Real Kyper & Bourne - Edmonton Cooking With Oil

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

Justin Bourne and Sam McKee are joined in studio by Luke Gazdic, who shares his thoughts on the surging Oilers coming off a 7-2 win over the Capitals last night. He gets into Connor Brown FINALLY notching his first goal of the season, the Oilers' and Golden Knights' playoff collision course, Knoblauch's line combinations and Zach Hyman continuing his excellent scoring campaign.  Then, a look around the league - Nashville's impressive point streak, the class of the West, if the Leafs did enough at the deadline and the Rempe suspension. Finally, news and notes - Zadorov calls MacKinnon the best in the league, the Red Wings and Canucks both get into fights at practice and Erik Karlsson is once again involved in trade rumours.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Welcome in to Real Kipper and Bourne. I am Justin Bourne. Joined today, not by Nick Kiprios, by Sammy McKee. Sammy, how are you? Hello, Canada. I know you Bourne. Joined today, not by Nick Kiprios, by Sammy McKee. Sammy, how are you? Hello, Canada. I know you love me. Yeah, they do, absolutely. Live on Sportsnet and Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver

and Sportsnet 960 in Calgary. This hour of Real Kipper and Bourne is brought to you by Bet365. We're going to have Luke Gazdik join us. He's going to walk in. It's going to be an exciting moment where he walks in during the show. I Luke Gazda. He's going to walk in. It's going to be an exciting moment where he walks in during the show. I always love those. You're going to be live seating.

Yeah, well, I'm just looking at the door. I can't wait. And actually, I'm fascinated to see the seating. I don't know if people will be able to see it at home, but how tall are you? Six-five. Six-five? Yeah, six-five.

Gaz has got to be that. Yeah? I would think. Does he still play? I don't know if he still plays. Is he the Zags? I bet you he plays. We could use it.

We could use it. He's fascinating, too, to me. Oh, come on in. Oh, yeah. Come on in. It's hot in here. You got a vest on. Good luck to you, pal.

Come and join us over there. Hey, buddy. How are you? Nice to see you. Nice to see you. Welcome aboard, buddy. Come have a seat. We're on.

So we're going to talk a little bit about the Edmonton Oilers, obviously. You're familiar with that team. But before you sat down, I was just talking to Sam about who's taller between the two of you. Are you taller? Yeah. I've truly never seen him stand up before. He's 6'5". I'm 6'4".

You're 6'4"? Yeah. And you know what does fascinate me as well? You see those linebackers that play at 390 or whatever. Then after then after their career all of a sudden they're like 290 joe thomas the guy from the joe thomas the guy from the browns who like was trimmed up oh my god he's jack now how different is your you look you've gotten very fit since you stopped playing but in a different way from your playing weight right yeah uh my rookie year in the NHL, I'll never forget this, the heaviest I played was 248. Two?

Oh, my God. So I was 6'4", 248. I'm about 6'4". I haven't changed height, but I'm about to just under a shade under 220 now. Yeah. I was getting to the point where I was out of control. Like Dallas Eakins pulled me aside after my first year and was like, listen, kid, we love everything you're doing, but get on the bike this summer. So you were the reason they got rid of the donuts

for the media, the two? That was before me. Did he ever cause quite a stir? He came in so hot. He still tells me to the day, because I ended up playing for Dallas again in San Diego at the end of my career, and he still tells me, he's like,

that was just one of the many mistakes. He regrets that? 100%. He's just like, I came in, poured gasoline on a fire that was already going. The vets hated, hated that he took all the snacks off the plane. And that was in the media room that he took all the stuff. Listen, I've been around a lot of media in my life. Don't take away the treats.

But it's funny because there are people who hold themselves to a different standard. When I was with the Marlies, Brooks Light got sent down. And at one point, he came on the bus. And in the minors, you're going city to city. You got a game one night, you got a game the next night. What's on the bus? Like boxes of pizza. It's carbs, some protein.

It's something you can immediately eat. And he came and took the pizza off the bus and was giving it to people. People are around the bus looking for autographs. And he came and took the pizza off the bus and was like giving it to people. You know, people are around the bus looking for autographs, and he was trying to give away the pizzas. And the team had to be like, we don't care that you don't want that. That's what they needed.

That's what they get. But he was just a different level of, yeah. So did you have different coaches over your time there went about those sort of things very differently, I imagine? 100%. Dallas was very much fitness focused. He loved the stationary bike. Personally or for the guys to be on it?

Both. Both. He really didn't try to imprint like too much on guys, especially the higher end skill guys. He really wasn't like on them too much. But for me, a guy that played anywhere from four to eight minutes a night like 10 minutes was a really good night i had like my own usb chip that went into the stationary bike so after every game i had to plug in and i had

certain rides that i had to do really yeah it was wild and then they could calculate and they had all the data in there like after every game it was wild i was in there minimum 40 minutes on the bike after every game full lift everything wow damn and the fitness tests were out of control that was some of the hardest stuff i've ever done and that's a specific not to all your years there no so i went to one nhl camp and uh it was the islanders bill garren was the captain at the time. And I remember, like, you know, the old, everything was so old school. One of the actual fitness tests was you, on your knees, held a medicine ball to your chest and just threw it as far as you could. Chest pass.

Yeah, a chest pass of medicine ball. And I remember Bill Guerin dropping the medicine ball in front of his knees and being like, this is stupid. Like, literally, the captain of the team was just like, what are we learning here? So you can imagine it's different team to team. No, it really was. I got to ask you something.

So I saw Simone Benoit on your podcast, Mids Off podcast, and he mentioned where he loved milk, and he talked about how much he loved milk. We got him a sponsorship. Yeah. But now it was like... True story.

He just did a milk cast. Everyone's like, run with it. And I saw it on like the Leafs. They did like one of their state controlled media things about him drinking milk. And he could like nail the percentages of milk. You started the milk thing. Yeah, we started the milk trend. And I rented this space and called him.

So he was a teammate of mine for two years in San Diego. He ends up here. I'm not going to lie. I did not foresee the career of this guy going this way. Hard and soul guy. I watched the preseason. I didn't necessarily expect it either. He's just taken off.

You gave him a little bit of space and he's doing his thing. But we're doing a pod and things I'm learning being an interviewer is just kind of letting the interview go where it will. Absolutely. And I had said something. I don't even know what led into it. And he's just like, yeah, I drink milk all the time, like full glass right in bed before I go to sleep.

I literally looked at him. I said, are you joking? I said, are you trolling a child? He has still a pretty thick, strong French accent. So I'm like, this is a thing you're doing with me right now. He's like, no. And I'm like, well, what kind? What are we talking here?

Let's break it down. And he's like full, like 3 point, whatever it what are we talking here let's break it down he's like full like three point whatever it is three point eight percent milk full glass before so they call him the milk man yeah the boys call him the milk man and then like a week ago or even less than a week ago i go on instagram and he's got a sponsored ad with milk well it has to be the best part of the toronto market like nola chari came here and was like the guy's called me cookie and never tim hortons like instant sponsorship mckeough with campbell soup yeah one said he literally said i believe i like soup or maybe soup is underrated or something probably not underrated he doesn't know that yeah no but yeah had a soup smush so yeah that's a very toronto market thing there you

go so credit where it's due got the man i appreciate it a lot of good stuff good guests and you get guys comfortable right right? Yeah. Yeah. Try to keep it light. Love it. So the Edmonton Oilers near and dear to your heart are a bit of a wagon. Yes. You know, they're starting to look like the team we thought they were before the season started. But I want to start with the most important thing, a thing you and I texted about last

night, Connor Brown scored a goal. Let's go. I mean. Let's go. How did it not happen? 54 games, 88 shots, 13 minutes of ice time per game. I mean, he's a pretty good player. Is that not an insane run to not, like Matt Rempe has a goal.

Yeah, and I know, listen, I know Connor's a way better player than I was, but the line I texted you last night was like, I understand how hard it is to score in the NHL. Hold on now, did you score 13 seconds into your first shift in the league? NHL record. Really? I scored in my first game, first shift, first shot, first goal, 14 seconds in. Oh, my God.

You're Mario Lemieux. There you go. So I beat Mario's record. He had 15 seconds. I got 14 seconds. That is incredible. So I got off and Scotto gave me the towel and he was like, you know, you just broke an NHL record, right?

And then he explained it to me. I'm like, that is the coolest thing ever. Yeah, that really is. But honestly, for Brownie, like I understand it, how hard it is to score in the NHL, no matter how much ice time you get. But if anyone has followed the Oilers this year and followed Brownie, he easily could have been double digit goals by now. And that's maybe pushing it, but he's had a lot of chances.

And even like Sunday night versus Pittsburgh, he comes down on a two-on-one late with Darno and Nurse, who had two goals in that game. Probably could have leaned to go maybe short side or tried to shoot to score. They're up 4-0 at the time. And he tries to float it over to Nurse to get him his hat trick. Like little things like that.

I'm like, this is why I like this guy. Yeah, the boys love him. And you saw the reaction from the bench last night. Like the guys are just elated and the fans went nuts. Give Edmonton fans a lot of credit. It's a really tough place to play hockey, especially when you're going through tough, long stretches. Standing O for Browning.

Yeah. And like they took a little bit of time after, before they dropped the puck. And it was just a great scene there. But I'm just really happy for him. Honestly, I'll tell you guys this true, honest story. I was in Dallas two weeks ago watching the Stars-Oiler game. I was there for an alumni Stars versus Oiler game right after,

and so I was at the Crescent, the hotel, before, and some of the guys had just started filtering out to jump on the bus, and Brownie was one of them. And when I saw him, he just didn't look great. You know what I mean? Like, I think I... He used to be in a score. He's got a way around it, man.

I think I said, like, how's it going, man? And it's like the worst thing you can say to someone who's in a bad mood, right? How's it going? Well, not great. You know, I could just tell he was carrying a little bit of extra weight. And you could kind of tell in his face. And I'm just very happy for the kid. Anyone that knows him, he's a good, a tall, big, old boy.

Works his tail off. And very, very happy that he finally, finally found the back of the net. He actually scored one of the, like, seminal Leaf moment goals when they were playing against Pittsburgh in the second-last game of the season. And they needed to beat Pittsburgh to clinch a playoff spot. And he actually scored the goal to, like, go ahead in the final minute. You have a psychopedic memory of this stuff. I can remember this stuff and not my email password.

Well, he could score goals. I don't know if you saw last night, Mark Spector, who also works at Sportsnet, said, you know, Connor, you're not really here to score goals. You're not known as much of a goal scorer. And Connor cut him off and goes, well, I scored 20 goals multiple times in this league. That was his answer

and i was like good for you man that's true you still see yourself as having value and how being a goal scorer like it's just a way a lot of stuff wasn't falling so you mentioned that you're still around you talking to the guys i wonder maybe not talking to them but getting the sense from fans this vegas thing where they're really heading towards probably that's going to be, the Kings are still there. So I don't want to sell the King short, but it is kind of looking like it's going to be Vegas and Edmonton in the first round again. How pissed are people about this?

Like, are they giving anything for the guys in the team? Or like, I just, I don't really care. Cause it doesn't, I'm not an oiler fan. It's, I like watching the Golden Knights play.

I think what they do is good. But if I'm a fan of the Oilers, I'd be livid. I think the fans are probably pretty upset at that possibility. But if I'm going to be honest with you, from who I've spoken to, and if I was on that team, I'd be like, bring them on. Yeah. You know, let's just get it over with. It's two years in a row that they've sent them home packing.

The Cup runs through Vegas for me anyway. Like, you want to win the Cup, especially if you're going through the Western Conference, you got to win four out of seven through Vegas. What a better time than in the first round. Yeah. I feel like that's, I was out there for the playoffs the last two years, both LA games one and two,

and that was the time they played their best hockey. And why not give them the champs right away and knock them off their throne? I think fans in Edmonton are generally upset about everything at all times. Canadian hockey fans are just kind of like that. I think the boys are foaming

at the mouth for the opportunity to get them again. Earlier the better. It does remind me of when Washington finally beat Pittsburgh to get through. Sometimes you just have this dragon you've got to slay, and I do think that's a thing. So there are tons of positives

from this season. I mean, my God, Connor McDavid's still the guy. Zach Hyman, another hat-trick last night, 46 goals. Positive from their perspective. Not a least positive for my boy Sammy over here. I love the guy. So when I look at some of the sport logic stuff, and I know you do too,

they are head and shoulders the best team in the NHL. They create offensive chances like no other team, and they're one of the best teams defensively. So I want to ask you about where it could go wrong. Is this decor good enough? Is the goaltending good enough to win a Stanley Cup? It's a great question. Yeah, I'm sure they have that question too,

but in your opinion. You know, my line at the beginning of the year is something I will probably stay, continue to say till this day is, if they get saves and Skins gets hot, they might win a Stanley Cup. They have a chance to win a Stanley Cup. Their defensive core was probably the part of it,

Borny, that I was the most, I don't want to say concerned, but maybe a little concerned going into the year. But Knobloch has figured out their pairs. And I think, man, one guy doesn't make all the difference, but Matthias Ekholm has been just an absolute rock for them.

I think he's taken so much of the weight off of Nursey's shoulders, and he's allowed Nursey not to have to be the guy. Say what you want about guys like Cody Ceci and Brett Kulak. They filled in, played great minutes. There's times where even I'm yelling at the TV. I'm like, whatever happens. But they've been solid and the guy for me too is evan bouchard like at the beginning of the year i i just remember thinking

like this this is not going well and there was just a lot of glaring mistakes and i watched him last night and he's confident um he is not only great on the offensive side of the puck but in his own zone it's it's night and day from where we were at the beginning of the year then you throw in guys like day harney who came from nothing basically and i i i don't want to say i put this decor up against anyone else's because vegas a team like vegas is uh is a nightmare but i trust them up and down the lineup probably more than i ever have. And I just hope Stu can continue to play the way he's playing because I think it starts and ends with them in net.

It's crazy. You just mentioned, you know, Evan Bouchard struggling at the start of the year and that whole thing. How far they've come. Because I just remember the amount of conversations we had, me included, Dumbbell being like, ah, they're going to miss the playoffs.

And it's just just it was so bad at the start like unbelievable it was a circus how bad it was i don't know if a team this good has ever played that bad no i can't it was insane i remember like the culminating loss was in san jose three two and i had to go i had to do the old sportsnet Central hit after with, I think it was Ken and Ivanka. And even myself, I was so mad. I was like, this sucks. What is this team doing? They're so much better than that. And I truly can't wait to film a couple pods this summer.

I'm hoping I can get one of the big boys to come on. Like Leon would be great because he has no filter. And just be like, what was going on? What the hell happened? I genuinely want, like, I want to ask them and hear an honest answer. Like, there are games and there are times in the season where things just aren't going right. But that was, like, another level.

But it's been night and day. And I don't know if you attribute that to the coaching change or just better goaltending or their stars have been better. But it's like a whole different team. And that feels like forever ago. So it's definitely a lot more fun to cover and watch now. How has Corey Perry fit in now that he's had a run at games? Has he been effective down the lineup?

They've been so desperate down the lineup to find someone to contribute, and now the additions of Henrique and Sam Carrick and Perry, and it feels like this team is pretty close to 12 forwards deep now which you can't say in the past years yeah I think they're struggling on where to play him so he played on the fourth line last night with Carrick and Janmark and it didn't exactly work I should be pumping up the fourth line and I'd say if there was any criticism out of the win last night is that the

fourth line wasn't great they were the only players that were minus they were out for out there for a goal I just don't think pairs I don I don't want to say I don't think he could play fourth line, but I think he needs more elevated minutes than that. And he's great PP2, but there is no PP2 in Edmonton, right? Or if they do, they get 25 seconds. Like, we got them for an extended period of time. There was a four-minute minor, double minor for high sticking early but that's about it i just think chris is really trying to figure out where he plays in the lineup to me i see him probably second line right wing spot but fogel and um cloud have been great with

dry settle which doesn't look like a great line on paper but i think once they figure out where he'll excel he's going to give them a lot and And off the ice too, right? He's the guy who's been there. He's done that. Calmed the room down a little bit. So I think it's been overall a pretty positive addition. I was just going to ask about Hyman. I don't even know what the question is. What?

How is this happening? Ron McLean question. We'll just go Zach Hyman. Zach Hyman. I don't even let him. Well, it's truly, even for me, Ron McLean question. We'll just go Zach Hyman. Zach Hyman. Just throw it to him and let him. Well, it's truly, even for me, it's been probably the most fun player to watch.

He's been more fun than McDavid for me to watch this year. Because I think I worked with you last week when I was talking about, or maybe it wasn't, whatever. It's not easy to play with Connor. People say like, oh, yeah, he has 45 or whatever he has because he's playing with Connor. You're like, no, no. They've tried so many guys playing with McDavid over the years. Not only does he hold you to a higher standard,

like you can't go back to the bench and be like, hey, sorry, bud. He'll look at you and say, like, don't say sorry. Just do it right. Like make the play next time. And not only that, but you have to keep up with him. And I think that's one thing that goes unnoticed about Zach is how fast he is. Like, he absolutely boogies down the ice, but he's a driver.

He goes and wins battles in the corners. Once he gets the puck, you cannot get the puck off him. And once he gets in the mixer in front of the net, like, it's game over. I haven't seen anyone that finishes, has the ability to finish like that net front in a long time he's making what he's doing look so easy and i hope people appreciate how hard it is part of it is like the heaviness on his stick and like having a center of gravity as low and strong as his for a guy who's not small like he's just a

dense body that just takes up space so well who was it that we had on earlier in the year that said he does as much for mcdavid as mcdavid does for him and i forget i forget who it was but there's part of it when i watched the oilers where it's just the lanes that he opens up for mcdavid going towards the net and the punch he did rob brown yeah it was yeah but he it's just you watch the way that mcdavid has space in the offensive zone and him going to the front of the net and he opens stuff up the way he gets a stick in the right spot for him to pass it to him it's just he does a ton for i well because defenders have to they have to respect him right like they have to respect him now too and i know nothing against new g he's been great

but when you throw leon up there too like that oh my gosh the three of them together is a nightmare so honestly just zach's been really fun to watch it they started the broadcast last night it was interesting i started googling it after that he's probably the best edmondson oilers free agent signing of all time and i started looking at the list it might be the greatest signing that's what i'm saying and then i started looking and i saw another tweet later was like maybe not just oilers maybe like all time yeah for the price that they're got him at for the term and for what he's accomplishing is insane how many years into it is it now is this three it's like now now would be the time you're supposed to be like kind of starting to worry about it yeah and it's

just only getting better he's gonna score 50 it's ridiculous easily getting a 50 he might he might finish second that might be one of our things done out a 50 he might he might finish second that might be one of our things done out on the show is he gonna finish second in the league in goals um it's it's a good possibility i wanted to ask about a non-oilers question uh about nashville yeah because yeah borny was on the game last night i i was saying yesterday that brunette if brunette did what he did with the sphere cancellation and that was also barry trotz is involved clearly or whatever but if he did games in the sorry points in 13 straight since that if they did that in montreal or here or in edmonton he'd be everyone be like this guy's a

coach of the year this guy like they'd be it's not even talked about because it's nashville but that is an unbelievable turn of events to do what he did and then have 13 straight like it's crazy i know it's not a coincidence are you honestly i even if it's not a coincidence i'm just saying like i agree with you it's not straight gave the point oh my god can we not act like it was such a this such a huge thing yeah like it was a thing he did that's great you know what i'll debate you a bit and just say that there's not a lot of moments during the year where you get to do things like that with your full team and all the trainers and coaches and everyone involved and together. There's just so few moments that you get to do stuff like that.

And I have it on good authority that Bruno actually had nothing to do with that. That was straight trotty. My narrative is dead. There mean but i mean coach still has to sign off on it so i don't want to say nothing but man was i ever wrong on that too like i'm sitting there off air going like this team's done this is the worst thing that could happen to this team like i think i made a bigger deal out of it then i'm kind of on your side there a little bit. But it's hard to ignore what they're doing. I still don't really see them as a contender. But my goodness, they're playing some good hockey.

It's really tough because the top of the West is a meat grinder. So you're basically throwing Nashville to whichever predator catches them first. They'll give somebody a decent run the first round. They won't win, but they'll take a game or two off somebody. Probably's a predator. I'd say they give somebody a decent run the first round. They won't win, but they take a game or two off somebody. Probably not. Okay. You know what's funny, though, is remember Daryl Sutter said about them, about Colorado was a waste of 18 years is his line.

Nashville took Colorado to overtime, I think, in all four games that Colorado did win. There you go. Yeah, they'll hand in there while they're losing. So looking around then at the West, you know, who's Edmonton's biggest competition? You got Vancouver, uh, just even keep it in the Pacific if you like Vancouver and Vegas

really seem like the top dog. Yeah. And I know we spoke on Vegas. I still think they have, I don't want to say the edge on them, but the mental edge for sure. Uh, Vancouver's the team that is such a wild card and I've continually doubted them the entire year and just every time i watch them they get stronger and stronger i know they blew the lead last night

to colorado but even last saturday night against winnipeg a lot of the focus was on bonuses comments and like how bad winnipeg played but i thought it was a great example of how good van was and just every time i watch them i'm just thoroughly impressed and i think a lot of their success will be dependent on how long demko's out here because I don't know if this is a hot take but Thatcher Demko might be the best goaltender in hockey yeah and even going back to my times I'm sure someone could call me out on this but Edmonton doesn't play Vancouver well especially in Vancouver I felt it as a player it was kind of said to me even before i got there was the vets when i got there didn't love going into van i know they had a different

you know makeup of the team at the time but they lost big early this year and i know they have that in the back of their minds eight one in the first game yeah oh my can you believe that wasn't it both of the first two games and then they got smacked seven something, whatever it was. Yeah, I still think Van is the team that is such a wild card for me. It could go either way in the playoffs. But I think there's another team that I think Edmonton wants to have a little revenge on for early in the season. Yeah, it's tough sledding whoever you end up facing. So they're going to get their chance to play plenty of good teams.

You know, you live here in Torontoonto you follow along closely with what's happening there uh how did you hold on are we sure we're allowed to do this in the summer well we don't we don't want any complaints how do you feel about what the leafs did at the deadline grabbing edmondson labushkin conor doer is that enough to make them can they win a round with what they added yeah put it this way I didn't hate anything they did. Like, I liked all the pickups. I just thought, like, for once, could we just, like, take a swing at somebody? Like, I know they didn't really want to part with their prospect pool,

and the big boys kept playing in London, obviously, and they didn't want to part with their first rounder, but I would have liked them to just, you know, gone a little harder, maybe. And whether that wasn't out there, I know they said they tried hard for guys like Tanev, but listen, you can't fault any of the moves they made. I think it makes the team better. It doesn't make the team worse.

I mean, all three of those guys is going to give you some good minutes. I just kind of wish they would have, you know, sent it a little bit more. Is it Pareko or is that the name to you that was thrown out there? No, the one with Pareko that scared me is the term that he has left after this at the age that he is. No, I don't even know who exactly it would have been if I had someone

in mind. Well, that's Kipper's thing. He's like, we sit here and talk on the radio. He's like, if you're an NHL general manager, you find the guy that you take a swing with, right? It's not our job to do that, but I kind of agree with you that you would, it's just, I think it's maybe a product of the trade deadline where you see all the other

teams, like I said, you know, big sexy teams getting big sexy players. Yeah, getting better around you. It's like Instagram, you look at everyone else doing great and you're like, why am I not doing great? You know, you see Vegas do what they did, but I feel like there wasn't a ton of teams that did the crazy stuff,

and especially their direct competition. Like, Boston didn't do a whole lot. You know, Florida gets Tarasenko, but that's just because he wants to go there. I would hope it would be enough to get them out of one round. I really, really do. I think it depends who they draw.

Florida, to me, is just nightmares. There is no worse matchup for them than that. There is not a team that i'd rather see less early if i'm a leaf guy than probably florida boston's an interesting one uh but it's it's going to be tough to get out of that division as well man it is so last one and then we'll set you on your way you're on tv tonight and i'm sure looking as handsome as you are oh yeah uh he just wears this every thursdays yeah matt rempey i mean mean, I'm sure you've been asked about him. You came into the league.

Someone made an impact as a tough guy yourself. What are your thoughts on the first 10 games of this kid's career? Wagging. Oh, my gosh. Listen, it's hard for me to be hypocritical on him because I came into the league in similar fashion. I led the NHL in fights as a rookie at 23. He's 21. But I also didn't elbow two guys in the head in similar fashion. I led the NHL in fights as a rookie at 23. He's 21.

But I also didn't elbow two guys in the head in my first three weeks. Did you ever get suspended? Zero suspensions in 11 years pro. So I understood that there was a line you could play on. There were just a couple things that I didn't like and haven't liked about him. I understand fighting in hockey is kind of archaic.

It's starting to become, become seems very barbaric i still think it has a place in the game at times like when a guy like curse mcdermott gets traded there his job is to deter stuff like that from happening so he asks them to go early i mean if i'm matt rempe there's just no way i'm saying no yeah it feels like it's going to happen i'm glad to hear you say that i just way I'm saying no. It feels like it's going to happen one way or another. Even if Laviolette's like, absolutely no way. If I'm at home at MSG and their tough guy is standing at center ice shaking his gloves at me, I'm not saying no. You're going to deal with the punishment from the coach later. I'll take the brunt of that after.

I'm not saying no in front of all my teammates. And then he goes and throws this massive elbow, and I really defended him the first time with the bastion hit like oh he's six eight like it's hard to tuck your elbow then it happens again and you're like oh so maybe this wasn't uh a mistake right and then the little wave after probably just i like i didn't love that stuff either you're six eight you're not five eight right uh so i i wouldn't try to i don't know criticize him too much because i understand where he's coming from i love the intention but he's just gotta be a little smarter yeah he's i mean he i love what he represents like the just the idea of him that kind of guy still existing in a league if you love what he represents you must

love the response from fans and people sure everyone is like yes but i i the i hated the the four game suspension game like the one that led to that i hated it i just hated all the visuals like i you know he left bashed and bloodied on the ice i mean you've done the job feels like he should have fought him but yeah i mean that's that's what i think so too and mcdermott was really frustrated after the game and i can understand that too his job like i said is to deter things like that from happening so if you're sitting in the locker room after i'd be like what am i even doing out here that was my job was to stop hits like that from happening and he's probably just projecting some of his own frustrations but for sure at least we got a little animosity back we got some rivalry games i don't mind that at all we got a good text

about the free agent signing the best free agent signings ever. Hyman is second to the Zdeno Chara signing. He was a UFA when he was in Boston? Yeah, Boston signed him. No, no, it was Ottawa. Ottawa chose Wade Redden over him. Yeah, brought a cup to beat him. Sounds like that's a good one.

That is a good one. Well, thank you very much for your time. Anytime, guys. People can check out Luke's podcast, the Mitzoff podcast, and follow him on Twitter, maybe Instagram, at LukeGaz.

So if I go on there, will I get sponsored? On the pod? Yeah, you have to get a product ready. With Taylor Mays or something like that, you'll be good to go. All right. We'll be back on the other side.

Thanks again for your time, Luke. The best Blue Jays show out there, period. Blair and Barker. Be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to Real Kipper and Born. A big thank you to Luke Gass. That was awesome.

I really enjoyed that. Me too. 13 seconds or 14 seconds into his career, he scores a goal. Watch the clip in the break. Yeah. And yeah, backhander. Love it. A man after my own heart.

And if you would like to watch any of his fights in the NHL, not a man to be messed with. I would say this. His fight highlights are better than this goal. Yeah. For sure. That's a reasonable call. His fight highlights are excellent.

Yeah, there you go. They are. You want to do some game time, bud? I do want to do game time. All right. Let me get it here. It's game time presented by Bet365. Visit the app for latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary.

Bet365 must be 19 plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. And how many games are on tap tonight? I put it down here. We have 12 games on tap big thursday night in the nhl i was just looking at this the first one that pops up to me is the detroit red wings who are huge favorites against the arizona coyotes i'm like and not again not again i won't do that um but surely not to be this guy no no no we'll talk about that we're not just gonna lose all

year we'll talk about that after game time i don't think i'm touching that um the game i'm looking at here is the tampa bay lightning uh home for the new york rangers i feel like these two teams really play a lot of good games um just i think back some playoff battles of years past conference final yeah there's a few they've played in the in the playoffs a few different years the lightning are minus 105 on home ice the rangers are minus 115 i don't love that number for the lightning i do like the the new york rangers at minus 115 so i would lean to the road uh team there with the rangers to beat the lightning tonight i do find that when i want a team to lose,

and then I bet against them, I just am too emotionally invested in the game. Really, at one point, was kind of hoping Tampa would just miss and save for our Leafs show that headache of them playing at some point. No, they're not going to miss. No, they're not going to miss. I'm just looking at the standings here.

I mean, they could miss, I guess. No, they could miss. to miss. I'm just looking at the standings here. I mean, they could miss, I guess. But, well, no, they could miss. They're right in it. Detroit's only two points back, right? They're right in it. Detroit's only two points back. There's three teams here. There's three teams fighting for two spots. Like, I believe the Caps are going to fall back down, right?

Yes. I think they're heading south. It's Detroit, the Islanders, Tampa, and I guess Philly if New York jumps up into the metro division playoff picture so yeah uh it feels like the lightning will still be in the playoffs a lot of good players there yeah another excellent matchup tonight florida panthers and the carolina hurricanes uh the rematch of last year's uh conference finals right where they swept them and sam bannett uh sent was it just slavin to the shadow realm?

Oh, God. Maybe the hardest hit I've seen in 10 years. I saw Slavin talking about that hit too. He was out before he went down on the ice. Yeah. Hammered him. That was as hard a hit as been thrown in the NHL. Yeah.

Bennett's a nail gun. Give me the Florida Panthers as an underdog, plus 105 on the road. Carolina really starting to come around here. Feels like they're really you know the book's giving them a ton of respect they got genzel i watched kuznetsov play they weren't playing against the flames but he did look pretty good so they're they're giving him a lot of respect but anytime you can get those florida panthers as a underdog plus money i think you

got to do it you don't see many teams get such ubiquitous love everyone thinks florida is like going to be an impossible out in the playoffs i just i don't remember even when boston had 136 points last year it didn't seem as consensus that this is the team to beat well definitely in the east anyway yeah you know my thoughts on florida bud yeah you love them i just think they're yeah to waste eight days playing them. And the last one I'll give you, this is more of a long shot, more of a gut bet here,

but the New Jersey Devils are in Dallas to take on the Stars. Jake Allen's debut tonight, plus 155, the New Jersey Devils. Love this. Dallas Stars just blew a lead to the Cats. Otter's struggling. They're a little bit vulnerable to me right now,

so give me a long shot Devils plus 155 in Dallas. You ever bet double chance? I don't understand it. It's just if they tie or win, you get paid out. So if they get it to overtime, you get paid as well. Sometimes I do that for

underdogs if they're long odds. But yeah. Oh, and the one other thing we wanted to look at, because you mentioned it, the Leafs, the over, the total tonight is six, which to me feels a little, maybe you want to tease that up a bit higher. It's minus 120 for the over and the under is plus 100.

So they're definitely on the over. They're definitely expecting some goals in that game tonight. So that was game time presented by bet. Three, six, five, visit the app for latest odds. find out why it's never ordinary bet 365 must be 19 plus ontario only please play responsibly all right so yesterday there's a guy in the league who does media takes without knowing he's doing it it's nikitaita Zdorov. Oh, yeah. I love this. Buddy, this is not like the first thing he said. That's like, he just kind of talks.

And yesterday he gave a take in an interview, which was very much the type of thing you would hear Skip Bayless and Stephen A yelling at each other about. We have the clip. To play? Yes, we have the Zdorov clip, I believe. Derek, you want to play that? Best player in the world up there. He's humming right now, so we need to stoporov clip, I believe, Derek. You want to play that? Best player in the world up there. He's humming right now, so we need to stop him for sure, I think.

Keep doing what we're doing, working as the unit of five. Play a strong defensive game. That's a great talk, David, Matthews, but you've played with him. In your mind, is McKinnon not the best player in the league? Yeah. Overall, the total package, speed, release. If I were to build a team, I would have built around him over those two guys because he is a winner.

He won the Stanley Cup for sure. So he was kind of led in the question, but then he went above and beyond. If I was going to build a team. I totally agree. And then he also says over those other two guys. So he doesn't just go, I agree he won the Stanley Cup. I to build a team. I totally agree. And then he also says, over those other two guys. So he doesn't just go, I agree, he won the Stanley Cup, I'd build around him. He says, if I were to build a team,

I would choose McKinnon over those other two guys. Talking about McDavid and Matthews. He sounds like a Game of Thrones character. Well, he's a little low. He's a little low. He's a big person. He's got a baritone situation. I do kind of wish the Leafs had got him.

I got to sit here and tell you, I kind of agree with his take. GM Sammy starting a team takes McKinnon over McDavid. By the way, no disrespect to Austin Matthews, he's a great player. No, it's not. It's not in the conversation to me. Not yet.

I think it's maybe that the way connor looks it's not as not impressive is the right word but it's not as like in your face like the way that uh mckinnon plays is just straight lines fast digging a hole into the ice speed burst hard shots up the way finding images to me is him trying to beat connor garland to death with his own helmet yes you know his level of passion that's like and you know he's a he's a like chickpea pasta he'll kick you off the team like he's just a straight killer yeah and i love that mentality about him i know it's crazy to not take mcdavid first but i don't think what our boy Skip Zdorov said is necessarily wrong. So I would pick McDavid. That would be my

choice. But I don't think you can sit here and say it's a crazy take. I mean, McKinnon is favored to win the Hart Trophy this year. Just won the Stanley Cup. He's leading the NHL in points. He, again, has tried to beat someone with their own helmet. There is a laundry list of reasons. You'd a totally reasonable take and to dethrone mcdavid

is the obvious choice just really speaks to what mckinnon has become yeah he's got 115 points already yeah and that's you know he he does he plays the game the right way too like he's not someone who's cheating the game i'm not saying the other guys do but so plug your ears vancouver okay okay i can just picture i guess well can they play in a playoff series right they're eligible to play in a playoff series at some point those two teams yeah round two round two sorry round three if they uh central and the pacific come together no if it's no oilers in vancouver no, Oilers and Vancouver could definitely play in a second round. Oh, Oilers and Vancouver. I thought you were doing Colorado and Vancouver.

No, no, my bad, my bad. I got my divisions mixed up. So there's just plug years, Vancouver, like I said, that get to the second round and you play the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the playoffs. First game, they go in there and Connor McDavid scores a hat trick. You go down 1-0 in the second round of the playoffs. First game, they go in there,

and Connor McDavid scores a hat trick. You go down 1-0, and every Edmonton Oilers fan is being like, oh, yeah, is it Nikita? Oh, yeah, you think McDavid? Yeah. The blowback option of this where players are like, if there's a thing I don't necessarily want to do,

it's give bulletin board material to the guy who literally is maybe the greatest hockey player of all time. Yeah. It's just a very dicey, dangerous game to me. It's really talking trash to a murderer. Yeah. You won't kill me. Kabang! You won't kill me. I just, careful Nikita.

I love that you said it, and I love what you, I really appreciate it. But you got to play that guy maybe second round. It is funny. It is funny because there is this great temptation to act like the coach and be like, don't do that. Yes. Don't do that. We don't need you to do that.

But on the other hand, you know, we always complain. Want to hear guys give their opinion. I think guys, hey, speak it freely. I think it's a reasonable take. And they also play together. Sure. So he's got some extra love there. For sure.

But be careful with talking trash to David. Seems a little bit fiery. For sure. Want to talk about the Red Wings? Yeah. Is this our spot? Let's do it. Let's do Red Wings.

We haven't really addressed this a ton, but they've lost six in a row now, the Red Wings? Yeah. Is this our spot? Let's do it. Let's do Red Wings. We haven't really addressed this a ton, but they've lost six in a row now, the Red Wings. Is it seven? It's six, yeah. There's a fight at practice. I love that. I know you do. Are you saying that you've been in a practice fight?

Multi. Wow, multi. I've been in two or three practice fights. Well, you know what it is, is I can see myself being the bad teammate in this situation like lucas raymond so it's ben charot and lucas raymond you just know exactly what happened here almost all of my practice fights came from a drill in front of the net where your own teammate is giving you like lower lumbar cross 100 and you spin around and take a swipe because you know f off

yeah we're teammates enough of this this is just not the spot if you're detroit you're trying to ramp up the competitiveness you're losing you got a guy like charotte that's how he tries to drag the best out of people and he ends up in a fight with lucas raymond at practice i'm sure the team is like yeah we're in favor of that but i get why lucas raymond be like hey maybe let's not so a big reason that they've been struggling is dylan larkin has been out for an extended period of time that hurts he i you know we talk about most underrated guys in the league i actually feel like he could be one of the more underrated guys and he's just every time i watch them he pops to me he's an excellent player he just drives play we go ahead but my question though dylan larkin has he emerged so when you're a bad team and you're

rebuilding the first good player you get everyone is like all right this is yeah builder on him cousins yeah dylan cousins is our guy because we're buffalo dylan you know has he taken himself away from yeah he's just the best player in detroit to being one of the best players in the nhl a true difference maker do you think he's in that tier now i love him i really do and he's you know he's 54 points 55 games so far this season he's had a good year i i do like him but you're right i mean he's maybe not on the upper echelon but is he gonna be if he's your best player are you gonna win a stanley cup i'm not sure but i i do like him but i was looking at their cap for like you you know, that's a best-looking cap-friendly page. Is this going to be an Iserman take?

I don't know. Like, I respect Stevie. Why? I think he's, you know, they've kind of turned it around here a little bit. They're better. Like, are they ahead of schedule? Are they on schedule? I just don't quite know what the plan is.

Because there's no obvious, like, bright stars on the team where you're like, okay, they're coming. To me, last year getting getting half decent was stupid. Well, so I disagree there. I think at some point you got to try to win and be in games that matter. And you can't say that they're not. You know, Andrew Kopp was expensive and Sherratt was expensive. And, you know, all these guys.

Listen to some of these contracts are kind of crazy. You know, Kopp is until 26, 27 at 5'6". JT Comfort until 27, 28 at 5'1". You know, Robert Fabry. Perron at the time was one he added as well. Justin Hall for three years at 3'4". That's a tough one. He doesn't play.

Ben Sherrod is 4'7". Until 25, 26. Maybe you struggled a little bit here. I just don't know the direction of this team because it was like they're building and it's the eyes are playing. And then all of a sudden it's just like, here's all these overpaid guys.

And those guys are going to be not great at the time you're hoping you're... And I just thought sort of getting good last year when they did, or like trying to get good, just wait, there was this guy at the top of the draft last year? Yeah. That you maybe could have been bad one more.

I just, I don't know what the direction is for them and i kind of hope they get into the playoffs and i hope that they kind of pull out of this because i think it's better when the red wings are relevant they're one of the storied franchises in the league an original six team obviously but i'm just not sure it breaks off your leafs every time they play well no that's not true but they just they they have a very uh cat-friendly page. Fair enough. And I don't want to bury Stevie Eisenman, but it's just not looking excellent to me.

I think that's a reasonable take. I do want to get to another story from a Canadian market. And by Canadian market, I mean, we said stuff in Canada up here, apparently, that Eric Carlson didn't like. Oh, yeah. We have that clip. Yeah.

Well, you want to play that clip for us Eric yeah that's Canada for you uh play there for a long time so I kind of know how that game works um they got they got a lot of things to talk about every day because they got a lot of air time but very few things to to actually discuss so they like to uh like to make up these what-if scenarios, and that's just the way it is, and it's not something that I really look into or worry too much about. I'm offended by the words make up.

You are? I am offended. I'm not. The report that we're talking about here is I think we've had, Freed has mentioned multiple times. Carlson potentially, you know, with Ottawa and, you know, Alfredson's back in the fold and he's familiar with Carlson. Could there be a fit there?

And so Carlson's upset saying that people are making stuff up here. I tell you, doesn't come from nowhere. Yeah. No, I agree. He's just sitting here at home doing, you know, pulling a random team in a name and going maybe these two no i will stand with our boy frege too yeah and this is just such a classic eric carlson like oh that's canada that's you know what this is he's in his perfect

time now where it's like they don't none of their games matter and he's like oh it feels like i'm in san jose again point night again like perfect for carlson you know what there's no better matt i send him back to ottawa sure see how that goes it is it is strange you know the addition to him in the first place didn't make a ton of sense it'd be wild to me wild to him then immediately say you know we're gonna try to get rid of the physical healing process i don't even what is that drop i think that was just his computer was still on i think i do think it it's just so far-fetched to think that you know he ends up anywhere other than pittsburgh trying to see this thing through i will say it's been pretty imperfect i will say though if it you know dubious if there's one thing that dubious has the skills and has the ability to do is admit early on a mistake and pivot right like you think back to here with the nick ritchie

thing yeah signs nick ritchie instead of zach hyman by the way um wasn't a to b on that but well i mean the other three million went to peter marazic so we had to figure that out um yeah and andre kasha you want me to keep going i can remember this stuff uh Well, I mean, the other three million went to Peter Mrazik, so he had to figure that out. Yeah. And Andre Kasha. Do you want me to keep going? I can remember this stuff. I think that he can find a way to admit that he was wrong and pivot and trade a guy. Yeah.

And it's clearly, I don't know why he thought it was going to be a personality fit in the first place. Like, I don't know Eric Carlson personally, but, like, I think we've gathered enough. Him and Burns didn't work great. Kipper's tentpole takes is that it was stupid to

have those two together. He's always talked about that. To bring him into that room and just the point that they're at, I never liked it. I think maybe Dubas is like, you know what? Maybe he was the one who was like, yeah, we're trying to trade him. It wouldn't be the worst thing, but I could we're trying to trade him yeah you know like i wouldn't be the worst thing but i could see him moving on from him maybe not to ottawa but if

someone's gonna be like we'll take that money he'd be very happy to trade it i bet yeah not a lot of people can take 10 mil for a defenseman um friedman's uh was 21 but 32 thoughts came out today and he wrote a little bit about Eric or sorry, Sidney Crosby and how he can't see him leaving. Well, you know, Latang and Gino and all those guys just signed. But I do think they're the one takeaway from free just piece that I really

like is like, you got to give Dubas just got there. And this is, you got to give him a chance to turn it around to see what it'll look like you went all in again with the guys with the veteran guys and it didn't work first thing is he does is flip gensel for three prospects who are just about nhl age whatever i think it's worth sid hanging around there seeing if dubas can figure something out for a year boy you're you're still preaching at the church of duvis i know how this

goes but he traded their top guy for a sue greyhound and three small prospects okay i don't think there's anything to learn how about pittsburgh pittsburgh the bobblehead thing yeah the yogurt bobbleheads get stolen this ended up being a bit i don't know i don't know i borny you i you ghost wrote a tweet for me you sent me a joke and then i tweeted it but uh yeah downgrading the carrier size from a big rugged one to a small fast carrier for the we've got enough two of us we have if there was the uh the golf thing what was it pip the pip yeah where it's you get the paid on how much you get talked about? We'd have earned him some money. Dubas is 100% winning it in hockey.

In hockey Twitter, there can't be a more discussed guy. Everyone's talking about it. Well, off the ice at least. Fair enough. All right. Well, lots of action tonight. Toronto at Philly. I know you're going to have your eyes on that.

Please talk after, baby. Post game with J.D. Bunkus. Thanks to Anthony Petrilli, Charlie O'Connor, and Luke Gazdik for joining us today. Tomorrow, we will be back for Off the Rails Friday. With Gordo.

Gord Stellick. That's gone. Dougie Mack. Should be a good time. Thanks for tuning in.