Real Kyper & Bourne - Hellebuyck, Lowry & the Senators with Sean Reynolds

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne are joined by Sportsnet reporter Sean Reynolds (6:34) to chat about the Winnipeg Jets slowing down after their successful start to the 2024-25 season. He gets into Adam Lowry's fit with the Jets and potentially Team Canada, what's held back the Ottawa Senators from taking the next step, and the number of games Winnipeg will have Connor Hellebuyck in net with the 4 Nations Face-Off in mind. To close out the week, Nick, Justin and Sam McKee answer your questions on the text line!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. 

All right, let's close out this week. As we go national on The Real Kipper and Bourne Show, we are live on 650 in Vancouver. Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver and Sportsnet, maybe even more importantly, Sportsnet 960 in Calgary. Because we are sporting a brand new Calgary Flame jersey. I'm trying to do a weatherman. It's not easy.

Look at that thing. Oh, yeah. Just to give it some context here, last week I hung this shirt up. Ryan Favreau's baby's jersey. This is like Chris Farley in a little jacket chris farley in a little jacket so what happened was craig conroy's wife was watching our show okay and told craig you guys got to send him a jersey. Come on.

So not to put pressure on the wives of like Tree Living and Kent Hughes and Michael Anlauer and Kevin Shovel Dayoff and Alvin. We would love to put up a pretty sweater of every Canadian team. You can't have the Calgary Flames. We're going to see a lot of Flames this year. Show you up like that. And by the way, we're going to start pushing for a Craig Conroy lifetime contract.

Yeah, I think so. Starting today as well. I got to say, that is one of the most gorgeous jerseys in all of hockey. It's a nice red. Top 10 top ten easy. Top ten? I'm saying top five easy. I even like the white ones more, but that one's sharp.

You've never really been a red jersey guy. No, I'm actually not. I find it agitating. These are the best red jerseys going. Beautiful. Beautiful jersey. And we're inclusive here on our show. So anyone south of the border, and I'm not going to name all the GMs wise,

but hey. If you did, it'd be impressive. Send us. Send us. We will hang it up. Yes, we'll hang it up. Is there any team we won't? Do we have a team that we just want to make enemies with?

No. Would you put up a Bruins one? No. Would you put up a Canadians one? Yeah, I would. No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't hang it. Yes, national hour we would. No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't hang it. Yes, national hour we'd hang it.

I wouldn't. You could. I just found out, like, the Minnesota Wild, that their logo is the shape of a bear. Did you know that? Of course. I didn't. Yeah.

I thought it was the shape of, like, the state or something. I don't know. In your defense, I didn't know. It's not like I always knew, but I think a few years ago, I was like, oh, yeah, okay, I see it. It's actually one of the most underrated great logos in the league. I used to hate it because it was just a mess. Yeah, but it's a bear.

Anyways, they're beautiful jerseys. I love their jerseys. Send one of those in, too. Okay, in a few minutes. Thanks for listening. In a few minutes, we'll welcome in Sean Reynolds, Sportsnet reporter in Winnipeg as

you know, I mean 15-1 was like off the charts, but you know, have they kind of cooled a little bit in your opinion, the Winnipeg Jets? They're 18-5. I know, I know, but. Yeah, I mean, they've cooled from being molten lava. There was nowhere to go but down right

absolutely that's kind of the tough part is like it's you were going to hit a stretch where people are like yeah you guys are slumping and it's like oh it's kind of normal for teams to go 500 over a few games which is all they've done so looking forward to we can get more answers from him from him than i have so uh nine games currently going on right now coming off of american thanksgiving and uh i can't this is a for the second day in a row i really wish i was on a couch right now i know i'd be flipping like crazy this would be a fun day to just stay home and and watch all these games what else we got going on? I think people just know that we have a TV on in here, and if there's a lull in the action,

just someone text the station and we'll wake up. I don't know. We're a little distracted today. Put the aisles on. They're up 3-1 going to the third. They blow leads all the time. It'll be fascinating. So, by the way, texts.

Make sure you text in if you're listening, 590-590, and we'll read some texts after we talk to Sean. Yeah. So text in anything you want. Make sure it's lots of non-lease related stuff. And it's really nice of Sean to join us, first of all, because it is American Long Weekend.

Thanksgiving and people are like scram beat it. Yeah, no one wants to talk to us. I gotta tell you, this is the worst week for radio production in the world. Like, it's the, it's, you know, you lose, we lost Mac, we lost Valley. Anyone south of the border, you text them after Tuesday.

No. But you're one of the best in the business. I don't want to hear that. That's just a lousy excuse. I am far from one of the best in the business, buddy. That's good, Kip. That's like a coach, eh? No, it is.

You know, you're like, yeah, you know, just what am I supposed to do on that play? And the coach is not good enough. You're supposed to get there. Get it done. Got to mention the New York Rangers here in a bit of a spiral here. For a team that basically still is looking at a playoff spot, I'm just wondering if all of the noise this past week has sent them further down.

Well, you know, I, I'm not going to claim to be the first person to have said it, um, because Sammy said it off the air, but on the air, I'll be the first to publicly wonder here is LaViolette in danger.

The team is 12 and nine. So you don't, you wouldn't think so, but their last five, you lose to the flames. You lose to the Oilers, lose to the blues, lose to the Oilers, lose to the Blues, lose to the Canes, lose to the Flyers.

Five straight. And today, it wasn't like it was a good, hard-fought loss. They were lucky to be in that. They didn't have Shusterk, and that's an 8-1 game. There was multiple, I don't know how many odd-man rushes they had in that game. It was out of control. You know what I'll say is the worst thing for the Rangers,

which most people might call the best thing? They play Montreal tomorrow, who may be the worst team in the league, at 1 p.m. So back-to-back, chance to get beat by a team that people think is bad, that changes a coach's outlook. With your backup goalie in net. Right. Okay, let's go to Sean Reynolds, Sportsnet reporter in Winnipeg.

Thanks for joining us, Sean. I really appreciate it. Tons of games going on right right now and there's one that's going to be pretty important with the jets in uh in vegas tonight so i just kind of half jokingly said that when you come out 15 and one and then you look at the week that the winnipeg Jets have had. Kind of a bummer, no? Yeah, yeah. First off, I'm not in Winnipeg. I'm in L.A., so that's why the different surroundings.

Oh, you've got Hockey Night in Canada this weekend, right? Yes, yeah, Ottawa and the Kings tomorrow. But, yeah, a little bit of a bummer. Hey, I remember I was on this program, and you guys said, you know, I forget what it was. They were like, I don't know, 13-1 or something at some point. You're like, can they continue this? And it's like, no, of course not. They're not going to keep going at that absolutely torrid pace.

You know, there's a little bit of this, you know, a team coming back down to earth. I do think this as well, and the explanation I gave you the last time I was on the show of what was happening with the Jets. The Jets were a team that, you know, I think they were in fifth gear and running it in the red and they did that right out of the gates, right?

Game one, they're on everyone's played with each other. Everyone knows who everybody is. The Jets know who they are. They're not crafting an identity. You guys will know this. You know, teams take a while to craft a bit of an identity. The Jets don't because they need all that. So a little bit of this is just the idea that the rest of the league is waking up or catching up, right?

So the Jets now, I think they've gone in their last seven games. They've lost four of their last seven games. It has to do with the schedule as well. I remember when we were on it before and we were talking, yeah, the Jets, I think they played two playoff teams from last season. And I think right now of the 16, sorry, yeah, 16 teams in the playoffs last year, I think 14 are in a playoff spot right now. So the Jets played two teams over the playoff line last season

in the first 13 games of this season. So the schedule that they had was a schedule that was very conducive for them having one of the greatest starts that we've seen in NHL history. Now all of a sudden it's the hard part. This is a grinding road trip. They're starting to play more grinding teams. So this is, to me, just very normal. I still think that game

against the LA Kings that the Jets just lost, I thought they played a really good game. I thought they looked like themselves. They played to their identity. The Kings played to their identity and just came out on top on this night. The one thing I'd say about the Jets is, for the most part,

even in the games that they lose, they still look really good. They're forcing other teams to come up and have their best to beat them, but that's what you're seeing. Florida when they beat them had not been playing that well, and all of a sudden Florida came out and looked just like they did winning the Cup last year.

Nashville hasn't looked the same or sorry, they haven't looked like a very good team at all. And after the game, Jonathan March, so it tells me, okay, this is what we're supposed to look like. We're finally figuring it out. The Kings, same thing. So you don't get to hide when you have the kind of start that the Winnipeg Jets had. Teams are coming out.

They're playing their best hockey against them. And what we're seeing now is that the, you know, other teams are good teams too. And the Winnipeg Jets win some and lose some rather than just walk away with the money every single time. This is just a weird statistical blip that's not even analysis, but the last four games they've played have been 4-1, 4-1, 4-1, and 4-1. Six of their last nine scores have been 4-1. That's extremely weird to me. Anyway, that helps nobody, but I thought it was fun to share.

So I've been working with David Amber quite a bit lately, and he loves to talk about the Four Nations face-off. Adam Lowry is a name that comes up with some consistency, and some people either roll their eyes at that or they love him. Tell us about Adam Lowry, the season he's having, and where you see him in the scope of Canadian players. Yeah, if you liked Adam Lowry last year, you like him this year. If you liked Adam Lowry back in 2015 when he was a very young man,

the Jets, as the Jets 2.0, made the playoffs for the first time in a long time, and he was their best player back in 2000. And this is Blake Wheeler before Blake Wheeler was at his peak. Mark Scheifele before Mark Scheifele was at his peak. This is how long ago that was. Adam Lowry comes out in that series against the Ducks back when the Ducks were the Anaheim Ducks and absolutely makes those guys earn every single bit of the ice.

He's a great player, was a great player then, great player now. If you saw what he was worth last year, he's worth that this year, really drives this team. So if you're going and you're looking for a very pure shut-down defender kind of guy, he'd be a great candidate for it. The one thing that I would caution is that's what he is. He's a shut down guy. You cannot expect when things get really hairy and you're thinking we really need a guy to

go out and be the guy to put the puck in the back of that. That's not something you can expect from Adam Lowry. So it's a zero sum game, right? He's going to go out there. He's going to make life miserable on the other guys. He's going to make it really hard. He's going to make them earn every single inch of their ice. But he's probably not going to be popping the puck in the back

and winning you that tournament on the offensive side of things. So if that's what you want, the Winnipeg Jets, they could get that. You wouldn't do much better than that in my opinion in the league i just know that it can get tricky when you're playing that zero sum games and have a guy who's probably not going to get you offense and the other question about that is if he's a guy who's not going to give you offense what does he do to the right winger and the left winger that you send along with him and what how does he affect their offense because i think canada has been spoiled for years.

Usually they've got a good chunk of players who can do that, but they can score as well. My guess is they'd be looking for someone who's going to have a little bit more of an offensive impact in the game as well. A reminder that this hour of Real Kipper Unborn is brought to you by Bet365. We're joined by Sean Reynolds, sports reporter in in winnipeg but now in la um so sean just to stay with the four nations kind of theme here uh another name that intrigues me is mark shifley for that team uh we had doug armstrong on the other day he talked about the importance of you know good centermen that could easily slide over and play the wing,

a 200 foot kind of guy. He comes to mind, he has to be on the radar and saying that there is some speculation that he's hurt or he's hiding an injury as well. So tell us your thoughts on, on both those things. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. He's dealing with something right now and there's no doubt about the idea that it's affecting his game.

I mean, you take his winger Gabe Velarde and you put him at the dot taking face-offs now. There's no doubt about it. If that injury wasn't prevalent at the moment right now, I would say Mark Scheifele has left no doubt about the idea that he should be on Team Canada and will be on Team Canada. There's just so many fits here. Mark Scheifele is a big, strong guy, right?

So when he gets the puck in the offensive zone, he's really, really hard to get off it. And if you are going to get him off it, you're going to have to work really, really hard to get off it. And if you are going to get him off it, you're going to have to work really, really hard to get him off it. So there's an aspect of his game that just, you know, one of the things that makes him good is he can tire teams out. And it's one of the reasons I think why a lot of times this year, later in the game, he or his line is scoring to put the Jets over the top.

He's a real put you over the top. He's a real put-you-over-the-top kind of player. So I think that that has something to do with how hard he is to play against and get the puck off of him. But to me, it's a whole bunch of other things. It's the fact that I don't expect him to go as one of the four centermen, but I think that he can play on the wing with a lot of really great players. His creativity and his passing, know finding passing zones in the offensive zone is absolutely elite like right now his short area passing is elite so you can put him with scores guys like reinhardt if he

ended up on a line with him is he's the kind of guy he'll be able to find reinhardt as good as a lot of players in the league right now one of the other things that I just think is important here is we know that he knows Connor McDavid chats with him in the offseason they go back to team North America together where he played on that team and found his way eventually on a line with Austin Matthews and Connor McDavid so you know he can play with that player. And then we're always told this story about how he went and played at the World Championships, and I think they started him off down the line up there, and he worked his way up to being Canada's number one center.

I think he's shown during international play, limited, no doubt, that he's a really, really good player. But he wants this. He wants it bad. He's more mature, hard to play against, looks like he can play with everybody, can play in the wing, but move into center if you need a guy there, and plays and knows how to play with the very top stars on that team.

I think he really just checks all the boxes. For sure. I got to say, I love that you have your microphone with you in L.A. This is the most professional interview we've had for someone in a hotel room in Los Angeles. No, they come standard now in the hotel. They do. It's a good hotel.

It's by the umbrella in the closet. Yeah. So you're there to cover the Ottawa Senators playing the Los Angeles Kings. The Sens, a couple games ago, were 8-11-1 in real, real trouble for a team that people had high hopes for going into the year. They've since won two games.

They're close to getting back to 500, and their schedule gets a little softer after this Kings game. What's your take on the status of where the Senators and their season is at? Yeah, I mean, talking earlier on with their head coach, this is a team that knows what it needs to do to succeed. Now it's a question of just going out and doing it, but not only a question of going out and doing it, but finding a way to do that night in and night out. And that, to me, is the tricky part.

So you get after 15 games and things get real, right? And I always, you know, I hate talking and using language like that. I only use it because I hear it from players. So I'm sure Kipper would say the same thing. You can go for the first 10 games and you can be anybody you want to be for 10 games. Okay, now go do it times eight, right? Do it for 82 straight games. And so I did a number of early games and talking with Travis Green.

I remember there was a game that they'd had against the New York Rangers. And they lost that game. They got goalied. But they were the better team in that game. And then they were playing the back end of a back-to-back, flying back to Ottawa, playing a Hockey Night in Canada game the next night. And we covered that game. And he told this great story about afterwards he went to Claude Giroux after the game. And he's like, well, what did you think of the game?

And Giroux said, I think it was our best game of the year. And he said, I do too. We better go do it again tomorrow. Right? And the idea being like, don't be celebrating the fact that you took on the Rangers who were looking like one of the best teams in the league at the time. And you were better than them and you should have beat them. If you take, we should have beat them and you let that stop you from giving your best

effort the next night. now you lose two straight well that's ends up that's how you end up being a losing team and i think they're still learning those lessons trying to find a way to go out and be the best team they can for a while i kept hearing this line over the last little while they need their goalies to wake up and steal them a game that happened last game maybe if they shouldn't have needed to happen against the san jose sharks but this is a team that has not had a lot of goalie steals over the last couple years they got one last game and and again if you're a player and you kind of feel like you're trying to figure it out and then you get to start to feel like every mistake that you make doesn't end up in the back of your net.

Now all of a sudden you've got a little bit more confidence to go play and do your thing. So hopefully that's the goalie win this team has been looking for that can get it to turn around. Because when they've played to the identity they're supposed to play to this season, I think they're a really good team. It's just hard to be the team that does the right things time and time again, night in and night out

for 82 games a season. And the pressure of making $8.25 million a year when you're supposed to stop pucks, you've been watching one of the best the last few years in Connor Hellebuck. And now a guy like Allmark is an albeit you know in the market like Ottawa but still a ton of pressure to live up to that oh uh I mean it's it's immense and I it's it's interesting what I'm glad you brought up both goaltenders because I thought right off the bat

when Allmark got that and he just essentially got Connor Hellebuck money. Now, I know that Hellebuck kind of reset the market here, right? Like we were at a point where we were looking, OK, the best goalies in the game are going to start going to get 10 million. And Hellebuck has really put goaltenders in a really tough spot, I think, around the league because he takes that 8.25 million a year. And now all of a sudden that's a standard that is kind of easily achievable for goaltenders that are, well, they've shown signs of being one of the better goalies in the league. That's all, Mark.

He's got himself a Vezna trophy, so you've got that in the trophy case. But we know his situation with the Bruins was one where he was kind of sharing the crease. And you say he still has a lot to prove. He's not proven himself to the place that connor hellebuck has but that said connor hellebuck has now made it so that any goalie out there who's signing a new contract and that's that that's the contract they're playing up to you are playing up to connor hellebuck money and so if you this so there's no doubt about it. There's no hiding for Olmark. He got hired to be the guy, signed a long-term deal,

got hired to be the guy for a really, really long time. And when the principles are so defined, like they are in Ottawa, where they're like, okay, we think we've got everything we need. Now we just need to switch to a playoff hockey team. A lot of that switch, when you're that goalie who comes in at that money, Not everything we need. Now we just need to switch to a playoff hockey team. A lot of that switch when you're that goalie who comes in at that money, a lot of that is going to fall on your shoulders. So, you know, I think with goalies, it's the same thing as players.

Sometimes it takes a little bit to understand, okay, this guy often will let this pass through or I don't need to worry about that. You need to learn how to play behind the system you're playing against. Hopefully for Olomar, that's a sign of that last game is a sign of that happening. Because if he can marry himself to Ottawa's game, again, I've seen a number of games this year where I look at Ottawa and I think that's a good hockey team. That's a good game that they're playing. If they replicate that game over and over again,

they're going to put themselves in a good spot. I just think that they're having trouble like most teams do. You always hear this. You've got to be bad before you're good. Sometimes it's hard to stop being bad when you've been bad so long. I just think that's where Ottawa is. Can I just follow up one more

on Connor Hellebuck and Winnipeg in terms of again, when you're that guy right now and he's just a mule, he's just one of those guys where it looks like he's pissed off if he's not playing every game. So right now he's projected, Sean,

to play 65 games. He had a great year last year, but we know what happened in the first round of the playoffs. Where's the sense of just give him his 65 games again this year? Or do you have to protect him now with the thought in mind of last year's first round? I think that the Jets as a team have been needing to protect Connor Hellebuck from himself for quite a long time.

Himself being the idea that Connor Hellebuck from himself for quite a long time. Himself being the idea that Connor Hellebuck, if you let him would play 82 games every single year, it's what he wants to do. And everyone's looking for the answers of why Winnipeg kind of tails off the way that they do. And that's one of the places that people have looked and you don't know if that answer is there because you haven't had enough of a book of Connor Hellebuck in the playoffs.

Seeing him succeed to see how any kind of tweaks that you do during the regular season would affect him. So Rick Bonas last year said what they were going to try and do is they weren't going to have him play less games. They were going to have the Jets play a style of hockey that got him more rest within games. The Jets are still doing that this year. Like, even that game against the Kings, they lose it 4-1. One of them is an empty netter. One of them bounces off a player's skate. And then the Jets last year, I think I said this to you guys,

of all the goalies that played a game in the NHL last year, Connor Hellebuck was, like, eighth last on the list of how, like, the average shot that he faced. Like the Jets force teams that they're playing to shoot and shoot from distance. And a lot of times, some games you'll see when the Jets are on, five or six shots he faces out of 24 shots will be shots floated in from center ice. Right? Like that's a lot.

That's one of the things I think people don't don't give the jets credit for this last number of years is they've made a life a lot easier on connor hellebuck but kipper to kind of circle around and get back on your point to something that we were talking about earlier on four nations cup is coming he's going to be their starting goaltender um and i know that the jets are taking a lot into consideration and the idea that he's going to go he's going to play in the tournament that tournament is going to be like the playoffs for that he's going to go, he's going to play in the tournament. That tournament is going to be like the playoffs for him. He's going to be wanting to throw everything he has in it.

So if they do play, if he does play 62, 65 games this year and they add that onto the plate, that's not easy hockey. That's grinding hockey. So I can tell you this right now, the coaches for the Winnipeg Jets, they're aware of it and they've got concerns about that.

So they're going to try and build in rest for him into the season. The issue with Connor Hellebuck is, is he going to let it happen? Because the way I see it, the way it's gone in the market for Connor Hellebuck, whatever Connor Hellebuck wants, Connor Hellebuck gets, he kind of dictates how much he wants to play.

And in the past coaches, whether it be Paul Maurice or Rick Bonas or Scott Arneal now, they've all just kind of gone along with it. So I think this is just one of these things where you kind of got to grab a hold of something and go along for the ride. Sean, look forward to seeing you tomorrow night on Hockey Night in Canada. There's always great stuff, man. Thanks for doing this. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys.

Thanks, Sean. Appreciate it. Sean Reynolds, Sports Night Reporter. Traveling microphone. Hockey Night in Canada. That's incredible. He's got a suitcase with him. But he needs his own suitcase.

It's tough to his wrist. Right? No kidding. Sabres just scored. They're all over the Canucks. I know. They just hit the inside of the post on the first one, didn't they? Yeah, they did. I mean, they're all over the canucks i know they just hit the inside of the post on the first one didn't they yeah they did i mean they are all over that i think it was tied in shots five minutes ago it's now 30 to 20 sabers uh also uh the great future player for team canada

macklin celebrini has scored again today eight goals for celebrini in what like 12 games or something and it was a walked in over the red line and just beat a goalie clean top corner. His shot, man. Yeah, he's kind of what Bedard was. Kind of what we thought Bedard was. Want to follow up?

Mark Schaeffle, a done deal for you for Team Canada? I think that my co-host is worried about that. Me? No, not you. You.

No, no, no. I like Sch Sheffield. He's done a deal if he's healthy, but is he hurt? He's practicing. I think he's fine. But he's not taking draws. So something's going on there. Yeah.

I'm wondering. Making sure he gets picked? Well, you got to think about it. Oh, like he's playing wing to be like, hey, I'm a winger? Maybe he's. No, no. To be, well, I was thinking. Maybe he's playing wing to be like hey i'm a winger maybe he's no no to be well i was thinking maybe he's staying in the lineup just to to solidify you can pick me i'm fine you can pick me and then like the last shot lineup and he's like all right i'm gonna

take two weeks off like don't take me out of the lineup i'm trying to prove i can play for team canada yeah but wow i gotta think between between Cooper and Armstrong and Sweeney there, they like somebody from Winnipeg would have said. He's fine. He's either fine or, you know, is he, do you need to see any more? I don't know. I don't know. I think you've seen enough from Shifley.

He's awesome. Having an awesome year. Been a good Canadian player in the past. He's. I like Shifley a lot. Yeah. I wish he swore. You want a little game time? He doesn't swear. Well, that's kind of a thing. I like Scheifele a lot. Yeah. I wish he swore. You want a little game time?

He doesn't swear. Well, that's kind of a thing. I don't think you're easy to swear. Really? Yeah. Can't trust somebody who doesn't swear. That's kind of how I feel. I'd like him a lot more if he did.

Actually, you guys ever feel how remarkable it is that how much we swear when we're doing our chat before the show or this amount of swearing that you do in your general life and then this microphone comes on and you don't even... He used to swear. Wow, he used to swear in our first year. He swore a few times.

That's because I was off for a year and a half, two years. You're rusty. You're dropping a few. We were also looking for that air of authenticity. I think our first guest, our first week, we had Steve Thomas. Steve Thomas. Who else dropped an F-bomb?

Al Ioffredi. Oh, yeah. But Al just was happy to do it. He wasn't like, whoops. We're going to get Big Al back on the show. By the way, that might be one of our all-time interviews. He's talking about riding a motorbike naked in a trench coat, dropping F-bombs.

I was like, what is our show? We was on for 30 minutes. He's awesome. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's great. We'll get him in studio. You want to do game time now? Yeah, just give me a second here. I don't want to make my... Do you want to let one go? Am I teeing you up the right way?

Let it rip. Let it rip. We are hanging on, boys. It's game time. Presented by Bet365. Visit the app for latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. I'm a team plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. So, yeah, we're –

Borny's been over here hammering away on the live bets. Yeah. So there's a couple games later this evening that are not underway already, and it is tonight. It's the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Bruins are home. Minus 170. Just had a, you had a big win.

They scored six goals. Beat the Islanders, who are no good. But still, they're starting to kind of win games again here after they fired their coach. Are they winning three in a row or something? No, I think they've won three. Since they fired them, they've won three or four. And now they're getting a layup here with Dubas' Penguins coming to town. Yeah, but they're coming off a big win too, aren't they?

Yeah, they beat them. Did they beat the Sharks? No, they beat the Canucks in the second half of back-to-back with Archer, Sheila, and Zanette. Which they hung on for dear life, by the way. They were up 5-1. So give me the Boston Bruins

tonight over the Pittsburgh Penguins. And looking on later, the Winnipeg Jets we just talked about with Shawnee there. They are in Vegas for a good one tonight. They're minus 115 on the road. Because they're good. They're 18-5, bud. They're a good team.

The Golden Knights are 14-6. I like the Winnipeg Jets minus 115 in that game. And the Edmonton Oilers, back in the day, it's been a while since the Oilers have played a hockey game. They are in Utah to take on the Utah Hockey Club, minus 160 on the road. Starts at 9 o'clock. Oilers, to me, may be the most dangerous team in the league off the rush.

Utah cannot contain a team. Yeah. Leafs had the most odd man rushes they've had in a game. So I think the Oilers light them up. All right. That was Game Time presented by Bet365. Visit the app, play the odds, and find out why it's never ordinary. Bet365, let's play 19+. Ontario only.

Please play responsibly. Okay, let's take a breather here. Text. Tell people to text. Send us text 590-590 and we will respond to your text. It's Friday. That's what we do. Back with Real Kipper and Bourne after these words.

Hey, it's Matt Marchese. And I'm Mike Futa. We're discussing the top stories of the day across the NHL and the hockey world weekdays at noon. It's the Fan Hockey Show on Sportsnet 590, The Fan, and wherever you get your podcasts. This hour, Real Kipper and Bour, brought to you by Bet365. As we bring it home on this Friday, we're going to take a text at 590-590. But before that, just a follow-up on the Four Nations tournament.

And this is a February tournament. And this is a February tournament. It's not a September tournament. So I was just envisioning, you know, talking to Sean Reynolds about Connor Hellebuck. He's on pace for 65 games again, and he's been that way for like the last three or four years. Just like what happens if he gets hurt? Like any of them.

Like Canada, USA, if they're at each other's throats, do we expect that or do we expect it to be somewhat tame? I think you... Like you're six weeks away from the playoffs. It's dangerous. It's a little dangerous for some markets. Yes. Oh, my God, yes.

This whole Leafs thing, the rebuild, the whatever, if Matthews or Marner has something happen, it's like, welp. They got no other plan but those guys scoring. The thing is, when that's, to me, the scariest part of, like, from a promotion perspective of the of the four nations face-off is that like are the is the juice worth the squeeze here where the leafs are sending their four best like their three best players marner matthews and neilander all playing in this event and it's like oh you know marner got hurt boy, we won the inaugural Four Nations face-off

but didn't have Russia or Czechia or any other team. And I'm like, oh, what? But if you're in the NHL and a guy or two gets hurt, you don't care because you sold the Four Nations face-off for a lot of money, and most of the guys didn't get hurt. I would just say, like, I've been thinking about that too, Kip. That thought has been crossing my mind a lot. And Matthews has been banged up.

He's already flew to Germany. Like, he's going to play in these extra games. The owners, the owners right now looking at... They get none of that, eh? Well...

They could all get a kick or something. No, you know what they're thinking of? They're thinking about, like, the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup final may be making

$15 million a game. Yeah. They won't... They want that connor getting hurt yeah yeah no it's high risk uh given the timing in relation to the playoffs for sure but yeah you're right i do wonder if that has some effect on desperation levels and guys selling out the same way but probably not it's guys don't know really how to turn it off in an event like that god have you ever played sorry to interrupt have you ever played uh like just a shinny game and you're trying to decide how to divide up teams bunch of pro guys and you go let's just do canada

us and it just ends up being like 10 times more intense like it completely has changed skates i've been on when there's like i'm a lot older than you so that there wouldn't be any there wouldn't have been kind of there would have been a lower number of availability. Like in college, I went to an American college, so we had a lot of American players. You split it up and it's like all of a sudden there's this extra juice in the game. That's the thing. Oh, it's an exhibition. It's a warm-up for the Olympics.

It's like the puck drops and it's Canada versus USA. Nothing matters. These guys want to kill each other. I covered the World Cup, I guess we called it in World Cup. The 2016? Yeah, and that one just had nothing on the line. Really nothing. And also it was like an offensively arranged thing. It was not, it was one of my least favorite things to do.

Excellent Canada-Russia game in that though. Listen, the kids were entertaining. It was one of my least favorite things to do. Excellent Canada-Russia game in that, though. Listen, the kids were entertaining. There was some value on the entertainment, but not the feel that we should have in international play. I don't know where this Four Nations will fall into place here. I don't know. But I do know with the Olympics two years away and guys wanting to make a point of being on that team,

that will automatically take it up a notch than what we saw in 2016. Yeah, you're right. If you're a fringe guy and you lead Canada in scoring in this event, it's like next year or next time we're going, do you know how good these guys are? Oh, my God. Oh, what a save. Didn't go in. Wow, what a save. Didn't go in.

Wow, what a save by Lankanen. I got to have a strong impression. Yeah. Right? Because I'm not playing just for four nations. I'm playing to. To be on the Olympic team. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Go to the Olympics. So it'll be interesting. It will be. All right, Sammy. You got some text for us there? So this is a great question off the back of us talking about shinny hockey. Crystal from Stouffville. I'm going to assume that's a nice female texter.

It is. Vancouver wins. Vancouver wins. Who scored? Wow, they hung on. Garland. Garland. On an unbelievable huge. Garland had a great block on an earlier goal.

Quinn Hughes made the play. He's such a pesky son of a gun. Is Nick still skating with Eric Lindros' group? Who is considered the ringer of that group? Cody. Cody Hodgson. Cody Hodgson? Oh, my God.

The guy's got it on a string there. I'm on his line. I mean, last year he played professional hockey. I know. He came back from not playing and then scored like 10 goals in the American League. Yeah. Yeah. But a lot of my group is the Skatey Eights.

Yeah. I got to play them in a charity event. It was really fun playing with a bunch of sales guys. John E. With a three-touch breakout. Kevin Shire is an unbelievable hockey player. I'm like, I have no business being out there, and I play pro. Yeah.

There was one guy that we played against that was, like, had the long hair mutant just flying up and down the ice. I don't know what his name was, but, God, he was good. Johnny. Johnny. This is the second time we've brought up Johnny, and every time I go in on Thursday mornings, it's like, he's like a newfound celebrity.

Oh, really? He's Sammy McKee on steroids. Famous now. All right. All right. So this is a text here. Cause we were talking about the flames Jersey.

What is the best logo in the best Jersey in the league and the worst logo in the worst Jersey in the league? It says your department, not Kip's. Kip's going to have an opinion on this. I'm starting to come in my old age over to the jersey side. Alright.

You go ahead. You don't care? I'm jumping in. I think the best jersey in the league and the best logo in the league is the Charmé police. It's the best jersey in the league and the best logo in the league is the Charmé police. It's the best jersey. It's the best.

Sorry, Homer. I love it. I love it. I mean, I have it up there for sure too. I mean, I'm an original six guy.

Like I think the Boston, the blues, fantastic. It's such a nice color of blue. It's a great classic logo. Great history behind it. Like the whole thing. It's a beautiful old logo.

I don't think, you know, maybe just cause it's like Chicago Blackhawksks a proper blackhawks jersey yeah very nice yeah canadians obviously you got to give them love that's guys i'll go with my first original nhl jersey i've ever put on the washington capitals really i love that one too i think it so represents D.C., right? But their original ones are extremely nice. Don't get me wrong. But the ones that they've been wearing since the lockout,

that's got all the piping on it. They tried to redo. The third they wear is nice. We have one over there of the actual one that you used to wear, which is, I agree. Yes. Gorgeous jersey. But the eagle, the big flying eagle. Yeah, screaming eagle. I don't mind that one, but it's a little hokey.

The worst? So, yeah, worst. I think Columbus, could you do worse with that? Like those colors are iconic. I don't know if you can make a worse jersey than Columbus had with what they're working with. I think the Ducks. Oh, the Ducks. The Ducks rebrand this year.

Maybe the worst jersey in the history of the league. Like, it's so bad. Just do the purple one. The purple one was great. Do that. Why do the orange? It's awful. Maybe because Trump got in. Is that. Eggplant was so nice. Why do the orange? It's right. It's awful.

Maybe because Trump got in. It's not what it is. It's the orange. Right? Because it's like, it's his hair color. That's what it is. In honor of, I will say the logo thing, the Whalers logo that you guys had probably goes down as the all-time best logo.

Use of negative space is really good. I guess the Habs have that going on too. Carolina Hurricanes. not a good sweater that's all right yeah you think it's one of the worst i and i will and i'm not just saying that i'm not a huge fan of it i love the islander sweater too and that's probably just a lot of my upbringing that is a record that i've ever spent that much time talking about thank you for your time uh university of alaska, beautiful sweater. And we're watching one here right now with the Detroit Red Wings who are on the brink of losing yet again. Their logo is amazing.

I think the rest of their jersey, like it's very plain, it's fine, but like their logo on its own is a really spectacular one. Yeah, got some proper... Well, listen, if... If, I don't know, the actor's name can wear it

for two and a half hours on Ferris Bueller's day off. Yeah, yeah. Cameron. Cameron. Cameron can wear the Gordie Howe red away jersey at the time. Yeah. Darks were away.

Which they still should be. What's that? Well, he had, like, that actor was obviously phenomenal in that. Like, I truly think one of the best movie characters ever, Cameron, in that. But he came back around. Succession. And was so good in that. Like, I truly think one of the best movie characters ever, Cameron, in that. But he came back around. Succession. And was so good in Succession. To the point that I didn't even know it was him.

Everybody was. I picked him out right away. It was one of the greatest shows ever. I think it's a shame none of us know that actor. I'm embarrassed. I'm weird that way, too. I can pick somebody that's, like, 100 years old and go, Alan Rock?

Alan Rock, that sounds right. Does Alan Rock shoot left or right, Kevin? Hey, boys. From Jeremy and Meiford, a long-time texter. If the NHL expanded by one team, what city would you like to get it the most? New market.

Well, does it count if I say you've got to go back to Arizona? Oh, my God. But I'm telling you. Hey, Austin, can you play the sound? Can we end the show? Scottsdale, Arizona.

Oh, my God. Has to be back on the NHL radar. I'm sorry, but. Now, is this because of the market, the TV market, the size, the population? All of it. All of it. And it's a destination point. Everybody wants to go there for three days.

It's not gambling like Vegas, but it's nice restaurants, golf for three days. Hey. You want me to go back to my ex after she did that to me? Book a massage. How do you go back to that place? It's just been terrible. No, you can't. You just got to go to Scottsdale.

There's tons of money there, too. I don't disagree, for the record. Like, I just lived there long enough to see that it's a great spot. They made the same mistake as Ottawa did. Built outside of where it should be. Yes. You just got to nail the spot. Because nobody's driving out there to Glendale an hour plus.

I lived there for three years, and I maybe went to three or four games. I can't even have a beer, because you've got to drive back on the highway. I went there for a bachelor party a couple years ago. It's hard to get around. You're driving, or you're not going anywhere. It's just expansive. Everywhere is far.

They've got room to go out. Here in Toronto, it's up, they go out. Put it in Old Town, Scottsdale. Pretty good attendance. What do you think of, like, Houston? I guess everybody's all over Houston. Give me the Hammer, baby. Go to the Hammer.

Is it the fourth biggest city in the U.S.? Like, you hate to not be represented there as a major sports league. Hammer. Hamilton? Yeah, baby. Hamilton or Houston, tough call for Gary Bettman. Have you seen the Canadian dollar lately? Oh, my God, I have.

How much money you need to generate to pay a hundred and what will be like a 140 million dollar salary cap next year? In Canada. Borty broke that news to me today. I was like, oh, it's bad. Upcoming trip to Detroit.

Yeah, you're not going to shop at Buffalo this year. Hey, this is from Matt and Barry. Hey, why isn't anyone talking about Joey Decord in Seattle as the goalie for Canada? Okay, has that been figured out? 9-16 save percent. He was 9-22 before his last start on a non-playoff team, and he also had a 9-16 last year.

American born, but his dad is Canadian, so he has eligibility to play. Has he got the Brett Hall thing? Because Brett Hall was like Canada, didn't want him, status canadian so he has eligibility to play has he got the brett hall thing because brett hall was like canada didn't want him so he played his u.s yeah status and then he went and played the rest of his career with the u.s joey played last two years in the ahl last year he was the first year he played and had a great season in the NHL. I think part of it is that people don't think of him as like a great NHL goalie

at 28, but sure he's put together what now looks like two good seasons in a row. I don't know. The standard we're going by here for Canada is like pretty low. Yeah. Anyways, that was an interesting one. I hadn't really thought of that, but he's American born. I would love to hear from him if he considers himself

American or Canadian. That matters to me. That's fair. If he's like, yeah, I'm a Canadian, yeah. You're right. Is he the number one goalie in Seattle, by the way? Because they got a guy that's supposed to be making... They got a guy that's making over $6 million right now. I just saw that they had

six goals against the Sharks. Hopefully that's not for our boy. Like Grubauer? Grubauer. 881 this year and his seven starts. Meanwhile, Decord's 916 and his 16 starts. Guess who's the number one goalie? Yeah. Grubauer. This is from, this is a North Bay

text, Kipper. The Bullard family wanted to say hello to you. Oh. There you go. There you go. I don't know if that means anything. The Bay. Oh yeah. How far is North Bay from here? It's three and a half hours. About 360 kilometers. 380.

Yeah. I failed to understand. Used to be like single. Ontario geography. In my day, my parents used to go up and watch me like in a single lane highway. And it'd be like whiteouts. Yeah, that's scary scary yeah that road like the 400 in the winter and that turns into a highway 11 there that is a greasy road boy it's not great uh take your time everybody all winter last one bruce from midland buffalo please tell me what's

wrong with my team please well bruce they're not that bad no pretty close to a playoff spot just got a point against the Canucks today. Yeah. You got pretty high standards as a Buffalo fan. I know those guys got paid. I know those guys got paid, especially on the blue line, between Darlene and Owen Power. But they're still trying to figure it out, buddy.

That's the problem, is that they have not learned how to defend. Owen Power was a number one overall pick. 86-6. Give them a minute, right? They're learning. They're learning. And you hope this might be a good year where it kind of turns over once you get how many games has he got under his belt?

He's got 185. 185. So if he gets to 200 two plus you hope he's settling in i don't know where his high end is going to be owen power yeah it's interesting right like he's had 35 points in the league as a 21 year old can he be headman can he be a headman i actually think he can you know maybe that's uh i mean headman is really high praise like that's hall of fame but headman headman struggled he wasn't slow start just had a slow start too yeah and i think this kid has the has shown the offensive uh offensive upside

that headman has he learned to defend a bit somehow he's plus 22 for the buffalo sabers over the past three years combined it's impressive you know that team has not been a great defensive outlet so he's he's doing something right all right that's all good for text boys uh do any black friday shopping today fellas uh yeah i was doing a little before we uh we came on air i'm a little i perused my birthday is next month and christmas isn't it people get mad at me if i buy stuff now what's the date on your birthday don't worry about it yeah borny's lovely wife brie has What's the date on your birthday? Don't worry about it. Borny's lovely wife Bree has texted me multiple times on his birthday being like, it's his birthday, make sure he says it's his birthday

because he doesn't bring it up. We got to make sure you guys don't forget it. Are you one of those kids that got ripped off with the same present? I think I'm far enough away. I'm a couple weeks away. Did you? Oh, you are okay

all right shout out my one of my best buddies in the world mike snyder his birthday was christmas day yeah it's a tough one now you got screwed it's brutal but it was always great because we would go over there for his birthday yeah on christmas so like i would have the escape from my family like we go to his place on christmas aka we go for his birthday yeah him happy birthday he's gonna do the half birthday thing i've seen people do that like but it's tough when they do a birthday or something anyways yeah there you go all right no shopping so we get a couple of or we get a leafs game this weekend which is uh at long last merciful and we got the canucks are done what do we got for canadian teams tonight and we got the oilers in Utah.

And it's been a while since they've played a game. Jets and Golden Knights. Yeah. What do you got on that one? Jets? No, I got Golden Knights and I got Edmonton in Utah. Really? Yeah.

Golden Knights are a good team, man. I like them a lot. My second favorite team. Winnipeg needs to trade for a big defenseman. They're just not. Don't they already have the biggest one? Isn't that Logan Stanley? He's not ready, though.

He's not ready. He's not ready. I'm talking about a big one that can play 20 minutes. What about Yanni Hakanpa? He got a new knee for him? Maybe. He's not in, is he, for the Leafs? He's still out.

I want that guy's schedule. Berube just said that. Once a month. He likes not in, is he, for the Leafs? He's still out. I want that guy's schedule. Berube just said that. Once a month. He likes to decor now. All right. We'll see. Anyways, good week, boys. Really good week.

Our thanks to Sean Reynolds at the top of this hour, and then in our Leaf edition, J.D. Bunkus. Thank you for joining us. Enjoy the rest of the day of your hockey game that's currently being played right now, right into tonight. And then we're back on Monday. See you Monday. Have a great weekend, everybody.