Justin Bourne

3 days ago | sportsnet.ca | Justin Bourne

No preamble – below are a half-dozen thoughts on the state of the Leafs through Game 4 of the second round, which finds them tied 2-2 with the Florida Panthers. Auston Matthews' lack of scoring is a problem, but miscalibrated shooting isn’t to blameJust about nothing I’ll write after this section matters if Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner can’t figure out how to create more offence. Everything except the play of Joseph Woll (a sudden bright spot) is secondary. So, let’s look at Matthews today.

1 week ago | sportsnet.ca | Justin Bourne

Through eight playoff games in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs are 6-2. They’ve upped their goals-per-game from 3.26 to 3.5, they’re allowing five fewer shots against per game, and they’re just generally finding a way. Maybe the Panthers will figure them out, and win this thing in six or seven. Maybe so much of what has gone right for the Leafs will suddenly start to go the other way. Who can say? But the following is not a prediction, it’s an observation.

1 week ago | sportsnet.ca | Justin Bourne

There’s just a ton to talk about from Game 1 in the Toronto-Florida series that felt like several games within one, so let’s get to it: 10 Thoughts from the opening game of the second round, which the Maple Leafs won 5-4. With the Leafs’ backs against the wall in 2023, down 3-0 in their series to Florida, Nylander scored in both Games 4 and 5 to give the Panthers the only push the Leafs could muster.

1 week ago | sportsnet.ca | Justin Bourne

After years of doing game-by-game analysis of the Toronto Maple Leafs certain trends have become regular themes on Real Kyper and Bourne. If you’ve listened with any consistency you’ve likely heard us refer to what had very clearly been an internal Team A, and a Team B. Team A was Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly. Team B was everyone else, and they were assumed by many to be faceless and interchangeable.

2 weeks ago | bvmsports.com | Justin Bourne

One of the reasons I like "Ice Tilt" from NHL EDGE IQ powered by AWS is that it's not a simple track of where the puck is, as that doesn't accurately tell us who's pushing the play. A great example of that is a set break out, where the puck is technically in one team's end racking up "puck in offensive zone time" - a metric tracked by various outlets - but the team that's breaking out has backed off the defenders and should have a good chance of cleanly coming out.