Real Kyper & Bourne - Chasing Mike Modano's Record + Blue Jackets' New Goals with Rick Bowness

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Minnesota Wild's Hockey Operations advisor Mike Modano (4:28) joins Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne to look back on becoming the all-time points leader for American born players, his playing time against Detroit Red Wings' Sergei Fedorov, transition to working with Bill Guerin in the front office and acquiring Quinn Hughes, representing USA in the Winter Olympics, hockey players playing in international regulated rules vs. NHL rules, Olympics vs. World Cup, if the league would return to a 1-8 playoff seeded format and Patrick Kane on the verge of surpassing Modano's record. Then, former NHLer and FOX Sports Ohio broadcaster Jody Shelley (30:23) talks about the Blue Jackets firing Dean Evason, bringing Rick Bowness out of retirement, and the organisation and fanbase's craving for a return to the playoffs.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, Derek Brandeio, just said it. The national hour starts now. The Real Kipper and Born show. We are live on Sportsnet. Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, 960 in Calgary, and streaming always on Sportsnet. Plus, if you miss our show, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube, where everyone gives us a thumbs up. Nick Kippreos, Justin Boren, Sammy McKee, this hour of Real Kipper and Born brought to by Bet365. In a few minutes, we'll welcome the high.

highest scoring American-born player in NHL history, Mike Madano, for how much longer, we're not sure. Hanging on is Patrick Kane, climbs his way up the leaderboard. Should be there

before too long, but still, just an incredible career. Medano, one of my favorites watching as a kid, 1,500 NHL games, another 200 in playoffs, almost, Olympic Games, World Cups, you name it. And definitely one of the in the Fedorov category of cool.

Oh, just unbelievable hockey style. The jersey flown in the wind. Just speaking of which, great job changing the jersey over. Oh, thanks, man. Yeah, I got 17 people who mind me every day. A ton of credit right now. Thanks, man. As I look behind J.B., and I see that sweater,

how is Mike Madano not your first thought when you see that sweater? He is. You know who else comes to mind for me for some reason? Neil Broughton. They're going to say Dino Cisarley. Stu Gavin? Yeah. Hey, our boy. Gavin Welth.

There's a few. Yeah. Right? No, it's true. That Brian Lawton, who is a guest every once in a while on our show. Brian Bellows. You just name North Stars if you want. Don Beaupre.

John Casey. I might run out of names. I think I'm out of names. I was too young. No I got a Craig Ludwig in my ear But I remember him with Dallas more than anything I remember him having the biggest shin pads in NHL history

Slightly trained Do you think Do you think guys Like secretly hate When their records are broken I yeah they should openly hate it I think it would be a lot more respectable If guys like this sucks

It was the coolest being the number one American born player That's a bummer way to go, Pat, like he deserves it, but it's a bummer. That's like, you know, Wayne the whole way along being like, I hope, oh, actually gets it. Come on, Wayne. Just a gentleman. Yes.

Completely. But he'll be the first one to say it. It's like if Gordy Howe was this amazing role model and how can I not be like Gordy how that's who taught me. That's how the torch is passed on. but secretly without sharing any information. It's like, totally.

I think that would be very reasonable. Well, we'll ask Mike in a few minutes when he joins us how he feels about Pat Kane. Records are made to be broken, as they said. And he is still a special advisor with the Minnesota Wild,

I believe. Yep. And so pretty good hockey team that just acquired Quinn Hughes. We get into that a little bit too. James Reimer's debut tonight for the, Oh, you breaking it down for us? Is he, is he?

Well, I saw him practicing, so I think he's present. I think they're Mariline and back to back last I had heard. That would have been news to me that I would have needed to know. So if anyone sees that, please let me know. And no real word on Allmark. He's still officially not with the team. Well, he's been on the ice, I think, but on his own, if I'm not mistaken. Maybe I'm missing something.

Maybe I'm late to the party on this. but I don't think he's officially back with the team. He's non-rastered. Is he not? So they got to do the paperwork on that first. Yeah. As I understand it. All right, we got our guy.

All right. Let's bring him on. Not sure for how much longer he's going to be the highest scoring American-born player. But Mike Madano, how are you, my friend? I'm down about maybe four or five days top, I think. Hey, let me ask you something. When you hit this title, can you remind me who you passed?

Phil Housley was the guy that I passed. And then the goals was Joey Mullen. I think he was around five, early 500s. But yeah, Phil was the number. I was chasing there a few years ago. I had the fact check me on the number that I needed to pass him. but yeah, I was in San Jose early November, and yeah, it was a couple goals

and finally got that thing over with. So what does it feel like when you've sat on the top of the mountain for something like this? And, you know, we watched Wayne Greski through Ovechkin. Of course, we know what the standard lines are and how, you know, you got to do this gracefully. But, you know, I mean,

can you tell us anything more deeper on how really ticked off you are? You know, I guess when you're away from the game for so long and retire like I've been, I think there's more obviously the attention the game has got and the ability to watch games every night and all the games with the technology we have. I think, you know, it was probably not as talked about at the level that it might be with Patty. at this level at this point with how the game is popularized and everything.

So it was, but it was on my mind. I know my teammates, you know, was talked about and brought up a lot. And, you know, they all knew that that number was getting closer and closer. But, yeah, it was, you know, the start of the season didn't go well. I was kind of struggling. And then, you know, you get into single digits and like, how, let's just get to this thing and get it over with.

but yeah it was a lot of fun i guess chasing it down you know obviously some people i'd played a lot longer and did a lot more things and uh was able to accomplish a lot more things than i ever saw it out to be in the game and doing the game and uh just was lucky to play a long time with great teammates great teams and uh stayed healthy for the majority of it and then uh you know a couple work stoppages for a year and a half and then you kind of wonder you do the numbers in your If you had another 140 games to deal with, it could have been a good number. Mike, I just want to ask you about Sergey Federov's retirement recently, just because we were talking about all-time cool hockey players in the NHL,

and you were in that category for a lot of younger players watching you guys at that generation. Did you have any thoughts seeing Sergey's number go up to the rafters and being mentioned with a guy like that in all-time NHL coolness? He was. I mean, his ability to escape. you know at a high pace and do everything really fast. I mean, he was kind of the one of that that mold, you know, with Burrey McGilney. I mean, that was the line we were chasing around in the World Juniors in Anchorage.

And like we saw those three guys together like these guys are going to run away with this tournament. And they actually did. So but and then having to play with them in the Norris division against them all the time. And that whole team there was it was tough chasing him down all the time. So but he was just, you know, phenomenal athletes. you know, just a great skater and, you know, and, you know, you can always tell the great ones when they're just as fast with the puck as they are without it, you know, those are the guys that you had to deal with and, you know, he was one of them. But, you know, just as overall

strength, smarts, you know, just, man, he could do everything, everything he asked him to do and Scotty Bowman and the team and the Detroit organization, they asked him to do, he did it. And, you know, he's highly rewarded for it. You're listening to Mike Medano, all-time leader in points for American-born players. Pat Kane knocking on the door of that. Also, hockey operations advisor for the Minnesota Wild. And just how that's going, Mike, in terms of how much you're involved.

And truly, does it bother you that Billy Gering gets all the credit for Quinn Hughes when you were probably the mastermind behind it? Well, Billy knows that. We had a lot to do with hiring Billy about six or seven years ago. And I think that was a great hire. So I have that over his head. If there's a wrinkle in my job description. I kind of go back to that final interview that put him over the top and got him the job.

But rightfully so. He's been a phenomenal guy. I just love spending time with him and talking hockey. He knows a lot that's going on. And yeah, I mean, the huge deal is the biggest deal. the organization has ever seen and having a guy at that level, that talent. And, you know, to see him in and out, day in and day out, watching what he can do, it's made the guys around him a lot better, too.

They're just excited to come to the rank and watch how he plays because, you know, he's just had a other, you know, his mind and his feel for the game is just so much higher than a lot of people that play the game. And, you know, they say, go, man, this is how you're supposed to play hockey? Man, I would have never imagined. And so it's kind of a, you know, a bit of an eye-opener the guys that around them. And it's, rightfully so, they've been on a good tear since he kind of came to town. Mike, you were a part of an American Olympic hockey team,

three different Olympics where you guys kind of went, the Americans went from being maybe not considered the top, you know, the miracle in 1980. But eventually by the time you were there, you guys were one of the top programs and sort of, you know, I guess you're the bridge to now where it feels like the American, are, if not the favorites up there with, with a co-favorites with a number of teams.

Do you have any distinct memories of the Olympics? When you think back to your Olympic times, does anything in particular stand out for you? Well, there was a lot of excitement leading up to Nagano because we just had finished the World Cup a couple years prior. So that was kind of a great feeling that we had during that tournament, which was, I think, to this day, some of the rontiest and toughest hockey I think I've ever seen it,

in a best of three series playing against those guys. It was pretty much prison rules out there. So it was another level there. So we felt that that tournament really kind of turned people's heads and kind of got them thinking about American hockey to another level. And then you had a lot of, you know, you had all the expansion that was going on. And obviously in Dallas and California and Florida and everything.

So kids were a lot more kids were playing the game. You know, the U.S.HL came. into play, the North American Development Program, and Ann Arbor came into fruition. So there was a lot of avenues for kids to play and play at a high level. So I think that attributed to a lot

of the popularity and the growth of the game. And, you know, we thought we'd favor different better in Nagano, but you know, then we came back in Salt Lake and had a great gold medal game against Canada and, you know, not so much in Torino, but then another

great appearance in Vancouver. So, you know, at that point, there was a little bit of a change in of the guards, and you had all the Austin Matthews and the Jack Eichols and the Hughes and everything else that's coming into play, the goaltending with Hellebuck and Ottinger, and just a swamp load of great-grade talent that just came out of the woodworks in the early 2020s and that, so, I mean, they positioned himself really well. I think they got a phenomenal lineup, and, you know, so we're hoping, you know, they can put it together in Milano and Milano.

lot and it's a short tournament and you try to hope it comes together real quick for them. Yeah, and part of what coming together real quick means the rink being finished. I'm not sure what kind of day-to-day news you guys get down there in terms of the rink being finished, but Sammy's watching it every day on a feed 24-7. And, you know, you were part of three Olympics, of course, the last one in 2006, also in Italy. And, you know, any challenges you recall about the prep work and how much you needed to know? Because, you know, we do feel like the games are going to be played, Mike, for sure. But the rest of it around it in terms of what's going to be, what's it going to be like for family?

Did you ever experience anything that the players might be feeling a little bit on not knowing exactly how this thing is going to go down? And again, it's just not the players, it's their families as well, correct? Yeah, there's a lot that goes into that, just the preparation, especially when you've got to go overseas. And we had that same issue in Nagano and then Torino. It's just, you know, it's a lot of moving parts and trying to get people over there and get hotel rooms and, you know, trying to catch up to players and family and friends after the game.

It was funny in Torino where they had the sections blocked off. So whatever section you sat in, you couldn't go to any other. area of the rink. So it was partitioned off in the concourse. So if you had a buddy on the opposite end of you, you couldn't go see him until the game was over. So the just odd little rules that

they thought that would work in soccer over there that they do and they thought they'd do it in hockey. So it was really kind of a weird just set-ups that we saw in different places. But, you know, obviously having it in Salt Lake was just great. The travel was easy. Obviously we just got it right in there a couple days after the work stoppage.

and then, you know, you get right into it. But when you got to get overseas and you got to give everybody over with there, if kids are going and families and parents, and, you know, so there's a lot of prep leading into it. And you just hope that it all gets handled so you can go over there and focus on the game. But, you know, it's easier said than done. Once you get over there, it's a little fly by the seat of your pants and try to figure it out as you go.

And then, you know, and you don't have all that time in the world because before you know it's going to be weak into the tournament, you're going to figure out where you're going to be standing. in real quick. So it's, it's, the prep leading up to it is really important. Well,

and it's crazy. Like watching the NHL right now, it has led to a condensed schedule, a ton of hockey being played right now. And I don't know how you feel about the effect the Olympics are having on the NHL schedule. You know, personally,

fans' perspective feels like it's worth it from where we sit. But I'm sure for the players, it's a bit more of a grind. What are your thoughts on the effect on the NHL schedule? Yeah, Like, you know, on the other side of it as a fan is great because they're playing a lot. You get to watch, you know, every other night you're watching a ton of games. And every night, you know, you got eight, 10 games going on.

And, you know, as a player, you know, it's, it's, I guess, you know, if you're on a good run and you're winning games, you're like, oh, let's just keep going. We keep playing. Forget the practices. Let's just roll right into the game. And then, you know, you have these pickups like maybe, you know, some of these teams are having. You go one and two and out of one or two wins out of eight. you're like, man, we needed a couple of days of practices to kind of regroup and hit the reset button, but you don't have time.

So you can almost dig a deeper hole than you could the opposite way as you could on the positive side. So it's a challenging thing. But yeah, physically, I mean, man, I look at the schedule for Minnesota after the break. It's like, I don't know, it looks like they have maybe 16 or 17 games in March. It's like, you know, three or four back to backs. And, you know, so it's going to be a battle of attrition there when they come back from this tournament and kind of a mad sprint and to the end of that April last game comes.

Mike, you might be the perfect guy to ask this question because you mentioned the World Cup that you guys played in, which was phenomenal hockey and like you said, no prison rules. And we saw a little bit of that in probably the first 10 seconds of the Four Nations tournament. My question to you is

knowing what we're capable of doing internationally on our terms with the World Cups or the Four Nations or whatever's coming up next against the Olympics. Were the Olympics everything that you thought they would be? Do we still need the Olympics? Can you pull it off internationally on an NHL kind of controlled environment? What are your overall thoughts between a World Cup moving forward and an Olympics?

And do you need both? Can you go to one? That's a good question, Nick. I've always been a fan of the World Cup scenario because it always has probably played over here. It's either played in the U.S. or Canada, so people can get to it. It's live TV, so the time for TVs are great. Players don't have to travel all over the world to get to it.

And, you know, usually, you know, we had it at the beginning of training camp at the start of training camp. So everybody was really well wrestling. and fresh coming off the summer break and you had about, you know, 10, 12 days to get prepped for it for ourselves. We're in Providence leading up to the tournament. So, you know, and you do, it's like,

it's like Olympic hockey. You have the best of the players in the world that are playing. They're all in the, and on the same continent playing in the same location. So I was a big, I was a big fan of that, but, you know, that Olympic, you know, that Olympic title, winning a gold medal or silver medal is always kind of something

that's, you know, it was never on the radar for a lot of guys in the NHL for us until we, you know, 98. So it is, it is nice when you do get to play the best on best and get people to get to see some of these players from, you know, Germany, Finland, Sweden that they may not know of that are play, actually playing in the NHL that become household names because of the Olympics and the popularity of it. But, but yeah, I kind of go back and forth on it because I was,

I was a big, big fan of the World Cup. And, you know, then you get in a basketball. best of three series for the final, which was great. These one game knockouts are just tough. You try to play a perfect game and something along the way throws a little hiccup in it and you could win that, lose that game. So that's a tough one. Last one for me, Mike, before we let you go, just want to get your thoughts on, you know,

you're probably a guy who's got some influence at the league office. We got to go back to the one versus eight playoffs. Do we not? The Minnesota Wild right now. You're going to play the Dallas Stars in the first round and finish second. or third in the league, you get the stars? I'm not a big fan of it. I agree.

You know, you work all year to get in that position. That's the benefit of finishing in the top fours. You're going to play someone in the bottom four, you know, so in the bottom eight. So it's, it's, I, I'm a big fan of that old, that old setup, you know, and it was like, you know, the North Stars in our 91. We were the, I think we got in it with 67 or 68 points that season. And, you know, we're the 16th, we're the 16th seed, I think, out of the top, out of the top 16. And, you know, but, you know, you just, you know, you hit that, you hit it at the right time in the right moment. But, yeah, I'm, I, I agree.

You can't have those top teams going at it in the first round. Those are, those are conference final setups to go to the finals for sure. Dallas against, you know, Colorado or Minnesota or something. Those are, those are further down the line. You don't get those in the first round because, you know, at that point, you almost feel like this, the playoffs get easier as you get closer to the conference finals, which it should be the other way. And then, you know, granted back when it was 1-8, you get to those six or seven-day seeds. I mean, for Dallas, we always felt like we were playing to Evanton.

It was just kind of a, it was just brutal hockey, you know, just tough hockey. And they just made it hard on us to get through that first round. And that's the way it should be, you know. It's just a physical type grinding two months of hockey. And, you know, so that's, I agree. we need to go back to that one. Before I let you go, I got to mention Pat Kane, just four points away.

It could happen this weekend. Mike, will you be watching? Have you talked to Pat at all throughout any of this? I sent him a little congratulatory for the 500, and, you know, I'm kind of saving the next one for the big one. I know it's coming, obviously, soon, and I'll definitely be in Detroit to help celebrate after the fact and keeping tabs on them.

But I'm kind of watching. the score sheet now here going into it, but I'm happy for him. It's been a phenomenal career. Just amazing numbers. He's done everything. A player would love to have on his resume. So he's a great guy too, but I'm happy for him. It's it's a bittersweet. You know, you have these numbers, but you know, someone somewhere, someone down the line is going to come out and get this number. But I knew I knew when I first played against him. handsome and saw him coming to league that he might be that guy pushing on this number and here we are. So I'm excited for him.

It's going to be a great for him. Well, we consider both of you guys at the top of the mountain. Mike really appreciate this. Fantastic insight. Thanks for joining us, pal. You got it, guys. Anytime. Good talking with you.

Thanks so much. That is the great Mike Madano. That was great. The Olympic stuff's crazy to me. Shout out Jaja. Yep. Oh, yeah, Zaja landed the interview. That's all him.

Booked it. some stuff. I really got the sense that he ditch the Olympics. No, yeah. I'm just telling you. We call that lead in the witness, buddy. You're like, well, how much does the Olympics suck?

I gave him every opportunity to say I love the Olympic experience. I wouldn't trade it for the world. Didn't say that. Kippy Batman says. Didn't say that. Didn't say that. Gary Kippee.

Yeah, no, I mean. There's something scary and I could maybe see I'd eye on. I totally disagree with you. I think the Olympics are the Olympics. They've been around for a bajillion years. It is the world's greatest at all the sports. And to have an Olympic gold medal is not like, you know, the league said we were the coolest, you know, whatever the NHL puts together.

Wait to Troy Crosby shows up. at the rink and he's sitting on a bucket. Okay. I think that... Troy Crosby? Hmm. Sorry. I thought you called him Troy Crosby.

The dad. His dad. Oh. Yeah. Oh, okay. What are we talking about? His dad's brother. I didn't know Sid's dad's name.

Come on. Come on. Get up with the dads. I think, though, if you're going to host an Olympics in a winter Olympics specifically, I think part of the prerequisite from here on out, Seats. You got a damn rink.

Yeah. You got a rink. Like, I don't think we should be starting building a rink for the Olympics. Like, I think if you're going to be going to a winter destination where there's going to be hockey played, call me crazy, but maybe have an established or rink. But they don't go to any place where it's already established. Do they have, well, part of it's done it multiple times. Landing the Olympic bid, though, is getting new buildings built.

That's part of why cities do it sometimes. And then they turn into, like. And Italy, are they doing the daytime? Are the workers take an afternoon break? I saw C.G. Can we have some like North American union laws for the construction of the facilities? I saw C.J's tweet about it. He's like, they're back at it after the weekend.

I'm like, the weekend. No, that's not true. Yes, it was. They couldn't work through the weekend or two weeks to go? Why am I working hard? Why am I working weekends? And the guys built on the right. No way that's true.

I got to find the tweet. But he was basically like, yeah, they're back at it in full force after the weekend off. Oh my God. The boys are just crunching foronies. It's Saturday. Who's the guy that said, listen, all I care about is the players play and everything else. Sweets aren't my gig. I don't care if there's showers.

We'll play hockey. Yeah. Oh, my God. God. They can't be true. They took the weekend off. I'll find that tweet for you after the break. But, like, you know, they went to Salt Lake. There was a ring.

They went to Vancouver. There was a ring. They played, I think, was there. I don't know. Salt Lake. Do they not build? Do they build for Salt Lake? I don't know.

Because they were playing in the rink last night, right? I think it was the same one where, because they were talking about it on the broadcast last night, that's where Salé and Pellet got jobbed out of the ice dancing thing. I don't know if it was built just for the Olympics. I don't think it was there. Okay. All right.

So. The E-Center was built there. That might have been for the Olympics. Anyway, they got a different rink too. I don't think it's too much to ask to have a rink. If you're going to play a winter Olympics there. Just give it enough. Just build it.

I would just build the rank if you're going to build it. You're right, though. There's prestige to the gold medal. And there's a reason that the players, Kipper, have fought for this for multiple years. And I understand that the owners in the league, I understand their perspective, but the players want it.

How many players have said, I don't care what the rink looks like? All play. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? Olympic gold, baby. Kippers are not listening. All right.

It's over. What do you mean? It's over. Olympics. It's over. League office can be back at it again. All right, it's game time. Resented by Bet365.

Visit the app, Play the Stodz. And see why it's ever ordinary at Bet365. With tonight, Team Plus, so Terry only, please play responsibly. Four games on the ice tonight, like I said. Borny is going to be on the broadcast tonight. Who's on the panel with you tonight there, bud? We got Luke Gazdick, Sam Cossentino, and David Amber.

D.A. D.A. in the house. Love it. The Ottawa senators and are favored tonight. It's pretty even actually. It's minus 115 for the Ottawa senators.

It is minus 105 for the New York Rangers. Pretty close on the money line there. A lot of rumors, including in Kipper's latest article on SportsSight dot CA about some trade rumors and some buzz, that are Tammy Panarin may be on the move at this trade deadline,

a pending UFA, a guy that a lot of contenders may be looking at. He is plus $1.15. to score a goal tonight for the New York Rangers. Give me an our Temi Panarin anytime goal. Brady Kachuk hasn't been great, but he likes probably playing an MSG, big American guy playing in the big American arena.

Give me a goal from Brady Kuch as well tonight. And a good one later on tonight, Vegas Golden Knights in L.A., in L.A., taking on the Kings ahead of the game of the century, buried in the second half of back and back. They're scheduled loss coming up versus the Toronto Maple Leafs. Perfect. Need that.

We love them to have a schedule. bus. Vegas is minus 120 in that game, LA plus 100 on the money line. And the Buffalo Sabres who still find themselves in a playoff spot, it would be nice if they would lose for once or somebody in the East would lose for once.

They are minus 135 in the money line. The Philadelphia Flyers are plus 115. Don't mind a little value there with the Philadelphia flyers on the road. That was game time. Oh, no, go ahead. That was game time. Instead of at 365, visit the athlete of Stodd's and see why it's never ordinary.

At 365 must be 15 plus. Ontario only. please play it responsibly. There's got to be like a record amount of three point games this year. I need to look into this. Every game. Every game. Everything goes overtime.

It's crazy. Ah, yeah. So I think Ottawa Rangers, I'm not just saying this because I'm on the broadcast. I actually think it's going to be a good game tonight because I think there's two teams who are better than their records with higher expectation than their records who are at real crossroads in their season here. So I'm I'm expecting good push. Ottawa got to win last night.

Rangers. Man, I just heard. It's just now, I guess, you know, hope for still a St. Louis Blues, 9, 2000 and what, 19? Yeah, 2019. Right, where they were buried mid-January, right around now. Yeah. This is when that historic move happened.

Yeah. That's what the Rangers are down to. The back, just find a hole. Right? Yeah. No. That's. It's my hole, got to go. Not happening.

I gotta tell you, don't see it. Don't see it. Don't see it with the Rangers. Rangers. Don't see it. I'm just keep refreshing. Coming up lame. I just keep refreshing in Twitter, hoping to see something about comedy.

Okay, we'll take a quick break. We got tons to get into, including. Joey Shelley on the other side of the break. Yeah, we got Joe Shelley, of course, because that talk revolves around Rick Bonas, winning his first game as a Columbus Blue Jacket last night. We got Tom Fitzgerald Sound out of New Jersey. He met the press. We'll get our thoughts on that.

Plenty more. Don't go away. Real Kippur and Born. Hey, it's Aylish Forafar. And I'm Justin Cuthbert. Join us as we discuss the most important sports stories of the day and tee up the biggest games of the night.

It's the fan, 6 p.m. weekdays on Sportsnet, Sportsnet, 590, the fan, and wherever you get your podcast. As a reminder, this Real Kippur and Born show brought to by Bet 365. Nickypry is Justin Bourne. Sammy McKee. All right, let's take a quick peek into the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Let's welcome in. Jody Shelley, broadcaster with Fox Sports, Ohio. And someone that knows a little about the Columbus Blue Jackets who made a major decision to fire their head coach and bring in Rick Bonas. Shell, how are you, my friend? I'm great. How are you guys doing?

Yeah, we're doing okay. Listen, you know, usually we bring you at the top of the hour. We got a lot of league stuff to go over, but let's just focus on Columbus right here and right now and why. now. Obviously, the expectations haven't been met at this point, but the decision to fire Dean Eveson, how do you think it all went down in your opinion? Well, yeah, you said expectations this season after, I mean, a season that was unthinkable to start last year.

And, you know, they played and exceeded expectations. There was individuals that had career highs, you know, everything. kind of went right last year, almost so right that I think they should have made the playoffs. And they kind of fumbled there a little bit. And so this year you come into this market, they're expected to be a playoff team. And they're sputtering right now. And they're giving up third period leads. And, you know, that's the sign of maybe confidence, but also, you know, maybe there's a little bit of technical stuff in there that the players are just unsure of.

So Don Waddell decided that this had to happen. And, you know, you look at Dean Evanson, he came in. he hired as a pretty youthful, inexperienced coaching staff, and he gave them a lot of responsibility, and that's the way he wanted to do it, and it just wasn't working. So you bring in a guy with a tremendous amount of experience

and Rick Bonas, keep most of that coaching staff, which is, you know, you got Scott Ford, who's coming out of the minors to coach for his first year in the National Hockey League as an assistant. Jared Bull has been around the organization for a while, but still is an assistant.

And then you have Mike Abbott, I think that's a great experience. But Steve McCarthy was a guy who was working his way up. And so they made some changes. And, you know, they've made trades to try to make things happen and get things better. And he just figured that it wasn't going in the direction. And he's been around the last little bit, Don Waddell watching. So he saw something he didn't like and he made this change.

So before we turn the page onto what comes next, I just want to look back for a second, get your thoughts on Dean Everson's coaching tenure in Columbus, as you mentioned, short, good year last year, like it just seems like things went pretty well most of the time until this year. Yeah, you know, I think a lot of things went right. He's a emotionally charged motivator. And, you know, no one knew the landscape

coming into last year with the tragedy in Columbus with those brothers, the Goodrow brothers. And he was phenomenal with uniting a group and playing for, a higher purpose and, you know, keeping the guys together. And he's really, really good at that. And when it came to maybe some technical things with, when you have Kent Johnson playing on the fourth line in and out of the lineup,

this is the first round pick that last year was a penalty killer and had career highs. It seemed like those guys with the skill, there was times where they weren't slotted in areas where they thought they were going to be. And guys like Olivier, Miles Wood, players that play that tough friend and that easy to pick out, in your face style, they excelled. And, you know, for those skilled guys,

those draft picks, which you need to thrive in certain areas and kind of help them along, it just wasn't working. So, you know, when you have that happening, when you have those prospects of picks, it's not just work harder.

It's, there's got to be a little more game plan to it. I think that's where it fell apart. You're watching and listening to former national hockey leader, Jody Shelley, covering the Columbus Blue Jackets. So is Rick coming in as a favor to somebody?

Is there a chance? that this thing goes well and he sticks around for the next, I don't know, 10 years? Did you hear what happened? Did he hear of that? Around 10? So, Dogwood else said he woke up at three of the morning and he was thinking about names and Rick Bonas came to his mind so he wrote it down and then he called him when he got up and Rick was on his boat with his wife and Rick said, can you give me 10 minutes?

And I called him back and said, you know, him and his wife, Judy, want to be back in hockey and they had health issues. That's why he stepped away. And he is over the moon that he's back coaching. So I don't know. I don't have to tell you. You know, it's the rest of the season. Then they'll talk after that and go from there.

But it's a win-win for everyone. Rick Bonas gets to coming back to the National Hockey League and help develop and get this team on the right direction and hopefully get him in the playoffs. And he's also going to assess everything for Don Waddell. If he does step away, he can say, I see this, this, this. And, you know, these need to be improved. Or they say, we love what you've done. Please stay for another table.

10 years. We don't know, but it needs to be taken care of here. I mean, Cole Cillinger's had five coaches in five years in the National Hockey League, and that's a little much. Yeah. Yeah, not ideal. So it's just such an odd thing to me. Like if you're, it's almost like having a substitute teacher. It's like, I'm not going to be here long, but you know, fall in line. I think that makes for a tough level of commitment, doesn't it? Like if you're, is the hope here to have this team rally and get back in playoffs and find it here? Morning, I think there is a craving for that detailed game plan in this room. I look at Zach Wrenski on nights after losses where he has done everything that he possibly can.

And then the support in times when the play should be there was lost, you know, or there's players that are lost. You know, you lose a game after a 58-minute effort. Pittsburgh game was really at the start of it. You know, some decisions made, some client telling the... ice, maybe it was that. And these guys are craving it. So I think there's a refreshed air in just having certain direction because when you have five guys from Russia, one guy doesn't speak English well, you know, you have guys that

are new in the league, new players in the last two weeks. You have to have that certainty of the parameters within a shift for everybody. And I thought they had them. But it seems like this year, I don't know if they forgot them or they just, they want more and I think that that's what this is going to provide. Jody, what is sitting Rick? What would you say Rick's top priority is when he comes in there for 24, 48 hours in a week, 10 days? I watched him last night closely, Kipper, on the bench, just assessing.

You know, who's in charge of the PK? Okay, we're going to do it your way and I'm going to watch. Who's in charge in the power play? Okay, we're going to do it your way and I'm going to watch. how do we go about our business daily, who's slot and where and why, and then make his adjustments as he sees it. I think he's been watching a lot of hockey. He's been working on TV.

You know, I think that's his priority right now is to assess how it's been done to see why it is or isn't working and improve in those areas. And then slot guys were, you know, maybe he's worked with a lot of young players. He came into Winnipeg years ago in a very similar situation. And, you know, he had young talent. He had bigger guys that didn't know, kind of figure out the roles. I think he's going to help this be more of a team game. And I think that's important for guys like Werenski, who plays a lot of defensive minutes.

I think it's important for him to get some offensive minutes to help improve everybody on this team. Oh, and the other thing is, of course, defensively, they're not very good. Defensively, they have to tighten things up. And that's a team concept, and that's understanding your role and your commitment in the defensive zone. that's also a big priority. One more, Jody, before I let you go, and that's just Columbus Blue Jacket fans. You know, I've been listening to the Buffalo Sabres

over the last few years, and all I've heard was, man, these fans deserve better than this. When you look at the Columbus Blue Jackets and their lack of success, basically from inception here, talk to me about that market here and what they've been through and how much they deserve moving forward. forward here because it is a good market.

It's a great market. It's a market of, you know, college football where the coach is, is the largest and the conduit to the team and the biggest personality and the most heralded person in the community because, you know, the coach is the director of everything going on and it's been tumultuous in Columbus in that situation. They deserve stability. And the ownership is, the ownership is committed to win and they trust the people that they hire to do the job that they've hired to do. And there's been a little too many, I guess, pickups and change, major changes that have had to happen here.

They do see stability in the players that they have around. I mean, they've waited for Cole Cillinger and Kent Johnson and Adam Fantilli and guys like Zach Werencky have grown up here. Boone Jenner is a player that identifies with this market tremendously. So they deserve much better. But I think that they like having the consistency of the players. that they admire, but they just want to have a coach that they can all get behind and stay with

for years to come. So, you know, this is a team that last year should have made the playoffs. This is a team that should be playing better. And I just feel like this fan base is a great sports market, and they're getting frustrated, but they're still behind this team.

Awesome stuff, Joe. Really appreciate your time, my friend. Any time, guys, thanks for having me on. Jody Shoney. Appreciate it. Yeah, see you morning. Yeah, they've all time. They just can't. He's awesome.

He just cannot get out of whatever. We're good? Columbus just can't get out of their own way sometimes and get to that next stage. You know, this is a silly thing to say when you don't follow market as closely as you do your home market. But they're another team where I look at them go, okay, they haven't made playoffs most of their time.

Where is everyone? Like when you finish poorly, you draft high and you should have a wave of talent eventually. And I look at their lineup and it's like, yes, they have good young players. Ventilly's that guy. Fantilly's that guy. Kent Johnson's that guy.

Yeah, but I don't know. He's supposed to be. He's deep too. He's a good player. He is. I guess the type of guys who move, like they've been almost not bad enough. Do you know what I mean?

Like they haven't got top three picks, top four picks. They're always okay. I think Fantelli was the second overall pack. Okay, they got the exception here in Fantilly. Fantili is good. But like every team has that. So, I don't know, like what's the ceiling for Cole Cillinger?

What's the ceiling for, I God, I'm looking at their roster. I can't even have, there's not even another name outside Kent Johnson of like good young guy. Marchanko's arrived. He's a player player. Wrenski's a superstar. Top 3D in the league for me. And Jet, Jet looks like he's got a bright future. Okay.

It just looks like a, I just. Kipper drop mid. Yeah, if you do every team in the NHL and have the conversation we just had, you can come up with names. It's like, oh, they got this guy in the way, he's a good young, whatever. Every team has three or four guys. But who did we talk to yesterday? God, he's talking, oh, Utah, Bill Armstrong was talking about,

and Kip goes, are you guys too small? Is essentially what he asked him. And Bill Armstrong, who they've been crap for a while and drafted high for a while, was like, yeah, Kip, we got a kid who's six seven on the minors, kid who's six eight in the minors, got another kid who's six foot six of the minors. got five first round picks. They're coming in the next two years. We got a basketball team in the miners.

We got three first round picks. Like, it's coming for Utah. Where is it for Columbus? They got that T. Gingalah, too. They got a ginlan assistant. They got a bunch of guys from the World Junior team. It doesn't feel like it's there for Columbus in the same way. New Jersey Devils.

Mm-hmm. Tom Fitzgerald met the media. locally there. Uh-huh. 38 minutes. 38 minutes. Wow. And I don't know how many times I heard it's on me.

But clearly whether it's Kevin's shovel day off who did this basically three weeks ago, a month ago. I think less than that, but around that. Okay. A couple weeks ago. I would say two weeks. There's more pressure on these guys than ever before to feel like they need to do this. To communicate where we're at and we're at. why and I support that. And this is again looking at your social media or getting the feedback.

I know you get requests of can I talk to you. And then, you know, Tom mentioned today, listen, I know everybody's asking, so let me just do it this way. But there's a real sense out there they need to, they need to be heard from like part of the old accountability thing. Well, I do think that there was a growing amount of noise around their team just saying why hasn't he talked to the media when other teams, GMs or whatever are doing that? And I just, I get the idea from his perspective where it's like I have nothing to say.

Like I'm going to go do 38 minutes. Of really dancing. Yeah. Top dancing. It has me a bad feeling when you sit down and be like, I'm here to talk. I don't actually have anything to say. You know, we're not doing us.

as well as we want to. We are open to making trades. We've been trying. We're going to, we've been trying. We do have. Did I sum up 38 minutes? I didn't listen to the presser. How about we play one of the clips?

Jaja grabbed it. Let's play, let's play the first one. Why should you still be the GM? Fitzgerald, clip one, please, Derek. Oh, geez, feisty. If we have it. Why do you believe that you should be the one to find those solutions? Why do you believe you should still be the GM when, you know,

you haven't fallen further than a great question? It's a great question. It's a great question. And a question, I know, a lot of people probably want to know, but I'm very confident in where I've taken this team to and how we've built through the core and added the pieces that we wanted to add to become a contender every year. The passion I have for New Jersey, the devil's ownership, and more important, the fans, I love this. I love New Jersey. It's been my home for the past 10 years, 11

years. I'm trying to, because I do think I can be the one to help move this organization forward and the goal has never changed to be a Stanley Cup champion. And that's not going to change. I believe I can do that. That's a tough question. I mean, he said,

I don't know, did he say it's a great question? And then he repeated it twice. It's like, let me say it one more time so I can really collect my thoughts here. I just, I gotta tell you, I love, like I like Tom Fitzgerald, I should say. I think it is a good job. The team is a lot better than they'd been years ago.

But I don't think a very good answer is because I really want to, because I really like it here because I'm pro devils and I live here. Like, you know, I think you need to, he needs to make a better case for his team. So, you know, can I ask you, I'm the reporter. You're, I ask you that why should you still be the GM of the devils? What, how would you answer that question? I think the best thing you do is make a case of things you've done well. You know, like, you've got, traded for this guy, drafted well with this guy, you know,

we're in a position where we're one or two pieces away, we think. Yeah. My answer would have been, we're all constantly being evaluated. We all have people we have to answer to. That's for someone else to decide. I'm here. This is my job. I feel like I'm confident that we can get this thing going.

And that's it. Get out of it. That's it. Your answer is more evasive and probably better, you know, in the sense that it's just like, I don't have to answer that. This isn't my fault. That's not up for me to decide. This is the job that I have. That's what Keith said when he got asked

a few weeks ago about it. This is what I'm supposed to do until someone tells me differently. We're all being analyzed. We're all scrutinized. We all have people we have to answer to. But it is. Someone says, why should you be the gym? And it's like someone else makes that decision. It feels like, you don't think you should either.

I like it here maybe isn't the best course of action. I live here. You know what it says to me? You know what? To your point, if he thought for one second that question was coming, he would not have answered it that way. He wouldn't have. You think he's going to go into that and not?

That's pretty pretty rare to get. No, what I'm telling you is I don't believe they spend enough time to prep. And I don't know if it's the. PR department. I don't know if it's on Tom himself, but if I own a hockey club or a, you know, top level company, man,

my PR department better be sharp as tax. I don't know. Tight. Totally. I totally agree with that. Tight. I don't know if you guys follow their beat writer, Ryan Novazinski.

It had to be him who's asking. He has a beat writer. He asks hard questions. And he's, he'll be there. Do you know how hard that is to do? You know what hard that is to do? People always think,

One of the big fan things is, you got to go down there and ask the tough questions. In a room full of people that's being broadcast sitting there and looking at the general manager in the eye, who's played over a thousand games in the NHL and be like, why should you still do this, buddy? Yeah. Takes a lot of guts. Your track record stinks. Tristan Jari, good return last night. Do we want any more of these clips?

We got a pile of clips here. We got two minutes. We're good on New Jersey. We got one minute. Jari did stuff? Yeah. Do you see his there all the time?

I got my questions on Jari leading Edmonton to the Brahmas land. I have, there's an article recently that was like, is Jari better than Skinner? Or is even better than Skinner. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. It's, you couldn't have Skinner. Maybe you could have done better than Jari. But like, you're better with Jari than Skinner. Skinner first, second thing start going wrong.

Everyone's like, uh-boo. Maybe it's, maybe Ingram's better than both of them. Maybe. They did the blackwood wedge wood. All right. Maybe they can do the same thing here.

Two solid hours of solving nothing on the real Kippenbornborn show. Well, Medano was really good. Really good. And our thanks to Mike Madano and Jody Shelley today. J.B., you're just getting warmed up, baby. Scotia Bank, Wednesday, eight hockey, Ottawa, and the New York Rangers 730 Eastern. Anything of that?

that. Looking forward to it. Have fun. Your microphones are off. Have fun. Go Sands. Go Sands. Says J.B.

Have a great night, everybody.