Kyle Clifford

But then someone asked Would Austin have gone to bat? Would Austin have stuck up for one of his teammates had it happened to them? You can't.

The Leafs for years, Matt Martin, Wayne Simmons, Ryan Reeves, some other guys, they called up Kyle Clifford.

They've tried the designated babysitter thing.

toughness is a mindset toughness is a culture and it is something that they lacked so severely and bitterly and awfully last year and in the seasons before it just was never more obvious than last year what happened last season Multiple times.

We know he can do this, this, and that.

And then of course we had our UFC coach who could, you know, he could take the boys in the Kyle Clifford's and the white Kings and teach them how to defend themselves.

So, you know, you're never teaching guys how to knock people out.

You're teaching them how to survive and win fights.

And then, and those guys, it just brings a tear to my eye now when I see that's what I'm excited for the Leafs too.

Cause I look at their development team and I see Mark Giordano on the call it on the bench.

And I see Jake Muzzin and Kyle Clifford running their development camp.

And I'm like, well, those are my boys.

It's just my gut feeling.

But like when we talk about guys like Chromiak or, or, uh, Yamsen or, or Pennelly or whatever, like I always sort of feel like if a guy has got it, you kind of know right away, right? like you know I talk about this all the time like Kyle Clifford made the NHL I believe is an 18 year old now he didn't play top six role he wound up as a fourth liner Trevor Lewis I don't remember when Trevor Lewis made it I'm sure he was a little bit older but like eventually especially with a goaltender, I feel like a goalie kind of comes along and is clearly the guy.

I can't think of too many teams in the past.

I'm sure somebody could point out an example, but I can't think of too many teams that had two goalies who were roughly the same age.

And in the 2011 playoffs against the San Jose Sharks, Andre Kopitar broke his ankle like what, two weeks before the playoffs, I think.

and so wayne simmons brad richardson and kyle clifford combined to make a line that played the most minutes together as a line of any three forwards in that playoff round the kings lost to san jose in six games But I found a video that will it's two goals on the video.

The first goal is credited to Kyle Clifford in the video, but ultimately was credited to Wayne Simmons.

And you'll see on one of the replays that the puck bounces off of Wayne Simmons stick at the last second.

And then Simmons has given an assist on the second goal, which is credited to Clifford.

His pass, nice pass to Scuderi.

He shoots, tip, score! Clifford on the left side got his stick on it.

Kyle Clifford getting his third of the playoffs, and the Kings

It was a left shot that scored.

And I thought it was Kyle Clifford that scored.

And I told my wife in the drive home after the game, I was gassed, right? I was driving home after the game.

I said, that's awesome for Clifford.

And, you know, asking him all these questions about the 2014 Cup win and for him to reveal that story, which is, you know, it's not I mean, it's not hideously embarrassing, but like it's a little embarrassing that he didn't know who scored the goal until hours after the game.

I don't know how long it was before he and his wife were driving home after the 2014 Cup win, but I'm reasonably sure they didn't just go to the locker room, give a speech and then hop in their car and drive home.

And at no point did he realize that it wasn't Kyle Clifford that didn't score that goal.

Anyway, that's one of my favorite Daryl Sutter moments.