Real Kyper & Bourne - Cutter Confusion

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start the second hour by recapping a wild week in Philadelphia as the dramatic fallout of the Cutter Gauthier trade continues. They are joined by Flyers' analyst Chris Therien (6:09), who breaks down the timeline leading up to and following the Gauthier deal in Philly, how the trade was received by Flyers fans and some of the questions still left unanswered. Finally, revisiting expansion and why the league's pool of talent may not be able to support it.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.

let's welcome everybody in for our national hour on the real kipper and born show we are live on sportsnet and sportsnet 650 in vancouver sportsnet 960 in calgary this hour real kipper and born brought to you by bet 365 before we welcome in our next guest chris terrian former flyer defenseman snow the goalie a a Flyer podcast. He, of course, was covering the Montreal Canadiens and the Philadelphia Flyers, a game that was won by the Flyers in a shootout. I thought we'd just spend a couple of minutes kind of recapping this crazy week in Flyer land

where we saw a significant trade by the Philadelphia Flyers in Anaheim when the Flyers sent their top prospect, Cutter Gauthier, to Anaheim for Jamie Drysdale in a second-round pick. And where it kind of got crazy was the backlash after word got out that he didn't want to be a Philadelphia Flyer.

Not at all. And, I don't know, kind of seemed a little quiet the other day, or at least it looked like everybody was ready to move on. And then our favorite soundbite, John Tortorella. Should we lay out why he, like with the Hayes thing? If everybody doesn't know, I'm sure if you're listening to the show, you know. But like there was Anthony

what's the last name? Sanfilippo? Sanfilippo. Alluded to in a blog that Kevin Hayes and Cutter Gauthier are friends and he alluded to the fact that maybe some sources told him that he influenced him that he wouldn't want to play for torts or he wouldn't want to go to failure or whatever so he kind of

influenced him so that was kind of what led to what happened last night which is for me being in this world of constantly talking to people not only as a broadcaster today but as a player that's all everybody ever did and i'm not suggesting like i know anything about this kevin hayes story yeah but it wasn't it's never uncommon for somebody to sit around a bar or in the summer working out to go man it really sucked for me there and i hate that guy and it was brutal just one of a thousand pieces of info you take in but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be brutal for you yeah i don't get where kevin Hayes could have that type of influence, anybody to have that type of decision. Right.

Yeah, no, it just seems impossible to me too. So do we have John Tortorella's clip, Sammy? We have it. Would you like to hear it? Let her rip. Let's do it. Is the guy here, is there a guy here that caused Kevin Hayes a problem? Yes.

You? Yeah. Are you kidding me? Do you think Kevin Hayes is gonna do something like that? It's. Okay, last question. First and letting the first two by him. It just pisses me off that you guys throw that around and affect someone's life.

Kevin Hayes and I had a problem. We couldn't come to an agreement how to play. That's a good man. That's a good man. And what you've said is gonna stay with them. That's what you guys don't understand. You say something and you're gonna sit there and say you have the right sources I call okay alright what do you think

if I'm the Philadelphia Flyers I really would have liked my head coach to stay away from it yeah you have to understand who your head coach to stay away from it. Yeah. Yeah.

You have to understand who your head coach is. Gasoline on the fire. Torts is Torts, right? Torts is never the Flyers or he's not the Rangers or the Blue Jackets or whatever. He's just Torts. And so he had a Torts moment and he torched the guy and torched it up. Isn't that what every single guy that's played for torched has said? Is that he's fair, he's hard to play for, and he'll be forthcoming. Probably think Kevin Hayes had a stronger opinion than that one, Sammy.

But I mean, that's, I've seen guys say that about him, is what I'm getting at. I've never played for him. I don't know if I just played for him. But that like, he's going to tell you how he feels and he torts them pretty hard. Listen, I, I like torts.

I do. There's parts of them I like, and then there's parts that you watch sound clips like that in a few over his career where you're going like, I didn't need that. Come on, John. I guess that's what I'm saying,

Brooksy. But that's what makes him him. And that's why. Brooksy, if I want to explain it to you, I would. Yeah, but you know, like I also saw and you kind of listen to

him a little bit and he makes it abundantly clear that there's been friction between Kevin Hayes and I. But I kind of got a feeling listening to that, that that was a wonderful opportunity to bridge some,

some, some Asian gap. Yeah. The bridge, the like, it's like, it was an olive branch. Like I'm using this vehicle to send a message to Kevin Hayes.

I love you. Or I, I, you're a good man, and next time we see each other, hopefully you know what I did for you. Or boy. If you're Kevin Hayes, you're going to love the man for that. He's taken a beat. You saw, I don't really want to bring up the details of what Kevin Hayes said,

what people were telling him in his DMs. It was awful stuff. If you're him, hearing Tord say that's got you got to love that yeah anyways okay let's welcome him in chris terrian who's been on the show many times and uh never scared to share an opinion here and there and uh good on you chris for for coming on uh first and foremost, we've seen a lot of trades as players and now as broadcasters, but this one seemed to take

a life of its own. What's your overall grasp of that? Because you also have a situation where you work with Anthony and I know

he had led that conversation bringing in Kevin Hayes, but, you know, where did this thing kind of fall off the tracks for you? Well, I think what happened was, and if you go back to the game Kipper, thanks for having me on guys, by the way, the game starts, you know, and I go into the Wells Fargo center to call hockey games, you know,

to talk about the flyers and eight minutes into the game, my group, but Snowley goalie said oh my god Cutter Gauthier got traded like this was and we're like what like how did that happen and so we went on and again you know the talk at the time was about Cutter and like what happened immediately why what happened what went south here that that would have happened that a 19 year old that's never played a shift would dictate a trade to a team like the Flyers that you know if you're talking about location American City all that stuff I mean low travel it's great it's a great place so then I guess somebody went around and went digging about

about it and I think there's a lot of emotion in the building uh Anthony received some texts throughout the game and he had and this is a part where I could say as a former player I don't lie and I'll never I don't have any reason to because i've been a player that played a long time in that league and i've also been on the wrong side of many reporters or the wrong column and i don't like that so from a standpoint i don't like any pile on but the information that anthony had i saw it and so did the two other people and for the first time in my life life i understood sources and methods and unfortunately i hate living in that world um but that's what was was said to us and again it became one of

this big snowball that went on and on ultimately a trade was made uh there was a lot of emotion after when he presented that it would that kevin may have involved being involved and you know what and i said some stuff about him but i regret you know i said you know some not nice things about kevin and i'm and i regret that he's going to be he's an alumni here he was a good guy well liked in the locker room but again the night was so full of emotion as to why this young 19 year old hockey phenom didn't want to come to Philadelphia and I think at the end of the day that's kind of what went down as for the reporting I'm not a guy who scoops anybody i don't no one's going to text me any information uh jonesy danny and dan hilford did a good job keeping that under wraps because it

didn't become a story and i think that's the part that's so important is that there's no real discussion yeah we're gonna have to absorb 72 or 96 hours of this conversation but after that it ends because we're not talking about a player that doesn't want to play here. He's already been moved. I thought the story was dead. And then I just heard you guys before I came on about, you know, Torts last night going at Anthony. Maybe somebody should have probably told Torts we're partners with the team. We're partners. We go in there at the games.

I do pregame radio. And we do snow the goalie. Part of what we do is to make the game fun. Like, I think we want to, you know, we keep our fans light. We tell store hockey stories. And by no means are we a podcast or an avenue that would belittle or berate or take stories and make them up. I don't live in that world in my real life. I can't.

And I sure would never want that to happen to me as a player. So for all these things that happened to Kevin, the DMs, I feel terrible about that. That should never happen. I condone all that. But at the same time, there's a story in here. And I can't really go any further than what was presented to you. And I think there needs to be probably a big powwow of some kind in the next couple of weeks. But that's where we're at with it today.

And I'm ready to move on. And the story has taken a life of its own. You know, and then reading today, as for the player, and I don't want to talk about him too much because he's in Anaheim, he'll probably have a great career, a multitude of things that he didn't like here. I don't know what those would have been. There's a new management team here. There's a lot of good things going on in Philadelphia.

Yes, the last three years prior to this, Kipper and Mourney, we didn't have a lot of good things to say. But there's been a clear directive and a shift change for Philadelphia, and I think a lot of fans and the people in hockey are awfully happy about it. I know I am. I'm thrilled to go back down to the building every night and really watch a team that's played hard. And what's funny about it

is john tortorellas had a huge hand in that like he's done a great job this year as a coach so uh yeah i think everybody will be on each other's christmas cards lists again uh after last night and that's probably a good thing for hockey so with this all you know the dust kind of settling and then the dust gets kicked up and then it settles then it's kicked up and you know kind of over and repeat here you know how do flyers fans feel today like is there someone to is someone to blame or are they happy that they got in a nice prospect in return for a guy you know where is the sentiment in philadelphia on you know what just happened it's it's so here's the part that gets funny nothing unites philadelphia like a player in any sport that doesn't want to play here i mean it is the most amazing thing to watch

when you all you have to do to philadelphia to poke the bear and say um i don't want to play there i want to get traded because you can look at at the the magnificent sports runs these teams have had, the Eagles Super Bowl in 17, the Phillies great runs to the NLCS. You know, it's been a lot of fun to watch in a lot of ways. So we're thinking, I look at myself as someone who's truly blessed to have been in the NHL. And I know like your partner there, Nick Kiprios, we were guys that loved every second of the game that we were able to play in this league.

And I never took a second of it for granted. You know, if I said the other day, if there was a team in Whitehorse in the Yukon, I would have been up there waiting for training camp to start. But there's so much information that flies out there now, guys, on the internet. And everybody's got an opinion. Philadelphia is a passionate town. And they're going to continue to be passionate. And yeah, I mean, we heard it from our chairman the other day.

He'll come back into town. He'll have to continue to be passionate. And, yeah, I mean, we heard it from our chairman the other day. He'll come back into town. He'll have a good career, but he's going to get a rough ride here in Philadelphia as everybody else is that refused to play in this town. We're talking to Chris Terrian. And that's fair. Chris Terrian, former Flyer defenseman, now covers the Philadelphia Flyers, does a terrific job on Snow the Goalie, a Flyer podcast. You mentioned that maybe the mistake of this thing getting too emotional

at least from from you know the flyers management perspective now certainly you spoke for the fans they love it but you know if they were able to have kept it more business-like and and not probably make it so personal. In hindsight, do you think Keith Jones and Daniel Breer would have maybe learned something out of this moving forward? Like, we're big fans of those guys, right? And they're honest as the day is long. And if you've watched them in their career, they played very emotional too but the moment that you kind of led the that that emotion

into those fans in Philly man this thing took off I mean in hindsight would you think they would have handled it a little differently you know what Kipper that's a great question and one I didn't think about. I'll tell you what, as I said to you guys, I was fired up. Like I was jacked up. I'm like, man, are you kidding me? I don't want to play here. Is this the reason why? Like I was ticked off. And then my first thought was immediately when he said when I saw the text, I said, there's no way there's no way a guy that they just off give 50 million dollars to is going to poison the well. Man, we got always stand by my sources.

And there were sources. So what I'm saying is that's where all the fire came from. And I guess you're asking, Kipper, did they regret maybe saying he didn't want to play here? Like actually saying he didn't rather than just saying there's been a hockey trade and we traded our young fifth overall pick to Anaheim for James. We couldn't come to terms. We couldn't come to an agreement. We couldn't come to terms. The emotion't come to an agreement. We couldn't come to terms.

The emotion helped them win the PR battle, right? Like, everyone is very happy with how it went. Here's the problem, though, guys, where I go back to it. If he didn't want to play here, and again, we read the internet today. Again, he got interviewed. There's a multitude of reasons. Well, there has to be, what is the reason? Because if this guy's thinking it, I hope that the next guy's not thinking it too.

And that's one of the things I think that comes in because this is a city that's really trying to rebind, really trying to get back to its roots of the team, and it's done an unbelievable job for four months. This team went through hell, guys, for four years, three or four years. And it's taken the efforts of Dan, Danny, and Jonesy, guys like other players, former players, alumni, to come in and try to turn the switch back to the way it was.

And we've done that. But at the same time, you're not going to be able to not tell people in Philadelphia why you weren't able to sign him. It may be deeper. Did he not like the way the last management worked here? I don't know. But there's a new management in town. And so that would have been worth it.

But for whatever reason, he did not want to play in Philadelphia. And there has to be more than a reason for that than an outside peak at the organization. Because the peak I'm looking at right now is outstanding. It's a team that cares. They care about their players. They care about the fans. And I'll be honest with you, if I could do it all over again I'd never change anything would be Philadelphia all day long Chris before we get into Jamie Drysdale and the reception that he had last night and his play through your eyes

just the feeling before the trade on on Cutter uh Cutter Gauthier and and how good did everybody think that this guy could get someone said could he be the next JT Miller? I mean, what kind of buzz was about Cutter before they moved him? You know what, Kipper? Like, you know, get a long, rangy guy. I don't think overly physical for a longer body. Great shot. I mean, there was a lot of good things about his game.

I watched him in the World Juniors, you know, excited about him. And I think any time the league gets a chance to put young guys like that in the game, it's great to showcase these talents that are coming in. I will tell you one thing. If you needed a guy that is a top two line, you're not sure

if he's center or wing. That becomes an issue in and of itself. I don't think he's a center from watching him. I just kind of looking into the future, I think he's a winger. I don't think he's a center from watching him. I'm just kind of looking into the future. I think he's a winger. I don't think he's a center iceman. But at the same time, a right defenseman that got traded here with the second-round pick is a valuable thing to the Flyers.

What I like with Drysdale last night, we're going around the press box saying, who does he remind me of? And somebody on Snow the Goalie last night said, boy, he really reminds me of, at the same time I said it, Paul Coffey. He glides. As he glides, he gets a little faster. And it's really quite interesting to watch a guy that skates like that in the game today.

But I thought he was just so smooth in the way that he portrayed himself on the ice last night. And with good coaching and, you know, new organization, change of scenery from what he'd seen also in Anaheim, you know, I think the sky's the limit for a young guy, right? Defenseman fills all the voids that they've had, the top power play guy. I'm really excited about the young defenseman coming here. And at the same time, I didn't like how it went down.

I wish Cutter the best of luck, too, and prepare for the city of Philadelphia for most of your career ask scott roland about that one or jd so i'm actually i'm really excited to watch that too that's going to be a fun story for the rest of us to track so the flyers right now are in the third spot in the metro humming along pretty good i think above expectations going into the season we had keith jones on i don't know what it was a couple weeks ago and asked them kind of where they genuinely thought they were you know is this a cup contending team i guess my question to you is are they going to trade players at the deadline or is this a team that can be a playoff team and be competitive

you know what i don't see why not right like they've gotten to this point we always used to say there was um uh you know that marker of the american thanksgiving where you felt like teams are pretty comfortable i probably backed up a little bit guys over the years with the amount of teams and and you have like you know you have eight teams within two points of each other so that problem that that math has probably changed but at the same time you know the flyers are getting into the thick of the the back of the of the standings a little bit, like in terms of the playoffs. So they're going to have, like, that was why last night's game becomes so big. And little wins like that on nights that you maybe think it's going to be harder than others,

I think is so important. And they got that win against the Montreal team last night that took themselves a little while to get into the game. But the Flyers, in fairness to them them did a really good job of getting the victory and the two points and that's what they're gonna have to do they're gonna have to really probably you know get two out of three wins you know and as they come down the stretch if they're going to be a playoff team that's just suggesting that's what they're probably going to have to do if they're going to want to stay in that eight but it'll be a fun finish there's no doubt about it they've been a fun team to watch all year guys they have worked hard they've not cheated anybody out of any efforts and they've been a real pleasure to watch all year, guys. They have worked hard. They've not cheated anybody out of any efforts,

and they've been a real pleasure. To be honest, we have most nights to go out. Compared to what we'd seen, it's been a lot of good things here. And a lot of that's been, quite honestly, the goaltending, good chemistry, and coaching has been a major part of it. And Chris, where does Sean Couturier come in

as a 200-foot guy, a leader, back issues the last few years. I wasn't even sure if he was going to make it back at all. He's been unbelievable, Kipper. I mean, you know, for a guy that had gone through a back, and like I said, I was talking about my back. I don't think it ever really healed from 2001. And, you know, again, but to put that kind of workload on a guy

to kill penalties power play five on five and play really well you know positionally again good defensively he's been it's been great and probably another one of the huge reasons that the flyers were able to gel as a group and play really well together is some of those veterans back and you know i know i know atkinson right now is a guy that hasn't played well of late but he's also a guy beginning of the year i thought was there for a lot of players and providing leadership. There's one more guy I'll ask you about is a guy that here in Toronto they could have picked and traded out of the draft slot.

My boy Sammy here is always upset about Konechny not being a Toronto Maple Leaf. Tell us about his season and what he means to the Flyers. Yeah, I mean, he's become a bona fide, you know, regular goal scorer. And, you know, he's taken, yeah, he's become a bona fide you know regular goal scorer and uh you know he's he's taken um yeah he's he's become like a mini star in a lot of ways you know i mean he's he's uh taking a huge bite of the apple he's a guy that's learned an awful lot in the league the last few years how to become a better more complete player uh but he's a finisher and he's finished uh a lot in the last couple years and uh with contract lumen i mean he's gonna he's gonna request a lot

of benjamins and uh he's gonna do and he's earned it you know he's there, I mean, he's going to, he's going to request a lot of Benjamins and he's going to do, and he's earned it. You know, he's there, he's earned it. It's hard to score goals repeatedly in this league by individual guys. There's a handful of them that can do it. And he has proven that he's one of them right now. So it'll be an interesting, interesting to see how that goes, but he's been, he's been tremendous for this team. Chris, great stuff, man. We really appreciate your time.

A little bit more clarity on this whole situation but it sounds like everything's uh behind and and everybody's ready to move on dry sure hope so yeah drysdale and uh and cutter as well so uh thanks for doing this man really appreciate your time thanks guys as always thank you appreciate. Appreciate it. Chris Terrian. Good stuff. Just had a quick glance at Chris Terrian's stats while we were having that conversation. The one that stood out was 6'5", 240. Big. That's a good stat.

That's a good stat. Bundy. That is so much person. I just, I know we got to do game time soon here. I just want to, I just want to fall, just fall a little bit on what he said about this breaking news stuff and all of that. And when the situation gets set up, and he said it, like when you're left,

so Keith Jones and Daniel Breer, inexperienced, right? Going to be great hockey minds, but at this level, still a little bit inexperienced. So when they come out and they kind of set it up, the storyline for everybody to create more questions than to Chris Terrian's point, everybody's starting to dig. Like, even Chris couldn't help himself in the latter part of our interview to still wonder,

and it's human. It's absolutely human. Why? Why didn't he like Philly? What is the laundry list of, and people want to dig. They don't want to leave it alone. Yeah. But I think they did a great job

in creating this world where go ahead and dig. We want to know too. It's not our problem. If that's what you wanted to create and nobody will argue that it's been a rallying cry for those fans.

If they've bonded because of this, if they got to revisit their emotional state on the Philadelphia Flyers connection, excellent word, and it helps them sell tickets. Sure. Then who are we to say no? I just think it would... Go ahead, Kip. Sorry.

But it also caused a little bit of a frenzy from the media. Sure did. Little hoot nanny. Thanks for that. Right? Little hoot nanny. She's one of those once in a while. And this is not breaking news where you...

Well, it's not breaking news that you see a finish line i tell you last week i think it's trending towards nylander getting signed there's going to be a finish line where i'm either right or i'm wrong so anthony comes out and he says, well, we think that Kevin Hayes may have led this whole thing. There's no finish line there. It'll always be out there on. We don't know if Anthony's correct or he's not correct. A lot of gray area. But you know what?

Will remain gray area. But that's where you got to be careful. Like if, if Anthony had more experience, I think in the, in the, in the breaking news world, like me personally, I got a text. I get a text from, from somebody that says, uh, Oh,

Kevin Hayes just buried them. I'd be, I, I would never touch that. That is not, that is not for me breaking news. That is a heap of trouble news. Because no one can verify that.

You can't get second or third sources. You can't. There's no finish line for that one. It just stays out there. I agree with that. And so I agree with the point that the way that's handled on the media side is not helping. Now, to his point, he probably hears what piece of what might be a piece of the story and he put it out there.

I agree with you that I wouldn't do anything with that either. But from the Breer and Jones standpoint, the worst thing they could have done to me was make something up or try to snuff it out when, you know, that's not their job. They didn't do this in the first place. So for them to say, you know, don't worry about it. We decided to make a decision on the player. You know, we're moving on.

End of story. You know, you have a lot of people going, what are they doing? We hired these new guys, boneheads, who have traded Cutter Goat Shade. Are they not watching with the World Juniors? They're saying, look, we don't know what to do. We would love to know, but we did the best we could with the information we had. And to me, this is on Gauthier now. And Jonesy's saying, oh, he doesn't want to be a flyer.

He's not going to be a flyer. It really is riling up the locals. And you've got Cutter Gauthier going on a podcast in Anaheim going, there's a lot of reasons, and I wish I could tell you, but I can't. It's like, what do you think that's going to inspire? Why can't he say? Exactly. Exactly my point.

If they're getting down in the dirt, why aren't you? What do you got? If they saw an opportunity to get a very good defenseman in Jamie Drysdale and a second rounder for him, and you still would have made this trade if he wanted to be a flyer then which they wouldn't have that's yeah great but if your emotions led you to this trade then there's a higher percentage for me that suggests it's not the right decision and there's no there's no deadline here you had his rights for another two and a half years there's not got to do this now unless

that's the deal you wanted to make all along. Well, or if in the interest of just, if you feel like it's, you know, 51% you'd like to go to a 49% you'd like to drive Drysdale in a second. It's probably a healthier thing for your culture and the environment and whatever is to get a player in your lineup who could help today. You can start to build around, see where they fit and just move forward instead of saying to this guy you don't want to be a flyer you stay at boston college till you want to play for us and then two years from now we're waiting for him to be a ufa and

they're making a panic trade that's absolutely his right to wait to two years but something tells me he wants to start his career so like now like he's going to sign in all probability a contract at some point this year it'll be that one where you burn a year off and then you get to renegotiate in a year yeah but you think he would have said i'd rather just play for this team i said i didn't want to play for and start my career then i probably would have pushed him a little harder. I just, when you control his rights for two and a half years, it's a long

time for him to sit at home and stew. Yeah. And you know what? It would have looked pretty good for their future negotiating had they done that. Just one last thing. You know, this whole message again from the Philadelphia Flyers

that if you don't want to be here, then we don't want you here message. Careful what you wish for. Doesn't apply to everybody or people are going to hold you to that a little bit too. And if he comes there and says, I'd like to be somewhere else. And you go, ooh. I did not see that coming. Is it true? Yeah.

Is it really true or did you just say that? Anywhere though. But anywhere, if someone says, I don't want to be here, they generally get you out of town. Or they try to. You just got to be careful with the precedent it sets. That's all. Couple things before we do game time. Yeah, you're on the phone for two hours every day.

I would love to know what you know. You know? I just love to know what you know. Sometimes when there is little nuggets and I can't use them, I'll just give it to him and hope he looks into them so we can have a conversation about it. I can't believe you have a key for bellows. Key for bellows. Kiefer Bellows.

Can you? And all of a sudden, one sec. And he's making calls. And then we'll talk about that tomorrow. Yeah, he'll be like, oh, yeah, yeah. And then he's like, hey, what's up, brother? He's on the phone. And the second thing is, Travis Konechny.

What are they doing with him? Are they going to sign him long term? Big part of the plan? They want him. Five and a half this year. Had him the last couple of years. I know that if the right trade came along. And now he's.

I've watched a lot of Flyers games this year. Look at him. He's short-handed too. What's his number? He's got short-handed. Five or six he's got. Scored one against on the other day in the afternoon. Almost point per game player.

Already has 21 goals, 40 pims. And he is a pain. Plus 15. Pain to play against. Those are good numbers, boy. I forget who i was watching 42 who's he playing i think it was the flames i was watching them play and huberdo somebody like pushed him down and he just got up and just punched huberdo in the face it wasn't even huber that touched him he's the guy he did the math right he's the guy who chased matthews around when giordano did the Superman. Guilty by association.

Was that connecting? Anybody in his way. Yeah, perfect. Yeah, you do enjoy a player like that. I'm a big fan of connecting. Probably should have drafted him. 5'10", 174, punches anyone in the face. You know who they drafted Travis Remy?

You know who they went to pick after him? No. Sebastian Ajo. It's game time. Is it not Sebastian Ajo? The good one? Yeah, it's good. It's game time presented by the good one yeah it's good it's game time presented by bet 365 visit the app for the latest odds to find out why it's never ordinary at bet 365 must be 19 plus on terror only please play responsibly lots of hockey tonight um uh how could i not do this as the first pick leafs on Island. We know the booing.

I think it's a story that a lot of people are just sick of and don't really care about anymore because they're just so used to it. Even Kippy alluded to it. You alluded to it in the first block. But give me a John Tavares goal tonight against the New York Islanders, plus 145. When's the last time he scored? He's been dry a little bit.

I think he's on pace for 25 goals, 30 goals. Something like that. I think he's under 30 now. Okay, I'll check it out. It felt like it's been a bit of a... He is streaky, though. He can go five, six, seven games pointless, and then the next thing you know,

you're looking at that game sheet, and you're like, he's one and two. He scored against Anaheim. So, yeah, so, yeah, he scored against anaheim so yeah so yeah he's scored against he will find a way to get his yep he'll end up with a pointy game he has been just a pointy game guy his whole career 12 goals and 34 points but yeah he's got uh yeah not a lot lately going to assist this month so. So give me a John Tavares goal tonight. And I was just looking at a couple of the other games.

Florida has won eight games in a row. Not that again. And we'll talk about it a little bit more in our news and notes. LA has lost six in a row. Something's got to give here, obviously. I don't think the LA Kings are as bad as their sixth game losing streak. And I don't think the Florida Panthers are quite as good as their eighth game losing streak. Kings are plus 120 in Florida.

Give me the Kings to get off the schneid tonight. Like that bet. And the last one I had here, Montreal Canadiens are minus 160 against the San Jose Sharks. I don't think the Montreal Canadiens team that I watched last night against the Philadelphia Flyers should be favored by that much against anyone. They had a tough look last night. They were bad.

And it's the second half of back-to-back. San Jose Sharks have lost a million games in a row. They're eventually going to win. Give me the San Jose Sharks as a plus 135 underdog. I also like that, if you want to tweak that, I think you can take them plus a goal and a half and still get minus 180 or 190 or something. To me, any time you can get a goal and

a half for free and still you know come out okay throw that in a parlay i kind of like that one okay uh that was game time presented by bet 365 visit the app for latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary at bet 365 must be 19 plus ontario only please play responsibly okay we're going to take a quick break as sammy alluded to panthers and oilers going after their ninth straight win we'll get into that plus we had brian burke on earlier this week and he said that uh the teams would be like separating their shoulders to to take another expansion yeah salary billion dollars to the owners a billion dollars i want to tell you why I don't think that's a good idea after the break. Sammy's eligible to play at that point.

We're down. We're getting thin. Don't go away. Real Kipper and Bourne. Back after these words. Teeing up the biggest games of the night. It's the fan pregame with Ailish Forfar and Justin Cuthbert. Weekdays at 6 p.m. on Sportsnet, Sportsnet 590 The Fan,

and wherever you get your podcasts. The Kipper Heels, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee, bringing it home on the Real Kipper and Bourne Show. Okay, before we get into maybe the little Oilers talk and the Panthers, we just mentioned a little bit about expansion, and Brian Burke talked about a billion dollars now, but just watching again

the San Jose Sharks and their struggles right now. And listen, I'm not bailing on the Montreal Canadiens. I get that there's a plan there. And it's going to take some time. But watching them last night and the lack of depth on that hockey club right now is a little tough to watch. Dude, Marty St. Louis should be a Jack Adams nominee at 17-17. Yeah, they are.

What are they, four or five points back of a playoff spot? They should not be. Right. But if you want to add another two teams in expansion, where are these players going to come from? I played in the wrong time. I was that close. That could have been me.

Yeah, I agree. It is watered down beyond belief right now. Once you get to this time of the year where people are hurt and you're calling up the second line AHL guys and stuff, yeah, there's some lean nights. But what's the paycheck for the owners if two new teams come in? Yeah. That's why they want it's a one-off that's what brian burke told us yeah it's a one-off but then the product's worse you know i don't you make that money up front no like the one-off yeah they'll take the one off and yeah okay so we don't make as much down the road i'll

invest this and off we go but i get new jobs i get it but like like burke he was like if they're not really good at their jobs at the level that people have been accustomed to yeah is it still worth just creating a job right you know burkey was talking about how the pwhl he's like because we have six teams we have three or four stars on every team yeah and but i'm sure like i haven't followed long enough, but where's the drop from, like, player 12 to player 18? No idea. I have no idea either. No idea. Yeah, but in the NHL, I would say the gap is getting bigger, right,

where you have the elites, and then by the time you get to the bottom, you're like, whoa. Think about it, though. Think about it. The elites are at $12 or $14 million, and then there's a guy making $750,000. So the salaries will tell you where the gap is alone. I've always dreamt,

and this is something I've talked about with my buds a lot, just can you imagine if they just went down to like 20 teams, what the league would look like? Yeah, it'd be a different sport. It would be, or just not even 20, but like you got rid of five teams. Yeah. It'll never happen because they want more teams. Players union.

Yeah, of course. It would never happen. But like it does feel like a lot of nights, you're watching two of the exact same team play against each other. Like I think here in Toronto, we're pretty spoiled to have the high-end talent that plays on the roster. It's very true, and maybe underappreciated.

Well, for sure. But, like, there's warts with them, and there's demons with them, clearly. But, like, you watch, you know, I watch the Minnesota Wild play somebody, or you watch the Flyers play somebody. I watch the Flyers and Habs. It's like, what's the difference between these two teams?

Like, who are, like, what's the thing here? Guys, what have the Minnesota Wild finished by place in the NHL for the last two decades 16th 17th 18th 16th 17th 14th you know Capri's half the only interesting thing they've had in a long time I just find it like the lack you know I don't want to get too dark here but about our favorite sport but the the death of the physicality the less fighting more teams more water down no goalies all 25 of the exact same team need some money going into this thing we need to need the cap to go up we need like you need an influx of something. It's actually very funny. Seattle, I saw a quote from, I think it was Jared McCann,

who said something like, we're tough to game plan for in Seattle because we have four second lines. I was like, is that good? Come to Climate Pledge Arena and pay $1,500 for two Lorbelle tickets. Parking is $93. Two for four second. $1,800 for two Lorbo tickets. Parkins, $93. Two. Four. Second. Are you guys impressed they came up with Climate Pledge Arena at the time? Is that right?

I think so. Don't tell them if it's not. No superstars. No. There's a lot of teams that don't. There's a guy, Bjorkstrand. Is that their name? Beneers has not been it.

We did our superstar rankings. however long ago that was. And it's like, which makes it less. So Conor Bedard's out of the all-star game. Who are they sending Dickinson? Oh my God. Moravik's having a good year. No, no, I'm serious. I think it's him that the NHL makes it.

Someone from every team go is infuriating to me. Like one of Morgan Riley or Marner or whoever is not going to go because they have to fit in Boone Jenner. Can we do a superstar test here? Quickly. Impromptu. Let's have it. Bruins.

Do they have superstars? Yeah. Marshan Prasternak. Panthers have Kachuk. He's a superstar. Yeah. Leafs have three. Four, five, whatever.

Tampa. Yeah. Tons. Who? Cooch, Stamkos, Hedman. Detroit? No. Larkin's not it.

Montreal? Buffalo? Buffalo. Page? Page in? Page is in. Page is a star. we're talking where's your cut line one good year two good years three good years star not superstar then okay rangers have a few carolina no yeah no they don't no he He's right. Philadelphia doesn't have one. The Islanders don't. Sveshnikov, you wouldn't say, is a top?

No, he's not a superstar. Well, I don't know what. Are you building your league around Andrei Sveshnikov? Do you need dynamic pizzazz? Yes. I need marketability. Like, a superstar is a very clear thing. I'm just saying.

Yes. Go through these teams. Okay. We're debating. The Stanley Cup champions don't have a superstar is a very clear thing. I'm just saying. Yes. Go through these teams. Okay. Then the Stanley Cup champions don't have a superstar then because they just had an outdoor game. They couldn't get, they had the worst ratings. Nobody's. Jack Eichel's in the.

Is he a superstar though? Go through the NBA. And is he marketable? Go through the NBA. Go through the NFL. Yeah. These teams are, they're two most popular sports. And it's like,

every team has like a guy you can have a commercial about. I just think, I don't know. I don't want to get too down in the NHL. Cause I love watching it every night, but I just feel like the league needs some work boys. Can you imagine? No,

two more leagues is nightmare. Can you imagine if this league right now was 22 or 24 teams? Is that what you just said? Oh, sorry. I wasn't paying attention. It's fine. I don't care. But also, like, it's really hard as a fan.

I do pay attention to you, by the way. I do. Not all the time, but I do. Kipper, hey, it's okay, buddy. It's really hard as a fan to follow a league with a million teams. Too many teams. This is my job, so I can tell you about every team. But, like, if you're an average fan, I can't be up on what's going on in Anaheim and Columbus and Dallas and Nashville.

You know, it's too many teams. Regionally, it does well. They care in Columbus. They do. It's becoming a niche sport in that way. It's regional. Regional sport. Tribal.

They do care in Carolina? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they do. And it's becoming a niche sport in that way. It's regional. Regional sport. Tribal. They do care in Carolina? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they do. Do they still do that? Do they still do the thing at the end of the game? I haven't seen it on Twitter. They know, but we don't have to.

They know. If they're bringing in more teams, they got to go to the European soccer model. Relegation, baby. Sharks. Sharks might get an expansion team and fold their other team. Send them to the ECHL. Or they play the Shreveport Mudbugs.

The what? Shreveport Mudbugs. I think that's the UH, I don't know. So we talked about what felt like a 15-minute review in Chicago on a disallowed goal by Zach Hyman on a offside that really cost me money. It cost JB money, but in reality it was four and a half minutes on the delay.

And I was told that it took the league four minutes to get the proper angle. What does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. What do you mean finding the angle? It means you're at the mercy of the TV. A guy like me? The video guy? Yeah.

Some kid maybe. I don't know. The spinning wheel the video guy. Yeah, some kid maybe. I don't know who's... The spinning wheel of death guy. We're buffering. Loading, loading. Getting the pinwheel. Okay. But it's not the system that I'm sure they probably would love

because that may cost the league tens of millions of dollars to do this thing properly in every building. And they're still at the mercy of the local television and what feeds they have and how quickly they can get them. What's up with Bally's? Are they getting regional money still? Does that still exist? I think they cut some deals.

Yeah, they restructured. 48 cents on the dollar? Probably. I don't think it's that high. Oh, really cents on the dollar probably yeah i don't think it's that high oh really i don't know yeah i don't know but i think a lot of it has been cleaned up temporarily but they they're not dumb people in the nhl office they don't want to purposely have everybody just sit around for four minutes while i don't know they eat a tim hortons donut watching tiktok oh they're still waiting but let me finish this episode of the bear usually on the delays it's

it's probably more than not it's a technical thing as much as it is yeah cracking down on a final decision well anyways Take some new teams and spend some of that new expansion money on better angles. I don't know. Well, so there is some, to our point about the lack of really good teams,

the really good teams are just winning a bunch of games in a row right now. It's actually bizarre, given how much parity this year, how a few teams are just on unbelievable tears. Panthers have won eight in a row. Leafs have won four in a row.. Panthers have won eight in a row. Leafs have won four in a row. The

Jets have won seven in a row. The Oilers have won eight in a row. Kraken have won seven in a row. Oilers are just four back of LA. And I don't know what was the biggest gap. It had to have been close to 20.

Oh God, yeah. Wasn't it? Oh yeah, there's a sign for this. Two months ago? I can figure this out. It was ugly early. It certainly was. I don't know, let's go back a month.

What's today? Did you pick, so you weren't one of the 100 that picked the Oilers to win the Cup this year? No was not born i was not but there's definitely not everybody i i probably was one of the guys that said i think their season's over oh i definitely said multiple times that was just dumb with connor borny held strong with that i did but then he kind of gambled away his money when he's like ottawa is gonna figure it out what's that yeah i did think that ottawa was gonna figure it out um but yeah i'm looking at it right now um like kind of in mid-november the oilers

were almost 20 points behind la wow you know and that's just 18 games into the year so they've won eight in a row now and then what was their winning streak before? Did they win 10 in a row before? Yeah, it was another massive tear. They've had two massive winning streaks. They've got Detroit tonight and Saturday in Montreal. They're in Detroit tonight and Saturday in Montreal. So could keep going. Another three or four points there.

Yeah. Could be another tear. It is going to be fascinating to see how high up the standings they can get. I wanted to mention, Patty Kane's been pretty good since he came back. Do you see his numbers? No. 14 points in 16 games since he's come back. Six goals, eight assists.

Who needs a scoring winger? Power play guy. He's not going anywhere. No? Do you really pick Detroit just so you can get traded at the deadline? Well, you pick Detroit thinking they're going to make the playoffs, maybe. No? I got to think that it was a bigger picture than,

hey, come for a 30-game tryout. If we make the playoffs, you get to stay, and if you don't, we'll move you somewhere else. I do not think Pat Kane likes to get bounced around. Hey, how about with that San Jose team, like Hurdle, and I know Couture has been hurt, but could big names like that leave San Jose? I mean, God, can they afford to lose anyone else? The Sharks are burned into our brain.

You got to keep to the floor. You got to bring back their salary. No, you're right. And at the same time, it's like, what, are you going to make it worse? You can't make it worse. You can't. They're as bad as you're allowed to be.

My rule. Anyway. And the Panthers, Sammy? Okay. Are they the team in the East to beat right now? Absolutely. And the Leafs, well, I guess Bruins are going to come down to earth a little bit. So maybe the Leafs will have to deal with the Bruins in the first round

as opposed to the Panthers. But the Leafs got to do whatever they possibly can to not play the Florida Panthers in the first round of the playoffs. The team's legit. Start beating bad teams like they have over the past three games where you can accumulate some points because I guess they're only two points back of the Bruins now, so maybe they will pass them.

But that's the number one team in the league. I think the Leafs could legitimately beat almost any team in a playoff series, except the one they might play in the first round. Give me the cats. Meow! And I haven't, I can't figure out the Tampa Bay Lightning at all.

Missing the playoffs? Eh. So, maybe think more about what do they do with Stamkos if they think they're going to miss the playoffs. Would that be a deadline? No. They wouldn't, would they? Bring them home. What's that?

They wouldn't trade them, would they? Well, they wouldn't trade them if they're going to resign them. And if they're not going to resign them, they will trade him. All right. Good stuff. Okay. Our thanks to Chris Terrian in this last hour.

Gord Stelik the hour before that. 13 games on tap. You're all going to be real busy with the remote. Have fun. And we're back tomorrow on Off the Rails Friday with Doug McClain.