Real Kyper & Bourne - Canadian Goaltending + McDavid Ramps Up

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Steve Valiquette joins Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne (1:45) to discuss the Maple Leafs' chances to get past Jeremy Swayman without Auston Matthews in the lineup tonight, whether Matthews can get back to his scoring ways when he returns, goalies he's projecting to slot onto Canada's 4 Nations Face-Off roster and the dwindling number of developing goaltenders in Canada. Then, Nick, Justin and Sam McKee chat about Connor McDavid ramping up his recovery, the state of the Pacific Division, the Predators starting to panic and Macklin Celebrini returning for the Sharks.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.

all right let's take a national on the real kipper and born show the kipper is justin boren sammy mckee we are live on sports net 650 in vancouver and sports net 960 in calgary scene coast to coast on your sports net platforms 11 games on tap tonight. Six Canadian teams go at it. Calgary is in Montreal. Vancouver continues their California trip. Ottawa in Buffalo and Toronto in the Boston Bruins. This hour of Real Kipper and Bourne

is brought to you by Bet365. In a few minutes, we'll welcome in Steve Alliquette, analyst for the New York Rangers on MSG and CEO of ClearSight Analytics, which apparently is getting more popular. Yeah, I think he's had a couple of phone calls recently from the NHL. As he continues our Tuesdays here on the show. We got no chance of keeping him all season.

I love watching you guys when i'm on was that doug mclean nope he's gonna he's gonna get too busy for us valley um so ottawa buffalo tonight yeah i think this is a game pivotal game for the buffalo sabers four seven and one they got to find a way to kind of stay close here. Ottawa has done what they've needed to do and show everybody that they were legit in thinking that they're going to play meaningful games in March. How about December? That would be an improvement for Ottawa. That's a foregone conclusion.

Yes. Now it is now. It is now is now okay let's welcome him in steve valiquette from the home office what's up fellas now but hey guys before we start i don't vote until all right so don't oh we're not gonna get the insight on the uh election you're in new york anyway just just stare in the camera and I'll tell you who you voted for. Yeah, right. Hey, is it true now that you walk around New York City

and people are starting to go, hey, isn't that Steve Valiquette from the Real Kipper and Bourne show? That's the guy. I had two run-ins this week and I was so pumped. Okay, the first one one i'm on the ice and i'm training a young goalie this guy comes up to me because he's out there playing some shinny asks if he can shoot he starts taking some shots and he says to me do you think i should score

from here and i said no you got about a four percent chance to score he goes i know i listened to you on kipper and board all right all right there you go all right so where do you want to start here because we got some some pretty juicy uh conversation pieces uh tonight toronto and boston a huge rivalry we know the boston bruins over the years have owned uh the leafs but is there a chance that uh boston could take advantage of a guy like Austin Matthews out of the lineup? I love this matchup because it really gives me the final measuring stick before I place a wager on Boston out. I heard Sammy's line yesterday where I guess it is a pretty decent bet still to see if it is Ottawa in Boston out. Boston right now, guys, if you're wondering how Swayman's doing and what's happening in Boston, most of it is related to the D zone.

And pulled a bunch of stuff here on Boston there. To me, non-playoff, we went back to, I believe it was October 21st when we first started talking about Boston. But listen to this, fellas. East to west in their D zone. They used to dominate. They used to have great sticks. 29th in the NHL in chances against, in east to west chances against in their D zone. They used to dominate. They used to have great sticks. 29th in the NHL in chances against, in East to West chances against,

in their D zone, where they used to be the best. Odd man rushes, 31st in the NHL against. Net front D zone, one of the best. And that was the size that we were talking about that they added to their blue line. So they're still really good at protecting around the goalie, boxing out on shots coming in from the point. But dots down D zone, they've slipped to 10th. But I think the two areas, aside from their offense,

that's really low plus vanilla, they're not a playoff team by any means. I think Ottawa, who I saw last week live at MSG, that dominated the Rangers, they had 40 scoring chances to the rangers 18 if not for shusterkin it was a blowout rangers won 2-1 but i i gotta tell you guys ottawa to me is in all day and all mark and forsberg gonna be enough for that team to get across the line for a long time forsberg i know he had the year that he had last year. Ottawa was in disarray. We can go back and talk about that.

We're not going to go there. Everyone there is looking forward. I love his game, okay, in perspective, Forsberg, for the role that he has with Allmark. What does Allmark need? He needs somebody to be a safety net. Forsberg is a safety net, and he's a quality NHL goalie that can give you big starts when you need them. He's better than playing once every two weeks.

He should get a start a week. I think the way that split should work would be two for Allmark, and then one for Forsberg. Two for Allmark, one for Forsberg, maybe three for Allmark, one for Forsberg, but just keep it going like that, and then Allmark's happy because he gets to oil his Ferrari.

Just a thought on Austin Matthews, not playing tonight, but a slow start. Prior to Conor McDavid getting hurt, a slow start. Is there anything to this, you know, that the data will tell you, or is it just they're just not pumping on all cylinders here to start the season? You know what it is, guys? When you get to looking to some data and you're trying to realize if something's going to pop, you know what I've always seen

is that when somebody gets to expected five goals and they are under, they always break through. And that's where Matthews is right now. At this point last year, he had 13 goals. And he's got five this year with an empty netter. Last year's 13 was all against a goaltender. And he was overshooting his average by seven. So his expected is in the same neighborhood as it is right now after 13 games. And I wouldn't expect it because I remember the Rangers playing Toronto probably third or fourth game of the season.

And he only had three high danger chances. But overall, he's he's met up. And right now he's really where he was last year. But snake bitten, bad luck. You know, what's you know, what's really funny he was last year, but snakebitten, bad luck. You know what's really funny is broken play goals. Broken play goals, those would be the lucky ones, the ones that go off a shin pad and kick to somebody in the back door. Austin had 69 goals last year.

He had 13 broken play goals. The year before, he had 40 goals. He had five broken play goals. This is consistent with Pasternak's career year, Jason Robertson's career year. You can go to Mangia Pani. You can go to Ovechkin's slow start last year. You can always say that broken plays reflect somebody's luck, good or bad. And in career years, guys always have double digits in broken play goals. And that's one thing teams have to guard themselves against.

You don't want to play for broken play goals. You don't want to pay for them because they're not repeatable. Stupid sport. So much luck involved. There is. No, that's legit. There's legit luck there. For sure.

So let's talk about the Four Nations face-off, which is a big deal. Up here, we talk about it, oh, every day. We don't have a goalie, Valli. What's going on? Who's it going to be for Canada in that? Is it Bennington? Well, what I was looking at for you guys was that there are no Canadian goalies, okay?

So in the top 20 over the last three years, you've got Jordan Bennington, and then you've got Logan Thompson and Laurent Bressois. And that's it in the top 20. Boy. That's it. It's thin. It's thin.

So I'd imagine if Aiden Hill gets going here, he could really push for a spot. But it's Jordan Bennington, and then you're really looking for help from those three guys. It would be Aiden Hill, Resuat, Logan Thompson. And sometimes when I'm saying the names, Montembeau and Montenot. Gotcha. Thank you. Yeah, no, I don't think so. I don't think so.

And you know why? Because I just don't think he's going to have enough to carry him through a season. It's tough there in Montreal. The environment that he's in is hard. It's like looking at Swayman today, you wouldn't believe that last year he's at, when you take away all the noise and save percentage, all the shots from the neutral zone and the fluff from the walls and stuff like that, you take it all out and you look at somebody's environment.

Last year, Swayman's environment was 895. And this year it's like 879 you know so you talk about what is boston how does it reflect the goalie oftentimes when you talk to nhl goalies they'll always talk about what they feel what they can see on each shot and swayman's got a very tough environment coming back and obviously being late through training camp, et cetera. Valley, can you pinpoint what happened with Canadian goaltenders over the last five, seven, ten years? Is it just the kids now are listening to their parents when they say, no, no, don't do it?

I would say that there is a theory that's pretty valid with social media. Goaltenders receive the play, right? You can't compare them to a quarterback in football. That's a singular position because they drive play or a picture and pitcher in baseball. The goalie receives play. We just talked about broken plays. You can have a bad run of cards, guys, and doubt everything. And I'm dealing with goalies from the youth level,

through prep school, college, and the NHL, and everybody has a degree of doubt. And when it comes, the lights are bright, and it frustrates people. And you know what's really difficult is explaining to a goalie what a bad goal is right now because of the generations that we're in. And guys, go back and watch some goals from the 80s. And it's pretty interesting because I've been able to get to know Ken Dryden. I coach his grandkids.

And he was telling me about how goalies in his day, the reason why they played a stand-up style was for safety reasons. Because the further you came out, the smaller the net in front of you became so you're out there just kicking them out with your pads rather than being in harm's way in a low crouch and he said as soon as the equipment got better the helmets were safer that's why goalies can back up in their crease and get into a lower stance protect the lower part of the net he honestly said he's like you think that we wanted to stand up it was safety so now when you look at how goalies are playing and overplaying certain situations the injuries i think the stress the pressure i think there's a lot of factors guys and you know an overuse of reverse vh is one of them you know i i do wonder about the future of goaltending and

how many kids actually want to be a goalie. Is Sammy's favorite goalie, Freddie Anderson, like the perfect example of a guy that just once again finds himself on the shelf week to week? Can Carolina get it done without knowing for sure who their number one goalie is throughout the year? You know, and that's why I think coming into this kipper there were a lot of teams i talked to that want to run with four one million dollar goalies you know rather than heavy on one or two guys and

look you could go right to thatcher demko what is vancouver's chance of really making a run without Demko right and three years ago he has a right knee injury that really moves into a left knee injury and now you're hearing reports that he's just going to have to play through it you know and what do you what do you hear when you hear that I hear like good luck you know and and sometimes as I've said on this show, there are guys that don't mind having a couple weeks off here and there just to get a breath of fresh air and just breathe a little bit and let it breathe. You don't think Demko's close? I think Demko's going to be close to trying it,

but is that the best thing for Demko? And I think that's just the way it's going to be for him. He is being, from what I understand and what I'm being told told he's being told that he's going to have to play through it and that never works fellas oh boy never works and you want to talk about you know we're talking about injury now and um long-term health hey how are you feeling about walking down your stairs sideways in your 40s because you know you've got knee replacements and everything there is there is that and I always wonder I mean back to the reverse vh I'm not joking that I think guys are spending too much time in that move you can't do it fellas when I get down on my knees and coach

goalie's doing this it's I can feel it in my hip and my knee and my ankle and I thought from the years of watching him with Ian Clark in Clark's a very demanding goalie coach physically. Saw a lot of side to side, down the knees, hard post to post, in and out, a lot of aggressive movement. And I think that wear and tear, there's an argument there that that was, and you know what the funny thing is

about the reverse VH to me? It's a low danger chance that you're preparing for, a wraparound. Those are low danger chances. Why are we spending so much time in practice on the reverse vh i hope that goalie coaches for for youth especially for the youth kids for the kids through high school and youth hockey don't spend too much time down in that position it's you're protecting you're spending way too much time working on a move that's protecting you against a low danger chance time to start drafting the five foot nine goalie

again that's no solution what is the solution that's what i want to know what's the next evolution if this is kind of players know what goalies are up to now thank you for your uh insight and for my article i just stole everything you said and wrote it well i read the article i thought it was terrific and you know no you know like no i mean you guys are getting a good sense of it it's like uh even watching joseph wall coming back now and the puck goes to the point uh pareko is a right-handed shot but the puck goes through him on a screen and joseph wall now he's had nine screens this year guys he's given up five goals right but is he a bad goalie on screens or is it the three touches

or several seconds before it gets to Pareko that hurt him and in that goal in particular he is in his reverse and by the time he advances up to his feet to get to the top of the crease he's got a screen there but he can't differentiate if he has to look strong side over the shoulder or weak side because he was down before whereas you know you guys know I work with Henrik Lundqvist. We talk about this all the time. There aren't benefits to being down this much. And besides the health, I think you're putting yourself behind a situation. And in this sequence that I'm talking about, Wall gets up and he's looking over the weak side of the shoulder of the screen in front of him. He should be over

the left side, but he's late to see it on his way, transitioning from his reverse to his feet. Now a screen goes through. And again, I don't think he's bad at screens. I just think the work he does before the screen hurts his ability to assess the screen to the best of his abilities. Vali, if we assume that there might be a few teams out there not happy with their goaltending,

that John Gibson would be a name that they would first look at? You know what, Kipper, I don't know about that. I don't know about that. You know, John, he's been for five years really relatively easy to beat on east to west plays. And I wonder about that i i think that he's an easy pre-scout and i think in a big market i don't know if that's exactly what he wants either i think we would have seen him move already up at this point i mean it's been five

years you know i can tell you dostal is the second best goalie right now in the nhl and third best is anthony stolarz shisterkin's number one but the top right now is is dostal so i i'd see gibson for sure being on the move i just i just wonder why he hasn't wanted to move sooner you know why settle in and just but it's nice out there it's nice weather i you know i wonder if you just get a little too comfortable and not responsible enough for me um with the way he plays his game because he's so first-shot focused and not worried, or not focused at all at giving himself a chance to be available on east-to-west plays.

Vali, the other two guys on the show are being mean to me in the first hour because I thought the Leafs should get Joseph Wohl back in some games, find a rhythm again. You know, I know Stolarz is playing very good. Where do you stand on the idea of, you know, of goaltenders who aren't playing well, getting games or sticking with a rotation despite some struggles for one of the guys?

Yeah, no, I looked into that today too, Borny. And one thing that you notice is there is definitely a rhythm to goalies in their 50s, 50 game appearances, 50, 51, 52, 53, having Vezna seasons and still having enough gas to go through a run. Hellebuck plays 60 games, wins a Vezna, is done in the first round, right? But you go back to Shosturkin's Vezna year, he plays 53 games, and I think that's the number.

You know, it's somewhere in around 51, 52, 53. And if you can do that, the physicality of the game, it's just changed, guys. Like, I know I brought this up last year, but 40% more east to west chances over the last five years. Shot quality is up. It's a tougher environment for goalies right now in the NHL. We talked last week about overall save percentage, of course. That's not going anywhere. I mean, every night, last night was one of the first nights

that we've had in a long time where we had two low scores in the games. Every night, big scores. And you know what? Nobody, Kipper, you can speak to this. Nobody's playing the clock anymore. Nobody's playing the score of the game. Everybody's running. It's like I'm watching a lot of games.

I'm like, is there any care at all? Everyone's just running around. You know what I get a kick out of now is that in my day, you pulled the goalie and if you tie it, you tie it. Great. But if you don't, and then they get the insurance, the goalie goes back in and you just go fight another day. Now guys are getting cracks at like two, three, four goals on empty nets.

I'm like, what is going on here? Yeah, it's frustrating for the gambling world. I can tell you that, especially when you're playing unders. You're just going to get smoked. There's been nights here, our company, there's gambling firms that subscribe and you're watching things. I was like, oh, my God. I don't like to gamble because, you know, hey, work hard for my buddy.

But I'd hate to be trying to figure that out because there's no rhyme reason to it. You know, it's, it's, I don't know. It's a different game, guys. I'm trying to figure out hockey every day. And I feel like I'm inching closer, but it's constantly changing. If you've been out of this game for five years, you're coming into a brand new game.

I don't care who you think you are and how much experience you think you have. It's a totally new game. We saw New Jersey give it to the Oilers last night. Any concerns still there in that for the Oilers moving forward for you? Yeah, I think that

until the... I talked to Hank about this and Henrik said the same thing because he covered the final last year. He just said, anything that comes in east to west off the rush, I just don't feel like, you know, Skinner can get around.

But I feel that it's also unfair to him, too. Like, come on. The guy's in a very difficult environment, and it's supposed to be Jack Campbell, and he's supposed to be the guy that's just working his career in. And like we've talked about a little bit, too too is how many goalies are getting games right now beyond where they're really ready. And to answer your question, I think things are going to be

status quo there. You guys asked me last week, who's taken the most bad shots or who's taken the most low danger shots. It's Edmonton. And that's always a sign to me of panic. Just throw it at the net. And you know the message is, and it can really find a way to really break down what you want to do on your team with structure and offensive schemes. Just get pucks to the net. And eventually you're just warming up the other goalie

and it's going to be a long night. But the top three teams and uh low danger shots right now guys are all at the playoffs it's nashville pittsburgh oilers and i wonder sometimes if that's just a remedy for a hot goalie that you're going to get up against it's just the way it is and and same thing on power plays i pulled that as well too because the low danger overall is one thing but the low danger on the power plays nashville's leading the league islanders are next and then boston and you take a lot of low danger on the power play again what are you doing you're putting the goalie into a good rhythm you're putting the team into a good rhythm to get momentum to get out of that period yeah giving up possession too um not possession

so you talked about boston as a team whose uh underlying numbers you don't like edmonton's taking a lot of low-danger shots. Are there any teams on the opposite side of this who the underlying numbers show as being better than maybe their actual results have been so far? That would be a research assignment, Barney. All right. Because I don't have that in front of me.

I missed that one. Yeah, I think once last year I got on my computer while we were talking, I was like, ah, this is not great radio. Yeah, that's definitely one for next week. All right, I'm jotting it down. Yeah, I don't have it in front of me. Just looking at Toronto.

I mean, Toronto at five on five, I think things are going to break for Toronto. I think things are going to break out. I see if I'm a betting guy, I'm probably going to be betting Toronto tonight against Boston. The odd man rush has been the only thing that's hurt Toronto in the league-wide scope of things. 30th off the odd man rush.

You don't want to be 30th off the odd man rush at 5-on-5. But Dodds down D-zone and East-West D-zone much better this year, ranking in the top five. net front, a little weak, but not compared to Boston. I think Boston is,

I think Boston's in trouble. Well, listen, great stuff. Anything else we, you want to cover here? I just want to know if he fixed Gorgiev after our last talk last week, where he,

we had him last in the league in some stats. Is he, things coming around? What's going on? He hasn't played yet. He hasn't played yet. He hasn't played yet, so things stay the same. Things stay the same until you get some games and turn

around, boys. They're getting healthy though, too, right? They're going to get some bodies back. Colorado. Yeah, you know what? Colorado plays right. I've looked into them quite a bit, and I think that their D zone is... It's very good. It's very good. They're going to figure it out.

Nope. I mean, I'm done, boys. The only thing I want here is one note for Sammy. George Peros doesn't hate the Leafs. Very good. I tried to explain that to him. George has got better things to do than think twice

about the Leafs. My point stands. i rest my case great stuff man thanks for doing this as always love your stuff and have a great week okay all right again, I'm not big on analytics, but I find his numbers fascinating. Yeah. It's a unique look at a lot of this stuff. And goaltending, I think the most depressing thing from that whole chat is Canada doesn't have a goalie.

Yeah. Montem, no? Montem, no. I'm all right with Bennington. That guy competes. I'm alright with Bennington. That guy competes. I'm in on Bennington. That's where I'm at. He'll be fine. He is obviously the starting goalie. Doug Armstrong is the general manager of Team Canada.

He's the general manager of the Blues. Swan of Stanley Cup. He's played in a bunch of huge games. He's played for Canada. Played for them at the World Juniors. He's been around. He's played for Canada. He's got pedig Played for them at the World Juniors. He's been around. He's played for Canada. He's got pedigree.

Get him in there. See what happens. His game on the weekend, for me, had... This one's going back home, coast to coast on Hockey Night in Canada. I'll show you who's going to be the Canada goalie. He's a 9.03 save percentage. You didn't get that vibe? Which is above league average.

I got that vibe out of him Saturday night. He was really solid. He's a 9.13 last year. He's been great. He's a 903 save percentage. You didn't get that vibe? I got that vibe out of him Saturday night. He was really solid. He was a 913 last year. He's been great. He's the guy. There's no least talk on Saturday. The only vibe I was getting was, his Guinness tastes pretty good. But I was watching the game at a bar. I wasn't locked in. He looked good.

You know? I disagree with your analysis. I was in a bar drinking. Thanks. You look good. You know? I disagree with your analysis. I was in a bar drinking. Thanks. No, he looked good. He looked good. He looked good. You have time to drink with all that worry about the Leafs? You know?

They're related, I think, for him. No. It's early season here, boys. If they lose tonight, I'll start worrying. How's that? Fair enough. You got GT for us? I do have some game time here.

It's game time. Presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the odds. Find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Ottawa Senators in Buffalo tonight.

You said a huge game for the Buffalo Sabres. Yeah, it is. Got to tell you, I like the Sens. I think the Sens are better. I think Buffalo's still no good. And the Sens are not that big a fave here. Minus 120. I think it's a good number for the sends are not that big a fave here minus minus 120 i think it's a good number for the sends because they're just a way better team

worst team to be a fan of than buffalo i think decade i think buffalo loses tonight and they look at they wake up tomorrow at four eight and one they're they're thinking about making some changes i think so too i mean what's the shortest tenure a coach has ever had with the team? No, Lindy's fine. I know, I know. Well, if you fire the GM, the coach is never fine. I don't think you fire Kevin Adams, but you find him a new

spot. That's such cop-out, isn't it? It's like, yeah, now he's the assistant champion. Can't just keep it as is. No, you cannot. Sometimes you got to make a change for the sake of making a change. But the Pagoulas seem to have given up on them.

They're like, we were just a Bills ownership now. Boy, the Bills rock. Bills kind of rock. They are awesome. I love the Bills. The other one I had tonight, Calgary Flames in Montreal. I don't love either of the defensive cores and goaltending in either of these games. I think both these teams can score.

Give me a high score on one tonight. Give me the over six and a half in Flames' habitat. You know, Kip has kind of quietly predicted meltdowns soon. Because you got Buffalo could happen. Montreal, we've talked a little bit about yeah some weirdness yeah no marty st louis he's got status until he doesn't want status as a head coach i think he's fine they're not going to do anything there although you know it's frustrating because i don't think anybody expected him to make the playoffs this year but but you got to show signs that the program's moving forward,

and I'm not sure that's happened an awful lot there. And Boston. And Boston. Things go south. I mean, there's some results coming up that could, you know, hold bigger implications. As we get closer to that magic. Coach firing.

American Thanksgiving. And the last thing I have for tonight, As we get closer to that magic. Coach firing. American Thanksgiving. And the last thing I have for tonight, Max Domi has yet to score. He is playing on the top line tonight with Matthew Nism and Mitch Marner. Give me a Max Domi goal tonight, plus 300. So, like, I totally agree with, like, betting on Max Domi to score a goal. It's going to happen. Good line, whatever.

Bet 365. We appreciate them. We love them. They're a goal. It's going to happen. Good line, whatever. Bet 365. We appreciate them. We love them. They're a sport for our show. Plus 300. That's no good. It jumped out to me as a little low, but here's what I'll say. He's got to score eventually, right?

And tonight's going to be. They know that too, I guess. Yeah, he's got to shoot one in, and he almost split the puck in two in the power play there, and he shot it so hard off the crossbar. He can't shoot. It's like Marner. When he gets a shot off, they can shoot it.

Yeah. So give me a max Domi goal tonight at plus 300. And that was Game Time presented by Bet365. Visit the app, play the odds and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. You didn't give us anything on the presidential election. Oh yeah. You had that in the

pre-show. Come election. Oh, yeah. You had that in the pre-show. Come on. Give us something. I can tell you. Hold on. Give me one second. Jeopardy music here. Donald J. Trump is the favorite.

U.S. election. U.S. election. By the numbers. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Right now, Donald Trump is a minus 175 favorite, according to Bet365. You should be minus 188. Kamala Harris is plus 150.

There you go. If you like betting on the election. Yeah, if you feel like maybe happiness hedge either way, maybe a good way to go. So only one of us on this panel, Dennis, got to vote. Yes. And it wasn't me. And it certainly wasn't me.

And it wasn't Sammy. You know, I'm a dual citizen, and I do cast a vote in the U.S., and you vote in the last place you lived. Last place I lived was in Chandler, Arizona, which is in Maricopa County, which I think there may be people pitchforking and coming down my street with torches. That's a hotly contested county.

So I think they set one mail-in ballot box on fire a week ago or something. Donald J. may call you. Was your ballot on fire? It very well could be. I don't know. I was going to do a bad Trump impression. I can't do it. I hope they're not roasting marshmallows right now.

I haven't seen what's going on down there. I will say. I am invested. I love American politics coverage. Like I find, I find the way they cover it so fascinating. And I was like, you know, watch the least game tonight. But after least talk, I'm settling in. I'm settling in and getting the old CNN on and watching it all night.

Oh yeah, baby. You could watch CNN like six months ago and you can watch it today you wouldn't know the difference. I disagree. Repeat. Tonight's the big show. Tonight's where it's at. Okay, obviously, but outside of that

all you've had is just repetition of it. Just enough. You know what's really going to be nice? No more political ads during the during the football when i'm watching so looking forward to that too so hey it's gonna be gonna be wild tonight should be a night all right everyone let's take a quick break here when we return we'll touch a little bit on the edmonton oilers we saw mike david back on the ice or we'll

get our thoughts on that as they move forward towards climbing out of a 500 hockey club. And some depressing quotes out of Nashville. I caught a Ryan O'Reilly one for the later, but maybe a Nashville conversation too, because it does not sound great there right now. Okay, we'll get into that more when we return to Real Kipper and Bourne. Hey, it's Ben Ennis. And I'm Brent Cunning. We got you covered on all things Leafs, Raptors, and Blue Jays every weekday morning, 6 to 9. It's the Fan Morning Show.

Sportsnet 590 The Fan and wherever you get your podcasts. Six Canadian teams in action tonight with the exception of the Edmonton Oilers who lost to New Jersey last night. They were McDavid-less. Yeah. But he's back on the ice probably a little earlier than expected. Report had him out as much as three weeks,

and yet good sign that he's back out or desperate sign. No, we had Jason Smith on our show, a orthopedic surgeon, a friend of the show here. And he talked about how this is the sort of injury that you can come back too early from, you know,

it is possible. So I am curious to see what on the ice and skating versus actually returning to the lineup looks like. I don't think just because he's on the ice, it feels like he's back tomorrow night or anything. Would you like to hear him talk about it? Oh, I hope this doesn't contradict directly the things I just said. It most likely is, dude.

We'll go to the second clip, please, Derek, is where he explains it more in detail. When it first happens, obviously you're concerned that, you know, it's maybe something a little more serious. But thankfully I've got good news on it, and I've been doing everything possible to uh to make it feel better and i'm not just sitting around waiting for it to feel better i'm doing a lot of a lot of different things and um obviously the team here the medical team here the staff here everybody's great and

um understanding that i'm always pushing to play and um trying to find that balance. Pushing to play. Trying to find that balance. I wonder how much that kind of influences everybody that he's pushing. Well, I think it's great that he's pushing. I think too often we hear, you know, we cover the Leafs in the first hour. He's pushing. The past few years, people being very, very, very careful. It's good he wants to play. They've won a couple of games without him.

Yeah. Two and one without him, right? Yep. Two and one. But yeah, that probably does affect, put some pressure on them a little bit. I guess the question is, how desperate should they be? Like, I don't feel like they're,

if they lost a couple of more hockey games here, this whole thing is, we were talking to Sammy before the show. That Pacific division is rot it's just rot like san jose's no good anaheim's no good um seattle not very good at all flames starting to show the true colors like they're just yeah blah oilers are fine yeah yeah i don't look at their first round matchup with the Kings and beat them in five games. And off they go. And off they go. Thanks, Keith.

If they're a top in their division. Yeah. I mean, Vegas is legit. There's a chance that they'll, they could play a tougher opponent. I guess that's the big threat. Is like. How close were they to playing Vegas? Yeah, you don't want to play Dallas in round one or something. Which is very possible if you scuffle for too long but you look at these i'm just looking

at the at the standings here in the pacific you would imagine that at by the end of the season here it's going to be vancouver and edmonton fighting for that third spot and one of them will be a wild card team and one of them will be a one of the the two three spot i don't believe in the kings like that i think i think you look at gold knights probably win it vancouver edmonton two three kings kings in that sneak in at a wild card yeah i could be wrong at the kevin fiala you know they're not great the trevor moore's not been great by fields not scoring at the rate they wanted them to not sure how their record is as good but maybe they haven't been played playing anyone i'm wrong a lot that's also true new jersey looked pretty fast last night they gotta be the fastest team in the league yeah good nhl on a game seen on

prime did you see the video of lomberg teeing off on on Bastian from that game. I think it was over the weekend. Oh, my God. You didn't see that? No. It was like a crowd. It was like a crowd shot. So it was like right on the glass.

And he is legitimately standing there, punching him in the face. Like, punching him like, bang, bang, bang. Like, a hundred punches in the face. And they pan over to Nico Heischer. He's just standing there, just watching his teammate get fed. And I'm like, oh, Sheldon.

So Heischer's the captain. I wonder if Sheldon went from Toronto to Jersey and he's going, oh, come on. Come on, not again. Heischer is scoring a lot, but he's also had that happen before. I did see Lomberg on a television interview with no shirt on. So Lombergini does not mess around. Lomberg's a mutant. with no shirt on. Yeah, you see that? The Lamborghini does not mess around. Lomberg's a mutant.

That's a guy that, at the deadline, the Leafs would be sniffing around. I wouldn't mind. I got traded to the Rangers. I did an in-between interview with just a gray ripped T-shirt. And before I could get back, Mark Messier gives me this one right here. Really? Yeah, he called me right over. He says, we don't do interviews without the jersey on. Really?

I love that. Yep. And I'm like, buddy, I'll put my helmet on. I'll do it with my mouth guard. You just tell me whatever I need to do and I'll do it. But Willie hasn't had a tarp on in an interview. I couldn't. I only pictured Mark calling Lomberg into the room after he did the interview with no shirt on.

Who's had more air time for the Leafs this year, Craig Berube or Willie's nipples? It's got to be neck and neck. Or nip and neck. A little from Columbia. A little from Columbia. Oh, God. Times have changed, man. Yeah.

I love that, though. Never heard that before. Yeah. But these guys just wear anything when they're getting interviewed. Actually, during that interview with McDavid, he had just come off the ice, and he was wearing a helmet helmet shoulder, but like his whole get up or whatever, which is rare to see.

And one of the questions in the interview was hilarious. They're like, did you get tripped or did you step on a stick? And he just like looked at the reporter and he's like, like genuinely not trying to be, what's the difference? What's the difference? He couldn't like, he was

incredibly confused by the answer. Was it malicious? No, not at all. And that's, the difference is now the media needs somebody to blame. They need a culprit. They need, you know, you're the best player in the world. You got hurt. We're canceling somebody right now.

Like, who is it? Whose stick was it? Tell us. Tell us who to blame? Whose stick was it? Tell us. Tell us who to blame. Who's to blame? Yeah. Yeah. So, we got away from the main point there.

Do you think if McDavid plays this weekend, it feels like it's a rush back? Because there was some talk about that. Like, I'm like, you know, I know your seasons, but like you said with the Pacific, has to be careful with ankles, man. They're not, you don't want to rush that. Like, how long did

marner miss last year with the high ankle it was a long time yeah two two three weeks for sure yeah and he wasn't the same when he came back like it's it's a bad injury never the same man and and nobody ever really spoke of it we did we talked about it at length but who's nobody when they got knocked down game seven and then they did the the list of it at length. But when they got knocked out in game seven, and then they did the list of all the players that were hurt. But they didn't tell us what Matthews did. They didn't tell them what happened with Marner. They didn't tell us anything.

They did. They did a bit of a laundry list. But it was just never, and Mitch's ankle was never 100%. Yeah. So that's what I'm saying. But those things. Linger. For sure.

Anyways. I almost started singing Cranberries. Linger. For sure. So anyways. I almost started singing Cranberries. Linger there. Glad I didn't. All right. So. You want to. You want to.

That's the jam. The pain. Ryan O'Reilly is not pleased. Oh boy. With the Nashville Predators situation. He is a leader. They look lethargic. They look like they took a mediocre team and added some slow people.

That's kind of what I think. That's not what you want to hear, but you're bang on. Yeah. So here's a clip from Ryan O'Reilly evaluating his own performance in their last loss. I know for myself, I was just pathetic and just throwing pucks away and not you know moving with the puck and trusting the game um i know the guys probably felt that way too it's just you know we're just kind of sitting waiting and not um you know working together and tight and it's tough

called this game pathetic i gotta tell you too i listened to that whole scrum that was his fourth answer of absolutely burying himself and the team. Really? Like that wasn't like the only thing he said in that. Like he said in one of the other clips, it's the worst game he's ever played in his life. Oh my God. Oh, like he was so hard on himself and on the team too. Like he would start by eviscerating himself and then kind of make it about the team and

then go back to himself and then go to the team. Like he was, it's as candid as I've heard a guy crapping on himself and the team in make it about The team and then go back to himself and then go to The team like he was it's as Candid as I've heard a guy crapping on Hisself and the team in an interview in a long time Yeah Pathetic the way I've been playing Two years ago they were also A team that you said

Just needed to take a Step back and regroup And then they had a great push Towards the end of last season sphere cancellation baby 18 straight games point and then trots goes in opens the checkbook up to all these guys including obviously stamp coasts and like too much too soon well i'll tell you what buries them more than anything else is the success of winnipeg and minnesota to start this year because going into this year you look at

the central and you say dallas is going to be good colorado's probably going to be pretty good last year nashville made playoffs 99 points they got better They expected to be, you know, kind of in that upper echelon with Winnipeg and Minnesota being this good early. God, it's a big climb now. Like they're, they're not going to get over Dallas. They're probably Winnipeg and Minnesota have run away with it a little bit

here. Colorado is going to get better. It gets really hard for them now. Really? Athletic has them at 35% chance. Via Dom decisions model, I believe 35% chance to make playoffs.'s model, I believe. 35% chance? To make playoffs. Is Stamkos and

Philip Forsberg... Lower than you thought? I thought it would be lower than that. Oh, really? Yeah. Is Stamkos and Philip Forsberg very similar players? Is that... Oh, you think they're both shooters? Or... Ah, Forsberg. I mean, he scores a lot.

But yeah, it could be there's some conflict there I mean could it be the power play I'm talking about yeah just I don't know there's just a like many teams like you can have great talented players and all individually sound but put them all together and it just doesn't click it doesn't work yeah there's i mean we're talking about lindholm going to boston playing with the pasternak it's like it just for whatever reason has not been there macklin celebrini back tonight after his after being hurt for a couple weeks draymond green did a press conference wearing a celebrini jersey yesterday. That's awesome. I love that. That's awesome. Every game I've seen of San Jose, it's like empty. Yeah, so they are.

Oh, the rink is empty? Oh, yeah. There's nobody in the seats. I want to say they're second last behind, who is it? But yeah, in attendance. They're getting like 12,000 fans a game or something. Like, it's real bad. That was a once very proud franchise.

Well, they did win forever. Win and sell out. Yeah. And do you know how many games Macklin Celebrini's played? Uh, no. He has one game. He's played one game,

and he's got one goal, one assist for two points. All right, he's back. He's on a good pace. Yeah, they need him, clearly. So, I mean, that is something, though, that he's the first overall pick. That's something to watch.

It at least makes him somewhat interesting, but boy boy they have so much work to do yeah and i feel like they get a lot of credit for some reason like i don't love the full teardown i just they stink yeah i get the idea that you need stars in markets like that so sure you went out and got celebrini and hopefully he becomes one but it's a long way back to winning. Long way. Good for Tyler Toffoli, man. Get that money. Love it. Yeah. Barkley Goudreau ended up there.

He wasn't very happy when they got claimed. Hey, I was looking at, somehow looking at the attendance figures around the league. Winnipeg getting 12,000 fans a game, too. I know you've talked about that. That was a Sunday, I think. They sold out the Leafs game. That was their first sellout this year.

And last year they didn't sell out any games until late December. So it's better than last year. There's a tough time in certain areas of the country more so than others. Kip, they're winning right now. But it has nothing to do with someone that has higher priorities on where their dollar goes. Yeah. Right?

It's not about winning or losing. It's not about being entertaining. It's not about anything but how far can a family of four stretch a dollar? Yeah, fair enough. It's just not on the priority list right now. Utah, I think fairly low in attendance just based on the size of their rink. They also have like a 15,000 seat or so. Yeah.

Tougher spot there. I think people are still trying to adjust in this country to the streaming and the... I should say attendance is very high in the NHL. 96% capacity on average. Canadians are having a tough time, I think, realizing that streaming's becoming a bigger part of professional sports. Have you had trouble accessing? No, I'm okay. I'm all right.

But others, I think, are challenged as well. Yeah. It's different. It's different when things get chopped up. And I know, Sam, you're talking about Blue Jays games. It's on Apple today. I know we've had this. I won't see it. Not happening. and i know that we've had this discussion but like i think we're considered like streaming

snobs where like i want to change the channel to something else to the other games and i or yeah to the other games and now i gotta exit out of my app and I got to like. Honestly, Kip? It's driving me nuts. It's the number one thing. That's the only thing I don't like about it. It's because I'm a serial flicker. Yes.

Football, basketball, baseball, hockey, bang, bang, bang, bang. Commercial break, whistle break. Like I am flying around every night. Can't. Can't. That's the only thing. I watched the full warmup on Prime last night. I did.

I watched the. Anyone go bar down? several people oh wow you like that just no sound and just watching the warm-up like it's not the word when i was what are you waiting for someone to step on a puck or trip or something it's a curiosity when i was a kid man there was nothing like warm-up when you go to when you go to a game and watch warm-up? Oh, my God. I used to, like, the very few times I found tickets, you went up to the glass at Maple Leaf Gardens and just put your arm around the glass. It was so short that you could hang a program. Grab a player.

No, but hang a program, and the guys would just come and sign the program along the glass. Yep. I couldn't even see anything. It'd be just like you clip the pen to the piece of paper and you hope one of the pros sign it. That's awesome.

I love that. Yeah, warm-up's so cool. You get to see, you know, in a game, William Nylander might have the puck for 45 seconds. In warm-up, he has it for four to five minutes and you get to watch him handle it, shoot it. It's a good skill showcase. You mentioned the Blue Jays.

Rare Blue Jays check-in for me because I'm also wearing the hat. I'm a dumb fan. GM Ross Atkins. We're going to have to be creative to be able to bullpen this offseason. Oh, boy. We're going to sign

not good players. We're going to have to get creative. It's never what you want to hear about your ball squad boy it's gonna tell you so i mean there's no cash i don't know i think they got so many holes to fill you can't spend it all in one place oh god you got some work to do a busy night yes broberg four to six weeks right leg injury we didn't that's uh that's way better than probably what you envisioned uh watching him getting

carted off the ice Saturday night. It sucks. Criminal Mitch Marner. Good physical play. And he didn't back down from somebody on Sunday. Maybe it's a new Mitch Marner. Is this a new happy go? Oh, this is just the new look.

Yeah, the new look. Leafs, you know, Matthews. Maybe that's how he hurt himself. He punched Ryan Suter so hard. He's never done it before. So he's hurt his shoulder. That's maybe what happened. Very possible.

Yeah. All right. Several Canadian games tonight, Kip. We got Ottawa and Buffalo, Calgary and Montreal, Toronto and Boston. Give me a few predictions. Let's start with Ottawa-Buffalo. I will take Ottawa by two goals. Okay.

Handy one there. We're going to talk about this tomorrow. Leafs, Boston. Leafs, Boston. I'll take the Leafs in overtime. Ooh, an OT win. Yeah. Sam, you want to get your picks in on these?

No. No? I don't. Thanks for your input. And I never do this, by the way. I know. Never do it. And Calgary, Montreal.

Calgary kind of going in the wrong direction a little bit. Montreal. They've cooled off. Plug your ears, Calgary listeners, because I love you. They may have been wrong about your team. They might suck. They might not be very good. They just come down here with a little bit.

The problem is, Calgary. They are who we thought they were. And five games threw us off. All those predictions reminds us that this hour of Real Kipper and Bourne brought to you by Bet365. Okay. Enjoy your games, everybody. And we're back tomorrow to do it all over again

on the Real Kipper and Bourne Show. We'll be right back.