Real Kyper & Bourne - NHL Opening Night Has Finally Arrived
Episode Date: October 10, 2023Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start the second hour with Sportsnet reporter Sean Reynolds, who shares his thoughts on Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck inking extensions with the Jets, ...how the mood has changed in Winnipeg and tees up tonight’s game between the Penguins and Blackhawks in Connor Bedard’s much anticipated NHL debut. Then, more on the Penguins with their new GM and president Kyle Dubas, what to expect from Sidney Crosby in year 19 and if Erik Karlsson can replicate his most recent Norris-winning season (31:43). Finally, a look at the Leafs' blueline with John Klingberg, the Golden Knights get their Stanley Cup rings, Rasmus Dahlin's extension and the NHL banning pride tape.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.
Transcript
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all right let's welcome in sportsnet 650 in vancouver and sportsnet 960 in calgary it's
the real kipper and born show and sportsnet 360 you waving the radio there boy well there is a
camera here that i figured i was like i well, I'll acknowledge it. Is that weird? Hello. I can't rifle off all the places that we're on
like I did in the first block.
Canada.
I'm exhausted.
Kipper, I got to be honest.
When we first came in here today,
you had a little look of like nervousness to you.
I was like, I haven't seen this from Kipper before.
And you came in here and I was wondering like maybe,
and you just crushed it.
I hate to blow smoke up here.
You know where, but like, man, it's been red it. I hate to blow smoke up here. You know where.
But, like, man.
You've been red hot since the start.
You've seen me miss two footers.
Okay?
You know me.
It takes a lot of effort to dial up the machine.
Totally.
No, you crushed it.
Totally.
And then probably still in the next few weeks, check your listings because baseball will throw a curveball every once in a while and where you can find us.
But for the most part,
we're somewhere.
We're always on Sportsnet Plus.
All right.
This hour brought to you by Bet365.
As far as spreading the love nationally,
the biggest story guys has to come out of Winnipeg where both Connor
Hellebuck,
their star goaltender,
and Mark Scheifele have agreed to seven-year extensions
that carry an AAV of $8.5 million on a scale of 1 to 10.
Where was your surprise face?
Nine?
Like, really, really surprised.
I was like, are these guys Taves and Kane?
10 out of 10 yeah i mean
i one thing i will say and this is not meant to be a knock but like if you ask people the
perception of winnipeg among players around the league it's not going to be in the top
quartile whatever of their favorite places to choose so you have to keep your good players
that's just the reality you have to keep your good players they're good players this team made the playoffs last year you know i feel like they
did what they had to do to keep good players do i like the numbers do i want to give 30 year old
mike mark scheifele eight and a half for seven more years absolutely not scheifele's coming off of a 42-goal season. Sammy, he's had one or two 30-goal seasons.
I mean, obviously, do we consider him a legit 40-goal score
based on the season he had last year?
Because I'm not sure I'm ready to give him that.
He has broken 30 38 twice uh before the 40 but the bigger thing
29 twice three times he's like an 80 point ceiling guy was he 78 points or something last
year like his career high in points is 84 in 18 19 so we're talking about a one-dimensional guy
go ahead oh yeah go ahead one-dimensional guy he doesn't defend you know one of the not a great you know two-way player who you're looking for him
to score and get points but he doesn't get much more than 80 points in a year 80 points one way
eight and a half million till you're 37 listen he i don't know bud he couldn't sign fast enough
he was like for how long yeah yeah but wasn't there like a sharpie last year like wasn't it
all but done that he wasn't going to be there anymore?
I guess when they put that in the salt.
I'll need that money.
I hate your guts in every city in the world.
Sign it.
Yeah.
The one is Connor Hellebuck with his, I just want to win.
I just want to go somewhere I can compete.
I will win a Stanley Cup in my career, he said.
I will win a Stanley Cup.
If you look at Winnipeg, where are they trending, Sammy?
Take a look at their salary cap.
I think they made a great trade.
Go to cap on friendly.
They did make a great trade for Pierre- do too i think they're going to be better with velarde and i follow and uh
tell me what sammy look at cap unfriendly and tell me i'm heading there i'm on my way
where you see the defense in a year for connor hellebuck because the last time i checked looking at morrissey schmidt
pionk dylan de mello sandberg and and who's ufa and who's sticking around for the next two years
dylan uh de mello and brandon dylan are gone yeah well they're ufas yeah and so they'll have
josh morrissey nate schmidt and neil piong one more season dylan sandberg one more season yeah
so like this season and one more. They each have two seasons left.
Yeah.
They're going to have to sign some long-term contracts.
And Morris is the guy who got himself into the Norris conversation.
What a contract that is.
He's their cheapest.
They got him 6.2.
That's an excellent contract.
It is.
We're going to welcome in Sean Reynolds momentarily,
sports reporter in Winnipeg.
And he's going to give us a deeper dive into this signing
and what
it means for that fan base he's also in pittsburgh if i'm not mistaken oh yeah to cover connor bedard
and sid crosby uh for that big game so it's a big deal man to have connor bedard open up against
sid like it's yeah i don't know if you guys saw i tweeted this yesterday but the career starting schedule for conor bedard he is in pittsburgh against sydney
crosby then back to back against the boston bruins the next night then he goes to montreal in the
bell center on saturday night for their hockey night here right then he comes to toronto four
games on the road montreal toronto uh monday night then he goes to play the Colorado Avalanche in Colorado
and goes home to play Vegas and then after that
they got Vegas then Boston oh my
God welcome are they going 0-8
like are they going to win one they might go
0-8 I guess the Habs the Habs are not great let me just add
between now
and next Monday when Conor Bedard comes
in to play the Toronto Maple Leafs
if you guys are on your
best behavior,
I will take
you to the Leaf alumni box.
Oh, boy. You know
they serve salmon in there. Kip, are you going to take me
in there?
I guess they put me
on TV.
Now it's
celebrity Sunday.
Oh, God.
Alright, as promised, Sean Reynolds, Sportsnet reporter,
covering the Winnipeg Jets, but also in Pittsburgh.
Sean, thanks for doing this, man.
Are you ready to go?
Oh, I'm ready to go.
I'm ready to go.
I like this as a warm-up, too.
This is great.
Thanks for having me on.
Okay, before we get into the Conor Bedard mania,
just your initial thoughts on the signing, the Mammoth signing,
and where was this on your radar?
It was not on my radar.
I did not see this coming.
I know that I talked to a couple former players about how Connor Hellebrook
and Mark Scheifele had handled their preseason meeting with the media
and the way they talked about it.
And a lot of players had told me, like,
the things that they said is exactly what I would have said
if I was getting ready to head out of town.
So that's what I was expecting.
So this is an absolute bombshell.
And, I mean, nothing's easy when you look at the Winnipeg Jets.
You should look at this and say, look, they just locked down one of the top three,
maybe the best goaltenders in the NHL, and they did it for seven years at $8.5 million.
They just got a number one center who scored 40 goals last year,
who was one of the most consistent point-for-game producers
over the previous seven years in the NHL before that for $8.5 million.
It sounds like a complete and total home run
the problem is they're re-signing two players who have been here the whole time the winnipeg
jets are no better today than they were two days ago and this is a team that saw its fortunes
continually continually declined since 2018 to the point that they missed the playoff two years ago came so close to missing
the playoff last year so on one hand it's phenomenal because in a city like winnipeg
you just don't expect guys like this to stick around so to get them to stay and re-up in
winnipeg is absolutely huge but this is not a sign of change in winnipeg and if they want some to get
a different result than they've been getting the last couple years something is going to need to change it won't be this so Sean what
do you see as the range of outcomes for this Jets team this year because you mentioned that those
guys are the same but there were some significant you know amount of new bodies coming in with the
Dubois trade I look at that division you know arizona chicago st louis nashville like it feels like a
division they can at least be competitive in where do you see the the jets sort of range of outcomes
this season well to cut right to the chase i mean i i have them finishing in in ninth spot uh i think
things are getting strong again in the pacific um think it seems like Colorado is still holding on.
I think Dallas is going to win the Central.
All our picks are out, so we've all seen that.
Minnesota, who I had doubts about years past,
has played a consistent enough game over the last number of years
that I kind of think we know who they are,
and they made a late run at winning the Central last year.
So I think it's hard for the Jets to get into that top three,
and there's potential for a team like Calgary,
who I think has more ability to turn around this season than the Jets do,
to kind of jump ahead of them.
And then you've got teams like Nashville,
who are slowly getting better and nipping at the Jets' heels.
So it all really depends on which Jets team shows up,
because as we all know, the Jets were in first place
in the entire conference as of January last year,
and then they almost had the biggest collapse in NHL history.
Clearly, they seem to be at war in the room with their coach.
They've made some changes.
They bought out Blake Wheeler.
He was clearly a looming figure in the dressing room
by the end of the
year last year Pierre Le Duvall made no bones about it and Kipper you were one of the first guys
on this or definitely one of the most consistent guys on this Pierre Le Duvall wanted out so that's
something to deal with so there's the loss of Wheeler does getting PLD out a guy who wanted out
clear the deck enough for these guys to start feeling better and maybe being more like what we
saw at the beginning of the from them at the beginning of the year last year compared to the
end it's just like i said nothing is easy in winnipeg you kind of never know who's going to
show up dr jackal and mr hyde you know the big the big narrative out of connor uh hellebuck was
wanting to win a stanley, competing, all of that.
Is there a sense that, you know, there were promises made to him
on how competitive they'll remain
or the money that's going to be spent moving forward?
We know that the defense is led by Josh Morrissey,
but outside of that, it's really hard to tell
what that blue line may look like in two years from
now.
Yeah.
I would say most definitely the organization.
I mean,
the organization stood fast here at a time where it looked like the only real
option that the Jets was going to have was to rebuild.
And they stood firm and said, we're not rebuilding, we're retooling.
They showed that in the trade they made for Pierre-Luc Dubois and I think they've shown that they're going to keep
pushing to try and win a Stanley Cup by making these two signings and I always thought this was
interesting Connor Hellebuck has been saying this to me for years now and for him at this state
not about you know the Vezna it's not about trophies it's about winning the Stanley Cup and
I remember when the word was coming out that he wanted, you know,
maybe $10 million north of $10 million on the market.
I thought, you know, based on what we've seen with some of the other goalies
who signed $10 million contracts,
it's starting to look like the $10 million goalie experiment has failed, right?
And so those are almost conflicting statements, right?
I want to win a Stanley Cup, but I want to get paid $10 million.
They kind of clash with each other.
So these two players coming out afterwards and saying they both feel that they left money on the table
to give the Jets enough money and flexibility to go out and bolster their roster
tells me that behind the scenes they've been told,
listen, we'll leave money on the table as long as you use it
to go make us a better team.
The Jets have said this all along from the time they came back in 2011.
If they feel they've got a shot at a Stanley Cup,
they will spend as much money as it takes to do that,
as much money as they're allowed to spend.
So I'm sure those same promises were made to both Connor Hellebuck
and Mark Scheissele.
Last one on the Jets. I know Kipper wants to ask a bit about the chicago game tonight i just wanted to get your sense for if this jets team has moved have moved past whatever that sort of grumpiness
and conflict seemed to be like rick bonus nicest guy in the world not real pleased with his team
at the end of last season blake wheeler kind of grumpy at times. Dubois, not happy. You know, is this been enough?
Has the changes made this team
given it the fresh start it needs?
Sean?
It seems like there's a happiness
around the Winnipeg Jets at training
camp so far, but I mean
not an elation or
anything like that. I think
that it's
a great question um i i i i
had thought last year when it looked like the team was going to war in the media with its head
coach who had called who had called them out and you know kind of like unapologetically so i know
that rick bonus said that he when he said disgusted it was too harsh of a word but he said i'll take
that word back with everything else i said stand
so this is a coach that called out his team said they weren't good enough said they didn't try hard
enough the team pushed back against that i didn't think that rick bonus was going to survive that
so the fact that he's back and kipper again i always love talking to you about things like this
like i wonder from a player's perspective if you think you're going to get an argument with this
guy and then that's it he's going to be out the door and all of a sudden he's back and that's the thing
about rick bonus rick bonus really is this kind of methodical slow energizer bunny where he just
keeps coming back at you he just keeps coming there's the same message he just keeps plaguing
you and saying i need you to do this i need you to do this and i think what we're seeing right now
is maybe over the summer over parts of last year a little bit of a war of attrition,
where Rick Bonas is saying, you are not going to outlast me.
I'm going to stand here in your face.
I'm going to keep asking you to do the right thing
until you do the right thing.
If he can get them to do that,
we saw early last year what they're capable of when that happens.
And I think if you're a Jets player, at some point you've got to say,
he's not going anywhere.
We know that we did something with him last year that worked.
Let's just get back to doing that.
One more for me on the Jets before we move it on to Chicago,
and that is that, you know, Sean,
we talked on this a lot last year,
is the lack of being able to sell tickets,
no sellouts a large portion of the season last year.
Does the news of these two guys coming back rejuvenate the market?
Does it transcend into ticket sales?
Does it turn a fan base from doom and gloom
to something that they can really look forward to and pay for it?
Yeah, you know, there was this window that was created.
Everyone's contact, Blake Wheeler, Connor Hellebuck, Mark Scheifele,
all these main players on the Winnipeg Jets, back in 2018,
when it looked like they were ascending to the top of the NHL,
they created this window that was supposed to end at the end of this year.
And so there was all this excitement.
And then I think what you started seeing over the years is that as things weren't working
and the team was kind of plummeting a little bit,
there was a sense of doom that was coming with,
well, it's not working
and we're going to lose these players at the end of this.
I can see from responses that we've had on our podcast
and responses that I've heard from the fans and people,
like it means a lot to people in Winnipeg
that star players like this decide to spend their
entire career in winnipeg because that's what it looks like is going to happen so i can see
you know the fans kind of giving back for that if the jets can come out and and prove it on the ice
i think that's really going to work but i do at this stage think the one thing i'll bring this
back to the first thing I said about this,
is this isn't change.
And what's been happening with the Winnipeg Jets
has increasingly not been working over the years.
So something needs to change.
Now, whether it can be done, guys, with attitude,
you know, Blake Wheeler being gone, a different attitude,
Rick Bonas getting something different out,
maybe that's possible.
But, you know, if there's no change here
and there's not a change in the results i could still see the frustration of fans and make it
hard to sell tickets if they really aren't putting up wins in the win column all right sean so you're
in pittsburgh tonight for connor bedard's nhl debut set the stage a little bit there are people
excited what is sort of the vibe in Pittsburgh?
Is there a waiting, what people are calling, you know,
a kid that people are calling kind of the next Sidney Crosby
to set the bar way too high for a kid, if I may?
Yeah, no doubt.
I mean, everything that we're talking about with this guy is like,
you know, you walk into the league and you don't just need to survive
your first NHL game.
You need to survive it with tags on your shoulder like generational score,
you know, and franchise player and all of these different kind of things.
The league sets it up so his idol growing up who's gone through this before
and was that same, you know, potential generational score,
franchise-type player, he's seeing him across the way.
So they've really, like, loaded loaded the pressure onto Connor Bedard's shoulders
here and interesting city to do it.
And I mean,
the city of Pittsburgh has seen more than its share of,
you know,
really exciting NHL debuts.
You know,
when you've got Maryland,
you come through here in 84,
of course,
Sidney Crosby coming through in 2005.
Now they get to see this.
I'll just say this about Connor Bedard at at every single stage he's you know had challenges
put in front of him and he's crushing right like he leads the chl in scoring last year he was
probably you know the best 17 year old we've ever seen at the world junior tournament if not the
best individual performance we've ever seen at that tournament before he went in with all kinds
of pressure on him in the preseason he goes out he
leads the Chicago Blackhawks in scoring puts up more than a point a point a game in the preseason
so one thing I take away from him is I talked to him after he was drafted at the draft a couple
times other than that earlier on today he just handles this so so well that it almost seems like
he's like sloughing it off but then you you hear his head coach, Luke Richardson say behind the scenes,
this guy just craves the big moments.
And I think that's one of those things that make the player like that special.
Like he wants it bad,
but he doesn't let himself get carried away with wanting it too bad that he
loses control of himself.
One of the things that makes this guy great beyond his skating,
beyond his shot, is just the control that he has over his emotions,
the way he's able to push himself without pushing himself too far.
So it's going to be interesting to see what he can do in this first game.
I know there's a lot of people who are talking about big debuts in the past,
and he said, look, I'm just trying to be Conor Bedard.
Yeah, I know Austin Matthews went out and got four goals in his first game uh i know that there's probably some other
players who never hit that lofty standard so if i don't i think i'll be just fine right he handles
this very very good for an 18 year old he is wise wise beyond his years whether or not we see
one two or three goals tonight or matches Austin Matthews.
Can this guy over the course of the next 82 games hit numbers that over
unders are talking 35, 40.
Is it with the likes of Taylor Hall and Seth Jones setting them up?
Yeah.
This is a tricky one here.
I thought it was having those players and adding Taylor Hall I think is really important.
A, because Taylor Hall is a pretty hyped number one pick coming out as well,
so he can help him a little bit with this.
But, I mean, if you take a look at the guys who did succeed, right,
Austin Matthews comes out and he had a pretty decent support system in place
when he finally started up with the Leafs.
If you take a look at a guy like Sidney Crosby we're talking about,
his first assist is on a goal by Mark Reckie in his first game.
Mark Reckie, a top 20 scorer of all time.
Mario Lemieux was on that team as well.
When you take a look around at the guys who were kind of on teams
that were really devoid of help,
you kind of got to go to a guy like Connor McDavid.
Yes, Leon Dreisaitl was there,
but Leon Dreisaitl wasn't the version of Leon Dreisaitl
that we're seeing right now.
And I take a look at a guy who doesn't have a lot of help,
and it crushes a lot of guys.
A lot of guys with potential really fall under the weight of being the only guy
that the other team has to focus on.
And while I think, you know, like you said, Seth Jones,
he's a significant player, Taylor Hall, he can help as well.
But I still do think that teams are really going to be able
to focus on Conor Bedard.
I'm not saying that he's not going to be able to hit
some pretty good heights.
I think he's a really good player.
I think we're going to be impressed with him this year regardless.
But I do think that's one of the things that's really set Connor McDavid apart
is that he's come in and really been able to do what he's been able to do
from the very beginning without help.
He's just been a riddle that no one has been able to solve since day one.
Can Connor Magard walk in and be a riddle no has been able to solve since day one can conor bagard walk in and be a riddle
no one is able to solve uh i mean based on his pedigree and what he's done leading up to this
we shouldn't be surprised if he did but this really hasn't happened a lot to too many players
throughout the history of the nhl who don't have help and don't land in a good situation
and i don't necessarily think his situation in chicago is the best sean really appreciate your time on our show as always uh and enjoy it tonight the debut of conor
bedard uh that can be seen on sportsnet at 8 p.m eastern thanks for doing this anytime guys thanks
for having me on thanks sean okay give me a number. Hold on.
Before we get into that,
how does Bonus come back from what he said last year?
That he's disgusted with his team?
I am so disappointed and disgusted right now.
Yeah.
That's my thoughts.
No pushback.
It's the same crap we saw in February.
As soon as we were challenging for first place
and teams were coming after us, we had no pushback.
You know, their players were so much better than ours.
It wasn't even close.
It doesn't matter, Kippy?
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
I don't mind if a coach says that to me.
I don't need him saying it to the...
We stunk.
To Luke Fox.
We stunk.
How about that?
Don't look at yourself in the mirror and just say we stunk.
And he's not that wrong.
And we come back fresh.
We feel good.
Don't be so sensitive, Sammy.
Well, you're right.
I am a sensitive guy.
You know that.
But, you know, with some thicker skin and just call it.
So it doesn't matter.
No.
Just use it.
Just use it to fuel your fire to be better.
And you can.
It's a clean slate right now.
Your new contracts with two of your top players are in place.
Everybody should feel rejuvenated and refreshed and let it sit there,
but let it fuel your fire moving forward.
I've got no problem with Rick Bonas being in that moment
and saying those words.
They're harsh, but it's over, man.
I also think it becomes clear that he's talking about Blake Wheeler
and maybe Dubois a little bit there, guys who are gone.
When you look at this summer, Blake Wheeler signed for $800,000,
like near league minimum, and Scheifele gets a new 8.5 times 7-year contract.
Like, they internally, surely Sheveldayoff talked to Bonus
and said, was he the problem?
They don't think it's him.
So I guess if you're Bonus, you can say, it was the other guys.
Yeah, I was talking about those.
It wasn't you.
I was talking about those guys.
You scored 42 times, not mad at you.
All right, so you mentioned the other thing,
so this is a perfect time for me to tell you that.
It's game time.
Presented by Bet365.
Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary to bet at Bet365.
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And the goal total.
You were mentioning some over-unders there to Sean.
The goal total on Bet365 for Conor Bedard is set at 31 and a half and it's pretty
even odds on both sides of it under and over what what to me solo oh he's gonna be i like i'm so high
on this like i think he could score 50 oh my god yeah yeah i just he's so good and guys that are
that good they're just always that good like he's like a conor mcdavid he's a sydney kreisberg he's so good and guys that are that good they're just always that good like he's like a
connor mcdavid he's a sydney krebs he's on that level he's a freak he's gonna be in like i think
he's gonna be over 40 and close to 50 i got him under 40 under 40 yeah i think he's still hardly
over 31 and a half then i am over 31 and a half i probably would think 36 37 imagine he plays 82 against 18 he's talented
and and as good as you think and say i think his shot he's to what shooting the puck is to what
what uh what mcdavid is to skating oh yeah yeah at his age i've never seen anything like it
it's the same thing with matthews where the kid pulls in the you know pulls the puck a foot David is to skating. Oh, yeah? Yeah. At his age, I've never seen anything like it.
It's the same thing with Matthews,
where the kid pulls the puck a foot towards his feet before he shoots,
and goalies are baffled.
But, here's my but,
is that a lot of the stuff is individually based.
Go back and look at a lot of his goals, including and look at a lot of his goals including the world juniors and it is just a solo effort yeah you can't do that in the NHL but he can on
occasion sure but we're talking about over 82 games like there's going to be some lulls where
he's just physically mentally and emotionally spent this year and he's already gone through
a ton of it carrying the organization already on his shoulder,
and the season hasn't even started.
What's going to be left of this guy by January or February?
I don't think he thinks about any of that stuff.
He's just that good.
It comes natural.
Like Sean was saying, how much he just talks to him,
he just seems like he belongs.
He's just that good.
He is that good good but he's also
that human too these guys are my thought goes right to matthew nize who you know played a few
games for the leafs in the regular season i think seven in the playoffs immediately was a guy you
had to have in your top six and how effective he was and whatever but the nhl is a hard league and
people hit he got hit a lot i know bedard is not going to get
hit as often likely it's a regular season he's a sneaky fella but it's hard so like to me the line
is does he get hurt or not because i have him at 42 goals yeah i think he's well past 31 and a half
i'll probably bet that in fact but it's 31 and a half slow but is he going to play 82 games he's
not frail he's a strong kid well i mean he's
got a build on us right like he's 6-3-2-20 and what it happens i got one more for you games
yeah one more one more for you over uh alex ovechkin uh who's still chasing gretzky obviously
his goal total set at 40 and a half pretty even odds on both sides of it over under
hammering me under hammering interesting
no i'll take him at 40 so it's 40 and a half so you're under so you're going slight under you're
in no i'm in i'm i'm over you're over 41 41 41 i have i'm on like year six of betting against
ob one of these times it's going to come through but i don't the caps are going to stink, guys. They might suck. That matters. Listen, Washington, Islanders, and Pitt.
Is there any way definitively to say for sure?
I don't have Pitt in that group.
Stinking or making a playoff run?
I don't have Pitt in that group.
I like them a lot.
Islanders, I'll hear.
That's fine.
I'll hear it. Same with fine. I'll hear it.
Same with, like, what's St. Louis, what's Nashville?
How much pressure is on Sorokin?
Yeah, he's got to win the Vezina.
Shusterkin?
No big deal.
Yeah, those guys also, Vezina.
But don't you think that, you know, how the Caps are going to suck?
They may be transitioning into their, it's time to get Ovi,
this record era of hockey.
Backstrom should be around.
Like, he's going to be out there on the power play.
He's already made an unbelievable comeback, Backstrom,
off of his surgery, major surgery last year.
But he's a fantastic passer.
We've seen it time and time again.
But there is a step that's been lost there.
Does it affect Ovi?
Ovi plays 66 games and scores 27 goals this year.
Oh, my God.
I'm saying 45. Easy.
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Play responsibly. A little rusty on the
read there, boys. You're getting there, Sarge.
A little rusty on the read. Are you making me
take a break? Just one quick one thing before
we go and ask both of you. What do you think Sid, he'll take this personally tonight?
That's a great question.
Actually, a great angle is Sid Crosby being the second most important player
in the game tonight, which is wild.
He's coming into his building.
I feel like he could get a pretty inspired Sid tonight.
All right, I want to pick up on that.
Okay.
Because I think there's a conversation on Kyle Dubas and what he's done.
Oh, yeah, Dubas.
For a very short period of time.
He's in Pittsburgh.
And how much pressure is on him early.
Dubas?
Yeah.
No, he has a seven-year contract and four titles.
His feet are up.
He's not even going to go to the games.
He owns the team now, doesn't he?
All right.
We'll get into that more still on the Real Kipper Inborn Show.
We are back after these words.
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It's the Fan Checkdown with Matt Marchese and Donovan Bennett.
Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Pretty good close-up of that jersey.
There it is.
Yeah.
UAA Seawolves.
I'll be honest, that's the nicest jersey.
That's my favorite jersey of all time right there. You know what it also is? The cleanest
jersey. I don't think
I see a mark on it.
It looks brand new.
What does that mean, JB?
That's my coach's what it meant. Not a whole lot of
puck marks from screening goalies, I can tell you that.
Alright, here's one from Andy
Gold 61. Loving the Sammy cam. all right here's one from andy gold 61 loving the sammy cam oh i you know it was a big debate
going into today was would sam leave the mullet for the show it was a hot debate there it is
and in the end you got to be true to who you are and you're a skin
listen i'm not gonna rock the back hat on air i'm gonna have
a mullet and i'm gonna give marginal hockey takes that's what i'm gonna do sam cosentino our boy
who's been to all the junior hockey bars i bet he's getting paid in fries at that rank there for
that hat that's fries in the old baby over the last few years uh on this show in particular we've questioned at times Kyle Dubas
doubling or tripling
down on the core four.
Yep. To the point where I'm sure we
made a lot of you sick.
But... It was a Leaf show once
upon a time. He gets hired by Pittsburgh
and the first thing he does
is double down on Crosby,
Malkin, and Letang.
Yeah. And your thinking is?
Having good players is good.
And I don't think it's a huge conclusion.
Or making the same mistake twice on two different organizations.
There's some stubbornness in being like, hey, you know,
stick with these guys.
But what are you going to do?
Trade Sid?
It's the same thing.
Yeah.
And obviously he goes into a new organization.
The mandate when he gets there is help Sid win one more time.
Yes, it is.
Get the LeBron James Laker win.
The bubble win.
He needs the one more.
I just, I like, I'm much more bullish on this penguins team than other other people are
you know those core players are still elite what did sid have for points last year he was in 90
some like he was still a top 10 top 20 goal scorer in the air point getter in the nhl gensel's gonna
play malkin can still do things rust raquel i mean they added riley smith added eric carlson
that was a good trade for riley smith they made. It was under the radar right after they won the cup.
For sure.
If they get some goaltending, and I like the addition of Ryan Graves too.
So I like this Penguins team.
You just can that old core keep it up for 100 hockey games this year.
And Malkin was decent last year.
He was pretty good.
I think he ended up almost a point a game.
Yeah.
But I don't know which Malkin shows up still in the second year
of his latest contract.
I think the hottest take I've ever given on radio is that
peak Malkin is as high or higher than peak Crosby or Ovechkin.
No, there were those times when Sid was hurt,
where he was the number one dog on that team,
and he was unbelievable. And those playoff runs where he was the number one dog on that team, and he was unbelievable.
And those playoff runs where he was just out of his mind.
The best of Malkin is Mario Lemieux.
He's this huge, rangy, competitive guy who, yeah,
you don't get that very often, but when you do...
There's a Leaf fan perspective bubbling up on this Dubas...
What?
That they want to watch him fail miserably?
Well, like... Oh, God, do they ever, right? Well, a to watch him fail miserably? Well, like.
Oh, God, do they ever, right?
Well, a lot of Canadian hockey fans like myself inherently root for Sidney Crosby.
Like, I love Sidney Crosby.
He's one of my favorite athletes of all time.
I'm always rooting for them if they make the playoffs.
They're not playing against the Leafs.
It's something that you want them to win.
And now?
But now it's like, well, what the hell do you cheer for now?
It's like.
So, rooting against Dubas is why? Why are we rooting against Dubas? Come on. Because he's the next. I despise that dude. No, it's like, well, what the hell did you cheer for now? It's like, so rooting against Dubas is why?
Why are we rooting against Dubas?
Come on.
Because he's the next.
Come on.
Analytics guy?
It's complicated.
I don't know.
I don't know if we've been doing a show together for three years.
We've met.
It's a complicated thing.
And I think a lot of Leaf fans, like I had the locker room at hockey last night.
Everybody's talking about it.
Like, it's a thing.
Like, people don't want to root for the Penguins.
You worked for Dubas once upon a time.
I did.
So is there a small stitch that says you're kind of cheering for him?
I think as a person, I will say I feel like he's changed over the years.
Where has he changed?
Well, not in terms of the way he—
The exit, and then he goes there and says,
I'm going to hire a GM, and it's goes there he says i'm gonna hire a gm
and it's like no i'm the best gm what has changed a level of confidence that he has now that i don't
remember seeing before but yeah i mean i understand why you would want him to not have a ton of
success it's like that was supposed to happen here the other side of leaf nation is like praying for
their success.
Like we've talked about the differences.
Well, they're looking for validation.
It's right, left, red, blue.
The quote-unquote Dubasites where it's like they loved him
and they cheered for him even over the Leafs.
It's a very political thing is what it comes down to.
It is.
Yeah.
Carlson, one of his big moves, goes after him right off the bat.
We had talked on our show before we took off for the summer
that he wanted him here.
He wanted to try to make it work.
That always blew my mind.
When you said that last year, I thought you were a crazy person.
Well, that's what basically everyone else in the organization told Kyle,
that you're crazy.
Those doobies that wanted it.
Yes.
Everyone's like,
what are we going to do with a $10.5 million guy who doesn't defend?
Have you been paying attention to what we are do you watch your own tv so my question to
both of you is can this guy repeat another year that he had in san jose or is that just a uh
a one-off i wonder if there's not some desire now for eric car Carlson to be validated that he can win.
Like,
has he not proven enough Norris trophies and a hundred points season?
He has shown that he can be the most offensive dynamic player of this era.
What's left to do,
but be on a winning team.
Not to cut you off.
No,
no,
no.
I'm done.
He has proven that when everything's centered around me,
Ottawa, When everything's centered around me, Ottawa and the end of his run at San Jose.
When it came to going in there and sharing it,
I don't think he's as good at sharing the spotlight as having the spotlight.
When he went to San Jose, my first gut instinct is they already have an alpha dog on that team his name's brent burns and he's pretty darn good and he couldn't make it work they couldn't make it work
there wasn't enough puck for both of them on that back end and now i watch him go to pittsburgh and
i'm watching the recreation of that with latang but who are the best players on that san
jose team that he joined when he would have joined couture i guess yeah pavelski was still there was
he all right i'll give you pavelski my point with like a team like pittsburgh if you don't assimilate
it's sydney crosby's team you're not coming all in and changing the the room you are an addendum
to an already great thing you're an add--on. I think he went to San Jose
being like, ta-da!
You get me! Whereas in
Pittsburgh, it's like, okay, you need to fit in
with Crosby and Malkin and Letang.
It's been their thing. Different point
in his career. They have won cups. Yeah.
I guess a different point in his career, but I guess he did score 100 points
last year, so it's hard to say that. Yeah.
Doing his own thing. Yeah.
Listen, the years before last year where he played 82 games he played them all he played 50 52 56 53 and then 71 the year
before that like that's hold on hold on one sec do you think he's a bad room guy i i've heard
i've heard mixed things about him yes i. I wonder if that would change then,
going to Pittsburgh as I punch the microphone.
Listen, you do make a valid point
that this has been and will always be Sid's team.
And I would think that if there's any signs of anything
that Sid would look after it behind closed doors that we'd we'd never hear of so
yeah as long as carlson goes in there and and realizes that i've i got i got to make that guy
happy that's my first job is if he's happy then i'm happy and then the rest of the team will be
happy how many games will pick up that vibeang and Carlson play together this year,
I wonder?
You know, like two guys who are super high-ceiling guys
but very injury-prone, older.
Who's going to be on Power Play 1?
Do we know?
Are they going to do another two-D-man thing?
Listen, I look at Letang and I look at a guy like Morgan Riley
and it's like, okay, you know, you guys push me off the side.
You get your new flavor in and it's K, okay, you know, you guys push me off the side. You get your new flavor in, and it's Klingberg in Toronto now
that's going to be the number one PP guy.
And, you know, both of those guys will probably say to themselves,
I've been around long enough.
I'll wait for you to come back to me.
Yeah.
I am vanilla ice cream.
You will eventually come back.
Go try your rum raisin and your mint chip so we'll
be back according to daily face off they have their power play units up here that it says that
eric carlson's practicing on the first power play yeah with evgeny malkin jake genzel sydney
crosby and ricardo cal and then the second the second one is chris let's go stop it riley there
is no second one yeah it's true they're to play 205 of every two minutes. A seven-second second unit.
Yeah.
Jansen Harkins is on the second power play.
You'd think they're coming off the ice, those guys.
No way.
Not a chance.
Absolutely no way.
Starting tonight.
So we've started this conversation 11 times,
and I'd just like to know,
John Klingberg is a Toronto Maple Leaf.
Do you like the signing?
One year, $4 million.
Have we not started this conversation like 10 times, and I've been like, okay, do you like the signing? One year, $4 million. Have we not started this conversation like 10 times
and I've been like, okay, do you like the addition?
No.
Oh, okay.
Next conversation.
All right.
And anyway.
Listen, they want to create offense from the back end.
He can do that.
But from what I've seen in the last year and a half,
I think he's horrible in his own zone
and does he offset that with a a solid spot on the power play and can he contribute 40 or 50 points
uh and a lot of it based on that power play with marner and matthews there's always the possibility
yeah that he can he can bump up his numbers but i just i don't see uh
defending in his own zone yeah you know i i we're going to do our stanley cup picks here at some
point you tell us when you're ready for that but you know i've heard some people pick the the leafs
for the cup when i look at their team i look at right now the back end, you're talking about Klingberg being a part of that
and defending.
Like, how are they going to defend?
McCabe wasn't a shutdown guy.
You know, Lilligren's not really that.
Klingberg isn't that.
And then their lines with, like,
Tavares and Nylander and Minton and Yard,
like, I just, they're going to give up a lot of shots, I think.
This could be 6-5 every game.
They traded McCabe to fill in for Muzzin and be a shutdown guy brought him in and you are saying no that's not happening well
you watched postseason last year where they said we need you to be this and it just he it looked
like a lot for him to handle he hadn't been in a playoff game and they're like handle bennett
kachuk he's playing with a broomstick a lot of times yeah it wasn't great i like the player and
i think he has a chance to get better.
I like at least Klimberg's on a one-year deal.
I think it's still a tough number at $4.1 million.
If it doesn't work out, that cap hit.
You can unload that at the deadline if you had to, if you didn't like it. Oh, yeah, just ask Anaheim.
They couldn't give him away. Okay. That ask anaheim they couldn't give him
away okay that's a good one it couldn't give away yeah so he ended up in minnesota right it's it's
it's rolling the dice on a year that you're supposed to go deep in the playoffs he also
hasn't played any preseason games played one and then he didn't play again for the record on the
upside of this if i can just be devil's advocate he is a guy who does a lot of the things that morgan riley doesn't do on the power play i
know they were 26 of the power play i think they can be better i think the team thinks they can too
if he makes them a 30 power play unit you get your money's worth right like that's an extra
handful of goals well the third last year? They're really good every year.
Once upon a time,
he was a really good defenseman in Dallas.
He was in the Norris convo.
Well, I think he was offered like 7x7 or 8x8.
He had a big...
Close to $60 million.
He turned down.
Oh, God.
Thinking he could get as much as Seth Jones.
That was the comparison.
I wanted Seth Jones' contract.
It's funny that his team at the time was like,
nah, you're not getting that.
You know, they saw enough of his game to know that it wasn't going to age well.
He ended up here.
Can you imagine thinking that you turned down $55, $60 million
that you will never see again.
That's an oopsie.
I mean, maybe if he plays really well under the lights in Toronto.
That could be one of the biggest oopsies.
Well, that's probably why he's here, right?
If he comes to Toronto and is a 60-some point guy.
He will never get 60 ever again.
But could he be Ryan Suter and show he's still good
and someone gives him four by...
How old is he? Five, six?
I don't know. Let's find out.
I don't think he's that old.
He's got to be around 31.
He's 31.
He's young. He's a...
For a D-man, he's a puppy.
Look at me. I just turned 35 yesterday.
And I'm a young man.
I'm just a young man.
You're a very mullet-wearing child.
Vegas, having a lot of fun still.
What do you mean?
Didn't you see the Golden Knights there on Monday Night Football?
No, I mean, it's good attention.
Did you catch a good glimpse of their Stanley Cup ring?
No.
It's mammoth.
They're all just wearing the new sphere on their finger,
the Vegas sphere.
It's the size of Sammy's head.
Yeah.
The rings are not rings anymore.
They're unwearable.
I think there's a part of it that comes off, doesn't it?
And it's the rink underneath.
Have you not seen this?
I'm looking it up right now.
I just think it's really stupid that we just keep getting bigger and bigger.
What is the end game?
They're just trying to be like, yeah, it's like that Key and Peele sketch.
I don't know if you've ever seen it.
It's a hat?
It's just like, it gets more and more absurd every time.
It's just, I don't understand why.
You can do curls with that ring.
Yeah, it's ridiculous.
Yeah, but they were on Monday Night Football.
Good promo. Jack Eichel, maybe not
the media superstar
in those environments, but good.
Peyton Manning and Eli Manning have drank
out of the Stanley Cup. I learned last week.
I need your thoughts.
I'm a Rasmus Dahlin fan,
but I'm not
an $11 million a year
fan. I am.
I just weigh too much.
I love, I think he's a, could be a Norris Trophy winner.
Okay, all right.
He was in the conversation last year, and he's like 22 or something.
That's fine, but you still didn't have to give him 11.
Why not nine and a half?
Yeah, I think you're right.
I think the idea with these deals is that you avoid giving a guy a huge contract.
This is a pretty huge contract.
Will 11 not end up looking good when the cap in three or four years is at $100 million
and he's making 10% of it?
I mean, we've been having that same conversation here for...
Well, provided we don't have another pandemic, we'll get...
I'll believe it goes up when I see it.
Okay, they're like, it's going up a buck this year.
I just think that they should have made him work a lot harder to get 11 like in nine and a half like to me nine
and a half you could have gotten away if i'm him i'm like seth jones got that we just talked about
him four years ago i'm my see i've already had better years than he ever had when last year 70
plus points he's really good okay get an excellent year all right so maybe
just see it one more time yeah maybe i i think that's a fair that's all yeah and it it what are
you gonna give him if he's great again 12 believe it or not like this to me this signing is no
different than the what they did with jack eichel they gave gave him 10. And it's like, why 10?
Struggling teams, the second they get a good player,
love to give them a massive deal.
And then you got Owen Power, who may be better than him.
Yeah, Owen Power saw that contract and went, oh, really?
Nine and a half keeps Owen Power at nine and a half or 10.
But now if he turns out to be better than him,
that number goes north of a 11.
Yeah.
Good point.
But it just,
to me,
uh,
it,
it certainly resets the whole market in general.
This is about the new money coming in.
Lots of talk about the cap going up in a few years,
despite maybe having some challenges with regional television,
cable deals and bio steel, uh, you know, running out of money.
But apparently the cap's like everybody's picking on new money right now.
And you don't think Willie Nylander is sitting there going, a new market.
Yeah.
Well, you know what?
Go light it up for the ducks, Willie.
Like, you know, it's Sammy.
Come on. Sammy. Okay. Like, whatever. You, you know, it's... Sammy. Come on.
Sammy.
Yeah, okay, like, whatever.
You're going to have to pay that guy.
Yeah, okay.
Even with his flaws.
Enjoy San Jose, young William.
Oh, and he will.
I know.
That number's gone up since 24 hours ago.
Before this show ends, I need to get in one thing.
Do I think what?
No, go ahead.
What are you going to say?
I just want to get in that the NHL is not allowing players to use pride tape this year.
Yeah.
Yeah, real.
And we've already heard comments from Morgan and.
Connor McDavid.
Connor McDavid.
Zach Hyman speaking out.
It's just, I understand that you didn't want to force people to do a certain thing, but
then to take away the opportunity to express yourself.
Isn't that.
It's just so hypocritical and stupid. If they do, like, who's, what are you going to do a certain thing, but then to take away the opportunity to express yourself, isn't that? It's just so hypocritical and stupid.
If they do, like, who's, what are you going to do?
Well, yeah, you're right.
You're going to fine them for standing up for people.
You know, I will say this to the Morgan Rileys
and the Conor McDavid's of the world.
You got an NHL Players Association.
Last time I checked, they had a pretty strong stance
on coaches going through your phone.
Yeah.
Let's go to your Players Association and ask them what they think of it.
Steve Marty Walsh will go to bat for you.
Yeah.
Good point.
All right.
Just like that.
I hear music.
We did it.
We did it.
Throw one in the books, boys.
Are we going to have to do more of these?
Apparently.
Oh.
I'm even more exhausted now.
I'm going to take tomorrow off.
You guys mind?
I mean,
I got it.
We're fine.
All right.
I hope everybody had a good time.
A quick two hours for us.
Big night on the network with NHL hockey.
We got.
8 PM.
Eastern tonight.
And we've got a game already in progress.
Right now.
The first goal of the NHL season.
Thanks for joining us here on the Real Kipper and Bourne Show.
We'll see you tomorrow.