Real Kyper & Bourne - 4 Nations Excitement, Chicago Changes Coaches & The Flyers' Focus

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne bring in Sportsnet's David Amber (0:45) to chat about the announced rosters for the 4 Nations Face-Off, which players caught him by surprise making the team and being snubbed off, the Chicago Blackhawks firing Luke Richardson, Connor Bedard's sophomore frustrations, and if size will be an issue between international teams. Then, Keith Jones (28:00), President of Hockey Operations for the Philadelphia Flyers, stops by to chat about his team's performance, how Matvei Michkov has fit in on John Tortorella's system, Travis Sanheim's Canada call-up, his outlook on the organization ahead of the trade deadline and when he sees the team competing again.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.

coast to coast on real kipper and born this is the national hour live on sportsnet 650 in vancouver and sportsnet 960 in calgary this hour of real kipper and Bourne brought to you by Bet365. Nick Kipper, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. In a few minutes, we'll welcome in. No, not a few minutes. Is he there? Yeah, he's there already. He doesn't even let me say in a few minutes. I feel so bad about burying

my colleague. My guilty conscience is killing me. Now I feel awful. For what? For the last block? For the last block, yeah. I'm feeling awful. Let's welcome in David Amber with his beautiful fireplace in the background on the zoom call for all of those that can see him and if not let me describe it to you chestnuts roasting on an open fire david how are you, how are you? Good. Was Sam burying me a minute ago?

No, no. He was burying the snubs list that we showed on Sportsnet, which isn't a real team. It was a hypothetical, and he was very upset about it. I just don't know how Tavares is one of the snubs. It's absurd. He's having a great year. The fact that we were fielding texts and angry calls and all of this about not being included on the snub

list. I know. I know. That is truly incredible. I'm not on behalf of our show that that happened. I'm insulted not being insulted. Sorry, everybody. Tavares has been great. I mean,

we honestly, it's funny. We put together a second team, and whether Tavares is there or not, I mean, that could have been a competitive second team for Canada. They probably wouldn't finish last in this four nations face-off. So that's how deep it is in Canada. Great job the other day giving us wall-to-wall coverage, David, you and the guys. In terms of what you thought and what you ended up seeing,

how different was it from your lens? Well, I mean, I think by, you know, in the last 48, 72 hours, we got a kind of a sense of how it was going to shake down. There were some surprising names to me, at least. And again, it's all individual preferences and tastes. So who surprised for you? Who ended up on the list that you go, wow, I didn't see that coming? Well, Sanheim, I didn't see coming.

I really thought Uyghur. You know, I lobbied for Montour, lobbied. I mean, I suggested Montour. Uyghur, you know, I thought Dougie Hamilton, potentially Morgan Rielly. I had a few people ahead of Sanheim. Sanheim was a blind spot for me. It doesn't mean, you know, how many Flyers games have I watched closely under, you know, that kind of lens to maybe get a sense of how great he is.

And maybe it shouldn't have been a surprise. And we talked to Don Sweeney, who said right from early on that this guy's name was there, and he was someone that they'd been eyeballing and wanting to watch his progress. So he was under my radar. Seth Jarvis was under my radar. Again, there was a number of other candidates. We kept talking about with Justin. I think you were on some of those shows.

We were talking about Tom Wilson and his candidacy. We were talking about Zach Hyman and his candidacy. We were talking talking about tom wilson and his candidacy we were talking about zach hyman and his candidacy we're talking about conor bedard and his candidacy you know what's funny guys is elliot asked a pretty pointed question to don sweeney about how different the team would have looked had it would had it been you know forced to be made up in september as opposed to december think about how many guys at the end of last season were almost in that indelible ink in. You know, Evan Bouchard had a historic playoff run. You have to imagine on June 18th or whenever the Stanley Cup final ended, he was in their top six, if not their top four, because of what he was doing.

And, you know, he kind of played his way out of that situation. Zach Hyman, 54 goals last year, tough start, injury. He, I guess, played his way out of that situation or was injured out of that situation. Conor Bedard, in my eyes, was certainly going to be a strong candidate, wins Rookie of the Year, and he's just had a very slow start this year. And there's about six or seven other guys you could add to that list,

you know, Barzel, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So it is really interesting what the final product is. But I would say if you're going to ask me, Jarvis and Sanamore, the two biggest surprises for me. DA, you're a true pro, so I'm going to throw you a curveball here. While you've been talking, Luke Richardson has been let go as the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks.

So listeners at home are aware that that has happened. Conor Bedard obviously didn't end up on Team Canada, probably going into the year. A lot of people felt he would take a step and be one of those names um do you have any sort of initial feeling about that it is surprising to see a his offensive output sort of stunted kipper i don't know if you want to weigh in on that first you're gonna let david go first sure let david have the lead on that well who's the who's the? Do they have an interim head coach or do they hire someone? And now, if I'm not mistaken, Derek King's also there.

And I don't know whether he'd be still there. Mark Eaton, Blackhawks assistant general manager, overseeing player development. We'll assume. Oh, no, that's for the Rockford head coach. Anders Sorensen will be named interim coach. So there you go. NHL coach.

First of all, I feel badly for Luke Richardson. He's a great guy, as anyone who's dealt with him would tell you. And also, he was dealt an incredibly difficult hand. I mean, you can link it all together. I saw the look on Luke Richardson's face on the bench last night. We were watching that game in the corner versus Boston last night, and he looked completely frustrated. Conor Bedard's breaking a stick after missing scoring chances on the bench.

He's completely frustrated. And it all goes hand in hand. Richardson wants better players to coach. Bedard wants better teammates to play with. Kyle Davidson, you know, he's now kind of used his bullet with Richardson, and he needs to address that. The personnel there just isn't a personnel that's not going to finish near the bottom of the NHL, whether you have Conor Bedard or not.

But, yeah, it feels to me that the frustration is there for Bedard, guys, and he's just 19 years of age. Listen, he could be suiting up for Canada at the World Juniors next month in Ottawa. He's not, obviously, but that's how young he is. It's frustrating, right? We want to see this guy live up to the hype of what we anticipate he's going to mature into. At the beginning of the year, Sam Cosentino went as far as to say he's going to score 40 goals, 100 points.

And I was right there with him. I said, yeah, I could see that happening. You know, that's not going to happen at this point. And he's just got to be incredibly frustrated. I think we need, if i'm kyle davidson it's incumbent on him to go out there use the cap space use the draft capital package some of that together find some players and i don't mean getting guys at the end of their careers as he's gone out and picked up lots of guys get those offer sheets going get some people there

with them like start to build this thing and you can't sit there on an island right sydney crosby He's gone out and picked up lots of guys. Get those offer sheets going. Get some people there with him. Like, start to build this thing. And you can't sit there on an island, right? Sidney Crosby came in with Malikin. McDavid had Dreisaitl. You know, Matthews came in to Marner and Nylander. Like, it's hard. Bedard is on an island comparatively to these other elite players that have come in.

Jack Eichel might have been the most similar situation. And look how that went in Buffalo, right? And I know that was encouraged by the neck injury, but my point being, you have the superstars sitting there on an island, you've got to insulate them, and that's got to be the first mandate there for the Chicago Blackhawks moving forward, in my opinion. Yeah. We're talking

to David Amber, host of Hockey Night in Canada, NHL on Sportsnet. So this question to you, David, goes hand-in-hand with what's going on in Chicago and Team Canada. But where would Connor Bedard be today if Chicago didn't trade Brandon Hagel? At the time, it was a ton of picks to Tampaa bay which when you don't really know about a player too much it looks pretty good but my god wouldn't connor bedard have loved to started the season

with a guy like brandon hagel today and now is one of the stars for team canada yeah that's a great point and they also drafted drafted Lev Shanov second overall and left, you know, Demidov, Seneca, Aguinla. Those guys aren't making impacts in the NHL this year, but at least there's that maybe great blue-chip prospect forward right there to ride shotgun with Bedard. It looks like they're on their way to getting another high draft pick, and maybe that will be

one of these talented young forwards we think that are going to go one, two, and three in the draft. So, yeah, that's a great question, and hindsight's 20-20. You know, and Hagel's one of those guys. He's been under the radar, certainly for me, and we're going to see him in that huge spotlight at the Four Nations,

and maybe that'll be a bit of an international coming-out party for Brandon Hagel, but he's been incredibly serviceable. You can understand why. What do they give up? I think the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, whatever it was, they gave up a whole pile of draft picks. And Julian Breesbaugh has always made a point of saying,

if I can identify a player and I think he's ready and can contribute, we don't know what's going to happen with draft picks. Draft picks are a crapshoot, and I love that philosophy, right? As a fan of a team, you'd go, yeah, that's the mentality you want. And I guess in this case, you know, the Blackhawks seemingly didn't get the return or gave up something with a much greater upside than they maybe had imagined in Brandon Hagel. Yeah, I mean, he was young, he was cheap. You understand why they had to give up as much as they did.

All right, we'll get into analysis on that further. cheap it was you understand why they had to give up as much as they did um all right let's uh while we we'll get into analysis on that further let's let's go back to the uh team canada selections which uh i think seth jarvis probably raised the most eyeballs uh you know looking at the forward group a third fourth line of bennett uh sorelli connect me is a scrappy group uh seems to be they looked for that Canadian hockey identity of competitiveness and even physical play, but not from big guys necessarily. That is my one concern.

I'd love to hear what you guys think about this. You look at the American forward group, nine of the players are over 6'1", I think. The forward group are 6 feet. Nine of their players are over 200 pounds in their forward group for the U.S. There's only three players on think the forward group are six feet. Nine of their players are over 200 pounds in their forward group for the U.S. There's only three players on the Canadian forward group listed at over 200 pounds. So that's a little bit of a concern to me.

Like, I love the skill set. I love the offensive abilities. I love the versatility. You know, Reinhardt can kill penalties. Konechny is a great penalty killer. Marner is a great penalty killer. You know, John Cooper was on our show and said, we weren't just taking the top 20 scores.

We were finding guys to identify in roles. A minute up with a game on the line, a minute, you know, a minute left with a game on the line, a minute to go. You need a goal. We have players that can fit those roles. Big face-off on the right side, big face-off on the left side. I get that. But size can be an issue.

We have a huge defense core which is great and a very good puck moving and smart defensive defense core for canada which i think is going to be the key and why i'm picking them to win the tournament but up front i do wonder um you know hegel marner um uh sorry connect me uh i don't have the list in front of me. Yeah, Jarvis too, yeah. Jarvis, you know, 5'10". A lot of guys, you know, adequate size, some would say undersized, and collectively as a group. I was hoping Tom Wilson was going to be there, and he really was. He still may be. You think?

Yeah, and that's the thing. And that was an interesting thing. Don Sweeney did say to us, look, there's a taxi squad, essentially, of guys. And I don't know who's been tapped. You know, hey, hold off before you go to Costa Rica or, you know, Virgin Islands or whatever. Hold off for a minute because, you know, potentially between now and February 12th, you're going to get the call if there's some injuries or, you know, in the case of JT Miller in the U.S., if he's not prepared to come back because he's on personal leave, whatever the case may be.

So we might see Tom Wilson. We might see some bigger forwards. But that is one thing when they leave off Wilson, Lafreniere, and a few other of these bigger, you know, physically capable forwards. That was one question mark for me. As far as Senator Rice is concerned, and let's face it, we're only really focusing on Canada versus the USA when it's all said and done here, right?

But when we're talking about sheer power, like how do you not give McDavid, McKinnon, and Crosby, and we'll see, you know, Sorelli or who fits into that fourth, you know, Braden Point, but

big edge to Canada over Matthews, Hughes, maybe Eichel, Dylan Larkin. No? Am I wrong on this? I mean, Jack Eichel's playing the best hockey of his career. Auston Matthews is a 69-goal scorer from a year. I don't know if I'd use the word huge, but I definitely would say advantage Canada. I mean, you could argue argue and i think it was

sam uh cosentino making this point last night you know where canada has a massive advantage is arguably the three best players in the world marner mckinnon and mcdavid reside in canada and you know if it's going to come down and elliott made a great point of these extra one minute commercial breaks you can ride your big guns for much longer than maybe you would under other circumstances. I'm sure that excites Edmonton and Colorado. What's that? Ride our $11 million player into the ground. Yeah, I couldn't believe the thing in Elliot's 32 thoughts.

A commercial break is going to be two and a half minutes. You can really do this. It's like, man, do we want to do that? Do you know how much I can eat in two and a half minutes? I don't know guys so i i listen eichel i mean who was the list you just had on the u.s eichel matthews larkin and and um and hughes i mean that's a pretty formidable group but i i would i love the experience of canada i love the versatility of canada and i love the the high high-end talent on canada power guys power in the middle do you think though like looking at these other teams one game single game elimination do

you have fear about sweden about finland that finnish roster is is not bad like i know we're sitting here being like it's pretty good if we're're looking at Finland versus Sweden in the final, come on. Is that not the outcome that Sportsnet's looking for? No, I think the NHL office really is loaded. Let's just really stay focused on McDavid versus Matthews. But Justin's point, though, is valid in the sense of i wouldn't it's a one game showdown i honestly you could put sweden's blue line in my opinion you know i put canada as the best blue line top to bottom but i think sweden is is 1b i think it's right there in my opinion it's a very

good group and can do a lot of different things and they're huge right they're they're absolutely their blue line is 6 3 2 10 that's the average size on the blue line. I asked Steve Fellin in stats last night to give me the breakdown. I mean, I couldn't believe it. I was like, wow. So we're talking some monsters back there for Sweden. If Finland scores first, if they carry a lead, that would concern me because they have these grimy,

grinded-out kind of guys. I think they have a great system they're going to play, and they have UC Soros, who we saw last night in moments. He's a very good, he's an elite goaltender. But I think if Finland has to chase a game, they don't have the offense to chase a game the way the other three countries do. Okay, I gave Canada a huge edge in the middle of the ice.

Where I can't is in that, David, and we've had this conversation for months going into the announcement on on Wednesday so Hellebuck, Ottinger and Swayman up against Binnington of course

Montemayor and Hill what do you see what do you see yeah I mean, listen, Hill and Bennington have won cups and Montembeau we've seen, including the first game of the year where you had what the 46 saves shut out versus the Leafs.

We're talking one game situations and that could be fine. And we have this great defensive group in front of them to insulate the goaltending. But yeah, clearly, you know, hella bucking on. Sure.

Could you could argue the top two goalies in the league period, you know, aside from some of and Ottinger, you could argue are the top two goalies in the league, period. You know, aside from some of the Russian goalies who obviously aren't going to be there. So there's a distinct edge, and Canada is the biggest question mark. At their best, should we be concerned about Hill, Billington, Montemar? No, but we don't know if we're going to see their best. And that's the big question. The consistency hasn't been there. We asked Don Sweeney last night, you know,

could you name your number one goalie if the tournament starts tomorrow? I asked him that pointedly. You know, I didn't really expect him to say, well, yes, it's Binnington or it's Hill or whatever. But he definitely steered away from that. I think the hopes of the Canadian management is that someone's going to get on a bit of a roll. Someone's going to come in to February riding high and riding hot, whether it's Binnington or Hill or Montembeau,

and they're going to go with the hot hand. But there's no margins here, right? There's no semi-final. There's no, oops, we screwed up. We'll get them next time. Yeah. If Canada loses that first game versus Sweden, and they've done that in former tournaments.

You remember in 2002 in Utah, they've done that in former tournaments you remember in 2002 in Utah like they've they've had moments of uh-oh um but they've been able to kind of gather themselves and start to peak they're gonna have to start game one versus Sweden essentially on that peak and ready to roll and maybe that was a big reason why instead of calling on Celebrini or Bedard or some of these unknown uh entities They're like, okay, we have 15 Stanley Cup champs. We have three MVPs in our forward group. We have guys who know how to perform at their peak at the right time. And I think that did probably play a role into Don Sweeney and their groups picking the guys they picked.

Yeah, Cooper said something to the effect of it's like four game sevens. We have a ton of guys with experience. And it's like, you know, they have picked a lot of guys who've won before. Last one for me, you know they have picked a lot of guys who've won before um last one for me you know when they when these teams would call alternates and say hey you're on this sort of next man up taxi squad do you think it's like they have the next guy at number 14 on the list who's going to get the call if someone's hurt or do you think it matters who gets hurt because i look at the u.s and they've got uh Tage Thompson and Clayton Keller did not get selected

in favor of like Kreider and Brock Nelson. And, you know, it does feel like if an elite guy's score gets hurt, maybe you call someone else off the list based on trying to find a score to replace that type of player. A hundred percent. Like if Jack Eichel goes down for the U.S. and he likes to sit in that sort of stanco's ovechkin power play spot if he goes down you can call cole oh i see yeah they sit exactly

in the same spot listen it's different if travis connect me who could be a pk specialist to some degree in a grinding kind of forward hey we got the lead connect me he's a perfect guy to send out there it's different than if you know you know who you would replace connect me with uh potentially or reinhardt who can kill penalties or marner it could be very different than sam bennett's hurt okay sam bennett's hurt we need tom wilson right like someone will hit anything absolutely and by that physical threat so i i would imagine they have a game plan here. I really don't know. And who knows the conversations they've had. I imagine this might come out between now and February

about who is on the taxi squad or whatever the case may be. And I'm sure when you go to Celebrini or Bedard, guys who aren't married, who don't have kids, it's an easier conversation to say, hey, we might call on you, okay. Then, you know, like, Petrangelo's on the team, but he's got three kids or whatever, you know, or Morgan Rielly.

Morgan Rielly might be a good example to still want to go because he's got a young little one. But if you had, like, an eight-year-old and you're going to go to Disney World, you don't want to pull the chute on that last minute, you know? So there's lots of different factors there.

And, of course, you know, we still know that Gary Bettman and the Players Association are planning to start negotiations on a new CBA, but David, do you think this is finally the, the look of international hockey coming to hockey fans on a real consistent basis here?

And we can finally get this program going again. As a hockey fan. I hope so. I mean, I am, I'm certainly not an insider. These are good questions for elliot and i'm sure kipper you probably know the answers to this but i i think it's a good

pathway that we're getting 2025 best on best for the first time in nine years leading into the 2026 olympics which will be obviously a grander showcase for the game and you know as a fan those are the moments that resonate with me right like i was, I was there in Utah in 2002 when both the men and women won. The men had won Olympic gold in 50 years, the first time the Canadian women had won Olympic gold. And it was an awesome moment. And, you know, I wasn't there in Vancouver. You were there, Kipper. I mean, you had a front row seat to it.

Those are the moments where your heart, right, it's magical. Those are the moments your heart's pounding and you're like, this is awesome. I remember 87, I was in high school. I went to some party and the you know gretzky dropped past larry murphy the interference lemieux up top the whole you know everyone starts throwing beer in the air it was like it was like one of those moments i'll never forget right you you want those types of moments and hopefully we'll get some of those moments whether it's in february who were next how deep was that tv da was it as deep as it was wide? Was it rabbit ears?

It would take six of us to pick it up. Who can't forget Larry Murphy, the greatest decoy in hockey history? Awesome. You're 100% right, but how cool was that? Think about the talent on that ice, right? And people forget about

Dale Howard, Chuck Off the Draw, like the same thing. Was it coffee? I can, right. But how cool was that? Think about the talent on that ice, right? And people forget about Dale Howard, Chuck, off the draw, like the same thing. Like there was... Who was the... Was it Coffey? I'm trying to remember. It was Murphy, Gretzky, Lemieux, Howard, Chuck, and who was the fifth guy out there? It must have been Coffey, I imagine. I can't even remember. Charlie Zalapsky. I don't remember.

Bork? No idea. Howard, Chuck. Did you mention Howard, Chuck? Yeah yeah I mentioned Howard Chuck was Mess out there Messier four forwards and Murphy I wasn't born yet you're looking at me like

that's a good point honestly that was some of in 72 and 76 I was just a little nothing so I don't remember those at all. I'm the oldest. But Kipper, I mean, those are the moments. Like they really are.

Even 14 Sochi. When people, you know, sometimes you show up on a podcast and say, what's your favorite sporting moment? And I go, you know what? One of my favorite moments, bar none, was the gold medal women's final, US-Canada. And it was over. US up 2-0.

The puck's rolling into the empty net hits the post goes out you know mary philippe poulain goes on that run canada wins gold i'll never forget that those are great moments and who knows what we're going to see in february and i get it it's it's a watered down version i'd love to obviously see somebody you know no dry settle no pasta no v etc um but we're going to get get that at the Olympics, and this is a great precursor. And, you know, I'm, for one, I'm excited for it. If it's a choice between an All-Star game or Four Nations face-off,

I'm going to take the Four Nations face-off every day of the week. And it'll sneak up on us soon enough. But in the meantime, before we let you go, quarter, I'm not allowed to say quarter pole anymore, right? Because that's kind of a racing term. I guess. But we're past the quarter mark, David.

And just in terms of storylines, we just got the breaking news. JB mentioned Luke Richardson gone, Chicago now in a position where they need a new guy to take charge there. But disappointments or great storylines so far for you coming out of the 25% mark? Yeah, disappointments. We were talking about it a lot last night in our show. I mean, I guess you have to point to Nashville.

I think we're all quite surprised at just what's happened there. I didn't think they were going to win the Stanley Cup, and I thought they were going to be very similar to the team that had 99 points last year. Really exciting to watch. Dynamic goal scoring, et cetera. And they're dead last in the league in goals. They're 31st in winning percentage. That's been a mess.

You know, Ottawa, a real disappointment to me. They're not done. They have room to get hot and make a good push, but it hasn't been a great start for them. That's been a surprise and a disappointment. I guess you could say individually Connor Bedard, again, I think we stated the reasons why, but it's

unfortunate to see him struggling. I know there's going to be a great career in front of him. He's just 19 years of age and we need to be patient. So those would be some of the storylines that have been offered to watch as far as great storylines, you know, Winnipeg start Minnesota doing their thing. Caprizov, I think he might be the MVP at this point. Quinn Hughes is certainly in the conversation for MVP. I mean, my God,

how good is this guy, right? Just, he controls the play. The puck is on his stick more than any other player in the NHL. He's dynamic to watch. And maybe the other kind of cool storyline is the parody, right? Like there's probably, how many teams would you guys say are thinking, and you might not agree, but they're thinking they're still legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. There's got to be at least 10 or 12.

How many? 14. So many teams talk themselves into it, right? If we're inside playoffs, make a trade or two, we're right there. Add this guy, add that guy. Yeah, and that's the thing. We're all excited to see what's going to happen with Dallas.

It's such an unfortunate situation with Sagan, but that means, and Elliot was alluding to this on Mark Casey and Mike Fuda's show, they're going to do something significant with that cap space. We're all waiting to see what the Rangers do. Could the Rangers somehow reinvent themselves? I mean, Kipper, you were there in 94 when they won the cup. They had that block blockbuster deal right before they won the cup.

Right. Like who's to say there's not going to be another crazy big deal that somehow puts them over the top. So it's interesting. There's still probably 12, 13, 14 teams maybe that are thinking they're Stanley Cup contenders, legit championship contenders. And to me, that's pretty cool. David, great stuff as always. When you come on our show, we'll let you go back to your fireplace,

enjoy roasting those marshmallows tonight. And we'll talk again real soon, pal. We're going to see you. Our Leafs regional schedule is beefing up in the next three weeks. We'll be seeing a lot of each other. Really? Looking forward to it. Can you bring some food on those nights?

Gipper, you've got, like, hookups all across the city. You can't see the food in. Gipper's not paid for a meal or a call. I know. He's 16. That's unbelievable. He is DA from Hockey Night in Canada. Sportsnet.

See you guys. Thanks for having me on. David Amber. I once witnessed you get the biggest amount of Greek food I've ever seen across the city in rush hour during All-Star weekend delivered to a hotel lobby. Yes. So I don't think you should be asking anybody for food. You just get it yourself.

Oh, that was good too. It was good. It was really good. Oh, we ate like we were going to the chair. We shouldn't go because we have Keith Jones coming up. Oh, we do. Yeah, right. Remember that? And we have game time. And we gotta go. We got game time plus I gotta do a read. So we gotta go. Yeah. Hit the break. We'll do it all after. Like using yesterday's clips.

Yeah. You've had a heck of a day. Oh, thanks. I just buried all my colleagues and I'm still guilty conscious. Okay, let's go. We'll listen to these messages and we'll return with the president of the Philadelphia Flyers, Keith Jones. Dive deep into Toronto sports and the NFL. The JD Bunkers podcast.

Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just a reminder, this hour of Real Kimper and Bourne brought to you by Bet365, Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. Let's welcome in Keith Jones, president of hockey operations for the Philadelphia Flyers. Philadelphia Flyers are seven and three.

Got a key contest tonight against the Stanley Cup champions, Florida Panthers. Let's welcome him in, Keith Jones. Jonesy, how are you, pal? Hi, I'm doing well, boys. How's everything going there? We're good. We're good.

You know, I mean, every night I don't get a stick in the teeth and, you know, no one's running me. No one wants to beat me up. Jonesy, we're good. We're good. You know, I mean, every night I don't get a stick in the teeth and, you know, no one's running me. No one wants to beat me up, Jonesy. We're good, pal. 12, 10, and 3. Right where you thought you'd be or, you know, everybody wants to be better, but realistically, your thoughts so far coming through the first quarter of the season?

Yeah, I think we evened it out. I don't think our start was very good, but I think we had some scheduling difficulties that we had to try to get through in the first five or six games. And our guys have sorted that out. They've got a lot of jump in their step recently. And I think when we play with energy, we have a chance to win every night,

no matter who we're playing, whether it's the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers who we play tonight or, you know, some of the teams that are kind of in the same area we are as far as where they're at in the revolution, trying to get back on track and build something special. So I'm pleased with the effort, that's for sure. Our guys have worked extremely hard, which you would expect from a John Tortorella coach team.

Yeah, so, Jonesy, as you guys try to build back to the Stanley Cup contenders that you want to be, what tent poles have you found that you guys are going to be able to build with here? Well, we've got some good ones, and I think the Canadian hockey fans are going to have a chance to watch a couple of them, and Travis Konechny and Travis Sanheim, two guys that we're really thrilled

have been selected to play for Canada in the Four Nations Tournament. That's a gigantic thing for their careers. It's a great honour for them to be recognized for how well that they've played this year and where they're at in their careers also. Both guys are under contract for a long time with us now we're happy about that and then we're we're thrilled that they're going to be you know considered world-class players that's something that you know obviously you can't have enough of players like that Rasmus Ristolainen also will be playing for Finland and he's had a very strong season for

us as well so there's a lot of good solid pieces obviously Mieczkow is the one that most people are going to you know focus on I think he's done a great job for a 19 year old kid and the future is obviously extremely bright but we're going to need to add some more pieces along the way and make sure that we're allowing him to be as great as he possibly can be based upon some of the personnel that we add to the mix we're talking to keith jones president of hockey operations for the philadelphia flyers you mentioned mishkoff and unfortunately we won't see him in uh in february's uh four nations in February's Four Nations face-off, but he is one of those key guys

for you guys moving forward here and just, Jonesy, I get people want to be really excited, especially people in Philadelphia Flyers, but I kind of got caught off guard a little bit when they started comparing him to being the next Eric Lindros or having that effect

on your community. And what goes through your mind when you start hearing that or even Tortorella's mind? And how do you temper that? And how do you kind of make sure that it doesn't get too ahead of the kid? And is that where Tortorella comes in with tough love and maybe had a lot to do with a couple of healthy scratches? You know, it's a balancing act for sure,

but I do think it's an advantage that he actually doesn't speak a whole lot of English because he's not hearing the Lindros comparisons, that's for sure. He's able to just go about doing his thing, but he plans on being a great player. I can tell you that. He has all the attributes that you would want. He has the mind. he has the mindset um he's got the skill set and so there's there's a whole lot that's you know behind why our fans are as excited about him as they are but you know he is a winger he's not a centerman he's gonna need some need some top-notch centerman around him

in order to get him to his full potential. But the excitement is real. They do love him here. And there's such a high percentage of the sales, as far as our merchandise goes, that are based upon things that are associated with Matt Dave Meachkov. So there is some substance behind that type of excitement. The fans are kind of putting their money where their mouth is.

They do appreciate the things that he has brought already, but there's high expectations that could be something that could stunt a player, but I don't think it's going to in his case. He seems to be able to take all that. Jonesy, what have Canadian hockey fans not been aware of when it comes to Travis Sanheim? I think his selection probably more even than Konechny's caught them off guard. What have we been missing in his development to the player he is today here? Well, his skating is off the charts, and you can't watch a Flyers game,

especially from upstairs, and not come away from the game thinking that he's one of the elite skaters in the game, both going up the ice and then getting back into position. His strength is what's probably come the most, and his will. It's not often you see a player kind of in the middle part of their career develop the inner drive to play the game physically, to do all the little things that may have not been that present in his game early on in his career.

He's done all of those things. Penalty killing is outstanding. Willingness to block shots is there. And now the willingness to clear the crease is there also. And that's something that wasn't there in Travis's game going back a couple of years ago. So he deserves a ton of credit for putting the work in, both in the gym and on the ice, in order to make himself a better player. And he's reaping the rewards of that.

And I think the Canadians are going to also be the benefactor of that because he is a top-notch talent in the game today. So, Keith, if your team can kind of hang in there and be in a position of possibly making the playoffs. Does that change the way you feel about going into the last part of the season? That kind of trade deadline? No, it doesn't. It doesn't change it.

We're not going to be adding. We'll be subtracting. And much like we did last year when we traded Sean Walker to the Avalanche and were able to pick up a first-round pick in return, we'll be in the same boat. We've been clear about that. Our players are terrific in making sure they stay focused on the job at hand, their job, that is, and that's to go out and try to win every game.

But we are not in a position where we're ready to be a Stanley Cup contending team yet, and we'll continue to do everything we can to make our future a lot brighter. So we're going to battle. Our team will work. We'll try to win every night, but at the same time, we're not losing sight of where we need to get to in order to be a team that can consistently try to compete for the Stanley Cup.

As long as the truth serum has not worn off, who are you trading? Whoever we get the most for. We're open to a lot of ideas, I can tell you that, Gip. There's no doubt. But we appreciate everything that our players do for us. And I think Danny's been pretty clear, you know, that the players will dictate, you know, where we're at as far as where we think we're going to get to

and how we're going to get there. And I can't rule out any individual player on our team as far as where we think we're going to get to and how we're going to get there. And I can't rule out any individual player on our team not being a part of that future. I mean, there's a lot of players that still have a lot that I believe they can offer and improve upon, and they'll get every opportunity to do that. I can guarantee you that. 7-3-0, and winners of three in a row here.

A. Torts must be in like fantastic moods these days. He's funny, Kipper. Sometimes when you're playing poorly, he's in a great mood and sometimes when you're winning, he's not. You don't know what you're going to get. That's for sure. He keeps everybody

on their toes, which I think you guys would appreciate from playing i think it's it's a it's a pretty cool thing when you've got a veteran coach that knows how to push the buttons has consistently done that throughout its career and is honest about it and i think our our players are you know reaping some of the benefits of playing for a coach like john Tortorella. Been fun to watch so far, Jonesy. Thanks for your time, man.

Good luck against the champs tonight, Florida. Yeah, appreciate it, buddy. Thanks a lot, Kipper, Borny. Take care, guys. Thanks, Jonesy. That's Keith Jones. Hey, wow. I wasn't on camera.

My jaw literally dropped. What's going on this week waddell was like he told us every insider thing to the jackets we got him on you're doing great you got picks if you can make playoffs would you add and he was like no we're not doing that this ain't our year did he forget he's on on air i don't know i love that guy you know it's funny miss him in media he used to be one of our go-to guys in the the first couple years of our show, we'd have him on all the time. He's good to talk about anything. Great storyteller.

One of the best guys. We got him a good job. Yeah, that's what we did. You guys should hear his cadence, though, the way he answers questions. Like, he's still well-versed in the media. We lost all our faith. Like, we lost talk. Yeah.

Claude Julien coaches now. We love using Claude Julien. Like, there's just so many guys that we got jobs. Too bad. I got a couple reads for you, boys. I think you know what the first one is. Who wants to win a bunch of cash while doing the best thing this holiday season?

Us. You got to stop asking us. We do. Okay. It's Sportsnet 590. The fans 50-50 fortune supporting food for kids. Here's what you need to know. We've created a 50-50 lottery where the more money we raise, the more kids we can feed in the GTA and the more you can win. The current take-home prize is almost $470,000.

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supporting Food for Kids, standard message, and data rate supply. Ontario only. Good stuff. Fantastic read. Thank you. Thank you. Nailed it. While he was talking,

I found who the Leafs are trading for at the deadline. Oh. Scott Lawton's the answer. Yeah. Scott Lawton makes $3 million this year and next. He is a 30-year-old center UFA who checks a lot of the boxes of what you would look for in a third-line center. Love that.

Give up a first-rounder all day long. Whoa, really? Oh, yeah. Is that what it's going to take for him? Who cares? Who cares? First-rounder. Never got to see first-rounder now for the next three years

when you're trying to win the Stanley Cup now. No-brainer. Everyone's beloved. No brainer. Everyone's beloved Easton Cowan was a first round pick, so maybe they shouldn't trade away. Anyways, game time? Game time. It's 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. So we just talked to Jonesy, and I was trying to find, I was trying to figure out the odds of to make the playoffs or to miss the playoffs they have to make on here

but i was just trying to dig through it because i thought it was interesting you know they're not wavering from their uh from their game plan here oilers yeah no the uh we were just talking about to about the flyers oh i see because they were because they're plus 300 right now to actually make the playoffs so that number is out there on that 365 the other side yeah like because they're not trying to make the play he was just literally said that they're not gonna do anything other than trade away players so i found that pretty interesting but his team is in florida tonight take on, oh no, that's in Philly, sorry, taking on the Florida Panthers.

They are plus 160 on the money line at home. The Florida Panthers are minus 190. And some other action around the league tonight. The incredibly washable San Jose Sharks are in Tampa to take on the Lightning. They are a plus 225 underdog in that game. The Lightning's are minus 275. Didn't the Sharks win the other night when we were talking about it? Who did they beat?

They beat the Caps. We're talking about San Jose again. Well, they have a really good record with Celebrini in. I think they're like 11-6 or 10-6 with Celebrini in the lineup, so good for them. And the last one I wanted to bring up was the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings because you said that was a big game for both teams. The Ottawa Senators, minus 185.

Minus 185? Yeah, on home ice against the Detroit winning. I guess – I would have done 105. I guess Bet365 realizes how big a game it is for them too. That's a huge number. I would stay away from that. But wouldn't mind the over in that game at minus 125.

We had an over hit yesterday with the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks went over. So maybe another over in Detroit and Ottawa at minus 125 over six goals. But if Ottawa loses tonight. It's already over. It's over. No, it's already over.

And then what? It's already over. It's over. That was Game Time presented by Bet365. Visit the app, play It's over. No, it's already over. And then what? It's already over. It's over? It's over. That was Game Time, presented by Bet365. Visit the app, play the saws, and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

Just on Ottawa. Yeah. I think they've got a bit of a stretch here of maybe four or five at home, and then they get kicked out of their building for the World Juniors. Oh. This is... It's now or never.

Huge. Oh, right. Right? They're going to go on the road for like eight or nine games. So they have, over this stretch, the out-of-playoffs Red Wings, out-of-playoffs Preds,

out-of-playoffs Islanders, out-of-playoffs Ducks, Carolina,-of-playoffs Preds, out-of-playoffs Islanders, out-of-playoffs Ducks, Carolina, and the Penguins. And then they're on the road for the foreseeable future. Seattle, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Dallas, St. Louis, Detroit. Those are all road games? Yes.

It's like they're doing the Marley's Royal Winter Fair trip here. Like, they're gone. I went to the Royal Winter Fair. I'm like, how the hell do they clean up this place? Is it the boat thing where the boats are in the ego? No, I went to the rodeo at the Royal Winter Fair. And it just stinks like

horse dung. There's a boat show there. Madison Square Garden used to have the circus and they would race to get us to our rink back to, to play.

And I'm like, I can see the guy still picking up the elephant crap as I'm in warming up. And then I'm going through the, I'm looking at the boards and there's like straw still stuck to the board. And meanwhile, like a list celebrities are going to be sitting there in four minutes. All right. If you're just happened to join us breaking news, A-list celebrities are going to be sitting there in four minutes. Clean it up. All right.

If you just happened to join us, breaking news. Luke Richardson has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks. Also in news, JT Miller back skating with the Vancouver Canucks. Really? And his return still to be determined. Still questionable whether he even left town at all over this period of time, but this story has tremendous amount of intrigue, including a lot of rumors about,

does he want to stay? Does he want to be traded? What's going on with the Rangers? Can the Rangers inouver somehow get together but it's uh it's been a real real tough stretch here for vancouver and yet they've they found a way to still compete and demko there's two goalies on the ice today demko is one of them lincoln was other one of them i think he had a quote about how he's starting to feel like he might be available hold on i'm still mulling on miller i'm not ready to talk goalies on the ice today. Demko was one of them. Lankan was one of them. I think he had a quote about how he's starting to feel like he might be available. Hold on. I'm still mulling on Miller.

I'm not ready to talk goalies. I think they, I mean, the Rangers would make a ton of sense. They're looking to make a huge trade. Do the Vancouver Canucks get right-hand shot defense? Someone tried to link me with Ottawa and the Rangers. Yeah, okay. I can see that right there's a need I don't know like the first person you're thinking about is Chris Kreider with the Rangers now yeah but he's got I believe he's got now I'll have to recheck this for tomorrow but I think he's got as many as 15 teams he can block in a trade.

Chris Kreider. I probably have every Canadian team on that list. Yeah. Pretty common, right? So, I mean, people can link all they want, but I don't know at this point you're going to get an American player like Chris Kreider coming from New York wanting to go play in Canada at this point. I think Ottawa and Vancouver

are two different situations though, wouldn't you say? Like Vancouver being a little bit more appealing than Ottawa. Yeah, they're a good team with some cup aspirations with, you know, you have Bessers an American Demko's an American. I don't know.

As far as perception is in Ottawa, I think they're all, like, cannot believe that they are in this position right now. They were supposed to, Allmark was supposed to come in and be that guy that could say that the Ottawa Senators are now in the same place as Vancouver is out west.

Sammy. Ottawa expected to be as Vancouver is out west. Sammy. Yeah. Ottawa expected to be where Vancouver is. Yep. So. Team save percentage, Ottawa's fifth last. Four teams worse in the league. Allmark's got to, you better win this game or else, or not or else, but.

It's just high stakes early. It's just high stakes early for a guy that is making 8.25 to come in and be a difference maker and has not been that guy as of yet i think the pressure's on steve stales because you you have a new new coach you can't fire travis green you know a month and a half into the season here whatever you can fire stem uh no no you can't fire uh stales either but it's like you can't fire stayos either but it's like you can't let this team who has a new owner new building coming new expectations just go quietly into the night on the year after you sign a guy for eight million to be your goalie he's trying yeah i really know i believe he is he's really trying to find something that could kind of shake it up in ottawa just need something

and just to your jt miller, he didn't skate with the team. He skated with a skills coach. So he was skating on his own or whatever. So it wasn't with the team. But yeah, he's back skating and getting on the ice, getting ready to rock. So I don't know. The Luke Richardson thing is interesting.

Do you think if Bedard had his exact stats and they were winning, he would have got fired? Or do you think this is, or let stats and they were winning, he would have got fired? Or do you think this is, or let's say they were still losing and Bedard had great stats. That's a better one. Would he still get fired? To me, it's about Bedard is the point I'm poorly making. You can't have a guy floundering who's going to be your next.

There's no doubt in my mind that if the cherry on top is you couldn't get our star player going. Like we're building around this guy. This guy is struggling. The league, forget about Chicago, the league is banking on this guy to be a star. He can't have the first 20 games with three or four goals. The Hagel thing was a great point.

And at the time, I would like to say, I thought it was stupid. What are you getting rid of young guys for? And I hear Kyle Davidson, the general manager in Chicago, is a really good guy and you'd love to work for him. But is it Kyle Dubas all over again? Bad decisions, bad decisions, bad traits. That's all.

And like too much too soon. Lack of experience. Oh, they, they're not a good, it's not a good roster. So it has to be a lot of the bad thing. Cause it's like,

it's not a good roster. And Kyle put it together. Kyle put it together. Yeah. It's not a good roster. So anyways, where's his accountability right now? It may be coming.

Okay. Good show, boys. Great job today, guys. Our thanks to David Amber, joined us earlier, and the president of the Philadelphia Flyers, Keith Jones. Nine games, including five teams in Canada. I believe Alfie Heatley and Spezza are the game tonight. Oh, yeah, the pizza line.

Enjoy your games. We're backzza are at the game tonight. Oh yeah, the pizza line. Enjoy your games and we're back tomorrow on Off the Rails Friday.