Real Kyper & Bourne - Canadian Team Confusion with Craig Simpson

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start the national hour with the Canucks' win over the Oilers last night, Edmonton's hot start and Quinn Hughes taking over the game before touching on the news that Jack Campbell is being waived. NHL analyst Craig Simpson shares his thoughts on the returns of the Leafs' offseason additions, the Canucks' surprising form, the disaster start for the Oilers and the Campbell news (4:29). Next, a chat on the Oilers' fundamental problems, the lack of production from their top guys, waning effort levels and discuss Jay Woodcroft's post-game comments on accountability. Finally, how to fix 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.

welcome to the national hour on real kipper and born we are live on sports net and sports net 650 in vancouver and sports net 960 in calgary as always this hour of real kipper and born brought to you by Bet365. Two tremendous hockey games last night on the network. Toronto Maple Leafs downing the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-5 in overtime. And the second one had a very struggling Edmonton Oiler team up against the red-hot Vancouver Canucks, where Quinn Hughes, Pugh Suter, and Brock Besser scored three minutes and 22 seconds apart to down the Edmonton Oilers off an incredible start to the game for the Oilers.

They couldn't do anything wrong except put the stinking puck in the net and when they finally do matthias ekholm hammers one into the top corner at that point it's one nothing oilers the shots are 13-3 and i was on our show yesterday being like no i think the oilers are gonna win tonight and i was feeling myself let me tell you yeah that did not uh my boy qu. Then my boy, Quinn Hughes, took over. Yeah. How do you... Best play of the night last night. How do you outshoot a team like that? At last count, I think 19-2.

Yeah. And, you know, have only one to show for. Well, this is the tale of two goaltenders last night. Tale of three goaltenders if you want to count both of Edmonton's who are over there. Okay, let's just... Can I give you a quick Quinn Hughes stat? Just right off the bat, top story of the day. Yes.

Okay, goaltender Jack Campbell has been waived by the Edmonton Oilers for the purpose... 14 months into a five-year contract. For the purpose of sending him down to their American Hockey League affiliate in Bakersfield, where they play as early as Thursday, if I'm not mistaken. Abbotsford Canucks. And Jack Campbell is expected to start that game. Is that right? Yeah.

Yeah, okay. Well, this would be the incentive for Edmonton would be that you can bury 1.15 million of a guy's cap hit. Picard makes 762,000. The difference is about 388,000. So it would allow the Oilers then with that money to move on from someone who's making very little, maybe minimum, and acquire someone who makes a little bit more, unless there's other moves here, but the idea would be to free up money

to do something else. Or just try a different goalie. To do nothing else and say Picard's a 960 or 930 in the AHL, maybe he'll be better. We're going to get Craig Simpson on momentarily, a former NHLer, two-time Stanley Cup champion, of course, known best around here as Hockey Night in Canada's lead analyst.

And we'll get his thoughts on that situation and more on what's happening in Edmonton. Listen, I know it's an easy out to go and wave Jack Campbell, but... I don't know if it's easy kip well it's easy as in there is nothing else they can do at this moment yeah they're capped out to appease i think a lot of the heat right now that's on this organization people edmonton oiler fans want blood right now yep you know there's a couple things to blame and goaltending is certainly among them they have the worst goaltending in the nhl this season edmonton gives up a ton of rush chances

rush chances allowed their 22nd in the nhl rush goals allowed their 32nd in the nhl which means they're in the bottom third of teams and allowing rush chances and they're the worst team at letting them go in so the goalies aren't bailing them out when they're giving up bottom third of teams and allowing rush chances, and they're the worst team at letting them go in. So the goalies aren't bailing them out when they're giving up a bunch of rushes. That's a major issue. No back checking. Last night's Pusewaters goal. Yeah.

Like right down the pike. Off a set breakout. They were in a set, you know, breakout defense. You need a save there too. You do. Okay, let's. Their save percentage,'s their save percentage their team save percentage is dead last in the league at eight six one all right all right making his

season debut on the real kipper and born show craig simpson let's welcome in uh our number one analyst what an what an honor to be with you oh my gosh you You lost us at honor. Busy night on the network. Of course, you had Leafs and Tampa Bay. You want to start there first because we'll work our way into the double header that we saw last night between Vancouver and Edmonton. But, you know, Craig, what are the odds that against a Tampa Bay Lightning with a ton of Stanley Cups that we could see two kind of meltdowns in back-to-back games from Tampa on blown leads?

Yeah, really shocking, isn't it? I was listening to you guys earlier talking about the very different team that John Cooper has. And, you know, I think he acknowledged it both games where they weren't able to keep the lead, that this isn't the same kind of team that can really be that shutdown guaranteed, get us the win, get us the lead, and we know how to defend and shut things down.

But in both instances, you know, I thought Sheldon made a pretty good point last night with Joseph Wall coming in. You know how difficult a task that is. But he was able to shut the door, even if you just shut the door for five minutes. Or in this case, it was to get through the rest of the first period and stop the bleeding and you can gather yourselves. And, you know, when you're down by three you got two periods of hockey to go that's not an insurmountable uh time and so i just think it allowed everybody to breathe allowed everybody to regroup and then just focus on coming out and being a different team and seeing if you can win one period so uh you know the fact that the the lead happened so quickly

gave toronto an opportunity to regroup. And credit to them. You know, we'd be having a different conversation. We'd be having the Edmonton Oilers conversation today in a little degree in Toronto had they not had that comeback. And sometimes you need that kind of a game to really commit to each other and galvanize your feeling and your teammates and your belief and I thought it was huge strides no matter whether it was a rival like Tampa makes it even more

special but I think just the fact that they got their game together and even giving it up late they still didn't crumble and those are the building blocks of adversity that you try to build throughout the regular season and hopefully can serve you well come playoff time.

Simmer, if I could, I'll get you just to compare, in your opinion, last year's Leafs team to this year's Leafs team. We've talked about them as maybe being a bit more loose. I think a more general description may be a little bit worse. I guess it depends where you sit. But what are your thoughts when you look at this team compared to what they rolled out last year well i think just different is not necessarily better or worse at this point yet when you're when you're 12 games in i i think that the difference in the look uh takes a little time

to sort itself out you know i think they have the they have the potential to maybe find a way to be a better team. You know that they'll probably be a little different come trade deadline where other guys will come in, much like they did last year. The team that went into the playoffs was a very, very different looking team than the one that played most of the 111 point season in the regular season so uh i think it's a work in progress i i think the the challenge again and i kind of hearken back to when sheldon keith had to deal with the likes of wayne simmons or joe thornton or kyle clifford on the fourth line you know i always kind of cringed at that, that you're going to have a hard time to find a place to play in the big games.

And I think that's playing out a little bit. I heard Nick talking about Ryan Reeves. There's no way Reeves has to play every game. And there's going to be plenty of games where he gets buried a little bit, like he did last night. And it's almost a scenario where you're playing 11-7 without the 7-D. But I think that's probably for me, Justin, that are they going to be able to figure that out

and put a group of lines together that Sheldon had some confidence in. I think he said after the game, that's the best look our Lions have had all year, and I would tend to agree with him. We're talking to Craig Simpson, who does a terrific job on the NHL, on Sportsnet. Craig, last night was a prime example of duos, superstar duos.

We've got Matthews and Marner at Toronto, Connor and Leon in Edmonton. And in Toronto, for sure, we saw once again these two stars bail out their team and carry the load. We're not seeing it necessarily in Edmonton today. But can you speak of the constant pressure on these guys every night? And I know there's a salary cap involved here, but is it any different from what, say, you watched over the years

with like Gretzky and Messier? Is it the same weight? Is it more? Does it feel more? The only different weight i would say is just the reality of our uh social networking life we live you know like uh back in long ago not every game was even on television so you had to read about it the next day or you listen to it on radio so you didn't have visuals well everything is front and center and reacted upon instantaneously one mistake gets magnified and

showed you know on time and time and time again so from a player's perspective mentally i think that's why it's a different burden in that regard but the great players you know are special because they do have that innate sense of responsibility, A, but B, just the flair for knowing when the time is needed to do something special. I would add in another pair for you, Nick, was, you know, Point and Kucherov. They changed that game in the first period again last night, just showing their brilliance with the puck and being able to make an impact in a game.

And so you saw that back and forth. In second period, it's Matthews and Marner. And as you mentioned, how many times have McDavid and Dreisaitl dropped your jaw with some amazing plays to turn around a game? So I do think that the burden might be heavier because in a lot of instances, the cap has made the depth of your team a little less stacked than maybe it had been

10, 15, 20 years ago. But I just think that those kind of guys, that's what they live for, and that's the passion that they have, and that's where you get into a game like that. I love the emotion by Matthews after scoring that second goal, and he was right. The fans had a right to be angry, but you don't always see from a guy like that what it means to be coming back in a game.

That drags people along, and Kip, you know with Mest, the number of times that special moments happened and then the emotion that comes with it and you just look at the guy and you go man i want to be a part of that too and and it drags you into the fight and it drags you into the game and i think you saw that a lot last night with matthew nines how do you not get thrilled and excited to play with those two guys and watch what they're doing? And I finally saw him. A, he was skating a lot better, but right from the get go, it's like me with no speed playing with Mark Messy and Glenn Anderson. Where do you go? You get them the puck and you get to the front of the net and you cause problems in front of the net.

Matthews doesn't score that first goal for him. If Nyes isn't battling in front of the net and taking the goal, he dies away. The goal that he scored, you know, knocking that puck down, he's right in the net and right in where you have to be to make a difference. And if he can figure out doing that, you know, when I watched Bertuzzi in the first few games, that was my comment there. You got to understand how to play with these guys. And last night to me was the first time I saw Nyes really look like he read the play and read their game effectively and played off of it.

Well, yeah, I think that's a really, lends to like a really relevant point about, you know, you said, how does Nyes not be excited to play with those guys? And we didn't see it from Bertuzzi in the early going, you know, there, there are some fans right now who are looking at this Leafs team and looking at Domi and Klingberg and Bertuzzi, some newer guys who were paid good salaries who are going, Oh no. What if it's not there with these guys at all?

Yeah, no question. And that's what, you know, the, the beauty and the curse of early season. If you're flying out of the gates and scoring like Matthews is, it's like, oh, my gosh, where's the ceiling going to be? But, man, when you go the other way and you're a newcomer in a new city on a new team that you're trying to not forget about the fans quite frankly you're trying to earn the respect of your teammates and i'd be looking around going man i'm not doing my job i'm not pulling my my you know my weight and that to me is the the one thing you can't lose is your guy sitting beside you and so i agree with you 100 that those three specifically have just really struggled out of the gate to find that identity.

And I go back, you know, every player will talk about it, that you try to make an impact and you think you've got to score and you've got to get points on the board. And then you realize when you're not doing it, you're starting to get frustrated. And if you really examine your game, tendency in those situations are you're you're you're not just reacting and playing and you're not you know using the one thing you can always

do is your effort and that's what stood out to me with nize last night was his effort and that's what stood out with me with robertson you're going i don't care if you didn't don't score in that but what are you doing with your opportunity and if you're coming off the bench and you're going gangbusters and you're finishing your checks and you're getting in, you're getting noticed because of that, that's where the good things will happen. And I think Domi specifically, I thought it was a good thing putting him at center.

And I said last night, he hasn't been using his feet. He's been almost like he's trapped over on the wall. And when you play center you have a greater responsibility you have a bigger room to cover it forces you to get skating and i thought even you know just for one game it kind of did that for him and got him going maybe a little bit talking to craig simpson um and how surprised are you at van right now? Let's be honest. Well, yeah. You know, they have that ability,

especially with the way Demko is playing. But it's not just all Demko-driven. But they have that ability. Talk about you trusting your teammates. When you look back and you go, man, we got the best goalie on the ice tonight. Let's get playing. Let's get supporting them.

And I think you're seeing the exact opposite from their opponent last night in the Edmonton Oilers. And you go back to the first game of the season. Oilers, tough contenders. This is going to be a great year. Vancouver, they're going to be, you know, who knows? They're going to be maybe a disaster out of the playoffs. And Vancouver just played loose and strong and not arrogant, but confident, right?

Like, go in and just say, we're going to take this game. And, you know, now all of a sudden, what, 12 games in, they've beaten the Oilers badly three times. And I think those are the little building blocks, especially with a guy like Toc behind the bench, that you continue to hold guys accountable and you do it more when you're having the early success, but success brings success with it.

I think those guys got the confidence in those first two games against Edmonton to go, hey, we do have something here. And they've been able to translate. Their top players uh guys are driving the bus you know you talked about you hopefully you have some depth scoring but man they're their best players are their best players and that's how they're having success in this early going and so with that win last night they go 14 points up on the edmonton oilers a month into the season it's kind of insane you know what do we think about how i mean how early in this season can you lose a season like for this edmonton

oilers i don't want to you know force desperation on them or anything to that effect but obviously it needs to turn around tomorrow how much longer can it go on like this before, boy, they're in real trouble? Well, yeah, you do say, you usually don't say, okay, 10, 11 games you can recover from. But I looked at that too. What are the 11 points back of Los Angeles, even for third in the division? And you're going like, that's a big hill to climb. You know, you have to take with what's given to you. And so it's been a complete disaster. And disasters like that, I remember Glenn Sather always used to say,

when we get in a little bit of a rut and we're not doing well, you know you can't help but guys, A, are frustrated, but B, start feeling kind of sorry for themselves. Man, we can't get a break, all that. And Slots used to walk in and look at every guy and say, Guy, if you don't think this can get effing worse, you're flat wrong. Like, don't think this is the worst. So you've got to now look at each other and say,

Guys, we got ourselves here. We've got to find a way to get out of it. All I can think of,in is the the st louis blues of 19 and go the adversity that they had to get themselves out of the hole that they were in prepared them to be a heck of a hard team and a hard out in the playoffs and if if i was you know preaching to the oilers or coaching the oilers it starts now and it's going to be an uphill climb with a big boulder that's going to get heavier as we go but that's the kind of mindset I think you have to have that's the mindset that Craig McTavish had in 2006 with a team that was struggling all year

to make the playoffs made it on game 80 81 of the season and then was ready to flourish i think that's the message you have to have but man watching that team and how disorganized they are and the lack of attention to defense and detail they got a lot of work to do to get get up that hill craig you experienced uh the very best in edmonton with a championship and i'm sure you've seen some really, really tough times. Where would this rank right now on a team that was supposed to contend for a Stanley Cup being only four points up San Jose right now? Yeah, well, and Nick, who's their next opponent? San Jose. You know that's just going, oh my gosh.

If that's not a nervous game right there, because, you know, if we lose this one, you know, there's, there's comment right there. If you, if you don't think it can get any worse, you're dead wrong. But I think Nick, it's, it's the challenge of every leader on that team to try to erase the negativity, erase the bad thoughts. They said last night, you know, frustration is such a wasted energy and will not pick you

out of your funk. So it's a huge challenge. The biggest thing for me too is collective as a group, they have to have a commitment to each other. Forget about the coach and whatever the game plan is. You got to play for each other to dig yourself out of it.

And if you're looking at a guy like McDavid and Dreisaitl who have carried you through so many different moments, if you're a role player there, you go, everybody's got to find a different level to play. But as you know, it may be all for naught if that state percentage that I think you guys were talking, they're what, dead last or 31? Dead last, yeah.

You know, you can't come back unless that changes. And I think everybody understands that. Hey, Craig, before I let you go, I want to kind of bring it back full circle from what you said earlier because it's kind of sticking with me about the scrutiny in this country on particularly our hockey players and i'm watching connor last night and that's not the connor we know and i'm just wondering about the weight of the world on his shoulders or others experience in the markets in canada You mentioned social media, man, and it's just, that's a huge part here is that it's so scrutinized 24-7,

it doesn't stop. And this time now, you go on the internet, the players are, the families are at risk. Wives, fiancés, girlfriends, like there's no stopping these, like some of these people on the internet on where they would go. My question to you is, are our Canadian teams at risk now of players not wanting to come and play here?

Well, there's no question that, you know, every player, every person has a different kind of limit to what they can handle. And if I were a player today, or even in our job today, I would eliminate any social media at all. Your focus has to be on your craft. Your mind has to be free of the garbage that can come in in that regard. So maybe easier said than done. But I don't think there's any question if you look at, you know, the total amount of players in the league, there's going to be a high amount, Nick, that would say,

I don't want to put my family, I don't want to put myself in that position. You know, it's not saying that there aren't amazing places to play in Canada. And part of that attention is so great if you can win. And when you become a good team or you win a Stanley Cup, there's nothing better. But I don't think there's any question that the scrutiny for a good percentage of players would sort of deter them from wanting to take that position if given the opportunity. You know, if you're a free agent and you're looking around, sort of deter them from wanting to take that position if given the opportunity you know if you're a free agent you're looking around uh i think there's a number of guys that would say i

think i'll pass on that uh terrific stuff but i'd be remiss if i just didn't ask you quickly before i let you go one more pal and uh i promise i'll let you go and that is uh we listened to Sheldon Keefe not hang Samsonov out to dry, getting pulled last night. And now we see in Edmonton Jack Campbell waved. And the thought that I have in my head is that he'll play as early as Thursday night. He'll get some games in. We'll see where he can go down there. Is this the right call?

I think it was out of necessity, Nick. I think that they obviously, and you know, Jack, in terms of his personality and how hard he can be on himself, how down he might be getting, you've got to read that as a coach or as his goalie coach or even as a teammate and if you're looking and saying there's no possibility of playing your way into it now through a couple of maybe tough games when the team is in such a dire strait right now i think they looked at it and said uh you know we got to get this guy some confidence we got to get him some time to play and we are not in a position to be able to do that at the nhl level right now so i i agree i think you go down there and play three out of

four games quickly and see if you can establish a little bit of a brick to start piling up and get some confidence in your game and get some details in your technique again and and the Oilers can only hope that maybe that can be something that can spur him on because you know you're doing kind of the same with the other guy Skinner has been less than uh efficient than and on his game as well so now you're stuck with both guys struggling and I think it's an effort to try to hopefully resuscitate one by sending Jack down to get, get some playing time. Calvin Pickard will be the next man up. Hey, Craig, really appreciate your time as always. Fantastic stuff. Thank you.

Thanks guys. Thanks Simmer. That's Craig Simpson, NHL on Sportsnet, Hockey Night in Canada. Good. He touched on Edmonton going into San Jose Thursday night. That is a very dangerous game for the Edmonton Oilers. Pickard going in, right? You're the starter going in.

Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. Okay. Is it Pickard? Of course. Their team's save percentage is 861. The new guy comes in, you are the starting goalie. Pickard, I think he's at 930-something. I had it right here a minute ago.

939 in Bakersfield. Two and two. Sure. Okay. It doesn't do it for you. 500 in the American Hockey League. 939, though. I mean, that's a lot of saves.

I'm just, okay, it's, yeah, I guess you got to win. So if you don't have any confidence in the other guy either but you touched on this this is this is just i i think jack's just the easiest scapegoat right now well and he's an expensive one for sure can't wave the other guy you're gonna lose but you're right but they. Like, they can't keep putting these guys in the net when they play terribly. You just have to go get someone else who will put on the pillows and go in there. Here's Pickard's NHL games by year going back each year. He played for the Leafs, didn't he?

Zero last year. That was the Leafs. He got claimed on Williams this year. Zero, three, six, three, six, 11, one, and now we're in 2016. I remember Janssen. Andreas Janssen scored a hat trick in the first period on him when he played for the Flyers. There you go.

Very impressive memory. A weird memory. They can't stop the puck. They can't defend. And they can't score. Like, that's the trifecta here. But they can score, in theory. I'll tell you this, if you like numbers.

The expected goals. Oh, goals boy edmonton guys are just the expected goals of this euler team they actually are they not a top team they are a top team they should be scoring a lot more crazy than they are it's crazy it is they've come up against some very good goaltending they've been unlucky they're not getting any saves. Like, they're not a 2-8-1 team. They are not close to this bat. No. But the hole's getting deep. Can we mention Connor McDavid at two goals here?

In what's he at? 11 games? He's not. No. Well, he missed two. So I think he's 0 for 6. He's not even close to 100%, Kev. Then why are they playing him?

All right. Excellent question. In nine games played, he has 2 and 8 for 10. Minus 4. Is he in the top 50 in scoring? No. That's crazy. It's just ludicrous.

It's just not right. No, it's weird to look up at the standings. The world is flat right now when I see Connor McDavid with those numbers. Connor McDavid is tied for 60th in points. He's just behind, right behind Moritz Seider and Ryan Strump. But it's just not him. You watched that full game last night. Casey Middlestat. You're going long stretches of the game of forgetting about him.

When he's at his best. No, he started the game. He had a pop out of the gates and it was like, oh boy. No, no, there's just something. It's just that last push. It's the last gear of driving. You know how it is when... Like you're not trusting something. Well, it's not like he's

experiencing pain. It's that to be what McDavid was last year, you have to be feeling 100% of the time. It was an absurd showing of hockey so yeah he definitely seems like matthews last year where it's like i can't see what's wrong he's fine but something's not between connor leon and nugent hopkins like look at the nuge yeah he's got a power but do it last year is that, the Nuge had a power of two assists here.

Is that right? The Nuge had 100 points last year. Between them, that's... Yeah. 300 points? Three guys. Over 300 points. Right now, yeah, Dreisaitl's at 5'9", 14. Third on the team is Bouchard, 3-7 for 10.

Yeah, Ryan Nugent Hopkins has two goals, six assists, eight points on the team is bouchard of three and seven for ten yeah ryan eugen hopkins has two goals uh six assists eight points on the air no good no not tracking for 100 points like everyone shouldn't be going down alone right now send down multiple people sam gagne they're looking for something right right? They're just, give us something. Yeah. It's a struggle. I feel pretty, I mean, as bad as you feel for an extremely rich man in Jack Campbell, I feel pretty bad for the guy. And he worked his ass off this summer.

I'm sure. I know. He dropped 20 pounds, 25 pounds. I like that. That's a lot of pounds. No, he was heavy. He was heavy. He was a big guy. 6'2".

Yeah. 6'3". No, I remember. And he was playing at 220. Yeah. And he got himself down to about 190, 195. He was quicker. He was faster.

He had a good training camp. And he has had some good looks. He has. Yeah. Well, to your point, someone has to go down go down you know he's been the worst of the two by this much so there you go man we're talking about this it's crazy you should do yeah game time yeah and okay i'm just not a little bit more edmonton okay okay okay okay uh that that blue line that evan Bouchard cannot play 24 minutes.

Hey, do we have those clips? Do you want to hear Spector and Woodcroft? Sure. Having a conversation. It's the second clip in there, Derek. About the Bouchard thing, right? About the Bouchard. The bad pinch.

He was all over Woodcroft. Yeah, Woodcroft exchanged with Spector number two. Yeah. Going to play it. 4-2 goal. You guys are in a tight 3-2 hockey game. You're on the road. You fought back.

It's 3-2. Bouchard makes a pinch, and then he doesn't hustle back, and his guy scores, and he doesn't miss a shift. You use the word accountability a lot. Is there enough accountability for that player in that moment? Well, accountability in household. You mean in piping him? in piping them and really important goal and didn't miss a shift yeah that's what i'm talking about well you know where we're at

i would say um you know we had 60 men and um you know can he be better on that play yeah he can i'm not gonna i'm not gonna dress that one up in any way. In fact, if you, you know, one thing, you look at how Dreisaitl backtracked, put his head down, he's on the face-off dot, and he came back with reckless abandon. You know, that's the type of effort that we're looking for in that type of situation. Can Evan be better in that? Yeah, he can. But when you're down, when you're down, and your top point-producing D-man is part of helping you get back into a situation, are there times for accountability?

Sure there are. Is there times for trying to find a way to come back in that game? Yeah, there are too. And so you learn from your mistakes, and in the end we can be better on that one. Forget about Oiler fans wanting blood. Speck wants blood. But credit. It's an excellent question.

Like it's, you know, oftentimes... Turn your mic on. Accountability, though, isn't necessarily like have a bad shift, make a mistake, don't play. That's not necessarily accountability. No, but it was bad. And it was bad pinch, bad back check. Like, if you're going to miss maybe one,

that's a shift that could constitute that. And, like, I give Speck credit, man. It takes guts to sit there in front of an NHL coach, look him in the eye, and ask him a tough question like that. There's a lot of people, again, pointing the finger at Jay Woodcroft. I've never coached in the National Hockey League, let alone, you know, try to squeeze performance out of millionaires, multi-millionaires.

Clearly, much like Sheldon Keefe, at that moment, Jay made the decision not to hang out Evan Bouchard, especially in front of Mark Spector. And, you know, it was a very mature, rational response. And at some point, you look at your own lineup and you don't want to also throw the other guys under the bus and go, who do you want me to play? You know, like, which of my guys is good?

You know, like, you just don't have the horses sometimes, and that's a tough spot, too. Sometimes you're a coach. You had 62 guys are gassed on the bench who just came off the ice. One guy's fixing the skate lace. You know, it's just like you got to put someone out. You look at the Leafs last week. You got Lagasin and Lejoie on the ice together.

At the Raj 590. You know, it's like sometimes it's not a choice. You need to put humans on the ice. Game time? Let her rip. All right. It's game time. Presented by Bet365.

Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary. At Bet365, must be 19 plus, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. And this is a chance for me to, uh, gloat a little bit. Okay. You guys were the 12 game,

or 13 game Norris trophy. Mm-hmm. The favorite for the Norris trophy in the National Hockey League right now, according to Bet365, is Quinn Hughes. Plus 200. Wow. He is going to run away with it right now.

He is unbelievable. He's one of my favorite players to watch in the league. I love watching him play. Direct. Fast. Sick pass to DeJarne last night for the goal. Watching Paul Coffey. I have a stat here for you.

The way he skates, man. The way he moves. Yeah. He is actually tied with Jack Hughes now. He's played two more games. But him and his brother both have 20 points. I don't know. I mean, have we watched Kael McCarr lately?

Has he slowed down a little bit? No, he's still Kael McCarr. It's just a two-man race there. Yeah, that Fox is off to a good start too with the Rangers. I like Fox, but... You don't have him in that class? Well, Kael McCarr is a second favorite. He's super smart, that Fox.

Yeah. Plus 250 is Kael McCarr. Sneaky. And then it drops off a clip to Dallien at 8-1. So those two are the clear difference. I'm just going to quick Quinn Hughes stat for you here just to further my love fest for this guy. Defenseman with 20 points and plus 15 or better rating

through 12 games of the season. Robert Orr, Quinn Hughes, end of end of list wow that's a good list at first i thought you were saying about robert orry i was like he's done a wow multi-sport athlete yeah i confirm his plus 16 has to be the best in the league too yeah he's really good it is brade mcnabb is second at plus 13 i know it can be overrated. The extremes mean something. When your stars are on the ice for 25 minutes, sometimes 30 minutes, and you're controlling the game. Yeah.

When you're out there. How a game is your game. I will say that Sharks game helped the Canucks as like seven of the top 10 are Canucks and plus minus. It's Besser, it's JT Miller, it's Pedersen, it's Tyler Myers. When you go plus nine in one game, that's going to help your numbers. And just to continue the Canucks love fest,

the favorite for the Jack Adams board now is Rick Tockett, plus 550. So the books are responding to the start for the Vancouver Canucks. Demko. Besna. Let me see where he is. Patterson.

Second. Hart. Let me see where he's at. Are there more names for coach of the year? Demko is 10-1 now. He's moved up a little bit. Is Montgomery on that list? I am looking at it.

Montgomery. I think it's a little underrated, the Boston story out of the gate. Them winning every game they played for the last two years has been unbelievable. Montgomery is way down the list. He's 20-1. DJ Smith's ahead of us. We don't tell anyone to bet anything.

That's non-hockey people right there. The Bruins are 11-1-1, and they lost six amazing players. Cassidy is 9-1. I think that's pretty smart to put Talkin' as a favorite right this moment. Good narrative bet for some people, right? Like, it's like they're finally getting hot. He's a popular guy.

It's a good narrative bet. It's, yeah, smart by the books. Take your money now before the Canucks cool off a little. That will never happen. All right. That was Game Time presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary.

Bet365 must be 19 plus, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Alright, we're going to take a quick break and then when we come back, we're going to fix the Sharks. I don't know. I don't know. I urge everybody to text us at 590-590.

We'll take requests on how to deal with this embarrassment to the league. Did you win a Calder Cup in the American League? I did. Would your Calder Cup team have beat the Sharks? Yes. And beat the crap out of them, too.

You physically would have been ugly. Led by Don Ackbauer. Okay, quick break, and we're back with more on the Sharks. Breaking down the biggest trends in hockey, the Hockey PDO cast with Dmitry Filipovich. Be sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 10 games on tap, including the Sharks hosting the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Sharks 0-10-1. It's tonight, the night. The Sharks. I think tonight could be the night. Blackwood will start in goal. You're just going to say that until they win? Yeah. The Sharks projected lines. Eklund, Hurdle, Zetterlund, Zedina, Grandland, DeClaire,

McDonald, Stern, LeBlanc, and who else? Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton, and Pavelski. And who else? I think you went off the rails at the end there. Where is everybody on this team? There's some good suggestions on the text line. Oh, okay. This is it.

We're going to fix the Sharks. How do you fix the Sharks? Claim Jack Campbell. Pay $5 million for the same goaltending you're currently getting? I don't believe you. So we've got Blackwood and caco cacanin the only man that can fix the sharks and his name rhymes with bim jenning because that's a vancouver text i i think they had one really good crack at selling an asset that just won a Norris and had 100 points.

And forget about what's going on in Pittsburgh for a second with him there, but you had one crack at selling that asset. I'm not sure it was a positive asset. Oh, no. Let me put it this way. Okay. If you still had him, what would Edmonton be maybe willing to do at this point with him? I see your point.

You know? Yeah. I think there was real fear that they weren't going to get to unload him. Oh, gosh. They were going to get stuck. He won the Norris. He's a 100-point guy. he's he's a hundred point guy like where did you feel this he might get hurt the first two games of the season and you're stuck with him paying him all the money at the end of the day can you draw up that trade again please

i think the only thing of significance i could remember is uh a first rounder they ended up with and i just and the thing the biggest knock i have with mike greer and the organization on that trade is that you valued not holding back any money um the trade was uh he was traded from the sharks with a man named dylan hamill luuk and a third-round pick in the 2026 draft to the Penguins for Jan Ruda, Mikael Grandlin, Mike Hoffman, and a first-round pick in the 2024 draft. Oh, my God. Just nothing.

That's what it was? I mean, they also were paying him $10 million. Well, that's what it is. He makes $11.5 this year, next year, the next year, and the next year. They did withhold $1.5. Oh, God. Big nut. $1.5. See, next year, the next year, and the next year. They didn't withhold 1.5. Oh, God. Big nut. I know.

1.5. See, that's the problem with San Jose. They didn't want to pay to get an asset back. They actually think they did a good thing by unloading all but 1.5. Why don't you take $15, $20 million. It was a massive asset of that value. And then turn the $20 million that you would have eaten into three first-rounders. You didn't pay to make him a plus asset.

But you think you're getting three first-rounders for him? If he cut $7 million? At 5'5", 5'6". If you would have brought his salary down to $5 or $6 million, you would have had a bidding war. Yeah, 5.75 would have been the lowest you could get. And that's how you drive the assets up. Yeah, but they didn't want to pay for it.

That's a big ask. You're asking an owner to pay $6 million a year almost for four years. Guess what? Watch the empty seats, and you're paying for it anyways at $20 million. See, that is the right answer, is that you're paying for it years. Guess what? Watch the empty seats and you're paying for it anyways at 20 million bucks. See, that is the right answer. You're paying for it anyway. Anyways. You are out the gate.

No parking, no popcorn, no beer, no fans. My first Sharks game, that poor kid. My last Sharks game. Just eat it. I'm telling you, they need to start trying to get better.

That's the one asset they needed to eat the money so they could drive the price up in assets. The fastest way to get better is with first rounders. Yep, I would agree. No, no, no. You saved them. Hey, good job. You saved them a million and a half.

Wow. You're going to need 10 years to get out of this mess it's a rotten trade you are gonna need a long time thank you it's a rotten trade rotten trade looking back and i forgot how bad it was that's really they have uh two firsts this year so obviously pittsburgh being one they have two seconds no third and then just a pick in every other round basically they have i didn't sort of put you on the spot. Do they have any protections on that for the Penguins? Yes. Conditional trade.

Penn's 2024 first round pick is top 10 protected. Oh, my God. That's such a bad trade. That's really bad. Penn's will have the option to move the pick to 2025 unprotected if they finish, you know finish with the top 10 pick. But they may not even get that Pittsburgh pick this year. If Pittsburgh's bad enough, which they've started pretty terribly.

Whoopsies. Apparently, well, we got Nashville and Calgary tonight. I know. Flames. One last game. A lot of people paying attention to Tanev and Zdorov to Toronto. And I think you started that, Sammy. What?

It was Friedman. It was Friedman. Oh, was it Friedman? Yeah, it was not me. Okay. Well, I would like that. But then I got a tweet about how absurd it was that I said that I would do an Easton Cowan for that. And I will agree that it was absurd.

Calgary's not going to get Nized or Minton. Well, you walked that back pretty quick. I thought yesterday was everything. Well, if you're talking about Zdorov and Tanev, I'm just not sure that Craig Conroy's going to knock on Brad Treliving's door for that one. The problem is they're both expiring. Well, they're rentals.

Yeah, you need the Flames to clearly be not making playoffs. That's the first ask, though, Sammy. That's the first ask, though, Sammy. That's the first ask. I just don't think for rentals that you give up blue chip prospects right now. Can I say that this is a really hot take here? Big take by me. The Leafs defense would be a lot better with those two. Those two would really make the Leafs a better hockey club.

Both really good players. Zdorov had 14 goals this year, and he's 6'20". Should we be talking Anaheim at all lately? Is it six games in a row? Yeah, I'm a hater. And they've got Pittsburgh tonight. Yeah, Pittsburgh's going to die. Is it five in a row for them?

Something. Something. I just looked at the standings, and they're okay. Yeah, no, they're off to a wonderful start. I'm definitely not a believer. I like their core young guys. You know, I'm not the biggest Egress guy, but I like McTavish. I like Drysdale.

I like the guys that they have there. I like Terry. Carlson. Yeah, that kid's pretty good if he's not load managing. It's so funny. It's like teams get these guys and everyone falls in love with their own prospects and believes that they're going to turn it around.

Just being here in Toronto and you see what happens when you get four excellent players. Like there's so much more to it to beat the best teams. It's the first step is acquiring these assets. Good for Anaheim. Absolutely. They're stockpiling them,

but boy, there's still a lot of gaps to fill in. Hey, listen, you got some respectability out of the gate they do seven four or no good look for plus five general manager pat verbeek and uh rob de mile who's there now yep that's a good start you know one of the things that makes me believe that Calgary and Edmonton still are not done for this year. You're the last believer. I know. In Calgary. I'll bring this full circle that it's 11 games. Right.

It's 11 games. So for the Oilers right now to still make the playoffs, they probably need to play at a clip at about 625, 630. Yeah. It's not horrible. No. That would give them probably about 93, 95 points. Yeah, and that's what you need. Between 93 and 95 points.

In the Pacific, you'll probably need 94 or 5 this year. You want to talk to me after the next five games? Yeah. Then we have a different conversation. The problem is that in the NHL, the way standings point are handed out, it's tough to climb as teams

grab their third, their three-point games and whatever. So you don't want to dig the hole too deep, but I feel okay for these teams, these Albertan teams, and that the Anaheim Ducks I don't believe in, they're going to drop down. I'm also not a big Kraken guy. Oilers need a four-game winning streak. Sharks, Kraken, Islanders,

Kraken. They need a four-game winning streak right away. They need they'd love seven out of eight. Six out of eight is okay. Five is no good. You're right. Five is no good. No, you can't play at an okay winning percentage. You need to get

hot. They need Connor to be Connor. They need a goalie to make some saves. They need their D to sort it out. And frankly, to our man Speck's points, they can use a little hustle on the back check. Yeah. You know, Leon Bouchard need to help out their goalies

with some back pressure. There's still time, Edmonton Oilers fans. Take a deep breath. Not too deep. All right, our thanks to Craig Simpson from Hockey Night in Canada. Always great having him on the show. And Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee, thank you as always. And we're back again tomorrow. Ten games on tap tonight.

Enjoy them. We'll see you soon.