Real Kyper & Bourne - Goaltender Rankings with Steve Valiquette
Episode Date: October 22, 2024Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne are joined by former goaltender and CEO of Clear Sight Analytics Steve Valiquette (4:12) to chat about one adjustment to Andrei Vasilevskiy's game, Anthony Stolarz's NHL... journey, the Maple Leafs' approach to splitting Joseph Woll's playing time moving forward and the best goaltenders across the league early in this season. Then, Nick, Justin and Sam McKee discuss how Tampa Bay Lightning's power play has become less threatening on the ice, if we could see six Canadian NHL teams in the playoffs, will Sam Bennett sign a long-term contract with the Florida Panthers and much more. 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.
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All right, we go national on the Real Kipper and Bourne Show.
Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee.
We're live and in color.
Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, Sportsnet 960 in Calgary,
and Coast to Coast on Sportsnet.
This hour of Real Kipper and Bourne is brought to you by Bet365.
In a few minutes, we're going to welcome in Steve Aliquette,
analyst for the New York Rangers on MSG
and CEO of ClearSight Analytics.
Just one game on tap last night was the Toronto Maple Leafs in Tampa Bay
where Anthony Stolarz outdueled the great Vasilevsky
to the point where I got to ask Valley first question.
The formerly great, potentially?
What is going on?
With Olvasi?
Yeah.
We've seen some signs in the last year where he's let in a few bad goals,
but he wasn't good when they beat him in playoffs.
He was the reason they won that series.
And he was the reason why Tampa was not in that hockey game last night.
You think so?
Yeah.
Trying to find where, how many years he got left on that deal.
Vasilevsky is until the end of 2028.
So he's got this season plus three more at 9.5 million.
Nobody, including me, stupid enough to write him off.
No.
No way. He's played a lot of hockey. A lot of hockey. A lot of hockey enough to write him off. No. No way.
He's played a lot of hockey.
A lot of hockey.
A lot of hockey.
A lot of losses.
Did you take any consideration last night from Tampa Bay's effort that, oh, this is also a team that got a devastating hurricane
where it affected a lot of their homes personally?
My understanding, there might have been a Tampa Bay player
with a Lamborghini underwater.
Is that right?
I mean, I hadn't heard any of that.
Well, I hear things.
Would you like to go ahead and make that case?
I'm just saying that a lot of distractions early for this hockey club was vasilevsky's
lamborghini underwater i don't think it was um vasilevsky's lamborghini but it could have been
drive your jet ski instead of your lamborghini it could have been one of the players that
maybe just recently purchased one off of a departing player who left no way his goals against average is underwater
right now that's for sure he got hit hard last night too um 878 save percentage for vasilevsky
this year he was a 900 save percentage in 52 starts last year so not a great year after years
of 915 960 925 917 92520. So things last a couple years here.
Where are you on the decision for Tampa Bay to go back to Ryan McDonough
and make the decision to take Sergeyev's $8 million off the table?
Do you know how many five-on-five goals Ryan McDonough has been on for this season?
Multiple.
A lot.
Many.
Zero.
Zero.
Okay. Then what? Yes, I like it. Okay. mcdonough has been on for this season multiple a lot many zero zero okay no white uh then yes i
like it okay you teed it up weird yeah you teared it up weird how many he sucks it's over no he's
been fine yeah he's been more than fine i mean they're all right in the back end headman's good
churnak when he's in the lineup is good okay. A little soft the deeper you get down that list or whatever, but...
Why did Ottawa trade Nick Paul again?
The Ottawa and Nick Paul thing was very strange
because it was clear he was available money.
Money.
They couldn't afford...
God, that was very dumb.
You can't get money if your team doesn't win.
It's hard to just say money because there's like
is it just money or is it we don't have the money or we're not willing to make the room
to give you the money like there's a lot of different factors sure but like you have the
money you just chose not to give it to him or keep others you know yeah it just was so obvious
at the time that this was an effective hockey player who could
help who was at the time 25 when they got rid of him i think and he's still only 29 he was traded
for matthew joseph and a fourth round pick oh we have an emmy winner with us oh all right let's go
to uh the emmy winner holy smoke oh it's game night there it is oh man right in front of madison square garden
kip looking good pal tonight for the montreal game how awesome is that all like quiet night
last night all 30 teams going at it so that's why uh you're you're uh you're busy tonight as well
but uh you know what are your thoughts on uh on what you kind of watched
last night between vasilevsky and stolars because it was a big part of the storyline yes the toronto
maple leafs were better and well deserving but i very seldom have we watched valley vasilevsky
take his club right out of a hockey game as we did last night? Yeah, it's, well, it has been a little while.
I don't think he played his best last year either.
And going back to two years ago in the playoffs, almost blew it.
I think that Vasilevsky, if there's one adjustment that I'd love to see him make,
it's bringing his head down.
Now, his head right now, it's very high.
He keeps his chin up and you guys can see me on
camera as I bring my own hand underneath my face. I can't see it. And it's almost like part of the
reason why I stopped playing lacrosse goalie was because the ball up there was a long distance from
the puck being at ice level and And tracking a puck is completely different
than tracking a lacrosse ball coming out of a stick.
And to me, Vasilevsky still looks like he's playing lacrosse out there.
He's got to get his head down because pucks are getting underneath him.
And when we talk about tracking, that buzzword about seeing a puck,
well, tracking is getting your head locked in on the puck.
So it's almost like you can imagine that your eyeballs are stuck in your sockets.
And the only way you can see it is if you move your head to do so.
And you've got to drop your jaw to be able to see those pucks
that are coming underneath you.
And if you don't, you're either going to get beat
or you're going to be sloppy on a rebound.
And then you're going to be late and have massive delay
and first movement out of that shot.
It really hinders everything in the process for the goalie.
And for some reason, Vasilevsky's been stubborn with his head position.
He's got to degree his head down.
Vali, is there a danger now because these goalies are 6'4", 6'6",
that it's just a natural progression to look over people
in their net when there's a scrum out in front,
and that automatically pulls you up even more?
It's a great point, Kipper, and I can tell you've been paying attention
to goaltending this season.
You're looking for this stuff.
And no, it is.
It's an issue because if you get too high, the puck comes under you.
And for every inch in movement that you waste going up, you lose it going east and west.
And now you've lost your explosiveness.
That's a big piece to what we're talking about when we talk about tracking the puck.
And, of course, you must be able to track the pass.
If you can do those two things, you can have a night like Sterk had in
Toronto on Saturday.
Yeah, looking pretty decent.
So at the other end of the ice last night
from Vasilevsky was Stolarz.
Five starts so far, and
he's been really good for them. So in the Leafs
hour, Kip says, you know,
all I want to know is like, why
hasn't it happened yet for this
guy? Why is... i've got the best
story for you okay where's he been valley let us know oh guys you think i'm not working the phones
before i come on this show all right so made some calls on stole ours because i'm feeling the same
way i love the guy's game i've been saying that since the first day. So I find out that he has a knee injury in 17-18 season, right?
And it doesn't rehabilitate well.
And that's around the same time Carter Hart comes on the scene
and Philadelphia chooses just to move on from him.
He ends up in Edmonton.
Edmonton, they have the same issue.
The leg is not rehabbing.
You can look at his 2016-17 season.
He plays four games, three in the East Coast League, one in the American League.
Right.
Barely plays for the next two seasons.
And when he's in Edmonton, it doesn't go well.
And they choose to kick him to the curb.
Now, Edmonton doesn't have a great reputation with goalies, so keep that with an asterisk now i find out that when anaheim
signs him they visit him in new jersey and one of his legs the injured one is a third of the diameter
of the healthy one he had essentially been playing on one leg for two years they were in shock they
brought him into anaheim, rehabilitated his leg back up,
and then he, you can imagine, had two healthy legs
that he was playing on now for the last four seasons.
Look at his numbers.
His numbers speak for itself.
I mean, this guy's got a very impressive hockey DB.
And I've heard amazing stories about his character,
his family growing up,
and it just all comes back in aces for this guy.
So the only thing we don't know is can he handle the pressure cooker,
and it's going to get hard at some point during the season,
and we know there's a lot of voices that can enter,
and hopefully he can handle that,
but it was really neat hearing the background of him
and hearing people just rave about his work ethic
and how he really got screwed over to a certain degree
by two organizations.
Wow.
That's fascinating.
Valley, when you kind of signed him to the thought
that Joseph Wall was going to get the first crack
at taking this and Stolarz can hopefully come in with maybe 30 games.
And it doesn't work out that way.
And now Joseph Wall's on the outside looking in.
How much pressure is on the organization to still go,
okay, let's not completely deviate from the plan here.
Because there's 82 games, but there's only a handful that you can go or
or signature games or games that mean something ranger saturday tampa not not columbus not
necessarily la coming in uh on the road for forever and like how does the team still now
think the mentality because also the fact that he signed to an $11 million contract for three years,
you cannot deviate off of that either for Joseph Wall and the Leafs.
So where does his start now play into where this moves forward
for both Joseph Wall and Stolarz?
Well, you know what, Kipper?
I would start with saying that don't you think Stolarz picked the Leafs
for a reason?
Yeah.
They have a chance to win.
This is the best decor the Marner's, Matthews, Nylander era has seen,
and he knows he can play.
He knows he just wasn't healthy.
Imagine the doctor coming in and saying,
your leg is a third of the diameter of the other one.
Like, what are we talking about? If you don't have your legs and your leg is a third of the diameter of the other one like what are we
talking about if you don't have your legs and your core as a goalie you're useless and he knows i'm
telling you this guy knows like i'm good and you can put me up against anybody but i want to be on
this team in this market where everybody can see it and i think wall you know what it's not the
worst thing for him because he'll have a slow burn into the season
and he'll get his nice starts when he wants them.
And hopefully, for God's sakes, he could stay healthy.
You know, but I don't, you know, we don't know, guys.
I mean, we only know what we have in the past seen with him.
And that's the only predictor of what's going to happen in the future health-wise.
So, Valli, I know you have your own analytics company
and the way that you look at these goaltenders, you know,
it's an interesting mix of who's been great in the league this year.
Stolar has been great, but then, you know,
other names like Shusterkin and Hellebuck, who we've heard of,
you know, we know of as stars in the league, have been good.
What have you seen from some of the best guys? Who have you liked around the league so far this year you know what
boys i'll start with my favorite newcomer uh dustin wolf and bloomquist in pittsburgh and i
watched his first game and it was against detroit and if you guys remember that in the first weekend
of the season he has like five or six grade A saves where you're just like, where did this guy come from?
And, you know, you learn a little bit about his past and he's a second rounder and he's got a great history in Pittsburgh playing in Wilkes-Barre, et cetera.
But man, I think his game's nice as well as Wolf too.
So he comes in at the number 10 goalie.
By the way, nobody has faced a worse environment than the Pittsburgh goalies so far this year.
They've faced the highest degree of scoring chances, which is a big reason why Jari's going through it, too.
If they don't tighten up for him, you know, maybe Bloomquist gets exposed a little bit, too, because he's a young guy.
But Alex Lyon is still playing at a top 10 netminder.
And he's been an interesting story because he's always been able to come through as an underdog.
So right now we have him ranked ninth.
And then it's Sam Montembeau.
And we have Sam here playing against the Rangers tonight.
A very good goalie in screens last year.
He, in fact, had the best save percentage on screens in the NHL last season.
But in his last start on the 17th, he gave up three long goals against LA.
So for what it's worth, Sorokin, your guy Sorokin is back, Borny.
He's back.
Good.
And then, yeah, we've got Sorokin right now at number seven.
And Lankanen, six.
And then rounding out the top five, Gustafsson.
He's really shored up his game.
And you remember two years ago, came on the scene, guns a-blazing,
has a bad year last year.
It makes me always wonder why it's so year-to-year with every goalie.
I feel the same way you guys do.
I'm in the mix with this all day, every day.
And I'm not coming up with any better answers as to why we can have an on-year and an off-year
be so wildly different.
And that's what happened to him last year.
I watched a lot of video on him last year, and he's doing a lot of what a lot of goalies
in the league are doing right now, which is sitting in their reverse VH when the puck
is not a threat at the net.
And then the puck goes to the slot.
If I'm playing in the NHL right right now do you know what i'm doing i want to make sure that i know exactly when every goalie goes down because they
all hit the deck at some point and they're doing in some cases like vasilevsky last night you can
see toronto going to the corner and he's down on his knees right and i can tell you a quick story
and i'll get back to this list when When I was coaching right out of retirement,
the goalie whisperer for New York that found Lundquist,
he got in touch with me and started sending me some guys,
and I would house them at my house for a couple weeks.
One of them was Daniel Gibble,
and this was a guy that played for the Barry Colts.
He's a Czech goalie.
He was a really good prospect.
He had an eye issue.
He didn't pan out, but I'll never forget it. He was a really good prospect. He had an eye issue. He didn't pan out.
But I'll never forget it.
It was around 2011-12.
The reverse was just starting, okay?
So we're on the ice in the summertime.
We're in Connecticut on the ice, and he's showing me all this back-and-forth movement on his knees.
And I'm like, I don't know.
I don't see it working.
You've got to be on your feet.
How are you going to beat the pass?
You're going to beat it on your knees?
And he goes, don't you ever watch floorball?
And I'm like, I have no idea.
Literally, no.
You guys seen floorball before?
Oh, yeah.
I've seen it.
Giant Nats.
Have you seen it?
I don't think so.
It's hysterical.
So we get into the video room.
He starts YouTube and floorball.
And he was a floorball goalie.
And he's like, the technique in floorball is you stay down the whole time. He on his knees he almost looks like you know he looks quadriplegic he's kind of
like just going around and i'm like what is he doing and he's and he's telling me like this is
exactly how i played floorball growing up which is why i'm now doing this as you know a prospect and
with that and i think i've told you guys about the success Bobrovsky had the first year doing it where he didn't get scored on so that anybody else cheated off of him. But the problem with this move right now is the pucks that are going to slot from below the goal line. Everybody's down and nobody knows how to track the pass. You have to have a violent head if you're going to be a good goalie, all right? And because we're on YouTube and on TV, you guys can see me here,
but I'm really like bringing my head hard as soon as that pass comes.
And then what would happen is I'd get a big separation,
about a foot and a half off my post,
so then I can also gain the rest of my ice and be aggressive in my crease.
But most goalies, as Kipper said earlier, are just picking up their head. And then
they get stuck and they can't move.
And there's wide open space
on the far side of the net. And I feel
like that's why goal scoring is up right
now. It's because players
have finally figured out how to abuse
the goalies, not just on the reverse VH for bad
goals against, but passing
when they're down in the reverse VH.
So what you're saying is the bad goals that we've seen in the first two weeks will continue.
Look, we've seen an alarming amount of bad goals, and most of which are from the dead angle.
And that's why, Kipper, it's not a good look because those have a smell to them.
The ones from the dead angle are the georgia ones he's
already given up four now right so the dead angle just to describe it it's imagine if you had a
magic marker and you went to your post and then you went all the way to the bottom of the hash
marks where it meets the boards you really get a big section slice of ice in the corner there
and right now there have been 10 goals in the first two weeks of the season
scored clean from there.
It's a bad number.
Now the real issue for me is not knowing when to get in and out of it.
And the problem,
a lot of goalies are having specifically Georgiev is that when the puck is
getting close to that line,
he's getting beat in transition.
He's on his way down and he's trying to get into
it but the puck's on its way it's being delivered and it's catching him off guard and that's the
real issue it's not knowing when to get in when to overlap i think goalies would be a lot better off
if in the gray area where it hasn't really crossed the line and got deep in a dead angle
just overlap the post and play it like you would if you were Patrick Waugh
in the 90s, early 2000s, and just got a big body on it.
Valley, did we get through your list of the 10 best goalies in the year?
Oh, we're going to go to number four.
All right.
But we're skipping it until playoffs.
Number three, Shusterkin.
Number two, Ottinger yeah number one anthony
stolarz wow leaf fans not used to hearing i'm telling you man you got the best net in canada
right now that's bizarre to hear so where would where would swayman be with his holdout and the ultimate cost of not being there to start
and where that kind of lines up with Boston's start this season?
So Swayman is even money right now,
but he was the second-best goalie in the NHL last year.
Playoffs, second-best.
Shusterkin was number one.
So Swayman's been a top guy.
And the thing with Swayman right now is that, boys,
it's so difficult to get your footing on a season as you're jumping on that
moving train.
I don't have to explain that to you.
It's awful.
It's just like coming back from an injury midseason.
You're trying to drink out of a fire hose.
So the issue that Boston's having,
and I sent Sammy McKee a note on this earlier today,
if they continue to play the way they're playing,
forget about the impact on Swayman.
They missed the playoffs this year.
They are not,
their record is so much better than how they're playing right now.
They are so lucky to even have,
what is it?
Two wins that they have.
Are they two wins or three wins?
They have the fewest amount of scoring chances, you guys.
They have 25, like, grade A chances this year.
25.
They've scored on 12, which is ridiculous.
You never score on almost half of them.
That's not going to sustain itself.
It just never does.
They go in one every three times.
They have five bad goals.
They've had five low-danger goals.
They've scored five bad ones.
That's the most in the NHL.
But they've been really creating zero offense.
So they got a lot bigger in the offseason on D, right?
Zdorov.
You look at their D, too.
Low-rise, 6-5.
Lindholm, 6-4.
Zdorov, 6-6.
Peek, 6-3.
They've got trees back there.
So they're really good at protecting the net front,
but they're struggling on keeping their sticks and lanes
on the east-to-west plays, and they're getting killed.
They're 30th off the odd man rushes.
So I don't see them with what they're giving up.
And this is a team last year.
Odd man rush, they're 30th in the league right now.
Last year they were fifth.
And I've talked to you guys about this a lot.
If you're a top five that protecting your goalies off the rush,
you're a cup contender.
And in fact, that's where the Rangers are right now.
So I don't see Boston.
And you know, who's really jumping off the page for me is Ottawa.
But, you know, I'm listening to your show yesterday, Kipper,
and you're giving
me some feedback on what's going on
with Allmark. What doctor was he getting advice
from? Dr. Seasonoff?
What are you talking about?
What are we talking about?
I think we just heard he's not
available tonight. Night off.
Dr. Night off.
What are we doing?
I told you guys, and I'm not exaggerating,
that's why I didn't want to be a goalie coach.
I couldn't deal anymore.
It's just not the way it was.
Everybody's so freaking soft.
Yeah, fair enough.
So for next week, are we going to get the worst goalies,
or what are we doing next week?
So we're going to go bad goalies next week.
We are.
But I'll give you a little teaser.
Who do you think the worst is right now?
Oh, God, I love it.
I would have gone Gorgiev, but you just shredded him already.
I'm scared to bring his name up again.
It is.
It's Gorgiev.
And the second worst performing goalie so far is Stuart Skinner.
And that therein lies the problem with what has Edmonton in a really tough spot.
Well, we shall see tonight.
32.
Well, 64 goalies added tonight.
Yeah, I guess.
Oh, my staff loves these nights.
Oh, not fun loves these nights. Oh, not fun, huh?
Yeah, no kidding.
You're going to be...
It's a tough night for the boys, for sure.
Real busy.
As always, my friend, excellent stuff.
Thanks, Valley.
Appreciate you, buddy.
Have a great broadcast tonight.
So, as I'm listening, so I'm going to stay up on my notes,
and I'll talk to you guys again next week.
Listen, I know you're not an insider,
but how long can Rangers go without giving Shesterkin what he wants right now?
Hey, Kepper, I'll tell you what.
Before the game Saturday night, I said to my co-host there,
John Giannone, who does a brilliant job.
I was like, John, here's what's going to happen.
He's going to go out there like he did in his Vezna season
to make a name for himself.
He knows how big this moment is. He's going to get first star and he's going to sign tomorrow
i was right on the first part you know what i also wonder about this too and i'm not kidding
i mean okay so i i've talked to hank about this because hank was in negotiations for big money
and uh he insured himself you know really sure, really up to the number that you might be trying to negotiate.
So there is, there is a little bit of,
you don't have to worry so much about the injury or there being an injury
because you can insure yourself up to the money that you anticipate signing
for. So there's that piece. So that one makes me feel like, okay,
I guess you could go a little bit longer if he chose to,
but the other piece is playing well and once again i believe that he believes in himself the way that
i'm telling you stolarz believes in himself and you don't become one of those top tier guys if
you don't have that deep deep deep belief just tough valley all the best guys are signing for
825 like he's the best goalie in the league but can you say you're four million bucks better
and then here's here's the other side,
Barney,
that I think is just wacky.
Okay,
man,
what do you want?
12,
13,
14.
Then you got to win a Vesna and a cup.
Yeah.
The only way you're getting it.
So I,
you know,
I mean,
I don't know.
I just,
I'd be happy to have the 11 if I was,
okay.
It's not going out.
Just one more on,
on Shisterkin.
Okay.
Because everything that I heard was that he is the most valuable player
on the New York Rangers, not Panarin.
And he needs and deserves more money than Panarin's older contract
with the percentages of whatnot.
But statistically, with your analytics,
is it an easy sell for him to say,
I am the most valuable player on this team
statistically yeah so what a goalie can provide is goals off the ledger and during this season is his
mvp season his vesna season he was he stopped 28 more goals than an average NHL goalie.
So what does 28 goals do for you during a regular season, Kipper?
It's a lot of goals.
Eight points.
I don't know, six, eight points, 10.
There you go.
Like, that's what I mean.
And so Panarin, 120 points last year.
How many of his multi-point games became Ranger wins?
I mean, you can do some math on that.
I haven't done that exercise, but it looks like I got some homework for next week.
As always, my friend.
After I get in touch with Allmark's doctor.
Yeah.
Doctor, he's done off.
Good luck getting a hold of him overseas.
I think he's Russian.
Great stuff, pal.
Have a great call tonight, okay?
All right, see you, fellas.
Yeah, thanks, man.
Okay.
Who the Rangers got tonight?
Habs.
St. Montembeau.
I gotta tell you,
Dr. C's in our office laugh out loud funny.
That got me pretty good.
It depends if you're an Ottawa fan or not.
No, I thought it was funny then.
That could be the line of the year so far.
It's early, but let's give them the win on that one.
Quick note, during the time you guys are talking to valley paul marie signed a contract extension
with the florida panthers how many years i think what i'd love to negotiate that one for
yeah that's a that's a tough one too but the thing is paul's not looking to grind anyone at
that point he's having a pretty good time down there oh no you're grinding i think so oh there's no better time here's the
stanley cup multi-year contract i'll fill it in no salary cap no escrow what do you think
what would the number be buddy i'd be very disappointed if it's not close to five and a
half or six million bucks fab's made means six and a half. How can you
not be worth that?
Right?
Yeah. But I know coaches
don't make that now. I think the
highest paid guys are five and a half or whatever.
But if you're Maurice, you're obviously that.
It did kind of pull back
a little bit, I think. The market
kind of plateaued the last few years
but i think he was in a position to
take it to another level but you know it's florida no state tax cost of living i'm sure
he did the math here to say that babs six and a half in Toronto is still five and change here.
I bet she's five and a half.
Good for him. Glad we just decided what he
got paid. Good for him. Yep. Way to go
Paul. Way to go Paul.
Way to go Paul. I haven't heard that in a while.
Take a break and we can do
game time.
You're the producer. Anything
off value that you wanted to talk about?
Anthony Stoller is just the best goalie in the league.
Is that something that's interesting to you guys?
Yeah, it's interesting.
Can I remind you guys that this is like two weeks old.
No, do not.
I can't calm you down a little bit.
No games into the season.
He's been awesome.
Take a chill pill.
Like I said, if the season was six games long,
Brad Shliving would have had the greatest offseason of all time. uh matthew chuck's back for florida as well tonight nice he's been
he's missed five games with illness oh i'm not sure all right you want to go to break we'll go
to break and we'll come back with the game time and more uh news and notes uh and um the most
popular game ever true or false maybe returning oh really yeah i came up with a few questions for you guys okay i gotta psych myself up for that break more real kipper and born after these words
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News and notes coming up.
But first, Sammy, a little game time.
It's game time presented by Bet365.
Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365.
It's been 19 plus.
Ontario only.
Please play responsibly.
So, a few things for tonight.
One that I talked myself into in our first hour.
Nick Robertson goal tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets pays plus 375.
Let me double check that.
I think it's plus 375.
Okay.
Love that tonight.
That is, this is the night.
Nick Robertson night is tonight. I can even see him getting two but one is plus
375
you got something to say on that?
again Craig Berube keeping things fresh
gonna take camp out of the lineup
put Reeves in
I like the idea that people who have been like
permanent fixtures are not necessarily
permanent
remember how big a deal we made when David Camp was scratched last year?
We made a big deal of it.
That was like, that was Sheldon Keefe's like accountability thing.
Right.
And Brube is like, that's the second half of the NCAA.
It's always no one cares.
It's always nice for any coach to do that when the team's winning.
Yeah.
I agree with that.
It's not like as a response to some negativity.
It's like you haven't been good enough.
Holmberg, though, stays in, haven't been good enough uh holmberg though stays in hey yeah likes holmberg the other two couple things i have for uh tonight lava connor bedard anytime goal against his hometown team the vancouver canucks
who are visiting chicago and i'm gonna ride the hot hand with ross colton uh second in the league
in goals i think six goals already this year plus 260 playing on the top line with the big boys there in Colorado.
Give me a Ross Colton goal tonight.
And the
NBA gets underway tonight.
Two games. Knicks, Celtics
and I think
Lakers and Minnesota.
Give me
Shea Gilgis-Alexander to win the
NBA's MVP at plus
450 this season. He's going to have a wonderful year.
Thunder are going to be one of the best teams in the league.
And he's a good Canadian boy. So plus 450
SGA MVP.
And that was Game Time presented by Bet365.
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out why it's never ordinary at Bet365.
That's 19 plus. Ontario only.
Please play responsibly. Good job, Sammy.
Thank you. Kucherov
leads the league in goals at seven
colton six right didn't get uh didn't get one last night uh what a fake pass into the middle
for all point go yeah uh panarin's at six cole caulfield's a nice he's firing it in nice number
at six as well for the montreal canadian saminhardt is a name that's very familiar to 50 and 60 goal scoring in the National Hockey League,
but Conor Bedard considered a slow start?
Yeah.
Was he one goal, five assists, or six assists?
He has seven points, doesn't he?
But you don't want to see one.
No.
Expectations for him this year, you know,
I was on a panel where people did point predictions
and a couple people said 100 points.
I may or may not have been one of them.
So, yeah, maybe a little bit slower than expected.
He's over a point a game.
What's that?
He's over a point a game.
Yeah, he's on pace for 90 points.
They'll start going in for him starting tonight.
Yeah, generate generational players
tend to in the second and third season to take off uh-huh you're an anti-vidar
i'm just saying that i'm just saying
maybe not sold are we are we completely sold
that this guy just won't end up being
a
superstar?
That he will be
one of the greatest
in this modern day?
I'm not
completely
over the top saying that
this guy will end up having a
career comparable to
Conor McDavid
or Crosby.
Those are tough.
Yeah, like in your defense,
you're setting a bar of like,
is he this?
Yes.
In his first full season.
Is he one of the 10 best players ever?
So in Conor's first year,
2015, 2016,
he had 48 points in 45 games
because he was hurt.
Yeah.
His second year
has been a full 82-game season.
He had 100 points
in 82 games,
30 goals,
70 assists,
and then you guys,
he's played a lot.
I think 30 and 7
for Bedard
would be off the charts.
30 and 70?
Oh, yeah.
I'm just not sure
he can get there
with that team
or necessarily, you know, he's physically ready for that just yet.
Connor's 12 points away from 1,000.
What's that?
Connor McDavid?
By the way, Connor Bedard was minus 44 last year.
Oh, my God.
That's a tough hole to dig out of to start a career.
Career-wise, I don't know if you ever.
Yeah, you did.
Yeah, you did.
What's he now this year?
Plus two.
Oh, he's starting.
Yeah.
Good for him.
Going in the right direction.
Minus 42 career.
Wanted to ask you guys about the Tampa power play.
Yeah.
You know, it's off to a slow start.
It's worse than the Leafs somehow.
You know, I would say it's different without Stamkos.
And I know that's a very obvious thing to say i i but i felt at the ring last night i felt no stamp coast for tampa bay me too watching i
felt it it's weird to watch them without it and especially that power play because it worked
with the threat of that clapper off the off the left hash and it just wasn't there
yeah yeah it is and it you know i there. Yeah. Yeah, it is.
And it,
you know,
I can't help doing the Leafs hour that we do.
It does sort of bring it around to the Leafs where it's like,
they haven't really had that threat.
Matthews doesn't have that shot.
He doesn't have the big one timer.
Like their power play doesn't have a shot from the top.
It doesn't really have a big shot threat.
And it,
it does change things when the PK is always going,
we just know we can't let it go there.
You know, and Jake Gensel is a terrific hockey player and one of the top wingers. It does change things when the PK is always going, we just know we can't let it go there.
And Jake Gensel is a terrific hockey player and one of the top wingers in the game.
That's the biggest butt setup I've ever heard.
The butt is, there just isn't a presence like Stamkos had on that team.
I know.
And there's a void there.
And it's not an easy one to fill even
though you replaced it with a younger you know talented player probably equal point there at
this point but the void the one i felt last night at the game and sammy's referring to now
isn't an easy one to fix no it's not But I do wonder if that void would have been felt
even if he was still around.
You know, I know he still scored goals last year,
but you're going to get this decline from Stamko
sort of inevitably at this point of his career.
But no, I know what you guys mean.
It is one of the major threats they had
that they don't have.
Still, they're not the 30th or 27th
best power play in the league.
They're going to be the top 10.
They were snapping it around still last night.
It just felt like they were missing the finishing touch.
Yeah.
That's been there for...
Well, they have been the perfect piece.
Yes.
They have been a, you know, out of the box, by design, best power play possible.
Because it's like, oh, he's going to...
Oh, Kudrow's going to shoot it.
No, he's going to pass it right to the hardest shot in the league.
Right.
Headman and point in the middle.
Yada, yada.
All right, boys.
Want me to do some true or false time?
I think I do want to do that.
Okay.
I'll start with this one.
True or false?
Six Canadian teams will make the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Such a high number.
So only Montreal out.
Absolutely not.
False, false, false, false, false.
Yeah, false.
Okay.
But hold on.
Let's answer the question he's asking.
Yeah.
Which of the ones are in?
Calgary.
Calgary's not getting in.
I still don't see them coming in.
I don't see them getting in either.
I got called.
I actually had people adding Sportsnet,
like Greg Sansoni gets those messages or something.
It's like, this guy.
This guy's in.
He's out to lunch.
You've seen this?
Yeah.
But no, I don't think Calgary gets in.
So how many?
Is Vancouver a lock for you?
Yes.
Not for you.
I don't know where the goalie is.
Lankanen.
Lankanen is the goalie of the future.
He's hanging out with Dr. Cesar.
Lankanen's going to lock them in for sure.
He is.
Okay.
Okay.
And Demko didn't die.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll see.
Listen, you're out until you're back in.
I like that attitude.
Okay.
That was a pretty quick one.
Easy.
Here's one for you.
John Tortorella will finish the season as the head coach of the Flyers, true or false?
Great one, Sam.
Flyers, true or false? Great one, Sam. Flyers,
where are they? First thing you have to ask
is what are expectations for
the Flyers? Did they expect
to make the playoffs this year? And I think the answer is
no. Right? I mean, they
were pretty close last year with the worst team.
My expectations are
a top five pick
at the draft.
That's what you were going into this season that's what you thought they
would be that they would be 25th or 26th best team in the league they are uh one three and one
minus eight goal differential i just look at that lineup and i know that owners don't often look at
their lineup and go well we we just had a stinky team you know blame the gm or whatever that doesn't happen very much easier to change the coach but take it take a
look at what brink and farabee and take a look and take a look at what philly has at the draft table
coming up okay like it is it's good it's good three first rounders how do you look that up
right now i got it you know how to do? I don't know how to do that.
Cap friendly.
Oh, you know, cap wages.
Cap wages.
Cap wages right now.
It's cap friendly replica.
A boatload of first and second rounders.
Next year, or this upcoming draft, they have Philly's first, Colorado's first, Edmonton's
first, and then the second round, Philly's second, Anaheim's second, Columbus second.
Six picks in the first two rounds this year.
Three and three. Really? Three first rounders, three second rounders. He's columbus second six picks in the first two rounds this three and three really
three first rounders three second rounders he's there loaded with picks they got all their they
have every pick of theirs and that's the next three years so it should be when you stink they
have two top uh bottom 10 teams in the league in the first round picks colorado and edmonton too
so they could be really good and to come full circle on your true and false question, Tortorella ain't going anywhere unless John Tortorella wants to go somewhere.
Lusion's not fun.
This guy, he's tied right to the top.
To Jones and Breer.
Past.
Oh, Dave Comcast.
Hey, this guy's getting free cable.
Whoever the owner of the Flyers is.
Do you get free cable, Kevin?
Anyways.
No, not here.
True or false?
They do help.
Sam Bennett will sign a long-term contract with the Florida Panthers.
True.
Okay.
I'll say false.
I'll say false.
Why? I'll say false I'll say false why
well
are they just going to give
8 year contracts
to all the guys
they won cups with
and expect
no one's going to decline
they're going to get the same
like
Sam Bennett's going to keep
smashing through people
yes
what's he going to cost
8 million a year
sure
8 times 8
so it's just 64 million
to Sam Bennett
7 years
that contract's going to sam bennett seven years that contract's gonna
look no problem in seven years his best six years i heard i do admit to just wanting to disagree on
something a little bit here i hear these best buddies with anthony stollers and oliver eckman
larson they're already excellent you know it's toronto it's not it's not as bad as you once
thought god he'd be loved here. Oh, my God.
He would be, they'd have a statue of him on Legends.
I know he's from here, but you want to go to the rink in flip-flops?
Of course.
Or you want to go in boots?
There's no question.
On a golf cart and go play 36 after practice.
Did you watch some of that Amazon doc and see Kachucks?
I got to tell you, I don't want to crap on it,
but I had a tough time getting through some of it.
Yeah, not going to say it was a thrill ride.
You know what?
Amazon just needed more hockey people in the editing room, I think,
because I bet you some good stuff ended up on the floor.
It just felt like the best things we've ever seen documentary
wise were the road to the winter classic and you had the drama of the teams winning and losing and
going with them to this eventual conclusion rather than like kind of getting to know people
which felt like this so the kachuk one though tough to look at his life in calgary yeah and
then see him driving a golf cart to the
rink in Florida and not be like, ah.
Yeah, you know what? This is probably a good choice.
Tough luck for the Canadian teams.
Yeah, I think I made a good decision.
So, true. And you just said false.
Just be different. Just being contrarian.
True or false?
The flyer one we're still on? No, no.
Sam Bennett. Oh, Sam Bennett.
So, true or false?
Somebody other than Connor McDavid will lead the league in points.
False.
Can't see it.
Okay.
Can't see.
You know how, what kind of bad year Connor has to have to not win?
But dude, Cooch had 44 and 100 last year.
He had 144 points.
And he's up to a hot start.
He needs to, you know, if he, if McDavid gets hurt for a week,
it's tough to keep up with that.
He's not doing that again.
That's just a...
Cooch isn't doing that again?
No.
No.
That one was off the charts.
I do...
120 is fine.
125.
Yeah, he could be 120.
Yeah.
Those numbers?
Yeah, you're right.
No, McDavid's the guy.
He's the guy.
Unless you're betting on him to get hurt.
This is looking down the road a little bit here.
True or false?
Auston Matthews will lead America to victory at the Four Nations faceoff.
True.
Oh, you are bad, Patriot.
False.
Yeah, you're just...
Let me... Can we just see the lineup first?
Okay.
Here's the lineup.
Okay.
Hellebuck, Demko, Ottinger.
Not Demko.
Okay.
Hellebuck, Ottinger.
There's like five from the U.S.
Stollars.
Okay.
You.
You're the backup.
Who's the second?
Montembeau.
Aiden Hill.
Cup winner.
And Aiden Hill. Go in the cup. Who's the second? Who's the goalie? Montembeau. Montembeau. Aiden Hill. Cup winner. And Aiden Hill.
Go in the cup.
I actually think, you know, not to do Toronto stuff in the national, but the only team I
play for.
Never stopped you before.
It's going to be fascinating to see how the perceptions of, you know, for example, Marner,
who you say is the way he's looked upon in this market.
He's going to play for Team Canada.
He's on Team Canada.
He is a lock for Team Canada.
Bubble guy.
Okay.
No way.
He is a lock.
Listen.
So, but like, if he's great for Team Canada,
how will that do for his reception here?
Okay, first of all.
This guy's just being such a...
Bubble guy, Martin.
He's going to be playing under this second line
you know who who's gonna pick marner crosby mcdavid no crosby and mckinnon thank you yeah
just spent like a week with them before what do you what do you think the conversations were
yeah he's on the team he's on the, this way in. So the better question is, true or false,
Mitch Marner leads Team Canada to glory at the Four Nations faceoff.
True or false, Nate McKinnon was recruiting come July.
Oh, boy.
True.
100% true.
100% true.
No question true.
Recruiting, what does that mean?
Asking him to come?
Yes.
Yes. Would you guys think Mitch gets. What does that mean? Asking him to come? Yes. Yes.
Would you guys think Mitch gets to pick yes or no?
No.
If he's a free agent.
If he's a free agent.
Yeah.
He literally does.
To the abs.
Not Team Canada anymore.
Not Team Canada.
That makes sense.
That makes sense.
Yes.
Breaking.
Good player wants other good player on his team.
Good players want to be on the same team yeah you
want to eat a crosby loves marner yeah do you want to get yelled at every time you have like a carb
playing with mckinnon would be such a drag anyways um what else do i have here uh this is a couple
more leaf ones i don't want to get too bad utah hockey club makes the playoffs in their first
season in the nhl true or falls i i guess i'm feeling
spicy today like no i just i'm actually kind of like there's still the coyotes to me damn it well
i'm just like a little everyone's like very excited about utah and i still look at their
roster and i'm like i don't know wait yeah clayton keller is your captain and i really like him i
like him so i didn't mean that to be a Keller thing.
But I go through their lineup and it says,
okay, Kraus, McBain, Kerfoot, Stenland, Yamamoto.
Flex here.
Palamaki, Bortuzzo.
I don't know.
I'm just not as sold as everyone else on Utah.
I'm not sure about their goaltending either.
But, and Jerseyersi's out.
Long term.
That hurts.
When is the Lilligren to Utah announcement?
He's a great fit, you know, for their right shot D.
They need it.
There's no reason to do it now.
Well, I don't know.
They have Vladislav Klyachonok.
Unless the team wants to overpay.
There's just no reason right now.
No reason for the Leafs to do it.
Yes.
They don't need the space.
He's a good depth guy to have.
Unless the team wants to overpay.
All right.
Last one.
True or false.
Anthony Stoller receives Vezina votes.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
That's the exact reaction.
Speaking of fishing.
Yeah.
Career year?
Yeah.
The finalists are going to be Lankanen, Stolarz, and Wolfe.
I love doing this show.
Is there like a middle?
Is there a possibility?
Maybe?
No, true or false.
True or false?
I'm playing the percentages, so I'll say false.
Yeah, I think that's fair.
All right.
So tonight is the Frozen Frenzy 16 teams.
Gaz and I are on the TV with DA,
and we were asked to draft our most interesting games from tonight. 16 teams. Gaz and I are on the TV with DA,
and we were asked to draft our most interesting games from tonight.
Just a little list of what you're in for.
Tampa Bay, New Jersey, pretty good game.
Not too shabby.
Colorado's got Seattle.
Carolina, Edmonton.
Toronto's got Columbus.
Let's look at our Canadian teams.
Vancouver has Chicago.
Ottawa, Utah.
I like Vancouver, Chicago. Love watching Bada Utah. I like Vancouver, Chicago.
Love watching Mediator. Calgary, Pittsburgh.
Great jersey matchup. What's the deal now?
The first puck drops in five minutes, isn't it? 6.45,
6.30. 6 p.m.
Mitch Cobb versus Ovechkin.
Is it like...
Yes.
Is it like sitting at a
bar and telling the waiter, bring me a beer every seven minutes kind of puck drop? Okay, great. Fine. Yeah, I got it. Is it like sitting at a bar and telling the waiter,
bring me a beer every seven minutes kind of puck drop?
Just keep going.
Well, you remember last year, the Leafs were in the first game on Frozen Frenzy.
They played the Caps in the very first game.
Remember, we did the show, and then we ran out of here.
And I did a 15-team parlay, and I went 13 for 13,
and then had it ripped away from me in the last minutes for $31,000.
So is this like the only time of the year?
Is this the only time of the year this happens?
All 32 teams going? This is it.
There's a few times where 30 teams play this.
Why now?
Why do you go from one game to all of them?
I think they ticked the NBA head on.
They said, it's your opening night.
Watch this.
Oh, that's a bad move.
Disagree.
Does anybody like the Knicks or Celtics or Lakers?
Does anyone like Utahah ottawa oh
true or false i'm excited about it anyway we're on tv next okay our thanks to jody shelly in our
first hour of our leaf edition show and then steve aliquette if you're just catching us right now, download us. Because he had some fascinating stuff.
Enjoy your 16 games tonight.
And we're back here tomorrow to talk all about them
on The Real Kipper and Bourne Show.
Have a great night, everybody.