Real Kyper & Bourne - Oilers' Round One Research

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start with a look at the playoff race in the East as just 2 points separate 5 teams. They are joined by Oilers' analyst Jason Gregor (4:25) who looks at possible first-round matchups for Edmonton, if the Oilers did enough at the deadline, why Tanev would have been the perfect fit for them and confidence levels for Stuart Skinner as the uncontested no. 1 goalie. Finally, they regroup with Sam for news & notes - Tomáš Hertl gets set to make his Golden Knights debut, concerns rising for the slumping Canucks and the Sens take exception with the Devils sliding the puck in the empty net after the buzzer.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.

here we go it's a national edition of the real kipper and born show nick kiprios justin bourne sammy mckee derrick brandeo jimmy Wilson. In for Sis Boomba. My eclipse glasses propped up somehow. A bunch of people outside are at the window looking up. Looking at literal clouds. The funniest, I actually think the funniest photo in the history of photos is the close-up of Donald Trump looking straight at the sun.

It's nothing funnier. It's honestly, I look at it every time. And that's what everybody outside is looking at. This doesn't count. Well, wherever you're watching, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, Sportsnet 960 in Calgary. We're glad you're with us for the next hour. This hour, Real Kipper and Bourne, brought to you by Bet365.

Special baseball edition. Jay's home opener, 707 pitch on all Sportsnet platform with the exception of Sportsnet One, which will have the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Big Sportsnet night. Big Sportsnet.

In a few minutes, we're going to have Jason Greger, who hosts his show on 1440 in Edmonton, join us. We'll talk Oilers and everything out west. In the meantime, Sammy. Yes. Your Jays batting 193. Is there a chance on this last road trip they looked into an eclipse without glasses on that we don't know about? Good line.

But they're having a tough go. Hey, it's early. It's early. It's early. They played some tough teams on the road. I don't want to give my true thoughts. It's not time for my true thoughts. No.

But there's a chance they just stink. Nope. No. No, no, no. They're too talented. I don't know. They're too talented. I heard, listen, I'm a diehard listener to the show that's usually on in this spot, Blair and Barker. And Barker knows a lot.

Not a believer. Hasn't been loving him let's just say that they can pitch right oh yeah they can pitch but that's you know that's literally half the battle yeah still uh i'm contemplating going down for tonight yeah a few a few innings yeah okay i was promised a discount i was promised that uh if if i go to someone's box you're gonna have the leaf pittsburgh game on for me. So I'm carrying the show tomorrow is what you're saying? No, no, no. If someone offered me a ticket tonight, I wouldn't go.

You wouldn't go? Not with Pittsburgh and Toronto. It's literally the biggest game of the year. You're so excited. I am so excited. I am what I am. Yeah, that's alright. Unlike my Coleridge or Bunker. Right now, you're giving Pittsburgh the odds of picking up one of the spots in the East?

I don't know. Washington has just... It's super unpredictable. Yeah, what are they, six in a row? Lost it. You can't lose that point, that extra point to Ottawa, can you? They hung on for dear life for that point. I mean, they needed this game.

Huge game, playoff race, at home against the lowly Sens, they generated 21 shots. Oof. Thanks for coming out. No offense at all out of Washington. I'll tell you who I don't think is going to make it is Philly.

Yeah. I think Philly's, I think they've gone the other way far enough, but to me, it's any of those teams. I really have no idea. It's so hard to predict. Dare Tortorella gets blamed at all if they...

We suck. We haven't forechecked. We haven't done anything. If they lose the spot, will that energy go to Tortorella and go on... What kind of circus was that in the last 15 games of the season? You know, he'll tell you he doesn't care and he doesn't regret it and he meant what he said and he'll dig in.

There's no chance he's going to be remorseful and walk it back and say he should have handled it differently. Are you kidding me? Will more than us be out there going, okay, I'm not surprised. Well, is it not the circus tamer, the lion tamer's job to calm the lions down to, to cool it out, run the show. Like he was drumming up the energy. He got them all frothy and miserable here. So yeah, I'm going to blame him.

I mean, I'm going to give them credit him credit for getting there, them this far, but boy, he's at the heart of the drop-off. All right. It's the Jasonregor show on sportsnet 1440 in edmonton let's welcome in uh jason uh thanks for doing this jason it's not often that uh we get a little bit of a a time adjustment to our show but uh we're certainly glad uh you're able to join us how are you i'm good fellas happy to be on yeah great so uh give us the sense about where the standings lie and trying to predict who's going to play who and ultimately what that means for the Edmonton Oilers

because most of us thought that there was just a foregone conclusion that the Oilers and Vegas were going to match up here. But a lot of different scenarios, including what happens to the Vancouver Canucks here in the last half a dozen games. Yeah, there's nothing really guaranteed. Edmonton, in theory, if they win all of their remaining six games, then they'll finish first automatic because they would beat Vancouver

in their head-to-head matchup on Saturday. But the Canucks play Vegas tonight. You know, Vancouver's obviously reeling a little bit here without Demko. Vegas will get Hurdle back. You know, I think Edmonton is for sure guaranteed no worse than second. They're not going to get caught from behind, so I think they're going to finish second at the worst. They have a chance here.

They play Vegas Wednesday, then Vancouver. They've got San Jose once, Arizona twice, who's shockingly scoring lots of goals all of a sudden, and then they finish the season with Colorado. So, you know, the odds numbers would say Edmonton's still going to finish second, but Vancouver has been slowly whittling away. The orders used to be, you know, 20 points back of them and Vegas,

and now they're already ahead of Vegas. And, you know, they've gained, I think, probably eight or nine points on Vancouver, maybe even more in the last month and a half. So it's crazy, man. I thought the eastern conference playoff race was down to three teams a week ago and suddenly there's five in it so i don't know i don't want to make a prediction because i'll probably look like an idiot

that's kind of this business i look like an idiot every day every day so the you know the climb back would be historic given the start to the season to end up eventually winning the division it would be mind-blowing give us the state of affairs in edmonton how are fans feeling about their team how are things um you know does it feel like it's all positive vibes right now for a team that i would say you could is probably canada's best hope at this point well you look at the orders and they obviously weren't as bad as their record to start the season you know They had a lot of things go wrong. A lot of it was self-inflicted. Obviously, then McDavid was a little bit banged up for a few games.

But when they hired Knobloch and brought in Paul Coffey, there's significant changes. There was a lot of people that were questioning the Coffey hire, and I think they've been proving that was a big mistake. Paul Coffey has really changed the mindset of their defensemen. He's really instilled, you make more plays. He doesn't want guys just dumping the puck out. He wants them to make plays. I don't care if it's

Vinny Desjardins, who's your sixth defenseman, or if it's Bouchard, Neckholm, and your top pair. He wants them all to make plays. That feeds in. Edmonton's a highly skilled team. So, you know what? The best defense is a good offense. When you have the puck, you don't have to defend. I think that's really been their mindset. I do think the

Orders team, this is their deepest and best team they've had the last few years. I just think they're deeper overall. I think they've got more experience. They've got a little bit of sandpaper throughout their lineup in Perry and Sam Carrick and Evander Kane and even Adam Henrique.

I don't mind how he competes. They've got more experience on the back end. Like, Edmonton, really, they've been the best team in the NHL since Knobloch took over. There should be lots of reasons for their fans to be positive. Now, Dallas, like, to me, Dallas and Edmonton are the two best teams in the West right now. I think the Dallas Stars are really good.

But, you know, they wouldn't meet Edmonton until the third round. So Edmonton has, I think, a little bit of an advantage because they don't have to face Colorado or Dallas right away. And that's not taking anything away from Vancouver or Vegas. But Vegas is a defending champs, guys. But they're not playing like defending champs. Like, they haven't been a dominant team basically since the middle of November. Right?

They've been an average team. Right. And I don't believe you could just snap your fingers and turn it on in the postseason. I'm not a big believer in that. So I think Edmonton, they know how to beat LA if they have to play them. Vancouver doesn't have a ton of experience. If I was picking today, regardless of who meets in the first round, I think Dallas and Edmonton would be my two teams to meet

in the Western Conference final. We're talking to Jason Greger, host of the Jason Greger Show on Sports 1440 in Edmonton. Jason, if we look back, and you mentioned a few names, additions this season, Perry, Henrik, when you compare it to, say, even like Vegas or Dallas with Tanev, did the Oilers do enough at the trade deadline that really warrants, this is our year, this has to happen here, specifically on the blue line? Well, there was lots of talk about the blue line, and I think Chris Tanev, he was the best right defenseman to acquire.

I don't think Edmonton, if you wanted to upgrade on Kota Sisi, I understand it, but a top four defenseman, I don't believe any of the other right defenseman who got moved would have been upgrades significantly on dc to you know when you throw in cap space and would have limited some other moves i just didn't see it chris tannev was that guy and i don't believe calgary was ever trading chris tannev dammit um i just don't think it was going to happen so like if chris tannev wins a cup in dallas calgary fans like oh that's good if chris tannev wins a cup in edmonton they're hating it that plays into it

sometimes for teams because i don't think you know edmonton was going to grossly overpay more than what dallas offered to get them so i actually thought edmonton's you know what they addressed some of their needs that they got more depth you know adam henryk's a really smart player edmonton didn't need more offense they needed guys who were very sound two-way players, and that's what Henrique is. Corey Perry obviously cost them nothing when they brought him in. He brings in, I think, some added grit. He brings in a lot of experience,

and I do think that is important come playoff time. I didn't see another right defenseman for me that was a clear upgrade over Cody Ceci when you look at what it would have cost to get him. So one of the, you know, just the small storylines for the Oilers, Corey Perry comes in, you know, we've talked about the Leafs quite a bit and how they don't really have this, like, veteran guy to grab someone else and say, hey, you know, we need you to do this or be better or whatever. He gets into it a little bit with Evander Kane.

I've seen Dreisaitl maybe give it to Kane a little bit here and there. Just tell us a little bit about Evander Kane. I have seen Dreisaitl maybe give it to Kane a little bit here and there. Just tell us a little bit about where that dynamic is at with, you know, Kane's, I don't know if you'd call them struggles or not, but where the Oilers are with those sort of interpersonal relationships. Well, you know, Nick obviously has been in rooms.

He's won cups. I think, I kind of laugh a little. I don't think that was anything. Like, you know, Perry and Kane were kind of both chuckling. Like we're teammates in our master's pool together. I actually think it's a good sign when players hold each other accountable. Now, in a perfect world, would you want that done behind closed doors? Sure.

But we don't live in a perfect world. You know, it was, you know, Perry's obviously upset. Kane didn't really bite back or anything. He just kind of nodded. And away they went. So I actually, I think it's a good sign that the play that Perry got upset about was Kane just made a hope pass to the slot, right?

Now, it didn't result in a goal against, and I think it's more that if you want to win, the standard is you can't make hope passes, because if you start doing that, that's when goals happen. And if I look at Edmonton, Edmonton last year, the year before they've always been the best team at beating themselves they could throw a grenade in their own

zone better than anyone and like they'd have the game in complete control and grenade happens and it's two goals against in a minute and they're like what the hell happened go look at the vegas series last year look at how many times the orders gave up goals in quick succession, or they gave up goals on just a bad giveaway that's what I call a gift goal. And they've done a much better job of limiting that. And I think the fact that Perry, that was a terrible second period for Edmonton too, so I think that played part in it. But I think there's a guy saying, guys, our standard, we have to be living up to our standard all the time. And we can't just accept that the hope pass didn't work. And yes, it didn't result in a goal again.

So I actually kind of view it as a positive, really. Kane, no question, he was struggling. He went 21 games without a goal before he scored twice in the game last week. And they need Evander. Kane doesn't need to be a leader on their team. He just needs to be a good complementary player. And he needs to show up with his physicality,

which he's done for the most part this season. And obviously he's got to chip in some goals like i don't expect him to score 15 goals in a playoffs like he did two years ago or 13 and 15 whatever it was but they need him to be a regular contributor and more importantly just don't be a guy who's just going to give away pucks don't be hope passing and if you looked at kane that's an area of his game that i still see sometimes he's not a great passer right and that's that's not a knock that's just a reality that's not it's that's not his go-to thing so play to your strengths but don't accentuate your weaknesses and I that's kind of what I took from that interaction and the weight of Corey Perry who's won a Stanley Cup who

knows what it takes and how despite a limited role on this hockey club, how much weight that carries when Corey Perry's telling you that. Oh, I think it matters a lot. And it's not like he's won the cup, but he's lost, what, like three? Right? Like he's been in the finals with Montreal and Dallas and Tampa Bay. And I remember Connor McDavid telling me when Duncan Keith joined their team in 2022, it was such an eye-opener for him and how Keith,

just how he would say things in the room at key times in the series because it gets so emotional, right? You win a game in the playoffs, oh, my God, we're the best. And then you lose a game and it's like, oh, my God, we're the worst, right? And Duncan Keith just had a way of, McDavid said, really calming them down. He learned a lot from it. And I think, you know, the Oilers themselves, you know what, they lost in the conference final. I know they didn't themselves, you know what, they lost in the conference final.

I know they didn't win a game, but they still lost in the conference final. Then they lost to Vegas last year. They've had some lumps. And usually the teams that learn from those have success. It doesn't guarantee because if you lose a few times, you're going to win. Ask the San Jose Sharks. But you have to learn from it. I think Edmonton's best players have.

But I think having a guy like Corey Perry in a certain key situation at a time in a series, he's likely going to be able to give some wisdom that the other guys just don't have. I'm tempted to throw this to you like Ron McLean and just say, Jason, Stu Skinner. But where is Skinner's game at? How do you feel about him heading into the playoffs?

It's funny you ask that, because I had a really good conversation with stew today about um you know he stew's a really cerebral guy he he reaches out he asks a lot of questions to people he's talked to grand fear he's talked to mike smith he's talked a lot of other guys just kind of going through the playoff thing and um i know there's a lot of talk about him being fatigued physically he wasn't tired at all he said it many times now was there some mental fatigue in there i think there's a lot of talk about him being fatigued physically. He wasn't tired at all. He said it many times. Now, was there some mental fatigue in there? I think there was a little bit.

And he said he learned a lot last year from the postseason. You know, this year, if you look at Stuart Skinner's numbers, since Knobloch took over, guys, like he's got the most wins in the league. He's top five in, say, percentage. He's top five in goals against amongst starters. Like, he's really good. He's pretty consistent. And Stuart Skinner, he's a big believer in, he reads a lot on mental toughness

and just kind of how to eliminate the roller coasters if you can. It's hard to do, but he's a big believer in that. And I think they've really monitored his games here down the stretch, not so much for the physical fatigue. It's just, it's the mental fatigue because he is their guy going into the playoffs. And, you know, I don't think they're going to be rotating him and Calvin Pickard. I think once the playoffs start, it's going to be Stu Skinner going every time. And little things like he learned, like he thought he stayed on the ice a little bit too long on off days.

Right? And not because he was physically tired. It's just mentally, right? Because then you get off on a morning skate. And rather than be off right away, maybe you're staying out 20 extra minutes. Then it's less time because then you get to the rink, and sometimes you start to prepare two, three hours before the game. And he just said it was mentally draining, and he didn't have enough time away.

So there's little things in his approach that he learned last year. But I think like Vegas showed in Colorado the last two years, they didn't win the cup. Like Vasilevsky, obviously, is elite. But Colorado and Vegas didn't win the cup with a goalie who was proven elite. Now, Aiden Hill played very well, but they also had a good structure in front of him. And I think, you know, Skinner's shown he can be a good goalie

and definitely can be a better goalie when the team in front of him limits their chances. And that's what Edmonton's done. Like Edmonton, I think, is from sport logic, sport logic they're what fourth best as far as high danger chances and that includes the first 13 game guys when they were like one of the worst teams so i think skinner is good enough when you consider like there's question marks with demko there's injury problems in in vegas you know i'm not sold on cam talbot or david ridditch um you know jake ottinger is starting to play like jake ottinger but he to play like Jake Ottinger,

but he hadn't for the first 65 games. You know, like outside of Hellebuck, there's no like, I know exactly what I'm going to get for my goaltender in the West. Right. So, Winnipeg, Hellebuck, is this guy going to have to be great every night for Winnipeg to get to a conference final? Oh, I think so.

Like, if you look at all the teams in the league, night for vanc for winnipeg to to get to a conference final oh i think so like they have like if you look at all the teams in the league is there a team that might have a tougher path than them because if they right now it looks like they're probably going to play colorado now they they actually could still catch them right because they have the tiebreaker and they're two points back with the game in hand so maybe they could get home ice that would probably help them because colorado on home ice is an absolute wagon. But I look at the Jets. Their trouble all year, guys, is kind of the same thing we've seen. Like, they don't – what they don't have is they don't match the high-end offense

of Vancouver or Edmonton or Colorado. And then they don't have the depth of Dallas. So they're going to need Hellebuck to be unbelievable. And he has been all year long. I just – I think it's hard to win a series with just great defense like even Vegas like they would score six goals a game sometimes to win right Florida did it too like so that's that's my one concern about the Jets is will they have enough offense come playoff time against the other good teams and like you got to beat Colorado then

you probably have to be Dallas God God, that's pretty tough. All right. It should be an interesting half a dozen games or so to close this thing out. But, Jason, really appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us. We'll do this again. Hey, boys, anytime, man. I love it.

I watch your show. I appreciate it. Thanks, Jason. Appreciate your time. I didn't say that very well. Appreciate your time, though. Are you going? Do you care?

No. No, it's okay. I you going? Do you care? No. No, it's okay. I'll hang in there for the segment here. We'll finish it up. It's eclipse time. This guy is... Put your glasses on. Show everybody what a nerd you are.

There you go. I don't think anyone who knows me doubted that. I mean, why don't we go to break so Borny can go out and then we'll come back and do everything. He doubted that. I mean, why don't we go to break so Borny can go out, and then we'll come back and do everything when we come back. Well, don't hurt yourself. I'm going to take the glasses. It'll be all right.

I also see it sounds like it's, yeah. Let's go. All right. Let's go to break and go check it out. I got to go. Let him go. I cannot believe I'm doing this, but we're going to break to go check something out that we... He's gone.

All right. All right. Hey, hey. Everybody come back. We're going to get an update from our eclipse analyst, Justin Bourne. After the break, more real Kipper and Bourne. Wear glasses. Teeing up the biggest games of the night.

It's the Fan Pre Game with with alish forfar and justin cuthbert weekdays at 6 p.m on sportsnet sportsnet 590 the fan and wherever you get your podcast welcome back to the real kipper and born show where we broke early to witness an historic eclipse. Where did everybody go? Is this thing on? I told you. I will say something. No, no.

Oh, we're not back. All right, here we go. We're back. They're witnessing a historic eclipse. Where did everybody go? I can't see. Oh, well, thanks for the break, guys. It was dark.

It was very dark. That was kind of neat. It's crazy. It's all like, that never happens. It never gets dark. It was like 8 p.m. Oh, it happens every day. That's our winter.

It's one of those things where it's like, yeah, you know, you didn't, we didn't get to see it. We missed out. We missed out. I will say it was very, as I'm being very facetious, walking out of the studio and looking out there and having to be pitch black was extremely jarring. You can see how people feel like it's the end of the world. Absolutely. And we walked out. There must have been 100 people out there from the Rogers building who need any excuse to get away from their work.

Any excuse for anything at all. Yeah, is that what we're going out for? Yeah, clips. Quick dart. All right. Don't you feel silly that you totally wasted 68 cents on a pair of glasses? No regrets. Got to try, man.

Got to try. So game time, boys? all right it's game time presented by bet 365 visit the app latest odds to find out why it's never ordinary at bet 365 must be 19 plus ontario only please play responsibly so i'll wait till a little later in the week to start getting into the master's odds but it is master's week master's week my favorite week of the year. Also mine. You got four great Leaf games this week. You got the National Championship in hoops this week.

NBA playoffs are starting. We're getting towards it, and we got the Jays home opener. Didn't include that for a reason. And yeah, the Masters. Scotty Scheffler has approached Tiger Woods territory when it comes to odds. He is plus 375. the Masters, Scotty Scheffler has approached Tiger Woods territory

when it comes to odds. He is plus 375 to win the Masters. Imagine being plus 375 to win the Masters, and you're putting so weirdly. You're switching to a mallet putter. You're trying anything to make putts. And it's like, what if he was making putts? So he doesn't need to be good at putting.

He needs to be a little bit below average. It's fine. He throws, it's like dart throwing for him. Yeah, it's ridiculous. 160, 180 out. And how do you do that under pressure

with your feet flailing all over the place? Like his... He's my favorite guy to watch. Like he's the best golfer in the world and he's the best guy to watch because he's just...

He's golfing. He's not a robot. He's a weird man throwing his arms around so yeah so i just wanted to bring that up uh the next thing i wanted to bring up with you guys is the reach the playoff odds so uh the detroit red wings are minus 140 to make the playoffs plus 110 to miss the new york islanders are minus 270 to make it plus 210 210 to miss. They are believing in your aisles there, Borny. Tough schedule.

The Flyers are plus 450 to make it, and they are minus 700 to miss. They're really on the same page as us. That's nice. Pittsburgh Penguins, plus 160 to make it, minus 200 to miss, and they're really giving up on the Caps too, plus 300 to miss, minus 400 to make it.

So whose spot is it to lose? Great question. Detroit's, Pittsburgh's, or Washington's? Honestly, Kip, it might be the one you didn't mention. Islanders. You think the Islanders? The Islanders have the Rangers twice down the stretch, which very good hockey team. Their last game of the year is against Pittsburgh.

They got Philly, too, and Ottawa. Islanders? No, sorry, sorry, sorry. I was looking down. Wrong New York column here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. New York, Montreal, New York, New Jersey, Pittsburgh for the Islanders. Wow.

Last game of the year is Pittsburgh? Yeah. That could be it right there. Holy smokes, man. I know. That's awesome. And what's so crazy is philly and the capitals play in the last game of the year which was supposed to be a big game and may not be

by the time we get there last year pitt blew it to columbus and then chicago in the last two games of the year and that's the spot and that's the reason the leafs got smoked in the second round of the playoffs because of those two games there's actually is. Yes, thanks, Pittsburgh. There's no way that Pitt would go all this way to lose to the Islanders and lose a second year in a row on the last game. But maybe. Only two games on the ice tonight.

Two really good games. Leafs, Penguins, Vegas, Canucks. Vegas, Canucks is massive too. Huge stakes. I am looking at the Penguins. If you're any Dubas fearing man, Leaf fan like myself, you know I love the happiness hedge.

We're heading into happiness hedge season with the Leafs playing in the playoffs. Made lots of money on them last year. The year Montreal beat Toronto. Oh, I was rich. I was rich. I was rich. I was very rich.

Plus 125 is a great number for the Penguins if you're thinking about a happiness hedge betting against your favorite leafs in case of dubious winning so plus 125 and i love the vegas gold knights at plus 105 in vancouver tonight vancouver scuffling they're having concerns so those are the two are on the ice tonight and uh that was game Presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 plus. Ontario only.

Please play responsibly. And now, Kipper, this segment of Real Kipper Unborn is brought to you by Hyundai. All right. Awesome. Thank you to our sponsors. We appreciate it. Hurdle. Tomash.

Tomas. Tomas. How important could this pickup be for Vegas starting tonight? I mean, this is a big deal for them, as mentioned, that they are kind of, you know, not looking like the Vegas we expected them to be this season. They get another score. One of Vegas' major issues this season is they don't score they don't score as well as even winnipeg dallas florida carolina nashville like they need offense so this is a big addition just not hurt although hannifin and mantha

i just look at the edmonton oilers and i think there's got to be a part of that room that goes, ugh. Could have used one of those people. Could have used one more. And I get, you know, we just had Jason Greger on, and he talked about. He was great, by the way. Talked about Tanev,

and maybe that never was a real option for Edmonton. I think at this stage of where edmonton is i would have seriously considered overpaying but i don't think i think the point jason's making is that like conroy doesn't want to come in as a new gm and trade a good player to the oilers that puts them over the top to win a cup let alone to brad tree living to help out. But if it included, I don't know, Broberg and a higher pick than what he went to Dallas, then... I know, the right thing to do is make your team as good as possible and not worry about other teams. I know that.

But at the core of it, I'm like talking from a fan's perspective, what Gregor said is bang on. Like, if I... The Habs are this close to getting to winning and you trade them riley for the runner's yeah it's like oh my god what why i think we just got to live in that era where it just doesn't matter if you have to i think i think that rivalry can be overrated if it means that you're you're not trading for the best that you can trade.

I guess it depends what the difference is. Like, what's the overpay? Is it a slightly better pick? Because if it's close, you're not trading that player. Close, I get it. Close, I understand. So you have to go quite a bit over the next best offer. Yes.

And you still think it would have been worth it. Yeah, I would have gone first for Tanev. I would have. I know it's a I would have gone first for Tanev. Yeah. I would have. I know it's a gamble. I know it's a big gamble. But if this guy can stay healthy, and you just said it before our show started, you're like Tanev in Dallas.

I watched that. Is it not taking them maybe to another level? I watched a big part of the Dallas-Colorado game yesterday, which is just breakneck it was like oh smokes like it felt like the camera couldn't even keep up like they're flying up and down the ice but like you know he's plus one in a 7-4 game last night he has an assist he's never gonna light up the score sheet no but god does he control the play like the way the entries the way he gets it out the way he retrievesves. Just, what was it, the number you said last week? 61% of the expected goals while he's on the ice?

Yeah, since he's been there. I, you know, that to me, I've talked about it at the deadline. That to me is the one that got away for a lot of teams. Like the fact that Dallas got him is, you know, and I still say this. I want the Leafs to sign him in the offseason. Like I'm willing for them to overpay to get him. Really? Yes.

I love him. I love his game. So Dallas has four games left. They have a shot. Sorry, go ahead. him in the offseason like i'm willing for them to overpay to get him really yes i love him i love his game so dallas has four games left they have a shot sorry go ahead just to touch on you i i listen to what you're saying i think that there's some teams and i may include toronto in this that part of the reason why they probably didn't push as hard on tanv is knowing that they may have to overpay to keep them. And I threw out a number between 4.5 and 5 million on a multi-year deal. Three or four years, there's some teams that won't go $16 or $20 million for Tanev.

I think Ottawa would. The question is, does he want to go to Ottawa well you know this is off-season talk but I just want to follow up on one thing we often talk about how team players will pick like say Florida because of the tax advantage or you know whatever some guys want to play where their family is you know you go around the beaches here in Toronto and like you'll see in the summer you'll see Tanev there wearing his baby in a sling living down by you know like he's from here yeah I have to imagine that there would be interest on his part in taking a couple of bucks less to do it you know rather than outbidding the next highest team but that doesn't seem to

happen here but in theory you would think I that's the type of guy that I would overpay for I love Tanev I've loved him his whole career and I wish he was a leaf right now because they would be they would be a wholly different squad with him back there so and he changed dallas no doubt about that yeah uh concerns on the canucks moving forward here and and where the true expectations lie for him for them starting uh in game one so i read i'm uh ian mcIntyre's piece today. And Ian Cole was saying about how there's definitely concerns and all this sort of stuff. Yeah. He went on for like a,

I tried to find the audio of it, but I think maybe you just said it to writers. I couldn't dig up the audio, but he went on talking about how they're not panicking, but there's a level of concern or whatever. And I guess Ian took that to talk it and asked him a question. I think we have the clip there, Derek,

if you want, if you want to play it. We've been talking and asking you a lot about the team being in a slump, for lack of a better term, but it's 22 games now. We've been a 500 team. Does that concern you? No, I just look at this game. I don't care about what's in the past. We've got five games before the playoffs start. So you analyze this game. I don't care about what's in the pass. We got five games before the playoffs start, so you analyze this game.

I don't care what happened in the pass. Tonight, like I said, we gave them too much. We didn't give them a lot of stuff, but when they did, their conversion rate was great. We didn't. We had some chances. We had a couple breakaways. We had somebody in the high slot.

If we connect and then we gave them those free beers early it's two nothing so no i'm just analyzing this game i think i'm not concerned getting getting getting demko back and hitting a certain level makes them still very dangerous yes but i know we can say that about any team at any time. But it's almost as if the goaltending conversation the last few years has gone from, like, doesn't have to be the most important guy, but has to be just... Just can't be bad.

Just can't be bad. I think it's... I think the pendulum's coming back. I think your goalie in the first round will have to be the most important guy. Yeah. And I include Skinner over McDavid, and I include Samsonov over Austin Matthews. Really?

Yes. Yeah. From what I've witnessed in the last two weeks, you win with great goaltending, and if the other team's guy sucks, they lose. I don't care. I don't care who you are. Yeah.

Colorado, Corey Give, you think they're going anywhere with that guy? No, I don't. No worries about him, eh? Well, I mean, last night, yesterday. He gave up a touchdown? Yeah, six before, too. I think it's been really bad. They played their worst two defensive games of the year colorado but

in saying that like goalies have to be the best player on the ice right now for teams to advance it's funny because you look at where western conference teams were a month ago compared to now colorado couple of tough nights vegas not quite where you thought they'd be canucks not quite at the same level jets not quite you know like there's plenty of good teams and still the stars are great and oilers are humming like i'm not worried about any of these teams suddenly being bad but it just felt like they had five teams in full control who are now kind of trying to find it a little bit gorgia's last five has been four goals two four six six so it's a lot of starting to go in the net.

I mean, he's played every game. He's played 60 games this year. Has he actually? Yes. It's like at some point, that's going to catch up with you. No one plays 60 anymore. I remember I made a comment a couple weeks ago about how we baby our goalies too much now.

There's nothing that old athletes like more than talking about how bad the other generation was. It happens in hoops all the time. It happens in hockey. It happens in baseball. It's just a classic thing. Hope it never changes. It's awesome.

The thing that can never be underestimated here is just they're all talented guys in that who can play when the pressure is on who buckles who finds a way to i don't know get hurt i don't know you look at a guy like demp demko whose playoff experience has been very good you know he's been a good player in those moments that's what concerns me about florida is that bob has he broke through last year where he was bad in playoffs in years past, and that was a huge storyline for them going into last year. Can he keep it up? And then he was just lights out. It's like that is what concerns me, that he kind of broke through on that.

They've had a bad stretch here in Florida. For sure. And he's had a bad stretch. He was no good here in Toronto last week. I really don't worry about them being able to turn it back on. I saw them play Boston on Saturday. It is, though, to your point, talking about Florida, it is the opposite of how they're heading into playoffs

from the year before, where it was the Penguins' route of scraping claw to get in. And the other one, too, for me, keep an eye on, Freddie Anderson in Carolina. He's been unbelievable since he came back. I know. Rid, ridiculous numbers. But the chips aren't down right now. But you're preaching to the choir, right?

Right? We'll see. You're preaching to the choir. Maybe this is his year. Maybe it is. If it is, then, boy, oh, boy, you like Carolina in so many other ways. Absolutely. So if you look around the NHL at remaining schedules,

you know, Florida is a good example where they have Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday, four games left and then an ice break at the end of their season schedule. The Leafs, the Oilers, and the Golden Knights are the only teams who will play six games in their final 10 nights. That's a lot of hockey.

A lot of hockey. And so I want to get your thoughts on how to manage that like where do you feel like players need to play where do they need rest yeah what do you want to see out of those guys well uh yeah i think there's a fine line if we take like the toronto maple east for instance you've got a guy feeling it right now in austin matthews and you've got a legitimate look at 70 like that's a big deal is it no no no it doesn't matter for me it doesn't matter, but to him it does. But to him and to many fans, and it's there. It's reachable. Like, I like Austin Matthews' game the last little while.

Has he gotten lucky a little bit? Is he getting that, does he have the Midas touch right now where we saw Saturday night turns and spins and throws one in the middle and it banks off a skate and it goes in? He's feeling it right now but he doesn't appear to me as a guy that's stressed or changed i like the look of his game it's not a selfish look so he's gonna he's gonna push on and i don't i don't see him feeling

this wave of play confidence getting a couple of lucky bounces to go up to Sheldon and say, hey, take me out the last game. I need a rest. I mean, he should if they're fine. Like if they can't change their spot, they can't change who they play, they can't climb up, whatever,

and he's five goals or whatever from 70. He's not going to be that. Four goals from 70. Then he should definitely take a knee. Look who they play this week. Pittsburgh. You know, they're good. But then Devils twice, who he owns.

I feel like he scores all the time against the Devils. He scores all the time against everyone. And then Detroit on Saturday where he got his 60th against them last year. He scores against them all the time. He's going to be at 67 or 68 by the time we get to Saturday. I'm telling you right now. Well, that will change things. And Sheldon and many coaches, they'll go to their third and fourth lines

and they'll try to keep their stars under 20 minutes. And if Boston can keep scoring and play 18, 19 minutes moving forward, but it's not a 22 or 23 anymore. That's the only thing. A back-to-back. So they play on April 13th, the Detroit Red Wings. Then they have two games left from then until the end of the season. It's a Florida-Tampa back-to-back.

You don't need both those games, assuming you're fine in the schedule. So what are you playing for? Have we not done this? Coming back to the question that I've been asking you guys for four months that I've been worried about this pursuit, meaningless game, 68 goals, last game of the season. He's watching to me. Watching.

He's watching. No chance. You're trying to win a Stanley Cup. You've done the goals thing. Boys, there is 0% chance. If he's one even strength goal from the most even strength goals in a season in like 40 years. He'll have all kinds of records. Okay.

70 is just a round, silly number. Would you like to make a wager? Yeah. Okay. We'll talk offline. Put a pin in that. We will. We will.

What do we make of... You got anywhere else you want to go? Yeah, Brady. You do Brady? Oh, yeah, Brady. Oh, finally. What is with empty net goals now upsetting everybody? All right, let's paint the big picture about stuff like this.

Yeah. In a game, if there's a whistle, and after the whistle goes, you shoot the puck and the other team's net, they're mad. Right? They're mad. At the end of warm-up, if you shoot the puck

all the way down the ice to the other team's end, they're mad. They're like, you know, keep it on your own half. You don't need to shoot on our end.

Just, you know, do your own thing. It is a thing in hockey where it's like, we're just protecting our own net at all costs. Now, that one where they scored

on Ottawa, the empty netter, who lets it slide into the net at the end of the game. That's Hischer. Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine caring about that. Game's over. Like I'd say, he made a big statement about it. He didn't even shoot. He just

let it go. Kipper? I didn't mind it. I thought Brady overreacted. I think it was too much. How does he not have the context of the Greg thing in his head? I'm okay with Brady going to talk to him or even just skating up. But the frantic kind of end-of-the-world reaction

was too showy for me. That's all. I thought both reactions, Greg and Brady Kachuk, were completely appropriate. Oh, my God. What? I thought, I think what he sure did was borderline worse than what Greg did.

What did he do? He's on a break when he let the puck go. The game was over. It ended. We do not agree. The whistle had gone, the buzzer went, and he still put it in the net. He would have had to actively try to avoid it going in the net at that point. The thing that kills me is the Sens fans having

to just do mental gymnastics to try to justify one versus the other. It's beautiful. I have not enjoyed many things more on X outside of Eclipse memes than that. It's 2024, I think. And I live that era where, like, these little stupid little things are unwritten rules

where, you know, yeah, disrespecting us or, you know, following the code or whatever you want to call it. I just didn't see that as like causing World War III. You know, it's funny as we started, was it this hour or the last hour talking about Vladdy smiling after striking out in a big spot? Was it this hour? No, I don't know whenever it was. But like, and your point was like, that's baseball baseball though like it's not hockey sensibilities where if you

blow it you're not supposed to be laughing on the bench i will tell you i got yelled at by my own coaches for laughing in serious moments more than anything else in my career so i kind of was always annoyed by that in hockey the baseball thing is one thing but in basketball after a play guys shoot all the time yeah you know what i mean no it's different i know it's different but it's like why is it different because the sport has decided it's fine you know when people get really pissed off in basketball when the game is in hand and they're supposed to be dribbling at the clock and someone tries to run that's the same parallel and i forget who it was that did it i think it was coran butler did it to a guy in the raptors

in a meaningless game when they were already up, and he came over to shake hands, and he stole the ball and ran down and dunked it, and they were already going to lose. I get it, and I think, you know, true serum, you're asking he sure. He did it to piss him off, 100%. You skate down, and the game is over. He doesn't care about Ottawa. The horn has gone, and you feather.

He did that to piss him off. To Sammy's point, you know if you're going to shovel it in the net long after a whistle, somebody's going to do, somebody's going to say something. Something's going to be, there's going to be some repercussions to it. Whether it's just an FU from afar or I'm going to get you next time. Whatever the case is, you know, something's coming. So he was willing to go down that path.

I just think that if Brady could have took something off of the reaction, he still could have sent the same message and the same kind of feel like without looking like it's the worst thing in the world to ever happen to us. And I will say this, though. Like, I like that Brady hasn't rolled over on the Sens. That he still cares. Right? Like, it'd be very easy season over. But just to go back to my earlier point about it being a little too showy at this point, it's like, buddy.

You're watching it. Your team has so underachieved this year. You were supposed to be, if not in the playoffs, be one of those teams fighting for it right now. One of the crappy teams. That's exactly what I should do. You guys lost your playoff spot when you lost six in a row in december now you act like this where was that in december it's been there from brady all

season he's never not been there literally always acts like this you know i don't know i'm not talking about brady i'm talking about the team. And he represents the team. So, right? Again, it's like it's too late, Brady, for this reaction. And I'm sorry. I know who you are. But you cannot separate yourself from 19 other guys. You're all painted under one brush for me.

And for me, it's too late. Yeah. It's way too late. For that type of reaction. But I agree. That puck gets put in way after the whistle.. Yeah. It's way too late. For that type of reaction. But I agree. That puck gets put in way after the whistle. For sure. That's what I mean.

Five seconds after. There's a term I love to use for some people who act a little bit over the top. It was very extra. Very extra. But it was almost as though he had to show that he was pissed off about it. To prove a point. Yes. Right?

That we're not going away quietly. Sens fans can no longer complain about the Morgan Riley reaction, huh? This is almost too good to be true. Empty net goals with the Ottawa Senators. Yeah. Code, code, code. They should be worrying about getting someone

a goal. How about finishing a game with a goalie in it? Did you guys see Steve Gazzari get hit by Hayden Fleury? And that pens the game? Neutral zone there. Oh, my God. Yeah, he's all right. Yeah, he's okay.

Expecting to make a full recovery or whatever. To me, it's amazing. Like, I've always, this is one of my standard takes in NHL. This is the George Costanza. You can't believe more planes don't crash? I can't believe how little you notice the four extra guys out there. Yeah. Like, truly, the job that NHL refs do.

They're pros. To stay out of the way and not involve themselves. Sometimes they involve themselves and they call stupid penalties. But they're just never really in the way. Like, once every couple games, maybe. But that was as hard as I've ever seen a ref get hit. It was awful. Awful.

Thoughts with him? Hope he's doing well. Yeah. But they're really, to your point point they're really good at that they you know they're along the wall six feet they're dodging they they split d-men right there you know what always kills me is when a really good when a ref has like a spot on the wall and a guy goes to dump it in and hits the ref and yells at the ref it's like he was there it's like where would you like him to go buddy he's somewhere so you know a little bit of vision guys always blame the linesman for that other uh injury to report there miko ranton and oh my hit hard by matthias at home his head on the ice i mean a massive blow to colorado i don't know how

long he'll yeah i know he's uh concussion protocol missed last night against alice what i heard he's he's been back on the ice he's working out okay and uh more precautionary than anything like i don't know i mean we've seen before 24 48 72 hours all of a sudden somebody doesn't feel well again but as of now okay he's he's well on his uh on the road to recovery here now jack johnson goes to fight him after that ekholm's like what i'm not it's a hit he had the puck on his stick and it's the cleanest hit yeah i mean he times it well he almost pulls back from like extra running him and it and the way randon goes down he hits his head on the ice i thought it was a great

decision by ekholm not being like oh i have to stand up for myself for that one great play by him unfortunate bounce for him and stupid for jack johnson get a penalty for what he did yeah louis de brusco on the broadcast was like you know like the guy's allowed to go over and say he doesn't like his guy getting concocted i didn't see anything that warranted the guys see like the other thing too is like there's a there's an element of of letting the air out of the balloon a little bit and that's what a fight can do sometimes whether you think it's right or wrong or whatever the code is for you but it does alleviate but without it now it's like okay what's going to happen next yeah right? So an eye for an eye. So the next move, if he's not going to fight,

the next move is go get Conor McDavid. Go take a run at Leon Dreisaitl. So do you think it would have been better for Ekholm to just say fine? Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. But that's the danger is that, okay, you run one of my great players, I'm going to go run one of yours. I'll slash him. I'll do whatever I can. But that's how things build up,

and that's how sometimes you need an outlet. Yeah. Or you say, hey, listen, you had a problem with it. We dealt with it. Yes, exactly. Now we can move on, and now we're even, but we're not even. I've got to go get one of your guys now. This segment of Real Kipper Unborn was brought to you by Hyundai.

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