Real Kyper & Bourne - Leafs' GM Process with Doug MacLean + Travis Green's Ullmark Defence

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne are joined by former NHL President, GM and Head Coach Doug MacLean to discuss what MLSE CEO Keith Pelley should've addressed further in his press conference after firing Leafs GM Brad Treliving, what he thinks Keith wants to see in the search process for the next GM, would he lean on an experienced or first-year head coach, if Jim Rutherford would see through another rebuild in Vancouver, player podcasts, and the Ottawa Senators on the verge of dropping out of the playoff race. Then, Nick, Justin and Sam McKee dive into the Ottawa Senators' slippage and head coach Travis Green defending his goaltender Linus Ullmark.    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 affiliate.

Here we go. Special Thursday edition of Off the Rails Friday, as we'll be off tomorrow all day. The rails. Nice. It is the Real Kipper Endborn Show, National Hour edition. We are live on Sportsnet, Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver,

960 and Calgary. And streaming always on Sportsnet Plus, also available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and YouTube, where we love the chat. We love our thumbs up, especially for our next guest. making a rare Thursday appearance. I had to put up, I was deciding what Jersey to put up, yes,

you know, I actually remembered. And I was going to put up the Sends because for obvious reasons. And I was like, you know what, I haven't given the Canucks much shine. 8-6 win over Colorado last night. I think there was a plus $3.50 in that game. Took that avalanche and built a snowman. All right.

Let's welcome him in 1972, 73, Montreal, junior Canadian great Doug McLean. What is happening here? Mario Trombley. How good a team is that? Who's the guy second from the top there, you see?

I don't know. Can we get a closer look? Oh, my goodness. Great teeth. Five goals in 31 games, Mac. Okay, have a look at the nose there. That's after, that's like a month after John Winzink broke my nose in three places. What is that logo?

Where are the Al-Arbor goggles? I thought for sure you'd be wearing a pair of those. You know what? That is called, by the way, that's a year after the Montreal Junior. When the Montreal Junior Canadians were sold from the parent Montreal Canadians, they sold the franchise to Kingston and the Ontario Hockey League. The Montreal Junior Canadians were in the Ontario Hockey League or the OHA was called in. And then they started this new franchise, basically the same plane in the Montreal

former. They were the Montreal red, white, and blue. And they played in the Quebec League. So that was the difference. And then they cornered the market, right, on all the prospects? What was that? And then they cornered the market on all the prospects. Yeah, 100%.

You didn't fall into that, I know. No, I fell out of that category. I fell out of that. So listen, Sean. I was a good. I was a good culture guy, though. Yes. Yeah.

Speaking of good culture guy, we're willing to let you go if you want to be the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I mean, please tell me you're dusting off that resume because we know the culture that you constantly bring our show. I've been studying goals expected, goals not expected. I mean, it's just been unbelievable. I've been reading up on everything to do with analytics. just in case I get the call, you know. They only have...

Just like Andy Ruff, did Clark Gilley's resume. I'll do yours for you, Matt. We'll get you in. Right. You, they only have 12 guys in the analytics department there now. I don't think the problem was analytic information. The problem may have been, was anybody reading it. That may have been the problem.

That's 100% what it is. So, Matt, no question in the last, what, 24? 36 hours. Everybody's been picking apart the press conference by Keith Pelly. But like, what could he have really said after a disappointing season that would have made people feel good? Leaf fans feel good. You know, the only thing he could have expanded on maybe is when he was talking about culture and talking about, you know, the pillars and talking about alignment and talking about structure that he could have moved into a little more depth on that. For instance, when he's talking structure, I would have loved Keith to say, okay, here's the structure that I like.

I'm going to hire a president of hockey ops, and the president of hockey ops is going to hire the new GM. And then the Jew GM, with consultation from the president of hockey ops, will hire the coach or keeper Ruby versus just talking structure, pillars, alignment, and so forth. So I think I would. I would like to have heard a little bit more about what the structure really is going to be. And if they're going to run it properly, as Keith said, this is the biggest hire, maybe of his career.

I thought you and I were, Kipp, when we went with Keith's sports net. I thought that was a major hire his. But, you know, now. Did he hire you, Mac? Did he for real? He took us to the Olympics. Yeah, he took me to the Olympics. I did a three-minute show every noon hour there.

What was the name of the bar you did it from? The Sutton Place for the Olympics, the lady said at the front desk, thanks for joining on Mr. McLean. You're going to be with us the next 17 nights. And when I checked out, after doing my three minutes a day, 17 nights and saw my bar bill, it was absolutely frightening. The Olympics were, it was one of the highlights. I just absolutely loved the Vancouver Olympics.

But anyway, no, we were there. But look, I just, you know, the speech was the speech. I mean, what is he going to say? He's not going to talk about who he's going to hire. He's got a major search to go through. And they've got some major decisions to make. And I like what Nick said earlier, they've got some house cleaning to do there, too. You know, they really do.

Like, let's let's look at a lot of other things in this organization other than the general manager and the coach. Let's have a look at the front office. I look at some front office around the league and I talked to you guys about it a couple of years ago. Look at Dallas's front office. Have a look at Florida's front office. Have a look at St. Louis's front office. And you look at, okay, they've got some real experienced people there, whether it's a Rick Dudley or whether it's Paul Fenton or whether it's former GMs. Have a look at the surrounding cast there and really build an organization. not just change the general manager.

So it'll be fun to watch what they do. The culture of the team is, I listened to Domi, talk about the culture. The biggest problem with their culture, as far as I'm concerned, is they're not good enough. The team's not good enough. And you can talk about culture, pillars, all the alignment. You can talk about all the things you want to talk about, but the team today is not good enough. And it's a lot more than DeBoer or Cassidy or Cooper or whoever you can get to come in and coach and whoever you can be the GM. This is a team that needs a major retool.

They can call it rebuild, retool, say it's retool, but they have to change. I look at eight players, eight to ten players, at most, at most can be back. And that's on the high side. So they've got a big job to do. And Keith, Keith, I liked what Keith said. I don't want to be a left winger. Keith, you couldn't be a left winger in the Knicks League. So forget, yeah.

And you don't want to be a scout and you don't want to be the manager. That's right. Hire these people and step aside and oversee it. Like, he's an expert in doing. I mean, this is a guy that's overseen TSN, Sportsnet, and did a masterful job at it. So, you know, he's a guy that got the NHL package to Sportsnet. He and Scott Moore, and it was major, major negotiations to pull that off. So that's his cup of tea.

So I just think that they're not a lot worse than 15 teams in the league, but they're a lot worse than the top 15. Okay, 17. Part of the press conference, Mac, was, you know, Keith's showing his cards a little bit with the retool. and we have foundational players, and this isn't starting from scratch. So whether you are the most experienced guy like Doug Armstrong,

to someone that we haven't thought about, that is a relative unknown, how does that set up the search and the interview process when they come in and speak? Like, let me ask you something. You've been in interviews before for NHL jobs. Do you go in there and tell them, what you think they want to hear,

or do you tell them the way you honestly feel? Because to get the job, I think we know what the answer is leaning towards. I'll tell you what I would suspect would happen. There's a group of guys that will go in and just want to talk about what they've done and talk about what they will do. There's another group of people,

and I would hope that this is somebody that will get the job, that's going to walk in there and he's going to say, Mr. Pelly, here is my plan. Here is my plan for the Toronto Maple Leafs. This is my plan that I see and I put in play that I will enact or put in place going forward. This is the plan. Not this is not a BS session. This is not, okay. I want a Stanley Cup.

I lost in the finals. I did this. I did that. I would want to see. see a concrete plan and what the attack is going to be to change this team from a bad hockey team to a better team if it's a retool. If it's a retool, if it's a rebuild, that's simple. You get rid of everybody and you start drafting and trading and so on. But a retool is a much different plan. And look, they've got some good pieces there. They really do have some good

pieces there. So let's see what the plan is going to be. And, you know, Keith's saying it's going to be data-driven. Come on. Every team in the league, if they're not data-driven or data is heavily involved, they're idiots. They're idiots if they're not using it. It's information. It's a tool. It's good information. So to say it's got to be data efficiency. me, that's, you're behind the ball already because every team is using it. Some more than others, some more than others. Mack, you know, this seems like maybe a slightly different interview process than what I'm used to hearing about around the NHL because Keith himself does not,

is not hyper-connected. To me, when I see hires around the NHL, a lot of you guys, Mac, you know each other. You know of three guys you really like for the job and you call them all and you say, I like these three guys, let's hear your pitch or whatever it is. is. I mean, how often in an NHL job interview is it genuinely show me your best plan versus just

a couple of guys played together and they guy trust the other guy and they're going to figure it out? Okay, so I'll give you an example. I went into Columbus to interview for the general manager's job in 1998 or whatever it was. Long time ago.

I had a couple of good friends, one in particular who was a writer and was a hockey guy. And he and I put together a 100-page document that I presented to the owner of the team. And my good friend did a ton of work on it. He and I talked every day through a three-week process, putting it together.

He had done a lot of research. And I presented them with a hundred-page document. And this is the plan, you know, for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Jim Clark was involved in the plan. Bob Strum was heavily involved. So I had some really good people that were hockey guys. And that's what we did. So I would expect that it's not hiring a GM 30 years ago.

And it's not just, you know, let's have a coffee and talk about it. I remember I interviewed for the Florida Panthers with Bill Torrey. And I met him at the Harbour Castle when I was working at SportsNet. I went through an entire package with him that Chris McFarland had helped me put together on the entire depth chart of the Florida Panthers, what changes, where their cap situation was for the next five years,

and CMAC did a great job helping me with that. Tor was blown away, and I ended up, I thought I had the job, and all of a sudden, Bill Foamian said that the owner has decided he's going to keep Randy Sexton, because he's not going to sell the team, or he's going to sell the team. And then the team was sold shortly after that, and then Dale Tallon got the job a year or two later.

So I think you've got to go in there, and you've got to walk in there and say, Keith, this is how we're going to take this franchise to the next level and sell them on the plan and make sure it's a realistic plan and then go from there. That's what I would hope would be the case. whether you're talking about a GM or even the potential of a new coach if they let Craig Barubi go how important is it for you that it's an experienced guy if they're looking at

competing for a playoff spot an eighth place spot next season or build this up towards an eventual contending team how important is it you get an experienced guy as early as a, I don't know, a month. Let me just tell you something. I had a very experienced GM phone me last week and we were talking. And you know what he said to me? Doug, who the hell is this guy in Pittsburgh? None of us have ever heard of them.

And right today, he's done one of the best coaching jobs in the NHL. And he's coaching Sid and Malkin and Latang in the later stage of their career, which would be not an easy job. That would typically fall into an experienced guy. This guy has gone in and done a real good job. And I got to believe the reason he was hired is because he went into his interview and he was unbelievably well prepared and had a plan of action as how he was going to deal with the team and coached the team and was unbelievably well prepared.

I remember this kid as an assistant coach with Chicago in the USHL. I remember seeing him as an assistant coach with the Rangers with Nashville when he was with Labelette. And to me he and Sturm have done. the best coaching job in the NHL this year. So it's, I think you've got to open our minds to the fact that it's not over a cup of coffee anymore. It's a thorough, in-depth, in-depth interview and have a plan.

And then it's Keith's job to decide if the plan is the right one. So when I look at a lot of organizations, so I'm talking to people because you know that I like the numbery stuff. And so I know some numbery people. No, no, you don't like it. You love it. I love it. And I like that you love it because I don't have to read much about it.

I just read your stuff. I'm here to help. But, you know, in talking to people, everyone's like, it's going to be a data-centric hire. And the people I talk to are like, there's like not that many of those guys. And then there's a bunch of grifters. Like, how much this analytic stuff is just snake oil when you're like, when you're trying to sell data? Like, how much do you need a hockey man, a man who's dead experience? I'm not saying that sarcastically.

You do need that experience of people who've been around, don't you? Most definitely you need an experienced guy in this job. There's no doubt about that. With respect to data, I talk to teams fairly regularly, and the last question that is always asked in every transaction, what do the numbers say? We've talked about that in this show. That's always the last question in the room.

What are the numbers saying? I talked to CEMAC a couple of things. of years ago when he was assistant GM and told me what they did in Colorado. They do all the research on a player, all the research. They do the video scouting. They do the in-person scouting on them. They do the video scouting on them. They put the numbers together. They put the whole package together and they take it upstairs and give it to Joe Sackick. And Joe Sackick makes the call. whether we're going to acquire this guy, whether we're going to trade this guy, or what's the course of action going to be.

That, to me, is structure. You are watching and listening to former 1992, no, 72, 73, Montreal, junior Canadian star, Doug McLean. Five goals. Five goals in 31 games. And I bet you you could describe all of them like they were yesterday. Ian Turnbull, the star of that team. You know who I scored my first goal against? No.

I'm going to say that since the Ottawa 67's, I walked around Dennis Podvan for fun and put it and scored on, scored on Bunny LaRock. If Dennis Pawman heard you say that today, he'd still stick you in the throat. Oh, what do you ever? What Dennis ever?

Mac, moves in Vegas, moves in Toronto. Does that make a team like, even the Vancouver Canucks feel like, all right, what are we going to do? Here's what's wrong with the Vancouver Canucks organization. The big topic there today is who's going to be their next captain. Who cares to the next captain? Do they need one?

They don't need a captain. They need a lot more than a captain. Anyway, they need a captain of the ship. What do you think? All right. Jimmy Rutherford sticks around and has got the appetite to see this thing through. Like if I'm Jimmy, I'm sticking around until they show me the door. Why would you leave?

I mean, he's got one of the great jobs in the business. I mean, he's won his cops. You know, he did a great job in Carolina. He did a great job in Pittsburgh. Not so Vancouver's been a little bit of a challenge. but, you know, why would he go? I mean, if you're going to hire a GM, I guess Jimmy Rutherford, I would, I'd like to see who his next guy's going to be.

I wasn't that impressed with the first one he hired. So I'd like to see what he's going to do on the next one. Mack, I want to get your thoughts. I think you're pretty open to guys having personality. What do you think of the Cuchuk brothers having a podcast? I think it's one of the dumbest things I've seen in a long time. Yeah. Tell us how you really feel.

I don't understand it. Like, for us to do a podcast, okay. But why are two opposing teams, teammates, or I know they're brothers. I get all that. I know the brothers, you know, Taylor Swift's boyfriend or whatever he does a podcast with his brother. Well, come on. Kelsey. And then you get the old man on there, giving his opinion about injuries.

and come on, what are we doing here? Well, we're grabbing attention. That's what we're doing. It's a bad move. It's bad for Brady in a tough Canadian market where they're fighting for their playoff lives. It's no good for the other kid in Florida. I just don't get it.

I'm shocked. I know people say, oh, it's great, it's cute. Players are showing their personality. Show your personality tonight in the game and score the winning goal and try to help your player team into the playoffs. That's what I'd be trying to focus on. It does lend to distractions, unnecessary distractions.

There's enough distractions. I mean, the Allmark distraction in Ottawa this year, can you have any more of a distraction than you need? Then he follows that up with, I can't play, I'm tired, and then he follows that up with five goals in the first period. Like, isn't that enough distraction instead of getting on a podcast and bringing it up again? enough already.

A ton of games tonight, but is there any bigger than Bucklow and Ottawa? You don't like where I'm going. You're changing the subject. No, no, I'm good. He always phones me. I want the fans to know this. Kippey always phones me in the app. What are you going to say?

You know, be careful. Buddy, you scare me to death, okay? We're walking at a tightrope every time you're on, Matt. Every week, I'm like, is this going to be my last show? because somehow, no, let me finish. Somehow. I've been doing this for three. I've been doing this for 10 years,

and the only person that's ever got fired is me. All the other guys was surviving. I'm scared I'm your first, okay? That's it. So, hey, like, Ottawa season's on the line tonight against Buffalo? Yeah, it is. And, you know, I want, you guys, I've been talking about Ottawa since the start of the year. I really like their group.

I love where they are as a franchise. I really do, except they got to get a new goal with. He's got to be gone, and they need a number one goalie. So I've been a big fan of Ottawa all year, and I'd love to see them get in. I think they're, Emily, and it's such a race. I mean, I want it. Columbus are right there. Ottawa's right there.

Now, I'll tell you who's right there. Is Washington are right there? Washington are right there and they're winning games. And I'd be scared of Washington. Yeah. No, the one thing I wanted to get before we let you go is the thoughts on that West playoff race. Like we got Nashville who's been no good. They're in San Jose's struggled.

St. Louis has struggled. The Jets have struggled. Someone's going to make playoffs. You like anyone out West? I like the way the Jets are playing right now. Do you? With Hela Buc and with Hela-Buck, you've got to say they've got a chance. They play in Columbus coming up.

Columbus has got Carolina night. Dallas tonight. Winnipeg Dallas tonight. Yeah. The Jets are in Dallas. Jets are in Dallas. Yeah, and then they're in Columbus next week. I mean, they got a tough road,

but I like the way they're playing them with Hella Buck. It's like the Bruins of Swayman. Like I watched Swainman last week. He plays at home, and then he plays the next night in Columbus. Back to back. Why did he do that? Because he knew that was one of the biggest, games of the year. Swayman played.

Play them. I'm in favor. Big time. Play them. Play the snod out of them this time of year. And whatever happens, there's some nervous teams if they play the Montreal Canadians. Yeah, Montreal's right there. And, I mean, it's kind of fun. I mean, there'll be a fun team to watch in the playoffs. I'm not sure they're ready to get it done. Jill, he's, hi, welcome home. Okay, Jill just got home. Anyway, she's not going on the air.

She's busy. Put her on the air. She's like Vera from Cheers. We want to see her. She hasn't got the patience for you guys. Yeah, it's going to be fun. I mean, the next seven, six, seven games are going to be fun. I look, I think Columbus have got to go six and one to get in.

Most teams have got to go six and oh, seven and oh, to make sure they're going in. It's probably going to take 100 points to get in in the in the east. So we'll see what happens. Goalie fights. Yeah, do you like them? Love them. Yeah, absolutely. Shasturkin. Can you believe Shasturkin? You'd love them except you're scared to death they may get injured.

That's what you don't like as a coach or as a GM. As a fan, they're always fun. Yeah, Schisturken. Well, he's, yeah, he can fight it. He can get injured now. It doesn't really matter, you know, but Sorokin can't, although he's got to be a lot better at the island. What is going on with the Islanders? Every time I'm expecting to win a big game, they fall flat in their face. I mean, come on. I don't know.

I don't know. It's weird defensive efforts. I don't know if it's Patrick Waugh related or just not good enough, but sometimes they just can't defend a lick. And they got decent defense of players, so I don't know. Yeah, it's been bizarre the way they've come out lately. So we'll see. And then they win a big one.

So, you know what, I just wanted to. get over with and get into the playoffs. I think we're going to have great playoffs. Yeah, I wanted. I'll watch the first round and go from there. There's sometimes when we have you on the show, I just want to get it over with too, right? Thank you for giving us at least another week on the air. Guys, I really appreciate you have me on. And I just, you know what? I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to see if Sammy's going to text me or not, whether you need me or not. Let's, yeah, well, all the time.

I don't want to see you. I don't want to see you. like on every other podcast either. You're our guy, okay? I've got to do one tomorrow for somebody I've never heard of, but he said to me, he's a nice guy. He sent me a note. He said, I love listening to you guys, Unreal Kippa. Can you do my podcast?

So I'm doing his podcast tomorrow morning. I think it's a goaltending podcast, which I'll be really good at, you know. We're getting you work. We're getting your work. Yeah, really. Dust the resume. It's work I don't need right now. All right.

Maybe the future general manager. My handicap is 13, Nick. My game has changed since I played here. 13. I thought that's got a personal trainer, not a golf coach. That's from the senior T's. Senior T's 13 handicap. All right.

Player is a player. Doug McLean, everybody, future general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. You know, it's not out of the realm That someone, would he still work? Would Max still work? I guess I should ask him nine seconds ago. I think.

He's probably still there. I think he would, but like it'd have to be like working around his trainer and yoga and... Someone on the East Coast. Yeah. All right, well. Just checking out the Montreal Junior Canadian's 1971, 1972 roster.

I mentioned it there with him, but the star of that is Ian Turnbull. Yeah. Had 82 points in 63 games. there with Doug McLean on that team. He was really good, too. Turnbull. Did you ever see Mac play? No. No. No, I'm much younger. Come on.

Do they have TVs then? But I did play against him like three on three in practice. Oh, did you? Really? With the Washington Capitals. Really? Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. I think he put on shin pads after like the first or second day. He was an assistant with the caps? Yeah. Assistant coach. Do you know that?

Of course. The late Brian Murray head coach, Robbie Laird, Barry Trots, and Doug McLean. Really? Yeah. And then we play three on three after,

and it's always nice sometimes to be able to give an assistant coach a shot here and there hit him in the shins and go, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. Guys are still good, though. I remember playing other assistant coaches in college. They're still players, man. Yeah, but not Doug.

Not Doug. No, no. How many playoff games did he play for the Montreal Junior Canadians? Dashes. Zero. Absolutely zero. So rude. All right.

Game time? Game time. This hour of real Kipper and Bourne brought to by Bet365, by the way. All right, go, Sammy. The Montreal red and white, red, white and blue. That's a horrible name for a team. It's game time. Presby by Bet365, an official partner of the NHL.

Westby 19 plus, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. 14 games on tap tonight, boys. 14. Yeah, it's a lot of hockey games. I would say highlighted by the Buffalo Sabres and the Ottawa Senators, Buffalo Sabers with their chance to clinch a playoff spot

for the first time since 2010-2011. This is the night. Hey, by the way, you know who the general manager of the year was that year? What was the year, sorry? 2010, 2011. Okay, quickly. Go, you guess. I don't know.

He's Brian Burke. Mike Gilli. It's meant to be Quickly tell me where were you in 2010, 2010, 2011 Arizona, I lived in Chandler Tempe And I was writing for the score How old were you? 12 or something

I was skipping class at Georgian College and Barry Watching Hockey Central at noon I'm smoking a little weed here in there Not saying, just saying Buddy, we can tell Don't worry Look with those brain cells so far apart Yeah, so anyways, Buffalo

Savers plus 100 tonight on the money line Ottawa minus 120 they're factoring in that Ottawa need this one tonight boys. Another good one later on your Toronto Maple Leafy's kipper in San Jose to take on the sharks. I saw this stat today. Macklin Celebrini

the sharks are 116 and 3 this year in games where he doesn't get a point. That's from Michael Amato on Twitter. That's an insane stat so you think the sharks going to win parlay it with a Macclan Celebrity point Smart. And another, it's crazy that this is a big game. But a huge game in the Western Conference playoff race,

the Nashville Predators in L.A. to take on the Kings. L.A. minus 125 on the money line. Nashville plus 105. Go Kings Go. Got to get that least pick up to a second. Just how is that a playoff race game? It's crazy. Those teams might finish with 85 points at best to make playoffs.

They're tied with the Leafs. It's insane. Anyways. No Jets. Yeah. Yeah, I guess we could root for the Jets. That was game time presented by Bet365, an official partner of the NHL,

almost 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Jets being two points back of a playoff spot after this season is unbelievable. It's a big night for the tank for the Leafs. Yeah. I am totally focused on Ottawa and Buffalo. Yeah. Allmark getting the start.

We got some sound coming out of Ottawa on that. We got Doug McLean's take. on the latest podcast between the Kachuk brothers. He was fairly indecisive on it, wasn't he? Not a real strong opinion. We'll get our thoughts. And texts, 59590. And text 590, 590.

Still a lot of meat on the bone! On the Real Kippoor and Born show, don't go away. As a reminder, this hour of Real Kippron Bourne, brought you by Betts, 365. Nick Kippreos, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. Before we get into the Ottawa situation, just prior to the show, I'm looking at your face,

and I know there's so much out there on Tiger Woods, okay? And let me just ask you something, okay? Regardless of how you feel about the situation or whatever happens to him, whatever, as a society, do we need to witness what could be arguably the worst moment in the man's life? Do we, like, what is going on here? Yeah, you know, Kip, I think that's a really good point. We obviously don't.

Why? When did this happen? What he, you know, has done is not acceptable and driving like that and whatever he could. That has nothing to do with just completely unacceptable. But I'm not sure I need to see the car cam of him going through it. I mean, he's just, he's one of the most famous guys on earth. And if people have that. We just saw the Timberlake footage. They're just, they're sending it in.

And it's the world we live in now. And there's just, you don't get a moment of. Like, does someone sell that though? Is that what happens? I don't know. That's what happens. TMZ offers money to somebody and they're like, yeah, that's a lot of money, TMZ. And TMZ's like, we'll buy it.

And then TMZ's like, I get clicks now. And then that's kind of how the transaction works. And it sucks. And it's just kind of the reality. It does suck. But it's hard to see. I mean, that's... It's hard to see.

Tiger Woods, I will say, right now is one of my favorite athletes of all time. And it's just, it's really a horrible situation. Yeah, like, he needs help now. He needs a big time out. This is dark. Yeah, we're witnessing his rock bottom, you hope. Yeah. It's tough.

Tough. Okay. Speaking of rock bottom. Ottawa senators. Well, I don't know about rock bottom. I'm choking. I was trying to make a light of this situation. Hey, hey, leave the segues to me.

Don't grow out. Disagree with that segue. Sorry. Lots of controversy over, I think, the podcast that's Brady Kachuk and Matthew are a part of. Yeah. Wingman.

Do you want to start with that or start with the All-Mark stuff? No, let's stick with. The podcast. Oh, no, okay. I mean, you want to do Allmark? Because it sets up the podcast a little better. Well, tonight. Almark's playing.

He's starting tonight. And we have a few clips from Travis Green, who is, I mean, I've listened to a lot of Travis Green, fired up today. As fiery as I've heard him. This would be his, on the decision to start Linus Lomark tonight against the Buffalo Sabers. It's easy.

Yeah, he's our guy. To be honest, last game. I mean, I pulled him. but pulled him more because the team was so shit. Not because of him. So that's the first one. Doing the right thing here. On defending them.

And then the next one is this is the first time they've had a chance to follow up about the comments after the game on Saturday against Tampa. So they were asked again, and this was his response. Clip two, please, Derek. I mean, I pretty well stand by what I said. I want him to play every night. He's her number one goalie.

He's been playing well since he came back. But in saying that, everyone in the room understands that it's been a bit of a rough year for him off the ice, on the ice. And I think since he's come back from his leave, he's played well. I don't know what our record is since then. And he needed a rest, as simple as that. And, you know, there's not a lot else to say about it. He needed a rest, and he didn't play that night.

And we're going to have to win some games with rhymes in the net, too, and we have before. There's a goal reset, mental reset. I'm not going to get into that. Like, that's, you know, I don't have to talk about injuries. I don't have to talk about any of that. He needed a rest, and that's fine. And my only concern is getting our team to play, standing behind our players,

and I know how good of a team we are when we play. And we don't listen to the white noise. We don't let any of that creep into our room. And obviously, there's a lot of talk right now. That's a good job, I agree. I think Travis Green is a fabulous coach. Really, really good job. Totally.

Okay, I'm not blown smoke, but I'm just not giving you any more than that. Okay, I gave you what you need. I want him to play every night, but. And he didn't, he's not hiding behind anything. He's just not getting into the details or the weeds that you want him to. And he just was perfect there. Yeah.

I hate to admit it because I hate the stands, but I love Travis Green as a coach. I think he's really good. So the next thing, kind of alluding to that. Well, one of the things I just want to highlight in that is he says the white noise, keeping the white noise out of our room. Well, there's some white noise coming up here. So this trickled into my feed today, I think it was today or last night.

And this was on the Wingman podcast, which you alluded to. This is the first clip, which some people are speculating, is Keith Kach, who was on the podcast with his sons, speculated that he was talking about Linus Olmerk in this. clip if you want to play the first one from their podcast Eric and I had a big cast on because I broke my wrist or something in the Olympics so yes that's what happens to play through injuries guys holy Christ this whole team my pinky hurts I'm out for six days that was coming at I knew rate would he said that I'm like don't say it I just had a bad sleep so I can't play today

oh my god disgusting all right well we're going to move on here um can't play back to back. So, that is crazy. I mean, back to back, that used to not be, whatever,

but, Grant Fier played 70 games in one year. I think 76. 76. 76. Yeah. So,

they bring up a goalie after. It's uncomfortable. The dad of your captain and your brother, who's an important player and a division rival are yucking it up about your goal tender,

who you're going back into the room and to play with in a playoff with like seven games to go, it's not good, man. No, and there's no other conclusion when you hear Travis Green go, he needed a rest, and then you listen to Keith Kachuk comment about rest. Right, right? Right?

Yeah, like he must have had a terrible night's sleep. Terrible night's sleep. I need a rest. I need, I can't do it. All right, well, we'll play the other guy then. Yeah. which, you know, now we're talking about that, which he didn't need.

Almark didn't need this. I'm starting to figure out the reason why Keith Kachukk, maybe stop replying to my text. Doesn't want to come on air and say something. This is, you know, Doug talked about it. If you didn't have a chance, please download if you get a chance on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. And listen to Doug McLean because this is what he alluded to,

that there's really nothing that can be gained out of this. So people are pushing back Like I've reading the comments of this And a lot of sent-sans are saying Oh, he's talking about the Panthers I see people writing that he's talking about the Panthers. I think he was talking about the Panthers at the start When he talked about the finger.

I think he was. But saying he said the word start. And back to back and he turns the page to Ottawa. How can you not? How can you listen to that And think anything other than him talking about? It was the biggest story in hockey for 24 hours. It's the connection.

It's Travis Green. Travis Green, rest, and the other one saying sleep. Yeah. They're having the same conversation. Okay, it's the same. Yes. So, you know, there's that element. And then do we want to do the other one?

I wish I can tee up as well. Okay, okay, hold on. A little more meat the bone. Just one more on Keith Kachuk. Okay, let's set aside the distraction. Let's set aside the Ottawa room. He's not wrong. No, no, no, no.

He ain't wrong on any of it. Everyone agrees to Keith Kichuk. It's correct. Heartbreaking. Worst guy you know, he's correct. Keith. You're right. You're not wrong.

No one on their show to let the record show has disagreed. On normal circumstances, we're with you. That exact conversation has been had by every hockey guy. That's an overbears chair. Hey, Keith, we're good, buddy. Yeah. We just feel bad for your son going back into the room and then looking at Allmark and trying to convince him.

Yeah, we weren't really talking about you. We were behind you the whole way. You weren't feeling it, you know, like it's... That's a little awkward. Yeah, like, clearly talking whatever behind your goal back. Brady needed at that moment. I know it's hard because you're live and your dad's there, but if that's my dad, I'm shutting them down.

I'm going down with the ship. Until I'm not his teammate... Until we're not teammates, I got a back him no matter how foolish I may look. that's loyalty. Here's the part that stands out to me too, Kipp, is that this was not live and it was said and I tried to put it back in his mouth.

They did the episode and then they released the episode. They had the opportunity to edit that part out. I never thought of that. You know, like that's, and they didn't. So like I actually debated should we discuss it today? And it's like, they put it out there.

Yes. Chose to. I can't have If I'm the Ottawa senators right now, I can't feel good about Brady Kachuk right now. What a year for Ian Mendez. Oh, smokes. And then so the next part of this,

which if I can make the transition, is there's another clip where, you know, after the Americans won gold and there was the White House hullabaloo. Oh, yeah. It was tense times for American captain, Austin Matthews, Brady Kachuk here, you know, whatever. And it's really started this whole like,

they're going to leave, right? Like it's behind the seams like everyone's like, are they going to leave? And everyone wants them to stay. And then so here's the conversation. This is another clip. They're talking with the salary cap going up in clip two. Clip two from the Chuck Pod.

Yeah. But the league is good. Like, what's the salary cap this year? A hundred maybe? 90s. Yeah, and it's going up to what next year? I think it's continuing to go up. That's huge.

How many years you have off already? Two more after this. Okay. Nice timing. Well, at one of these. We'll talk. Yeah. That's for another day.

Is that literally tampering? Sitting in a room full of Florida Tampa, I'm sorry, Florida Panthers gear. We'll talk? It's a bad idea. Is Keith officially like a member of the St. Louis Blues? Oh, I don't know. He used to be affiliated.

I can look that up, Ken. Probably an ambassador at the very least. I have no idea. Somebody mentioned to me he does work for the St. Louis Blues, but I don't know if that's still today. Maybe it was in the past. And like I don't actually care about like the tampering factor so much as is just this idea of having a podcast where you're sitting in there talking about this stuff. And you're so important to your team and your contract status makes people nervous and you're in this playoff race.

And you're doing you're talking about. And I know Brady didn't bring that up. But like you know what he's surrounded by, including your brother going, we'll talk. You know, like it's well, it's not good. It just sets up, it just sets up pitfalls for you. It does. It's, you have, you had a 100 meter dash to the playoffs and you put hurdles in your own lane. What's going on?

I went on to the St. Louis Blues website and I went to their, you know, their front office. Would you like to know what Keith Kachuk's role with St. Louis? Is it scouting? It's, like, pro pro scouting. It's direct. of recruitment. Oh, no. Oh, no.

I mean, I don't know. Hopefully they just haven't updated their website. Oh, wow. What would you say? Maybe he quit. Maybe he quit a while ago, and they didn't update it, I hope. Is that even a title people have?

I mean, should we move on? Should we move on? Rector of recruitment. When's your contract up? Anyways, let's play. Let's play Travis Green's thoughts on Keith Kachuk's comments. Clip three. I haven't seen it.

I heard about it. I know Walt really well. He's a friend. I played with him. I've known him a long time. I know he's outspoken. I'm not sure exactly what he said. But, you know, again, that's white noise.

Doesn't have any concern of mine or concern of our team. Director of Regress. Director of White Noise. Be nice of Ottawa one tonight. Yes. God, they did that. Absolutely. You know, looking at their decor tonight, they're rocking.

Clevin Zub, Montepalo, Spence, Thompson, Crody. Crody. No. I believe that's a Toronto slang term. No, Sanderson, no Shabbat, no Jensen. Like, they're pretty deep in the old depth chart here. So, yeah, they're in tough against, obviously, a very good offensive team in Buffalo. Yeah, you know.

need a big night out of your captain anyway a little flustered by that whole conference i sure like i don't mean to shine a spotlight on some but that's brutal that's brutal anyways so i think the way Travis green handled his business today was as was as good as you can do it as a as a head coach of a hockey team so uh macklin celebrini gets points what do you think wins Right up there for MVP? You know, my honest answers, no. You know, he has been unbelievable.

Maybe he's a top 10 player in the league, but, like, he's not McKinnon right now, Kuturov. Like, that's, to me, there's a different tier. Top five? Yeah, he might. He'll tease my ballot, I would think. Well, we'll have to look at things. He is dread.

What was a celebrini stat you had? The Celebrini stat is that the sharks are 1, 16, and 3. when Macklin Celebrini doesn't record a point this year. That's from Michael Amato on Twitter. It's a crazy stat. And he can join Steve Eisenman as a second teenager in NHL history with three or more points and three straight games. It's crazy how quick with Canada.

It was like, well, he's the best guy. And God, he had one in the slot on the power play at the end of that game. Hold it just a little bit. Oh, that one goes in. It's a pretty big story. So we've seen a jolt from various clubs changing their coach this year. Tortorella.

going to do that for Vegas? Well, they're playing the flames. You know, I'm just talking about in general. I just think it's a really good time to do it. You get a couple wins with the new guy and you start to believe in what he's doing. What's their schedule coming up? They just did Vancouver.

You got Calgary. They'll play Edmonton, but then you get Vancouver again, then Seattle. Oh, yeah. They did that on purpose. Yeah, they timed that awfully well. Yeah. Yeah, I think you can do it.

I saw your boy Mallard did a one-on-one with Torts. Oh, I didn't see it. And torts is still, same old torts. He's good. I didn't watch much of it, but, you know, he's the perfect. There's so much to like about the man. There is. Well, he said, incredible tan right now.

My God. He looks. He looks. It's March. He looks fantastic. It's March. Where have you been? He was obviously on the beach.

He was like, oh yeah, Kelly? Was down the Mai Tai. Yeah. He's probably. Vegas, you say. Taking it a quick mill for like four weeks work. Yeah. I'll come in.

I'll cash a seven figure check. No problem. But I saw at morning scare somewhere, they were like, we saw you having a really nice conversation with some of the leaders on your team. Would you care to discuss any of that? No. End of this done. You know, it's like he doesn't try to sugarcoat it.

Got a 1215 at the tanning salon. It's incredible how quick he pivots from media to like media are evil. Yeah. I mean, he's always kind of. Oh, he's playing us like a fiddle. Yeah. He's a light switch. He's either media or media are evil.

Good on him. All right, 14 games tonight. Highlights. We're looking at Ottawa versus Buffalo number one. The Lightning are playing the Pittsburgh. Detroit and Philly is huge tonight. Monster game. Detroit, man.

Oh, I got another one for you. Nashville at L.A. Yeah, that's great. Large Marge. It's crazy that that's so meaningful. What a horrible conference. It doesn't deserve to be. That should be a battle for a tank.

All right, boys. See you Monday. All right. Just like that. We've solved nothing on the real Kipper and Born show. You might have solved something. I've actually created something. Our thanks to Montreal Junior Canadian great, Doug McLean.

Sammy, your mailbag was fantastic too, but. I really appreciate that. All right. And we are off tomorrow. No real Kippenborn. Happy Easter, everyone, this weekend. Oh, there it is. Look at that guy.

Look at that. Have a great one. one.