Real Kyper & Bourne - Wrapping Up Week 1
Episode Date: April 26, 2024Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee reflect on the first week of playoffs before they welcome Doug MacLean (2:10) for his Off-the-Rails Friday appearance! Mac shares some takeaways from the acti...on thus far in Round 1 - impressive play from the Panthers, how the Canucks get Pettersson going, the Leafs' lack of 'big plays,' Skinner's concerning play in Edmonton and the Jets needing more from Hellebuyck. Later, he shares some memories of the late Bob Cole. Finally, they regroup with Sam to look ahead at the weekend's action and answer your questions on the text line.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.
Transcript
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welcome back into the real kipper and born show this is our national edition along for the ride
justin born sammy mckee derrick brandeo and david sis sis boomba there it. There it is. There it is. We are live on Sportsnet.
Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver.
Sportsnet 960 in Calgary.
This hour of real Kipper and Bourne brought to you by Bat365.
In a few minutes, Doug McClain will join us.
Of course, it's Friday.
Does it feel like Friday?
Does it feel like any exhaustion from the first couple of games and playoffs?
Totally.
Totally. Really? Totally. Totally.
Really?
Oh, yeah.
This takes a lot of energy, man.
It takes a lot of energy.
You feel it?
Well, no.
Maybe it's just because I stay up later than I usually do watching games.
I just watch every game.
They're so high stakes.
I'm really into it.
It just takes a lot out of you.
I can't imagine playing it.
I know.
It is really emotional for fan bases.
It is.
My dad would always say that Game 4 was always such a pivotal game right someone's up to one almost you know or
it's three nothing that's elimination game but someone's up to one the next one is so huge like
building up to this next one here this feels like we're coming up to the fun part the first round's
the best round this is the most crucial game until it is and there are
some incredible storylines and uh you know we're gonna get doug mcclain to talk of course about
the biggest storyline and that is uh demko and the loss to the vancouver canucks and the
the mystery i mean we've been up to our eyeballs in what's wrong with Willie Nylander
and when's he coming back.
They're going through the same thing with Demko,
and it's not that they expect him back for the series,
but there is so much talk about what is it
and can he be back by the next round.
And it's, hey, don't you really want to get by the first round
before you even want to go down that conversation?
It is a fascinating one, though.
We'll talk more about that in a little bit here.
Okay, let's welcome him in.
Former president, GM, head coach, author.
Former author or author?
Is he going to write another book?
Because if he's not, then he's former.
He's negotiating.
Let's welcome him in, Doug McClain.
Oh, my goodness. He's in a jacket today let's welcome in to thurston howell the third what's with the jacket and the puff oh just a minute sammy mckee's wife said you guys look
like a million dollars last week and i look like a bum. I put the suit on
and you guys have got t-shirts.
Wow.
Yeah, that's, you know what?
You do look great.
For those of you that can't see him
on our Zoom call here,
he looks like a million.
That's what you look like.
I wore this to a wedding a year ago
and that was the only time I've worn it since I left sports.
But I do have shorts on.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, I can't unsee your legs now.
Legs, huh?
Wow.
Thanks.
Thanks for having me on, well thanks this is a new record for uh
driving it in the ditch oh boy
all right well that must mean that you're excited for the start of the playoffs here and uh
and what you've seen so far yeah look it's been interesting to be quite you
know last night's game it's funny how you watch a game and you get a feel i i never once during
that game felt that the tampa bay lightning were going to win i i don't this series i know it's
been close scoring wise but i've never felt that they're going to win.
And I don't quite get why there's such a discrepancy between these two teams
and the way one is playing playoff hockey and the other is playing cute hockey.
I don't get it.
I mean, like Kucherov last night, Point last night,
they were having major trouble handling the puck, you know?
So I don't know.
So for some teams, I know in Canada,
we blow things up in terms of what it means
and overanalyzing it,
either without Demko in Vancouver
or Nylander to start in Toronto.
But Florida loses Sam Bennett,
who's a huge piece.
And they don't flinch.
No, they didn't flinch.
The guys that come in played key roles.
I mean, the fourth line hems in Tampa Bay for a minute and scores a big goal.
They get to the net.
They're bothering Vasilevsky. Florida plays playoff hockey better than any team I've watched in the playoffs thus far.
That's how focused they are.
And they've done it all year.
I thought it would be a close series.
And I know the scores have been.
But guys, that was not a close game last night.
That was not close for me.
So does it feel a little bit destined right now between the way florida looks
and the way carolina has looked at those teams will at some point meet in a conference final
does anyone else in the east feel like they can stand up to that level of play well the rangers
will be interesting i mean you know panarin seems to have shown up this year which is something he's
had trouble doing at playoff time in the past.
So, you know, the Rangers, you can't discount them.
I still am not sold on Carolina's goaltending.
I know Freddie's been good, but I'm still not sold on their goaltending.
So we'll have to wait and see what that happens
when they get some real competition.
The Islanders, it's been unfortunate with goaltending the way that's
that's gone south on them here um but you know what carolina's a better team yeah
mac uh as far as the vancouver canucks are concerned uh
nobody really gave nashville a real chance here and even after i watched game one i'm like
a deeper team you picked i i i think i looked back before and i said if there's one upset it
might be nashville and nashville is that that sneaky we didn't really pay attention to them
too much because they're nashville right but they can score
and you know how much does uh talk it have on his hands here uh going into game three
well look and unfortunate for vancouver you lose demco like seriously not many teams can lose their
number one goaltender in the playoffs and come out of it. It happens.
It has happened.
But you lose Demko, such an important part of your team.
Casey DeSmith has been fine for the mid-year, but he's no Demko.
He's not a Stanley Cup winner for me right now.
And we'll see what happens.
But that is a monumental loss.
And you've got the Pedersen problem.
I mean, like this is a star. This is a monumental loss and and you've got the peterson problem i mean like this is a star
this is a superstar and he's snakebitten right now and he's he's uptight and i mean he's being
interviewed way too much he's given like i listened to his interview the other day it was like it
sounded like it was a letter to dear abby like come on let's this, this is, this is the playoffs. Let's, let's focus on what you can deal with, you know?
And I feel a little sorry for, but hey, they're still in this series.
It's a long way from over, but you know,
I really like what Craig was saying earlier.
It's tough to score goals in the playoffs.
You don't get many pretty goals and you wonder why the lesser guys step up and score goals because they
know how to do it the ugly way they do it by will they do it by determination they do it being greasy
and i mean you look like de brusque isn't that type of player but look how this kid scores goals
at critical playoff times you know so it's you you've gotta you've gotta
find different ways at playoff time and i'll never forget this and i know i've told you this before
but i remember in our our big meeting before going into the eastern conference finals against
pittsburgh i said boys i want mario and jogger to absolutely hate hockey at the end of this series.
And you know what?
Both of them hated hockey at the end of that series.
They needed a summer to recuperate.
But it is easier to get two guys like that, I know they're the best in the world, to hate
hockey than it is to put a puck in the net sometimes.
And, you know, Pettersson had that open net that we're all talking about
that the puck blew up on him.
And then, of course, that starts with the fans.
And then we hear Petey's comments saying, hey, hold on for a second.
It's my first playoff with this type of atmosphere as if, like,
I'm trying to buy myself some, I don't know, sympathy or, you know,
like I'm new to this or I'm, I don't know what he was trying to say that,
but there is a message in that Mac.
And it's like, sometimes it can get overwhelming,
even for the guys making $10 million a year.
What do you, what do you do?
Like you went deep with, you know, you had star players,
went deep in Florida, uh detroit when your
stars start feeling it a little bit what do you do to or say to them you know what it really is
interesting how how it happens and i'll never forget dave lowry i think maybe had 10 goals
in the regular season that year and he had 10 playoff goals for us you know i mean it's just
funny how it does but you've got to try different
different combinations you've got to try different things on the fly in games like
we we don't see the in-game coaching as much as we used to see it with line changes and you know
remember scotty bowman i mean like scotty scotty would say anything on the bench to get his guys
going like at times he'd be so mad at his team and he'd just say,
any five dogs go on the ice.
I don't care who you are.
Any five dogs.
The guys are trying to put their feet over the bench.
Who's going?
Who's going?
They're looking.
Any five dogs go.
And then his other favorite line was, what's that, Junior C I'm watching
or is that Junior B, you know?
But he would mix and match lines he would try
guys at different positions or throw them out there and give just give some different looks and
I think in playoff time you've got to go out of the box and try as many different things as you
can you can't be you know you just can't be stagnant behind the bench even on the power
play like it'll be fun with Nylander back tonight.
What's the mixing and matching we can see tonight
in critical times in the game?
So keeping it out west then, for Vancouver,
is it harder playing a team like Nashville
where there's not really a guy or guys to say,
that's the guy we have to shut down?
It's kind of 12 forwards doing their thing.
Yeah, you want to key on Yossi,
but it's a different sort of way to defend, right?
Yeah, it is, except it's a lot easier
to shut down stars in a playoff series.
It's a coach's dream.
When you go into a series
and you've got to shut down the big star,
you've got to go in there and shut down Austin Matthews.
It becomes a rallying
cry for your team. It becomes the focus of your team. And all of a sudden you got Ryan O'Reilly,
who is a master at it. You've got Yossi. You've got McDonough. You've got some veteran guys that
can step up and really get the job done and a really narrow focus for your team so being the underdog and shutting down the big
scores like craig said it's tough to score playoff time it really is and you can't score the same way
as you scored in the regular season it's got to be nasty how do they score the goals on on
brobroski in the florida series i mean everyone's been a tip in at the net.
You know, we saw them are off bodies, off tips.
I mean, it's got to be dirty, dirty goals.
Nasty type of goals.
And your best guys have got to be prepared to do it. So if DeSmith can hold them, Mac,
does this come down to like who does a better job
of shutting down a forward?
Or is it Quinn Hughes versus Roman Yossi
who controls more of the play for half the game yeah you know what you need Quinn Quinn has got
to do and he's a young guy still let's not kid ourselves Yossi is now a veteran player he's been
through some wars but Quinn is a young guy it's a lot to ask for him to carry the team, but he will attempt to.
But you can't change Quinn Hughes at playoff time.
Quinn Hughes is going to be Quinn Hughes.
So, you know, Tuck, you know what?
It's really interesting.
I think Tuck is trying to drill it into them that, boys,
we all have to change a little bit this time of year and
change our games a little bit, you know, and play through people and go over people and
go to the paint with reckless abandon.
The pretty goals, yeah, there's few of them scored, but they're not anywhere close to
the regular season.
Same in the power play.
You know, as Craig said, it's not the blackboard guys it's not
the genius behind toronto's bench there what's his name bush bush bush i mean come on it's it's
it's it's mitch murner making a big play it's neil andrew making a big play it's matthews making a
big play it's getting shots through from the point. We saw Morgan O'Reilly
get a shot through the other night.
That's what it's all about.
I'm anxious to see the Leafs come out and play
really hard tonight
or in the next
game and see really what happens.
I'm so excited. I got my suit on.
I'm really excited.
Among
some other Canadian series, let's talk about the Edmonton oilers a little bit do you have any
concerns that they split at home i you know they carried a ton of the play doug and certainly seem
like the way more talented team yeah i i think you know i was a little concerned as i said to
you guys the goaltending skinner's had a real good year. I keep hearing how solid a kid he is and mentally tough he is.
But it's the playoffs.
And the other night, he wasn't great.
He was not great.
So he will bounce back, I think.
But I think the team around him has got to bounce back, too.
L.A., you know, with the leadership of Dowdy and Kopitar,
they're not going to be an easy out.
But there's no way this should be a close series.
And I cannot for the life of me believe that Dreisaitl and company,
obviously McDavid and the big boys will not figure this out.
They're too good a team to lose to the L.A. Kings, in my opinion.
Boy, when I saw Kopitar go high glove on the game-winning goal,
my first thought was, why didn't Doug McClain draft him?
I saw that.
So listen, boys, I saw that and I said, are you kidding?
Will this guy just go away?
Two decades into his career.
The fans in Columbus are going nuts.
I'm sure there'll be a column on it. Porchline and A-Race, I'm sure there'll be a column on it.
Porchline and A-Race, I'm sure they'll write a column on it this week
after he scored that overtime winner.
I'm sure they will.
I mean, it's only been 20 years, but they got to get a column out some way.
And $20 million it cost you.
30.
30.
I'm still wearing old suits so um let's keep buzzing around canada a little bit talk about the winnipeg jets
um you know they find themselves one in that one one of that series where are you at on the jets
well i'm hellebucked i mean, look, this this guy MVP season.
I've watched him in the playoffs where he stumbled before. He's got to figure he's got to come through for them.
He's got to come through for them. And it was not you know, it was not one of his better performances.
You got Gorgiev, who's under all unbelievable pressure in the Colorado net,
and he comes through with a pretty good performance.
Hellebuck has got to be a lot better.
And I picked him to beat Colorado, and it was strictly the number one reason
was the fact that Hellebuck was going to dominate the series in goal.
And he has not at this point, and he has to.
And it's time
in his career that he steps up and gets it done i know there's goaltender coaches there's you know
shrinks there's a lot of people that you know help certain players i'm not even sure you would
even go to a hellebuck after all these years but you know at some point you know in your experience
if you needed if you had question marks
on your goaltender this time of year or what was going on between his ears how tempted were you in
there uh were you to go and like try to figure out what's going on well it's funny he said that
i'm watching the boston toronto game the other night and I see this guy in the press box, and he's got gray hair, slicked back, and I thought,
how do I know that guy?
How do I know that guy?
And all of a sudden, it hit me like a bucket of bricks being thrown at me.
It was Bob Asenza, the guy we traded for in Detroit, and got us fired.
And now he's the goalie coach in Boston.
And he's got Swayman standing on his head.
Anyway.
And looking like a genius.
Bob was a star in Winnipeg, as you recall.
We bring him to Detroit, Brian Murray and I.
And poor Bob.
I mean, he just couldn't get it done.
And we're out the door.
Anyway.
So I'm glad he's doing well as a coach.
But I hear he's done a hell of a job, and he is a great guy.
But when I saw him, I thought, oh, my God, are you kidding me? I can't get away from the horrors of being in the National Hockey League.
So if we're talking about some goalies that are running at the other side
of the spectrum here in
terms of getting into heads.
The talk is Swayman with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
We saw Max Domi give it the accidentally on purpose bump in between whistles.
And what did the Leafs do to get to Swayman?
Bumping him on the ice isn't going to do it.
You know,
it's getting in his face and getting to the paint and bothering him in the net the base the things that have been the same since terry
saw chuck was in goal or bauer for the leaps you've got to get to the paint and bother these
guys swayman is in their head because you know what guys he is an unbelievably good goaltender and you know this kid has university
of maine come you know good kid out of alaska but has become a star and if montgomery i'm sir
surely the god he's put all mark on ice surely the god he has but look this kid is good he's that
good and he's a franchise goaltender right now.
So he's in their head because he's on top of his game.
And the only way you can do it is you've got to take his eyes away.
And coaches have been saying that for 30 years.
You can't let him see the puck because he's going to make stops.
All right, Doug, I want to take you.
You know what?
The Leafs don't have enough guys,
still don't have enough guys that will do that.
They want to be cute,
and you're not going to score cute goals in the playoffs.
All right, I'm going to turn the page here,
and I want to get your thoughts on something important to a lot of Canadians.
We recently lost a legend in Bob Cole.
You know, I'm sure you've interacted with Bob
and have some history of some kind with him
wanted to get your thoughts your memories of the late great bob cole yeah look uh bob was you know
he was a terrific guy and it's funny i'll never forget going into maple leaf gardens as a head
coach and bob cole coming down to the dress and said Coach McClain, can I talk to you for a minute? And I thought, okay, we're going to talk Newfoundland, PEI.
Give me your line combinations, will you?
Well, I'm thinking, can I trust this guy?
I mean, he wants my line combinations?
Is he going to go over and give them to the Leafs,
or what's he going to do with them?
And you know what?
Every game I coached in the NHL and Bob was doing the game,
he would come over and ask me for my lines and jot them down. And you know what? Every game I coached in the NHL and Bob was doing the game,
he would come over and ask me for my lines and jot them down.
And you trusted this guy more than anybody because you knew he was a man's man. And we all had great respect for him.
And, you know, my son started to watch.
Clark started to listen to bob cole when he was a
a kid and he was devastated the other day to hear that bob had passed because we grew up listening
to bob and uh i um i i listened to craig talk about dave hodge's tweet and i read it this morning
and i reposted it because i thought it really hit home. There's very few guys that don't get ripped in our business.
And Bob, at the end of his career, people were saying,
he doesn't remember names and he's missing numbers.
And I'm thinking, oh, shut up.
I know.
Don't give me that garbage.
You know, he was such a pro.
And you just love being around him.
You think we'll ever trust you on this show?
But I'll never forget Greg Millen.
Greg Millen told me the great story about him.
I probably shouldn't tell this story, but he said,
first time he did a game, he was sitting with Bob Cole,
and all of a sudden he undid his pants in the press box.
He undid his pants so that he could sit there
and he could get into the game.
I got the horse loose here.
It was just the belt.
Get the story straight.
It was just loosening the belt.
Well, you know that Millen would lie about that.
He'll tell a story.
We know that.
So anyway, but I love Bob.
And he was, you know, we used to have great conversations about the Maritimes and PEI and Newfoundland.
He was just a legend.
And I was sad to read Shani's comments because Shani loved Bob Cole.
John Shannon.
He loved Bob Cole and grew up with Bob Cole in the business.
And it was great to hear.
You love to hear comments about somebody that really knows Bob Cole in the business, and it was great to hear. You love to hear comments about somebody that really knows Bob Cole.
I didn't know him like those guys did,
but I really had a ton of respect for him.
Well, we could trust Bob Cole.
You, on the other hand, I'm not so sure.
Well, I'll tell you what.
I want to hear Sam McKee's better half, what she thinks.
How do I look?
Because you guys look like slobs.
Hey, listen.
I was walking out of the bathroom with my shorts on and my suit.
Jill said, what the hell are you doing?
I said, I got it.
I got out of my game.
They're all wearing suits now in Kipper and Bourne show.
And flip-flops, I bet.
No, bare feet. Bare feet. mac another great job today on off the rails friday man you did not disappoint
thanks for doing this guys thanks mac thanks a lot for having me i really appreciate it
we know you do thanks thanks mac can you believe he got dressed up for us?
I love it.
I can't believe he got up and showed us the whole package.
Hey, easy on that.
I just meant the whole outfit.
We're going with the complete package outfit.
Real Kipper and Born After Dark.
We should call...
We got stories about Coley taking his pants off.
You talking about packages.
What's going on here?
We should call All Thrills Friday.
We should change it to Catch and Strays Friday.
Where he just takes a kind of...
Hort's line catches a stray.
Bob Essence catches a stray.
So true.
Millsy.
Like three guys burning ears somewhere around the hockey world
going, I wonder what just happened out there.
That was awesome.
There's not many things I enjoy more in my life weekly
than listening to you guys talk to Matt.
I love it.
I love it.
It's a weapon.
The best.
All right.
What do we want to do?
You want to do game time?
Let's do game time.
And before we do game time, if we could flash,
I don't know if Sis Boomba has the numbers to flash up on TV,
but text us.
I want to text from all over the country about your favorite team,
thoughts, whatever you got
for us coming into the next segment because we're going to
take them going into the last segment of the week.
So text us 590-590
590-590 and give us your takes
and we'll read them coming up after the break.
But before we do that, it's game time.
Presented by Bet365. Visit the app
to find out why it's never ordinary
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now i have refrained from talking about this oh until now uh i will be attending the toronto
blue jays game tonight uh what's tonight if you have sammy if you wouldn't if you had to listen
to this show on one faithful fateful, I don't know when it was,
about Shohei Otani potentially coming to Toronto,
it is, like I've called many times,
the saddest time capsule in the history of sports.
I will be going to the Rogers Center this evening.
To boo the crap out of him.
The ever-living crap out of him.
I will be booing as hard as I've booed
since the days of Vince Carter.
Really?
Oh, yeah.
Since the days of Curtis Joseph coming back as a Red Wing. I will be booing as hard as I've booed since the days of Vince Carter. Really? Oh, yeah. Since the days of Curtis Joseph coming back as a Red Wing.
I will be booing.
You booed Curtis Joseph when he was a Red Wing back to Toronto?
Kipper, there's nothing that broke my heart more ever in any sports than Kujo leaving.
Kujo leaving broke me in a way that I didn't know I could be broke.
Anyways, enough about Kujo.
Love Kujo.
Great guys now.
No, no, no.
Every time you tell me this stuff, I get more and more the reason why you are the way you are.
Yes.
Anyways.
Are you going to call him Pete Rose?
Are you going to tie in the gambling stuff or just straight now?
I will be going down there.
It's a big night for me just to go down there and boo.
They always lose when I go.
I haven't gone.
I haven't seen them get a win.
So I'm not going to bet on the Jays.
But just to further the feeling around the Leafs and the Jays
and kind of the Toronto sports team right now,
it's not the most positive feelings.
Are we betting on a Shohei Otani home run tonight,
which pays plus 235?
So I think with all the boos, at some point tonight,
he's going to hit a home run and make us all sad.
In the very least, you've now protected yourself against that.
It's a happiness hedge.
So there you go.
Looking at tonight's NHL games.
Oh, just one more thing.
Saw a little bit of my boy Ben Nicholson-Smith, who I love.
Absolute love.
I know you do.
We worked on At The Letters together since its inception.
We're very close.
The West End weapon.
Great guy.
Wrote an article today about whether they should boo Shohei or Tani or not.
What's happened to this city?
We know your feeling.
Your feeling is, and I like it,
I pay my money, don't tell me what to do.
Yeah, but what has happened to this city
where there's even a question
that the boo should not rain down on this man?
He watched on his couch with his dog
when we all freaked out.
He used us as leverage.
Boo!
Boo!
It was my first instinct
when I first heard
that Jays were interested in him.
Boo!
They're getting played like a fiddle.
Well, I read the column
and his point was that
if they were getting played,
he would have done it with the Giants
just down the street.
So this was a legitimate pursuit
of their interest in the Jays.
Boo! Boo!
Boo!
Okay.
And there's four games on the ice tonight,
so I'm going to the Jays game,
and I'm hoping it's a quick one to get out
so we can get some Jets and Colorado action
followed by Oilers and Kings.
Jets are huge dogs in Colorado tonight.
Plus 140.
Vegas is thinking that they're returning to altitude here it's going to be a
big crowd mckinnon so they're minus 165 if you like the jets you think hellebuck's gonna bounce
back some decent value there i do like that and the edmonton oilers in la are minus 135 favorite
which is a pretty big number and there's maybe a little bit of value on the kings there too
minus 135 really yeah it's good enough for me or of value on the kings there too plus 115 minus 135 really
yeah it's good enough for me or even in regulation the other two games i mean the cats are huge dogs
uh plus 145 and the vancouver canucks are minus 105 and the national predators are 115 pretty
pretty close matchup there i have no idea where that series is going or really you could tell me
a bunch of different ways and i would believe them all and. And that was Game Time, presented by Bet365.
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Must be 19 plus, Ontario only.
Please play responsibly.
And yeah, I don't have a platform for, you know,
I talk a lot of Leafs, so I don't talk much Jays on there.
But if you're listening to this,
and you go to that game tonight,
and you do not stand up and boo
when he comes up to the plate for the first time,
leave. Get out of there.
So it's over the being used.
Yes.
That's the part.
You don't need a lot of excuses to boo.
We're sports fans.
We're allowed to be petty.
People are like, oh, well.
You're right.
You're such a good point.
It's like, we're petty.
That's the whole point.
You didn't choose us.
It's villains.
That's the whole point of sports is to hate people, love people, boo, cheer.
I'm not really following that closely the LA Dodgers.
They're really good.
And what's he doing? Killing it.
He's the best player in the league.
Oh, so
he's worth $70 million a year?
He has like 15 doubles already.
He's out of control.
He's very good.
James could use that.
No, you can't boo.
This is just a phony boo.
Hey, Sammy McKckay i'm good
you know it come on all right let's boo you right into break here when we come back we'll get some
sound from what would a real kipper and born show be without a john cooper kipper's clipper
talk as well and a bunch of texts tons of texts coming in we'll pick the best of them when we return to Real Kipper and Bourne.
Big opinions and in-depth conversations covering the Leafs, Jays, Raptors, and the NFL.
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Nick Kipriels, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee on Off the Rails Friday.
So Doug McLean earlier talked about the Tampa Bay Florida series.
He says that Tampa was never really in it.
Yeah.
How surprised are you guys?
Cooper, a John Cooper team down 3-0 in the first round.
I am extremely surprised by that.
You know, in terms of carrying play and stuff,
it's looked pretty even to me through three games,
but they've obviously lost three times.
So I'm shocked all the Hall of Famers on the team that they haven't got one yet.
Can you read that quote that you read to me in the break?
Yeah.
He talked post-game about the talk that they had
was that, and I quote,
the big talk was we want the believers to show up
to the rink tomorrow.
And if you're not going to believe, then you don't have to come.
So we'll see how many guys show up tomorrow.
Which, I like it.
Right?
It's got bite.
Yeah.
And it's got a really strong message.
But half your team are future Hall of famers that have a history of
showing up like to you're not leaving it for the toronto maple leafs who can't get has never gotten
out of the second round right we're talking about a lot of guys in there that went to three stanley
cup finals and won twice right so i don I think they're going to show up.
I just don't know if it's going to be enough.
Yeah.
But I'm pretty sure Point, Kucherov, Stamkos, Edmund.
I don't know.
They're not showing up.
I don't know if you were ever a part of any dark cloud clubs on your hockey teams
where you, you know, gather in quiet at night and go,
I hate the coach, coach this sucks practice is stupid
all that sort of stuff but there's a portion of a team when you're down three nothing that's sitting
in a hot tub or whatever just going we're cooked can i look you're still showing up though you guys
got your tinfoil hats ready oh boy so john cooper will by far longest tenured coach in the NHL. Yes, he is. You firing him?
There's another coach that coaches against him in the Florida Series.
Paul Maurice.
What happened in Winnipeg?
I just, you know, I can't get these guys any further.
I did my best.
I'm tired.
He does that?
Walked away.
Let's just say John Cooper does that.
Toronto Maple Leafs in a dog fight with the Boston Bruins.
Can I?
Hold on.
Hold on.
Toronto Maple Leafs in a dog fight with the Boston Bruins.
They go seven games.
They fight.
They lose.
Sheldon Keefe, we probably know what's going to happen there.
John Cooper, free agent next year.
John Cooper, head coach of Toronto Maple Leafs.
There you go.
Yeah, see.
I asked you.
What was the first thing out of my mouth before you
went through that whole spiel?
Are you firing John Cooper?
No, I'm not firing him. He's walking away.
He's done all he can do.
Same difference.
You thought Maurice got fired in Winnipeg?
I'll say that's not the craziest thing I've ever heard.
Can I throw another name
at you? Please do.
Same scenario.
Took the guys as far as I could.
Mike Sullivan, Pittsburgh.
Yeah, I saw that.
Oh, my God.
And the Keefe is the coach of the Penguins because of Dubas.
Oh, my God.
We figured it out.
Pinpoil hat off.
Yeah.
It would be interesting everything's great a sweep a sweep on on where that whole program
heads in tampa yeah i know the guys are locked in kutra's locked in
uh points locked in headman i think has a few more years, one more year maybe.
You can't be an outright bad team
with Kucherov, Point, Hedman,
Sarelli.
Stamkos, to me, is the big question mark
off a sweep.
You know what's tough is the LALT.
Hedman's contract is,
he is a UFA next year,
after next year.
Yeah.
So that's a,
what direction do you go?
Eight years.
And how old is he?
Would he be 31?
He is a 1990, so that means he's 33.
33.
So he's not signing six years.
No.
So would someone pay him $8 for three four he'll probably want as many years as he can get probably four or five 33 to i think he's top five in points this year i think he's the type of guy
that you could you could lean on him like achara late in your 30s i do too yeah it will be interesting the stamp quest one's interesting
because if they can get him at numbers we've talked about which are insane to me like 4.5
times whatever if he goes cooper goes i i i'm not saying he's gonna go i don't know anything i'm an
idiot i'm just saying you can see the the crumbling of the dynasty here.
Like, they were unbelievable, but, like, getting swept.
This is kind of the progression of things,
where they're unbelievable.
They build up.
They have some losses.
They have heartbreaks.
A lot of losses.
No, it's the slap shot line.
That's all.
Oh, okay.
But, like, you know, you think back to them going to the final
against Chicago, the sweep against Columbus.
They come back.
They win a couple cups that don't really count because of the bubble. Like, you know, you think back to them going to the final against Chicago, the sweep against Columbus. They come back.
They win a couple cups that don't really count because of the bubble.
And then John Cooper and they get, you know, they're going up.
They beat the Leafs.
Then they lose to the Leafs and they get swept the next round.
Okay.
It's just the progression of things.
It's how it happens.
It's not the craziest thing anyone's ever said.
You in particular.
Well, I've said a lot of dumb things.
Anyways.
All right. So now John Cooper said a lot of dumb things. Anyways. All right.
So now John Cooper is the coach of the Leafs.
Now that you've made him the coach of the Leafs,
both teams are still actively in playoffs.
All right.
Leafs are down 2-1.
One team that will not need a head coach next year is the Vancouver Canucks.
Let's listen to a Kipper's Clipper from Rick Tockett
talking about lack of scoring so far.
Rick, you had 520 goal scorers in your lineup this year.
None of them have scored in this series yet.
It feels like a matter of time, but it's easy to say that until they go out and do it.
How much confidence do you have that it's just a matter of time before the dam breaks?
Yeah, I think if they continue to, you know, they've had confidence before where they haven't scored where they've broken out of it.
I just feel that a couple of those guys have kind of, I don't know,
they seem a little bit nervous sometimes,
and I think they just got to play like it's just hockey.
Like, don't worry about the stage.
Sometimes you get that puck and you're looking for something more.
I think you should start shooting the puck more get in those areas um i mean the proof's in the pudding
they've done it so um just a couple of hiccups here and there just get back to your game it's
crazy that series is one one they've played two games it's like the stars aren't scoring i mean
i understand it's happening in toronto too but it's like you follow 82 games like they don't score every night playoffs are brutal because it's just
the highest stakes and the shortest possible sample size yeah right true and it's just
draw and draw you draw like moral conclusions about guys well he doesn't want it he doesn't
care he doesn't get to the dangerous areas you know sneaky quietly
nashville is one of the better scoring teams like in their seventh nhl i think like february they
might have been one of the top ones yeah like they had an incredible which they have again
makes no sense to me they they haven't gotten going yet offensively offensively yeah it is strange though like i
i can't get past the fact i look at their roster and i'm like who does that the second line is
jankowski novak and evangelista evangelista's nasty yeah going to be he's a good player yeah
we have 55 points i don't know how many points he had i'm judging that totally on his junior
hockey exploits 40 points 39 he was excellent with the london knights so that's
this is bevilliers zucker smith mccarran sherwood where are they coming from who scored all their
goals philip forrest was pretty good forrest burke uh ronald riley's quite good yeah
has been good fine yes and he's had a career year. So you got probably Yossi's all right. Every team has a line and a D. One guy who can control the play for half the game.
It's Yossi.
Yes.
You're right.
All right.
Tex?
Tex.
All right.
I got a couple here, boys.
First one.
As a fellow TTC user, do you think it was Neylander who got these migraines from riding the bumpy, high-pitched subway?
Because I think I can vouch for that from SJ in North York. I think it was the government who has a super secret i don't know the ttc gave
me a migraine coming in today two separate parts were shut down shuttle bus situation it was a it
was a gong show so i got a migraine coming in to reiterate so gardner doesn't work 401s down
ttc doesn't work other than that get around great listen and we know
from the first hour where you are on this with your eyes rolling on the migraine i don't want to
no no no no no but it is for for a lot of people out there athletes or not it's a serious thing
i know it is it is migraines can be very very hard on people he just threw you right out of the bus
we take it seriously. Sammy here.
Yes.
I'm representing what my Dumbo friends are saying.
So I did mention that the one place in Toronto that tests for migraines,
people are asking me.
It's headaches or it's headachesciences.com.
And it's a Gord Martineau is involved in it.
Okay.
I want to hear more on that and hear from Gord
because I know tests for migraines does not make sense to me.
As you can tell when you have them.
I am a huge Golden Knight fan.
Okay, me too.
I want your opinions on how far you think they will go in the playoffs.
I think they're going to win the cup.
No, you don't yeah i think i think uh if
dallas doesn't find a way to come back at this how do you not go that's the team i love my my
off the cuff pick of rangers vegas final but you don't need goaltending when you have that blue
line you think they can keep the quality of shots down enough?
What's Martinez?
Like their sixth defenseman?
I know five teams that he'd be two or three on right now.
Their decor is spectacular.
Yeah, I'm less bullish than you guys on Vegas.
Obviously, they have lots of great players,
but Dallas, then you're going to go through Colorado or Winnipeg,
then you're looking at the Edmonton Oilers.
I like Vegas fine, but...
It's the blue line for me.
Yeah.
Hannafin looks like he's just warming up.
He flies.
Flies.
I don't know, man.
Vegas will not make it to the Stanley Cup final.
Those lines are pretty good, too.
Those words are pretty good.
You like Barberchev in the first line, do you?
I do.
I like Barberchev a lot.
If that blue line stays healthy, it's going to be hard to get to the net.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm not necessarily the biggest Barberchev fan,
but I really like Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marcheseau,
who won the cons my flash here.
They're stacked.
They have an over-the-cap team.
Wasn't Jack Eichel like the
fastest american in playoff history to 30 points or something did you read that i didn't read that
yeah he's good he's okay good player he's a good player good player he's at least the 11th best
center in the league that's all i'm saying um paul tronson from vancouver i gave it his full
name because he texted it in uh I'm a lifelong Canucks fan.
Good and bad times.
The extent of success is here honestly surprised me.
I think they're going to get it rolling tonight.
Much of the last game they dominated with a few bounces
could have been a lot different.
I think EP40 will learn and have a great game tonight.
Do you agree with my boy, Paul?
Good text.
I do.
I think Vancouver. I see a win. So so i forget was it you at the top of the
show was like no one believed in this nashville team or no everyone thinks the connection to walk
everyone was saying nashville's a upset candidate and here comes out in nashville i think vancouver's
got a lot of talent and i i you know they've been a good team all year for a reason and i think dismiss a fine goal i think structurally they're absolutely fine on their forecheck on uh puck
puck retrievals i think i think they're fine the frustration came in the other night was like
trying to beat five goalies yeah and at some point the dams got a break yeah no it is you know you hope you spend the
entire game in their end if they keep going after them like that that's all yeah there's a i have an
article out right now um through they're gonna have to weather the 10 minutes though that's a
tough building it's a good building i loved covering the stanley cup final there oh yeah
sid beat them there right the energy like they're so into it they'll be
that's how i envision probably salt lake city uh yeah i do think what's going to be interesting so
i was saying i have an article out right now on sportsnet.ca uh for aws on ice tilt on the you
know where the play is at basically over two minute span of time and that two minutes rolls
the vancouver canucks have been in nashville's on their end of the rink i mean a ton almost as much as carolina has been over the new york islanders they've
really it's been almost two-thirds of the game on nashville's end i understand they're blocking a
lot of shots but if you spend two-thirds of the game and the other team's half of the rink
you're gonna get some bounces at some point so i know it's tough to get through but i still think
vancouver finds a way so there was a concert last night that kept this series from playing.
Was it you two?
No.
Oh, my God.
Imagine.
No.
I think it was Tim McGraw.
Oh.
I think.
I mean, that'd be a hot ticket.
I guarantee the most expensive ticket for the Preds Vancouver game was the cheapest
ticket.
Or the other way around.
What I'm trying to say here.
It costs way more to get to Tim McGraw in Nashville
than it does to get to Vancouver.
Good chance.
Yeah.
You don't think?
Yes.
Yeah.
Well, I don't know.
There's some connection
with the Nashville Predators in music this year.
Sing me a Tim McGraw song, Kippy.
Next question, Sammy.
We're pretty much out of text here boys
about a ton of great stuff today all right sorry texters we got
four games on the docket tonight okay before that
can we just uh write your islanders off oh this weekend yep yeah we can't yeah
we sure can okay last game they were very good for the first time
what happened to Sorokin,
the third best goaltender in the world
behind Vasilevsky and Shosturkin?
Where did he go?
I don't know.
I feel like Lane Lambert really had the Islanders
in a bit of a pickle.
Their defense was a mess,
and they spent his whole season in the D zone, basically, and he had a mess and they gave they spent the whole his whole
season in the d zone basically and he had a tough time with that it got better after patrick waugh
came in but eventually varlamov was handed the the crease and ran with it excelled soroka didn't
play a ton then they threw him in the playoff game against the most dominant possession team
in the league and he got lit tough bounce he. He'll be back next year. With better defense
and structure, he'll be better. Rangers Carolina
second round is going to be
firepower. Sorry, Caps.
I know you're only...
Let me add a scoop of dirt to that.
No chance
for Ovi to get hot.
Is his coach still mad at him?
I don't know. It's tough
to see a way through for that group
um quickly before we go i played golf yesterday and i promised my buddies i met two guys on the
golf courses and me my friend matt played and your buddies already these two guys 12 and 13
leor and lev who outdrove you die hardly Love. And they were really interested in what I did
and my buddy I play with
is a former Olympian
and they just called him
Chop Liver.
They were asking him
a million questions.
And we had a blast.
You're a celebrity, Sam.
They were unbelievable kids.
We had an absolute blast
and I just wanted to give them
a shout out.
Loved playing with you,
Lev and Lior.
Way to go, boys.
Love that.
Under the impression
that we are,
that we turned,
we were like,
you're our Frankenstein of the real Kipper and Bourne show?
Oh, yeah.
We built you.
Yes, I made it very clear where I was in the pecking order.
Like I played with a former NHLer, a guy that worked for the Leafs.
I played, you know, I made it very clear.
But we had a blast.
I played like crap, but it was all right.
All right.
Beautiful day.
Your score tonight, Oilers and the Kings.
You know, I just think the Oilers.
5-2?
Yeah, like 5-1, 4-1, somewhere in that ballpark.
Yeah.
It's time for them to just walk away with one here.
No.
I think Edmonton wins, but I liked some of what I saw from the Kings in that game.
They're gritty.
They got outplayed for sure, but they're clutch and gritty.
There's the early Kings that look like one of the best teams in the league this year and then there was the later on kings who
like thought okay they stink yeah so there's somewhere in the middle that king's team yeah
and i think that that that middle they're gonna hang around there i would say the oilers need to
not play around with them too much because we're talking about on the other side of that you know some some pretty good hockey
teams so you want to dispatch them as quick as you can other canadian team in action tonight
winnipeg jets in colorado do you have any vibes on that hellebuck has to come back and win this game i've got uh four two sammy winnipeg nicole colorado colorado i really think
that they needed to get both of those babies in winnipeg yeah i just if it if it avalanche come
out hot tonight they get a couple early and they start doubting hellebuck again and it's just you
know i i think they could easily win tonight the jets they're a good team good goaltending
but if they lose this one tonight i am Jets, they're a good team, good goaltending. But if they lose this one tonight, I am very concerned.
Yeah, I got a low-scoring game.
2-1, 3-2, something like that.
And it will come down to goaltending.
I'll give it to the Jets because I picked them to win the series.
The Smith, does he grind one?
Does he find a way to win tonight?
Full Canadian homer today.
3-2.
I think Van wins tonight.
Big statement game for them.
All right.
Four games on tap.
Sportsnet's got them all.
Find your game.
Enjoy it.
Enjoy your weekend.
And then we're back on Monday to do it all over again.
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Have a great weekend, everybody.
Stay safe.