Real Kyper & Bourne - 2024 Begins with Seattle's Winter Classic

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee discuss the Winter Classic, a shutout win for the Kraken at T-Mobile Park. To help them break it down, Eddie Olczyk (8:16) joins to chat the Kraken's big win, their season to-date, and the Winter Classic as a whole as both a hockey game and a spectacle for the NHL. Afterwards, they debate the play of Andrei Vasilevskiy, which team is the best in Canada, and discuss what Cole Perfetti said about the recent incident with Ryan Hartman and Kirill Kaprizov. 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.

and born national edition in 2024 nick kiprios justin born sammy mckee we are live on sports net and sports net 650 in vancouver sports net 960 in calgary this hour of real kipper and born brought to you by bet three six five boys 10 10 day hiatus just get on the bike and start pedaling again i just realized we went a full hour of radio and television without mentioning that canada lost the world juniors and the quarterfinals i just thought of that bad producer you know who could have seen that coming everyone we had on the show to talk about the world juniors was like yeah i don't know about these guys. Anyways, thought I should probably mention that. Is your heart broken a little bit?

Not anymore. I didn't watch the first period, but I saw them pretty much dominate the second and third. Yeah. And then with, what, 11 seconds left, they get a horrific bounce. Off of Oliver Bonk, who plays for London, who was also a Radek Bonk's kid, who was clearly a famous Czech, won the gold medal with the Czechs,

deflects it into his own net against the Czechs. Poor kid. I just, I hate the... Celebrated in his home country. Like at this point, you know, if you're above... It sucks. If you're above the age of like 18 or 19, getting really bent out of shape about this level of hockey is really bad. Like I was watching the game,

I was like, oh crap, they lost, turned it off. Like I get excited when they win. I love the level of hockey, but if you're, like, mean to the kids, it's like, give me a break. And shout out to Oliver Bonk. He's a great player. For sure. I mean, absolute. Unlucky. Wrist her off the stick into the net. Ten seconds left. Sucks, but yeah. Don't

send mean DMs to them. Don't say that to the bean counters who, you know, there's big money to be made with the Canada going to a final, boys. Well, yeah. I heard the game was on, but I didn't want to watch. I heard it was on a different network, so I didn't know. You know, I love that level of hockey.

You consider, Sammy, all the World Junior stuff that you've watched over the past, like how many bounces have gone Canada's way over the years? A million. Mason McTavish pulling that one off the goal line. Yeah, and think about the most famous goal in world junior history, maybe, with Eberle, where it goes off a guy's thing. It lands on his stick on the backhand. He ties it.

Can you believe it? Yeah, so they've gotten a lot of good breaks. Way it goes. Apparently, America's juggernaut. Outside of that, we uh an outdoor game in seattle between the kraken and vegas golden knights eddie olchuk's gonna join us in a few minutes of course hockey analyst for tnt and he uh covered the game as well in seattle so we'll get to we'll get a feel for uh for that game but like the spectacle never gets old.

Although we've seen it a thousand times, it is still pretty cool to see that helicopter shot of a 80,000 seat stadium. Yeah. And you know, the way they lean into the local markets is so cool like this. Seattle coming in and the fishermen garb them tossing fish over their heads you okay with that or is that just a rip off of uh the red wings with the octopus no that's from the market that's from the what's it called but when they walked out onto the ice they were throwing fish back and forth between the guys like a whole not just fish on the ice you're okay with that yeah it's great all right well entertaining good pace to the game i actually

really enjoyed this winter classic. I saw a little bit of, like, conjecture about, oh, you expand your team, you get a world. It's like, oh, great. We're going to have to watch Blackhawks and Penguins again. Are they in the league or are they not in the league? Like, if they're a team, they get to be a part of this. 10 out of 10.

Jerseys, unbelievable. Vegas, whoever made their original jerseys, should have watched that game and just felt great shame. Yeah. Because those jerseys were beautiful. They were, yeah. Seattle's too. I'm not a jersey guy, but I really liked the Vegas one.

Looked great. The barber pole for Seattle with, like, the red pops out nicely. Like, those, both of those should be their primary jerseys. Legit. Totally agree. So, yeah, that was exciting. The World Juniors, disappointing. Lots going on in the hockey world. The Leafs goaltending. Fireworks are fun.. Lots going on in the hockey world.

The Leafs goaltending. Fireworks are fun. We just covered that in the last hour. Yeah, if there's one thing our national audience wants to hear, it's how the Leafs are in trouble with goaltending. They love that. Yeah, you guys want to hear something? It wasn't Grubauer who pitched a shutout either for Seattle.

Joey DeCord. DeCord. Okay, so what are we watching here now when we look at the goaltending position as a whole here? I'm telling you, analytics people have given up. I don't know. It's never been, I don't know, what's the word I'm looking for? Maybe devalued position?

Well, it's like the running back in the nfl now it's like i don't know just put this guy in and they're all kind of the same maybe he'll block some maybe he won't but the difference with that analogy is the reason it's like that is because there's a million good ones right it's not because no no no good ones because they're all kind of pretty good yeah there's kind of all the nhl goals are kind of bad oh i, I see. Do you know what I mean? Well, I think the goaltending improved so rapidly, and it kind of hits a ceiling where you can't get that much better with the shooters as good as they are now, and who can maintain that level?

Like 10 guys. Outside of Hildeby, who's 6'7", and maybe Levi, who's in Buffalo, who's six seven yeah and maybe uh levi who's in buffalo who's 5 11 they kind of all look the same now yeah not too much and they're coached kind of the same and i will say when you see a variation in style like a guy like samson ob is aggressive and pushes a lot it's usually bad peter marazic pushes a lot aggressive. You know, everyone's kind of quiet. They block and they say, if you can hit this little spot, you can have it. And the guys go, yeah, we can.

Did we see that against Edmonton and the LA Kings with Connor McDavid's goal? Do you see that one? Just about a foot off the goal line. Well, and Willie did it last game against Columbus. They love waiting these goalies out now. Yeah, they get the it last game against Columbus. They love waiting these goalies out now. Yeah, they get the reverse VH and they go,

ting, thanks. And they drop. Yeah. Like a stone. The goalies need to go back to the drawing board being like, we got to stop offering

that little pocket because they can hit it. And you mentioned Peter Mrazik, a he of a 904. Oh, no, really? Yeah. Is he available? So, the save percentage continues to drop league wide i think

it's 903 now down from 915 some seven years ago six years ago that's a big average that's a big drop significant yeah the shooting is just it has evolved to say the least. But two examples in Canada where it still pays to have a pretty good goalie and you may have to pay for it a little bit. Demko in Vancouver, Connor Hellebuck in Winnipeg. The problem is people don't know who to pay because how many of those guys are doing consistently? Shusterkin, Sorokin, Hellebuck, Demko. Half a dozen. Yeah, there's a half a dozen guys in the league. You're like, thatllebuck, Demko. Half a dozen.

Yeah, there's a half a dozen guys in the league. You're like, that guy can continue to do it. Other than that, it's like these guys. And there's 25 where you just scratch your head and go, I don't know what I'm going to get. Looking through the stats, Aiden Hill, I guess, is the best goalie in the league right now, according to the numbers.

Hey, Canadian. Is he? Yeah. Let's go. We're back. Let's go. And he only got what on the new deal. He won the Stanley Cup, and he only got what, 3-3?

Is that what you think? I think so. A two-year deal or something, was it? Maybe three or four. Oh, is it more than that? Okay, yeah. Yeah, but even then, the team wasn't like. He knew.

Yeah. I mean, Grubauer went and got his money in Seattle and struggled a bit. Kemper? Two-year, $9.8 million contract. Okay. That's a lot of money he's making. I mean, but not compared to players. Yeah, he's not making Tyler Bertuzzi numbers.

He's 4.9. He's the best goalie in the league, according to stats. True. So that's pretty good value. I would say so. Samsonov waived at 3-5 or 3-3? 3-3. But the Leafs are looking rather smart today

without overcommitting on term. Yeah. This expires at the end of this year at least. Okay, as promised. We went out and got the best guest we could get. 2024. He couldn't join us, so let's bring in that old Chuck. Eddie,

we're giving you a chance. Hey, Barney. How are you? Are you, are you okay from the outdoor game? Was it, how was the temperature?

It was, it was good. Yeah, it was, it was good yeah it was uh i mean our position was up uh in the actual baseball uh press box and windows were open so it did get a little chilly we had a little bit of wind up there but uh no complaining when it's 43 or 44 degrees and overcast and know that did the game from ice level when the Leafs were at the big house and taking on the Red Wings when it was like minus you know minus four degrees and sleeting and slushing and whatever else that was going on and that was the that was the coldest

even even more so I think than the first game in. That game at Ann Arbor at the big house was as cold as I've been at any event. So it was a lot of fun, and the league did another great job, and I think the game was pretty entertaining. I don't know what you guys thought as far as on TV, but I think the sight lines were unbelievable. And if it wasn't for the goalies, if it wasn't for Joey Decord and Logan Thompson, I think we could have had ourselves a 5-3 type of game because some of the unbelievable chances either team's had.

So it was, I think, a win-win. And it was fun to be a very small part of it on the broadcast here down here in the States. Having been around so many of them, Eddie, is the magic still there? Is it still doing it for the local fans the way it did out of the gates? Oh, yeah. I do believe that, Borny. I think that just from hearing from the underground back in the day when this started to become a realistic possibility of having games outdoors in the National Hockey League

and have them count for two points or in some games, three points, you know, there was some hesitation. And I think when you look back now, you know, we have the greatest fans in the world. I don't think there's no doubt about that. National Hockey League fans are the world i don't think there's no doubt about that national hockey league fans are the greatest and when you can get 47 000 plus like you did here in seattle yesterday or you can get 100 000 plus at the big house as i mentioned a little bit earlier and have the entertainment aspect of it and a curiosity aspect of it in a lot of these different cities that we've had i mean right boston right we've had i mean right boston right we've been to fenway park twice so you knew what it was the first time and of course you had to go back and get another taste again because you're going into one of the iconic

ballparks or stadiums and all the professional sport it is and even from the broadcast side there is just something about being in the venue and seeing the, you know, the backdrop and knowing what the building is for, the stadium is for on a regular basis. All of a sudden the NHL invades and it just becomes a hockey wonderland. It takes me back to the days of when my dad would build a rink in our backyard growing up in the suburbs of Chicago or going out and playing outdoors or seeing my kids go out and play at outdoor rinks, whether we were time in Winnipeg or time back in Chicago. It is about the grassroots, and I think it is a celebration of the game. And for me anyways, I love being a very small part of it we're talking to eddie old chuck hockey analyst with tnt does a terrific job covering the crack in as well as

the national hockey league edzo we're just having a conversation just prior to you coming on about the goaltenders and you know whether or not uh you know ultimately we'll ever see our era Edzo where we saw almost half the league spend six seven eight million dollars on a star goaltender that they just said we cannot win without him and you just mentioned Joey Decord and no he's not Philip Grubauer who's making six million bucks yet tremendous amount of success can he continue it how far do you think you see you can see him with success it seems that the turnaround is kind of uh indicative of how he's been the last little while well i would disagree from the aspect of you know maybe the thing i would agree is is that the team

has accumulated points here in the last nine. They've gone nine straight games with points in that streak. The goaltending this year, to me, has been very good. The Kraken have been not battling to get above that so-called playoff line because of their goaltending. Their goaltending has given them a chance pretty much. Look, every team has rough games. Every goalie has rough games. But I think for, in particular, Philip Grubauer, Joey Decord,

and Chris Drieger, I mean, how about Chris Drieger's story? He hadn't played in a National Hockey League in 19 months, and he gets the first game coming out of the christmas break you know and seattle goes into calgary and the guy plays unbelievable so i mean what a lift that is you know not only for the individual and chris dreger but also for the team and then joey ducord comes in and plays really obviously plays well against Philadelphia, where the team didn't play that great early. He gave them a chance. But the goaltending in Seattle, to me, Kipper and Borny, if they're better players,

or they're guys that are expected to do what they were expected to do like they did last year, earlier, then this team would probably have another eight or ten points and they would be up where vancouver and vegas and uh lar but they're better players struggled early but as of recently these last nine games their better players have been just that and i think it's kind of gone hand in hand so for people that maybe don't follow the Kraken on a daily basis yeah their goaltending has been very good here recently but the goaltending has been very good pretty much all season long in my opinion but their better players have been their better players and you guys know this you need your best players to to be at their very

best each and every night and uh and they've done that and they've gotten themselves back into a playoff spot and look at this was a team that had 100 points last year and came within one goal of going to the conference final and they're trying to get back to where they got to last year and so beyond the goaltending in seattle we were just talking league wide like league average save percentage is down to a nine Oh three last I checked, you know, it was nine 15,

five, six, seven years ago. You know, Drieger is a great example of a guy who it's like, it feels like the line between an NHL starter and backup and AHL goalie is so thin these days to what do you chalk up the decline of goaltending statistics and the lack of clean starters?

Oh, that's a great question. I would say that the importance and the understanding is that you're going to need two. I think you're going to need two guys. Just because of the way that the game is now, Borny, that maybe it was 10 years ago 15 for sure and then you want to go on there's no doubt about it i mean the game is just it just seems like there's more more opportunity to create and generate offense you know the power play numbers the creativity of the player now a lot of teams sitting there instead of erring on a

side of defense they're more gonna say you know what we're you know we know we can get four or five so you just tell your goaltender hey kepper you just go whisper in here and you tell ricky rod or glenn healy and go hey just don't give up the fifth one and we're gonna win the game you know like that's you know so you know i i can't i can't sit here and say it's any one one thing as far as i'm concerned borny but you do need i think it's proven you do need a couple and look at i mean just look at vegas for for a second here right like look at the guys that they had last year play for them and then all of a sudden eight and ill who was what third string four I mean I don't even

know what number he was last year but all of a sudden he grabs the mantle and he's hoisting the Stanley Cup and signs a healthy contract and had four or five teams that were willing to throw a lot of cake at him and and for a guy that was just trying to survive and stay in the National Hockey League. So I think team styles, the way that the game is. And, you know, you got some prolific offensive players. And when they get looks, there's a pretty good chance that, you know, I mean, you're Matthews. And, you know, I know he's off to a, you know, off to a tough start. But you're Kyle Connorsors you're guys that maybe only need one or two chances to put the packet put the puck in the back of the net uh you're starting to see

more guys that all they need is instead of needing 10 or 15 chances a lot of these guys may only need three or four and when they get three or four they're going to put the puck in the back of the net so it's great for the broadcasters. And I know, you know, I mean, in particular, just covering a lot of Seattle games. I mean, recently here, it just seems like every game is 2-1, 3-2. I know yesterday was 3-0. But as I said earlier, that game could have been 5-3.

I mean, you could have had eight or nine goals in that game. So the chances were there. And sometimes the goaltenders cooperate and sometimes they don't. And they don't, depending on what side of the fence you look at. Yeah, but as far as the overall goalie union, I don't think they can be too happy. And Eddie, if you've really kind of followed what's happened in the last 15, 20 years, especially coming out of the lockout in 2004, everything has been geared towards the shooter, right?

All the rules changes was to create more offense and nothing's really there for the goalies. The same things happen in football. I know there isn't goalies in football, but a it's protect the quarterback, right? And then open up all of the offense. When you look at league wide scoring and you know,

that type of stuff, I mean, just the rules for the defensive player, I mean, it's very, very difficult. So I think there's some similarities there. Kipper, to the heart of your question, right, is to encourage offense or to at least allow for offense. I mean, I've said this for, i want to say 25 years but pretty darn close um i would always be really interested again i'm going towards the offensive part it's maybe not

to what you're talking about dipper as far as the the goalies but how do you do you guys believe that if the the instead of having the first and third period in your home zone, what happens if we flip that? What happens if we went to the home zone is only in the second period and the long change is in the first and the third period? How many more chances would we have? It doesn't mean we're going to score more, but when you look at the numbers or you look at,

at least when we do the games on tnt at least the opportunity to be able to create more chances because it is harder to make those changes sometimes sometimes the quick ups and several catch teams and you want to generate more opportunities i would be really interested i've lobbied for that for a long time of what we know what would that look like and look at the offense is there and you see some of the games and we've had some unbelievable high scoring games this year but you wonder how much more again catering to the offensive part of the game like they do in football and you know baseball to a certain extent you know with the pitch clock now and everything else but i think in the game of hockey it'd be what would you guys think about that and how do you think it would you know maybe impact impact the game overall and the in the offensive part of the game i mean i i love it i love it in

particular because it's harder to change and you're tired in the third period so you're gonna have more gas guys more mistakes more action more too many men on the ice. Yeah, more too many men for sure. More breakaways. So I really like that idea. And while we're stealing ideas for the NFL, this will be part of an article I'm writing for tomorrow, but how about some motion behind the line of scrimmage? Can we get some people starting to move a little bit,

steal some NFL ideas, send some guys a puck drop? What do you think, Kip? You want to get a wide receiver going out wide before the puck drops? Hut. All right. I would have been all for that. I love it, right? I'd like a 10-foot run at a player.

Yeah, get a cook in a little bit before you drop it. Let's go. Let's get weird. Eddie, in terms of some of the teams that we've seen in the first half, if we want to consider what 34, 35 games, enough for you to understand or believe that a team like the Vancouver Canucks who ended at Christmas as a top team can continue that. Oh, I do.

I think talk, I think Rick talk, it has done an incredible job. It really kind of changed the dynamic and makeup of their team. I mean, they still have some injuries too. I mean, a guy like Carson Soucy who played here in Seattle was a free agent signing in Vancouver and, you know, big body. I mean, he went up and picked up Zdorov, you know, Hironi came in last year. You got a guy that's, you know, certainly in the top two or three for Norris trophy on the back years there in Quinton Hughes. But they've found a way, right? And they seem to be in every game.

They're a straight-line team. They play hard. They're obviously super well-coached. And I would be very surprised, Kipper and Borny, if the Vancouver Canucks would fall off. Now, are they going to have a, you know, a dip? Yeah. A lot of, a lot of teams do that over 82 games. Right. And kind of been a big believer and learn this over the years is that you're going to have those, you know, 82 game schedule. And we're just going to round it off here, but you know,

you're going to have 20 games where you're going to be lights out. Every team doesn't matter what the record is. You're going to have 20 games where you're absolutely lights out and there's going to be a pretty good chance you're going to find a way to get points in those games then you're going to have 20 games in the course of the season whether it's schedule or injuries or just the fact of playing an 82 game schedule where you feel like your legs are a baggage claim for a lot of those games and you're gonna you're gonna be on the wrong end that's just that's just the way it is i think what separates everybody else is what the hell happens with those other 40, 42 games, right? And that's what separates the teams that make it, and they don't.

Can you limit the damage when you go eight or ten game segments? And can you make sure that you at least are 500 in those ten game segments? If you start looking when you start going three points, four points in those 10 games, wow, either you've dug yourself a hole or you've put yourself in a really tough spot. So then getting off to a great start,

they put money in the bank and, and the goaltending, obviously, I mean, you know, it's, it's been pretty damn good to be honest with you. And you know what you're going to get in,

in JT Miller. And I'm happy for Brock Besser, you know, to be able to bounce back the way that he has. And so, yeah, yeah, I think I would be surprised if Vancouver is not in it come the last, you know, 10 days, two weeks of the regular season. So we'll keep it in that division for my last question for you, Edzo, and just ask about the Edmonton Oilers. What are they?

Like, is this team that has now won five in a row, are they going to be at the top of the division with the Vegas and Vancouver's maybe? Or is this, are they really flawed here? I'm having trouble trying to make sense of what they are. Yeah, I mean, sometimes they look like, yeah, they're the team that's going to win the Western Conference and get back to where they were a couple of years ago and be within striking distance.

When you have, obviously, Connor McDavid and Leon Dreisaitl, you're going to be in every game. So maybe I go back to what I said a little bit earlier, Marnie Kipper. It's like, all right, look, we know we could get five or six so don't give up five whatever you do whoever's playing goal so and then that's the mindset i mean that's that's just the reality of it can they you know can they defend enough you know i i've always i've been a big fan of evan bouchard and i became a bigger fan of him after duncan keith spent that time with with bouchard in Edmonton and then talking to Duncan Keith about Evan Bouchard. And, and look at like every player has blemishes, right?

Like there is no perfect player in a national hockey league. I mean, there are some guys that are really close. I will admit that, but a guy like Evan Bouchard, look at, yeah. Is he going to miss some assignments defensively? Absolutely. Is he going to give you, you know, the right reads on plays defensively coming out of the corner or off the rush? No, not all the time. But boy, oh boy, I mean, I watch him some nights there,

and obviously, you know, we know Paul Coffey is back there working with the D-men. I think the guy, like, and i think it's there again just finding that consistency of of knowing when to go ahead and the green light is there and to think offense and other times it's okay to live the fight another day and and not be right in the middle of anything offensively and and sometimes just go out there and not be noticed so the question i have is can they defend enough and do they have enough defenders and having that consistency on on the back end and then obviously the goaltending like you know is it will it be good enough but then i go back to what i said earlier and i've repeated

this now three times but look if they give up four or five the guys that they have up front they can get five or six and they should be in every game just because those guys are are breathing different air than the majority of the national hockey league so i still have questions but uh i think i'd probably be i would say they're probably dealing from you know probably more strength with the way that the game is and what they're able to do um than anything else One more for me, Ed zone. We'll let you go. I promise. And prior to you going to Seattle, you did a heck of a job covering the Chicago black Hawks with the play of

Connor Bedard this past season. Is there any part of you that would think that the Chicago black Hawks would take a run at signing some prominent free agents? If in fact, Willie Nylander's still around or in another year they would entice Pedersen to wait in Vancouver and they would speed up the process

of surrounding this guy with some talent? Oh, I mean, just knowing the people involved there and obviously Danny Wertz taking over for, for his dad, the late Rocky Wirtz and, and knowing Kyle Davidson and Norman McIver kind of the head of the hockey operations department there in Chicago is that, you know, they've got a plan and they know exactly where they are and where they're, you know, and where they're trying to get to. So, look, it is about talent.

The league teams that win have stars, and they have a star and a half there in Conor Bernard. But you're right. I mean, the need to surround him with the right type of players. I know I caught a lot of heat before the season started, but I thought the best free agent signing that there was in the entire national hockey league this year was the signing of nick felino when he went to chicago better than hall better than perry i thought that that was the most cagiest the smartest

free agent signing that there was in a national hockey league because a guy like nick felino has no agendas he plays one way and whether he plays eight or 80 minutes a night he's going to give you everything he has and he knows what his strengths are and a guy like conor bedard will learn and i'm sure has learned so much from being around a guy like Nick Foligno, not only on the ice, guys, but also off the ice. And it is about production. It is about having star players. But the ability to have a guy like Nick Foligno there will be long-lasting

for the Chicago Blackhawks and then more in particular for a guy like Conor Bedard and then when they do bring in better players and obviously draft players and hope that they're on you know breathing that same type of air look that's rare air a guy like Conor Bedard breathes but when you do bring in the right players they gotta have they can't be self-led agenda type of players like that's just the way that it is and i i i believe that yeah why wouldn't they right they're going to have space they know they need to surround a guy like conor bedard with a you know a premier center iceman i know whether that's from within and you develop or you trade for a guy or you know you have assets or you go ahead and sign somebody

so i would be surprised if they don't take runs of people but again i'm not really sure and i'm not there on a daily basis but uh you know nick felino is the type of guy that i think makes an impact on conor bedard is a guy like marty lapointe did when he was in chicago on patrick kane and jonathan caves and bre Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith, like those are the type of guys that you need with your franchise and can make a long lasting impact on those guys.

And I thought that was just an unbelievable signing. And I know there were a boatload of teams that wanted Nick Salino and yeah, did they overpay him? Yeah, they probably did, but you know what? They had the money and they needed to because they knew exactly what they needed to surround a guy like Conor Bedard did. And Nick Foligno's had himself one heck of a season under Luke Richardson.

Edzo, great stuff as always, man. Happy New Year. Thanks for doing this. Happy New Year. Thanks, Edzo. Love you guys. Appreciate it, bud. Thanks for having me.

See ya. Great stuff as always, eh? Yeah, man. Yeah, really thoughtful stuff. Is there a higher approval rating guy than Nick Foligno? Yeah, man. Yeah. He's really thoughtful stuff. Is there a higher approval rating guy than Nick Foligno? Yeah. Who doesn't love him? Everyone loves him.

We interviewed him in the summer and he came on with me and Gunnar. I was like, I love that guy. Yeah. He's just like, he's everyone who talks to him loves him. Didn't work here because of injuries. Yeah.

Injury. He would have been perfect. Just, yeah. I'm not going to dare. Try him again. He had, he had a bad back. Injury. He would have been perfect. Just, yeah. In a dairy. Try him again. He had a bad back. Try him again. The problem is he signed for $4 million.

Yeah, it makes too much money. You know, even at retaining, it's two. How many years did he get? Just one year, four mil. Yeah. Him and Perry were like, take a big paycheck to go mentor. Could you see them moving him at the trade deadline? I think that was probably part of the original thing,

was, like, by the time the deadline is, I think it's March 3rd, you know, he's only owed X, so you retain half, you gain an asset for the retaining. It all depends on where you think he fits, right? He's got to be a fit guy. He's having a pretty good year, to Edzo's point. How many minutes is he playing? That's a great point.

Right? And then on a contending team, can he get the same minutes? Does he expect to get the same minutes? All right. He plays a lot. Nick Foligno has eight goals, nine assists, 17 points. He plays a lot. He's played a total of 18 minutes this year per game.

17.52. Where would he fit? Where would he fit? Class 3 games. He's played 21-46. Yeah, that's a lot. Can he play third line center on your playoff team? His back feels good.

Back's doing better. Yep, back is feeling better. We'll do game time on the other side of the break. Let's hit a break here. Okay. Hold on. Quick thought. Edso's point about goaltending, say, percentages going down.

I thought tandems was a really smart point. The best goalies used to play all the time and they don't anymore now you willingly hand the ball to a guy you don't think is as good a lot but they didn't get there on their own they got there because they screwed up their salary cap and that's who teams in general. Oh, yeah. Right? Like, I think it's evolved that way because they felt that that's where you can kind of. Save money. Yeah. You can skim off of and least affect your team. Yeah. No.

Hey, listen, everyone's looking for an angle. At the end of the day, if you have the puck in the offensive zone, then it doesn't matter who you have back there. And that's the philosophy is less is more. And that's the philosophy that's worked for no one so far. You're supposed to make the days of the, the, the standing on your head and being the first star. Most nights is over.

Sergey Bobrovsky, two bad years. And then he's the best guy on earth. He's hanging on. Yeah. He's hanging on. The hanging on the contract is not looking terrible it's looking less

terrible yeah there you go hey the odds are still against him for sure this deep into that contract yeah but we shall see okay as Sammy mentioned game break after the break you're watching and listening to real Kipper and Born. Plenty more to get into.

NHL News and Notes, including a major announcement out of Ottawa, Steve Stahels. But before that. He hired himself. Game notes. Oh, yeah, game time. Game time. Game time. Let it rip.

Where's my sheet? It's been a while since I should have this memorized. Come on, seven. We've got a long lineup today. Long lineup. Yeah, lots of info. Too many pages. All right. It's game time.

Presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary. Bet365 must be 19 plus. On tariff only. Please pay responsibly. The first thing I wanted to do was to check in on the future market to see the favorites. The Dow Jones.

No. You think Sammy's got money in the Dow Jones? Didn't mean to laugh at that, by the way. No, it's fair. 100% able to laugh. I bet you you got about $1.40 worth of change in your pocket. I got nothing in my pocket. I got a Wonder Bar wrapper in my pocket.

There you go. No, for the future, for the trophies. So like for the Calder, Bedard's still a massive favorite at minus 450. The closest to him is Brock Faber at plus 1,200. Luke Hughes, plus 1,600. Fantilli is 20 to 1. I like that Fantilli.

I do too. Actually, that's one thing we didn't get to talk about. You guys talked about it on air, but I just loved the whole Benoit situation. Oh, yeah. Where he got in his grill. Yeah. And then went and fought the toughest guy in the team right away.

Don't talk to him. He's like, okay, we'll fight. He's like, I guess. And he tried to give him the BX, the Superman punch to start. Really loved that Benoit moment there. So, yeah, 20 to 1 for him. He wasn't trying to check on his phone, was he, or anything? What's that?

Oh, God. Oh, boy. Is this a Columbus joke? So, there's a dead heat in the Hart Trophy race between Connor McDavid at plus 325 and Nikita Kucherov, who's having an unbelievable season. Yeah, imagine picking Kucherov in that situation. You'd have to be out of your tree.

McKinnon creeping up there at plus 425. You see that clip of him trucking the guy on and then standing over him? McKinnon is owed a lifetime achievement heart, by the way. When do we get to decide whether or not Tampa Bay is a good team or not? They're not. They just got good players.

So they have good players. When do we... Let me rephrase that. I love that answer. Let me rephrase that. When do we decide whether or not Tampa Bay is a dangerous team or not? Well, to me, they're in the same class

as two Canadian teams, maybe three if you want to put Vancouver, but Toronto and Edmonton, where they also have very good players and also have significant question marks in other places where it's like if they got good goaltending for one month, they could kill you.

Isn't in that. Oh, they have Vasilevsky right of her to him. Yeah, that does separate them a little bit, doesn't it? You mean Vasilevsky, the number one reason the Leafs got past the first round last year? Yeah, it wasn't great in that series. Where's the belief that this guy is still the man he's still the man is he Andre Vassell hasn't played that great um or at least the consistency has not been there like in the

past I get it uh Jack Adams Rick Talkett prohibitive favorite two to one now uh the Norris is between Hughes and McCarr as usual. Evan Bouchard is the third favorite, plus 1,400, which is crazy. And Matthews is a minus 1-10 for the Rocket. So there you go. There's the future market. Besna Demko is a favorite with Hellebuck right behind him. Matthews minus or plus 1-10? Minus 1-10.

Who's a bigger surprise? Vancouver or Winnipeg? Vancouver. Vancouver. For sure. Winnipeg? Vancouver. Vancouver. For sure. Winnipeg, to me, has always been. Winnipeg, to me, is a bigger surprise because this team was supposed to implode. It's a good question.

Let me wrap up game time, and then we'll get to it after that. The last one I had was the 2014 parlay, which I like to call the Sid and Ovi both to score a goal tonight is plus 525. And a goal for Trevor Morgan. What's Sid at now? Plus 190. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seven?

Pardon? He's at seven goals now? No, he's got... Sorry, Ovi? Yeah, I think he's at seven. Seven or eight. So, that was game time. Yeah, we finished dead last.

Good tournament, though. Is he going to get to 30? No. He's not going to get to 45? What was your number at the start of the day? 26 and a half? 27? There's got to be a stretch here where Ovi kind of gets it going a little bit.

And it starts tonight on Game Time. And that was Game Time presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary. At Bet365, must be 19 plus, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Winnipeg Jets, 7-1-2 in their last 10. So why are you so fast to dismiss that Vancouver's just a bigger story or bigger surprise? Well, I think Vancouver was pretty bad last year, right?

It was core. It was stonk. They were supposed to trade JT Miller at one point. That's a good play. Horvat was traded. It was all like they were unraveling. Everybody was supposed to leave Winnipeg. Shifley was supposed to leave winnipeg yeah shifley was supposed to be gone connor hellebuck

had permission to go talk to new jersey yeah they didn't want to pay him in new jersey what are you doing where would they be right now what are you doing new jersey would be by far the best team in the league what are you doing the uh nhl winning percentage leagues sorted by winning for percentages rangers boston winnipeg one two three winnipeg third overall but to me they made the playoffs last year there's been a i wouldn't go as far as a tradition that's a little strong but there's been a pedigree of winning there they've always been like a plucky team a decent team they've always been in the fight to me vancouver was bad but you know winnipeg had to make the peel dubois deal which was like you lose wheeler he killed it knocked it out of the park there's wheeler and dubois it's tough to say we're going

to be a lot better and velarde i follow capari hasn't played much but they've been very good Rick Bonus even more credit for calling that room out like he did and the recovery time to get them back on board and being a solid hockey club. It's phenomenal. Yeah, you lose Wheeler.

I mean, obviously Dubois. You lost guys who weren't pulling in the same direction as everyone else. I think they're. Lion-A once upon a time was there. I think you could maybe draw a line between two guys that left and the stuff that Bonas said. Sure.

You know? Like, I think Wheeler had that conversation with Christine Simpson about how he was perceived. Like, P.L. Dubois has gone to. He didn't like it. He felt like they blamed him. Yeah. But, I mean, when you're saying that stuff,

probably means that there was a little truth to that. A little bit too much power, I think, for Wheeler. That's all. And maybe he'll admit it somewhere down the road that there's a few situations they could have handled differently

without getting into real specifics. Either way, both great stories. They're phenomenal stories. Plus without getting into real specifics. Sure. Yeah. Either way, both great stories. Jets are phenomenal stories. Plus 30 goal differential, Canucks plus 43. Humming, humming, humming. Did you want to mention the Cole Profetti thing with Hartman?

Love this. Love this. So who hit Kaprizov? Brennan Dillon gave Kaprizov a cross check in the hip. Right. Hurt him. That being Minnesota's best player.

And he's out, I think, a week, maybe two. And Ryan Hartman told a mic'd up Cole Perfetti that he was going

to high stick. We have the clip of Perfetti talking. Okay. If you, Dutchie, if you want to get that clip ready,

it's a really funny clip if you want to play it for us here now. To follow on that, Cole, did he make it pretty clear that he was doing that as retribution for what had happened the day before? Yeah, yeah, he did. He made it pretty obvious, you know. He did it in, I mean, he said it in kind of a respectful way. I mean, he said no disrespect, nothing against you.

Just, you know, know had to happen something had to happen against you know what happened to Kapuzov there I mean he's obviously gonna be out for a little bit and you know I don't think Dilley was trying to hurt him I think he's just playing heavy and that's just you know that play happens like you know he wasn't I don't think trying to be a you know a bad guy I think he, you know, that's what he thought he needed to do to get back at us. You were mic'd up too, right? I was, yes.

So we caught it all. I was gonna say, if this went to a court, you got the smoking gun. Yeah, he wouldn't be doing, yeah. They wouldn't have much. Yeah, I was mic'd up, so I don't know if he realized that or not, I mean, if he was notified, but to come out and blatantly say it to the mic, it worked out in our favor.

He actually said to him, like, I'm going to high stick you in the face. Did you see the video of it? No, I haven't. Oh, my God, he just bashes him straight in the mouth. And he got fined. I can tell you. Love it. Hartman's a dirty guy, and I love it.

You know who else loves it? Who's that? The league. Why's that? Well, and I love it. You know who else loves it? Who's that? The league. Why's that? Well, they only find them. Yeah, you're right. But they can't use the audio. So part of the, in order to get players to agree to be mic'd up,

the agreement is that nothing you do or say can or will be used to get you in a court of law. Can I just remind you, this is the NHL. They can do and say whatever the hell they want. Yes, you're right. They could have been like, yeah, we didn't use the audio. No, they used the audio. It's like in a court case where they're like, strike

that for the record. It's like, but the jury heard it. Yeah. They loved it. Good. Maybe more guys will have second thoughts about this and they love players policing themselves still. They do. And then there's a line, and when you cross it,

they step in. But until then, this stuff has been going on forever. So I am a little, it's a curious choice to choose Cole Perfetti to me. Is it not? Well, he's one of those, I guess he's like a good young player. It's not Mark Scheifele or Kyle Connor or Velarde. Oh, we got the video here.

Oh. Yeah, he just hit him in the mouth. Yeah, he sure did. Yeah, he sure did. Hit him in the mouth. No, I think it's a good choice. By Hartman. Yeah, it's like.

I know people are going to hate us for that. I totally agree. Yeah, it's perfect. Don't hit our best player and let everyone on your bench know why that happened. Go after a young guy, vulnerable, because then it forces their team to go after our young chickadees here. Yeah.

Right? We got to do something. There's more of a reaction than a veteran. I think it is equal. But I think you have to clarify if you're Hartman to Perfetti. Here's why this has happened.

Otherwise, it just looks like a really egregious act. Go tell your friends. The part I don't like is how polite he was. Hartman? Yeah, very respectful. I like it. No, I don't want respect how polite he was. Hartman? Yeah, very respectful. Oh, I like it. No, I don't want respect either. It's transactional.

It's transactional. I don't want respect. Just so you know, I'm going to take two of your teeth. Yes. What did he say? What did he think? Excuse me, sir. I'm going to cross-check you in the mouth.

Yeah, just so you know. You're done. You're done because of him. No, I like the niceties. And then you turn around and then you go back. There was a couple occasions where i have to go to peter bondra in washington me and alan may and go hey listen you take it easy there a little bit yeah i'm tired of fighting i got a bad shoulder yeah you know don't drag me

into another one i just let's get off this road trip it would be fun to have a couple of guys fighting for you i'd be running my mouth too. Yeah. What'd you have to say? Kip. Kip. Oh God. All right. Steve sales has appointed himself. Good hire.

General manager. Full time. Is it not a little funny? Like just a little bit funny that they hired Jacques Martin to be their coaching consultant. Then he hired Jacques Martin and then Steve Stahos who's conducting the GM search found Steve Stahos. It's a little

funny. It is funny. I mean, they're both good, credible hires and in no way am I saying they're not qualified or whatever. They're great hires. But it's a little funny to be like, you know who would be great at that job? Me. I don't understand why he wants it. But it's a little funny to be like, you know who would be great at that job? Me.

I don't understand why he wants it. What do you mean? What is that? He's 32 GMs. Yeah, now he has a shield for his president job. If he needs to get fired, he can fire himself from that one. No, I think he's at a point where he can get himself fired. Fired. That's a package deal, you think he's at a point where he got himself fired fired. That was a package deal, you think?

Right? If you stink as a GM, why do I want you president of hockey ops? Yeah, he might have thought this through. Might have lumped himself in. I just, I think that's the ultimate job, the president of hockey ops. And now you brought in dave poolin who's you know been around the block and you can sit up top and even mentor a general manager but this is new kip where you talk about the president is like the job you know it wasn't until very recently where the gm was kind of the guy who ran the show and And the president was like the business guy who took care of ticket sales and all that stuff.

Now it's like, you know, you have Gorton in Montreal and Rutherford in Vancouver. And these guys. Yeah. In Vegas. Right. Who kind of feel like the GM is, you know, say a puppet. But at least the president has say in the hockey side a lot more than I feel like they did. Brennan Shanahan in Toronto?

I'm not saying, just saying. They could also push in Brian Bonas if they need to. You got to think that they are somewhat grooming him to slide in there eventually, maybe. I don't know. Should you not just give him the job then if you think he's going to eventually do it? They've appointed him the team's associate general manager. I've always wondered what was higher, associate or assistant?

I guess that's the answer. Associate sounds way better on a business card. Does it? Yeah. Yes. Okay. I agree. So, I mean, Ottawa's starting to hum a little bit. It would be nice to... Yeah, they won one in a row. Too late? Way too late for you guys? Can they pull Edmonton

Oiler and win five in a row again? No. Although Pinto's coming back too. Pinto's coming back. They could... I just feel like this team at 14 and 18 has so much more to give. I'd like to at least see the real Ottawa. I am curious what happens come the deadline.

Who goes? Like like are they trade tarasenko trade they're not gonna make the playoffs this year so you sure yeah i'm sure okay they're in just asking 300th in the atlantic all right how do we do for our first show back in 10 days i mean we left a lot on the table we have like eight topics we didn't get to so i don't know how the show was, but we got more to give. All right. Our thanks to Eddie Olchuk, hockey analyst with TNT. We are back again tomorrow.

How many games tonight? 13. 13 matches. Pick one you like, and we're back tomorrow. Pick the Leafs game. We're on it. Yes. Enjoy your night, everybody.

Back tomorrow again with Real Kipper Inborn. and we're back tomorrow. Pick the Leafs game. We're on it. Yes. Enjoy your night, everybody. Back tomorrow again with Real Kipper Inborn.