Real Kyper & Bourne - Good Vibes in Vancouver

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne & Sam McKee start with the depth trade in Vancouver before welcoming Mike Halford from Sportsnet 650 to discuss the good vibes for the undefeated Canucks (4:25). He weighs in on whether they can potentially contend, how the team has changed with a full training camp under Rick Tocchet, the uncertainty of Elias Petterson heading toward RFA next summer and the importance of Thatcher Demko bouncing back. Next, Lindy Ruff makes a statement by benching Timo Meier, Evgeny Kuznetsov's slow-motion shootout and evaluating 'Panama' as the Leafs' Original Six goal song.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Welcome to the National Hour. We're real Kipper and born the Kiprios. Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. we're real kipper and born nick kiprios justin bourne sammy mckee we are live and in color on sportsnet and available on sportsnet 960 in calgary and sportsnet 650 in vancouver we'll get the vancouver canucks set in about an hour to face the philadelphia flyers Face the Philadelphia Flyers. Mike Halford will co-host of Halford and Brough will join us. And of course, as always, this hour of Real Kipper and Bourne brought to you by Bet365. All right, boys. Good job, Kipper.

Does the Vancouver Canucks go 3-0 tonight against Philadelphia? They wanted to talk about Corey Perry. Well, we will, for sure. For sure. Nine games on tap, as against Philadelphia. They wanted to talk about Corey Perry. Well, we will for sure. For sure. Nine games on tap, as I mentioned, right after our show, puck drop in Philadelphia. What's going on? Six o'clock puck drop?

Okay. Yeah, six Eastern in Philadelphia. Like, what was it, baseball, Sammy? Oh, Phillies related? Yeah, and that'd be it. They play at 8.07 tonight, I think. Yeah. So that'd be it yeah they play they play at 807 tonight i think yeah so that would be what they were doing how's the traffic in that neck of the woods in philly that's so not to do too much baseball but the starting pitcher for the diamondbacks tonight i forget

his first name his last name is meryl he did an availability this morning was like you know talking about how loud the park is in philly and he's like well you know i've i was pitching in venezuela and it was really loud there so i'm kind of used to this sort of like why did guys say this i know yeah i'm not afraid of philly fans like jose bautista when he was like oh that guy's shaking in his booties when he was like and he goes out there and don't say stuff like that before the game bolt and board material i'm with you believe in that stuff we did have a a, albeit minor, and I don't know whether or not any of these guys will play

or end up being sent to the American Hockey League, but for what it's worth, Mark Friedman seems to be kind of the most NHL ready with his stint in Pittsburgh, and of course we remember him best because he reminds us of Elliott. ready uh with his stint uh in pittsburgh and of course we remember him best because uh he reminds us of elliot yeah anytime because he's been on waivers a few times and freeman free jazz tweeted out that freeman's yeah are you have you been fired what happened

but that's um that wrath bone they liked him a lot when they drafted him vancouver did a really good skater like really good uh just hasn't worked out spent a lot of time in the american league and and he's only played 20 nhl games or something like that so it's a great name jack rathbone it's a really strong name yeah that's my that's my only character that's my only take on it strong name we'll get uh halford to uh to chime in uharily, but so far, at least when you think about a Mark Friedman or an Ian Cole, it's not hard to see what kind of is a Rick Talkett kind of guy, big, strong,

just stand in the right spots and, and, and when your battles, I mean, you need some of those guys we've've talked about it in the first hour, talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs. You'd like to have a couple guys who just play their position, play defense,

and let their talented players be talented. And so, sure, if that's what the Canucks want to have, maybe this is another one for them. Because they do have the elite guys, right? Quinn Hughes and Besser and Pettersson. These guys can make plays for them. So, yeah, Vancouver, I kind of like what's going on there for a talk.

Can we see, like, it's an 82-game schedule. Can we read anything into the first couple of wins against Edmonton? I know on our last night's national panel show, led by our trustworthy David Amber, I think one of the questions was, okay, can Vancouver make the playoffs this year? I got a good start. Was that 2-0? Can you read anything out of the first two games to suggest that they can hang in there?

Here's what I will read. It's better to be 2-0 against Edmonton than 0-2. Well, there you go. I mean, they got four points instead of zero. So it's a good start. It's a good start. All right. As we leave it on that note,

we'll welcome in Mike Halford from Halford and, and brough on sports that six 50 in Vancouver. So, Hey, a good place for you to start, Mike. What can we read out of two games? Two regular regulation wins against Edmonton moving forward here.

We're all just trying to temper enthusiasm here, boys. Come on. Tell us. They're going to make the conference finals. Yeah, it's been great. I think a lot of the reason that it's been great is because there was so much trepidation and anxiety and nerves going into the season

because there was so much importance placed on the season. I mean, the Canucks bent over backwards to make this push and this goal to have everything ready for this referendum season. You know, Thatcher Demko's calling it a do-or-die season for this group. So they do the Oliver Reckman-Larsen buyout and kick that box, and they name Quinn Hughes captain

and get that distraction out of the way. And they sort of put the Elias Pettersson contract situation aside by saying they're not going to deal with it until the end of the season. So they were all ready to go. And then we got a bunch of wobbles in the preseason, the Susie injury, the 10-0 loss to Calgary to open it up. And people were genuinely nervous. They didn't know what to expect.

And then to come out and that opener, the eight, one win over Edmondson. I'm trying to put like the annals of power rankings of most unlikely Canucks performances of all time. Like no one had that. No one saw that coming. And I think a lot of people thought that they were going to get theirs

come up and on Saturday, but kudos to the group for sticking tough. And I mean, although getting outplayed, getting another win and now it's all really good vibes, which is a very odd and not common thing in Vancouver. We don't do good vibes very well. So we're working through it all right now.

We got puck drop in less than an hour here. I know it's, it's much harder for you and Brough to do radio when there's nothing to be cynical about. Listen, I know. I can relate. But looking at this team, man, what is... Everyone's talking about the Pacific Division, right? About how great it is this year and how many contenders there are

and it's a lot tougher than it has been for them, but it feels like things have gone wrong for the Canucks in the recent past. If everything breaks right, are they a team that can not just sneak in, but actually if everything breaks right are they a team that can not just sneak in but actually content I think they're a team that can sneak in okay I mean as much as I love the 2-0 start I am cognizant of the fact that there's still 80 of these bad boys left so like there's a lot to go here but I mean Rutherford said that exact thing is like look if everything goes right for this team we feel it's a team that should be in the playoffs and

there's been some hand-wringing locally about is this the right way to try and go about competing for a cup and don't you have to try and build a much more stronger solid team as opposed to one that just gets in and rolls the dice but the counter argument to that is well you're not winning a cup unless you get into that group of 16 that gets to compete for it so it's been an interesting debate and dynamic locally about you know is this the right way to compete for it. So it's been an interesting debate and dynamic locally about, you know, is this the right way to go about it? But I think most people can agree that the team has enough talent, especially at the key positions and has made enough additions to,

especially on the penalty kill. My penalty kill was atrocious last year that if everything does go right, they should be a playoff team. The big part of course is like, is everyone going to stay healthy? Is Demko going to hold up over the course of a season? You know, all these questions. But again, if those questions are answered in the positive, then I think a lot of people do kind of think, yeah, this will be a playoff team.

We're talking to Mike Halford, co-host of Halford and Brough on Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver. Mike, we saw a trade today, a depth trade. Obviously, Mark Friedman comes along with Ty Glover, a guy that's in Wilkes-Barre, if I'm not mistaken. The word on Glover is he's a big, strong, fast guy, which maybe lends again towards a Rick Tockett type of hockey player. But what do you make out of it with Rathbone and Carl Plastic going the other way?

Well, if there's any player that's played for Pittsburgh for the last four or five years, there's a pretty good chance that he's going to end up in Vancouver right now because between Alvin and Rutherford and all their ties to the penguins organization, like they've gone down this road a few times now before this, the most recent one was the guy that you're familiar with, Sam Lafferty, right?

So, I mean, this is kind of what they do, is they love the familiarity of their old organization. As I understand it, the key to the whole thing was the defenseman, Mark Friedman, who's won a right-hand shot, and that's a big thing for a team that doesn't really have the right makeup right now roster wise to go lefty righty lefty righty consistently they're kind of patching holes and they're trying to find as noah juleson's been playing and i think a lot of people realize that

he's not going to be a long-term solution not that friedman is but that's going to be i think you could see more moves like this they really need to fix their defense like i don't think the blue line even with friedman in the mix is constructed well enough to be anything more than a team that kind of edges into the playoffs but i mean there's been talk that once ethan bear gets over his offseason shoulder injury and surgery that he'll be signed and he'll join the fold i wouldn't be surprised if there was another move in the making you know you, you hear lots about the pending Connor Garland trade, and that might be able to fetch them a depth defenseman in return. But this deal today, I think it was largely about getting Friedman, a guy who's played some of the neighborhood of 60 or 70 NHL games.

So it adds another smaller piece to a back end that does need some improvements that the Canucks are going to get through this season. A lot of talk about Quinn Hughes is who would be ideal long term as a defense partner uh her own uh her own heronic uh the answer is uh is like you know who's the answer is a guy like chris tan of that wouldn't he be perfect for quinn yeah they already had him which was a real bummer. They should have kept him. Yeah, no, it's been, it was the most pressing sort of inside baseball type hockey conversation that we had during the preseason. We went deep and dug deep on who's going to play with Hughes

and how it impacts everything. I think the problem with putting Hironic there is your two best defensemen are on the pairing now. Like you want Hironic to have his own pairing and carry it in the top four but right now they're sort of doing i mean talking came up with this idea i think part of it was spin but whatever it's worked for him was they're going to defend by committee to start so we're not going to have any true set pairings we're going to work everything on the fly adam foot's going to come up with some ideas and we're going to move a bunch of guys around. And then Susie

got hurt. So that kind of further complicated things. So at the end of the day, just to start the year, they're like, you know what? Let's just play Hughes and Harnick together and see what happens. And I think that'll be okay for a little while, but you do want a more traditional pairing in terms of

this is our top guy, Quinn Hughes. We need an old, trustyee reliable to play alongside him. And they don't have that yet. I don't know if that materializes during the season. I think it may be this defense by committee thing a little bit longer than anybody anticipated, but you're right. The best guy to probably do it is now a member of the Calgary flames. And that's unfortunate because you need that kind of prototype right now.

And it's just not available in the open market, at least as far as I can tell. So a couple of times a coach has come in and been savior. We had Bruce. There it is there with Boudreaux who took the shackles off and let everyone go. And then all of a sudden it was a bit of a tire fire. The next year didn't work as much as,

you know, he is still beloved. And a lot of people think a very good coach, Rick talk. He comes in and makes his own changes. You know, what, what's different under Taki, and do you think it's more sustainable than the short-term success of the past with Boudreaux?

I mean, Taki's been big on preaching structure and knowing where to be and having systems in place, and it was funny, you know, the first few weeks after Boudreaux's exit, we heard stuff from players. We're like, Oh, like we did a film session and now we know where we're supposed to be on

the ice. And there was a rather infamous practice where talk, it literally stopped the entire thing. It was pointing out exactly on the ice where everybody needs to be. And breath. And I kind of looked at each other and we're like, this feels like the kind of thing you're supposed to do in September, not in the middle of season.

So there was obviously a lack of structure and systems play under Boudreaux, which is understandable. I mean, you hire Bruce Boudreaux to coach a certain way and you can't expect him to do something entirely different than what he's done to get 600 or 700 wins in the NHL. So those are the two big ones in terms of structure and accountability and discipline and

systems and then you know I think kudos to talk it in this group is they looked at last season and realized they had one of the worst penalty kills in the modern era of the NHL like it was going back to like I don't know what the Montreal Maroons did back in the day but if it was bad the Canucks might have surpassed it because it was awful. They were flirting with like 60% on the kill. So talk it. And again, Rutherford and Alvin too. I think they all realized that this wasn't going to be fixed with structure and systems. They needed to add personnel and they needed to add guys. So they went and got Teddy Bluger and they went and got Ian Cole and Carson Susie. And then they picked up Lafferty,

all guys that could knew how to kill penalties had done it in their NHL careers. And we're going to add to this group and yeah, the, the, the kills, you know, I mean, it was tough to start with Edmonton. The numbers don't really bear it out, but the penalty kills looked a thousand times better than it did last year. So that's another thing that talk, it's really improved as well. You know, it wouldn't be a leaf season without talking about a star UFA potentially

leaving. So where's, where's this with Patterson? How, how much of a sore subject is it in Vancouver? Yeah, it's a funny one, right? I mean, technically he's an RFA, so there's a little bit more complexity to it than he can just bolt at the end of the air. Like club, club control still comes into it, but there is a sense of, he can force a trade.

Yeah. He's wanting to see where, if he wants to be around and now the counter punches, Elliot Freeman had that report a few days ago on 32 thoughts that, well, maybe the Canucks are waiting to see if they're interested in a long-term thing. And I think a lot of it comes down, a lot of it comes down to this year. A lot of it comes down to, well, look, if we finish this season and we're another 75

to 80 point team or way out of the playoffs, what are we doing here with this group? Like long-term, what exactly are we trying to accomplish? Because these guys aren't young pups anymore. Hughes and Demko and Pedersen, who are the big three have been around for a while and there hasn't been a ton of success. And I'll say this Pedersen right now is playing like a guy who not only understands his worth and how much he could earn anywhere and how much sway

he could have. He's starting to become one of those guys that's talked about as, does he have the 200-foot game to be in the Selkie conversation? Could he be one of those elite guys in the Pacific Division where the centers at the top of the heap right now are Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel? And that's what the Canucks need him to be, to be competitive in the division.

But it's also going to cost them a lot of money when they want to do a deal because he's pricing himself into the 10 per 11 per year right now. I mean, it could even get higher. Who knows? But it's a fascinating dynamic. It's one of those things that people are kind of blocking out right now because those aforementioned good vibes, like we want to keep those going. So it's not toxic it's not acrimonious yet but there is that looming consternation that that deal remains unsigned and it's not done yet and no one's exactly sure what direction it's going to take

at 27 years old thatcher demko is a six foot four goaltender with a 9-11 career save percentage. He, you know, damn near Vezna worthy in some seasons. Last year, not so much. He's a 9-0-1. Had a great first start here. You know, what do you think happened last year? Is he still in that tier of the elite, elite goaltenders in the NHL? He's real good. He's real good.

Last year, I'm prepared to throw the entire thing out and possibly never look at it again because it was so bad okay so he got he was dealing with health problems he was hurt for a long stretch of it when he was healthy under boudreaux the team was just playing pond hockey in front of him and there was nothing he could really rely on as to like predictability like you know second chances would come from angles you've never seen before. Bleeding opportunities were like, I've never seen one like that. It was very hard to get a read on your team as a goalie

because they were just running all over the place and making mistakes left and right. I think that sort of bore itself out when he got hurt and then Colin Delia and Spencer Martin came in and it just routinely five and six goals against per night. So everything about last year was bad. I think Demko is, you know,

I put them in the top 10 of goalies in the league when he's on his game, he could be even higher, but he's so hugely important to this team, right? I mean, we've seen him carry long stretches when he's durable and he's right. He can go and be the kind of guy where you can backstop over the course of 12 straight 14 straight where they were, you know, those,

those streaks you need in the NHL where you win seven of eight or nine of 10 and you need to chunk those together to be a playoff team. He's the guy that can do that because he is that good. He does have that kind of focus. And for the most part of his career, he's been pretty healthy last year was an aberration. So I'm a big Demko guy. I'm hoping that he can remain healthy this year, because it's a huge key to the Canucks making the playoffs.

All right, Mike, enjoy the game. It's just under 45 minutes to puck drop. Really appreciate your time. Keep up the great work on your show on Sportsnet 650. Appreciate it, fellas. Thanks for having me. Thanks, bud. Like Halford. Halford and Br 650. Appreciate it, fellas. Thanks for having me. Thanks, bud. Like Halford.

Halford and Brough. Brough. Yeah. That's, you know, he paints a fair picture of the Canucks, I think, as a talented team who can be frustrating at times. A lot of potential if they're healthy

and everything breaks right for them. I mean, the parity that this league has created, we talked about this last night in the box a little bit, but it's like, there's 25 of the same team. There's a million teams that they all just look really similar. They're all kind of the same thing. Yeah.

I don't hate that take at all. Well, it's true. You can talk about building down and building up with elite guys and getting draft luck and getting studs, but at some point, you got to get in the playoffs. Look at what Florida did last year. Look what these teams do. They sneak in.

They take long runs pedersen in a position this july 1st to sign a long-term contract if not he goes into his final year one of those can't miss 18 year olds where they don't see a second in the minors yeah and you blink and seven years later you owe him a lot of money this guy can walk out the door and all that development and time and love can be lost if he puts together another 100 point season here can he get to 12 million with new money coming in well yeah i mean why why not right you're talking about a guy he mentioned himself selkie trophy contender young prime years he only has another year or two of rfa i think so you're buying all ufa years he's in that class of guys for sure oh i sent you that video of him hitting someone. If he starts playing physical and shutting guys down defensively.

He's gotten stronger. We know that. Yeah. I like him a lot. I love watching him play. For sure. He's definitely one of the must-watch NHL players. Yeah, and same with Hughes.

They've got some fun guys to watch. Demko's really good when he's on. How about that Mikheyev? He's not even in the lineup. You get Lafferty flying around out there. This team's a blast. Mikheyev. and he's not even in the lineup. You get Lafferty flying around out there. This team's a blast. McCabe. That's one guy I have never thought of once since he left.

And Lafferty's such a talkative player too. Lafferty is. Yes. We got to get talking on the show. You know where Lafferty's going? To the net. He's going to dump it in for a check, then he's going to the net.

Of course, Talkett's going to love that. The Canucks gain was our incredible loss to the net. He's going to dump it in for a check then he's going to the net. Of course, Tuckett's going to love that. The Canucks gain was our incredible loss of not having Tuckett on the show anymore. Yeah, real Kipper and Bourne show really took a hill there. Man, he was so good and then he always texted me back

and then it was just the text backs and call backs started drying up. I was like, ah, Tuckett's getting tired. He's getting a job. He's got a job something's happening i don't know how many years ago was like one night i'm working a game with uh mike keenan and the next day i don't know six eight hours later he's being introduced as the next coach of the boston bruins like i'm like, I'm going to mention that. All right.

I love it. Before we go to your segment, game time, Corey Perry, one of those guys that just won't go away quietly. You mentioned game time, and I have a great regret of not thinking of this last night

betting on a perry goal yeah he just he comes into the building like you said if you're a leaf fan listening right now and cory perry gets traded to somewhere at the deadline that's gonna be in the leafs division or maybe play in the playoffs stop with the booing it is so embarrassing that's so embarrassing it's exactly what he wants he has won that is the ultimate goal the ultimate compliment you can pay and he's scoring goals he's pointing to the missing curfew guys in the crowd he's loving life he's down by the way yeah like he's he's the man and i never liked him he's a london knight through and through like he really i've really always hated his guts but as he's gotten to this point in his career,

I can't do it anymore. And the worst part is everyone knows the Leafs could have had him. It's sickening. He wanted to come here a couple years ago. It's sickening. And they chose not to take him. If there's anything that keeps me up at night, it might be that. It's sickening.

They would have beat Montreal if you would have just had him. I mean, he wouldn't need Tavares in the bean. So that probably would have been a start. Oh, yeah. That would have just had him. I mean, he wouldn't need Tavares in the bean, so that probably would have been a start. Oh, yeah, that would have changed. The ultimate reality where Perry's not on the Canadiens changes things pretty quickly. That would have helped. Would you not, you think he's got a good spot

where he is right now? I know the $4 million is just for... No, it's way too much. Oh, I know it is, but it's for the floor. It's just to not commit to other contracts. But, you know, can you see him with connor bedard still does he have that in his game you think no i mean i don't think so donato is okay for you and taylor hall i wouldn't mind him with perry i think his iq he's got great

those two other guys yeah i mean you're offering me pretty limited sides for my steak here. I know, I know. I know, but just potato. Yeah, sometimes you just got to have a potato. No garlic mash. No garlic mash. Don't even cook it. No asparagus. No Brussels sprouts.

I'm just giving you a baked potato. The Brussels sprouts in the alumni box. That was the highlight of the food, I think. I think it's maybe the most underrated veggie. People hate on it. I love it. It was really nice. I told you, shout out to Cumbres with the Brussels and pork belly.

Baby, I got to have that. All right, it's time for 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 plus, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. A couple quick ones for you today. Because the Leafs had a stinker last night so I thought it was a good time to look at the Atlantic division and the odds to win the Atlantic division okay the Leafs are the favorite to win uh plus 150 okay that changed after last

night they're still the favorite they were always the favorite to win the division but that's I think the odds are a little better but here's the question. So it's Boston's next Tampa, Panthers, Buffalo, Ottawa, Red Wings, Habs, all in order. Is there anyone other than the Leafs that you can see winning this division? Because to me, it's like the rest of them have gotten way worse. Is Tampa way worse? Yeah. Are they?

Just in net. Yeah, for a couple months. Remember when Boston was without Bergeron and Marchand to start the season last year for two months? Mm-hmm. And then they're the best teams on earth? Yeah. I just, like, the goaltending concern didn't go away

in those first couple of games for Tampa. No, it didn't. They gave up 14 goals. And Vasilevsky's going to come back after super serious surgery, two months off. He's going to come back, hit the ground running. Like, you know, to me, I think they're still Tampa, and I watch them play, and it's like they're still Tampa,

and then the puck goes down in their offensive zone, and a wrister from the top of the circle goes in. You're like, oh, that's not Tampa. I tell you what, once you get past the goaltenders, and, you know, the good thing is for Tampa, they're not involved in the power play. Right. Because that power play is still scary. Oh, my God.

It's just pointing Sorelli and Sergeyev and Orr-Hedman and Kucherov and Stamkos and whoever they want to put out there. Dick Paul being a mutant for the net. I can't recall ever seeing a power play disguise the shot or the threat. That's Kucherov. It's just so dynamic. Is that the best fake in the league? You have no idea where it's going.

No idea. Yeah. Shot, pass, return feed. So, Tampa five and a half to one to win that division. It's just the Leafs, right? Yeah. But are the Leafs, the Leafs are good though? Yes.

No, they are. They've given up 13. They've scored 13. Yeah, they're good. They're really good. They will knock on the door of 95 to 100 points. Tampa or the Leafs? The Leafs.

Yeah. Oh, that's low. Low, low. What did they finish last year? 105? 107? Didn't they set the. What did they finish last year? 105? 107? Didn't they set the regular season record for points last year? Two years ago.

It was the year before. Last year they had 111 points. Okay, so. So many. No, I'm not. But you got to understand that teams are now getting better. Ottawa's getting better. Yeah.

Montreal better. Well, maybe better. Montreal better. Well, maybe not. Kirby dock out now. I'm more competitive. Detroit, pretty good the other night. Better. They're losing points. You're not getting the freebies, but the reality is the Leafs never took the freebies anyway.

Last night, we did all the we talked for an hour about it and then it's just like, you know, that's just a vintage Leafs loss. Yeah. On a Monday night against a bad team. You just don't have to work quite as hard to get to the net or mentally because it's a bad team.

And all of a sudden you get no love. And one more quick thing before we go. I was just going to say, no conversation at all about Boston and what happens to Boston this year without. They're the second favorite, by the way. Without Patrice and Krejci and Matthew Poitras, right? Junior kid. Much like... Yeah, it's Marchand, Poitras, Dickey as a line.

Much like Minton talked about 19-year-old second rounders, this guy is now with Brad Marchand on a line. Yeah. And they're 2-0. Nice start to the season for them. It is. But yes, they're 2-0. Nice start to the season for them. It is. But yes, they're a lot thinner. A lot thinner.

And Nick Foligno had a great year for them last year. And Taylor Hall was effective for them. Not to mention the big names they lost. So their decor is still really good. Their goalies are still really good. They're going to get 100 points. All right. You got one more?

Yeah. Quick one. Oilers tonight in Nashville. Yeah. I like a Connor McDavid goal in the first period, 4-1. 4-1. Yeah, they're pissed. Yeah.

And Connor's pissed. Yeah, that's a really good point. Oilers are a great bet tonight. I can't see Connor and Leon 0-3 to start the season. And I feel like the poor old Preds are going to take the slap here. The brunt of the aggression all right and that was game time presented by bet 365 visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary to bet at bet 365 okay 19 plus still some fun conversations to come up uh after

the break including uh timo meyer new jersey spent a ton of money on this guy and uh already lindy ruff head coach not happy with him sit down son sit down son we'll talk about his benching kuznetsov pretty dynamic player for the washington capitals yet remains the slowest penalty shot in history i want to get your thoughts on that as well so plenty more still. So stick around on Real Kipper and Bourne. Breaking down the top stories in the NHL every day. The Jeff Marriott Show. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. all right just going to break we discussed uh the new jersey devils and what are they one one and

one yeah yeah i don't know not horrible he pours over the standings every day. Not horrible. Check this out here. The other one, one, one. They signed Timo Meier. And obviously when you trade for him, you want to do whatever you can to keep a big guy like that. But already benched by Lindy Ruff. I think he got all but one shift in the third period and was not shy to tell people that, hey, you got to play in your own zone.

You got to play defense here. Like, this one surprises me only because we're barely a week and a half into the season. That's a statement but you know you got to make that statement early before it becomes a problem there are a few games into their season lindy ruff has a nice long contract this guy's going to be here for a nice long time you know this is an important part of their relationship where he says you're going to be here you're going to have to play how we want to play. That's just, or you won't play. One of the things that.

It's so old school. Lindy's old school. How old's Lindy? 70? The younger generation coaches, I think, are worried about hurting players' feelings. Well, has that not been a debate with Sheldon in the past? Like, how do you tell these superstar players to take a seat?

Lindy, rough age. 63 take a seat? Lindy, rough age. 63. I apologize, Lindy. My bad, pal. Where'd you have him at? 70. It's kind of a random exaggerate for argument's sake. I'm texting Lindy. You know, I thought Lindy, he was like besties

with Bree's dad, with Clark. So I thought they were about the same age. What's the clip of him? Who is it that he goes after? The goalie? Is it Billy Smith? The clip? Lindy going after a goalie?

There's an amazing clip of Lindy going after a goalie. Like the guy like slashes him. There's like a fight with a tendon. Actually squares off. I think I remember the clip. Yeah. Yeah. Lindy's not afraid is the point.

Yeah. The theory. All I'm saying is if he's old school enough to fight with Billy Smith. He's old school. The old school. That fight with Billy Smith. He's old school. By definition. The old school theory is if you really want to pound a message home to your players, take away the one thing that means the most to them. It's the only thing you can really control.

Ice time. Yeah. Yeah. And that's it. Like a fairly young team. Just recently, the expectations went to a legitimate level for the new jersey devils taking a run at one of your highest paid players like that okay it sends a huge message to the rest of the team including jack jack right yeah yeah it could be anyone pal i think that's fair to say you know he hasn't had

a great start to his time with the devils he you know is a point per game guy in san jose uh for a couple years almost exactly a point per game 35 31 goals he only had 14 points in 21 games of them last year he had four points in 11 playoff games this year he's got no points in three games like there is time to say we gave you all the money. Time to give back to us. So, a couple things here. Takes I regret is saying that, like, oh, Willie and they should be paid around the same thing.

They're similar players. Him and Meyer? Yeah. Yeah, they're not the same player. He is much better than Timo Meyer. It's not even close. Like, they're different. One's heavier.

One plays more with straight lines, I think, compared to Willie, who's like one of those dynamic skaters. Yeah. God, all I know is Willie's lucky Jacob Truba wasn't on the other side of the Blackhawks on the Tavares goal last night, or he could have been Timo Meijer. I'm just...

Now, and the second thing I want to bring up, the highlight of the YouTube video is Billy Smith, high sticks, Lindy Ruff in the second thing I want to bring up, the highlight of the YouTube video is Billy Smith, high sticks, Lindy rough in the eye. And then the video of them is them rolling around on the ice, fighting each other. So there you go. That's old school enough.

Yeah. My mom has a great Billy Smith story. My dad gets traded to the Kings, Billy Smith. My dad's doing a wraparound, swings a stick, catches my dad across the bridge of the nose and just shatters it. And my mom,

when Billy's coming off the ice in gear, my mom's chasing them down the hallway to yell at their friend of 12 years billy smith and i was like easy lady you know it's the nhl that's incredible who was it somebody got their arms shattered on the leaves back in the day when somebody did that stick swing was it stick swing yannick perot maybe anyways i think you go to jail if you did that now oh someone's wrapping it around i know it's a crazy dangerous movie especially with like those goalie sticks god they were made of oak and the way the stick like because if you're coming around the net the way your stick is it's almost like a ramp yeah right so you're swinging it and it just ramps up into your face and arms not good not a good play. Alright, last night, Calgary Flames and the Washington Capitals.

Pretty good game. Goes into a shootout and all anyone wants to talk about is, once again, witnessing Kuznetsov's approach to a shootout opportunity

and he scored. He scored. I'm Ed. It violates the spirit of the event. He scored. I'm sorry. It violates the spirit of the event. It's horrible. Is that in the rule book? He is supposed to be replicating a breakaway. What constitutes a breakaway?

No person chasing you. Or at least room to get off a shot. No one is chasing. I understand. Actually. Keep going. That should be a chaser. I'm sorry.

I will define it for you. Are there speed limit signs on the way to the net? You don't like what he's doing. You're not going to argue that. You're arguing this for the sake of arguing it. I'm good with it. It's garbage. You're lying.

No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. Kip, it's not the sport of hockey what he's doing. The idea is he's taking a rush and he's allowed to get an opportunity. The object of the event for a shooter is to put the puck in the net. There are hard rules in it where you cannot stop. Not hard enough.

And you cannot go backwards. No point is he doing those. Well, he's basically stopped. He's basically stopped. No, he's not basically stopped. Okay? He's not. This is like, your argument here is the I'm not touching you sibling argument.

Where are you going? I'm not touching you. I'm just going to punch air. It's technically not violating anything. They either are or they're not. And either he has stopped or he's going backwards or he's

not. Is he going very slow? Does he put the puck in the net, which he's supposed to? Yes. Would it be that bad for us to say you got five seconds or ten? Whatever the number is. Oh, my God. You got a shot clock.

Give me a shot clock. Give me a shot clock for real. I'm not joking. I think seven and a half seconds. I think that's crazy. It's not crazy. You're supposed to be simulating a play from a hockey game, which is you've broken free from the D.

You're getting a shot. At the end of the day, just stop the puck. Stop the puck. How do you stop? Can I tell you something, though? That's not a situation goalies have to deal with. Can we not just for a second, but just hold on. Yeah, go ahead.

Can we just not for a second, like, acknowledge how friggin' fast his hands have to be to go that slow and to beat a good goalie like that is a skill on its own yes i go that slow the puck's a square it's done maybe six pieces but that alone for me is a skill that at the end of the day just stop the puck goalie whether he's coming a thousand miles an hour he's falling slow i'm sorry but you're on your job still to stop it so no it's i'm not saying optically it's the best look yeah but the object of the event is to put the puck in the net and he did it last night he is very technically skirting rules that we maybe need to tweak

so he stops being able to do it. Where? What is he skirting? He's not going backwards. The idea of what a shootout shot is, I understand it's legal. I'm sorry, I didn't see that definition in the rule book. That's because it's legal. It's just painful.

It was also legal for pitchers to spend a minute and a half between pitches in Major League Baseball and everyone went, hey, this sucks. What if we stopped this? Remember when everyone's like, it's going to kill the drama in the playoffs. I'm like, how is there not a pitch clock forever? But the thing that concerns me about what you're saying

is there's one guy who does this, and it's Kuznetsov. Also Patrick Kane. Yeah, and a lot of these guys, don't get me started on the shootout. Everyone's trying to reinvent the wheel. But if we change it for one guy, then it's bordering on us having the hellish offside review

because Matt Duchesne was offside by 10 feet one time. Where it's like, we may be scared to put a new rule in because one guy is abusing it. I have a conclusion. I think I've lost the debate. The chaser? I think I've lost the debate.

The chaser's an interesting one. Yeah. Having a guy start at the blue line? At the end of the day, yeah. So he can toe pick and go into the boards a thousand miles an hour. Come on. Now we're getting a little crazy here,

and I think it's an excellent point. We're not seeing an epidemic of guys going. If everyone could do that, maybe they would. It's not baseball. We're not leaving the rink going, you know, that game was two and a half. Three and a half hour game because of Kuznetsov. Two hours and 33 minutes, and oh, my God, it went to 234 because of Kuznetsov's shootout. But really, it went to 234 because he's nuts off shootout.

But really, it's not changing the rules to say, you got eight seconds to get from center to the net. Yeah. You know, or whatever the number is. I was a season ticket holder for junior hockey through the 90s. I went to some four-hour games. It was a few fights.

Oh, yeah. Good times. Kelowna Rockets back in the day with Scott Parker and Todd Fedora. I had good times. There was not a ton of hockey being played. A lot of those. Shout out Chris Millett. Yeah. All right. Did we beat that up? Scott Parker and Todd Fedorik. There was not a ton of hockey being played. A lot of those.

Shout out Chris Millette. All right. Did we beat that up? Like the puck. Like the puck that you want to break away. Did we, did we, you guys. Okay, quickly. Did you come over my side a little bit?

I actually did. Unfortunately. What's the, what's the state of the shootout to you guys these days because every guy watching the shootout they swing way out wide along the boards and to me it's like oh they're trying to you know get the goalie going brad richards who was a really good shootout guy uh was a the nielsen franz nielsen franz nielsen tj oce jeff tambolini gate down the middle of the ice one quick shot backhand low blocker like it's not they're everybody's trying to, like, reinvent the wheel. They're not hard to do.

Canadian meat and potatoes guys, the numbers are too high. They should just shoot it when they come down the ice. Too many deakings. No, but it's like they're all trying to do these crazy moves when, like, the most effective ones are shot fake backhand, low blocker. Like, you guys played hockey. You know how to shoot the puck in the net. They're all trying to do these stupid things,

slow it down, speed it up, just skate fast and shoot it. It's not hard. It's not hard. You guys are NHLers. Has there not been like those heat maps to tell you where guys are most successful or not? Yeah. You need to find one tonight for me.

All right. And bring it in tomorrow. You're curious about data? I am curious. I mean, you're right that the best guys have been pretty efficient. I close my eyes. I will say, Tambolini used to cut. Like, they have a root.

I close my eyes, though, and I think of Franz Nielsen, and I'm like, yep, backhand top corner every time. I named the blog Backhand Shelf on the score. Franz Nielsen was the logo. He was like a 40% conversion rate guy. Think of Taves coming in. Hard one. Forehand upstairs.

Think of him in the World Juniors, him doing it. Comes down, scores three goals, basically the exact same way. Hire Coach Sammy. He'll teach your kids. Hey. No. You don't want anything to do with my game of hockey. Maybe in the shootout.

You know what I got out of that conversation? Nothing. Today's real Kipper and Bourne word of the day is root. It's a root. You said root. I say route. I don't even know. Don't get in my head about that.

Which is correct. I grew up half in the U.S., half in Canada, and I don't know how to say anything. Mazda, Mazda, pasta, pasta. I got nothing. I'm lost. Don't get it in my head. All right.

Nine games on tap tonight. The one that I think kind of, for me, is watchable. It's a late one on the west side, but it's the Stars and Vegas. Yeah. Conference finals rematch last year, right? There was a conference final. Vegas is a plus 100 at home. They're 3-0 just won the cup they're plus money at home strong team yeah that means that is like the only game I can see this early season being like I expect the under there they both

play really good defensively you got avalanche cracking which is good King's Jets is the Pierre-Luc Dubois revenge game revenge is he upset about there they both play really good defensively you got avalanche cracking which is good king's jets is the pierre luke dubois uh revenge game revenge is he upset about leaving i don't know no he's like it's the thank god i'm out of here game yeah he goes back to winnipeg i wonder if the jets will want to stick it to him a little bit for sure there's no question lightning sabers sabers still still without a win high expectations for buffalo this, and they still aren't on the board. Yeah. Ottawa's got off to the start that everybody was looking for in terms of going to that next stage. Buffalo has a big signing,

and right now they looked lost against the Rangers, but they looked at least better in the follow-up game. Well, you know, with the Sabres team, I feel like I'm starting to get frustrated. For years, the Jets, I always felt, were close, and then they didn't add and get better, like just push them over the top. This Buffalo team has been doing this slow rebuild thing

for a while now. Like, can we start to tape on some outside pieces now? Like, they have the it's only chicago below them on cap friendly in terms of what they're spending this season you know they're a rare team with room i really feel like they need to start making a couple of trades and just grab a few more guys here yeah they're close man they're close to being a good team and you don't want to get out to some oh and five start and be digging all year it's a sneaky big one for that like if they go to like oh and it does not look good.

You know, you're just, and if Tampa goes 1-3, it's like, oh, well, you're in a little bit of a hole there. I don't know. I know it's so early, but like. 0-3, all of a sudden you win five in a row and you're still, you know, you're barely in a playoff spot. The Sabres have had awful starts, like, all the time. No.

It feels like. No, they've been good. Oh, they've had the good starts. And then they blow it. Yeah, yeah, right, right. They got mixed up. Because then they didn't win like 10 in a row to start at one point like they've had some really good starts yeah near the top of the division near end of october in the past so maybe this is just a reverse levi is we think arguably uh the the goalie that was most ready to come in outside of the NHL, but still young.

You buy into that goalies don't really find out who they are until 25 or 26 because they've got this guy at the fast lane at Disneyland right now. The rookie goaltenders who've come in and excelled seem to have come from overseas at like 25, right? Like you don't see a lot of like 21-year-old kids step in and just kill it. So, yeah, it's a big ask for a young guy. And obviously Tampa needs a win tonight too.

So this will be on the radar to say the least. Oh, you know what? Speaking of trying ways to speed up the game outside of Kuznetsov's penalty or shootout. Oh, my God. Last night. It was last night. Right?

I went home. Where? You didn't see this. I didn't see it. It was hilarious. You want to talk about keeping people in a building unnecessarily. Like, so, two offsides. Taylor Hall.

Challenges. On an empty netter, he was offside. Okay. I don't know how that happened. So we saw two offside challenges, but these weren't club challenges. League. They were league challenges. The league challenged themselves, and thank goodness they won.

They won both their own challenges. They were wrong. Challenged themselves, yeah. But, like, okay, so the league calls down and says, thank goodness they won they won both their own challenges challenge themselves yeah but like okay so you the league calls down and says we may have an offside but we're gonna check our own yeah challenge why don't you just name the challenge right away and keep the game moving here yeah you know they say when you go to a sporting event, you may see something you've never seen before. I've never seen that before. We'll never see again.

Two league-issued challenges on offsides in the last minute of a hockey game. For a game that's over? Like, completely over. It was, talk about delaying the inevitable. It delayed the inevitable. And they actually scored to make it 3-2 with six seconds left.

And they're like, oh, man. And then they played the new goal song, Panama, a couple times. And away we went. By the way, new goal song last night, Panama. Oh, it's Kipper. New. You know, in your Toronto Star articles, you have Kipper's Corner. This should be the new Kipper's Corner.

Just talking about the goal song. I don't give a damn about the goal song. Panama is a great one. Panama. That's a really, really good song and a great problem. You are a skip. Why? Just owing sound, jamming to Panama. You are a skit. Why?

Owen Sound jamming to Panama. Okay, who doesn't love Panama? This is going to be all season long, this conversation. It's a shame. You know, Sammy said on the way to the game that the goal song is like quarterbacks in the NFL. When you say we have two quarterbacks, that means you have zero.

When you say you have six goal songs like the Leafs, that means you don't have a goal song. Isn't that the same thing with goalies, right? Yeah, we have two starters. Oh, so you don't have a starter? No, you don't have one. Good one. That's what it means. It's a good song, man. It just is.

I guess. Better than dupe dupe, whatever the other one was. I couldn't tell you. Yeah. So the league, so, you know, I wait for the referee to say upon further review, we were wrong. Correct ourselves after that. The goal stands. Yeah.

But it tells you something. Someone in the video room is fired. Well, no, if Jordan Bean isn't calling it in, they're probably in. I just would like to throw this out. I'm sorry. I was just going to say, for the record, too, by the way, I know every once in a while you like to give credit to a guy like Sheldon Keefe for making the call. He has nothing to do with those calls.

So shout out to Jordan Bean and his staff there. Is it Sam Kim, maybe? Is he the runaway favorite for being, for having the best record in the NHL. Sheldon Keefe has the best challenge success rate in NHL history. 93.8%, which is presumably being an Andrew Brewer who was there before. Probably a part of that too.

So yeah, at least they're getting that right. That's an exhilarating job being the guy that's like, you got to challenge this. It's I think it's Jay Woodcroft, Jeremy Cullen, you know, like it's those are high success rates. It's a good thing, right? And then John Schneider is the

exact opposite of the Blue Jays. He gets them all wrong. Yeah, I see. And everybody's at the mercy because they have cameras that we don't necessarily see right away, so everybody's just guessing anyways. Yeah, I mean the video guys, when they tell Sheldon it's off, it off yeah all right just like that hour two gone mike halford thank you very much for coming on we're getting ready for the vancouver canucks and the philadelphia flyers puck drop

momentarily enjoy the game and enjoy eight more and we're back tomorrow on Real Kipper and Bourne.