Real Kyper & Bourne - Another Date in a Gold Medal Game for Canada

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee on the Friday edition share their reactions to Canada Men's Hockey edging out Finland to reach another Gold Medal game behind Nathan MacKinnon's go-ahead goal, Macklin Celebrini's increased play around the puck, Sam Bennett's early collision with goalie Juuse Saros, selling high-stick calls, Teemu Selänne speaking out on the officiating and if there was potential goalie interference in the game-tying goal. Then, Sportsnet's Sean Reynolds, live from Milan, jumps on (27:05) to chat about how head coach Jon Cooper has adjusted his lines without their captain in the lineup, the increased physicality from the Canadians, and if there's a chance to see Crosby in the Gold Medal game. 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.

We are still 40 minutes away in a semi-final game before getting our dream matchup between Canada. Slovakia. And the U.S. Sunday morning. Welcome to the Real Kipper End Born Show. Jake the Snake Shultz, Derek Brandeow upstairs, pushing all the right buttons. Nick Kiprio's Justin Bourne.

Sammy McKee. We're live on Sportsnet 360, 590, the fan in Toronto and streaming on Sportsnet Plus. Also available Spotify, Apple Podcast. and YouTube. Nathan McKinnon scores with less than a minute to go to complete the comeback

and send Canada to another gold medal Sunday. They're making it interesting, aren't they? If John Cooper said they needed some adversity or whatever, boy, they've gotten their fill, but feels pretty good to pull through it twice. A close game that needed, as we said, a goal with less than a minute to go,

but it just had a different vibe been a different feel from that check check yeah yeah at times this thing was the ice was tilted yeah the chequia one was near disaster you lose that game it just didn't it was that was ugly they played very well today finland their problem was scoring the second goal too early in the game because you know once they got up two you know the plan is just to sit back and park the bus but you can't park the bus for 40 minutes or however long it was 30 something so i mean you were on your best behavior during the chat. There was nothing that remotely made you nervous,

nothing that made me feel like I needed to check up on you. His mic is not working on account of... There we go. You just got to turn it on. No, I was hitting the button. It wasn't working. Somebody upstairs did something magic and it works. Yeah, I...

You felt a lot better. Well, if I wasn't... If I'm being honest, I was doing some self-reflecting on my reaction. during games. And I thought to just maybe put the phone down a little bit and just kind of watch what I'm watching. But yeah, I thought the Finns, like you mentioned,

they just stopped playing hockey way too early. But you know what? Today was the first day, to your credit, I can ever remember you in a close or tie game where your team's involved. You actually tweeted something positive. Like you felt the Finns were... Well, I just said that they got to start playing hockey.

Yeah. Like they just... I think you nailed it saying they scored too early. Yeah. But imagine that scoring too early in a game. No, they needed that second goal like early in the third. I was going to say it was like 13 minutes left to the third pair or something for them to go up to, but it just felt that they were just handing the puck back.

And if you're playing against Switzerland, if you're playing against a lesser team, that plays. But when you're playing against these collection of men, probably shouldn't give them the puck so much. I think what's scary when you're Canada in these games is the opposing team and checking, at this and Finland backs off so much. Kind of play like an 05, no 4 check sort of thing. And that means you're not going to get around them. You're not going to get to the net.

They're back there. So what do you have to do? Use the room above them and shoot from the point. And that involves some luck. So you knew it was going to be a shooting gallery. Just were they going to find one, tip one in, find a way Theodore eventually gets one. But, you know, it's an awful lot of Travis Sandheim and, you know, Canada's D getting touches in the offensive zone today.

Yeah. I didn't feel stressed, but now that I'm thinking about it, it was closer maybe than I think. No real surprise when I think within an hour they made it official or even a little before that. No Sidney Crosby. I think the majority of minutes,

I have not gone through the stat sheet with great details, but it looked like Nick Suzuki picked up a few of those minutes. Yeah, he didn't get as much, actually. He played 14, though, which is more than he had been playing for sure. I'd say the guy who didn't play much at all. Sam Ryanhart only had six and a half minutes in the game. But yeah, I think they just spread the minutes out fairly evenly.

Interesting enough, they went to that line of Wilson, Bennett, and Marshan in the third. And they were effective. They were very effective. No question. Brad Marchand's best look so far in this tournament and appears to be getting stronger as we go into Sunday as well. So that should be a good sign. had some speed. He actually had some pace to his game. Drove to the net. Yeah. Which, uh, which looked really good. Fascinating.

Top time on ice guy for the Canadians today. Maclin Celebrini played 25 and a half minutes. And also the shots later. Celebrini had eight shots on goal to say nothing of a few from the slot that just missed the net. He's just never not around the puck. Oh my God. There's just never a shift where you're like, where is he? Right. He's pounding. If I know where the puck, is, I'll know where Sellebrini is. It's crazy. There was a couple of times he grabbed the puck and C.C. was like, and 90s, you know, McDavid has it or whatever, because he just, it seems like he's McDavid at times. And I know he's not there yet, but boy, he's, he's going to get there.

I think he's going to get there. It's hard to quantify a guy that has the puck following him around because I think it's a combination of just being in the right place and hounding pucks and just knowing where it's going to be. But I can't remember a kid this young, feeling like the puck is with him. at all times. Like he had, before they went down and ended up winning it,

he had a chance in the slot where he got tripped a little bit and he was flying through the air and he ripped it. And he almost missed it. He had three or four separate chances to put them ahead or tie the game. He was unbelievable again.

So just really sturdy. You know, a couple times a guy in his way he's able to cross check him down. Even like, you know, the interference penalty he took the game before. He did that several times tonight in a positive way,

getting the guy's lane, rub them out, make sure they can't get through, and just great habits without the puck. I just could not be more impressed with this kid. He's unbelievable. I guess I asked Justin upstairs. I said, what is he going to look like when he's 26 years old? When he grows up?

But he said, yeah, he's going to be going to look like McDavid or McKinnon. You have a pretty good idea of what he's going to look like. Yeah, the guys is playing with. In about 20 minutes, we'll welcome in Sean Reynolds from Milan. He'll join us. He's already done a great job for us this week. week and sure appreciate his time. And of course on every Friday, most of them anyways,

when we can get them off the golf course out of the pool, Doug McLean will join us at the top of the hour. Yeah, looking forward to that. One of the themes, I don't know if you guys were online at all, but like, you know, commercials, I'd be on there, intermission, seeing what people were saying. One of the themes of this game was people talking about what Canada didn't have. And I noticed them not having point in Crosby,

but to their credit, those were guys they picked and wanted to be there. There's a lot of people talking about, boy, it'd be nice to have Schaefer. It'd be nice to have Bouchard, guys who can make plays happen from the back end. One of the things, if we go back to the original announcement of the lineup, no Sam Bennett. I think we were all in agreement that that wasn't a good thing for Canada. No. We watched them today take a typical play that we've seen multiple times over. his career,

uh, turned into a power play goal for, for Finland. And there's a real fine line on what he did in terms of how it could have potentially shaped this game. Yeah. He did that. He's like, that's a penalty?

Yeah. I know, that's ever happened before to me in the NHL. I can do that every game in the NHL and get away with it. You referenced a great tweet, which is me sewing. Ha ha, ha, F. Yeah. Yes. Me reaping. Well, this.

suck. But you blinked and it was like, oh, that was a costly penalty. Yeah. You couldn't get out costly penalty fast enough off that face off. Yeah. The puck sat flat on the rant and his blade. But that's what we, that was knowing what we were getting ourselves into by having a Sam Bennett.

And we were all comfortable with it. And still am. They kept putting him over the boards and he was very good in the game. just, hey, deal with it. And ultimately, you hope you lost the battle, but you can still win the war. And I think that's what happened. But like, that's the danger still of having that guy in, in the lineup is that, you know, what are the different scenarios that can happen here? Like, if Soros tweaks a knee and leaves the game, like now you're looking at a possible suspension for Sunday, not only just the penalty, but like, that's the fine line there.

Can I, this is the last time, you'll probably hear this, in defense of Sam Bennett, in the defense of Sam Bennett, he clearly has a reputation. He was clearly going to the net. Let's just say with not the best of intentions. But his Florida Panther teammate got underneath him and took him off stride, rode him in, and he went off his feet. Like he wasn't, I don't think he was going in there with the first intention to blast him. But the green light got half.

Soros is one of the guys that could beat you single-handedly today. And I'm okay with it. I'm okay with Sam. Timing-wise, it was not terrible. Like if you're going to do it, make it early, you know, try to get him off his game. You just live and die with a decision, right? You just live and die with his decision. And most often in his career, it's actually turned out okay for him.

And that's what you just hope today. There's an old Kobe Bryant story about playing in the Olympics. and one of his Lakers' teammates is on one of the international teams. And he says to his teammates on USA, you know, I'm going to get this guy to set a screen on me and I'm going to run right through him to show you guys who's team I'm on. Cal Gasol. I'm not about the Lakers here.

I'm team USA. He runs through Gasol's chest, sets the tone. Seeing Bennett go through Mikala early in the game, you know, I know they got scored on, but I didn't hate it. I didn't hate the tone it's at. And Canada was super physical. Wilson was all over the body. He actually said he let the check.

off the hook in the previous game and you felt like he got away from his game there. Yeah. I thought Tom Wilson was very impactful tonight and him and Bennett. Yeah. I do think the tone that you're setting is that we needed to get to the guy that could hurt us the most and respect Ranton in and a few other guys on that ice. But Soros was the only one that you needed to bend a break. It was actually all Panthers on the penalty sheet today. Lundel took a high stick.

Mika had the high stick at the end of the game. Bennett ran the goalie. It was like a playoff game broke out over there, except they actually got called for stuff. Lundel led them with five shots today. What did you think of the call? So two calls. Timu Solani took to Twitter today

and was like hard enough to beat the greatest hockey nation in the world when you also have to beat the refs. He thought the high stick on McKinnon was not a penalty. Love you, Timu. First off, love him sticking up for the Finns. He took a stick in the chip. It's a high stick. I would be saying the exact same thing if it was some guy who did it to a Canadian.

I'd be like, yeah, I mean, you got to snap the head back like that. You got to act like you got shot. If that's reversed and Canada's getting that, I'm going ballistic. Think so? Yeah. I am. He hit him in the face with hockey sticks. I know.

I know. But that. It's like a puck over the glass. That one, you have to have a bit of a grace period to say it's not really affecting anything. Oh, okay. No, we totally disagree. No, no.

It's a non-call for. Oh my God. Yeah, it's a non-call. Okay. No, it's a non-call. I'm letting that one slide. If that is against Canada, you're just saying that for the sake of saying.

No, I'm not. Yes, you are. He, Nate sold it. It was a non-call until Nate snapped his head back, Sam. Yeah, you got hacked in the face with a stick. We do not agree. He sold it.

He sold it. I think all the things are true. Okay. And I'm just saying that if that was reversed on Canada, I would be sitting there like lambasing the official on it. You know, I don't want. that call to decide the game.

I don't want that call. I think it's like puck over the glass. First period. You cannot hit someone on the face of the hockey. That's it. But that's not it. That's not it. We know in the first period.

So if he shot it over the glass, like, ah, it's too close a game. You can get away with it in the first period to set a tone, but not to decide a game for me. I get the frustration in it, but to me, to me, now, I will say. Maybe they should have attempted a shot with the last.

If you get a stick near your face, it's reaction to whatever. However, the Kinnon definitely. calls his own penalty a bit, which is fine. That's the right play. Listen, it's... Soccer players get calls. I've sold...

It's in our DNA. The Canadian way is do whatever you... Do whatever you have to win, okay? And Nate did it. Snap his head back, got the call. I'd fight my mom to win another. I have no issues with that at all. I've done it in my career.

You embellish. You sell. You sell a call. Nate did it to perfection. Yeah. But to decide a game on a medal in a semifinal in a corner on a nothing play to me, I would have let it go. I personally would have let it go.

So then they get the goal challenge for offside. I thought as soon as they were challenging it, oh no, it definitely is coming back. And watching it, if there's no call on the ice, I might call it offside. But you can't overturn that. It's not definitive enough to overturn it so it has to stand. Do you guys think it was offside or not? I'm totally okay with... You got to let it.

Yes. You have to prove that it's offside. Yes. Okay? No conclusion. Not the other way around. You have to prove that it was offside. They couldn't do that.

As much technology as we think that they have now to make these calls, it's nothing more than just a sequence of still shots. Yeah. going, okay? So it's just one still shot after another. And there's a, there's a time gap on it.

And that's where, like, you just, you're in a gray area. One second, the puck's on one side, the next thing, it's in and everybody's feet are okay. And then there's that gray area

between these still shots that you don't know. No. You don't know. No. And there's more technology along the ways. But I saw people say they shouldn't have even challenged because of what you're saying.

But to me, you're not going to go score. Very unlikely. You're never going to overturn that play. Although, although with what, six seconds left, all picks up the puck with the shoulder dropped. I was like, oh my God, what happened here? But, yeah, I also think the factor of them not going to Toronto or them not going somewhere where there's a hundred people looking at these screens pouring it over.

It's just the two guys You're like, yeah, I've got to check the iPad. Do you want to publicly admit we got that wrong or no? Why don't we don't? I mean, there's I guess one NHL official and another one I don't know where he's from. There's two Canadians. There's two Canadians? For the refs.

Druny and Dwyer. No, no, but it's the linesman's call. Yeah. Right? Yeah. So I don't know who the second guy was. I know one was in NHL who's got ample experience in this. Yeah, so the reps were actually Furlatt and O'Rourke,

and it was Ryan Daisy, who's American. Yes. and Albert, anchor, yeah. Albert, sorry, pal,

but like you're listening on this play. And that's the guy that called the horrible offside call earlier when the pub, when they had a chance to go three on two in the zone.

Wilson makes a play to turn it over, Canada, they call it offside. These guys, especially our guys in the NHL, they're good. I actually think, oh, here we go.

Oh, I'm with. Kippy League office. Here comes Kippy League office. They're good. You know, for the most part, they're good. How many, how many, how many times do they have to either call offside or wave it clean in a hockey game? How many times do they get 40?

40, 50, 50, 60, I think. They're not often wrong. No. I actually think sometimes they let it go now more than they used to just because they have the option to challenge eventually. Totally. I don't look at it in video. I'll let it go and figure it out later. The other sort of, the other sort of big thing from the game,

I guess would be the goal to tie it, Shea Theodore, after the great shift by the Wilson-Marshan Bennett line. Marchand falls into Soros, gets helped in there. There was some thought that they were going to potentially challenge it. Did you guys think it was goalie interference? A thousand percent not goalie interference. And one of their guys, who was it, who was so outspoken about it? I got it here somewhere.

They would have lost that challenge by a country mile. Joel Armia, after losing the Canada in the semifinal, five on five, they got one goal. That was goalie interference. I mean, five on five, you got no goals. So. I thought my shan actually tried to get out of their way. Yeah.

Got out of the way. The only thing Soros could do at that point is embellished the contact and quit on the play. Stay down. And stay out of it. And he would have got the whistle. I'm telling you, it would have been incidental contact, face off in the corner. Let's move on. But he had time to recover.

Yeah. And that's the only thing that they would look at. It happens in the NHL as well. Okay, we know there's contact, but did it hurt you to recover and get a chance to stop a puck? And that was clearly the situation here. You had a chance to recover, pal. You know, as we go through this tournament and just like, intermittently tying things to the Leafs.

It's fascinating watching the guys that the team Canada has on the back end who are not offensive guys and how good they are offensively. Like Travis Sandheim, I know he's not a pure defensive defenseman, but good touches. Like, say what you want. It was his best game today. Yeah, you want Bushard, you want Schaefer. I did too. But Sandheim, he was great today.

You know, like I thought he played a nice game for them. So these guys, as long as they play well, they're okay. I don't think they have to. The only ones that need to look like a star is Macar. That's it. But nice to have Theodore heat one up there. God does he ever. Heard must have had eight shot attempts today too.

Yeah. And there's a lot of controvers about Brad Marsham being there. And if he was hurt, going into it. And just, you know, sometimes having him out there earlier in the game, I'm like, we're really doing this right now at this tournament. And then when it gets down to like these big moments in the game, little guy gets underneath, fights to the net, falls into the goalie, in the paint,

celebrate it's just like, that's why he's there. It's this unquantifiable. You can't teach dog, man. He's just a dog. He is. The Florida thing. It is.

Wow. I'm not going to give him credit for Mershan. He's a brewing. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, I'm not going to give him. So we got the, we got the screen on here.

Got Slovakia in the States. States up two Zips. Slovakia on the power play. Asking questions here a little bit. But it really looks like we're. It's happening. We're barely. towards.

But I will say, I asked you today, do you want Slovakia to win? You said you don't. You want to see it. You get this far. Oh, no, no. It's like, it would be incredibly disappointing, I think, for the Canada, Slovakia. USA and the interest.

The sport. You want the two best matchups. How do you think Sweden feels today watching this? Yeah, could have been a path to the gold medal game for sure. But it's just the margins are so thin in these things. things, right? Like, we want best on best. You wanted it.

That's all you've asked for for 12 years. Yeah. And that's what you want Sunday morning. Yes. And I. Doug Ford saying they're opening bars at six for the 810 game. That's good. Well, that's a man who knows you got to get a little glow on before puck drop.

But the Finland lost their first game, right? To Slovakia. And that's basically set up the whole bracket. Mm-hmm. Right. So, I mean, if they lose that game first, then maybe Sweden's playing in this game here. Right. But now, maybe they would have lost anyway.

So much on attention on Celebrating, warranted beyond belief. Connor, exactly, with all the records and the points, once again, setting up the game winning goal. But Binitin's right there, boys, as being an MVP for this team so far. Absolutely. And once again, just this portrayal of being calm

and it doesn't look like his heart rates up, but he knows he can't give up the third goal. And I think it was Sebastian Ojo in the slot with about six or seven minutes to go where it's just like boom, boom, save. He's at the top of the paint. He got there before the puck's even released. There's no net to shoot at.

And it's like, that's how you build a reputation for not the amount of saves you make, but the ones that you make at the right time. He's also just hyper-present. Like there's a moment where a Finland player is coming in on him and he's going to play the puck and clear it and he recognizes he's got nothing. And as a wherewithal, the drop the stick, grab and pick it up,

get a whistle. End of the game, he's got a puck in the glove. He's got the wearwithal to try to toss it out and, you know, the ref quick whistles him. Oh, dirt play on that, too. Just hack out his legs, yeah. But, like, you know, he's just so aware of game situation. that you feel comfortable with a lot of the reeds.

And, I mean, he's, he certainly answered every question so far. One more to go, but. It feels like the biggest hurdle yet. But, yeah. God, I'd be revisiting a few teams after this thing's over for him. I think a few teams should be revisiting. If he's good in a final game, it does change St. Louis's options. I'm sure they're going to get a lot more interest.

Jesus, I tried to grease boldie. Oh, kind of. there. But this jersey matchup, two beautiful sweaters, kits, whatever, not good together. This is, they're wearing the same jersey. It kind of looks like an intra-squad game. It does. Where the one squad is much better than the other one. Right. A little upside inter-squad game. McDavid, that sauce at the end there. You know, I was saying to Sam before the game. The Oilers, not that much better than your average team in the league. He just does stuff like that. Like, just landed a flat. I thought it was like, like, McDi-

It's a dry side, albeit with a right-handed shot. You think Nate's sitting there going, oh, my God, if I had this all season long, could I not score 80 goals? Yeah, I mean, that play, he just calms it down so much. He's up to 13 points now in five games played. His 13 points are the most by any player through the first five career Olympic appearances with NHL players. I had a Marion Hosa who had 12 and finds the five games. And it feels like 13's the least amount he could have. Yeah.

With some bounces he could have 18. He's just, he is incredible watching Jack Hughes be, or sorry, Quinn Hughes be that guy for the Americans right now. As you mentioned earlier, Sam Reinhart with only, what, a little over six minutes. Glutched up. It just takes one, right? Yeah. Yeah, the Kail McCar shot tipped.

Mike Johnson made a good point that he's like on the other side of the pile. I don't even know if he meant to tip that one, but wasn't even looking. Stick in the right spot. I know a few have been critical. I know you said, are we letting Sam off the hook a little bit for his play? The one thing I want to remind people, again, is a guy like Sam Ryan Hart has probably averaged the last four years,

92 games a season. Yeah. And if you took a few guys off of Team Canada, maybe Tom Wilson or Suzuki, that in four years is like playing another season of games. Like at some point, maybe you got to catch a few of these guys, maybe a little bit of a break. Yeah, and there's a dozen of them in the tournament.

Like, does Benna get a break in Marchand get a break in Lundel? It's just a lot of hockey. It's a lot of high, intense hockey, minimal time to recuperate in the summers. I mean, like, God, I mean, I love him. I love Sam Reinhart. But when you think about the amount of high-level games as this guy's played in the last little while, you're like, wow.

And he's good enough to still make a great play with one shift, right? And he made a good play at the end of the game when they ended up going up. He's on the ice there. And it's right behind the net. It's a subtle little play. But he just pokes it just enough to advance it, which then it goes around and ends up on 97 stick.

And then it's in the back of the net pretty quick when McKinnon shoots it in. Yeah. We should go to break, get to Sean Reynolds. Oh, what are you going to say? Go ahead. Oh, no. We got game time at the top of the hour, right? Second hour.

About an hour of time. Okay. All right, let's take a quick break. When we return, we'll go back to Italy. Sean Reynolds, Sportsnet Reporter. Well, join us next when we return to Real Kipper and Bourne. The best Blue Js show out there, period. Blair and Barker.

Be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you Get your podcasts. Nick Caprio's Justin Born. Sammy McKee. A reminder at the top of the hour. Doug McLean will be joining us. And also we're going to do texts. Right, Sammy?

Send him in now. Text 59590. Olympic Tech. Olympic text. NHL second, or I guess second half. Stretch run texts. Whatever you want, text. Mountaineering text.

Mountaineering text would be great. Cross-country skiing text. Let's bring in Sean Reynolds, who's covering the Olympics for us. Can we call them exclusive now? Sean, how are you, my friend? I'm doing great. How are you guys? We're good, we're good. So I'm sure you're covering the second game here,

so we won't take up too much of your time. But overall, just the vibe today going into this. It was a close game, of course, with a late goal by Nate, but it just didn't come across as a tight scoring game when it comes to the, feel of the play, right? Yeah, yeah.

Well, like to start off the vibe, the vibe is popping outside the doors there in the arena because the Americans are popping off. I think it's 4-0-0. Just as we were coming to you guys, two quick goals. So they're playing Freebird in there, and it feels like a little bit of a coronation in there right now. Felt a lot different in that Canada game. I mean, a really, really tight audience, two games in a row.

And a lot of, you know, nervous Canadian fans is. as it was so tight, and you're right, it really felt like a game that was Canada's for pretty much the last two periods. But because they got down, because the fins are so good at holding on to the lead, just some really, really tight moments. They're interesting talking with the players afterwards. They admitted to being a little tight against the checks in that game,

said there was no tightness on the game tonight. They just felt like they were doing so well. They were doing everything they could. The game was eventually going to break in their direction. That's what ended up happening. But boy, oh boy, I'm sure folks at home, they were a little tight with that one. Sean, you get a much better sense for what works, what doesn't in these close games. When you see what John Cooper goes with, you enter in the tournament with ideas and lines.

What have we learned about what he's going to go with when the games are close and they really matter? Yeah, I mean, he's kind of true. tried different things so far. Definitely, I mean, he's still looking at if he needs a goal, he's going to put McKinnon with McDavid and Sellebrini. I thought that that was really important that they found the Sam Bennett, the Tom Wilson and the Brad Marchand thing in that last game because it gave Canada, I felt a little bit of an element that it really hadn't had up into this point. You know, they've got those kind of grinder-type players. They wanted Tom Wilson on that top line to bring that little bit of an edge to that top line. And

but they hadn't really condensed it into one overarching super tough line yet. And that was key in the game tonight. So I think he likes what he's found if Crosby's not coming back into the game with Nick Suzuki on that line with Martyr and Stone. What's not to love about three of the top four scoring players in the NHL on your top line. But having that third line element now with one game left to go and not, you know, there's only so much. to go around. You know that McDavid's line is going to get a ton of it. But to have that third line that can set the table, that can go out and grind and set the table for the guys on the next shift, kind of established a little bit of a pattern. I think that was important. You know, if Canada

does win in the gold medal game, increasingly looking like it's going to be against the United States, I wonder how much of a role it will play to have finally kind of found identity on the top line, identity on that Crosby slash Suzuki line. but now a little bit of a grind that I thought had been missing from their game. You're watching and listening as Sean Reynolds, Sports Night Reporter in Milan covering the Olympics. So no Crosby, still world-class talent, as we can see with McKinnon and McDavid and McCar. But this one today had a little bit of Florida Panthers playoff recipe with the likes of Bennett going into Saros and Marchand jumping over Saros on a goal here. these guys brought an element that we kind of felt all along

if they were going to be on the team. This is what it was going to look like. Yeah, and it's what it was going to take on this night because UC Soros was brilliant. And I thought that the, you know, the Finns were doing a really great job of Ben not break. And I thought what it did was there was a lot of times that Canada would break into the zone

and they'd fire the puck on net, which I think was working against them because it was giving Saras, Saros a feel for the puck. But it was keeping the Canadians from kind of like setting up and grinding and forcing the Finns to make mistakes. And I thought that was just because of the Finns great play. Like it almost felt like the Canadians were in a spot where they thought they had to take

every chance they could get to get it on net because the Finns weren't really letting it in there. So I thought it was fitting that that line goes out and gets that kind of goal. The kind of you're talking about Brad Marchand right in Saros's kitchen kind of falls on him, gets off of them. It had that Florida Panthers feel because it was going to take grinding your way to the front of the net to make something happen because really you could pass it around all day. Seros, if he could see it, he was going to stop it. And the Finns were doing a really good job of keeping the Canadians to the outside. So it was necessary to go to that style.

So looking forward a little bit, tell me about our injury status. We're not sure about Crosby, Morrissey. I think McKinnon is still limping around. Marchand looked better. What do you see and what do we know? Well, what I see is Nathan McKinnon when he's walking through the mix zone here does. So kind of looking like an 80-year-old man and he's been doing it since the beginning. Like he came into this tournament moving like that.

I think what I've been seeing from him on the ice is that it's affected him. Clearly, when there's optional skates, he takes the option to not be on the ice. But I also saw that he seemed to be a step above in this game today compared to some of the games that we've seen from him earlier in this tournament. So hopefully that's something for Canada that's rounding into form. Crosby, we know that he skated earlier today. He had pucks out on the ice. He was shooting puck.

So it's not just one of these things where he's getting out on the ice and kind of giving it a go. He's at least putting it a little bit to the test, which makes, you know, I think Canada a little bit hopeful. I can't tell you what's going on with Josh Morrissey. The one thing I know is he was knocked out of that game. And it looked, you know, by every measure like he was going to be back in. He was practicing in a full team practice.

He was taking his rushes alongside Colton Pereko, who was his partner at the start of this tournament. It was his partner at Four Nations. And then all of a sudden, he wasn't in the lineup. So I can't think unless John Cooper is trying to play some kind of head games where he's trying to, you know, I talked about galaxy braining the last time I was on the show. He's trying to galaxy brain the teams he's playing against by practicing with Josh Morrissey and then taking them out. I can only think that there was a little bit of a backslide with whatever he's been dealing with here. But it's going to be interesting.

It's going to be what we're talking about heading into this final game to see who's available. Because I know John Cooper had said they wanted to try like heck to make sure that that one game was not Sidney Crosby's last Olympic hockey game. If he's not playing in the final, it's going to be a very, very good chance that that was the case. Sean, just for some clarity, was it open to watch sit on the ice or was it closed? It was closed. It was closed. It was just the report from hockey Canada that he was on the ice with pucks. Is that the only information we had?

Yeah, hey, hey, I can't give up my sources here, guys. What I want to know is, did anybody see him? Did anybody watch him turn? Did anybody see him, you know? Handled the puck. Yes. And how did it look? Yes, yes, exactly.

He was, I mean, it looked like he was out skating and he was shooting pucks. Like, I don't know. I don't want to give away too much, but we know he was on the ice. We know he was skating. We know he was shooting pucks. I can't tell you if he did a pirouette out there, Kipper or anything like that. Did he land the quad? Did he look like he could play?

It's that time. Did he look like he could play? I mean, if it looked like he could play, I'm sure he would have been in the game tonight. Or if I was being told that it looked like he could play, then clearly that was not the case tonight. So I think it's going to be something that we look out going forward here. It's going to keep us in suspense to the end of it. I'm just saying I've got an inkling because he was out, because he was skating, handling, doing his thing.

And the comments that we're hearing from the team about not wanting it to be his last Olympic hockey game. I think, I think, and that's worth absolutely nothing. There's a chance we'll see him in the gold medal game. That means something on our show, I can tell you that. We often clarify, this is opinion. This is purely opinion. Yes, yes. So, I mean, the U.S. are rolling over Slovakia.

It's not a fair fight right now. They're going to be in the gold medal game. That's what we're all waking up for here on this continent, Sunday morning. What have you seen of this American squad? What are we looking at? Do you think it's going to be a low-scoring game? I would think so. I would expect that with the way that the two goaltenders have been playing.

I'll tell you this. John Cooper talked about this game, and he thought the Canadians kind of gave away a couple of goals. He didn't like the goal that Randen and God. He didn't like the time that he had off that draw, world-class player with that opportunity. He didn't like it. He really didn't like the short-handed goal.

And I get the sense in talking with him that he feels like there's a little bit of, you know, the Canadians have been a little loose when it comes to their defending and some of the goals that they've been given up. We haven't seen that from the Americans. Like outside of, you know, that goal that Swayman lets in from Center Rice, which is more fluke than anything else. There hasn't been, in my opinion, a lot of examples of the state's defense faltering. So I think the Canadians, you know, great on them, that they battled back in these last two games. It takes a really good team to do that, to stick with it, to have that belief. I don't like their chances of giving away a couple goals against the Americans and getting back into that game

because the Americans are good enough to go earn a goal or two in the game. So if you're going to give up one, give up two, you're going to put yourself in a bad spot. And their defense has been great. And there's been a couple examples here of teams who have, kind of laid out a bit of a blueprint on how to grind the Canadian team down. I can tell you in talking with the Finns, they were taking lessons from that game against the checks on how they were going to approach the Canadians.

So it's going to be tightened up for the Canadians, kind of stop with the little bit of mistakes that they've been having here and there, a little bit of casualness to their game at times. I don't think there's any room for that playing the Americans, the way that they're playing right now. When you think about like a Bennett, a Marchand, Brady Kachuk. I wish it was the best to say.

The officials and the way they kind of set the tone early on what guys can get away with and what guys can't. We'll play a big part in Sunday morning. A lot of specialties, potentially. It's got a potential to be a three-hour game too, right? I mean, I don't anticipate anybody dropping their gloves. But with the emotions running as high as we think that they can, like, who knows what this game's going to look like?

Well, I think one thing we can take away from, you know, Tom Wilson's situation with France. And even the game, the way it started out here, the way that Slovakia was throwing the body around, you know, this I think has been officiated far closer to NHL hockey, maybe even NHL playoff hockey than what a lot of people were worried that I-IH-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-W would look like. That it was going to be, you know, Tom Wilson. was not going to be able to straddle a line. He'd end up in the box and suspended. And, you know, Brady Kachuk would be all over the place.

Now, it's not four nations where they're dropping the puck and dropping the gloves. It's definitely not that. But this has looked to me like far more of a, you know, playoff style of officiating here. It's not by accident either. And I think it's better that way. Yeah. No, no. But I'm going to tell you something else.

The crowd loves it. Like the international crowd that's in here and that you can see the Slovak or audience when they were throwing the body and going at Brady Kachuk, and man, they were earlier in this game. The crowd loved it. And so, you know, I know skill is something that trumps all. We all love skill. We love that it's not the dead puck era anymore and all those kind of things.

But people, when that fight happened with Tom Wilson, the crowd was going nuts. Okay? It's still people love fighting. I know a lot of people say they don't like it, but go into an arena anytime there's a fight and everyone's losing their mind. Maybe back for the next Olympics? I don't know. I don't know about that, but the rough and tumble brand of hockey that we were seeing earlier in this game and in some of the other games that the refs have been allowing and giving space for, it's being eaten up by the international crowd.

Yeah, the Slovak's greased Kachuk again. They're all over them out there. So I got to know, like, you're there. You're in Milan? I mean, in February, it's not Winnipeg. What's going on there? You guys having a party or the night's fun? What's life like in Milan?

this is like guys it's it's 1045 right now the guys will get off the ice we'll start talking to them then they'll go to the podium which i mean in the case of the canadian women in their semi-final was an hour and a half after they got off the ice and then luke and i got to start taping chats and we got to do stuff for the shows we're getting work work to three a m so so listen listen listen i'm a kind of guy you've heard my reputation i'll get out for a pint when there's time to get out for a pint, but I haven't been that guy very much on this trip. It's been a lot of work, and I will not complain because getting to cover this is absolutely unbelievable. Maybe there will be, you know, with the early puck drop for the gold medal game,

maybe I'll get out and do a little something. Awesome. Sean, great stuff as always so appreciate the effort this past week, man. Thanks for doing this. Oh, hey, guys, it's a pleasure, and I love getting on and talking with you guys. Thanks, John. Appreciate your time, man. Good job. Live from Milan. Yeah, that's quite the schedule he's talking about. They're up late. But I didn't breathe in Vancouver.

Yeah. Every game. You're just game, game. Morning tonight. Yeah. Back home. Like the only time you was when Sid scored the, that's when it was over and you could just. And I know no one cares about this because it's a really cool job.

But they don't get paid any extra, right? Like that's just like you didn't, when you went over there, did you? Kiff, are you kidding me? Kibber got 40 grand a day. No, no, no, no. No, all in. All built in. Yeah, it's all part of the deal. Just go go do it. I mean, a great opportunity.

That's amazing to be over there. What do we anticipate here? A parade to the penalty box Sunday? But I think that's a really important point that both teams are going to want to come out and set the tone. It's going to be Brady and Tom Wilson and

Miller and Trocheck and Bennett and Marchand and like these guys are going to want to put their stamp on the game, but you also can't do the dumb thing that puts your team short-handed. So, Slavkovsky was giving it to his boys for taking a cheap one on Brady there. Like, we're down enough here. We don't need that stuff. I don't know if it was you or Sammy mentioned that if you do decide to go to Sid, is it for 15 minutes, 10 minutes, two minutes, you run the risk of him re-aggraving something

and then sitting on the bench and becoming a cheerleader? Yeah. Is that worth it? For me? Yeah. You have the extra forward. I mean, you've torn your MCL. I've torn my MCL.

I've tried to play hockey. Like, I can't imagine you're just not that effective. You don't have the power to push off. Like, it's not there. So you put a brace on and hope that that provides the stability. I know he's Sidney Crosby. And he just needs a touch in the right spot. And he'll make good plays at the puck.

It's just really hard. hard to be good a few days after doing it. And like I know I get it. It's not an easy call. I hope that he's so, like, he's not hurt badly enough that he can do it. If he's hurt, like I think he's hurt. You run the risk of making it worse and just damaging it. If I may. If I may. There's Pittsburgh involved here.

About the penguins. And I don't know that Sid, he'd prioritize this gold medal game, wouldn't he over that? No, he'd prioritize his health. That's what he would do. Would he? Would he overwinning a gold medal? Last ride? Yeah, listen, I only go,

I can only go by watching his behavior when he was concussed, and it didn't matter whether or not he was going to miss the playoffs or not. He was going to get better. He was going to just look after himself. And I think he wants to play a few more years. Do you run the risk of doing further damage to your knee for another gold medal? He can only answer that. I'm certainly not going to,

but I would think he would, again, be smart enough to prioritize that he wants to keep playing hockey here. I think in the short period. He's able to play. That's the hope for sure. Like, I don't think it's a Matthew Kachuk thing where he's like, I just can't, I got to be there. I got to be on the bench.

I don't think it'd be that. Like, he'd be playing. He'd be smart enough to think that I can contribute. As long as I don't get twisted or turned in an, awkward position, I will be fine. Because if he plays, then Jarvis, Benet plays regardless. It's a tough call.

Like Bennett, of course he's going to go up against the USA. So, yeah. Interesting few days here. I'd play him. Yeah. Like, I think having him on the bench is important for those guys.

I just, you get three or four minutes out of them. You get, how much did Seth Jarvis play today? How much is there... 70%? Their lowest ice time guy, Hagel only played seven minutes, eh? Yeah. I thought, by the way, that draw that

that Randen scores on, that's Sorrelli's draw. Right, if he's there. Like, he's in those moments. A Coop's number one, PKK guy. Point maybe in some of that stuff, too. So it's interesting. Coops, no point, no Sorrelli, and Hagel's playing seven minutes. Meanwhile, he's throwing Marchand over the boards frequently. And that line was,

good. That was the identity line. They just, they, at the end of the second period, I texted you guys. And Sam Bennett and Tom Wilson both laid hits in the last 10 seconds of that period. That would send a mere mortal to the grave.

Yes. They hit two guys so hard at the end of that period. And ended up in a scrum and Marchand was in the middle there. They just, this care. I don't know. Wilson hit a couple guys so hard. Metamp Apollo behind the net where they slowed it down.

the period. End of the period. It's a nothing play, right? And you're getting crunch. Four seconds to go on the clock. You're like, yeah, no problem. I'm just trying to get a gatorade. That's me on the other side going, why are you doing this?

Yeah. Like, the play's over. Yeah, because I want to hurt you. Leave me alone. Punish. I don't want you to come out next period. That's why I'm doing it. It's getting ready to go back and have a gatorade and got 250 pounds.

It's hammering you into the post. Into the glass. we got the panel going here They were their chat about it on the broadcast at the five The five See Ron McLean throw it to them and said too many men on the panel Yeah Kick Frege off

Yeah, it kicked Frege off Poor Freach Poor Freach Hey, I was getting a bunch of people DMing me and tweeting me About Frege Smoking a Dard after the Chequia game They're like he stole your thing

And I said Smoking of Darts, my thing I like I have become sonnobes Like my mom would be like, well, dart guys at home being like, what are we doing here? I see what I started, you say. If my mom knew that I was synonymous was like smoking a dart, that was like my thing.

But Sunday, it could come out. Oh, buddy. There's big time dart potential. Well, particularly given the time of the game. It is absolutely your thing. Like a noon dart on Sunday. A dart could come out, but you're telling me it's not your thing. It's not my thing.

Oh, no, it's your thing. Spoken to dart after a very stressful event is. not my thing. I didn't invent that. No, you didn't invent it. You invented it on our show. Okay, well, we didn't know it existed. Did you know it existed? I mean, yes.

Asking the wrong guy. He's mixed in a big three dirt. You've done a few more things. A dart. And now I just get to watch Sammy and other people. That's just fine, too. All right. Canada, USA.

We're going to ask Mack about it after the break at his two cents. The Hughes brothers look like they're playing an HL team, which? Yeah, many ways they are. Yeah, there's some guys out there that are probably that level. But I think for Montreal Canadian fans, watching Slavkoski take it to another level,

is a fantastic sign. He has definitely entered a new tier of the elite players in the league. Our thanks to Sean Reynolds from Milan, where Team Canada punched their ticket to the gold medal game. on a goal by Nate McKinnon. Doug McLean, former NHL President, GM and head coach.

Top of the hour. It's off the rails Friday. Stick around.