Real Kyper & Bourne - Evason Exits Minny

Episode Date: November 27, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start with the bizarre situation in Chicago and their 'organizational decision' to keep Corey Perry out of the lineup indefinitely. They are joined by NHL Network's Brian Lawton (7:25), who weighs in on Perry's situation, the Oilers starting to pick up some momentum, why trading this early in the year is so difficult and the parity across the league. Later, Tocchet makes Kuzmenko a healthy scratch and the Lightning get a boost with Vasilevskiy back in the crease. Finally, the guys react live to breaking news of the Wild cutting ties with head coach Dean Evason.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.

it's the real kipper and born show national edition we are live on sports at sports at 650 in vancouver and sports at 960 in calgary this hour of real kipper and born brought to you by bet 365 nick kiprios justin born sammy Sammy McKee for the next hour. Plenty to get into. Oh, yes. Edmonton Oilers making it look easy last night against the Anaheim Ducks. God, they're good. We did mention Corey Perry's name in the first hour.

Yeah. Okay, first of all, anybody out there, buddies especially i don't know anything okay quit texting me i don't know and so my buddies who are listening if i ever know anything it's because kip knows something he knows nothing so i don't and to all of my group chats that are exclusively talking about this, I know nothing as well. But thank you for the memes and the rumors. Okay. Outside of aliens being involved, there is so much crap out there. And I got to be honest with you, I've been in the game,

in the pro game for 12 years. I've covered it for close to 25. This one is really bizarre. Yeah, it is. It's really bizarre for no other reason is because a player of this stature suddenly like almost falling off, like gone, right? Which is okay. I i mean sometimes it's personal reasons and sometimes they just announce someone needs but this one kind of they backdoored the

personal issue thing and they just came out and said nothing no no they said organizational decision which means right off the bat that there's something going on between player and organization that they're not seeing eye to eye on something. And therefore, we've asked the player to leave opposed to us agreeing that he needs time off. Do you know what I'm saying? I do. It's at a bad tone right off the bat.

Well, the strangest thing was that I had the thought, like he's got a kid, right? And I was like, you know, could had the thought, like, he's got a kid, right? And I was like, you know, could his kid really have some serious diagnosis? No, they would tell us that it's like a family. You know, like, just trying to put the pieces together of what wouldn't they feel comfortable talking about. The feeling, again, I got, and a lot of people have,

is that, you know, when they started saying, like, it's an organizational decision like there was no sense that like he was going to be welcomed back which to me no indefinite which yeah suspension you know indefinite uh not suspension but just it wouldn't be back for the foreseeable future i think how kyle definite leave maybe uh foreseeable future. I think how Kyle... Indefinite leave, maybe. Foreseeable future. We don't see him coming back in the foreseeable future was, I think, the quote Saturday from Kyle Davidson.

And, you know, I'm thinking as an organization that's just been through something, one of the biggest scandals that the NHL has ever seen, you might want to try to get ahead of something instead of having... Transparency would be good. Listen, I get it. It's very sensitive, and it wouldn't

be the first time in professional sports something very sensitive was out there, but it's hard to not say a word either because all the vultures out there on social media are going to, it makes them dig deeper and it makes them hungrier to find out what's going on.

And that's not a good thing in today's world. And it's just fanning the flames, like the rumors, everything is just like, I have heard every different range of theory from people. And it's like people not knowing is not helping them get out ahead of whatever story now has to be told. They could have told some sort of story. I just, I don't know whether or not, like. What a hard trophy in Stanley Cups.

The Chicago Blackhawks are a top original six organization i don't know if based on past recent history i don't know if they're equipped to to get ahead of the pr department should they not have the most equipped pr department at this point they should they should yeah they should probably have most equipped PR department at this point? They should. They should. Yeah, they should probably have figured out how to handle this. But. After what happened. To your point, Fan in the Flames is going on right now.

And it's not good for anybody. No, and it's, you know, who knows what really happened. But some of it's kind of distasteful. And so, like, if it's not true. We don't even know not fair to a lot of people involved you're never going to control that social media side of it of the trollers and all the people that want to assume the worst and without any factual information like that's but cory perry for the most part you've never really heard anything you know bad about him or you know and i that's not to say that something hasn't happened that might be of great concern to a lot

of people around him but we're talking about a guy that should go in the hall of fame. Well, that's the thing. It's like, if you, you know, if you got in trouble, you got a DUI or something,

you think they would come out and deal with it or talk about it or whatever, you know, like there's so many things that you could see the path forward for them as a PR angle. And so I think that's, what's making this have so much combustion is that you can see how they would handle things unless it was something really uncommon and strange we're

going to welcome in brian lotten in a couple of minutes president general manager of the tampa bay lightning once upon a time so i think he'd have some insight on how something internally would be, what would be going on right now in terms of Chicago and even there's a players association too, so it's my understanding that he has not been suspended. He's still getting paid. So it's not an issue like they want to terminate his contract as of yet. But how long do season ticket holders in Chicago have to scratch their heads?

I don't know. And, you know, what's worse about it all is how much extra they paid to get him there they probably paid two and a half million above his value maybe two million above his value anyway they say come help along our young talent and show them how to be a pro and all that it just seems like money that did not get well spent at this point. Okay. As promised, let's welcome in Brian Lawton, president,

general manager, agent. The man has done it all. Lots. What's going on, man? Where do we find you right now? I am back in very cold Minnesota today,

enjoying it. I had a little travel over Thanksgiving, but I'm happy to be back. I was in Montana for a little while, and I was in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. Lots. Yeah, tough life. I'm not sure how much of our conversation you caught before you joined on, but we're talking about cory perry and and um just the the lack of information and uh you know i get it especially with chicago how

sensitive they are with the media and players and information but you know based on the fact that they're coming off what a two million dollar2 million fine for not responding, I guess, in time to the Kyle Beach situation. Does it appear like they're making the right moves by not sharing anything at all or have they gone too far one side? I don't normally spend a ton of time on these types of stories, particularly if I find out that it's something very personal. I don't know exactly what the situation is, but I was led to believe that this is something very personal. It's not a ruse. It's not necessarily anything that anyone would be proud to find out about. It has to do with some personal strife, if I am correct. And if that's the case, and I don't know that it is, and I really wouldn't have any more to say about it because it truly is a private matter.

If that's not the case, if it's not what I think it is or what I was told, then yes, I can understand where you guys would be coming from. There's not really many secrets left in the world. I feel like these things will come out eventually. I may have been misled this morning, but I did not like the things I heard. And I hope none of them are true. And I hope in this case, you guys are right that it's odd that we don't know more specifics about what's going on. Yeah. Kip, did you have any more you wanted to ask on that, or can I turn the page?

No, we're good. Listen, I totally respect his privacy, and I get all of that. I just know in today's world that it just doesn't end there, unfortunately. Yeah, the Hawks probably could have snuffed out a lot of the rumors by just being a little more forthright or something. I did want to ask you about a team that has been fascinating for us here in the national hour, the Edmonton Oilers. It is a team that I'm not sure if you about a team that has been fascinating for us here in the national hour.

The Edmonton Oilers is a team that I'm not sure if you noticed started kind of bad, but they had a really good weekend. What are your thoughts on trying to have patience with a team that you know has had success in the past, but it's just not happening when you're in management. How do you sort of have the patience to ride these things out and let them correct yeah i mean it's tough and you have to give ken holland a lot of credit for hanging in there i do think that we've found out some new information about the oilers i mean

let's not forget they weren't that far away from making the finals last year expectations were through the roof uh two star players two of the most popular players in the league there's a lot of attention on this team and it was kind of uh just a dud to start the season for them quite frankly it shocked a lot of people when i say i think we've learned some things about their team um as we found out the last few games, their team is not as horrific as it started the season. As a matter of fact, they're much better than that. I'll go ahead and shock everybody by saying

the Edmonton Oilers will definitely make the playoffs. I don't know how closely people are following. I know you guys are in terms of the West, and right now the West is projecting, you know, potentially low 80s. Yeah. The last to be the last team. So there's some anomalies going on for sure. At the end of the day, I still believe Edmonton will be in the playoffs. I believed in the summer that they would certainly be one of the top three in their division.

I'm not sure that's the case. You have to tip your cap to Vancouver and L.A. for coming out and playing as well as they have. That may change the dynamic. But I still think they'll make the playoffs. I really do. when Conor and Leon both are hitting on all cylinders, that those two guys are good enough to literally elevate this team into being a playoff team at any time. Will that be enough for Oiler fans that what deemed an American Thanksgiving

nightmare not being in the playoffs. Does that turn into, yes, we made the playoffs success, or no, like Ken, turn this into a Stanley Cup final team? I don't think it'll be enough for Edmonton fans if they just make the playoffs. And yet you have to take a little bit of baby steps from where they are right now. But I do feel like their game is coming around. I do feel like the new information that Ken and his staff would have learned is that we do still have some issues with our roster.

And we are going to have to make some pretty significant changes if we want to in fact be a Stanley Cup contending team no doubt they'll be in the playoffs for me I know that may sound crazy that's what I think that's what I thought in the summer I do a lot of modeling I couldn't create a model that didn't have Edmonton quite frankly in the top five teams in the NHL now this is just on paper before the season started, but that is the reality of it. That hasn't worked out. What does it mean that their team maybe isn't as good as we thought?

It means that they need to make some adjustments. They need to figure out their goaltending still. It's playing better, so it's easy to forget about. And yet it's still there. That has to be improved and their decor is still below where it needs to be to be a championship team and then lastly the depth on their team outside of their superstars they are top heavy i've heard craig button say this a number of times no top heavy teams ever win the cup i think you have to evaluate every team on its own merits they are a top heavy team

that is true i'm not sure what some adjustments that they're not good enough to go on and win a cup it's not looking great this year but there's still a lot of season left so i'm pretty bullish on the edmonton oilers is what i'm trying to say i'm happy to hear it i've been fighting against these two in here i'm'm digging in on the oil. You know, one of the things that we heard, and Kip and I were talking about this in the first hour, was about the Leafs. And just Tree Living saying that it's hard,

or you can't trade your way out of it right now. And, you know, you have experience with this business. And why can't you? Why can't teams right now be more active and fix their problems it just feels frustrating for fans who there's obvious shortcomings but their their gms are saying there's nothing they can do about it well brad's not wrong it's definitely difficult to make trades at this time it's just human nature if you look at the oils as an example so we don't pick on brad know, they obviously went through a really rough stretch here and would desperately like to have done something.

But when the phone gets picked up this early in the year, people know why you're calling, particularly for the oils. They were looking for a goaltender in the worst way. And just by chance, the price for a goaltender at that time was sky high. Can you imagine that for a National Hockey League? A guy that you could have had for free in the summer was now potentially worth the first round pick. And that's tough to swallow on the acquiring team. And it's just human nature. So Brad is right on that. But we have seen guys that have bucked the trend in the past that have been able to make deals. You've got to be more open than ever. You've got to come with solutions for a club.

You've got to understand that, you know, this early in the year with Edmonton, we'll use them again as an example. There really weren't that many suitors they could go to just turn the standings upside down and start reading away. Start with San Jose. Do you want anybody there? You're going to find your own club where Edmonton was for a while. Pretty high on on the list that you don't want to be on. So then maybe you get to Chicago and you see all the guys they have that you may have interest in. They've got an elite defenseman in Seth Jones.

They've got excess goaltending to some degree, but more than anything, they're a team that's ahead of where people thought. And transitionally, you might find a match if you were a team like Edmonton and a team like Chicago, a team that really feels like they must win now and take advantage of their star players, lock their star players down long term. What happens in these next two years is going to dictate whether or not certainly Leon Dreissel and Connor McDavid stay with that organization. So they're not just playing like everybody else for a Stanley Cup championship. They're playing to solidify their future, where Chicago is on a different track, feeling better about themselves, probably as an organization today, as Edmonton did a week ago. But they know that they've got

some runway. They've got time. They've got some general managers and senior staff on long-term contracts. They know if they do this right, continue to acquire picks and younger players, they're going to have a great career. And the Chicago Blackhawks will be trying to duplicate what they just went through in an incredible run. So you've got to really understand not only where you're at, but where everybody else is at. Not a lot of suitors to make a deal. I thought Nashville might fall into that pile,

and all they've done is gone out and rip off a bunch of wins in a row to change that. So Brad is correct. It's tough. It's definitely mission difficult, but it's not mission impossible to get a deal done necessarily we're talking to brian lot and former nhl player agent general manager lots uh 20 games into the season man we've either seen some uh some interesting uh benching or healthy scratches

and the names are timo meyer, Kucherov in Tampa Bay, Jonathan Huberto in Calgary, Kuzmenko, Rick Talkett in Vancouver. Did I mention Timo Meier? Okay. So how does that compare to maybe when you were a manager in Tampa Bay dealing with a guy like Vinny LeCavalier? Is it the same? Is it that much harder today than it was back then?

I think it's the same, and it's certainly difficult. You left out Patrick Laine, I guess, would be the other name that came to mind. That's right. As you were reading a very eloquent list of guys. It's a shocking list. It is. It is a shocking list. It is. It is a shocking list, Kipper.

And in today's world, you've got a different athlete. Guys like you and I, we were afraid. You were never afraid of anything except for a team burying you and banishing you from the NHL forever. So I don't mean to imply that you were afraid of any player. Because I know you weren't, but you know exactly what I mean. In today's world, the guys have more security and I don't think it resonates as much. It's still challenging. Patrick Lainey in particular spoke openly about how embarrassing it is. You know, you're a leader on a team. Johnny Goudreau hasn't really started much better than Patrick either, but it's just different.

There's more security. I feel like back then the coach had the power to get rid of you, whereas now I feel like the team has the power to get rid of the coach. And that's just the reality of it. So it definitely is different. It's definitely shocking. I'm somewhat surprised as many teams went to the whip, so to speak, in terms of a horse racing analogy to actually, you know, remove star players that early in the season. but it does speak somewhat to the parody of the National Hockey League and it does speak somewhat to the expectations of owners in today's salary cap world a lot of teams spend into the cap right there they expect great

performance it's not going to happen the way that owners would like, because quite frankly, everybody else is trying to, you know, that's something I did want to ask you about too. Just this parody in the league. Like it feels to me like, you know, because the cap has been flat and you can,

you can only get so good before you got to move guys. And then the bottom end gets helped out by the draft. And so they kind of creep up and it just feels like this league where everyone is, there's like 25 teams and then two up here and two down there you know whatever the numbers are three and three it just feels very sandwiched and so you know we spent an hour trying to sort out the Toronto Maple Leafs before this but it's like they're kind of in the same spot everyone else is so you have to find value on your contracts and that's hard to do unless you're drafting really really well and having you know contributions from young guys right yeah i think it's very transitional i mean one thing

that i used to say that i really just copied from byam burke because him and i had this conversation a long time ago is you're never really treading water in a national hockey league you're either trying to move your club forward or take a couple steps backwards to take a bunch of steps forward right now it just seems like there's a lot of teams almost treading water not really able to move i do think a lot of it just has to do with the salary cap being so tight the last number of years it's just pulled everybody closer together um is that good is that bad that's a longer discussion another argument but it's clearly happened even toronto you know they can go on a little bit of a run and things look great they

could be off for a couple weeks and i'm sure it's uh doom and gloom in toronto oh yeah i just replay our first hour of our show right right it's it is tough it is tough to manage in that environment um it's also tough because owners expect more as i touched on earlier that less teams are willing to you know maybe accept we could could use the Minnesota wild as an example, you know, where are they at in their trajectory right now? Are they a team that's moving forward or a team that's moving back? They've had a lot of, you know, continued playoff success, but where are they really at being a Stanley cup contender?

Can't fans understand that there's, what, $14, $15 million of dead salary cap space there, and this is just an off year? Is that not good enough for Minnesota this year? I don't think the fans, they're aware of it, but the expectations of fans are a lot like owners. They don't care how the money's spent. They just recognize that the money is spent. And those are decisions that you pay your management to make.

So you're always accountable for them. You know, the tough thing for the Wild, you know, Zach has continued to play up until this year, but he was playing at, you know, a nominal amount. Ryan Suter turned around immediately. I believe he's second in ice time on a very good club in the National Hockey League right now, making

even more money than he was making before. Those are tough situations to swallow. Lots of great stuff. Just one more question. Is that a turtleneck you're wearing on zoom call or a neck protector no it's a turtleneck okay i just wanted to make sure i'm smiling and laughing but you know very quickly i do believe in neck guards after all the you know the horrific

instance with yes a player in europe And I know it's undetermined what's going to happen there, but I've always thought it was a little bit crazy that we didn't have net guards in the U.S. mandatory the way they are in Canada. I know a lot of people complained when we went to helmets for coaches a long time ago in the U.S. and I was always in favor of that and I know that we were professionals and maybe you know we think we don't need a neck guard or we don't need a helmet to coach but at the end of the day it's not really about a few guys that were professionals it's about what's better for the overall sport that's how I feel about neck guards. Well said,

Lotz. Really appreciate your time coming on our show as always, pal. Thanks for doing this. Thanks, Lotz. Great to see you guys. Thanks for having me on. You too. Brian Lawton. He also could have announced the release of the new iPhone 16 dressed like Steve Jobs.

That was a solid black shirt on that. He looked pretty handsome on that. We are seeing a lot more guys with neck guards, which is great. Yeah. Bertuzzi's wearing the biggest one I've ever seen. He's wearing all the neck guards. His was thicker than Brian Lawton's turtleneck.

It covers his chin. His neck guard is a neck guard. If he's scoring... Love it. It has not hindered his performance keep wearing it as if he couldn't look any more like a beer leaguer in north york but he puts on that thing and he looks even more like uh vancouver kuzmenko like that guy what scored last year's 39 that many and it was i don't know he had a lot of goals last year and like rick tock it's not scared to put him in the press box but it's

great how many goals don't you think 39 goals 39 rick tock it isn't scared any more that's it you know but it's send the message you're not playing well enough try again later this was game four or game five and i know rick wouldn't do it until like he's had sufficient amount of proof that Kuzmenko's not doing the little things right. But it sure helps when you get off to that start and people start looking at you and going, man, you're a good coach. It's easy for him to now today take a 39-goal score and put him in the press box and have people believe that there is a method to your

madness right now because a lot of coaches wouldn't have the guts to put a 40 goal score 20 games into the season that's why the press box i'm always harping on the start of the season snowball it can roll down the negative side of the mountain or the positive side, and it picks up speed either way. And the positive side is like, guys, it gets you buy-in as a coach. They're like, all right, we're winning. He knows what he's talking about. Let's just keep executing what he wants us to do. They stick to the structure better.

You have more success. Big, big snowball. Smart. Works. Works for you. Just get off to a good start. It's game time. Presented by Bet365.

Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19+. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. And I got two games tonight that I'm taking a look at. The Tampa Bay Lightning are in Colorado tonight to take on Avalanche. Love that game.

And my greatest fears are being realized. I don't know if you saw the final score of Friday night after Vasilevsky's return, fellas. They just win. Oh, they win by like 8-2. They won 8-2. It's a pretty good team. Yeah. And now

I'm just petrified. I said bad things about them earlier that people can talk about. I said they were bad. They weren't going to be good. Now they're good. Now there's a lightning again. And they're going into tonight against Colorado as an underdog again. They're plus 110 going into Colorado. I know Colorado's been playing well,

but I feel like these guys are starting to feel good. So give me the Tampa Bay Lightning story as an underdog at plus 110 tonight. I actually really like that bet. I looked at that myself. One of the reasons to be afraid of tampa i feel like is they keep finding guys and like haggles unbelievable but that ace simon's pretty effective too like they just find these little passionate guys the blue line still makes me nervous for them but vas Sergeyev sometimes can look all world and then there's sometimes you go okay

that was really dumb. Yes, that is true. Nikita Kucherov did pass Quinn Hughes and now leads the NHL in points. He is just sick good. He's otherworldly. And I think, is it you

that have said it before, just that there's no more deceptive guy in the league? When he comes over the blue line, I legitimately have zero idea what he's going to do. No, he does. He's got this stick halfway up here. You can see how this is unfolding. He like kicks it to somebody.

I think that's why Willie Nylander's game's gone to another level too. To me, he can disguise shot or pass. Not Kucherov, but he's good. But that was the one in Sweden, right, where he could have shot it from the top of the circles and he walks in, makes the pass. Do you remember Kucherov's leave it breakaway move where he literally wouldn't touch it?

I actually think... Where he pretends to go to his forehand and it slides through the five hole. But he has one on a breakaway that he did against Braden Holpe that he didn't do on purpose and everybody thinks he did on purpose. But the one that he did, I think it's Dubnik or someone on the Sabres. Maybe not Dubnik. Who'd he do it to on the Sabres?

He's had it in-game and in a penalty. But the one in the penalty shot is legitimately maybe the filthiest shootout goal ever because he pulls it off perfectly. It's really nice. He's so good. Sometimes I think when he's not good, it's just because he's bored. It could be. He's sour. He's very... He's like, he's not challenged. He just looks like

sometimes he goes, 82 games. Why do we play so many? So looking at their cap picture, their lightning, and what they have for draft picks, they don't have a ton of picks to work with to improve their deadline. Because they traded a whole draft class for tanner janelle last year the cupboards are completely bare five picks they traded for tanner they have they have their second rounders

in 25 and 26 and they have a first and 26 but outside of that they don't have a ton so there's going to be a reckoning for this lightning team oh yeah not no when i you know when i'm in a nursing home, they'll suck. Yeah. And the other game that I had a quick look at, I don't know if you guys watched the Sharks and Canucks on Saturday night. It was actually a really good game. For some feisty stuff.

Yeah, and the Sharks played really well. I have to give them credit. They played pretty well. So I'm taking a shot with the San Jose Sharks on home ice against the Washington Capitals. They're plus 210 big underdog on home ice they played great on saturday so give me the sharks plus 210 uh travis yost has a good article today where he talks about uh early in the season checking the standings and trying to make sense of who's good or not and how goal differential really helps and how the capitals are like the only team

that's way out there that's not actually very good. And you've said that to me. Not that you think they're not good, but not as good as their record. Can't score. Can't score. Alright, we'll revisit a few things. Got some news and notes. Let me just finish this off there, fellas. That was Game Time, presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds

and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19+. Only please play responsibly. Okay, let's take a quick break. We'll come back with more Real Kipper and Bourne. Covering the Raptors in depth like no one else. The Raptors Show with Will Liu. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify,

or wherever you get your podcasts breaking news on real kipper and born minnesota wild head coach dean evison fired geez just came down uh this is, we just, moments ago, we were talking to Brian Lawton about the Minnesota Wild, and, you know, it's, I did hear rumblings about him this morning that his job may be in trouble, but there's some people that were mixed on whether or not Billy Guerin would pull the trigger or not on, on making a coaching change because we did hear from him earlier where he

said it's on the players. Yeah. That doesn't necessarily make you feel like a coaching job or coaching change was imminent. But do you wonder if looking at this wild team, which still has plenty of talent on it, if Guerin doesn't also look at the Western Conference and go, like, you know...

No one's good. No one's good. We're not done yet. Like, it's, you know, if we can turn this thing around, but you go back right now about two and a half weeks, they lose to the Rangers, the Sabres, the Stars, the Senators, the Leafs, the Avalanche, the Wings.

Like, they've just... They're getting dummied every time they turn around. I kind of get it. Even if the coach isn't to blame like you don't have many things you can do right yeah especially when you have no cap when you have 14 million dollars of dead cap space i mean that's a tough look a for a gm when it's like sure it's one of the reasons why i asked brian lawton but he said the fans don't care And the owner doesn't care. And I also think, though, to Garen's point, like they have players on this hockey team. This is not a terrible roster.

Not the Oilers necessarily in terms of like why aren't they better, but they're not far behind. They should not be as bad as they've been. Sammy, anything out there officially yet? Yeah, it's official. Okay. And who do they say is coaching the Minnesota Wild? I'm sure it's my least favorite option, which is some guy who was already on the bench.

Intram. Just a hunch. Yeah, he was holding out all the good stuff. Yeah, I've been holding all my good ideas as an assistant coach. Dean Evanson and assistant coach Bob Woods relieved of their coaching duties. Bob Woods is a good stuff. I've been holding all my good ideas as an assistant coach. Dean Evanson and assistant coach Bob Woods relieved of their coaching duties. Bob Woods is a good dude. Dean did

an excellent job. That's in the statement. Dean did an excellent job. He did an excellent job during his tenure with the Minnesota Wild, especially as head coach of our team. I'm very thankful for his hard work and dedication to our organization from Bill Guerin. Yeah, same thing with

Bob Woods, but there's no thing on who's coaching here on the release. I did hear rumblings this morning of the name John Hines. Former New Jersey Devil Head Coach, and more recently the last, what, four years? Nashville Preds.

Yeah. But that's just one little in terms of big names out there you got gerard galant uh claude julian who he had in our show yeah um who else is available joel quenville does he still exist yeah i don't know where that is you don't think the league would let him doesn't i don't get the sense that the league's ready to give joel another chance i i don't know there's a lot of people behind the scenes pushing to get joel reinstated along with stan bullman but i don't know where Gary and the league are on. Did the second, the recent suit against Chicago hurt those guys' chances of coming back? I would imagine so.

Which one, sorry? Well, there was another recent. No, no, no, no. This is based on the original one right now. I don't think it's, I don't know if he's got a game plan, Gary Bettman, to keep him out a certain amount of time before he feels like it's enough time. I don't know.

I haven't got a clue, and nobody else in our industry seems to have a good feel on Joel Quenville's chances of returning. To me, doesn't this feel like a guy, like a galant, is the perfect thing right now? Like the quick bump guy, right? Let me just say that my Twitter feed is already making jokes. Is Corey Perry going to get named

head coach of the wild? Oh my God. Is that what's happening here? Oh my God. Jeez, Twitter. Gerrard, I think, needs a team that has a realistic shot of going to a conference final

or a Stanley Cup final. He's not going to take on a flailing team. The Wild are 5, 10, and 4. They have a minus 20 goal differential right now. It's been pretty basement, but again, we went over the West standings. You're never too far out right now. And Phillip Gustafson, who was unbelievable for them last year,

has been not unbelievable this year. Funny how that works. So let me get this straight. Woodcroft gets fired. The goalies are terrible. Would you like to know his numbers in 11 games? Sure, let's hear them. He has a 394 goals against and an 881 save percentage.

Did he sign a new contract, too? He did. The offseason. Wasn't it like a three-year, three million million or so you know my my favorite thing is how 931 to 881 is a tough drop it is and that's all the difference you look at the guys who are at the top of the standings right now vegas is doing really well uh aiden hill has the best goals against in the league 1 1.97 by the way jonathan quick a second but cam talbot Cam Talbot is having a great run. It just depends where you're playing sometimes for these guys.

Yeah, look at who's in front of those three fellers. The Kings defense is staunch. Same with the Rangers are playing amazing defensive hockey, and same with Vegas has the best decor in the league. This is something that Sam and I were talking about. You were taking many calls trying to figure out what's going on in the NHL. About teams that are legitimate in terms of outside of the pack of your average teams. Are the Kings in that group for you?

Like it's Vegas, Boston, Colorado, and maybe LA? Listen, if... You can throw Dallas in there for me too. Where's the goaltending in LA on? Do they need to get another goalie, or are they going to be fine? That's the only thing. Cam Talbot, he's killing it. I know, but is that all season long here?

931 save percentage. Jonathan Quick. Like, I had his career dead and buried now. Did you see the no-glove save he tried to make the other day? His glove fell off and he tried to catch a puck still. What a warrior. He's always a little squirrely. Yeah, love that.

Yeah, me too. It's such a wild card position now for any team. And you mentioned Hill. Come on, nobody saw that coming for Vegas. And now he's the poster boy for every team in the league just make the saves that you're supposed to we don't even want you to be great because then we're gonna have to pay you so just be good enough yeah yeah there is some similarity that finding the goaltending or finding good goaltending seems like such a challenge. So once you get it, hang on and just ride it for the year.

Get that momentum. Are we buying the New York Rangers separating themselves from the pack here? Yes. 15-3-1. We saw Jacob True buzz. There's some people, I don't know if it was Ken Campbell, Hockey News, wanted 25 games, suspension.

25. A lot of people kind of compared his slash to Marty McSorley. And I saw it. It looked not great. Not great, Bob. To not get a game? Looking not great. He's insane.

Yeah. And causing substantial damage, I i guess are two different things i think you can make the claim that like he's trying to like get the guy off him with a give him a shot with his left arm the stick up however that's fine how about two no i know that's like even if that's your claim then it's still a suspension because you have to control your stick it was a reckless swing just quickly on the wild uh your john hines birdie was correct that michael russo is now saying that john hines will be the seventh coach according to sources so god there's just no better do i get credit for breaking that on our show i don't know you know instead of tweet be like i was no those days are over check

the time stamps baby those are over heinz's nhl success not great in new jersey not great in nashville so where's the but he's coached in the league and that's like he looks so much like a guy i play hockey with like just i just looked at him oh no, like, it could be his doppelganger. Anyways, continue. I'm just looking at his record. Yeah, like, not, the furthest he's gone is the first round of the playoffs.

Maybe he should have coached the Leafs. Hey! Yeah, not great. Nothing really outstanding. Couple good years with the Devils, but that's pretty much it.

You know, they made it to the playoffs twice with the Preds, but nothing nothing spectacular uh i got i think the lineup i mean caprice off is the the prize uh piece yeah for him and then you work around young players like joel erickson eck and boldy yeah boldy's having a real tough go at 30 last year he's got one yeah caprizo's not having a great year either he's got 18 points in 19 games 26 goals so far he's minus 10 like and he's a guy people pick for heart trophy at times no he's been

unbelievable zuccarello's leading the team with 21 points in 19 games minus 5. Kaprizov minus 10 by the way. Brodine on the blue line. Spurgeon. Crazy twos. Good players. Yeah Brock Faber. He's got some good pieces. Yeah. That team to me is very similar to the one that was last year that had 113 points.

Was it that many? I think not last year but the year before they won 13. But just to get back to Trouba and the Rangers. I love him. Of course. You know, if you put all the players' sticks in the middle and start a shinny game, Kipper's pulling out Trouba like right after McDavid.

Oh, my God. No, Marner, then he's pulling out Trouba. He's so good at body checking. I have to tell you. He does it extremely well. If I was picking guys to start my franchise with, defenseman-wise, he would be embarrassingly high on the list. Yeah.

And you know, he's a captain. He's just a warrior. And you know who's starting it? Nails guys. You like his art? Love his art. Starting to kind of look like Hedman is Keondra Miller. Love him.

That's a common, I would say, in Toronto, if you're talking about who you trade Nylander for, that name comes up a lot. But they wouldn't do it. The Rangers wouldn't do it. Well, you don't think? No. No. You can't find guys like that. You can't. Like, you can't find

6'6", mobile defensemen. You win Stanley Cups with Keandra Miller's and you don't you don't trade forwards for defense straight up i don't think so it does seem like there's a real dearth of great defenseman it's funny in the nhl and this you guys tell me if you think i'm dumb so in canada anyway we've stopped producing good goaltending oh yeah you know like a focus. If you're an elite athlete and you want to play hockey in Canada, they want you to go skate

and play. It also feels like we don't want to put those people in defense. You don't want to slow those people down, go up front, play up front and go score. Yeah, I know. Other countries are doing it pretty well with producing some of these guys. I know we have a ton of great

defensemen in Canada. But it just feels like in Canada. Cancel best on best. But it just feels like in Canada, all of our talent plays forward now, and maybe in the U.S. that's happening to some extent. Tough to find me. You're at a premium now. I think the parents are running away from putting their kid in that.

Number one, it's stinking expensive. I have a seven-year-old, and I just don't even want him to try it. I don't want to pay twice as much gear for the pressure and have him stand instead of skate like i don't want that so he's not even gonna have a chance i mean he'll do it like everyone else once or twice but and the second biggest problem is is they're they're trying to teach them all the same they all look the same. The other reason why goalies are so interchangeable now is they're all the same. Yeah, it's like, is Aiden Hill, Logan Thompson?

Maybe. Yeah, you truly put them both in net without a number? There's no idea. There's no distinct personality traits anymore in the NHL goaltending department. Peter Morazic's pretty dysfunctional in net. He's a a wild card but he's also no good right excellent point by you yeah like i guess you know it's not just a hat rack over there thank you yeah i'm not wearing a hat

today maybe i should have that hair's looking a little wild but um like vasileski's been the best goalie the last little while he's pretty boring in there yeah but he's flexy and he's a little more dynamic than your average guy he is like you think of like when i grew up it's like kujo he's just flying around there has a little bit of that as he takes the bottom of the net away but like no goalies turning their stick around and flicking it up over the like kujo was there no one's like hasik or like turco was so great at breaking pucks out. That's gone. Yeah.

Lack of personality and position. Wall wanders a little too much for me. I like Wall. Have you noticed that though? I've decided I really like the, I'm entertained by the personality of him too. But have you noticed the wandering? Yeah.

Yeah. He's really got the, I don't really care. Whatever. He's got the perfect temperament, I think, to play net. Yeah. You gotta not care enough really care. Whatever. He's got the perfect temperament, I think, to play Nat. Yeah. You've got to not care enough to care.

Which is why Willie works in Toronto, too. Does that make sense? Because he's like, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, I don't know. I don't know. Whatever.

Just another day. I think it's tough to carry that with you when you're sensitive. Some good matchups tonight, boys. All right. Let's go through. What do we got? Got them right there in front of you. Which one's outside of your Tampa Bay that you like to?

I like watching the Rangers a lot. Rangers at Buffalo. Hey, Buffalo is at a crisis point. Buffalo at Rangers. Buffalo at Rangers. Like, that's a team that had some expectations. Would you, if you're Kevin Adams, go after Pat Kane and be one of the few teams, apparently,

that would offer him a multi-year deal. Do you not feel like Buffalo has to do something? I was someone who, I actually, one of my few preseason bets was that the Sabres would make the playoffs this year, which is not good, and I consider that a lost bet. But, like, that team has a lot of things that we liked the direction, right? It was like, oh, how big. Cousin's big, and Power's big, and Darlene's's big and power's big and dolling's big and

thompson's big it was like big and young and then now they're just they didn't fill in around them to me this is a lot of gms do this where they say we're just gonna let it come naturally we're gonna draft and develop at some point you gotta add and detroit added last year they added like seven guys and all of a sudden detroit's 11 and six and in a playoff spot. So they got to do something, Kip. We expect Pat Kane to make an announcement this week. Yeah? Do you or do we? I don't know.

No, this is supposed to be the week where I think it happens. Can I guess? Go ahead. Definitely Florida. I got one. Buffalo. Florida cannot give him, I think, what other teams can give him. Buffalo's going to give him three years.

And that's why he's going to sign there. You're calling the retirement contract. And you can sell to him the direction of the team, the great young talent. Justin Bourne said we need to add you're the guy. You're going to be that piece that's going to help us get going. I heard this handsome guy with glasses say that we he's a great idea we haven't even thought about

good players so oh well washington at san jose ov needs a hat trick just to kind of get him back on course i know that trick remember those commercials what do you think i don't know you don't see it i don't want it to happen i live in fear of him breaking gretzky's record every day and i don't want him to do it so i think the capitals are due for a little Tom Petty time here, a little free-falling. They lost 5-0 to Edmonton. The underlying numbers don't love them. I think it's coming for them.

Florida and Ottawa. Doesn't Ottawa have to dig themselves out of the basement a little bit here? Yeah, you know that article I mentioned that said that Washington's not as good as their numbers? Yeah. They say that Ottawa's better than their numbers. So, they're dead last. What's your call?

Ottawa and Florida tonight. I'm picking Ottawa. Ottawa's going to start to go on a run. They're 8-8. They're going to be a wild card threat this year still. All right. We're going to hold you to it. Tomorrow's show.

That's what we do here. Listen, I'm wrong a lot. Our thanks. Our thanks to Brian Lawton. tomorrow's show that's what we do here listen I'm wrong a lot our thanks our thanks to Brian Lawton former general manager coach agent

I don't know mascot is there anything he hadn't done not at all hockey version of the Dust Equis man for Nick Kiprios

Justin Bourne Sammy McKee thanks for watching thanks for listening and we're back tomorrow