Real Kyper & Bourne - Sizing Up the Cats

Episode Date: May 2, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start with what the Leafs should expect from a confident Panthers team in Game 1 tonight, how the series-dynamic changes with Toronto as a favourite, where the Cats are weakest and Matthew Tkachuk's unreal form. They are joined by Jeff Chychrun (45:56), Panthers analyst and father of Senators defenceman Jakob, who breaks down how Florida has changed from last season, the keys to their series win against Boston, the goalie situation and who could step up as the X-Factor. Next up, Futa on thoughts on the Leafs' first round performance, how Toronto stacks up against the Panthers, the different aspects of toughness between Tampa and Florida and the how impactful Aleksander Barkov must be (1:06:53). They close with a conversation on the fallout in Calgary, Trouba's hit and second-round scheduling concerns.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 Bourne on Sportsnet 590 The Van. All right, Leaf fans. Put away the balloons, the ribbons, the confetti. Time to get back to work. Back to business. Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers get their Series 2 underway tonight at Scotiabank Arena. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Derek Brandeo, David Siss-Boomba, and the leader of Leaf Nation, Sammy McKee.

After a cool-down period from yesterday. Every once in a while, we complain too many days in between. This doesn't feel like it no hey listen we paid our dues through december and january this year we got hockey every other night right now it's perfect although maybe not every other night they're maybe not saturday night do we know what game three is yet it's undecided what is up with that i wish you could tell me yeah it's like florida i don't know. There's F1 down there. They're in a different building than the Heat who are playing TNT maybe.

There's a lot of people pissed right now. I bet you are, employer. I have multiple friends who were planning a trip down there, like I mentioned yesterday, and they're trying to figure out what day it is, and it's hard to figure out how to make a Sunday- tuesday work as opposed to a saturday monday it's very weird it's all like from a leaf fan perspective i'm like are they trying to keep leaf fans out here they're gonna announce it at an undisclosed arena at like 6 30 where the game is like what's

going on sammy thinks it's because they don't want leafs fans to be able to be a part of it i don't think listen i don't know if that's really the reason, but the optics of it are certainly weird. It's just like what professional league would not have the dates announced less than a week out? It's insane. It could be building availability.

The Rockets in? It's going up against NBA kind of maybe television scheduling. Jimmy Buffett cover band at the Florida Live Arena? Like, what's going on? They didn't plan on having that building needed that night by the Panthers. American Network's involved in this.

Oh, probably. I think what's happening, too, is that they may have to go back on what they've announced around the league, too. Change the other schedules. Yeah. Like even though that you've announced games already, there seems to be a lot of juggling going on behind the scenes. Here's my two cents from sports net side of things. We paid a lot of money for the rights to the NHL.

Leafs on Saturday night in round two, probably a priority for us here. So going to go ahead and want that. Guess what? That meant something to go ahead and want that. Guess what? That meant something to them maybe 10 years ago. They have, it used to be CBC and Hockey Night in Canada ran the show. Right. And no, not anymore. Listen, we still pay more than TNT does for their rights.

So go ahead and USD too, pal. Not the way it's worked the last few years, even prior to TNT and ESPN coming on board with NBC. They ran the show. Yeah. You know, one of those things with old Gary in the NHL, he can try to cultivate new fans and grow in the U.S., but you don't want to be overlooking where the bread's buttered.

Well, let's just hope before our show ends we could hear will we that we should find out before our show ends i don't know why would they like well it has to be a top priority for them people want to buy tickets people want to book flights like you said and flights are uh they are heading in the north direction every time you go on the internet go try to find the same price that you were quoted oh my god when you go back again no once they know you go on the internet, go try to find the same price that you were quoted when you go back again. Once they know you're on the hook. The first time you look at a flight, you got to just buy it. Number one.

That's one thing I've learned. Different location and computer is your next best choice. Over the last five years of buying flights, first look, buy. Which, does that not seem illegal in some capacity? Absolutely. We're in something different now. Wild, wild west still on that internet. It feels like there should be some regulation.

No, not at all. All right. Okay, where do you guys want to start here? You guys want to get into it a little bit now? We didn't yesterday. Yesterday's show was focused on a look back, including the Leafs, Boston. But here we are, hours away from puck drop wow and you want to start with what do we expect here with such a short turnaround especially for the florida panthers jbu go first all right this is good i think this is a good place to start no

clips just get our take on expectations florida Panthers really hot the last half of the year. Last 25 games, they were one of the best teams in the NHL. If you like fancy stats, they were third in expected goals, four in the NHL, and fifth in the Corsi stats, which is better than the Leafs in both categories. They four check. Great top line. This is a good hockey team.

There are a lot of places though where the leafs can expose them i feel like they don't have the depth they don't have the same fourth line they don't have the same third pair that can hang with the leafs they're goaltending a complete wild card they can't kill penalties they take a ton of penalties like there are places for the leafs to exploit them i expect it to some of that stuff to play in their favor, but not overlooking what is a very talented Florida Panthers team. It's nice to watch a playoff hockey game without the dread of losing in the first round again. Like I, you know, I just, it really is just feels.

You can't let it go, Sammy. No. We did that all day yesterday. Move ahead now. That's what I woke up feeling like today, that I was just excited for this hockey game. I have no idea what to expect. And I'm not going into it being like, oh, my God, if they lose game one,

it's like, oh, what a panic mode and being afraid. It's talk hockey now. I call BS on all of that. They can go down to nothing. You're going to be as pissed as ever. Yeah, maybe. There's a line maybe. I know.

There's a line where you wouldn't be. I've seen you now for almost two years. It's a different feel, and it's a great feeling. I'm just really looking forward to hockey. Yes, until those first five minutes. Instead of talking about ghosts and voodoo and bull crap like that, I'm looking forward to hockey. What do you expect tonight?

I expect the Florida Panthers to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs. Whoa. Yeah. I just, Keefe talks about it in one of his clips. I am completely opposite. I expect the Leafs to kick their ass tonight. Really? Yes.

Well, I just. We do not agree. Okay. You explain it first okay i just think that a team coming in hot off of what happened in that series they've played more recently i don't think down the road of this series it's going to play in their in their favor but i do think them coming in hot after that win and they're going to be able to ride that momentum they're feeling good about themselves they're calling themselves underdogs. I just feel like tonight could be the one where they catch them early and they lose game one.

Under cats? Under cats, yeah. I just think that there's going to be a natural letdown coming off such an emotional win. For them to carry it through to tonight to the start will be a very difficult thing. I'm not saying it's impossible and I'm not saying that it won to tonight, to the start, will be a very difficult thing.

I'm not saying it's impossible, and I'm not saying that it won't happen, but I don't like the odds. And if the Leafs allow that, I think it's a huge mistake on their part. I see this more of the Leafs allowing that than Florida naturally following through that game seven. Do you have any credence to the, you know, when they say teams that aren't in playoffs leading up to playoffs and they play those competitive games down the stretches or down the stretch? And it's like, you know, it's been playoffs for them for X amount of times. They just have that. Like they know the compete level they need every night because there is in recent history, teams that have played seven games that go to go on to play a team that has

been swept. The seven game team has won like five of the last six of those series. Yeah. So do you, do you think there's anything to that though? That's sort of like competitive. I think, I think Florida kind of proved that a little bit.

Didn't they? I just didn't see the emotional levels that Florida was able to hit. Yeah. And they could not rise. And maybe it was because of the ample success of the regular season. Maybe it was because they didn't have adversity anywhere near what the Florida Panthers did. Yeah. have adversity anywhere near what the Florida Panthers did. And if we go back to that now infamous moment for Paul Maurice and the Florida Panthers here, their last visit,

that meltdown that was heard across the hockey world. The Keith Kachuk-inspired meltdown. There was a couple, right? And emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually, Boston never hit any of those notes like Florida Panthers. Now, for them to pick it up where they left it off tonight. Hard to maintain. I think so.

Yeah. So I think the Leafs should just jump all over them tonight. Yeah. The one thing that I thought, you know, I tweeted a little bit about this today. The one thing that Tampa really did is like back off and they made Toronto go through traffic and it was a slog and whatever, like Florida comes at you.

And I don't know if you think that's an advantage for the Leafs or not. I think it's going to result in more offensive chances, but also more the other way. Like Samson off to me is crucial in this series. Cause as I mentioned, this Florida team creates a ton of shots and a lot of opportunity, but at the same time, they give up a bunch the other way.

So Leafs got a score and I don't like Florida's goaltending, but if Samsonov isn't good, he's going to face 35, 40 shots a night in the series. If I were a betting man and I am just to follow up for the rest of the show in about 40 minutes we'll have jeff chickren former nhler panthers tv analyst does a terrific job with ed jovanovsky uh down in florida we'll get his thoughts going into this second round and and some of that magic that we

just talked about in the latter part of this regular season for Florida. Also the father of Jacob Chikrin. Yes. Did you guys play together too? Also one of my first roommates in professional hockey. Really? Oh, yeah. Interesting.

Yeah, very interesting. So we're going to have a lot of fun with Jeff. And then in the second hour, Mike Fuda. Futes. Potentially the next general manager, Calgary Flames. We're going to ask him. Do you think he'd still text us back if he was? Or do you think he'd be like talking or just go dark?

Bail. Bail on it. Let's ask him. Immediately go dark? He gets that job in Calgary. It's like. He goes talking? Ignore.

His new best friend will be the ignore button on his phone when he sees our calls. If I were up for a GM job in the NHL, I would certainly say that's what I was doing. I'm ignoring all media calls. Also, we're going to talk in the second hour, the New York Rangers and that. Oh, my gosh. I don't even know how you describe that game for them. Embarrassment, man. Pathetic.

Even before I got there in the mid-90s, they've had some tough losses. I got to think that last night ranks up there as stinky as any of them. Just looking at this team that traded for Tarasenko and Kane and had Panarin and Zibanejed, we're not going to go into the series now. But giving up or scoring so few goals in the last four games,

embarrassing. Five games, they scored nothing. They kept putting the stat up, the inner slot shots, and it was like the third period, and they had one. I was like, oh, my God, that's not good. But they did get the highlight of the playoffs out of that game, probably. Trouba and Meyer. We'll get to that later. that's not good but they did get the highlight of the playoff set of that game probably okay so transitioning from tampa bay to florida i thought it was just an easy seamless

move to turn our kippers clippers into the mo show paul maurice okay but oh my matthew kachuk right now could lead us in the next 10 days to two weeks of sound bites am i wrong sammy he's a god job you might hear that a few times he sat down today in front of the toronto media and held court for 12 minutes. He stood there taking questions and answering them for 12 minutes. The beauty of game seven between Florida and Boston was like

we're going to get Matthew Kachuk or we're going to get Brad Merchan. Yeah, we couldn't lose. But like, unfortunately Coop was in your kitchen like you know, making pancakes. And once you finally got him out, Kachuk walked in the door. He's the guy who's going to be doing the kitchen cooking. I was going to say.

It's not Maurice. It's not Maurice because I really like Maurice. And he was the coach of the Leafs when they were kind of crappy. And he coached them within really close to making the playoffs. And I really liked them a lot then. And I've always kind of respected them. So it's not the same hatred with the coach. But Matthew Kachuk, there's potential for Matthew kachuk to be the most hated man in canada after

the next two weeks i mean people put in such effort to paint their team as the underdog right like that's a massive advantage in sports because all of a sudden your team doesn't have the pressure and it's a burden on a team like boston or one like toronto has had forever i thought chuck had a really good sense of that in his 12 minute keynote speech that he gave his ted talk welcome to my ted talk where do you want to start uh let's go with uh kachuk at the very top of our clip talking about the series very quick turnaround but one that we're certainly excited about. Yeah, not many people thought we'd be in this position. So very similar series for us, though.

Like, there's not a lot of people out there that think we're going to be able to pull this one off, just like they didn't think we were able to pull the last one off. So one game at a time, one day at a time, starting on the road, I think that's a good thing for us. I do think there's some, like, not just underdog painting, but also arrogance in that, being like, they didn't think we could do it last time. We'll show you again. Right?

Yeah, but I don't think that's arrogance. I just find that, like, it's the truth. Come on. There's nobody giving them a chance against the Leafs nobody did anyone pick them from sports in the first round no no yes Rory Boylan did who is a Panthers fan

and he picked him in six oh my god shout out Rory wow so Rory yeah the Leafs are now so if you're florida you play the first round of the stanley cup playoffs against uh the team that's expected to win the stanley cup according to vegas i mean now you go into the second round and you're facing the team that's supposed to win the stanley cup

according to vegas that's according to vegas is Cup, according to Vegas. That's 0 for 2. According to Vegas is doing a lot of work there, though. Who in their right mind thinks that Florida has a chance in this series? I will tell you, I will go by on the first 5 or 10 minutes on whether or not the Leafs have a chance to sweep. What are you doing? Oh, yeah.

You're doing this thing. You're doing this thing to set them up so they look bad. No, I know what you're doing. I'm dead serious. A sweep? Over five games. Give me a break. Maybe they win one in Florida.

Oh, my God, Kippy. No way. The Panthers with Reinhardt, or sorry, with Bennett and Barkov in the lineup, played like a 110-point pace this year. They were a good team when they're healthy. They won the President's Trophy the year before. They added Kachuk. I know they lost a piece or two.

I just, I don't like Florida. I don't like them. What don't you like? I liked their defense. Mid. I'd say they're mid. I'd say they're mid. Their best defenseman is Aaron Eckblad. That's such a good draw.

Aaron Eckblad had a good series. Mark Stahl had a good series Yeah You see Matthew Nye shake and bake on Mark Stahl Again in the series? Yes I do Mark Stahl sometimes looks to me like he's

Should be more men's league But he He was a stud for them in the first round He was How long can that last? A little secret between you and me. I don't really want to say this and put it out there, but I could see the Leafs doing the thing here,

where it's five games. I could see them. Okay, I'm not an idiot here. No, you're not. I think that it probably is a six game. He doesn't like it for jinx factor. But listen, their PK sucks. It's no good.

They take the most penalties in the NHL. Their goaltending is bad. And the Toronto Maple Leafs have elite shooters. Why would you ever trust Bobrovsky? Right. So, like, there's a part of me who can see their aggressive forecheck is going to allow more open space through the middle, which is going to allow the Leafs to do the thing they do well.

Like, there's a part of me that sees a series, which of course we're going to come here tomorrow and they lose seven, nothing. And it's like, what went wrong? But I can see it at least. If they do, then you've got a real issue about this organization bowing down to mediocrity. We know their challenges over the last few years about playing poorly

against teams that are horrible. But this is not a horrible team. They were for half a season. Yes, they were. I think it does have the ability to creep in again. I think so. I don't disagree. That's all I'm going on. But I mean, I think it's

going seven. Yeah? Yeah, I do. They've been good since February. Like, good since i think it's going seven yeah yeah i do i've been good since february like really good if it's going seven it's because the leafs have had long stretches like they had against tampa bay where you're like what is going on here matthew kachuk is if you're okay you're spread out all the players in this series and you're drafting them one by one where does matthew kachuk go i, we're going to do the Matthews-Marner thing again, which I hate. But, you know, he's not ahead of Matthews. He's in the conversation for me. He's not ahead of Marner for me.

Yeah, so he's in that tier, though. He has to be that support guy to those guys. Yeah. Just because of the – and I'm not – he's got skill. But he doesn't have, i don't know just the ability i know he's had some great numbers again but he's not he doesn't not all skill like those guys doesn't seem like the dominant force i know you're right the numbers are there and i forget what coach of his said he's really good at getting points and it was almost like a derogatory thing in some way um but yeah he's he's in that class of players you know after that it's it's different

carter for haggie scored 42 goals this year but like is he a 42 goal scorer again 10 ontario guys on the florida panthers i may add 10 ontario boys and gudas like yeah he's played well like shen like all of a sudden big and strong is in again in the nhl right but i do think that is likely to get exposed the longer it goes you know the more guys wear down get a step slower like in the temperature eckblad doesn't skate like morgan riley right so where is that where's that rule? But Montour all of a sudden has become a major story. I think you hope too that Lomberg is not back anytime soon because he's a disruptor in a way that could really cause them some problems.

You know, like Barkov, I just think they got quality depth guys I mentioned for Hagee, but like, you know, not just Barkov, who's obviously a star, but Bennett, Reinhardt, who's obviously a star but i like lindell reinhardt lindell lister rain and like they got some guys bennett uh is another one he's he's he's he's matthew kachuk uh light yeah i can see that in terms of physicality and whatever i i without him in the lineup without him or barkov in the lineup they're like a 480 winning percentage when they both play they're

really good so you know that's an element for me that they do have that right now i think they'll start bubrovsky but certainly a guy who's susceptible to you know being bad alex alex lion was the first goalie off the ice. So they're trying to play some mind games. Let's listen to Matthew Kachuk tell everybody why they beat the Boston Bruins, and maybe we can read into it how they think that they're going to beat the Leafs.

Even from the start of the series, what's made us very successful is, I know this might come out in a weird way, but we're kind of like oblivious to the situation that we're in almost, and that's a great thing for us, just staying right in the moment, not letting the outside noise or – no, that's a great thing almost. It just allowed us to focus one day at a time.

Everybody says it, but it really did. It allowed us just to enjoy it. We didn't want our season to end. We didn't want it to be our last day together, our last game together. So there was a lot of motivation for us and a lot of doubters except for us. God, he's playing it up, the underdog card. I think he's actually, I don't know if you've ever seen Knocked Up, but there's a scene where he's like doing the dice roll move,

and they're like, I think he's doing the dice roll move too much. It's kind of, that's his little dice roll move. It's all he's got. Well, let's hit that again. He has another quote. Do you want to hear one more on that, or do you have something? Which one? He has an underdogs quote, the second one.

Yeah, let's go. We'll get right into it. Do the second one on underdogs. I guess the one thing that brought us together last series was the fact that we knew we were the crazy underdog story and that doesn't change this series i mean boston did what they did but toronto is the one team that was right behind them so i guess uh the prize for knocking off the best team in the league is get the second best team in the league now so um it's gonna be very very similar challenge for us

if the leafs had won 10 more games in regulation they still couldn't have caught the bruins they it's going to be a very, very similar challenge for us. If the Leafs had won 10 more games in regulation, they still couldn't have caught the Bruins. They weren't even close to the Bruins. Were they the second best team in the East? No, Carolina and New Jersey had more points. Okay. Weren't they tied with New Jersey? New Jersey had won 12, Carolina won 13.

So right there. All right. Yeah. Now, in those clips, he also said that they don't really listen to the outside noise. Okay. Was there a bigger outside noise than his old man calling them soft? Like, are we going to look back and say, Keith Kachuk daddy saved their season maybe i ain't saying it you can say that kipper i'm not saying it but we should listen to the quote that kachuk does weigh in on

the credit to cj for asking him this question okay hold on for a second okay um i just want to get this right because daddy's been on our show before, and he was really good. Great. Great guest. So, you know, the professionals that we are offered him the courtesy to come on the show. Right, Sammy?

Oh, yeah. I didn't know we were going to talk about this. What was his response? That he was maybe in a little timeout. He was in media time. The cone of silence. Yes. media time. The cone of silence. Yeah. The cap cone of silence.

My son has me in timeout right now. I can't come on. How great was that? So you'll listen to this response to what Matthew Kachuk says, and it may sound a little different than that. Listen. I honestly can't even remember. That was, it seems like forever ago we were in that position.

But, yeah, this was the game that kind of changed our season around, I guess. I know Lyon came in, basically stole us one. We were able to get the ball rolling and ended up clinching a few weeks later and, yeah, then knocked off Boston. So can't really write that story the way it happened. So we'll take it on to round two now. I don't really write that story the way it happened. So we'll take it on to round two now. I don't really remember. What happened?

It was that long ago. I don't really remember. Easy, Pinocchio. Oh. Yeah. Oh, my God. Come on. His nose is growing, boys.

Yeah, he is on blast here. The nose is growing, fellas. Oh, he is on blast here. The nose is growing, fellas. Oh, that was good, though. That was good. It certainly mattered to them. Not registered in that dressing room, to say the least. You want to get Matthew Kachuk's thoughts on the Leafs, or we had enough?

It's up to you. I mean, it's all good stuff. Is it good? All right, let's go. Let's go. Very similar to Boston in the way they play. They played on the different nights than we did, so we got to watch all their games and

play with a lot of speed. They're very similar, but I'd say maybe a little bit faster up front, a little bit quicker. They're good on their sticks. They're not going to maybe finish as many checks, but their top end is as good as it gets around the NHL.

So it's going to take a full team effort. And, you know, I think the longer the series goes for us, the better. And just like last series, but you've got to play those guys hard. And maybe by the end, we can start to wear down a little bit, but we'll see. In hits per 60, as in hits per game roughly the toronto maple leafs um were second in the nhl in the first round most hits of any team the team they just played the bruins was 10th uh to kachuk's point about them not finishing checks as much averaging more than six hits per game than the bruins so he may be in for a surprise there that's a reputation thing

that's a total past reputation i wonder if he goes after a martyr you know who's gonna go after samson samson off samson off is the guy because they create a lot of pucks to the net and if he's bad i think he knows what's behind him is a eight game or 12 game ahl guy his his work on the game winning goal goal for hagie's game-winning goal was just outstanding and indicative of the way he plays right just win a puck go to the net annoy people wow i so the the chat on youtube is saying that they're saying enough kachuk so we're maxed out they're getting pissed off kachuk already there he's already pissing people off. We haven't even played a game. God, Chuck. All right, well, then we'll bury the last one. Yeah.

We got any Leafs that can give us good sound bites? Actually, Jake McCabe had a little one on Leaf fans. All right. He said, listen to the clip. We'll play it. You see how Leaf Nation travels, and the Panthers are doing their best to keep Leaf fans out of the building downtown. Do you think that's going to make any difference i doubt it no not stopping he's not wrong listen i'm just

saying to sammy jake mccabe feels like a toronto maple leaf like he must love it right he's been on bad teams for forever and all of a sudden he comes here and you win all the damn time and he plays 26 minutes a night and you're under contract for years to come and he had the one of the best quotes i think in the first round when he when he talked about matthew nyes it's like he gets four games and makes the playoffs i need 500 that's right too like what's up with that that's uh you know he seems like a playoff style player so he must be enjoying this ride right now all right so go ahead oh no i'm just going to talk about samsonov versus kachuk because we kind of breezed over that but that do you think that's quickly going to become something here

with him in the blue paint and falling on how much how big i think he's going to try for sure how big of a factor is luke shen in that then clearing the front of the net like that having him there now kachuk never fights though right like he the odd one off i don't remember the casio casio experiment i don't envision him dropping his gloves with luke shen if that's what you're getting no no i just yeah it's not gonna like he just stays at it pest, pest won't fight. He's like, if Bunting were superpowered. Yes. Right. Correct. But that, yeah, he's going to try to rattle him for sure. All right, let's

go to Sheldon Keefe. It's been almost 30 minutes. We haven't played the coach yet. I know. You've got to get him in. I thought Chuck had a pretty great showing today at the press conference, so I thought we should probably play some of his clips. Maybe we played too many. I don't know. Well, I thought. You got to get him in. I thought Chuck had a pretty great showing today at the press conference. So I thought we should probably play some of his clips. Maybe we played too many. I don't know.

The Leafs got, what, two extra days on Florida since wrapping up Saturday night. Let's get Sheldon Keefe's thoughts on the buildup to game one. Well, the preparation part of it helps in that sense, except that we didn't know who we were going to play. And that was a strange day in and of itself, trying to sort through that and manage both. And even throughout the game, you're kind of bouncing back and forth as the momentum is swinging.

But, you know, we get the day of rest to travel back, and we get a practice day, all those kind of things. So our game should be in order in that sense. We get the day of rest to travel back, and we get a practice day, all those kind of things. So our game should be in order in that sense. All that said, you've got a team coming in right in the high of a game seven, and I think historically speaking, when you look at it, these types of games tend to favor the team coming off of the game seven win. So we've got that to contend with. We've got a team that's

feeling really good, as they should be, because of the big win the other night, and probably didn't have much time to come down from that, whereas we have. So we've got to make sure that we're able to ramp back up. So our focus is to get off to a good start

here, and certainly we did not do that in round one. Ooh, see that? The old mind games already. The teams that's coming in is favored here with all that emotion. That's what it is, right? Like you try to put it on the other team

and say, wow. Did you say that's Sammy? That's a Sammy move. No. Off the top of the show. Yeah, no, I just, I was just being honest with how I'm feeling. I don't blame you. Like, oh, you think I'm in a press conference here?

Like, ah, no pressure. I clearly picked up your vibe. I can tell you preparing for a playoff series as a video coach or as a team just trying to get ready when you don't know your opponent that you're going to play in two days is a nightmare. Trying to pull together clips and presentations for your team and, you know, you just, you don't know your opponent that you're going to play in two days is a nightmare trying to pull together clips and presentations for your team and you know you just you can't know and as that game's going on you're trying to get ahead and you just can't get ahead so what kind of day what kind of thing would they be emphasizing for the video like in terms of

prep two you'd have two separate meetings and you know one would be a team structure one and one would be a player personnel one where you would go through there. I know Sheldon likes to go through each line that you're going to face, you know, have their points prepared and how they want to play them and then go around the room, said you've played with this guy, you've played with this guy. What do you got on him? You know, just kind of talk through the individuals and then, yeah, do a team systems thing. They did an incredible job of taking away the middle of the ice

on the Boston Bruins. Like, they just, they, I've seldom from what I picked up, no clean entries for them. And your goalies don't have to be great when you do that, right? You give your team a chance to outscore your problems a little bit. But do you think the Leafs have a better chance of getting to, like, because that was the key in the Tampa series, was their ability to get to the front of the net, right?

You think about how they won so many of those games. It's right in front of the net. It's tips. It's screens. It's shots from the point. It's a massive part of what they need to do again. Let's do the Paul Maurice clip on Boston and Toronto, because he talks about Boston was more likely to chip it

and sort of settle a little bit. Let's listen listen to that Paul Maurice clip in some ways very similar right we will almost view them as the same team in some of their structure they collapse heavily to net front in their own end they're very dynamic off the rush they make plays off the rush and like Boston now and this is more maybe new for Toronto over the last couple years they get net front right so in terms of maybe how they move the puck and really how they defend, a lot of that's similar. The difference is there's a different speed element, we think. And there's a different set of hands, a different kind of offensive plays that they make.

The shot tips, some of the backdoor tips, some of the creative ways they get a puck through somebody. Boston interacts more pucks, chips the holes. These guys will a puck through somebody. Boston indirects more pucks, chips the holes. These guys will put it through your feet under your stick. Pretty nifty set of hands. Other than that, dominant center iceman, veteran center iceman, a lot of simulators.

So he sees the Leafs as a team more likely to put it through your feet and make plays, which, if you're having trouble getting to the net, you know, that'll get you a few chances and turn there were times when braden point and kucherov had good looks but most often than not i mean a lot of stuff did not get through right i thought the leafs backed off like too much like bad gaps a lot of times but it didn't allow anyone by behind them or to cut to the net so yeah they gave up some entries and allowed uh tampa a lot of zone time but they didn't give up any grade a chances off that stuff not sure how that'll play against florida but

playing florida's a faster team okay i want to get to uh paul maurice on uh brandon montour because he had one hell of a series and a guy that you don't necessarily think about as a top defenseman yeah once upon a time i suggested the leafs trade for him oh yeah you got cooked was that was that because the kneelander with nick ritchie yeah when when nick ritchie was supposed to be the next Luchich, by the way. I remember this. Oh, yeah. And by the way, you look at it now, it's like, you know, Montour's got 60-some points in leading their team to the second round. Well, he's just finally hit the potential that I had on him.

That's right. That's all. Took him like seven years. Hashtag Kipper was right. Took him seven years. But, you know, Leafs better make sure that that trade doesn't look good at the end of this series as just straight up Montour for Willie Nylander. Old Bill.

Old Bill's got it either done at the other end. I think this series is going to work for Willie. It was incredible watching him, and he's a fantastic skater in many ways. We didn't think that Morgan could ever go head- head to head with a guy like headman and we know we found out headman was probably playing at about 40 or 50 with a bad hip but like montour can come in and and have a similar look to morgan where he can just skate all night long and be a very dangerous guy so let let's get to Paul Maurice's thoughts on his number one defenseman, Brandon Montour.

Yeah, he's been so good for us this year. I think confidence, we always fire those words around, but for a player like that, because he has an unusual, again, we've got a lot of unique players in our room. That's the word I'd kind of describe. It's unique. He's an incredible skater, right? His ability to change directions and to get up the ice and pick his spots.

And as the years gone on, I think playing with Mark Stahl has had a really big impact on his career because Mark has been so consistent with his game every night, such a great pro every night. The other thing I think what happened is when Brandon went on the power play, it produced enough points that his 5-on-5 game could relax, which in turn produced more 5-on-5 points, right? So you just settle. He's been a guy that's kind of fought 5-6 to get into the 5-6 hole,

and then to try to get out of the 5-6 hole. Once that happens, his game is settled. I'm really looking forward to that matchup. And it's so interesting, too, because it's like... A lot of similarities. Well, Mark Stahl. And Luke Shen. And Luke Shen.

It's eerily similar. Just find the right guy, the right fit, the right vibe, with the chemistry. Vibes, baby. So he scored twice in Game 7 to become the first defenseman in 20 years to record five uh five goals in a playoff series montu uh edjo vanoski was the last one uh rob blake andy delmore and brian leach in the 1994 stanley cup final versus the canucks skipper which you know

very well i'm trying to find stats on montour does he defend well does he defend or is he exactly morgan riley i don't really know does morgan defend really well to the numbers no no Stats on Montour. Does he defend well? Does he defend or is he exactly Morgan Riley? I don't really know. Does Morgan defend really well to the numbers? No. No. So they're probably similar. But playoff Morgan does.

Yeah, his numbers were off the charts. Yeah, he was good in every single department. But you knew that was coming. I wish we did on this show. We'd look like geniuses. I heard Edge on fan drive time yesterday which was an awesome interview if you have a chance go check it out on the podcast the wrestler adam copeland and he legitimately was like i always believe in morgan riley and there's so many people in the media talked about him during

the regular season how bad he was and i was like oh did he mention you by name? I was like, oh. Did he say that to Sam? Homer Simpson-ing into the bushes? I was like, Edge, please. Please don't talk about it. Should we have our coach talk? Would he give his take on the Panthers? Do you want to hear what he thinks of Florida? Yes, I do. Let's hear Keefe on the Panthers.

There's a lot to handle with this team. You know, I think the type of season they had, they flew under the radar in a lot of ways. You know, but it's just to many, maybe they call it a surprise that they're here. And that's probably more to do with who they played and who they beat than it is about them. I mean, this team won the President's Trophy a year ago. And, you know, a guy like Kachuk has come in and is playing better

than he ever has throughout this season. And they've been playing playoff- hockey for for quite an amount of time you know they've they're one of the top offenses in the nhl at five on five so there's a lot to contend with there and you can see how and why they're able to put it all together uh so you know we've got a great deal of respect for their game and and feel good about our game and excited to get back at it so So he's doing the thing he always does. They're the best team in the world. It doesn't work. He has not had success with this tack,

trying to get his team to take slightly less than perfect teams seriously. Where do we have Alexander Barkov in this series? You know, once upon a time, we were talking about him as almost pushing towards that Connor McDavid, Dreisaitl, Matthews, top guys in the league. He had a lot of Kopitar sales pitches too, yeah. And he's got a goal in these playoffs in seven games, and he did look good Saturday or the game seven. I thought he was big and strong,

but do we just assume that this guy's going to have to shut down Austin Matthews in this series? Well, that is the curious thing. Like, do they just view him as a defensive guy? Because he had 80 points in 70 games this year you know like he's he still produces offense for them 23 goals i don't know i don't know it'll be interesting to see if they want to run that head-to-head i feel like matthews has had a harder time with like was it dino or you know sorelli someone like guys that are a little more in your face. Like Barkov is not, he doesn't take any penalties, does he?

He ate Pimms last year. So that's Matthews. But he's elite defensively. That's fine. Matthews is fine with that. He's just elite in my mind. But isn't it better that he's elite in a non-aggressive way for Matthews? But Danone's not nasty.

Nah, but he's a little bit more ratty. I don't know. He's just meh. Is this he's a little bit more ratty. I don't know. He's just... Is this just a looks thing? Maybe it is. Annoying is the word, I think. Maybe that's it. Annoying, yeah.

That's all I mean. I don't feel like Barkov... Barkov's good. He's really good. Oh, he's good. Great spots, good stick, big body. Like, go through me. Strong on his skates.

Yeah. Like, he's good. But he's not mean. In fact, he's borderline kind. And I wanted to mention this. Carter Verhage, who was obviously a Leafs pick back in 2013, with his overtime winner in Game 7, he has 10 career playoff— Oh, my God.

He's dead. We lost him. He died. Want me to read this? Okay. Carter Verhage has played 10 career playoff goals his uh guess how many of them are game winners he's dead what happened i'm sure we've been working for two years now it's a shame we'll get someone else

i've never seen him disappear before to go oh my god go to the washroom yeah but you okay? Yeah, I'm all right. I just had a little speck of dust. Verhage, five game-winning goals in his first 10 playoff goals. The all-time record? Clark Gilley's friends. Seven of his first 10 playoff goals were game-winning goals for the New York Islanders.

That's not bad. It's not a bad number. Carter Verhage, I think, had two stints in the ECHL. I watched him closely in Syracuse in the American League. I was like, he's okay. He's fine. He's got 40 in the NHL. 40 in the NHL.

Don't hire me as your head scout. Making five schmil right now. Yeah. Listen, I'm wrong a lot. They were trying to, that was like the trade they made to get rid of all those contracts when lou that's right yeah they traded like seven seven guys they traded taylor beck christopher gibson matt finn uh thomas nielsen and carter verhage for michael grabner yeah here's all our players that's a trade. Okay. Are you okay to do some house cleaning? You're going to choke.

That was, it just snuck up on me. That never happens. Oh, yeah. I'm going full Patrice Bergeron back here. Oh, use another name. How about you just retire? It's time. Retire, old man.

It's time for Playoff Picks, presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds. So I was looking to, okay. I was looking today and they had these up now called, they're called final exact forecast. So you can bet on what the final is going to be and who's going to win. The favorite of course is the Leafs to beat the Oilers in the final at 11 to one. Kipper, what?

Sportsnet. First of all, that got a hell of a lot more realistic over the weekend. With the Rangers losing. And the Bruins. Toronto and Edmonton. Yeah. That got way more realistic. Yeah.

So at this point, Kipper, what would be your pick? Who to beat who? The most likely Stanley Cup final? Yeah. your pick who to beat who the most likely stanley cup final yeah well first of all okay are you gonna say it's ways away i'm not doing this i'm not doing this right now let's do it no you're gonna no no no okay all right i'm not doing it now all right what about you bernie they're not even played game one in the second round okay well devil's oil stop, well. Devil's Oilers. Stop it, Sammy.

Devil's Oilers? Devil's Oilers. Devil's to beat the Oilers? Or Oilers to beat the Devils? Oilers to beat the Devils. You guys knock it off. That would be 16 to 1 if you're interested in something like that. We just watch game one.

No, we can't. We don't know who's hurt, who's not. I'm going to be over here on a throne of money when it's happening. Right now, it's just a fantasy. Leave it that way. Okay. And Kipper, since you think the Leafs are going to sweep the Florida Panthers, do you want to bet on that?

I'll give them one in Florida. Okay. The Leafs to win the series in five is plus 350, so three and a half to one, which is not a great number. And you mentioned something before we came on air, the cons-myth odds. There's a guy way down the list at 50 to 1 morgan riley morgan 50 to 1 he's you can get a real morgan and uh and martyrs i bought it for 10 the two guys that drove it and then samsonov's game six

for sure morgan to me is the mvp right there so you know if he has a couple more big goals for them they win a cup he's the storied toronto guy but i think the narrative in that if you get to that point could work against you that it's like oh it's either margaret matthews in that scenario boy regardless of how right people love morgan though oh yeah you love him you know he's a great quote yeah passionate guy anyway 10 bucks got it 500 i thought i'd chuck it he had all he checked all the boxes in the first round and um kipper this will make you happy uh marner is second on the lease in terms of favorites for the conspire he's gonna have to series here too as well all right okay and that was playoff picks presented by bet 365 visit the app for the latest odds after the break jeff ch Chikrin, former NHL or Panthers TV analyst,

will get his thoughts on game one and the momentum that Matthew Ketchuk brings. All after the break. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne. Breaking down the top stories in the NHL every day. The Jeff Marys Show. 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. That's Stephen Kopik. Panthers win tonight. Kipper and Born are drinking way too many little Buddha cocktails. It ain't me.

You're not going behind my back, are you? No, listen. No cocktails here. I'm just regular dumb. All right. Here's a guy I've shared a few cocktails with. Let's welcome in Jeff Chikrin, who does a great job on Panthers TV alongside Ed Jovanovsky. Hey, Chick, thanks for doing this, man. How are you?

Those booters, I can't wait to get the White Lake on the trail. We didn't have those in Hershey, Pennsylvania back in the day. No, we did not. So I told these guys that we were roommates once upon a time. We were. I love the trips up to Newmarket because I always got to go to your parents' restaurant

and you guys fed me like a king. When we're making under $100 net a day in the American Hockey League, that was huge. Those steaks, your parents would feed us. All right, so you're the perfect guy to ask this. What are the Panthers eating these days? And you've been covering them all season long with Jovo down there. Like, come on, on a scale of 1 to 10, how surprised are you that they are even in this position today? Yeah, I think going into the Boston Series, obviously with the historical, statistical year

that the Bruins had, you thought it was going to be... For them to come out of it, I'm really surprised. When I sort of look back to a year ago and the year prior to that, two years ago, I thought they gave Tampa the toughest playoff series. They lost to them in six. Tampa went on to win the Cup and really, in my opinion,

gave them all they could handle at that point. Last year, they beat the Caps. Probably shouldn't have won. But coming off that President's Trophy season it seems like you know there's been a lot of growth in that hockey club and a lot of experiences in the past three four years uh from quenville to uh andrew burnett and now to maurice and a lot of the things they they worked on all year was really just be better away from the puck and be comfortable in those tight hockey games that, man, I'm telling you, games five, six, and seven against Boston,

it was almost like Paul Maurice wrote a script from day one of training camp in September, how it was all going to play out. So what has changed for this team? I know, Daniel, the last 25 games or what have you, you know, they were very good. And I know that they played at a 92-point pace over the whole season, but they were much better than that

towards the end of the year. What areas improved for them that allowed them to take those strides? You're right, much better the past 20, some odd games anyway. I think they just figured it out, right? Yeah. You know, this is a team that really outscored their problems

for two and a half seasons. They weren't very good when Joel Quindle took over. I know that because it was my first year broadcasting. I thought this job was really hard. I didn't know how to handle the postgame. But really, sort of going into this year, I think when Zito interviewed Paul Maurice. Excuse me, guys.

I'm caught there. You okay? Paul Maurice in the offseason. Yeah, I'm okay. I'm good. Sorry, Nicky. No, no problem. I just finished something.

Step out of the box if you need. We got a clock on you. Okay, good. I think he promised he'd get this club to work hard. out of the box if you need. We got a clock on you. Okay, good. I think he promised he'd get this club to work hard and work hard away from the puck and sort of change their style. They played Tampa a year ago, and after having all those points,

they couldn't defend them. They couldn't play well in their own zone. I don't think they managed the pucks well at all against Tampa and just lost to a much better hockey club at the time, and they needed to make some changes. And I think Bill Zito kept that crew, the coaching staff, for two years and finally decided he wanted to get his own group, leave his own mark, and decided to bring in Paul Maurice.

And really from day one, I remember first day of training camp, Mo said, you know what, we didn't do much other than do a lot of work three feet from the wall. And that was a completely different mindset than they had before. It was all freewheeling and puck possession. And I think all year he never wanted to slow them down because he always felt they had that DNA of being a high potent high powered offensive juggernaut and he didn't want to slow them down and all year they're analytically their

expected goals was really great they didn't always score a lot there were times when they really actually struggled the power play was was a bit of a mystery um but their PK kicked in sort of January and with their PK the work ethic sort of kicked in. And with the work ethic, they started playing 60 full minutes a game. And then they started – I don't think they – I don't think they won two games all year in a row up until late January. And then that sort of kicked in a little bit. Then they got a little bit of life when Lyon came in and had the spot for

Bobrovsky, and then Brofsky found his game. And there's just been a lot of things that sort of culminated at this playoff series. And I think Boston was taken by surprise just how good this team was, especially, Nicky, five on five, where they might have even, I don't say dominated, but they were good, or maybe even better than the Boston Bruins five on five throughout that series.

So it's been a bit of a process. but they were good or maybe even better than the Boston Bruins five-on-five throughout that series. So it's been a bit of a process. There's some continuity. The third line in Florida really changed a lot this year, and that sort of hurt them at times, but they've really come a long way. Lendl and Luster Reinen with Reinhardt were really good against Boston, particularly the last, let's say, last three games when they really needed to step up. So a lot of things, a lot of good things happened.

And, you know, they just, they found a way. Game six, I think they were down three times in the third period, found a way to win that game. It was a lot of fun, I got to tell you. I was in that building. I wasn't working that game, but couldn't believe what I was seeing. We're talking to Florida Panthers TV analyst,

former NHLer Jeff Chikrin. work in that game but couldn't believe what i was seeing we're talking to florida panthers tv analyst former nhl or jeff chickering uh chick where do you where do you put the keith kachuk comments on the team being soft and yes there's there's there's white noise out there but then there's the dad of one of your top players on the team in terms of sensitivity in terms of getting these guys to look themselves in the mirror did did that happen you know i i don't think matthew ever had a whole lot of comments on that and i think maybe i don't think try to sweep it out of the rug i think that's a pretty big elephant in the room to not have some kind of remnants in the room i i would think maybe there was some quiet conversations amongst the guys but i honestly don't know i know what my son would have said to me if i came up with those comments very loud and then very quiet

yeah so but you know listen keith you know ke Keith's resume in this game, right? He's probably a borderline Hall of Fame player. He was one of the best U.S.-born players ever. And he has a lot of emotion with what he says and a lot of thought. And, you know, if he felt it, then, you know, good on him for having the confidence to say it. I'm just not sure I could have said it. Well, I know I couldn't have.

Interesting time, that's for sure. Nicky, you know me. Well, and specifically, that's an area they tried to change, right? From last year's playoff team, they wanted to become a more physical, gritty team. Where are they on the physicality scale compared to most NHL teams? Well, I think they have, I think like a lot of teams, they have a lot of unique personalities on that roster.

You know, you have Radko Gudis, who's always looking to put a shoulder into someone and light them up with a big hit. You know, we've got Nick Cousins, who, you know, always willing to grind it out. Eric Scull, who plays a really quiet, tough ground of hockey on that fourth line for a potential Hall of Famer. And listen, I'm kind of embarrassed we haven't talked about

Alexander Barkov at this point, but Matthew Kachuk, listen, his year was almost historic. It was one of his best seasons ever. He became such a smart hockey player because he doesn't take penalties anymore. He was suspended for putting a stick in Jonathan Quick's mask early in the year.

I think he got his wrist slapped for a couple of games and he really learned from it. So smart. In my opinion, the guy that drives that physical edge for this hockey club is Sam Bennett. And he's probably at this point, he's as elite a centerman, I think, at this point as Alexander Barkov, the way they sort of trade off that 1-1-8 position.

And I think the analytics with Nick in the lineup as opposed to out, it's shockingly one-sided how well the Panthers play. But really, he came in in game two of that Bruins series. They really had a tough time getting that puck, making it to that middle of the ice, you know, where, you know, those dirty areas to get the goals to really grind up against that big Bruins defense. And it all changed in game two.

They lit up Boston up for four goals. And it just brought about this physical air of confidence, in my opinion, amongst the group. And really, really changed the series. I mean, because they were in trouble after game one, I thought, and really rebounded well in game two. There's no question what the goaltender, Lyon, did for the Panthers down the stretch here.

We saw Bobrovsky finish off the Boston Bruins. I think Lyon left the ice early today. I heard that. The suggestion is that he'll start. Who would you start? And, you know, just talking about Bobrovsky here, such disappointment after disappointment on a big contract. Is this his big chance here to rectify all of that?

I think we all have short memories, right? And I think so. What have you done for me lately? You know, he played either big enough, well enough. At times, made a couple of huge great saves against the Bruins, but he played well enough to help that club win the last three games, three games of the series anyway. And, yeah, I think, you know,

Mo was very frank about it when he brought Bobrovsky in that, you know, they're paying him a lot of money to win a playoff series and expects him to come in and take control and win that playoff series for them or put them into position to win that playoff series. So, yeah, clearly the pressure on him, I'm sure he obviously wants that responsibility. But listen, Bob, I was talking to Ron Hextall about his years in Philadelphia, and his work ethic's really second to none. You know, I don't know at 34 if he's an elite goaltender in this league. I think there are times when he can play that way. But there's no doubt that he wants,

he wants the net and wants the puck, you know? And, but boy, you, you almost need a two headed monster in this league today. I'm cause I'm surprised. So you asked me,

I would start Sergei Bobrovsky today. That would be my, you know, he played one tree in a row against the Boston Bruins. Why would you make the change? Unless, you know, there was was something, unless there was an issue or I don't know. You can't fault the moves Paul Maurice has done since January with the goaltenders because he's been right an awful lot. And so you said Lyon was the first one off. So who knows?

Who knows tonight? We're all going to find out. I don't have any insight. Wish I had some for you today, guys. Are you doing great so far, Chick? Yeah, we're just trying to fill in our listeners on a Florida Panthers team that they may not know super well. There's a couple of guys who are important to the Panthers.

Gustav Forsling plays a lot of minutes for them that I don't think people know much about him and A2 Luster Reynon, if I'm saying that right. A couple of really good players for the Panthers. I tried my best. Luster Reynon, he's played up and down the lineup.

He was sort of that, he was a fourth line center a year ago. And didn't really get moved around too much a year ago. They were kind of running high. And they had a pretty stable lineup throughout the season. So didn't get a lot of key minutes. And then this year they started out. I don't remember who was out.

But he really played up and down that lineup. In the middle, on the wing. And he's got that nice big frame, moves, skates well, like a lot of those guys from that part of the world that have a great set of hands. And he scored some key goals. I think he's really still developing in a lot of his personality, really learning to use the forecheck as an offensive tool as part of his regimen. Because I think a lot of those players that come into this league,

they're all fairly high draft picks. They all possess the puck so much as kids come to whatever system they're in. So they get to this level and they have to learn maybe a couple of other avenues to produce, whether it's offense or whatnot, to keep themselves in the lineup. And he's really playing that 200-foot game really well. Oh, do stop forcing. Yeah. Came in when Joel Quenville was here still as a waiver pickup.

Joel had him in Chicago. And all he's done since he's come in is played 23, 24 minutes a night for three years quietly with Aaron Eckblad. And Eckie was, you know, he's had his battles this year, I think health-wise for a lot of it, playing some really good hockey now again on the defensive side of the puck. But Sporza, just the steadier foot, he blocks shots. He takes them all.

Not unlike Nick Chalmerson would have done in Chicago many years ago. You know, obviously not that elite defensive defenseman like that because he uses his four edges well. He gets up the ice. He's got a bit of a ball. He can really shoot it. You know, and all he gets on a power play is maybe some mop-up and not often.

So whatever offense he puts up is really understated because he doesn't get a lot of those key minutes out there. But really, really solid, solid hockey player and a huge find for this hockey club when they need it. They've got two waiver pickups. Josh Maher as well playing on the third group back there with Radko Goudas. Gives us, you know, 13, 14 hard minutes a night. Grind it out.

And a couple of really nice pickups. One more, Chick, quickly before we let you go. And that is, speaking of the defense on Florida, Montour. Is this guy just playing over his head, or is there a chance that he can seamlessly carry this team in the second round? Yeah, he's been really spectacular all year, and he's really had to fight for it, too.

Like, he's never been, was never given anything more than the three, four sort of slotting since he's been in, in, in Florida. In fact, I think he was on probably the fifth guy there when he first got here from Buffalo. But Nicky,

he skates, he's an elite skater. He's got a bomb of a shot. And you know what you're going to appreciate when you watch him play the least, not a dirty player at all, skater. He's got a bomb of a shot. You know what you're going to appreciate? When you watch him play the Leafs, not a dirty player at all, but he's always in on the chirping action going on

back and forth. Plays big minutes against key players and you're going to love the way he plays. Mike Bullard called me not long ago and said he coached him in midget hockey somewhere outside of Brantford. I don't

fully take any credit for but he's had a heck of a year and what a bomb everything he touched in that first round and in sort of the last half of the year has had an offensive upside exactly yeah fun guy to watch all right pal listen really appreciate your thoughts and your

time enjoy the second round and we'll catch up soon, okay? Thank you, guys. I really enjoy it. Enjoy it, too. A lot of Ontario boys on that club, so there'll be a lot of fans. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, it was awesome.

Jeff Chikrin. No, Jacob Chikrin's dad. That's right. That's how he's really remembered now. Yeah, that's funny. I've been Bob Bourne's son my whole life. How come he can't be Jacob Chikrin's dad? Let's even it out here uh just what like one thought and i totally agree with him uh sam bennett

is so underrated i love that guy that was a wild assessment of him as sort of yeah him and barkoff kind of 1a 1b on the same level i am a huge sam bennett guy if we're taking kipper victory laps here i also remember kipper getting annihilated for saying the least you trade nick robertson for sam bennett thank you sam yeah thank you that happened i would have pushed that one so fast oh my god and he i don't know what the feeling was around the league but like they florida didn't even have to spend a first rounder to get him i think it was two second rounders at the end of the day when they moved him and you know that was one i think brad tree living would have liked back but watching him against boston in game seven he was traded for

um emil heinemann and the second round pick in the 2022 draft for David Goyette. So a second round pick. And that kid was a second round pick, I think. David Goyette. He was the pick. David Goyette. Okay. All right.

I see. Yeah. Oh, okay. You got what I'm saying there? Yeah, yeah. I got it. I was confused. It turned into him.

Yeah. Yeah. Sam, it's going to be a pain in the ass. Sam Bennett had 40 points in 60 games this year, 16 goals, 54 penalty minutes. You know, like that's an effective guy. 17 and a half minutes ice time. Yeah. No matter.

Just wanted to mention Bobrovsky. Leafs have really had their way with Bobrovsky. They have. You know, I think in the Matthewsews marna era marner era he's four four and one three six two goals against eight eight seven say percentage that may have something to do with john tavaris lion may be getting the start tonight john tavaris has 11 against him willie newlander has seven oh my god it's a soccer net versus him. 11. Yeah. 11. Yeah. He's got some success against.

Like, I think you're honest up in there, Kipper, with the most recent guy that they saw was Lyon, who stood on their head. And, I mean, you've played hockey your whole life. You just know if there's a goal you know you can score on all the time. That's a big-time mental thing. Being like, oh, I'm not afraid of this guy at all like that that matters yeah yeah okay we'll take a quick break mike feudal former nhl executive sports net hockey analyst and maybe a future general manager of calgary flames let's ask him

after the break so glad you're aboard as we get ready for game one of the second round florida panthers versus toronto maple leafs if you like the show so far, give us a thumbs up. Love to hear from you on YouTube. Back after the break. Get smarter when you listen to Hockey Talk, the Hockey PDO cast with Dimitri Filipovich. 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. Still no word officially from the National Hockey League on Game 3 between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers, but they're making it a best of two, I heard. Building issues for for sure. In one of the cities, possibly Seattle. That's going to have a domino effect on TV scheduling.

It's hilarious when there's building issues because cities didn't plan on their teams having success, and they're like, ooh, did not think you'd be here in May. Sorry. Seattle in the second round probably was a long cut. Yeah. We have Taylor Swift here. You've got to do something different.

From Taylor Swift to Mike Fuda. Equally famous to us. Can you sing? Can you dance? Neither. I got nothing. Neither. Nothing either.

How about on us? I'm great at a wedding, but I'm glad my life's a wedding. No problem. How did you enjoy the first round? Well, fortunately, I mean, I enjoyed it. I mean, I thought some of the hockey wasn't great. I mean, some of it was outstanding. I mean, I wouldn't want to be a gambler.

Holy smokes. I'm laughing at some of the results there, but good on teams. I mean, you see some of those results. Like I sat beside Borny all year trying to figure out Seattle and kind of just waiting for that domino to drop, and good on them. And they earned it. I mean, they definitely earned it, and so did the Florida Panthers. So it's going to be a lot of fun.

It should be interesting to see what – I mean, I looked at that Leafs-Series Kip room. I mean, I looked at that that Leafs series, Kip, I mean, you know, you've gone the distance before, and I don't think things could have really gone any better for them in a sense that, you know, one, they didn't play their best. I mean, Tampa had the puck most of the time, and that's not knocking their play, but they

didn't play their best. They still found ways to win. You know, whatever the old Albatross or Slade Dragon or Monkey off the back. They did that. They kind of established themselves with a clear number one goalie. They've maintained somehow got home ice back and they showed their depth, right?

They came out relatively unscathed with no injuries and, you know, Sheldon Keith still got options to change the lineup up. So all's good, but I wouldn't underestimate this next fall. I'll tell you. Well, that's what I wanted to hear from you. How do you think the Leafs stack up against a Panthers team that was good towards the end of the regular season and just toppled the Giant? Well, I'll tell you, Warren.

I was at, I didn't disbelieve. I started to watch it. It's almost like you start to hear about it as you really start to watch the series closer because obviously, like everybody else, I was like, I was a little concerned when I saw the scratch, like when saw you know wow Bergeron's out and this looks like for a while and Cratchy's out and you know they're they're still missing some big boys and Allmark was looking not anywhere near the form that he showed in the regular season but you're still just thinking this is

this is too big of a disparity I think you know they're they're going to find a way to get this done and then as you watched it it wasn't just like there was a team just hanging on. They were taking it to them, and they were taking it to them in Boston as well. So good on them because I watched the game live. Florida came into Toronto, and they were supposed to be in desperate mode. They hadn't clinched yet, and they absolutely sucked. I don't know whether you remember the game. That's the game that Maurice had the absolute conniption on the bench

at the time out where he just absolutely F-bombed himself into almost delirium. But, I mean, that did not look like a team that, you know, you were just praying that's a guy. I hope this team gets in because we're going to destroy them in the first round. But good on them, the way they played, and obviously adding Bennett back in the lineup, they seem to, I mean, I guess Lions start tonight.

I don't know whether they just flip a coin or whatever, but they're a tough team to play against. And the funny thing, it'll be interesting to see how their success, because with Tampa, the guys that want to draw you into the muck on Tampa are their fourth liners, like Perrys and Maroons and stuff like that. And the guys that draw you into the muck on Tampa are their fourth liners, like Perry's and Maroon's and stuff like that. And the guys that draw you into the muck on this team are their stars. So it'll be interesting to see because, you know, you don't want that trade-off of, you know, whereas whatever,

you'll have Shen take out, you know, fight Janot or get into it with Maroon. This is a different thing when you've got, you know, arguably, you know, if everybody has their little consummate pick after the first round right now, maroon this is a different thing when you've got you know arguably you know if you're everybody has their little consummate pick after the first round right now mine would probably be to chuck number one and martyr number two but it's like these guys are playing a special kind of hockey and and this guy's this guy we use throw around unicorn this guy is to chuck is different in every aspect of the way he plays the game and he's just like i't, I think the Leafs are too deep to will him through a series, but I wouldn't bet against him.

And I mean, Bennett has been outstanding. You know, obviously Verhege's probably got something to prove being a former Leaf that was kind of cast off in a, it wasn't Dubas, but in a previous regime. So it'll be interesting. I mean, the health factor, I mean, Eckblad always looks to me like he's one hit away from being back in the press box and stuff like that.

And, you know, Gudish has been playing above his pay grade with just the same, you know, snarly dirtbag style he always does. But it'll be interesting. Maurice seems to have them playing at their best time. And for one thing, when you're playing with house money and believing in yourself, anything can happen.

And especially there's no reason for me to think that the Leafs should be after all they've come through to get through a round should take a team lightly but I'll wait till we see what comes pouring out of the gate tonight. We're talking to Mike Feud a former NHL executive with the LA Kings who once upon a time was an eighth seed if I'm not mistaken. You speak from experience on what the panthers are doing as a a huge underdog here what comes to mind first and foremost for teams like la and and florida to make noise this time of year well i i thought about it kipper because we had to win i think we had to play 850 hockey down the stretch to get in. And then when we got in and at the time,

Vancouver was like sipping out of a, you know, coconut umbrella drink. They were so far home and cooled out. They hadn't had a tough game in ages

and we just came in and just took them into the trenches and just outworked them and banged them. And Jonathan Quick at the time, there was no question,

like, you know, you're kind of really happy when Bobrovsky's good and you know you love what Lyon's done but we Jonathan Quick was playing out of his mind so we never had any questions in that and honestly that would have been like us taking on the Bruins at the time and they're gone so the one thing you do look and you look at that path when you're you all of a sudden beat the Vancouver Canucks and And then we go in and just had a, we beat, we swept St. Louis, but I think we had three overtime or three double overtimes.

It was like a very fake sweep. I mean, great in the sense that you get to, and we were healthy too, which was, was really good. All things considered, but you look at the Leafs now, the path changing dramatically where everybody saw, you know, we've got to slay the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now we've got to slay the Boston Bruins, our other nemesis. So you can't take anything off the brick, especially because you're healthy. But, I mean, this is one of those things that you don't want to say it,

but by all accounts, it's a better matchup than a healthy Boston Bruins. And there's no easy matchup, but it's a better matchup based on the way they've played them and the way they've played them and the way they played them in the past. So it'll be really interesting to see how they maintain, but in our 2012 Kipper, we got through those two battles and it wasn't that it was an easy next round, but Nashville was heavily favored to beat Arizona. And that's who we were going to play in the conference final.

And Arizona poured everything into it, injuries and all the take out nashville we had not a great record against and then we got arizona and it was just like feast for us on them in the third round of the playoffs so that's the path that comes when you start to see all these heavyweights fall to the side this early i could never have imagined happening this early give you a little more colorado with their injuries but not so much the bruins and and some of the other big dogs that have dropped. But, hey, it makes it fun to watch.

I'm sure the league's looking around, seeing the original six teams on the sidelines and going, oof. Not great for HR. I could say when you see the Rangers and the Bruins going out in the first round. Cat's not going up anytime soon. Rangers, Bruins, Islandersers los angeles minnesota like massive markets yes i think maybe i have some blue and white face painting going on at the league office right now like sick dallas this is awesome um feud so you've seen this happen you know these

playoff rounds and how things change in round one the first few games are chaos they're intense they're physical but it kind of tapers off a little bit as that first round goes on penalties stop getting called later in the round what typically happens round to round as you move into the second round or the third round do you see an intensity drop off or what do you think is most typical in the postseason how important rest is yeah how important health is like that i don't know now i mean you're saying guys like we were it was always just day on day off day on day off and then in certain times like if you're a west coast team you know you're waiting for the league to tell you do you play at two in the afternoon or going to when there's still

a lot of teams left but really it's it's basically rest and repetition you don't really even see guys come out of the gutter and you you'll start to see like i remember the how you looked at doug gilmore how the weight loss comes into play like by the end of the playoffs that gilmar used to look like a ghost and this will be really interesting because uh we talked about uh for one we've always talked about this was different right this list team's different well for a certain portion of that first round, these new Leafs got to see what wasn't different, what it's like when the city is not happy with the way things are going on

and, you know, the dark cloud starts to come over it. Now they overcame it, which is great, but they've got a taste of it. And I think they would probably want to avoid that feeling again. But, again, the biggest thing in the goalkeeper is like, you start to see the guys that are dropping. Now, the only team that I've seen, I guess I got to give credit to after the first couple of games, New Jersey and probably Seattle and 100% the Carolina Hurricanes.

They're the only teams that every game I've watched have come shot out of a cannon. And that's, well, Rod Brindamore for sure. I got to give full credit to Hackstall because I didn't think, after watching Seattle last year, that was even in their MO. And you got to give credit to New Jersey for how hard and how fast they come out. Now some of these others, and the Leafs have been one of them. I mean, there's no reason for me to think tonight why the Leafs would want to come out

and see what the Florida Panthers have to offer, right? This should be a reminder right away that we're healthy, we're skilled, and we're coming into your face. So again, it's just establishing. You've got to get the flag first. It's a new thing for these guys now. 80% of that dressing room is coming out tonight, and they're used to, respectfully, they're either cleaning out their lockers. This is new. This should be an invigorating thing to coming out, especially in front of your home crowd and seeing a different jersey across from you in a playoff round.

And that should be motivating enough to just realize how special this is. You can't look far down. I know everybody else wants to look far down the road. But there's so much. You know everybody now, Kipper, they do that. Everybody does it differently, but they put that puck in. It signifies how far you've gone. They've got four pucks for the first time in that thing in the wall.

It's so far away, that 16th puck, but you have to take every day like it's your last. Again, those little battles, like here we've seen the first round. Well, you know, when they do that, if they do have that success, the things that are going to stand out to me or that are going to be in like that year-end video is when Knees just took that puck off the goal line, right?

They're little things. It's not even a goal, but they're the things that change the whole dynamic of a series and the time it changed. So there's going to be more of those moments um there's going to be calls that you think should have gone your way should come back there's going to be bounces that go off skates but you've got that's all part of progressing down the road is not leaving try and take everything that's in your control and

benefit from that because there's going to be a lot of stuff that's out of your control we'd be to be bounces injuries and the leafs so far have passed the test and again my biggest point is i don't think they've played near their best hockey but they advanced hey foods where's alexander barkov for you it seemed a few years ago he was on a trajectory to be arguably the third or fourth best centerman in the game. And I think he's still a very good player, but what is realistic for him in this series and how good does he have to be to get Florida seriously in this series?

We're going to find out, Kipper. And I mean, I know that when we, and I was still, when he was draft here and stuff everybody was telling me this is this is kopitar but he might have more offensive upside right and so again you don't see him enough you hear anytime anybody says he's the most undervalued i think even the players call him the most underappreciated or uh player in the league well here you go here's's Bright Lakes, big city. First time Anze Kopitar had Bright Lakes, big city.

He just took it on and he's becoming, he's going to be a hall of famer. You know, like nobody really knew who we were coming out of LA. You know, Dowdy was a big name, but it's always like, who is this Kopitar? You know, and then people started to see how many older vet, like the Carters and the Richards and stuff that we had along with our homegrown talent. But this is going to be it this is his even after the first period i don't think the first series everybody's talking about to chuck and and bennett and you know bar whatever the goaltender stood up and you know earned 10 million dollars for a couple games but nobody really said barkov took over a series or he shut somebody down and did what it is.

This, to me, is so similar to 2012 when Andrzej Kopitar, the bright lights came on, and he just took it to another level. And by the time it was over, people were like, who the hell is this Kopitar? And then it was Selke, Selke, another cup. And he's written his own ticket because he's backed it up in the big lights. This is Barkov's big chance to do it because he, from all, everybody I've said, incredible teammate. You don't just strap a C on a European player who's not a special person as well. And I think this is a huge,

huge moment for him to shine because we know what the Chuck's going to come to the plate. They're going to bring to the plate. You know, we, we know some of the other guys on Florida, but this is a time that Barkov has to be a superstar. Looking forward to it as it gets underway in a little over three hours. Fuchs,

thanks for doing this, pal. Thanks, Kipper. Thanks, Borny. One quick hit. What's up, pal? I gotta tell you, it's not too often we get any predictions right, but your breakout player, I don't know if you remember, first show, Rupi Hintz. Hey, he's a star.

And I'm not letting you go. Every squirrel finds a nut. Okay, listen, I promised our listeners and our viewers, Calgary Flame update. How'd your interview go? It hasn't happened yet, Kip. Okay, I'm sorry. Thank you yet, Kep. Oh, okay. I'm sorry.

Thank you for bringing that up. Okay. In all seriousness, how surprised Daryl Sutter out? Not surprised. And I think the organization, and this is, listen, you're never going to hear me say anything because my experience with Daryl Sutter is two Stanley Cups. My name's right beside his name in the second one.

And for what he did for our team, I'll always be grateful and I'll consider him a great friend. But I don't think this was his best year. I don't think, I think between the interviews and some of the stuff, you've got to learn how to adjust. You know, you can't, we had 15 captains in our room in Los Angeles to deal with, you know, the way he wanted to coach and push buttons. And there's a team there that still hasn't named a captain

that didn't respond to it. And when you start to hear, you know, the things that filtered out, you know, it was, it's, I just, at least it looks like someone's getting the process right from the outside tipper in a sense that they're now going to allow whoever, you know, Donnie did his due diligence. Now he's, instead of just, you know, forcing did his due diligence now he's instead of just you know forcing a coach upon a general manager or he's doing it properly that they're going to interview somebody for a

general manager position whoever gets that position is going to be allowed to put his own coach in his place talk about his own scouts and that's generally the way it's worked out well for teams as opposed to when you get a coach and or you hire your president third you know it's just it's worked out well for teams as opposed to when you get a coach or you hire your president third. It seems like they're doing their due diligence and yeah, absolutely. I'd love to be a part of things as we move forward, but I'm sure there's going to be a lot of great

candidates. Just got to keep working hard at it. I've always got sports net to fall back on and you guys. We love having you. Any truth to the rumors, Assistant General Manager fall back on, and you guys, you know. Ah, love it. Love it. We love having you. Any truth to the rumors, assistant general manager, Justin Bourne, after you get named? I tried to get Bourne.

Bourne, he loves what he's doing now. You guys are all so close to your family and friends here. I talked to him earlier about if you ever wanted to get back into it, and he shunned me away. But you never know. I got to find myself a job before i start trying to find people to employ under me or with me oh yeah well uh i'll uh i'll send you my resume feuts well just in case i appreciate it what about kipper as director of

everything else i'll take care of the uh after drinks with Little Buddha. Okay. Director of branding. Hey, Foots, wish you all the best of luck with it, man. And thanks for always coming on. Hey, keep Sammy on the respirator. He's got to be just loving this. Yeah, he's okay today. He's okay. We will, Foots.

Thanks. Okay. Thanks, guys. Take care. Bye-bye. Mike Futa. Starting to hear a word that game three, Sunday night. Oh, that's terrible.

Sunday night and Oilers, Saturday at four. That's terrible. 4 p.m. Sunday night. For the Edmonton Oilers. Game three of the second round of the playoffs on a Sunday night. That's rotten. Got to be some people hot

under the collar in this same building as us today. Yeah, that bites. Saturday, so what games are going to be then? We're going to get Seattle-Dallas or something? I'm sour. I'm unthrilled. Yeah. So,

don't they know that it's succession night? That's hasn't been officially announced, but that's what I'm Yeah. So it's... Well, listen... Don't they know that it's succession night? That's... It hasn't been officially announced, so... But that's what I am hearing now. I'm pre-mad. I'm not fully mad. I'm just pre-mad.

That's a big fast turnaround, too. For everybody. Yeah, and it's succession night. Don't they know that? It's the greatest television show of all time. It starts at 9... It's getting a little too technical for me oh it's kipper loving it oh i love it the last episode was a little bit underwhelming but

this season has been phenomenal and i just i like watching i can't wait till one of them succeeds the guy i like watching it with my wife every sunday i look forward to it all week i miss him a lot the spoilers oh really oh Spoilers. Oh, really? It's been four or five It's been long enough. I think you're good. I'm fine. I'm good. Bunkus did it the day after. Day after Bunk was just like

Ugh. Yeah, anyways. Nobody said F.U. better than him in the history of movies or TV. His F his f you is up there with uh what's his name's sh word and from the wire which was elite i uh logan was awesome i saw a interview with the actors of brian cox the actor yes and he's like all these people come up to me all the time and they tell me like can i get can i get a video you telling me to f off he's like it's a dream because i want to tell you and i just do it he could get

he could get like a thousand dollars on cameo oh my god it's the best thing ever uh memo or whatever you call those things god i just want to say it's so bad but probably shouldn't all right rangers truba well listen uh you guys shocked a little bit uh on uh on how quickly this turned on daryl sutter in calgary no no also no no way you do well listen they all made a million dollars yeah i'm shocked come on i mean that that's got to be one of the toughest pills to swallow. His two-year extension is expensive. Yeah. To say goodbye.

I don't know, man. Like, you hire people who, you know, doesn't, people don't enjoy being around, frankly. I don't know how you can expect it to last, and maybe that's why his extension was only two years after winning coach of the year but like i find it hard to be sympathetic to the flames or their ownership group who you know put someone in power is not not a people person in 2023 can you see craig conroy or aginla going in there now and a couple of smiles right there. Did you see that?

Is he working there? Who's that again? Let's see work for them. No, but the suggestion is much like Alfredson, maybe on the outside, looking in and could easily step in, in some capacity.

Of course, Craig Conroy has been there forever. And a lot of people think that's a natural fit for him but I'm not sure on an a mature experienced team that has to win now yeah not shouldn't be a training ground right again that's like Paul Correa to me beloved you know guy who just you haven't seen or heard from in years it feels like not that he's hiding but not not around the nhl club anyway well that's a fascinating name um yeah do you want to do the uh truba meyer chat well or just the rangers chat in general i'm just uh let's talk rangers in general

yeah okay they lost you here yeah yeah they lost they did i said earlier in the show that uh i i think that that loss would be as disappointing as anything the ranger fans have experienced over decades they loaded up at the deadline with a very good team they won two games on the road to start the series meaning they would have a ton of home games left the rest of the way. In games three to seven, they scored 1-1-0-5-0. So they scored seven goals in the last four games, five games.

You know, it just seemed right from the get-go around the trade deadline. Tarasenko. And then this build-up for Pat Kane. And Pat Kane's still a hell of a hockey player. No one will ever take that away. But it wasn't like, oh, my God, if they get him, it's lights out.

No. It was, is that the right fit? And it turned out to be not the right fit and you can even make the case that he wasn't the problem you know like he had one goal and five assists in the series i think he was not great by and large but boy they got a lot of bad numbers across the board kip they got zeros zero zero zero from lafreniere they get you know one one even strength point from panarin over seven games one a second assist oh my god you know like you yeah came wasn't helpful and he was part of the problem and probably going to be part of the

undoing there but boy they had a lot of problems in that series chris grinder scored six times though yeah i'm not even sure if if uh if they beat the devils that would have absolutely sort of solidified gerard galant being there for the next year expectations were that high that high yeah well you look at the way you act at the deadline it's a premier franchise with a bit of a wild man. They had, I think they had conference final or bust. Yeah. Well, they were there last year, and then they got better. They got Tarasenko scored three times in the series at least.

So, Gerard Gallant, I believe at the time when they announced him as a head coach, had a four-year deal that was announced. But I hear that the fourth year isn't a guarantee, so it's an option that they can pick up if they want. I just don't see that. Is this year, this was his third season? This is his second. Second, so he would have one more.

So he has one more remaining. But in the next, I think, six, eight weeks, they got to tell him whether or not they want. The one after. That they guarantee his fourth year. And if they're not going to do that. And if they're not going to do that, then you are not keeping him for next year's guarantee.

Right. Which kind of brings me to my next comment, which I already wrote in the Toronto Star this week or last week. I can't even remember. It was that far ago. Yeah. Who knows? My last, they gave me a segment in my article on if I changed my mind that I did on Joel Quenville coming back and coaching. I see what's happening here.

And I did hear that there were a couple of teams inquiring about his availability and whether or not Gary would be, Gary Bettman, commissioner, would be open to reinstate him. So you're saying they're quizzical about finding a quintessential piece? Well, I think. Their quandary? If they make the move to go in a different direction from Gerard, New York City and Joel Quenenville come on yeah that does

make sense that that adds up it's gonna be interesting this team they're like a they gotta win now type of team like kane probably gone tarasenko gone they traded for micola he's probably gone they tried to trade for mott he's gone like they are gonna lose some people here they still have a lot of very good players. Contracts are kicking in, too, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Was this the last year before Fox? Hedl goes from 2-3 to 4-4, and Fox goes, he's at 9-5.

He's already at 9-5. Yeah. Okay, and Zibanejad? Zibanejad. Is he not kicking? He's at 8-5. five i think he's eight five this year all right so they've already kicked in some some big numbers already um but you know like andrew miller needs a new contract and you look at ages you know crider's 32 panarin's 31 zabanajad's 30 like they're they're not youthful per se fellas Fellas, Panarin makes 11-6.

Can you imagine the conversation in this city if the Leafs got bounced in seven games and Mitch Marner had one primary or one even strength point? Was that what you said? Yeah, and I specify even strength, but I should note he had two points over the whole series, both assists. Yeah. It's not good. He's not leaving the house if he was a Leaf. That's a, you just can't have it. No.

Like, that's, you got to be better. You know, seven games. You make way too much money, and you're way too important. Like, you know, that's the professional sports side of it, where it's like, yeah, you get paid a lot of money, but, man, you got to perform somewhat. Two points in seven games games make it 11-6 is a hard pill to swallow for a fan be livid how about that all-world battle of palat who used to

kind of kill the leafs him pulling it off the wall to take that from like a nothing situation to dangerous was unbelievable it was one of the better plays I've seen in a one-on-one battle or maybe a one-on-two because Fox came in and he undressed him too. Just gone. So he won the battle against Kreider along the wall, and then he gets away from Fox, and there's your game-winning goal. We have the schedule. Kreider was minus four that game. goal. We have the schedule. Crider was minus four that game.

Sunday. We have the schedule. Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday at 6.30. Okay. Wednesday at 7. A little rest for the boys. Can't say that that hurts the Leafs. That's two three-game gaps in the first four games of the playoff series?

When the hell's the last time that happened? Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday? Yes. Will we remember the games? I don't know. It's weird. That is strange. We'll have three days of our show.

One will be a day after the game, and then two shows to fill building up. And so then dessert on, so I'm just looking at Vegas and Edmonton. Wednesday, Saturday at 7. Saturday at 7. Oh, they are Saturday at 7. The Oilers.

Eastern, yeah. Monday at 8. Saturday at 7. Oh, they are Saturday at 7. The Oilers. Eastern, yeah. Monday at 8.30. Wednesday at 10. Also Wednesday? Yeah. Okay. Oh, after the Leafs game. Yeah.

But then they're not lined up for Hockey Night in Canada for either of them again. The one after. I don't know. Weird schedule. You have a three-day gap to get a Saturday out of either team. American TV. Well, that is being made very clear, isn't it? All right.

Yankee Doodle Dandy. What do we got? Don't you want to talk about Truba? We do. We need to talk about that. What do you think of the hit? Mean and clean. Okay.

I will say that is, by the rule book, technically clean. You know, like he is going through the guy and the guy's head's down. You can't avoid the head to make the hit. You're allowed to hit people. Clean. I think there's a real conversation to be had. And this is a rare hit for me. A rare hit because I love big, hard hits where you go, oh.

Yeah, I know. They're all every hit by true buzz for a lot of people. It's like watching a car accident. You know what's worse about it? It's like five minutes left and they're down four goals. Like it's not like game one set the tone for the series. That's just randomly, you know it's is a bad hit it was violent and predatory but again clean but like the conversation i think is that do you

want that to be allowed or not that hit well listen if you're if you're gonna allow it when the game's on the line you gotta allow it till the game's finished you're right you're right and that's why it's clean but i get it you know it's it for a lot of people it's cringe worthy for sure you know we just know too much about brain damage now to not be like a little it was not it was not any different people cringed when they saw Stevens hit Lindros. For sure. And we can go down history. We've changed some rules so that happens less.

This is still allowed. It's not. You know what changed my take on this? They just won't make it any safer than it already is. And they have come a long way, JB, a long way to sanitizing this game to the point where sometimes it's unwatchable because it's so safe and dull. You know, I had a conversation with myself last night and thinking about that hit where I was like,

it used to be when you watched hockey, there was an acceptance of violence the way that like i watch uh boxing and i and i watch mma and i enjoy them and i know that sometimes someone's going to get knocked the hell out and it used to be that that was part of hockey that someone might get knocked out and that was part of the appeal and that's so rare now that you just get used to never seeing it and so you don't have that same expectation of seeing it anymore so when you do it's like it now feels a little out of place to me like it was just such a dull game for the rangers they were doing absolutely nothing the game was well in hand and i was like i was scrolling my phone i had one eye

on it it was just over And then I see that happen and I'm out of my seat. Like, oh my God, his glove was in the press box. His glove went a hundred feet. It was like a crash test dummy. I'm telling you, it was a car accident. Yeah, he literally just stopped his momentum while skating, I don't know, 40 kilometers an hour.

You know, you don't ever, God, you gotta know who's on the ice man like no one likes to victim blame but you know and we are you used to have to be careful of that like colby likes to say check the game notes pal like yeah like you're what do we have now uh 800 guys in the league yeah we're talking about one guy constantly yeah like no one's good at that no no one hits like nobody does that you don't scout it you know you don't pick a guy because you can do it we've seen mccabe hit there's no doubt that this guy is the guy of the guys if you're going to change the rules you're changing it for one guy for sure and you know sometimes that happens all the more reason to probably know he's out there well it is what it seems though it's like it's game seven it

hasn't happened it doesn't happen against any team and any other player but you're right when you're in the you know whatever you want to call it when you're in the octagon with truba you got to know his strengths what's that full circle comment that we had since we were seven years old hey get your head up yeah yeah yes Kip yes and he's allowed to hit him and I think it's a clean hit I also think I'm not sure if I want that my sensibilities have changed yes that's what it is so I just okay you guys are soft as baby doo-doo that's a hundred percent fair total facts but i when i first saw it it was the most electrifying moment i've seen in that series like i was so excited when it happened but the more i've watched it i'm like oh god what genuinely changed my tone

on this is my dad texts me and my dad likes the the rough stuff and he was like suspended for 10 games he hated it hated it and i was just you know that sort of changed my tune i was like suspended for 10 games. He hated it. Hated it. And I was just, you know, that sort of changed my tune. I was like, really? That game would have taken three hours with your dad and his team. Three hours after that hit. I just want to circle back. And it would have had an effect on him

and anyone else that wanted to try that. Yeah, definitely. It would have been a bigger deal. Can I just circle back and whine about what an absolute travesty this series schedule is? No. They're playing Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, a Friday, then a Sunday. So the Leafs are playing in the second round of the playoffs

for the first time in 20 years, and they get zero Saturday night games. What the hell is that? I will say, it is curious. That's all. I can't even imagine the people excited to go down there, make a trip down there. You're like, Saturday, Tuesday, or Saturday, Monday, what a perfect little trip.

Sunday, Wednesday? You got to take a week off to go down. They screwed Leaf fans with this schedule. Screwed them. Go to the beach. Yeah. But people have jobs, Kipper. I'm talking about the players.

Oh, the players don't hate it. Beach, maybe the racetrack, team dinner at Hooters. I don't know. I'm a little worried about the time off down there for some of these guys. People are looking like Phil Kessel coming in with a sunburn. I think Austin Matthews probably knows too many people in Florida. It's probably not good. I'm disgusted by that.

Saturday night, hockey night in Canada. I'm sitting there missing two episodes of Succession. Do we know if it's Seattle, Dallas? Because that would be. Or probably New Jersey, Carolina. Seven o'clock on Saturday. Yeah, probably. Anyway.

Speaking of squids in Dallasallas get underway tonight i love that you guys are calling them a little bit more magic out of seattle in this series or is that run out dallas is legit legit big and heavy big and fast and heavy like there's lots dallas is one of those teams we just don't talk about them because they're not around us if they were in the canes jerseys or something we'd have a lot of praise for this team they're good so i think seattle's in for a bit of ottinger's the best goal he left in playoffs by leaps and bounds in my opinion do we think pavelsky's playing tonight any word yeah he was pretty close at the end of last series i i would be surprised

if he's not playing i like peter deborah at this time of the year, too. For some... He shines in the playoffs. Yeah. By the way, I just want to walk you back. Oilers do play at 7 p.m. our time on Saturday. Yeah. Okay, so I'm going to stop complaining about that. But most of the hockey is on Sundays.

Yeah. There's one... I'm watching anyway. I got kids. The days of the week mean nothing to me. Whatever. There's two Saturday games in the total second round. Does Florida score tonight?

Florida, this guy, best offensive team in the second half. Give me a score. Three, two Leafs. Four, two Cats. Meow. I go five, two Leafs. All right, just like that. Round two, baby!

Our thanks to Jeff Chikrin, Mike Fuda. Game one tonight. Enjoy it. We're back tomorrow. Give me the cat. Meow!