Real Kyper & Bourne - A Trio of Former Pros Join the Show

Episode Date: December 13, 2022

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee celebrate Justin's belated 40th birthday before discussing the Maple Leafs' matchup tonight against the lowly Anaheim Ducks, and the difference between the playstyles of Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray. Then, four-time Stanley Cup winner and current Ducks' special assignment coach Scott Niedermayer joins the show (23:12) to discuss his role with the team, training with Trevor Zegras, and how the league has changed since he was playing. Later, Kelly Hrudey (41:42) shares his thoughts on the Calgary Flames, if the goalie position is less important now, and if the Leafs seem different this year. Finally, former NHLer Scott Gomez (1:22:55) talks the New Jersey Devils, and shares stories from his playing career about Sidney Crosby and Lou Lamoriello.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.

real kipper and born on sportsnet 590 the van right back at you for another jam-packed two hours nick kiprios justin born another b db eric brandale frank the tank sammy mckee we got a couple of scotts on the show yeah good day hold on breaking news frank the tank's last show where's frank going jen is returning tomorrow sorry jen rolnick oh jen roln. She's been on vacation. Yeah, she went to Copenhagen or something for Christmas. So Frank is no longer going to be with us? Can he not do spot duty and come in out of the bullpen?

I'm sure he will. He'll be a lefty reliever. He'll come in once in a while when we need him. All right, good to know. Yeah. But he's done a great job, so we're going to miss him terribly. All right, we'll welcome Jennifer back for sure. Got to find a permanent role for Frank in the squad. Yeah, we'll a permanent role for frank frank actually we should put him on air we can turn sammy into a household name

much easier to do for frank all right couple of scotts on the show scott niedemeier hall of famer is going to join us in about 20 minutes and then scott gomez who we had on last season we have not had him on uh this season at all yeah uh but he's going to be an interesting guy to talk to yeah especially with the the thought of uh new jersey devils now coming back to gain some serious credibility again gomez is a good interview, too. Great interview. And our own Kelly Rudy, of course, Hockey Night in Canada,

does the Calgary Flames. He's going to join us in about 40 minutes. Sammy, what's going on? Are we going to pay attention to our show or the World Cup? I've got one eye on the World Cup as always. I'm going to be very upset after Sunday when it's all over. I've loved having it on. But Argentina is up 2-0 on Croatia.

Leo Messi scored a penalty and then another guy on their team. I don't know who the hell he was, but he scored an amazing goal. So they're up 2-0. So they're going to the final. There you go, Julian Alvarez. Just to do house cleaning around the sports world, we're okay with the Jays uh starting four next year yeah i would really like them to make kikuchi uh a bullpen guy so maybe one more signing so they don't have to i don't have to watch kikuchi every five days could

he they make him as a bison is that an option no i think he'd go to the bullpen as a maybe a multiple inning relief lefty when you're losing 10-0 or winning 10-0. Not a guy that helps move the needle on a positive direction. Making McDavid money doing that. Well, it's all good, though. Yeah, it's all good. Spending money here. Spending money. That's what we like to see.

Because JB had trouble locating a little extension for his earphones. Did you know? I just don't know if the Jays left us a little extension for his earphones. Did you know? Okay, I got to say this. I just don't know if the Jays left us any money at all to go out and get this extension for JP. We need $28. Is it $28 for that thing?

For a five-pack, I assume. I don't know. I don't know how much it is. Derek, tell us. How much are these little extensions? The quarter-inch jacks that are gold around here? Yeah. Depends on if you get them.

You can get higher quality, lower quality. It can go anywhere from like $1 to like $3. That kills me. But you're not wearing the Sportsnet headphones. No. Which is nice. I got the fancy IFB and like a pro. Those things scare me.

I always think I'm going to catch lice off of them. Yeah, good point. I didn't think of it until now. Don't appreciate that. That's why I hide them in my own set of my desk. the fancy ifb and those things scare me i always think i'm gonna catch lice off of them yeah good point i didn't think of it till now don't appreciate that that's why i hide them in my uh my own set of my desk um just quickly born i'll be pissed how to do this but yesterday we talked about it being bob barker's 99th birthday and kipper literally said is there any other birthdays we have to talk about and it was born he's 40th birthday yesterday come on down i didn't know till yesterday i was very excited to learn he concealed he's a birthday hider you let us that's such a seinfeldian way to phrase it he's a birthday hider you let us go on about bob barker while it's your birthday too and you don't say a word it's 40th no less

as i said to you guys yesterday i've had enough attention for a bit. I'm maxed out on attention. You turned 40? Yeah. Oh, don't I feel like a bag of crap right now? Is that your job to know? You're not my wife. It was my wife, Ali.

My work wife. Did you know it was born his 40th birthday? I was like, what? We're going to. You know what? Now... Sam, you mentioned it the other day that I think we might have to do Christmas presents.

For sure. Now we've got to combine a birthday and a Christmas present together. That's just costing us more money. You know what the family went in on was a Bushnell range finder. So when I'm at Rosedale, 170 can drive 170 yards with a little bit of slope. I got it all dialed in.

That's a great gift. I should shave no strokes, but make me look like a douche. Should be perfect. Just what you want. Oh, that's good for pace of play. Yeah. Well, it actually will be if it keeps me from hitting it 30 yards over the green into the bushes. Good point.

You and Bob together forever. Come on down. Forever. All right. It's game night. Toronto Maple Leafs right back at it. Anaheim Ducks. They rot.

So, you know, on occasion we send our group chats. Like, I might as well text it right now to you guys. They're not very good. I'm usually like five or seven minutes when I look at the team that the Leafs are playing and go, oh, my God. Boys, this Ducks team, they're no good. They're no good. They're just no good. Is this a typo that they've only won one time in regulation so far this season?

It's just about the Christmas break and the Ducks have one regulation win. The next worst team in the NHL has five. One time. But at least they beat the Leafs. Yeah, it was in overtime. In OT, yeah. It was in overtime. Zegers, the ot winner yeah

so is this is this the game that gets austin matthews back on a 60 goal pace you know this is the game where we learn about the leafs have they learned a lesson about not taking lesser teams lightly this is the one this is a vintage vintage listen i've been watching the leafs a long time it doesn't matter who they're playing but this is almost like vintage listen i've been watching the leafs a long time it doesn't matter who they're playing but this is almost like a leafs tv night versus the panthers like the one of the games where they're like oh they surely they gotta beat this team and they go in there on a tuesday night against an outer division team and lose badly to a stupid team i can see it tonight they've been playing too good against all these teams yeah and they're up every night and

reasons you know to to be motivated and yeah we'll see we'll see if they've learned something tonight not that it's you know it would be a uh a huge piece of commentary it would just be very leafy going back some years they can't score they can't defend no neither one can't get a save no special teams i'll be honest dallas akins may have been handed the worst NHL rosters of any coach to ever coach in the league over his career, but one regulation win, you got to win more often than that to keep your job, right? Some point?

Absolutely. Kipper, it's always been 30 hockey matches. You know, it brings you no joy to ever talk about a guy potentially losing his job, but he is on borrowed time. Even if you're trying to tank, you want things moving in the right direction and the young guy's developing, and there's just no good happening when you're losing this much.

Sometimes when you can squeeze so much, it does force like an ownership group or a management group to reconsider. Yeah. That's going to be hard for Pat Verbeek and his new management group to come in and say, yeah, I like this coach. And this is the guy that's going to take us to the promised land. Yeah. And I just feel bad for them. Sure.

It's just not time to make that change, though. They're just going to bring them along long enough where either they start seeing that a different voice could come in and take them to a next level. There's no sense of doing anything now. There's no sense of firing them now kind of reminds me of blaschel and detroit and they were bad for all those years and it was like we're not trying to win yet and you know it's not time to really establish okay new direction time

so you just kind of yeah and dallas quo and pat verbeek inherited dallas as a head coach and there's just there's no need to make any change now so you just leave him as is let me just say the analytics community picked two darlings going into this season and predicted them to be better and it was new jersey and anaheim oh were the two teams who they thought would take a major step this year got one really bang on and one disgustingly wrong i mean the worst team they are minus 53 gold should have just flipped a coin minus 53 save your truck save save the trouble of hiring an analytics department just flip coins yeah that's basically maybe what happened here 50 50 but they really listen they are really on

the inside track to be in the bedard like the number one percentage for bedard so maybe to your point just leave things as is you think the league's a little scared that the leading teams in the bedard sweepstakes are anaheim columbus arizona like do you think the league cares i don't think they want a superstar going to any of those places? Chicago's down there. Yeah, I was going to say, they wouldn't mind Chicago. Chicago, Philly. Yeah, that would probably be their idea.

A resurgent Ottawa who just got bought by someone suddenly gets a frozen ball or a frozen envelope. Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me. They did it for Pittsburgh, so. You're such a tinfoil hat. Yeah. Is there a chance that a Connor Bedard and his group send a little message to some teams and go? I'll go in there. Yeah, not going there.

Don't draft me. The only one I could see it to see it is Arizona because that's the only one that's not running itself like an NHL franchise. That's right. Where you say, I'm not going to play in front of 4,800 people in Mullet Arena and not try to win. I'm not convinced that's going to happen,

but I wouldn't leave it as a definite. Would it greatly affect your opinion of Bedard starting his career? Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, it has to. It's a great question. It has to shape how you feel about the person. But I would do it personally. I was in Hartford.

My best year was in Hartford in front of 7,000 people. And it felt like I was in an American Hockey League environment. But I said, I look across and see my opponent and i see historic franchises to others and i'm still in the nhl it's just good enough for me to be in the nhl yeah he's obviously at another level he's considered one of the top prospects in the same field as uh some of the the great ones in the last 25 years. And it's a good crop. He may be the best of the best.

He may be one of those special players that we're talking about years later. If he turned around and pulled a Mario Lemieux and said, I'm not going down to the draft table, I'm not this, I'm not that, I wouldn't sit there and say this guy's a puke no no i wouldn't either but there's no doubt you'd be like okay well you better be good wherever you go now because you've acted like you're good yes correct correct but he is good he is good you know and i think you you should have some control over your destiny you shouldn't just be, you know, forced to go. And McDavid should have done it. Come on.

For the Leafs. If you don't want to spend the next three or four years, which could be a quarter of your career in a college environment. They're talking about building that ring for 26 27 in arizona you want to go back and hear the talk of phoenix and arizona the last 20 years and see what really came true it's like yeah there's been a lot of talk right Right. A lot of talk. That's a good point. And nothing has come to fruition. It's still bad. It's still bad.

Why should I trust that it's going to untangle itself by the time I get there? Anyway, it's... 10 or 15 years ago, if you would have said this franchise would be in a building that can't sell out 5,000-seat stadium that they're playing in, you would have looked at me like I would have had three heads, and you would have put all the money on... Are they not selling out? Oh, no, they're not selling out.

Come on. Not selling out. Oh, my God. Yeah, the players should be upset about this outside Arizona, I think, for revenue purposes. You look at when you move a team where they're wanted yeah but revenue i wrote about this uh three weeks ago they they cut a deal already there's a special deal between the league and the players association that they've they've league pumping some money in no not pumping in

they just capped the losses oh right they've capped it yeah so even if what about gains though wouldn't those be better there's no gains right we know there's no gains but the sure would be in quebec city the losses are comparable to what they were in their 16 17 000 seat stadium you know i'm not saying this to you but i'm saying this to them like oh great oh the losses are comparable like is this what we're striving for here no we're not but we're we are there making the best out of a horrible situation and this is it's not the best you're right it's the best if it stays in arizona maybe it's the best they just have to find a way to build a stadium and in the right spot which they haven't gotten right since day one by the way arizona has eight regulation wins this year so what's up anaheim eight to year one and no one wants to be there anywho anywho yay Anywho. Yay, Leafs. We have derailed.

Sammy, we just got a great comment on YouTube. It said, My goodness. This is from Pencap Chew Draw. Born must be older than 40. He's wearing my grandpa's sweater. This is just a folded up couch blanket that's been in the family for 30 years. You're closer to my side of age now.

I know. You know, this is actually one of the few pieces of casual clothing Sportsnet has purchased for me. Oh, la la. This one right here. Oh, la la. I quite like this little shawl. That's very nice. Thank you.

So, Sammy, I was just going to start with the Leafs and the goaltending. Samsonov goes in clearly you didn't like his start uh on saturday i win murray's and he lost his job yeah full-on goalie controversy no to me this is a backup start is it not after a game on a saturday night you come into your next start that's against the worst team in the league on home ice. Isn't this a backup start? Depends. Don't you want Murray feeling good? Yeah, I think you're going on the road into MSG with a way better team on Thursday night.

That's probably a place where you'd start your starting goaltender. I mean, this feels like a 1B start, a Tuesday night, doesn't it? If only we had someone to weigh in on this who's affiliated with the team. Let's see if we can find him. Sheldon yeah just just really um he's played really well he deserves it i think it's just the biggest thing

we're going to have both goalies involved you know that's really it i mean i don't think you're going to see a situation with us where you're going to see one guy go on any sort of extended run um particularly the way they played they they both deserve the net, and that allows us to manage the workload. Both guys we have great confidence in and have given us the ability to win games. So with that being the case, we don't see any need to, you know, to lean too heavily on any one guy. So that's as simple as that. And take it a day at a time, you know,

but we're always kind of looking at the schedule and how things are, you know, but I think Ilya certainly deserves the opportunity to get back in here right away. Those are like three or four deserves. A lot of deservingness for old Ilya. That's not the way I remember the NHL, by the way. No. No.

I don't care if you deserve it. He's the starter. You never get what you deserve. You get what they give you. Yeah. That makes sense. But I guess they want to give some to Ilya as well. The deserve parts are like the cherry on top.

The deserve part is the mask they put on to look like the good guy when they're being like, we want to rest, Matt Murray. that's what we want to do you deserve you deserve this yeah you deserve ice time you deserve not being in a healthy scratch deserve more than a one-year contract power play time samsonov has been very good for this toronto maple leaves team um you know this this puts him in a good position to keep the momentum going. Feel good about things. Get another one under his belt here. I'm fascinated by how different

these two guys play net. Murray and Samsonov. They look so much different in the net. Think so? Yeah, they just, I think. I think I'm a bad goalie viewer. Samsonov, more athletic, more flying around a little bit.

I think he's just... I don't get the sense that he's like Curtis, Joseph, Dominic Kosciuk. No. David Redditch. Making saves, spinning on the top of their heads. I think he's a little closer to that than Murray is. I think Murray's much more based on his positioning. And if you get him going side to side, you got a better chance of scoring him.

If he's got the net covered, you're not probably going to score on him. I don't think it's a coincidence. Matt Murray is one of the best goalies in the NHL in like 2016, when it was like really high save percentages by blocking goaltenders. Yeah. Now that it's moving a little bit more, a little harder for him.

No, I just, it's been very good this year. To me, that's always the difference between these two guys is just, I test how much different they look. And I'm not a goalie expert. Maybe we could have somebody else on to talk about that who actually knows a thing about goalies.

But just to me, it seems like they look very different in the net, boys. And we do. Kelly Rudy is going to be joining us in about 20 minutes. Scott Niedermeyer momentarily is going to join us as well. Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman. Four-time Stanley Cup champion and special assignment coach of Anaheim Ducks. You're going to ask him specifically what a special assignment coach does or should I? Yeah, you should.

Okay. Because I haven't got a clue. I think it's like, hey, our one D-man is struggling pivoting on retrievals. Can you come deal with this one specific special assignment? That sounds like a really special assignment. I want that job. A super special assignment. I think it's when you're so busy because you're a Hall of Famer

that they're like, please come when you can, and we will give you some special assignments. What's that? We'll ask him when we get him here. It's like Sammy's getting him on the horn. Do you think he has that on his business card? Special assignment, Coach? I do.

Do you? Or do you think he just has Scott Nied card? Special assignment coach? I do. Do you? Or do you think he just has Scott Niedermeyer? We know who you are. You ask him what the hell that means, and I'll ask him if he's got it on a business card. All right. Do we have any other titles for these guys? Rudy's an NHL analyst.

Scott Gomez, former NHL forward. Okay. I know what those are. Now, can't be all bad watching anaheim tonight they got some young talent led by uh the michigan man yep in zegras who's i don't know i mean decent yeah it's he headed for a 60 point season 65 you know though it's hard to get points on a team that's not winning and you're not surrounded by a ton of talent it's really hard to pile them up you know put him in michael bunting's spot and

see what his numbers look like you know what i mean put zegras on the leafs and let's see what his numbers so i'm saying yeah you go yeah yeah like go you got neil ander matthews and zegras do you think zegras is a point-per-game guy? Probably. That's another level. Yeah. I guess that's a different opportunity. Without a doubt. And one time when we were searching for goalie names

for the Toronto Maple Leafs, John Gibson was one name that sparked a lot of interest around this area to the point where his agent had to come out and say we have no thought of going to play for the toronto maple leafs yeah that's interesting too wonder why that would be i guess do you remember why it was well there was some talk there's some trade talk okay and i would imagine he's got a certain list that he cannot be traded to, and I got to think that if not the Leafs, then maybe most of Canada would be off that list.

And that would take away all rumors and speculation. You know what's interesting for this Ducks team is that it's not like they didn't go get some guys this summer. got john klingberg they signed kevin shattenkirk the year before ryan strome wouldn't sign there frank vetrano went there like yeah i don't know that this team willingly tried to be this bad like i think they tried to maybe not well thrust it into overdrive but the strome contracts five years if i'm not mistaken yeah i but but strom would be in a position where padraic and uh would look at his rebuild and say i want to start with a guy like that so he's he's going to be around for the next four or five years a good pro you know teams

always want that right for sure show the young guys how to do it right. Klingberg, for me, is one where you go, okay, why? Right? You're going to suck. Yeah. Why would he want to go there? It's not. And why would they want him?

Are they close to the floor? Like giving a guy $7 million? That's exactly what it is. Yeah. It's the ability to get to your floor with one guy instead of two guys or three guys right right so all right let's welcome in uh if i say this uh correctly a special assignment coach which scott let's welcome in scott niedermeyer uh how's that going scott niedermeyer uh how's that going scott i don't even really know what it is we wanted to ask you we're really wondering the same thing and do you have it on a uh on

a card a business card no i don't i don't so yeah if you if you figure it out let me know so um i would imagine though that it means a lot of individual one-on-one uh conversations with either prospects current players uh that sort of thing is that safe to say yeah no exactly just uh you know trying to as as a lot of the coaches players veteran guys did for me when i was younger the younger player in the league um Just trying to continue that and pass that kind of thing on to this generation with the Ducks. That's cool. How often are you able to

be around the team and are you able to give us any names of guys that you spend more time with? I'm probably there once a month with the team. I was at training camp. I have gone out and seen some of our prospects as well, watch them play a few games and sit down and have a short discussion with them

and just trying to move them along in the process of learning the game and improving. So, I mean, all the young guys that are there are sort of the ones that I'm probably with more. McTavish and Zegras and Troy Terry and guys like that are probably spending

money. There you go. The drop of death sound. The worst on a radio, boys. It's kind of like a toilet being flushed, but it's like more It's the Disney kind of like a toilet being flushed but it's like more uh it's the disney version of that it's like a bong you have lost your person it's like that soft mallet coming over the top of your head so i don't know sammy's calling him back but you know i understand the ducks want to maintain

that connection to their legacy their greatness nita meyer obviously has a great history makes sense to have a guy with his experience go in and talk to the young guys. And as we mentioned, looking forward for this team. Got him back, I believe. We good? Special assignment? Hello, sorry about that.

I don't know how to work my phone. No, you're good. Is the tone different when an organization at the top is struggling or finding its identity scott and i know it's it's been tough and you know this should be the era where on any given night any team can win and uh that's not necessarily the case when you've won one regulation game so far this season yeah that that actually kind of has been my approach, was really trying to focus not on the big picture of the outcome, but the little details, the habits that you need to have

to be a good NHL player that helps teams win. And when you're in a situation like the Ducks, unfortunately, are now, it's easy to sort of lose focus on these little things that are extremely important when it's been difficult. So when I do talk to them, I try and emphasize the importance of these little things. Even if they're not adding up to what you want right now, it's important not to sort of forget about them

or think they're not important. And that's one of the messages that I'm trying to help them with anyway. Yeah, and so how does the team like the Ducks in their position right now find small victories, move forward, come out of this season feeling like it's been a success? Yeah, good question. I mean, everybody's a competitor that's out there,

and you're out there to try and win. It has been frustrating. You look at almost every sort of area of the game, and it just has not gone well. I think most teams, even if you find yourself struggling a bit, there's probably one or two areas that you can kind of hang your hat on and feel good about. But unfortunately, that just hasn't worked out yet.

But there's plenty of season left and uh from what i've seen the guys come to work and you know dallas has done a pretty good job of trying to just recognize that that when the sun comes up guys let's get out there and just try and get better um and that's really all we can all we can do all anybody can do yeah and uh and in the meantime over a few short years you try to accumulate some high-end talent which is already there i know uh jamie drysdale's uh been hit with some major injuries uh zgris is as talented as anything we've seen you you know, the last few years, but he's also a guy that's probably more known as an Instagram sensation than he is as a, you know, anything else regarding a team feel or aspect.

How do you, how does a guy like that now go to the next level in your opinion? No, no, I mean, I agree with that. That's, you know, after being in the league a long time and being fortunate to be part of teams that had success, you really get an understanding of what's important and how you do that. That is sort of my focus. The details of the game, the commitment to pieces of the game

that don't make it on Instagram. That's really your bread and butter of how you have success and win in playoff hockey. So that's really what I try and emphasize, teach, and hopefully these young kids recognize the importance of it or at least start to think about it or at least head that direction. And it takes time. It really does. Some players are a little more mature, can pick it takes time. It really does. Some players are a little more mature, can pick it up quicker.

I know it took me a while as a player to get Jacques Lemaire's message when he was in New Jersey and I was the young defenseman. It took probably years for me to really understand it completely. But, you know, I've definitely bought in now where I'm sitting and I benefited from that during my career.

So I'm trying to just pass that along and hopefully the Ducks one day you know get back to being that team that's uh you know in the playoffs and a legitimate threat to try and win well Scott I actually think that's sort of relevant to the Leafs uh progression over the years here you know they got four well three young superstars with Marner and Matthews and Nyilander they added john tavarez and you know a lot of flash and dash in the early going and a lot of goals but not a lot of team success this season the you know playing a more better defensive structure uh and having some success the different style do you see them sort of making progress despite the fact that they're

no higher in the standings than they've been at any other point yeah i mean i haven't watched them a lot this year but just in a general sort of concept it takes time these things take time i mean it sounds easy when everyone says well you just gotta do this and do that but it really does take sort of a shift in your your whole thinking and how you process the game and what you focus on and just understanding that you really can't take sort of any moment off. And it has to become a habit where you're doing it consistently and you get into a playoff series and the pressure gets ramped up and you're not feeling great. You're banged up on and on, but your habits are there and you're just going to continue to do the same

thing. So I'm sure all the least fans, you know, are feel it's overdue and and that type of thing but uh just talking from a personal experience it it took me a long time to kind of really start to figure things out and you know i i would say from a distance that it looks like these guys are moving in that direction. We're talking to Scott Niedermeyer, Hall of Famer, with the New Jersey Devils, Anaheim Ducks, four-time Stanley Cup champion. You're the perfect guy to maybe ask this

because you do relate to these guys now on a fairly regular basis. And when it comes to attitudes around having leads or blown leads or sometimes watching these guys that are okay with trading chances. Is it that noticeable in their attitudes when you do talk to them that they are less fearful of making a mistake

in a National Hockey League game as I was? Like I was petrified. I was petrified to cop up the puck the middle of the ice because I know I may be done for a month I don't know how about these kids today they're like can they just shrug it off and say no problem and maybe that's lending towards these blown leads yeah I think you're probably right a lot of young guys, their skill level is so high when they come in, and the game is now a younger player's game that teams rely on them. You know, when I was a younger player,

I could spend 15 minutes of a period sitting on the bench, and the team just kind of chugged along, and the veterans did their thing. And, you know, I was sitting there wondering what the heck was going on. But these guys are such big parts of the team now, you know, that they're going to get their opportunities, and it may make it a little harder for them to kind of be taught the tough lesson or, you know, that type of thing. So I think it is, and then you look at teams that, you know,

these guys maybe go through some of these disappointments, and then that really forces them to really, you know, kind of look in the mirror and figure out, you know, what wasn't I doing right there? Because obviously that didn't work. So hopefully that's how the message ultimately gets taught is through those, those experiences, disappointments, and, and trying to get better and the willingness to work at it. Scott,

do you remember any particular moments where Jacques Lemaire was trying to get his message through to you and you were just like, this, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm Scott Niedermeyer, at it. Scott, do you remember any particular moments where Jacques Lemaire was trying to get his message through to you? And you were just like this, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm Scott Niedermeyer. Damn it. Do you call him a dinosaur? I did.

Yeah, absolutely. For way too long, for way too long. you know, it was, it was probably didn't make his job easier. Now that I look at it and it,

it sure didn't make, uh, going to the rink easier for me until you kind of start to accept it and focus on it. And, you know, so, yeah, absolutely. It was a bumpy road and definitely times where I was extremely frustrated and, you know, upset with the situation. But eventually I think, you know, kind of at least learned most of it anyway. Nice.

Well, one thing we wanted to ask you while we had you was, you know, we found out that the World Cup of Hockey is being postponed another year. A lot of us very disappointed not to get to see best on best. You know, what are your thoughts on the importance of that to the legacy, to the, you know, just in general, what are your thoughts on the importance of getting to see best on best once in a while? I think the thing I can sort of best use to describe it is just I, how old was I? 87. I was 13 years old.

And I remember that 87 Canada Cup sort of, it's probably the most vivid hockey memory I have. Maybe that's not my own. And especially at that age, you know, where you're playing hockey, you're loving it and, you know, just the love of the game and the excitement and all that. That really was a pretty special moment for me just to watch as a fan, as a Canadian, watch Gretzky and Lemieux out there and such a high level of hockey, you know.

So to me, that's kind of the power of it. And, you know, and then as a player, if you're actually fortunate enough to be able to participate in it, I mean, it's a huge thrill too. I mean, the first time I got to be a part of that, all of a sudden you're sitting in there again with sort of your idols growing up and you're getting a chance to be part of that too with Team Canada.

So, yeah, it's disappointing. It's obviously been challenges with the Olympics, with the World Cup. And, you know, I don't know. It'd be great to see them really commit to doing sort of a World Cup and really, you know, over time it would just gain more and more sort of prestige amongst fans and players. And I think it could get to the point. I mean, the World Cup of Soccer is going on right now. It's not part of the Olympics, and look at what it does.

So I think the potential is there when you just sort of compare that. So, Scott, before we let you go, we got a teammate of yours, Scott Gomez, on later on the show. I highly doubt that he knows that you're on. So you got to give me a story that we would never know, but I'm going to hit him with later on in the show. So give me something on Scott Gomez that he'll go, how the hell did you know that?

I guess he actually let us live in his condo while we were renovating our house so I don't know you could sort of thank him for being you know for being a good teammate and helping out a teammate when he was a young guy he moved in with Jay Pandolfo and he let us live in his townhouse

for a little bit which was quite nice of him so I guess that's a nice story I don't know yeah I'm sure he's a character he is a character yeah he's got the best loose stories uh uh that I've ever heard so far I guess I could give you a little loose story I was waiting I was riding actually with Jay Pandolfo and we were sitting in the car and we were looking up where we just were parked outside our practice facility and Lou's office was on the second level and there's a window there and we were looking up where we just were parked outside our practice facility and Lou's office was on the second level and there's a window there and we were just kind of sitting there waiting for for Scott because he was in with a meeting with Lou and we looked up and

they they exchanged a quick hug at the end of the meeting which we thought was uh you know kind of interesting him and Lou had a great relationship they loved I think they loved the back and forth Lou loved the challenge of trying to, you know, bring, bring Scott along as a young player. And yeah, I love it.

It was interesting. Oh my God. First question. Lou can't have hugged many people. Oh yeah. How many, how many hugs is Lou giving out his career? You think?

Yeah. Yeah. Not, not a lot. Not a lot. I witnessed, I witnessed one, I think so.

There you go. Well, we appreciate that. We appreciate your time. Always a lot. I witnessed one, I think. There you go. Well, we appreciate that. We appreciate your time. Always welcomed on the show, Scott. All the best to you. Appreciate it. Scott Niedermeyer.

Thanks so much. One of the best ever to play defense. I wonder these people out here give us a hard time sometimes with being critical of skill players. Like like i love hearing niedermeyer said he had to learn how to play all over the ice defense lamere all of a sudden you win much Stanley Cups well it's interesting too that he says that uh you know his focus is on the stuff that doesn't make instagram You led the witness. But yes, he confirmed it.

He did. That's what I think the next step for Zegras is. Yeah. Can you be, I mean, now I'm going to sound like an old guy, but can there be a bit more Jonathan Taves in there and a little less of the flash dash? Not the everyone to take the fun out of the game or the skill or the creativity or the not on this show. Disclaimers asterisk.

We will never take the fun out of the game. Sometimes we go on this show every, every four years. We gave Willie Nylander a hard time yesterday in a clip. And I do need to say what we, we, we, we got to give him,

we didn't give him his flowers yesterday at all what no what are you talking about we didn't give him his flowers for a five-point game where he was fantastic and dominant he was amazing so where did you get heat well we collectively took heat for being like yeah you know he's passed and he's... Oh, I'm sorry, but... No, I don't buy into that for a second. No apology from... We do not agree. How many years has he been in the league?

His best season was last season at 34. Yeah. And he should be a 40, 50 goal scorer. It's because you believe in him that you're hard on him. It falls into the Sheldon. Right. We know there's more. Which is so crazy that he can do so much and have his coach go out.

It does speak to his talent level that his coach goes out and goes, well, you know, there's more to give after he gets five points. It is. I did catch the old to Scott Niedermeyer out of you that the Leafs have three superstars and John Tavares. No, no, what I caught? No, no, no, no, no, no. So there you go. You gave Nylander superstar status

and you dumped all over JT. I was saying, I was saying that they got three young guys that had to learn to win. They didn't draft jt that's the difference oh okay yeah the technicality there yeah well give me the technical give me the world cup of hockey every four years please oh my god give me the world cup every three years let's

let's go ahead and i'm completely fine every four years and just do it like i just i you know i think four years is too infrequent you miss missed primes. Shut down the season. Bill Daly talked about the World Cup coming back when? Did he tell hockey fans to stuff it? Well, I think the whole Russia thing is a bit of a bugaboo for them. Cowards. You know, they want to make sure that they have them involved and probably. Wow, they just don't have enough teams. Yeah.

They don't have enough teams for a real World Cup without them. Also, yeah, I don't think they want a team to say they won the World Championship. Meanwhile, Russia's got a goaltending trio of Shostakhin, Sorokin, and Vasilevsky, and they don't get to play in it. I don't want to win the World Cup without Russia in it. Yeah, and I think a lot of people would disagree with that for political reasons. For sure. But no, like, on the ice, I'm not, you know what I mean.

I 100% know. Throw the teams out there by country and see the hockey part and russia is that's like as much as you want to talk about politics or whatever they're integral to any world cup of hockey hockey wise 100 bingo okay we're gonna we'll pick up on that and so much more with kelly rudy after the break you're watching and listening to Real Kipper and Born. This is Real Kipper and Born on Sportsnet 590 The Van. Let's welcome in our next guest, Kelly Rudy, a guy that I've always enjoyed working with on Hockey Night in Canada. There are some times I kind of feel for Kelly a little bit,

seeing him coming in off a red eye on a Saturday and racing out Sunday and, you know, squeezing every last drop out of the man. Let's welcome in Kelly Rudy. How is the schedule this year, Kelly? Better? It's better. I'm not doing the red eyes. I think those first three years, Nick, that you and I worked together,

I think I was ballparking around 10 or 11 red eyes each season. And as you know, and you're talking about squeezing every single little ounce out of me, oftentimes on Sunday, for whatever reason, it was weird. On Sundays, I wouldn't be usually flying home. I'd be meeting the Flames somewhere, and oftentimes it would be like an 8 o'clock flight Sunday morning to go to California or maybe Dallas or something like that. And I'm thankful those days are behind us. But, well, I got in.

Having said that i worked the flames game last night you i don't know if you guys watch it but that was the best game i've yes that was the best game most uh exciting game i worked all season long and i was on the flames charter last night good to know uh chris tana went to the hospital he was okay he was able to charter home with us. But I got home at three in the morning. So the cycle still continues to a certain degree. Now, having said that, Nick, I want to just tell a little story to our friend, Justin. Justin, happy 40th. I saw the pictures from Brianna. Yes. And it reminded me of my 40th birthday. So you go to a beautiful restaurant,

Chibo, on King Street West. You have your own personalized menu. It looks great. You had the seance braised short ribs. You had shrimp. You had all these different things. So can I share my 40th birthday on the road with Hot Night in Canada? Yeah. Very similar.

Nick, you'll appreciate the hotel. So I did a game in New Jersey on a saturday night january 13 2001 at the metal land and i stayed we stayed across the street at the sheraton i believe yes uh across that parking lot so i had one or two beers with my good buddy scott russell that was the extent of my birthday celebration my 40th oh i was like why couldn't I have been stationed in Manhattan or something and had a fun night, right, Nick? I could have had a good dinner. I used to tease the Meadowlands Arena. I used to call it, I'm going to Club Med, O-Land.

So, Nick, you'll remember that was not a great destination spot. With all due respect. I commend you for uh inviting your co-worker to your 40th i i don't know where sam and our uh sammy our invitation was last night lost in the mail i guess in the mail for sure sorry boys that's on me that's on me that's great kelly well listen i've i you on Instagram. I know you've had a couple of decent meals since, so I don't feel too bad for you, fella. Fair enough.

Good point. You got me there. Yeah. No, I appreciate you joining us today, and thanks for the kind words. I wanted to get your thoughts on the state of the Flames right now. You know, interesting team. Maybe the most interesting league-wide for me. Expectations this year were high.

The turnover of the core was a crazy thing. You you know scuffling a little bit right now you know i think they lost their last three what are your thoughts on where they're at versus where they were expected to be i like that word scuffling i'm not really sure there there have been signs during the course of the season where i've really really liked their their game. And if they, like last night as an example, if they played that hard, they will get a lot of points. I don't know what that number will look like, but they'll get some points in this league. But there are other times where, and this,

I'm not only going to say the Flames, but there are a lot of teams in this category. By my estimation, there are six good teams in the East. There's four good teams in the east there's four good teams in the west most other teams look the same and i can't quite figure them out as you mentioned justin the turnover of players that has been a big adjustment um so i think they're going to start to get a little bit of traction here uh the end of this month and And in January, they have a big road trip coming up next week in California. So they have San Jose twice, L.A. and Anaheim.

But they've got to get on a bit of a run here. And the good news, I suppose, is that Jacob Markstrom, his last two starts have been absolutely spectacular. So he was brilliant in Columbus. He was tremendous last night. So was Jake Allen. But I think that if he can get back near that form where he was at last year, that's going to give them some sort of juice to get going in the latter part of the season.

Well, it's interesting you say that because here we are in 2022, Kelly, and I've never seen a situation with the goaltenders in general where they're still at times the most important guy on your team. Yet they're not necessarily looked at that way anymore. And, you know, I look at Calgary, I look at the Rangers, and without good goaltending, they're both screwed. Yet, we're in an era now where we can let go the Stanley Cup champions number one goalie and not blink an eye and not worry about it. And 15 years ago, any Stanley Cup team that would have lost their goalie, you'd be going crazy about. And it's just, it's still really at times the most important position but it's not necessarily

looked at that way anymore is the point i'm trying to make do you agree yeah i agree nick in the sense that i still think it's the most important position but we're not seeing that same standard and by the way i think that's terrific for the game because it got to the point where the goaltender was so dominant that we once you got lead, the lead changes, we didn't see any. There are no monumental comebacks. Now we see a 4-0 lead. Is it safe? Kind of like the NHL when you and I played, Nick, where it was just wide open.

I find it super exciting. I find most nights there might be two or three games that uh really grab my attention because it's not the nhl that as you mentioned 15 years ago or even 10 years ago where the goaltender was so dominant now elliot made a number of good points uh i think two saturdays ago about all the rule changes in the last little while the skill level of the players to me the players have never had harder shots more accurate shots i think that plays into it i think the pressure of the position adds to that but i still can't quite put my finger on why we're seeing the safe percentage go down dramatically and as you mentioned some really good goalies i mean their safe percentages

are looking more normal um so i think we might be able to figure this out maybe in another year or two if this trend continues but like i said man am i enjoying the hockey this is so fun to watch you keep talking like that you're gonna lose your goalie union card you know that right well furthermore goalies wouldn't like me because i still think their equipment can be reduced more so i think i'm right in that wheelhouse for them nick you know the um you know one thing looking at the this calgary flames team is they still have a lot of a lot of great players and it feels like they can go the other direction fairly quickly if they can get things on a roll you know they ran into the Leafs the other night Kelly who you got to see

and the Leafs have found that role a little bit this season do you feel like that the Leafs are a different team than they've been in previous seasons or is it just kind of heading towards the same finish that it has the the previous six years well I'm optimist, so I have to think that I do believe that the way they're playing lends itself towards the belief that this could be a different outcome. Now, having said that, all of us know. I mean, this is no secret. All of us knew they were going to have a great regular season, even though they had a bit of a slow start, which they're prone to have.

I think all of us are just sort of waiting until april to really see who they are because i said last year in the playoffs that was a really disappointing loss for me for the least because tampa they were beatable that even though tampa got to the finals they didn't find their game i didn't find until the conference final uh the Lightning. And so they were definitely beatable, and the Leafs let them off the hook. That was a beatable or winnable series. Are they the same? I don't think so, but the history is the history. And so that'll be interesting to watch.

But listen, they're a fun team. Their top four forwards are amazing. Giordano's had a really nice impact considering all the injuries they've had on the back end. I like their team. And I said, I think the first weekend of hockey night, I said, Kyle Dubas put his career on the line by getting the two new goalies, Matt Murray and Samsonov,

and those two guys have been brilliant. That has turned out to be a brilliant move and one that I think more people should talk about because, you know, what a brave move. I mean, to get rid of Jack Campbell, and we know his struggles this year, but to not just go with the same old, although his regular season's successful,

that was really courageous. Want to just finish off the Eastern Conference before I get your thoughts on Edmonton, Vancouver, and how it's shaping up in the West. But your thoughts, because we got the Islanders and the Rangers in as wild card. Pittsburgh, New Jersey, and Carolina take care of the Metro, and same old, same old at the Atlantic. But who misses out, Kelly?

Washington, Florida. him old in at the atlantic but who misses out kelly washington florida like how surprised are you that those two are on the outside looking in and can they climb back in i don't think they can nick i i don't know where it's going to shake out but uh i have been really surprised by both those teams washington and florida now was Washington, they've had so many injuries that there's a lot of that to that. And I do think in a salary cap world, depending on the injuries you have, to whom the injuries and also how many,

that can be so debilitating that you have almost no chance of having a good season. But I am surprised. That is another thing that going back to my comment a couple minutes ago about how exciting the league is, we don't know anymore. You know, we all would have said Washington would have had a great year, Florida for sure. And going into every season now, you know,

we have fans coming up to us everywhere, the three of us in the local coffee shop or whatever. They're going, who's your team? And I used to, you know know point out four or five teams i have no idea anymore from season to season and that's a good thing it is it certainly keeps it entertaining and exciting you know the another team i think that would fit that mold is edmonton who you know some playoff success recently kind of felt like they're on the cusp a couple of injuries and now they kind of come back to the pack a bit. How do they stack up against the Flames this season? Two very good teams, obviously, in Alberta.

Well, I'm unsure. Every once in a while, and this could be, you could say this about 15 teams in the league, just when you think they start to get a little bit of a track or a little bit of traction, they seem to fall back. And injuries can be a big part of it, they seem to fall back. And injuries can be a big part of it for every team. And I just don't know.

I'm hoping. Al Arbor always used to say, you don't really know what you have until the first three months of the season are completed. And that's where my brain kind of is right now. Like I'm still waiting until January at some point to really see what some teams are made of. And I'm not trying to dodge the question. It's just that it's so out there that I just don't know.

And if you can go on a heater like St. Louis did the year they won the Cup in 2019 and put a poor start behind you, that's what you're kind of looking for in today's NHL, it seems. One more for me, Kelly. And, you know, again, you're an expert here on goalie tandems and how they were historically shaped up for a starter or a backup. And now we're maybe seeing more 1A, 1B. But, you know, Calgary, you can say Vladar has been better than Markstrom. You could sit there and say, hey, Samsonov and Murray have got this thing going.

But at some point, a guy wants to know he's the man, doesn't he? Yeah, I'm on the fence with that, Nick. When I joined the league in 83, a lot of teams had the, I don't know about 1a 1b but they they rotated games more often like when I came into league my second year Billy Smith and I were rotating a lot and I don't have hockey DB in front of me but I would think that we played pretty close to the equal amount of games and then later in the season it'd be March when Al Arbor would start to give that guy, the playoff guy, Billy, a little bit more action, get him ready. And I still think that works in today's game. And some of the games, it wasn't a Grant Fuhrer that set the record.

I think 69 games, somebody could correct me, but 69 games in a season, I think that's too much. Now, depending on your style, like New Jersey got away with Marty Brodeur. He's a special, unique athlete. But I still think in today's game, yeah, you need a guy to believe he's number one. But I don't see a reason why he can't be supported nicely with his backup, where you can get it closer to a 50-50 split in terms of the percentage of games. I think that's a healthy way to go. Now, if a guy gets on a bit of a run, yeah, I'm sure he can start three games. But I think mentally also it's a nice break for the guy that everybody knows he's the starter when the playoffs start.

But why wear him out? And today's game is harder than ever on goaltenders for all the reasons we talked about. The rule changes, the better shooters in today's game, and the travel seems to be harder with the condensed schedule. I think there's more room for 50-50 split. All right, Kelly, before we let you go, I just have to ask, I heard you guys talking on Hockey Night in Canada. Did the Kings ever practice passing off the Stanley Cup

before the Cup Final against Montreal? We did not. That's a funny way to end it. I thought Kevin Bietzscher handled that perfectly. I just think that all of us know, we're all in the media. We

probably had 10 or so cameras at the morning skate in Boston. That just didn't happen. And I think podcasts have a lot to do with it because we all feel like we can speak or speak freely. We're trying to be entertaining and maybe let something slip on occasion. By the way, before we go, Justin, good luck with your book. Nick, I'm just starting your book.

I bought it early in the pandemic and finally getting to it. So I'm looking forward to reading all your stories sorry for the delay go busy enjoy it and always welcome on our show appreciate you buddy thanks for the invite talk to you guys soon Kelly Rudy does a terrific job

on SportsCenter Hockey Night in Canada you're just a kind man as kind as they come. Is there, and I don't know whether it's the Leafs or anyone else, but is there a scenario where you see that, I don't know, a team wins a Stanley Cup using like two goalies? Like actually in the final alternating starts. It probably won't be because once a guy wins you're not going

to change him out but could there be a 60 40 right because obviously we're into the historically nine out of ten starts it goes to uh the the stanley cup winning goaltender but is there an opportunity for two guys to come in and and look a lot more like 1a 1b than a starter and a no chancer you're right it would have to be like off a loss like you go with murray and then he wins and then you go with murray and he loses and samsonov goes in and he wins you go go to the beginning, he loses. You go back to Murray. A starter to lose his spot has to lose two bad games. Two bad and then the seed is planted for a goaltending change. But can a guy lose one and then go to another guy? Yeah, I think so.

You know what's interesting is the only time I can really remember recently goalies splitting was when murray got hurt and flurry played the two series i think before the cup final and then murray went back in even though murray flurry had won yeah i remember that being a big conversation that's like flurry's on a roll that sullivan had the stones to do that he just was like he's the starting goalie he's going back in i was just looking at kelly rudy's hockey db these are the the amount of games he played when he was with the islanders he played 12 in his first season but then he played 41 45 46 47 50 yeah so and those were all with billy smith a couple of them was there uh roly a couple of them

were uh billy smith roland roland yeah really the goalie in the last season billy smith only played 17 games so there was mark fitzpatrickrick and Jeff Hackett played games as well that season. But I'm just looking at the other ones. It was just him and Billy Smith. And then what were Kelly's numbers in Los Angeles? How many games did he play? He played 60. Big number.

So starting in 89-90, he played 52. then he went 47, 60, 50, 64, and then 35-36. And the Stanley Cup year was one of the 60s? Yeah, right? 93-94, that's when he went to the final, yeah. I remember being like four years old, scored my first goal in Kelly Rudy after a practice. How many playoff games did he play in that montreal's i'm stanley cup final let me look right now that's been 20 20 against montreal uh no the whole playoffs oh the whole playoff montreal went to ot or sorry seven games played 18 20 games that year sorry yeah no i'm just

rambling i'm looking it up here. It's not on HockeyDB. That's got to be the podcaster's favorite part of our show where we just wait for Sam to look things up. Brought to you by Bet99. McKee looks up stats. Remember, he turned off YouTube yesterday. That's right, with the off button. YouTube off. Anyways. that's right with the off button youtube off anyways um interesting to hear him say that uh

he is he's you still want the set oh eventually well you know i mean we're on the rest of the week 92 93 he played 20 games there you go 20 hockey games a lot of in the playoffs yep he was my favorite goalie. Oh, he's so cool. There's no question that since the lockout in 2004, everything has been geared towards the skaters and offense. And the league has all but said, screwies good you know that you heard kelly admitted it too you heard kelly say like he thinks gear could be scaled back more

and in fairness i watched some kelly rudy highlights the other day and he didn't wear much equipment you know like matt murray out here could probably trim it up a touch yeah matt murray's out of league if you take away his equipment. If you have to put a warm fitting gear. Remember that commercial? I forget who it was back in the day with Anything Can Happen. And it was all those guys wearing the old school hockey gear. Do you remember that, Kipper? You like commercials, no?

I do, but I don't remember. I lived in the U.S. for a lot of those years. Yeah, that's true. I think maybe it was for Proline. It's like Anything Can Happen in a game. The best goalie commercials. Yeah, and it was like him. They were like wearing like 1912 hockey gear.

Yeah. It was like a throwback night, and they were all just like getting. Anyways. I remember a walrus in net for an insurance company's commercial. Do you remember the Nike commercials? Yes. Where do you have like five goalies in the net? The Fedorov commercial.

And Sundin. And Sundin and the weak glove hand. And those were commercials. With the goalie. In other professions, like a janitor goalie. The goalie driving the cab. federov commercial and sundin and sundin and the weak glove hand and those were commercials with the goalie in other professions like a janitor goalie the goalie driving the cab so a lot earlier in my uh sports net days i got a challenge from greg zahn yeah that he stopped me on 10 penalty shots have you ever seen it zahn plays goal i think zahn. Greg Zahn puts on goalie equipment. And the funniest part of that whole segment was him actually trying to put the equipment on him. With no help?

Where did you guys go to? A rink? Oh, yeah. Which was like the equivalent of putting a three-year-old in a snowsuit. Right. Just like wiggling all over the place. Hold still. Hold still for a second.

He's like, I can't breathe for a second he's like i can't breathe put your foot in i can't breathe but uh yeah i'm looking at it right now for joe's helping him out for yeah we got kujo to help him get dressed oh geez so i can't put this video you're dying laughing if uh if you all in uh youtube land have not seen it just google greg's on the evolution of our show by the way is that we're able to do this stuff like have a screen synced up to show people what we're talking about something i wonder where the hell those pads are that zon has on in this video they're amazing they're like got the old sports net oh no he he had it all going but you would you did i i haven't got to

the part yet where you he took took lessons. The showdown. And here it comes. Oh, look at the smooth skating. Yeah, there's one. Oh, yeah. Look at the old Sportsnet logo, too. Yeah, I'm watching this now. I'm wearing my old Men's League Swords jersey.

Oh, yeah. I one-handed him. Just no effort. I'm telling you right now, even I would go and pretend on this guy. You were courteous to him. Is he Jamie Campbell in the stands? Zahn Nation? Zahn Nation?

That was the last one I shot it in his glove. Oh, what a nice guy. The swords. I figured he'd had a pretty good glove. You were repping the swords. Who were the swords? You guys had sponsors back then? What was that, Boston Pizza?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's cool. You want a sponsor for this show i'm just kidding little buddha well you are the owner of nick kiprios owns it next rewards also nick anything else i can plug that i'm a part of okay uh we're to take a quick break. Scott Gomez will follow up his, our inside information on Scott Gomez hugging Lou in his office. Did you keep the waist out like you did at a grade seven dance?

So we need to know. First question for Scott Gomez after the break. You're not going to want to miss it. We're back after these words. This is Real Kipper and Born on Sportsnet 590 The Van. All right, Sammy, what's the update on Scott Gomez? Scott Gomez may be having a meeting with Colby Armstrong about their hockey team.

I don't know. He said he needs until 4.30. He's in a meeting. That's twice. I know. In two days. We've been big-timed. Not to say that I'm, you know, I feel like we do pretty well with people picking up, but it's been a bad couple days here.

That's okay. Listen, we have Scott Nienermeyer and Kelly Rudy already. Get Gomez in. We got stuff planned. Listen, those guys are like the cherry on top, man. We are the Sunday. Yeah, they, yeah. People, I don't know.

Do they come for you guys? I don't know. I don't know. They're here for derrick so what do you want to do you want to go into some uh news and notes around the league gary betman the uh board of governors today you know had some things to speak about but nothing there's no great drama right now i would say but sam why don't you give us an update and what you chatted about i thought it was quite hilarious about the board ads because that got brought up somebody asked me what the board ads and i believe the um the quote was this uh if what oh where is it here the polling we did with our fans gives us the feedback that it's a non-issue many think it

looks better than having numerous logos on the dasher boards. It's working extraordinarily well. Just peak Bettman, is it not? If what you're doing is just watching the dashboards, which I guess you're, if you're reporting on it, you might do, then it may be a distraction.

If you're watching the game, it's not a distraction. It's crazy. The Down Goes Brown had a little blurb on this somewhere on the athletic but you know betman has done this over the last however many years when things people and he's called into question for something the league has done he says you know our internal polling says

fans actually like that they like when people don't score goals or they like when there's less fighting or they like you know it's just it's just not true so can i be honest about the board ads let's talk about it. I was really upset about it at the start of the year. Yeah. And now you don't even notice. I haven't thought about it in a month. That's generally what happens with anything. And we're talking about

people that like the old pair of shoes. They don't like putting on new shoes. Right. They're comfortable. I like them. Just leave it alone. If they didn't move putting on new shoes right they're comfortable i like them just leave it alone if they didn't move i would like them better but to sam's point they do move but like anything else that we've seen around the league the last few years take the mesh behind the net the extension off the glass that was a hot button topic because i don't want to watch a game through that we sat in great seats at scotia bank arena and not once in two and a

half hours did we say look at the mess i actually said to sam i can't imagine sitting here without that guys slap it so hard from the pole. Can you imagine sitting there every time? I remember at the Harry Lemley Bay Shore, no one's down. There used to be no mesh. And there was like this big metal wall, like at the very back of the rink. And pucks would just hit that thing. And it was like, come on.

Do you know how short? They were hitting so hard. Do you remember how short the glass was on the front row at Maple Leaf Gardens? Like, I was a kid. Yeah. And it wouldn't, like, I'm like 11, and it wouldn't take much just to hang my program over. Yeah. And all you would do is wait for the guys to come by and pick up your pen and sign your program.

Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's the way it worked back then. Well, I have two things come to mind. One is, have you seen the baseball highlight of the guy hits a rope, he pulls it foul, and two guys are talking, and it goes between their heads?

It's like a year before the netting came in for baseball. I think the baseball one is way more insane than the hockey one. Amazing no one died. Truly amazing. You know, the way those guys, especially if they're early on like an off-speed pitch and they rip it. Yeah, you just pull one, barrel one up. And they're screaming down the first baseline.

Screaming. And it just smashes off the seats. And you got some rich businessman who's there on company tickets not paying attention on Twitter. Any change, right? Any change, it's just that initial kind of, I don't like it. And then it just kind of disappears the uh the jersey well that's exactly what i was advertising i haven't thought about that anybody talking about that no does anybody care what do you want me to say about it yeah i

do care it sucks you still yeah well no it does i don't think about it but i don't have to come around on it just because i think it's but it's lost it's not lost it's not worth talking about it's tucked away then yes okay all right it is but you know you a lot of people do you believe it's a slippery slope that next it's going to be a hem of the jersey ad on the back and that's not a big deal and then the they got we got the helmet that's not a big deal i think it's coming well i know like you think it's gonna you think we're going full Swedish elite league? Yes, I do. You know, it may take 20 years. It may take 25 years. There is so much money on the table there.

Yeah. That they will. They got the door in. They got the foot in the door when the league was vulnerable. It was post pandemic. They could justify the push for extra revenue, and they never take it off. They ain't unstitching milk, boys. The milk has been poured.

No. You know? And they'll just find ways to just grind out more money. Oh, yeah. It's just going to be up here, and then it's just going to be one on the base. What's the difference? You got two anyway.

We're going to put one on the sleeve because no one said anything about the milk one. Why would they care if there's one on the sleeve but keep in mind there's 32 teams only a handful can say yeah it struck me a check for about seven million a year for that space yeah okay arizona getting seven million for that space on their jersey no Carolina yeah Florida so it's almost like the teams who can should be able to spend more on their players right like they have more money they bring in more money they generate more for the league you think they'd be allowed to spend

more on their roster it took Gary Bettman 30 years to clean that out whatary was able to do over his career make the owners rich no oh no he was able to take powerful owners and then turn them into just one of 32 and that's what happened to toronto and new york and the rest of them they used to have a major say on things and now they're just one of many who have an opinion and i may need it i may not need it yeah but gary used to need those all those big voices and now only i think he needs eight any eight yeah to to get uh uh a swing in his favor if i'm a goalie i'm selling my pads to anybody who wants them. Like, hey, you want to sell the advertising space, my pads? Go for it.

Right? That's prime real estate, brother. It's all been discussed. Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah. It's all been discussed from either the Players Association or the league office. They are well aware of it.

And I just think that the start, especially through the pandemic, has bumped up that to the point where it started. It was Leafs, you know, Leafs times OVO collabo, and now it's Leafs by Loblaws collabo and the Brian's pads coming in hot. Warm-up jerseys. What about, hey. Warm-up jerseys. How about this?

That's money on the table sell those baby how about this how about make a luxury tax so that the rich teams can spend more money and then they have to pay the lease had success doing that oh you mean the most rich team and the most rich league in the world why not oh but then the problem would be that the most popular teams would be good and then and then they wouldn't have, that'd be the issue. Just dripping with sarcasm. I'm picking up your sarcasm. Usually that's me.

You should. I'm laying it on pretty thick. It's like, oh yeah, the Leafs get paid a billion dollars to have Scotiabank on their ring. I'm a guy under 40s having this conversation right now. Honestly, abolish the cap. Good for you, buddy. Abolish the cap. Good for you.

Let the Leafs spend. Let them beat Real Madrid. Everyone cares about them the most anyway. But don't worry. The cap is only going to go up one million next year because they couldn't make enough money to... Maybe the Leafs will be able to afford David Kampf. Sick.

The cap isn't going up. You're right. Because that was Gary's idea or the thought that it could go up. You don't get that done without the players. Should there not be, you know, I had seen the suggestion of the smoothing of the cap increases. Like if it's going to be one mil this year and then for the next,

could we not bump it up two and then three, two and a half, two and a half? Could we not? I think what it does is it, it doesn't is it doesn't take care of the debt. It slows the debt down. The debt repayment. Yeah. And that's the danger to the players. They want this thing off the books.

Man, that escrow. If you're making league minimum, making $750, it gets taxed down to half. And then you pay escrow on that. No one's feeling sorry for the players. But if you're in 750, taking home 250 is not awesome. The narrative of bumping this thing up three or four million dollars is coming from the ownership groups, especially the ones that Sam are talking about,

like the Leafs and the Rangers come next year when all the big payments are in they they want it up three or four yeah but the thing is everyone's up against the cap cap like yeah thirds of the league can't do anything and and there's going to be some hard decisions for for teams because of that you're going to lose star players because of it and some guys careers they're just never going to earn Scott Gomez money you know we're going to have one little bit they'll never have players because of it and some guys careers they're just never gonna earn scott gomez money you know we're gonna have one little bit they'll never have that opportunity he didn't make a lot of money oh yeah his ranger deal was off the charts yeah he was uh he was a big ticket item

ufa i don't know what nine years chateau in Anchorage, Alaska, but he's probably got a decent place. Yeah, he signed... What was his contract? In 2007, 2008, he signed a seven-year, $51 million contract with the... That's 15 years ago. The New York Rangers.

Before recent painful inflation. He probably still has every nickel. I might have spent a couple. I was around in Anchorage, Alaska when he bought a couple of pints for a couple of people, I can tell you that. nice of him yeah so but like why i don't know sorry to just get every time the salary cap gets brought up i get pissed off i'm sorry for being so sour about it but it's just annoying to me it's fun i enjoy it still think that uh

the average fan still doesn't understand it i think it's you what's the worst part is that you have to be aware of it now. You shouldn't have to understand the salary cap to like your hockey team and root for your guys. That's the whole thing. Since it's come in, it's gone from conversations about what a guy is on the ice to what a guy is versus his contract and what it means.

The value. It takes away fun conversations about a guy just being good because we always have to measure them against their contract. Like John Tavares, if there was no salary cap, everyone would be like, what a great player, what a captain. Great leaf. Yeah, he's a point-per-game guy, and we come on here and be like, ah, he's wash, he's slow.

He's not worth that. Like it's just completely muddy. JB won't even call him a leaf superstar your boy mitch marner would be a legend if no oh my god exactly you got that right local boy it just shouldn't it just shouldn't matter it just shouldn't matter and listen like every other league now they have the competitive competitive balance tax in the mlb they have the salary cap with the with the the luxury tax in the nba nfl i will never even pretend to understand yeah soccer

teams you can just spell and spend whatever you want but gary likes it so every team's crappy no one's good everyone's crappy that's the most pessimistic portion of one of our shows it's true though it's like there's no every team. It's like, wow, these guys got two good players and a bunch of crappy guys. Like, it's just not good. Is it not? Am I crazy? I'm just sitting back and loving this right now. No, we're really enjoying it, to be honest.

Because it's, it's. I'm as mad as hell, but I'm not going to take this anymore. Mediocrity. Right? Yeah. Same difference. Yeah. Right.

That's, they will, yeah, yeah every team they want every fan base to feel like they're in it in march which is why the standings points are gobbledygook yep okay i'm gonna play uh the other side here though go for it that you could absolutely suck and still convince your fan base that uh you're in it or you're that's the idea 100 that's the idea that's not a bad thing or else bad thing there'd be a lot more empty seats why would i want to go if yeah if i'm down and out yeah attendance numbers are just crushing it in this yeah for these other people they can't sell out 5 000 seat arena yeah they're just nailing the attendance now that would be a lot worse if if you had 10 teams, 12 teams by now.

How many teams do we really have that can say, like, you're done and out? Maybe teams would recognize they're bad and trade their players quicker, and we'd have more trades, and there'd be great drama off the ice. I don't know. Let's get it right.

Any other news coming out of the board of governors i'm calling gomez now yes right uh well it's not really board of governors but there was some discussion about the renaming of nhl trophies that was inspired by the nba uh renamed their trophy oh hold on that are the uh groups to own the sins which do you like better trophies or sins uh i don't care we're gonna have scott all right let's just not talk about either of them then what are you gonna talk about have you got scott he's just calling him so when i was in alaska and we go to f street station which is like the best bar in the world yeah gomez would sit at like a round top or stand by one and it would just be covered with

coors lights like 60 of them And these people would walk by, he'd just go, there you go, there you go, there you go. And they're like, $4 of Coors Light. We're in college. We were just like, thank you, Mr. Gomez. You're the greatest person ever. Counting our nickels and Gomez is there hanging out Coors Light, just like the ultimate hero.

Oh yeah, it was great. And that was the year he got voted to the All-Star game. To the All-Star game? Was that it? Makes sense. You're buying votes with your Coors Light I would say that was the year he was the I think the MVP of the ECHL that year we were not in the NHL then no he was uh it was during the lockout and he was hanging around I'm sure he did that New Jersey oh I'm, I'm thinking. I'm thinking. He's bought a couple of beers, though, over his career. You mentioned NHL trophies because the NBA has now renamed their individual awards. And they've updated them.

Yeah, the MVB trophy of basketball is now the Michael Jordan trophy. They named it after,. Well, you can, I was going to say after the best player in basketball history, I know some people quibble with that and it's subjective, but in my lifetime watching basketball, I don't think there'd be anybody. No. I don't want to argue the impact that Michael Jordan had on basketball to the

point where I wonder how many he won. Anyone else could say, no, that's not the guy that should be the MVP. This guy should be the MVP. So do you think he won it five times? Wayne Gretzky won the heart trophy nine times. Should we? How many times in a row did he win it? I don't know.

Six, maybe five or six he owned it for a while so wainer wins it that much do we want to call it the wayne gretzky trophy for league mvp people bobby orr fans be mad no um gretzky's the guy i mean the all-time point leader by a trillion wayne gretzky MGM trophy? And make about... Better of the week? And bring in $5 million a year because of it. Fair enough.

Actually, that's fair. I think actually the trophy, it actually is the Michael Jordan Kia MVP trophy, I think. Oh, did they put a sponsor beside it as well? Let me check. Because I was under the impression it was just a name and I was kind of just goofing around on you. No, I think he is in there somewhere.

Wow. So they are cashing out then the naming rights of the trophy. Yeah, the Michael Jordan Trophy awarded to the Kia NBA Most Valuable Player. There you go. See? And that's what's going to happen in the NHL. You can't leave that money off the table anymore. Here it is, the Wayne Gretzky Trophy, hard trophy brought to you by mgm no it's going to be

brought to you by the real kipper and born we're going to sponsor it we're going to sports it's going to kick in maybe not gambling new yeah maybe they won't go quite as uh hardcore as uh Because hardcore is another gambling road. We have Gomez. All right. Any chance for a Scott Gomez award in the near future? Yeah, best passer. All right, let's bring him in. We have had him on the show last season.

We've waited all year for some more Lou stories. Lou Lamorello stories. Let's welcome in Scott Gomez. Go, go. What's going on? Kipper, not bad, but you guys haven't waited all year. You guys called me, and the next Scott Gomez award should be the best Mexican.

Austin Matthews is probably going to win that for the next whatever year. So, yeah, if we're going by the awards like that, we'll start with there. Okay. All right, we'll just give it to him for the next 10 years. Well, I know Nino's in San Jose. He could probably compete for it, but, yeah, all right.

Nice. I just heard you guys say there's a Scott Gomez award. No, there's not. Okay, not yet. Not yet. So, where are you? What's going on? You still doing your storytelling on social media?

Like, what's the latest on Scott Gomez? Well, obviously, you guys don't know because you're asking me. But, no, I stopped at a while ago. We had fun. It was mostly during the pandemic. And I'm in New York City right now. And, yeah, just kind of golf just kind of ended here probably last week. We got out there.

But, yeah, no, I'm still in New York. My house is getting built in Alaska. And so I'll probably spend the rest of the holidays here in New York City. That's awesome. Well, I hope you get a chance to say hi to my boy Justin Johnson up there. I love Anchorage, Alaska. Great spot. JJ is the mayor of Alaska.

Is he actually running for political office? No, but it's to the point where people would actually be like, JJ probably could run. And it'd probably be like i'm not that political whatever but jj probably would be like uh he probably have a 90 95 chance of winning whatever he tried to say if you remember jj played for the islanders for a bit there uh yeah just as good a guy as it gets you know we were talking before you came on about some of the you know where the nhl is at right now one of the things that caught my eye is like you would have played

against ovi and sid when those guys were in the league does it blow your mind that those guys are still pouring in goals and points no not at all just because of the talent kipper knows that it's certain guys had it and uh i remember uh sydney crosby's first game was against the Devils. And, you know, we all heard about this kid. And it's like anything. When you step on the ice, you're better than everyone. No matter what position, no matter what role, it's just what we have. And watching him, it was like, I don't even know if he had a point that night

or whatever. It's like, yeah, he's okay. We all do that. And the greatest thing about Sidney Crosby I think is like that was kind of the same time LeBron was coming in and it was kind of Sidney Crosby's been our LeBron James he was a prodigy he came in and he he's not disappointed he is uh he's one of the, yeah, he's one of the best hockey players we've ever seen in our lives. And that's a compliment, like, meaning no one, no one ever really talks about that, but this kid had so much pressure coming in and he

fulfilled everything. Yeah, he got to, you know, obviously Mario took him in, and he did everything. But as far as, like, an excellent show of hockey player, the fact that played against Crosby, played against him, been around him, I mean, yeah, that kid, he's been special since day one, and he's lived up to it. There's none of the pride. You know, I'm so proud. I mean, the funniest thing was I'm lining up against Sidney Crosby.

I'm like, hey, I need a stick. And he kind of looked at me and I'm like, yeah, punk, I need a signed stick. You're going to be that good. But he was, you know, I always tell people that, like, the NBA had the LeBron James. Our LeBron James in the NHL is Sidney Crosby, Meyer kind of thing. 100%. You know what's amazing, too, is he's old school in so many ways. It's almost as if what's wrong with you?

You don't have a social media platform. You're not on Twitter or Instagram. And this guy is just nowhere to be found on that sort of stuff. No, I mean, yeah, it kind of hurts. He did his job. He's the one that took hockey that sort of stuff? No, I mean, yeah. It kind of hurt. He did his job. He's the one that took, I mean, he took hockey that serious and stuff. But the best part is we all used to think he was probably a nerd. Like, God, what's wrong with this kid?

And you had ex-teammates that played in Pittsburgh. Like, Paul Martin, one of the good friends of mine, he played in Pittsburgh. And the first question we always asked was, like, hey, what's Crosby like? He's like, Gomer is one of the good friends of mine, he played in Pittsburgh. And the first question we always asked was like, hey, what's Crosby like? He's like, Gomer is one of us. He's just, you know, he knows how to handle his business. He's one of us. And that was always the calm. And, yeah, no, I mean, the guy was that good where, you know,

he might have complained to the refs and stuff. And at the end of the day, we'd be in the locker room and we'd be like, yeah, there's certain guys that are allowed to complain to the refs. And that's the end of the day we'd be in the locker room and we'd be like yeah there's certain guys that are allowed to complain to the ref and that's that's sydney crosby but i do got a good crosby story you guys wanted me yes of course all right so we're playing them uh they're going i think they won i don't think they went back toto-back. They're going for back-to-back, and I'm in Montreal. And we're playing against, you know, Pittsburgh. And Joe Talbot smokes me in the face, hits me, and the whistle, it's game one, and Crosby jumps in.

Crosby hits me in the face. I hit him right back. And he goes, Gomer, what the, what the? And I was like, well, let me explain to you, kid. You hit me, I hit you. Back. That's how it works. That's how it works.

And he goes, yeah, that makes sense. So it looks like we're arguing. So the next day in the Montreal papers, Scott Gomez is, you know, trying to get Sidney Crosby to go. That was literally our conversation. So polite. is trying to get Sidney Crosby to go. That was literally our conversation. It was like, yeah, you hit me in the face, I hit you back. You punch me, I punch you back. That's how it works.

And he goes, yeah, you're right, you're right, guy, you're right. And we laugh about that all the time, but in the papers the next day, Scott Gomez trying to get Sidney Crosby to go. Yeah, no. It wasn't that at all we actually it's funny before we had you on we were talking about uh some some stories you told some some stories last year and we had scott niedermeyer come on at the start of the show and we asked him kipper asked him said hey can you tell us a scott gomez story that we can present to him you know at the start of this show and the only thing he told us is that he once saw you in a meeting

with Lou Lamorello in the second floor of some building, and you and Lou had a hug. And that was all he knew about the story and all he would tell us. Have you hugged Lou Lamorello in your life? Me? Me? Don Niedermeyer, and I'll say this, is the best hockey player I've ever seen live.

Like, he's the best. Everyone always asks, I'm sure Kipper gets the same question, like, who's the best hockey player you've ever seen? And, yeah, Scott Niedermeyer definitely, like, the way this guy, and when he was at the Devils, until he went to Anaheim, he finally got the publicity, let's say. But needs was always there. But they didn't believe, like, how close me and Lou were.

And so after getting my butt chewed out for whatever, me and Lou would always hug it out. It was days. Like, yeah. And so needs and Pando, because we're – They're waiting for you in the parking lot. Yeah, they're waiting for me. And I'm like, you guys don't understand. I always hug it waiting for me. And I'm like, you guys don't understand.

I always hug it out with Lou. And they're like, no, you don't. And they saw me and Lou. After, like I said, I got my, I don't know if I'm allowed to say ass. You're fine. Oh, yeah, you're good. After I got my ass chewed out by Lou, we'd always hug it out. And they saw me hug it out.

And I get in the car, and they're like, what was that? I'm like, that's just normal. That's me and Lou. That's me and Lou's end of the meeting. We always hug it out. But the thing about Scott Niedermeyer, I bought Brendan Morrison's house. Mo got traded, so I buy his house. It's right next to Jay Pandolfo.

He raised me in the league. So I buy his house it's right next to jay pandolfo he raised me in the league but so you know i buy his house and once it was all done you know it's my house wow i got a house now um scott need a mile lisa need a mile come up to me and they're like um yeah and jay and they're like yeah uh you're gonna live with Jay. I was like, okay. Because the Niedermeyers were getting their house redone. So the Niedermeyers lived in my house for two months before I even did. I lived with Jay Pandolfo. That's how much clout Scott Niedermeyer had.

That's how great he was to me. I couldn't even argue. I was like, all right. Your house, that's mine now. I just bought that house and the Niedermeyers lived there for the first two or three months. I'm room with Jay. That's how great the Niedermeyers were to me. We're talking to Scott Gomez.

Gogo, pretty happy to see your New Jersey Devils come back to life as a contending team? Yeah, I mean, you know, we still live in the area, and everyone, hey, they had it down and out. I mean, Lindy, Russ, they've always been great to me. Pitsy, all of them, they've always been great. And it's finally, you know, those young kids, I mean, they finally come around, you know, the draft picks. And I think 10 out of the 12 local product, I guess, is sort of say they're drafted by the Devils.

So these guys have been together. And for them to start winning and figuring it out, it's been awesome. It's been awesome. I mean, everyone wanted Lindy's. They wanted him to get fired. They wanted, but now they're finally like, hey, when you get beat down so much and you can finally prove it, there's nothing better. And I mean, that's a, it's a great hockey club now. And, and the people in New Jersey, I mean, they're all, they're all pumped about it. It's great to see in this area,

all, all three teams are doing well and growing up in the tri-city area that's hockey's hockey's that much better when all everyone's doing well for sure so you know looking at the the devils and your past relationship there and with other nhl teams and all that i'm curious about what it is you see yourself doing the next little bit because i see the spit and chiclets guys do you have any interest and you see what they're doing and be like boy i should be media. I should be telling stories and making money like those guys. Well, no, every time I talk to you guys or any guys, I'm like, why aren't they doing that? I do it way better than all you guys.

No, no. Straight up. No, that's fine. And the best part was it took you guys a year for me to be back on. But, you know, that's a testament to Nick kiprios because at the same time you can't say no to kipper oh man you guys called me you guys called me and it's like i can you know i can act whoever i want but there's still certain guys in the league that always always were great to you it's a you know nice to ever you guys asked me to be on it's like come on like you know it's

nick kiprios he was always uh he's still a New York Ranger legend. Oh, my God. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, Kibrios needed that. He needed that. I'm speechless right now. And by the way, you can come and take this job,

and I will start every interview I do from this moment on forward with, well, golf ended last week. So, I mean, yeah, you know. What else do I that's that's where i'm at i want that life go go that's what i want the problem is you guys actually do your jobs really well and uh people don't realize that it's like hey if you're gonna you're gonna talk about it you gotta know it and you got you know it's just like anything people ask me about hockey and like half the time well i don't really watch it but when i do you know i've done some msg tv and all that yeah i mean it's you do get right back into it in a heartbeat because hey it's the game and that's that's all that matters and one more before i let you go like lula amarillo how would you

describe his hugs is it like a bring-it-in-tight hug? Is it a pulsating hug? Is it a tap-on-the-back hug? Is it a circular rotating motion on your back hug? Important question. Well, first of all, we've all seen The Godfather in Godfather 1 and 2, and this guy is the Godfather. So depending on how I'm playing, depending on how I'm doing,

maybe I need a little emotional pick-me-up or whatever, but the hugs was basically like, yeah, like, you know, like, hey, it's a little pat, whatever. It was mad respect for the man. Yes, for sure. As much as all of us that played for Lou, it's a love-hate.

I mean, you know... But you win championships. It's a love-love. Exactly. But at the same time, it's still this day where it's like people are shocked. Yeah, he's an intimidating factor. There's no question about it.

But, yeah, when we see each other, it's still, hey, I had to hug you. I had to hug you back then after I got my ass chewed out. I'm going to hug you the same way. We haven't played. But, yeah, no, he was – the guy's scary, man. There's only two guys. I think I hugged Pat Burns once, and that was an uncomfortable hug. Like, that was, when you hug Burns for the first time,

and that's after we won the cup. It still was like, man, that guy doesn't hug people. Well, we love having you on the show, man, talking Lou all day long. Go, go. Thanks for doing this, man. All right, alright guys no problem anytime the legendary New Jersey devil Scott Gomez

you hug any GMs in your time uh yeah I Stanley Cup win yeah you're hugging everyone that's basically it no hugs anywhere else no I can't did he mention Pat Quinn

Pat Burns Pat Quinn my dad used to talk about him as being the most scary it no hugs anywhere else no but i can't he mentioned did he mention pat quinn did he have burns oh pat burns but i just say pat quinn my dad used to talk about him as being the most scary intimidating man but i um i played in vancouver one night and i kind of hit one of his players greg adams pretty good player for him yeah you know he lives in colonna now i took his knee out and uh then i had gino o Ojek chase me around the whole night. And then the game's over, and it's the old Coliseum in Vancouver. And, you know, we go, you know, to the goaltenders, you know, and then we start working our way back to the bench to leave.

And Pat Quinn's just standing there. And he's hairy eyeballing me. And I go back again. And I tap everybody on the shins. And I'm going to look over. And he's going to be gone. And he's still right there sending me laser beams. And I know, like like now I'm nervous.

It's Pat Quinn, and he's pissed off at me. I know it. And I wait for the last guy now. I used to tap him on the shin pads, and I'm like, he's not going away. So I went back to the dressing room through the Zamboni entrance. That's great. I never had to deal with him. My dad tells a story about him coaching the Kings,

and he's mad between periods, and he grabs a Gatorade jug, throws it, you know, he's all angry, and it lands, and it blows up. It was full of Gatorade. Like, you know those giant whatever? And he would just, just a big, strong dude, just toss it like it's nothing. Very intimidating. Very strong.

Didn't sound like a fun guy to play for all the time. But a good man it sounds like off the ice. A very big part of my loving the Toronto Maple Leafs is Pat Quinn. When I was in my most loving era of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey he was the coach

and GM which is insane to think back on. That was a role, coach, GM. Love it. Just a big teddy bear in so many ways. Oh, yeah. Had his cigar. Yeah. Just old school.

Coach GM makes sense, though. You know, you can see who works, who doesn't, who you do want, who you don't want. You get rid of the ones you don't want. Lack of cohesion between those two roles sometimes. What else came out of the BOGs? I used to cover this once upon a time. I was going to say, yeah, like, was this the plum deal?

Go down there and golf the whole time? No, no, no, no. Has any reporter ever got any interesting piece of info? It is, and I remain, one of the biggest media scams going. And God bless them for going down there and reporting. And I don't know if you watched Elliot or anyone else. The whole key for the Elliots of the world or the Draegers or whoever's doing it is whatever comes out of your mouth, you just have to look like it's the most important thing you'll ever report

your whole life. And if you can pull off the mannerisms, you can make anything sound super important. It's the pause, the tilting of the head, maybe a little squint in the eyes. Salary cap

is not going to go up. Salary cap is not going up. up. The salary cap is not going up. They're not serving scrambled eggs tomorrow. And if you can do that, you can take three days off to enjoy yourself in 82 degree weather. Oh, that sounds great. Yeah.

And you play golf. And like, what's going, no, there's no golf. You have to stand around. That's the only thing that kind of sucks is that everybody's poolside. You got families down there, young kids running around, sand flying everywhere. But you're in a shirt and tie. You know what I got to tell you is it seems like the perfect setting.

I hate the hockey wardrobe, the hockey man wardrobe where everyone's in khakis and a tucked in golf shirt. I just cannot wear that look. And if you ever go into the hotel lobby of those events, it's just tucked-in golf shirts. Khakis and tucked-in golf shirts everywhere. And the other thing, too, is, you know, I mean, I don't want to give away all these trade secrets here,

but, you know, any news that comes out is coming from the league, right? Well, that's the thing. No one is discovering. It's whatever they tell you, you're just going to kind of reiterate anyway. It's a collective, here's the news you need to know. And I think the latest was that there were 20. We're also just jealous, which is why we're being haters. No, we're not. I'm jealous because I'd like to go back there.

Yeah, once. You should go once. But I read a report there, or I saw a report, there's 20 bidders now for the Ottawa Senate. 20. I'm like, that's a lot of bidders. A lot of billionaires out there. I'm not sure. Could there have been 20 total people

between all the groups? Could there have been 20 inquiries? The same way I go to Tiffany's and ask what the most expensive ring is just to find out? Are there 20 people willing to stroke a check for a billion dollars right now in today's market like i don't know if anybody's seen the whole financial picture a little a little volatile right now yeah so i don't know whether there are 20 legitimate i would say that's a very big number doesn't it feel like whoever does win ryan reddles

is going to be their gritty they're going to have the mascot front and center no disrespect to ryan reynolds by the way i'm not sure hey he's going to be a part of whoever wins more handsome than they will work your ass off ryan all i know is they will work your ass off predictions for tonight quickly i don't know what do we got look for the leafs and the ducks overtime overtime have you got them by five i'm gonna say seven one leaves matthews gets four goals ah i love it wow honestly don't it's not that unrealist okay our thanks to the scotts scott niedemeier scott gomez, and Kelly Rudy. We're back tomorrow. Give us a rating, a review. Hit the thumbs up button on our YouTube channel.

That always is a help. Stay safe, everyone. We'll talk to you tomorrow.