks i spent a lot of time you've got him leaving edmonton eh mcdavid i did not say that don't put it in my mouth i'll say it yeah he's gone you better win one maybe because he's going into oilers versus the leafs tomorrow night yeah oilers gotta win i know that them being good keeps their player happy you he

wants to win a cup if he doesn't think he'd win a cup ever see and envisioning mcdavid or anyone else just saying i want the whole cap 20 what i'm entitled to yeah marner's gonna do it no i was gonna say austin matthews for sure for sure you think oh yeah yeah are you crazy percent of the game is so unlike nhl players yeah he's unlike a lot of nhl players what do you think what so what is what what is the cap 20 max i don't know but what does that say on, like... Oh, on 90 million, it's 18 million. Oh, I can't see anybody asking for that. No, that's crazy. Except when, yeah, David signs in Toronto for 18 million.

All right, just like that. Enjoy the game, baby! Totally derailed this show. Bob Stauffer, thank you very much. Doug McClain, thank you very much. Chris Terrian. Have a great weekend, everybody. Enjoy the game Saturday night.

We're back on Monday. Real Kipper and Bourne. Thanks for watching.