Real Kyper & Bourne - Marner's Cup Final Moment + Coaching Market Movement

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee look back on Vegas' dramatic win over Carolina in Game 3 to go up 2-1 in the Stanley Cup Final. They discuss Mitch Marner's hat trick, why he's found more playoff success with the Knights than with the Leafs, Vegas' blown four-goal lead, whether Brandon Bussi's relief appearance earned him the start in Game 4, and Brayden McNabb's toughness. Then, they discuss the LA Kings hiring Peter Laviolette as head coach, what it means for the Leafs in their coaching search, Joe Pavelski emerging as a candidate, what a Calder Cup win would mean for Easton Cowan, Dylan Larkin revealing his list of preferred teams to be traded to, and the Oilers' reported interest in Mike Babcock for head coach. 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.

Ready set go. It's a real Kipprenborn show. We are jam-packed. It is indeed the fastest hour of hockey. We are live on SportsSept 590, The Fans, SportsSat 960 in Calgary, 650 in Vancouver, SportsSat 360, SportsSept Plus, YouTube. Where are we not, guys? Where are we always enjoy the chats on YouTube and a thumbs up?

And wherever you get your pods. This hour of Real Kipprenborn brought to you by Bet365. Nick Kiprios. Justin Bourne, our very own Sammy McKee, Jake the Snake Shultz, Derek Brandeo, and added to the team up from AAA, AA, okay, no baseball terms. The American Hockey League, Chris Gallagher. Marley's Minute? Marley's Minute.

Chris Gallagher, love that handle. Welcome to the team. Shadow Gallagher's Canyon. Galley. Plenty to get into, including a very crazy game three Saturday night against Vegas. and Carolina. Peter Laviolett, the next head coach of the L.A. Kings,

which was kind of crazy. Mike Babcock? We hear Mike Babcock out there. In the meantime, where do you guys want to start? How about the hockey game? I don't know if you saw that on Saturday night. A whole bunch of things happened.

I kind of did. Your boy Mitch had a bit of a show. Is it officially my boy? I know he's never been. Sammy's boy. He was never your boy. Is this an official? He's my guy.

He's been your guy, pal. Yes. Has he won you back at all? I mean, that's not a fair... And you just say... Not a fair shape. That was an unbelievable game. That was unbelievable.

That's the best I've ever seen him play. Not even close. Second period of that. Not even close. That's one of the best hockey games I've seen anyone play. Yeah. Period. Like, I can't.

think of a guy who was more dangerous, like this every touch, boys. Even in the overtime, he could have set up the winner two or three times. So, I don't know. Where do you want to start? Well, listen, I came into the office today. We hardly ever talk, but you were adamant with me. We got to talk Mitch Marner. And I'm like, I get why we have to talk about.

I mean, I had like an historic night in a Stanley Cup final and something that hadn't been done since, I don't know, Rocket Richard. with fastest hat trick in NHL history. I get all of that. I'll tell you what I don't want is just to regurgitate. If we got something else to add on that whole Mitch and Toronto thing, I'm all for it. But just to sit here and regurgitate the same crap that's out there from the haters

to the people that love them. and we can't add anything to it. To me it's like projectile vomit right now. So I'm okay. Like if there's something new from the Toronto angle, but just to sit there and do the same thing over and over again is like. But this is the most refreshing thing you've ever said. Yeah.

I would love to be able to take that as a, to discuss the performance, which unbelievable, obviously. But to sit there and say, well, he just choked when he was a leaf or he's no good and there's no pressure there and there's pressure here. I'm not interested in participating in that conversation. You know? I mean, it's just, and you know where I stand. It's all garbage.

But do I need to say it again? You sure don't. You know, Sammy, what do you need to say, buddy on Mariner and Toronto and all of that where you feel like everybody else is talking about it? But nobody's adding anything new to it. There's no new angle. There's no nothing. It's just either you like them or you love them or you hate them.

I don't know if this is new or not, but the thought I had watching that game where he scored three goals in a period, what, six minutes was the fast hat trick? I mean, more goals than he ever had in any playoff run here with the Leafs. It's just unbelievable. All the stats stacking up. It's just what confidence can do for a player and seeing one go early. Like, he was always this guy in the regular season here.

He was brilliant throughout every regular season. And I just, it started early in Vegas for him in terms of the playoffs. It went well early. He was scoring. He was just scoring from the start. It just went well early. And it's just, it's unbelievable how good he's been. So there may be something new.

He thinks he's a much more confident player than he was when he was the totally. Do you agree with that? I'll say my new angle on it is, this to me this to me came from the international play from the success he had wearing team Canada's jersey being a part of important lines

making big plays and big moments scoring OT winners wearing the Canadian jersey and winning four nations and I got to believe playing in those most pressure-filled moments you know that that makes you more comfortable with pressure right that helps so to me that's a guy that kind of learned his way through this And like on the side of, you know, fans who are, I mean, there's tons of Leaf fans who are Marner fans and that get to rub this in people's faces.

And I understand that. But there are certain L's, as the kids would say, certain fat L's in your life that you just almost have to laugh. Like this, this is a monumental mistake. And just, I don't know what the word I'm looking for, wart on the franchise of the Toronto Maple Leafs that whatever contributed from both sides, of it, from the Mitch side of it, more the organizational side of it, all the stuff that happened that led to this

guy in his, listen, in his prime, a Canadian superstar walking out the door, not wanting to play for his hometown team, whatever side of it you're on, this is a disaster. Like, seeing this happen. We've had that conversation before on how we think it got to that point. But Kipper, for him to go and lead to be the cons,

my favorite, magnifying glass on everything that led to this point. That's why. Yeah, but there's some people that said that he had that talent. He had that in his game. Yeah. And he did. He always had it.

And that's what's frustrating about some of the least stuff, about some of the big game performances. You know, to your point on confidence, I never thought he ever lacked confidence, ever. Okay? And to your point where he learned a lot at the Olympics or whatever, um, yeah, for sure. Like, that, that's a building.

building block, but those were better teams. And I will say this, and I've said it before, but I'll say it one more time. Like, this Vegas team was so much better than what the Leafs have ever shown in 10 years. Well, the D-Corps specifically, yeah. Better, no, better goal-tending, better timely saves. Okay, it's just a better team. It's better built around Mitch Marner. And, like, say what you will, but that team, he was on for the,

last 10 years, we're not better than Tampa Bay over the years. We're not better than the Florida Panthers over the years. And most often we're not better than the Boston Bruins over the years. So you can sit there and say Mitch, Mitch was the difference between the Leafs beating those teams or they just, they just never had it. And, you know, maybe he shoots the puck more because he doesn't have, he doesn't feel the need to give it to number 34. He hasn't shot a buck more there, though. Well, he had 10 shots. in that game, but that's, I mean, I think.

And there's other, there's just, there's just more freedom when you're on a better, deeper team. And that's all the difference between Mitch as a leaf and Mitch as a golden night is he's just on a better team. Yeah, you don't have to run up against it every night when you're not like the main focal. Exactly. He made a very good choice in terms of which team to go to,

which had an awful regular season. They made a great decision at the end of the year to get rid of Bruce Cassidy, who you've talked about multiple times. And it's just, he went to a team full of guys that have gotten over the hump before, and he fit in on this, you know, he doesn't have to be the first guy over the boards every moment, except he was, like, did he play the entire overtime?

John kept sending him on the ice because he was unbelievable. He set up three or four high danger chances in overtime. It just, yeah. And listen, there's a lot of people ready to knock him off for scoring just 80 points in it in the season and he didn't have a Mitch Marter type of year where it's usually high 90s or flirting with 100 points I mean

that was one of his lower career years here out goes Bruce Cassidy Tortorella comes in and the guy shot out of a can and like the majority of the team this team was close to missing the playoffs like they were like Edmonton where you're going are they going to blow it were they 500 for the full like the full year like they were they did not they were they were there were no they weren't very good well they're part of the pin their goal tending was horrific too and their numbers were probably better than

what their record deserved but they couldn't get a save all season long and then card or heart just steps up and you know it's debatable what you thought of his performance Saturday night we're certainly going to get into that couple key times but the timing of his big saves jb much different than what they probably showed all season long yeah you know torts show a lot of faith in hearts when he showed up, right? He's a guy that he's got a relationship for whatever reason. Oh, so just last thing I'll say, I mean, I, this is going to get a lot worse for guys like me.

For, for Leaf fans that, because you know, the first thing that's going to happen at the Stanley Cup parade, the first thing that's going to happen when they're hammered at a bar and they're wearing, he couldn't get it done in Toronto shirts and all this stuff. Like, we are heading into, I mean, Carolina can come back clearly, but if they win, yeah, we're heading into a, even worse coronation for anti-martial defense and it's going to get tough it's going to get tough this will live on for generations that you had yeah uh one of the most talented players in your history

and you couldn't get them to stay totally right i i have no fight left in me like i just there's nothing right it's just a huge hell that we all have to eat wasn't was was was was babe ruth uh boston red sock once upon a time does that come up every once in a while Well, I don't know about that. No, I would say no. No. I've never heard that. How did I know that?

Well, I just saw a clip of Mark Masier being like, yeah, he's like Gretzky. I'm like, oh, Jesus. He's like, Gretzky, Max. He's like, oh, my God. Let's listen to head coach Torteralla on Mitch Marner, clip two. Oh, well, he's probably one of the best players in the league. He does everything. I don't know how to answer that.

Mitch is Mitch. He is, as I've said, most of our star players or our top players play on the other side of the puck too. He's that important there. So he is, he does everything as a player and prepares himself that way. And was certainly a huge piece tonight going into this game. I mean, going through the game. He's also one of the best officials in the NHL because he called the too many men on the ice. I had to admit something to you, boys.

Didn't see 4-1, 4-2 goals because I was in Quebec over the weekend. I had to use SportsNet Plus to watch it on a laptop. And Mitch flew down the right wing there. I don't know who was it that was defending him. He tickles the rafters with the clapper, posting in. And I scrolled over to the exit mark, and I hit.

I think that's it for your boy tonight. And then I checked my phone. I saw it as 4-2 of like, oh, I'll check this back out. But that one sent me. sent me for a moment. Can we talk about the game yet? Yeah.

Holy smokes. One more. One more. This is where I'm going to knock Mitch, like, slap him in the side of the head. Didn't realize they changed goalies. That's hilarious. I mean, how much of that would you be paying attention to? I mean, fair point.

Somebody should have said something somewhere. Right. On the bench, it usually comes up. Hey, they changed their goal. But, anyways. Buildings. I would say the coach is on the hook there. So what did you think about the game?

I mean, what a bizarre third period, down for nothing. And they come back and take that thing to overtime. The most, I can't ever recall such a massive, like, momenting swinging series is final for sure, where you're like, I'll still stand by this. Vegas could be up three nothing right now or this could go game seven in overtime. that's how massive of a swing it's been from period to period going into game four totally it's you know i just feel like carolina generally getting a lot of disrespect in this series for being right there how many years in a row has this team been a top team in the metro wins playoff rounds they're in the cup final they're they will not go away they pin Vegas back and

climb all the way back in it you know crummy bounce ends up costing them game three and people are still kind of talking about it like they're hanging on like this they're given Vegas all they can handle they just didn't get the balance in overtime unfortunately but yeah it's it's been an impressive display because as we've said they don't have the guys they don't have the top guys and as a group I'm curious to see if they can as a series goes on if they wear down because they have to play at 100 miles per hour can you keep doing that for seven games and if so can Vegas survive the onslaught but it's it's man the pace has been wild Yeah, I, that overtime winner stunk after that game.

And I mean, I guess there's weird overtime winners that happen all the time. And there's just, you know, after you play that much hockey and the guys are starting to look tired. But like, you'd want a game like that to end on a little bit better shot. But that's, I guess, some, you know, to use a golf term here, a little local knowledge, knows how live those boards are. Shoots it wide, bounces right off the skating in or whatever. But I thought Bussie was really good when he came in. I, it's going to be an interesting decision for, for, um, not that. interested. Not that interested? Not that interesting to me anyways. But let's go to Brendan

Moore on the decision to go to Brandon Bussy and then we'll have that conversation out of this clip. He played well. There's no reason to Lee Freddie in there to the way that game was going. And you know, we gave a little boost. He made a great save on the Mariner there. Gave us a chance and, you know, tough, tough break. I hate it for him because he was playing great. It's hockey. To hockey. You guys. It's good because we were a little confused.

Game four. Bussy or Freddie? Oh, my goodness. No question. Bussy. Bussy all day long. Yeah. All day long. I am with you guys.

I just feel like you can't wait. Freddy's maxed out. Yeah. You've squeezed everything you can out of him. And you just, he is the type of guy, again, going into game four, that you can look up at the scoreboard and you can see two goals on six shots. and he got a couple of lucky breaks on an offside, okay, on the opening goal. But forget about whether or not that's a disallowed goal or not.

That goal that Stone put between his legs on a muffin is the first sign. Seated out. That you, as a Vegas team, go, if that's him tonight, we're good we're good and on the opposite side if you're on the cane side you say to yourselves

can we win with that guy in that and you can't have that going into game four Bussie played to your point Sammy well enough and you two JB where you're like he's fresh he's got some strut

he came in and played really well and it's exactly exactly what the team needs. I don't think it's a hard decision at all to go to this guy. Why don't we hear the other Brindamore clip on the team's ability to bounce back? There's a lot going on, right? And I didn't, like I said, I didn't love parts of that game for our group. I know the one thing, they don't ever, like, we've been in games like where we haven't played well.

We always find a way to dig ourselves out, always. And so that's kind of happening again here tonight. It's just, we just dug a little too big a hole there. You know, and Vegas has done it too. None of these games are going to be over at any point. Yeah. It just means for great hockey. So, yeah.

Are you bussy too? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Probably would say a word on Braden McNabb. I took the screenshot of after the puck hit him in the face and said, that's useful if you need to smell to the right. Like both nostrils were like gone that direction. Oh, my God.

He's looking north, but his nose is facing east. And the next day, he's got the stitches up all over the horn there. He's like fractures, like multiple fractures in there. Broken nose and fractures and puts the cage on. He plays, what, 35 minutes? Yeah. He led the team. How about that pass to Marner?

Yeah. I mean, he's something else, man. Maybe one of the more underrated guys in the league because he's kind of a bonehead. Like, you know, in terms of like the physical play. and he does some stupid physical things where people are like, ah, he's just a goon. Not a goon.

This guy's a smart, talented hockey player. Did you see him crush Taylor Hall too? Hammered him. No, like, hammered him. He took the wind right out of his lungs. That's one of those hits where, like, Hall's going to feel that the rest of the series. You know, feel the rest of his life.

That hurts. So can I ask you to playing on a team like that? What does that do for just the fellas seeing him go out there? Like, that just must be such a rally. And everything's going right for them, right? Like they've got these sort of underdog stories, that sort of warrior mentality, this goalie who's, you know, finding it at the right time.

It's built that way, though, by George and Kelly McCriman. It's just, that's what you hope when you have guys like that. Yeah. That that's what shows up. It's so funny, eh, like there's all this talk about all the, the way Vegas is, no one's going to want to play there. They're disloyal. everyone's going to want, you know, there's not a way to treat people.

And there's people just fighting others to get traded to them. Like, please trade me there. Yeah, everyone wants to be the next one to go to the team that, you know, they'll cut bait on someone to make room for the next good guy, but everyone wants to be there. Again, I give Carolina full credit because they just won't go away, which is awesome. And that's really led by Jordan Stahl. But it seems like to me that they've got a handful of kind of those type of guys on Vegas. and it's just that that leadership,

that character that rises to win. And to me that's Martinuk, Stahl, Carrier, Jenkowski, like this series is full of them. Yeah, but those guys you mentioned, you know, outside of Stahl, still like haven't got it done yet. Carrier has, Stahl has.

Carrier, a fourth-line player, though, may not play tomorrow night. That'll be a big blow because he is. is a heavy guy. He's a big part of it. But that's where, like, that's the experience right now of getting, getting it done once can really come in right now. And Carolina's still trying to prove it, including Taylor Hall, right?

Before we move on, can we play the Shath, I'm sorry, the clip on Braden McNabb from Thorntz. It's an excellent clip. Let's do clip, clip one on Braden McNabb. Yeah, it's, we were talking about as a team. when you get this far in the playoffs, it's not so much, I think sometimes the end result, it's just the attrition in all what goes in with these athletes have to do to play as many games as we've played so far. So those are the things you remember.

And I've been fortunate to be in a few playoffs along the way and see some of this. I haven't seen something like this. So that is a... the players yelling warrior. That is, he's more than that. And I couldn't be, I mean, I'm just blown away how he's gone about his business. You took, was you, you take a puck to the face? Yeah.

Yeah. Doesn't feel good. No. How bad? Mine? Yeah. Broken jaw. Worse than I've ever seen in the NHL.

Like mine was a clean, untipped slap shot aerodynamic that I turned into and blew my jaw into 11 pieces. I didn't. They did a hell of a job. Yeah, they sewed it back up nice. I was in wires for two months. It's still pretty nice. I see these guys coming out and playing the next day. I'm like, good Lord.

Yeah, that's various levels of destruction, I guess. So, yeah, go ahead. I was just going to say, like, where do you, it really feels hard to predict what's next here for this series. Like, you know, it seems easy to say that Vegas may run away with this, but, like, just the way that Carolina has been able to be. Vegas can't put together a solid 60 minutes yet. Yeah.

Right? No. And you just wonder if one happens here, is that a commanding 3-1 lead, or are we going to continue to see this shift, you know? I think it all comes down to tonight, right? No, it's more night. Tomorrow. It all comes down to tomorrow.

The next or tonight. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. You know, Carolina goes down 3-1, Vegas is going to get one of the next three. But you said in the group chat that you felt before the overtime started that you said that it was the finals. Yeah. The way, just explain what you thought that. It basically felt like Carolina is kind of the, I think the perceived underdog by most of us.

Not before the series. Not by the odds. But they don't have the elite talent, whatever. And if they're going to be a scrappy team, I felt like if they scored in overtime in that one, they got to get two of the next four. Like you can see it happening for them. But Vegas are having already one. cops if they got that one they got the next one at home it just felt like it could start to slip from carolina so big moment and hockey stupid right sometimes just what was it that had the

really early in the first overtime puck squirted out too i don't know oh yeah and they had a whack at it jankowski i think and heart like say what you will about him in the like kind of he's got a little grant fear thing going just going to say that he lets in some questionable ones early but when the games are getting later here now he's starting to make a lot of great saves and he was really good in that overtime. Yeah. I thought for a split second that was it, was it, Cole that on the,

on the second disallowed goal in the crease? Barbashev hammered the. Barbicev? Yeah, yeah. Hammered. Freddy. Freddy? That should have been a penalty, by the way.

I thought, okay, this is going to be Fred. Freddy's out. He's not at practice today, by the way. Is he not? Not a practice. If he had, if he's out tomorrow night with headaches, Yeah. Let me just say I wouldn't put my surprise face on.

Yeah. Yeah. That seems about right. And then it's Kachkov, I guess, the backup. It's pretty good. Yeah. It's going to be an interesting call on,

on Brindamore on his goaltender tomorrow night. Yep. Where else do you want to go, Sammy? Well, we'll do game time, and then we'll break, and then we'll do all the coaching stuff and all the other fun stuff on the other side of the way. All right.

It's game time. Presented by Bet, 365, an official partner of the NHL, most 19 plus. Ontario only, please play responsibly. So, yeah, let me just quickly pull up the series odds

heading into tomorrow night here. The series has now shifted where the Carolina hurricanes now are plus 155 underdogs. Vegas is minus 185, as you would imagine.

The, I find this really interesting. The Kansmite trophy odds. So Mitch Marner, obviously, minus 550. Frederick Anderson falling all the way down to 40 to 1, clearly after getting yanked in that one. The next closest is Taylor Hall at plus 550, Stankhoven plus 700. The next golden night after Mitch Marner is Brett Howden at 75 to 1. So if Vegas wins, it's him. Is there a world

where they lose and he still wins? I don't know. I mean, there's a world, yeah. Like he's leading the playoffs and points. But for Carolina to win this series, they're going to have to shut down Vegas's offense, right? And you have to think, the only question for Carolina is like,

who has to play well for them to win? For Freddie to come back in and win a con smite, he's going to have to shut the door. He's gone. No, but if he came back with three shutouts. Oh, well, yeah. You give it to him. If Taylor Hall can score six,

or seven points and and Carolina can win the Stanley Cup. He's right there. But no one perceives Hall is their best player. To me, the best bet is someone like Jarvis. Because it's like if they come back and win, they're going to need someone to have a few great games where they have one and two, two and one. Stankhoven. Stankhoven can come out.

That's probably the best bet. He's seven or one. Four goals here in four games. For me, if Carolina is going to come back and win, a stankhoven consmite is probably your best bet. And so the series exact score, Carolina to win four three, obviously in seven is plus 700. Carolina to win four two is plus four seventy five. Knights in six is plus two, sixty five.

Knights in seven is plus four twenty five. And nights in five is plus three hundred. So how many con smiths have been presented on a losing team? Two. Jiguerre. Connor McDavid. David. Oh, and three.

And Reggie Leach maybe? I don't know. Ron Hextel. Ron Hextel. Yeah, yeah. So there's been three. So I don't think that's good. No, Reg you won it, I think.

Okay. 19 goals. That's so many. In the playoffs. That is a lot of goals. That's a lot of goals. We've got a lot of losses. All right, that was game time presented by Bet365.

An official partner of the NHL must be 19 plus. Ontario only, please play responsibly. And as a reminder, this hour of Real Kipperman Born is brought to you by Bet, three, six, five. Okay, we'll take a quick break. And when we return, Laviolet has a new home. How close was he to having a home in Toronto?

I don't know. You tell us. Joe Pavlowski. Talk as well. Dylan Larkin talk as well. Babcock talk. Babcock. Babcock.

Really? Bad talk. It's okay. It's okay. It's a bit. It's hit the break. For Edmonton. All right.

Plenty more when we return, to Real Kippenborn. Hey, it's Matt Markezy. And I'm Mike Futa. We're discussing the top stories of the day across the NHL and the hockey world. Weekdays at noon. It's the fan hockey show on SportsNet 590,

The Fan, and wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back to the program. Nick Kiparos, Justin Bourne. Sammy McKee. What do you got for, Sammy? Time now for the Accura performance matchup the 2026, Accura MDX, precisely premium.

Stanley Cup final game four, Carolina, Vegas tomorrow night, 8 p.m. on SportsNet and CBC. A few stats from the game we had on Saturday night that there has only been an instance of a team erasing a deficit of four more

goals in the Stanley Cup final, regardless of result that occurred more than 50 years ago in game one of the 72 Stanley Cup final where the Rangers trailed 5-1 before tying the score at 5-5 in an eventual 6-5 regulation loss to the Boston Bruins. So kind of a similar outcome, but

four goals like that. You need a lot to go right. You need some bounces, you need some tips. And there were some weird ones. And I mean, did you think, when that puck entered the net to tie it, everybody thought the same thing, oh my God, goalie interference is not going to count, right? I thought it was going to count, but I know

what you mean. I did have the same thought it was the same one as the Vegas one, but it wasn't. The puck was a lot looser than the prior one that torts challenged. Pretty cool, though. Guy comes right off the bench on the goalie pole, goes to the crease and gets

blasted into the net. It's such a difference. He got hammered. But it ends up being, you know. The good news, too, for Carolina is Sebastian O'Hoh, who made an unbelievable play at the blue line to keep the puck in.

Yeah, that's forgotten in that. And the backhand pass. With the backhand sauce. Yeah. Right? Backhand to Taylor Hall. So at least they're going right now, which is a huge boost. Yeah, they got to get those. Especially called this such an impressive

player for a guy who's been so. He should be every bit as kind of Mary and Hosa like for me. Yeah. And he's strong vast. He's all there. I don't think he's got the, I don't know, the smarts or the consistency, obviously, kind of gets lost a little bit out there.

Yeah. Shea Theodore became the seventh defense in an NHL history with multiple overtime goals in a single postseason. The only, only two have had more. Chris Chelyos, three in 1995, and Alec Martinez, 3 in 2014, including the Stanley Cup winning goal in game 5. If I'm not mistaken,

Anaheim gave him to Vegas to not take Sammy Vatinan. They were like, don't take Vatnin, take Theodore and pick someone else. So many mistakes were made in that draft. And I forget who else they picked, but... Oh, yeah. How about his delay a game? Like traveling, like, 180 feet?

It was... Oh, yeah. when you said to sit there in the box. Thankfully, Carolina's power play is just really hard to watch right now for him. But still, that was painful. Oh, my gosh. But that's part of the new way that teams can get right back in it, right? And those momentum swings is like, you never envisioned 20 years ago.

Something like that could cost you a Stanley Cup. Airmail it out about it. And the last thing, the 24 combined goals are the most within the first three games of a Stanley Cup final. since 1982, which was the Canucks and Islanders. Vegas, the best defensive team by some metrics in Carolina, a top five, top 10 defensive team, and just a million goals. A lot of really good players. Guys are just really shooting in the net.

That was the Accura performance matchup, the 2026, Accura MDX, precisely for Amy. Okay, head coach, Peter Laviolette, unemployed, no more. Decided on the L.A. Kings. Now, when you say decided on. I was... Decided on.

I was told Friday that Peter Laviole was going to be the next coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. You were, right? Yeah. And he was spotted in town. And... I heard some things. I don't... I would imagine that L.A. did some fast talking on maybe Saturday.

or Sunday. Shoveled some more money into the wheelbarrow? A deal is not a deal until it's done. I think it's done. But, no, no, L.A.'s done. Oh, yeah. I'm talking about for the Leafs that we could have been looking at a press conference Monday or Tuesday for the Leafs.

How you think it was at close? And did L.A. come in and essentially outbid or steal them off the Leafs? It's crazy that the Leafs seem to be like, We either want the league's most experienced coach with seven teams in a cup or Mark Giordano or Jorovilke. This is my exact dog. This is what I talked about last week. Pick a range.

I have no idea what they're doing. And maybe that's on purpose. I have a thought on this. Like another guy. 55 coaches, which they've claimed to have interviewed, is embarrassing. It's too many. It is ridiculous. Wake it.

The Vancouver Canucks, the worst team in the NHL. need like four three. And then they're doing it right. No, no. But at least they know what they want. But 20 guys is so many. If we were picking between 20 coaches,

I'd be like, if we went out to dinner and you're like, I'm just trying to decide between these 20 items. I'd be like, what are you talking about? They don't, narrow it down. They don't know what they want or they're, they have different reasons for wanting to interview 55 guys. You know what? 55 burgers, first five guys.

You know what? can't help it feel like is that they are using something that they have that everyone wants as an opportunity to leverage something out of everyone else, which is their knowledge. What do you think we should do? What do you think we should do? So they're just picking everybody's pocket? Well, and, you know, Chica gets to make contacts with all these people that maybe he doesn't have relationships with.

They're using this as like a seminar? It's sort of a meet and greet educational and formative. But you need to hire somebody. It doesn't seem like a sincere attempt to narrow down what you want, interview the people who fit that profile. Make a choice. 55 guys, come on.

That can't even be real. Joe Pavelsky has been the hot duty. How many days have these guys been in charge? I don't know. You mean interviewing a guy a day? Interview a day. The map on this is borderline at best. It's like speed dating.

Tell me about it yourself. What are your interests? I just wish I didn't know the number. I wish I didn't know the number. I wish they were just, you know, in the third round of their interviews or something. Okay, so we got to nail that on the Pavalski thing. Because that's been the hot new name. Yeah.

Is everybody just, is this like the new thing where everybody's looking for the next Marty St. Louis now? It's copycat league. That's it. It is. We like that. Okay. Well, first of all, I don't know how much Chica or Matt's know about Joe Pavel at least with Marty St. Louis,

you know, Jeff Gordon had a relationship with him that stemmed back to like New York days. Right, right. That's a big difference on knowing somebody and having a feel for somebody. I don't know where their feel is that Joe Pavelsky can come out from never coaching in his life and then going into this market in Toronto.

We said about David Carl, who's been a head coach for a long. time and had a lot of success. College kids. I know, but he's been a head coach, Kip. I know. No, no, he's up on Joe. So that's what I'm saying.

We came on the show and I said, I just don't want a guy who has an NHL learning curve, you know, with this stuff. But they said everybody's been suggested that they want experience, that they want to win now, which lends towards a Cassidy, which lends towards a laviolette. Yeah, like Pavels could be an amazing assistant coach. Let's get him started. Get him in the program. He seems a very intelligent guy, exceptional hockey man, great person.

Love to see him a part of the Toronto Maple Leaf Organization. Joe Pavelski. Why would Joe want to come up here? He's American and he's never had any ties to Canada at all. I don't know. It's a great assistant coaching job. Like if you want to coach, you don't necessarily just become the head coach. What's an assistant coaching job?

Well, then why do you want to? want a guy to come here. He doesn't want to come here in the first place if you're telling me he doesn't find a deal with. I don't know where if he he wants to get into coaching, don't you? You know, it's really like the guy's a reigning champion of Lake Tahoe, Celebrity Golf. I know. Like that's really going to ruin his chances of repeating. I got to tell you, I mean, that really makes me love him. That's great. Big golf guy. Yes, Dick. I mean, does he want to start out slow? Does he, He just, he wants the Marty St. Louis blueprint.

It's like, all right, the treadmill is on 7,000, Joe. Good luck. And again, Marty came in where you are, Marty was caught the upside. Yeah, the waters were calm before the waves started. Of the trend. Yeah. And he is loaded right now with upcoming stars who are at the right age

where you got a ton of prospects, you got a ton of assets that you can play with. his team's only going to get stronger real quick. And also, Marty fit Montreal culturally. He speaks French. He is French-Canadian. Yes. You know, that makes sense, extra sense for them.

You mentioned Joe is an American hockey player. That's part of his identity. He's been on all those teams. It's not like Marty St. Louis coming to coach in Canada. Is Matthews in Quebec? Are Austin Matthews and Joe Pavelsky tight? Is that the next thing? I don't know.

Both American guys. You can't do what Rutherford did in Vancouver and get all these guys trying to keep a guy who doesn't want to stay. I know. Matthews doesn't want to stay, but I'm saying you can't make hires based on that. He scored 27 goals in his last...

He's awesome. He's the best hitman of the hockey puck who's ever played. 23 or 24. If the Leifes are still looking for NHL experience, like, and Jay Woodcroft, it came down to Jay Woodcroft and Lavie-A-Lat. Do the Leaves now go talk to Jay Woodcroft? Isn't Elliot reporting that they haven't even interviewed the guy

out of the 55? Isn't that? It's a lot of interviews. 56 is too many. We can't do 56. Would it shock you if they sign someone with no NHL experience at this point? Yes.

Shock? Oh, nothing would shock me now. How would you feel about that? They did Chica, whichever one thought was going to be a no-go. No, I just, I mean, I guess shock is the wrong word. But the fact that they, as you say, like they were close on Lavio-Let, to go from Lavialette to a guy with no NHL experience,

you're just trying to tell me two different stories here. I don't, so that's why it would surprise. Also, if you're Derek Lalonde and they go and hire a guy who's never coached a game in the league, I'd be like, well, see you later then. I guess you don't think I'm any good. Yeah. What about Gruden? Marlies are hot.

Marley Minute? Marley Minnet. Marley's. On the back of AA. Actiumov is scorching on. That's one good thing going right now for the Leafs is the goaltending depth. I was going to ask you what you think about this for Cowan. Like, going into this summer, I think a lot of the goal for Cowan was, okay,

we got to get some meat on this kid's bones, bulk them up, a great summer working out, yada, yada. Summer's going to get short. However, you can't deny that this is great for him to be in these games. You know what's great? Winning. Yeah. Feeling it. Feeling it.

Getting through rounds. Knowing you're a part of it. Knowing what it's like. You get something to draw on when you're in the NHL later. A hundred percent. And I want to call their. Cup in 1988 and I can't tell you

what it does for you moving forward and there is a fine line between the perception of your winner and you've never won I don't like using loser because it just makes you feel like

you're big loser it's much meaner it's much meaner it's just you don't know how to win it's much different than loser winners and non-winners But that's what it would do for him and a few others

Is like, you know Not saying that you know You got a leg up when you're going to training cap over Austin or Willie But like, buddy come to me Come to me old Willie went to call her? No No, I don't think he's on the-

Was he part of that? When I was there I think he got called up by then We went five rounds over two years when I was there with Willie Like he played deep But I don't know that he was there Like, Easton is going to go into that room. Let me show you how it's done.

I know how to win. No, he's not. They're going to trade him and someone else for... No, they're not. What's his name? Larkin. Now, I mean, realistically... He's got 13 points in 17 playoff games to Marley's.

It's great. More importantly, I saw him punched somebody in that head. Oh, I loved it. Light him up, Kim. Actim off has a 923 say percentage. Made 39 saves and a 2-1 win yesterday for the Marley's. Marley's minute, boys. All right, Larkin.

Does he want to come to Canada? Montreal? No, he doesn't. Montreal, Maine. Toronto? Yeah, I know. I mentioned it last week. I had many in the Florida, somewhere in Florida, and someone mentioned Helene Elliott. Well, I said

Minnesota, I said Florida and Vegas. Vegas. I did not mention Vegas last week, but apparently that's out there. I love my boy, Sean McIndoe, down goes Brown, tweeted, oh, you want out so badly, do you give us three whole teams, two of which already win all the cups, plus one with no assets left to make a decent offer.

Cool. You have five years left in your contract. See you practice. Yeah. You, on Friday with Gordo, or Thursday with Gordo, when the last times I was here. You just said, like,

the perception and what this does for both sides. And, like, this is just a disaster. Disaster. Like, already. Disaster. I mean, I'm seeing Red Wings. Like, he is getting turned.

Like, this is a disaster. Three teams. Really? I'm going to take one. And what? I got one little spin on it for you. Okay. I just want to add that.

I appreciate that, you know, you and a few others may feel like, hey, stay home if you have to. But it's just, it's no good for anybody. Even if he comes into that room, teammates will look there going, you bailer. Okay. It got tough and you want to bail. Not good. Not good for him to go back in that room, that inval. environment look guys in the eye and say I'm just here for myself until I get a trade it's a

it's horrible for everybody on the other hand there is a part of me that watches some very good players play on bad teams for their whole career and makes me feel like you never want it to win badly enough that you just said get me the hell out of here you know like if he were there for a whole whole career and by the end of it like I'll be honest towards the end of Ryan Getslaf's career in Anaheim, I was like, you don't want to go try to win another cup? You just want to willingly go lose? There's a part of me that's like,

this guy's competitive. He doesn't believe in that group. I can't necessarily be like, I kind of get that he wants to go play. I totally understand that angle and I appreciate it. Most of them would want to time their contracts

that. Don't sign an eight-year deal then. Don't sign an eight-year deal. Mitch Marner. he knew he had a year or two left maybe he was questioning it made the decision and just said my rights i'm leaving this guy and goes signs an eight-year deal and changes his mind and what three great point come on totally you never thought that you've missed the playoffs for five six seven years maybe i'll go short and see what we do just hey what what made you what was it so hey signing bonus what made you think that like you didn't need to stick this thing out.

Yeah, you're right. You had that opportunity. You wanted to get all the money you possibly could, get that insurance, then you're stuck. But I do think that that is part of the Matthews thing, part of all those guys. It's just like. Even if Matthews wants out, at least it's not leaking. At least there's no ask. It's like, oh, I just mean the contract length, though.

Like, it's smarter. You've made your money. You've made $100 million or whatever. Let's just go bit by bit. But Austin will see out his two years. he will. Yeah. Right?

Unless, I don't know if he's paying attention to Larkin. Watch how that circus turns out. But I feel like. And if you do, you keep it under wraps. You don't let that stuff get out. Whoever leaked it did no favors to anybody in this process. What benefit? To lean on Detroit.

Say, I'm getting to hell out of there. You can lean on them underneath. You don't need social media. It's really funny. He's going to have to add teams to that list. Babcock. We only got a couple minutes on. Babcock.

I get such a kick out of Babbs. I think he's great for the league. Tell me where they wouldn't go to Joel Quenville, but they'll now go to Mike Babcock. What do you mean? Oh, Edmonton would go to Quenville? I didn't know that was a thing. They went to Stan Bowman.

What's the difference than Quenville? I don't know. I don't know. but that's the guy that you needed if you were really interested in getting a real head coach there. Mike Babcock is just like I don't know. I mean, you think Quinn doesn't matter coach than Babcock? Joel was available.

Definitely. Joel was available. Yeah. Oh, Joel. Come on. Joel's not anywhere near Mike Babcock's stories. There's no stories. No, Mike Babcock's ego is the issue.

I think he's a great coach. I think his ego is absurd. But I get a kick out of it. And I, you know, The whole phone's thing in Columbus is a punchline and invasion of privacy. It is. Oh, yeah. That's just the cherry.

To me, I was with the Leafs, Oregon. Babs was there and he had us showing pictures from our phone up on a screen. What he did was across the line not justifying it. But I don't think it's beyond bringing them back in the league when you bring back in this guy, that guy, this guy, this guy, that guy. It's actually not that act. It's just his whole act. Yeah, his whole act is a lot. Yeah.

It's a lot. What are Leon Drysettel and Connor McDavid thinking today when they see that report floating around and they pick up their phones and go on Instagram? If you want Mike Babcock without the Mike Babcock, just get Daryl Sutter. Buddy, your book would crush if the oil is hired him. Just do it. Just get Daryl. Albury, he's 40 minutes away. He's 40 minutes from Edmonton.

Code of the West. Daryl would be interesting. How long has he been out now? A while. Three years? Yeah, not that long. Yeah. But, yeah, Babs would be a fascinating.

Fascinating hire. So what are we supposed to do tonight? I guess watch the NBA finals. Last night was the real pickles. The first night there's no basketball, no hockey. Yeah. I was like, I actually know what I did. I watched the end of the U.S.

Women's Open. Nellie Korda won it. Did you see the putt that she had that almost slipped out? I heard about it. She had a three-footer to win the U.S. Women's Open. And she pulled it so badly, 10 to 10 a miss. And it just grabbed on, touched the whole rim,

went right down. And she was like, ah, it was crazy. But yeah, there's nothing else on really to watch. I read a book. Wow. Your Jay's coming back now. Were you good? We're going to get guys back.

I don't know. It just feels like they're going to be right around 500 all year and maybe they get hot at the end. But I don't know. Sorry. They were at the Luke Holmes concert. Do you guys see Willie on stage? Shockin a beer? I can't believe I didn't get one person tweeting out.

Maybe like, see? I didn't see. I got totally avoided it. To steal a Seinfeld term, it's the summer of Willie. I love how all Lee fans are just dying because Marners lighting it up. Willie's like, yeah. He's really,

it's really phasing him. What? Mitch is doing what? He's like, there's hockey on still? What's the last hockey game? You think Willie watched. Which will last have to be played in.

Yeah, sweet. Yeah. Our thanks to nobody. Good show, boys. Really good show. Just the three of us hanging out, talking Mitch, Martin.

Like old times. All right, we go right back at it tomorrow. In the meantime, Jay's got Phillies, Philadelphia Phillies tonight on the network. Best pitcher in the league, Christopher Sanchez, on the bum for the Phillies. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. You get a chance. Give us a rating and review.

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