Real Kyper & Bourne - Olympic Group Stage Impressions

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

With the group stage out of the way in Milan, Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne, and Sam McKee reflect on the Olympic hockey we've seen so far and look ahead to the knockout stage. Sportsnet's Sean Reynolds joins them (5:40) from Italy to share impressions of Canada's men's and women's teams through three games and what changes we might expect in the quarter-finals. Then, he discusses Tom Wilson's fight against France's Pierre Crinon, whether there are any roster-construction regrets, and the pressure on Macklin Celebrini. Later, Nick and Justin regroup with Sam to discuss France suspending Crinon for his fight, Matthew Tkachuk chirping Leon Draisaitl, and mixed perceptions of Auston Matthews by Team USA fans.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.

Getting in another hour of the Real Kipper and Born show. We are live on SportsSet 360. 590, the fan in Toronto. Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, 960 in Calgary. Streaming always on Sportsnet Plus, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. This hour of Real Kippenborn brought to you by Bet365. Happy family day. If we can't be with our own families, happy to be here with our second family. The work family, if you will.

The work family. I like it. I see you guys so much more than my regular. I don't know if that's a good thing, Sammy. No, probably not. There we go. Still a little meat on the bone in terms of seeding and qualifying for the men's. The women often running what we think is going to be another Canada U.S. final.

Although Canada's got some work to do out shooting Switzerland now. by an incredibly wide margin, but only up to one. This absolutely smells like Canada, Latvia, was it 2012 or 2010 or 2014, I forget. 2014. When they absolutely pumped Lafia, Latvia got good goaltending,

and all of a sudden you're going like, they should win, they're way better, but it's hockey and hockey stupid. That is an overarching thing of single elimination hockey. That was their quarter of final matchup in 2014 was Latvia. They had almost 60 shots in that game.

So Krista's good-leveskis. Shea Weber scored the winner. In the meantime, we're going to catch up with Sean Reynolds, of course, doing a terrific job covering the Olympics for us for Sportsnet in Milan. He'll join us in a few minutes, help us tee up, how this thing's going to kind of play out. Now, are you guys getting the sense that some people are just not happy with the grouping and whether or not, you know, it should have been revisiting.

especially with the... No. You've got no sense of that at all? I've got zero, but I've got a sense that you've got a sense of it. Are you alluding to the article that James Burrell wrote in the athletic? Yes. Okay. Yeah.

And others who have said to me that they just don't understand how the U.S. could have had such an easy seating. I will vehemently oppose this view. I absolutely think it's been perfect. Okay. I think it's really good for all of us to get to see, you know, this assemblage of superstars, even playing against countries

that don't really have a chance against them. Italy. Yeah, it's fun to see the superstars get to fly. For the Italians, it's fun to get to play against the best in the world and be on that stage. I kind of lose interest with the superstars like a hot night through butter for 60 minutes.

Yeah, well, that's fine. But that's okay. I mean, do you think that is? Do you not lose interest watching Columbus, Utah, in January sometimes? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it happens. And you're going to get some games like that. Italy's trying their hardest. Canada's trying their hardest, whoever they're playing. We're coming around now to where the good teams are going to run into each other. It's just a little patience here, kids. I got to tell you, I'd fully enjoyed the preliminary round. All of it.

Flawlessly. Yeah, the 20 goals I watched my native country hang on three nations. That was fantastic. I'd watch it again, to be honest with you. It just can't go any better. No, I mean, I think it could have gone better. Jordan Bittington would have couldn't let in that second slap shot against France. It could have gone better.

So does that scare you? Does that worry you? Is it always the one that goes in that worries you? Like, the U.S. with Swayman shouldn't be too happy. So do you see Emily Kaplan just reported they're going to change the board color for the quarterfinals and going forward? Because he lost the puck. Yeah, the puck, you know, ticked off Boldie's leg, came out of the dark boards and changed whatever and he's lost in the boards he's colorblind and people are saying like that matters it's a

dark thing against a dark thing pretty powerful yeah pretty powerful when you can get to the ring to change just colors yeah okay but look look on tv right now the boards are dark why are the boards dark hockey puck is black so boards are white after the first round of watching olympic hockey for the first time and 12 years skippers monday take is this sucks no it's not that it sucks I'm getting a sense that... It stinks. We'll see what happens. I'm dying for Leafs Sends on February 28th.

Germany should win. Yeah. What match of who did they got? They got France? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, likely for the quarterfinals, if we're going, if there's no upsets,

it's going to be Canada versus Czechia, U.S. versus Sweden, Slovakia versus Germany, and Finland versus Switzerland. Those are four real good hockey games to me. USA Sweden is interesting, right? like USA is going to if they were to beat Sweden in that game they would get likely Slovakia they'd get the winner of Slovakia Germany

Yeah So like it seems like they either lose to Sweden And it's a catastrophe It's a catastrophe Or they're in the gold medal game And then you're going to start hearing about the seating Wow I mean I already saw that I already saw them tweeting about how they've had a lot of local times

That they're starting late Oh I know They're already laying the groundwork here 940 Yeah local time I mean I plan 11 p.m. starts as Camlin. It's not that bad. And you've already had a couple of cold ones by then.

These are the challenges of the event. You're playing a tough golf course. Play it. Sorry. Sean Reynolds now joins us from Italy. John, how are you, my friend? I'm doing great. How are you, Kipper? Good, good. Thanks for joining us. Sure, appreciate it. We were just speaking of the women going at it.

It was a fargone conclusion that we're going to see Canada, the U.S. I'm not sure what information you've got up until that of this point, but it's just a one goal game. And I know we've got to get you off the air well before this game's over, and we'll do that. But overall, just give us your thoughts on both sides of, I guess, the continent. You mean with the women? Yeah, with the women, with the men, just overall the vibe that you've gotten so far.

A feeling of both Canada and U.S. going to this foregone conclusion. Yes, okay. So atmosphere, it's great. I'm not much of a soccer guy, so I didn't know about the tradition of Europeans when they're protesting, the officiating, you know, you make a bad call.

The whistle. Back at home, it's booze and ref you suck. The whistling, that's a really interesting thing. The singing, the kind of, the goal songs, everything is, it's a great experience. It kind of reminds me of how Nashville took and made hockey its own, kind of with that collegiate type atmosphere in different places like that. It's fun.

The players, they're clearly, clearly gobbling it all up. They love it. American women, they're dominating. I mean, this hasn't even been close. To be honest, if you take away their results against Team Canada, the two, they don't have that much different results against other teams, but it has been so long since Canada has put a dent into this. team like head to head. It hasn't been a competition. It wasn't a competition in their last game.

And if the Canadians can pull this off, it's getting pretty tight here down to the wire. In order for them to win a gold medal, they are going to have to elevate to a place that they have not been close to for probably a year's time or longer. And then you can see Team Canada men's team and the Team USA men's team. They seem to be a cut above now. Who knows? Maybe. Maybe. what the Finns went through right at the beginning, talking to the Finnish journalists, they thought this was over for the Finns,

and they were right out of it. Now they kind of come back, bounce back, they get into that forest seed. Things don't look so bad. You guys were touching on the idea that the Americans are very likely playing the Swedes, and then they get to the Slovak, so it ends up being one of these things

where, as you'd said, if they lose to Sweden, it's a catastrophe. But if they get past that, it's sort of a clearer looking path to get to the gold medal game where Canada's going to be playing you know, the winner of, what is it, Denmark and Switzerland, I think it was? Denmark checks.

I think I've got that wrong. Check, yeah. So, Chequia, I mean, they could pop up. That could be, you know, tough for the Canadians. But it's almost looking like the Canadians have the tougher path if they do get Chequia. And then you've got the Finns who are sneakily kind of coming up here. And then whoever you see in the final there. So right now it looks like it's Team USA and Team Canada.

tournament so far. But, you know, that's the beauty of the Olympics. All these games, you know, the other team seems to kind of make, you make the upper team sweat a little bit. And if they can catch them, put that pressure on. Who knows, maybe we could see an upset. But right now, you guys were talking about the favorites getting through. I think that's fully what we expect here. It's funny, too, like the Swedes not having a great start to the tournament. They're still the Swedes. Like, it's not going to be an easy path for that American side. So curious to see how that one plays out. Let's focus on the Canadian men. basically perfect.

I mean, that went exactly as we would have drawn it up. Top line looked good, like the second line, third line's good. Everything's gone okay. Do you get the sense that there are any changes in line heading into their likely quarterfinal matchup against what would be Chekia? Yeah, I don't think in that maybe Josh Morrissey draws back into the lineup. They're waiting on Brad Marchand as well. I think he's someone that they'd like to have back in the lineup.

and you probably see Seth Jarvis pop out after that. But you guys, you know, you use the word perfect. And, you know, clearly nothing is perfect. But boy, oh, boy, if Canada was going to draw up what they wanted their round robin to look like, that's what it would have looked like. And I mean, just all the things that, you know, some of the players like Bo Horvatt and Nick Suzuki getting involved in the scoring, the new players, Macklin Sellebrini, you know, all this worry about a young guy and okay, he's great in the NHL,

but can he, you know, elevate at that level? That kind of mindset cost Sidney Crosby back in 2006 when Canada thought you don't take young players to tournaments like this. I hope that Macklin Celebrini and what he's doing here forever puts to rest that ridiculous notion. And Team Canada doesn't galaxy brain themselves going forward, leaving guys off the roster who are clearly good players. Celebrini's been absolutely unbelievable here. But McDavid, I mean a point per game pace at a tournament like this, I think, thought it was fascinating. We talked with John Cooper and he talked about the Four Nations and that Connor McDavid said to him, I really didn't feel like I played very well and was upset with

his performance. You know, hey, I just went out and scored the tournament winning goal and everything like that, but wasn't happy with how he played there and wanted to elevate and that's exactly what he's done. He's on a mission. This team is on a mission. Just kind of everything is going their way right now. Everything that they could have proved up until this point they have A lot of people talking about McDavid and McKinnon know differently than we did Gretzky and Lemieux.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's funny. We were shooting some TV and when they put that line up, Nathan McKinnon, Celebrini and Connor McDavid, right away my mind went to, and I would have been of, I don't know, something like nine years old or something

like that, the 87 Canada Cup and Gretzky and Lemieux going on a line. Like, if you guys can think of a better line that has been put together since that time, better than what we saw from Celebrini. You know, three of the top four scores in the NHL right now, I can't think of one. To me, it should go down as one of the greatest lines of all time. And, yeah, I mean, I don't put any of those players.

I know a lot of people talk about Connor McDavid, and they say by the time it's all of sudden done, they'll think that he's the greatest player of all time. I mean, maybe it's biased because when you're young, you grow up and guys seem bigger than life. But Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky are still, you know, another level to me and them being on the same line with something else. But boy, oh, boy, like talk about an embarrassment of riches. Hey, we need to get the top line going. Let's just put Nathan McKinnon on it.

I mean, it's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. John Cooper just has to be, you know, smiling when he gets to look at this lineup car. And I'm pleased that he's given a. that, right? Like you want to see, what does it look like? Put the boys together and let's see. It's like watching Crosby out there with McKinnon and McDavid on the power play. It's just really cool to witness. But I wrote a little bit today about how much I've loved Tom Wilson with that line. Gordyhow Hattrick last game gets into a scrap. By the way, that French player was kicked off the earth by the program.

They don't want him to play hockey for them ever again. What are your thoughts? They'll probably keep Wilson with that group, I would imagine. He's been really good with McDavid and Celebrini. Well, what I love is they've found the different looks. And think about this. We saw what happened with the Americans and the Germans, and we saw what Matthew Kachuk was doing to Leon Drysidal, right? And the first thought in my head is, okay, that's the treatment that should the United States face team Canada.

That's the treatment that we should expect Connor McDavid to get from Matthew Kachuk. Yep. Except it's not so easy to do that when Tom Wilson's right there. So I really like the addition of Tom Wilson to team Canada because I thought one of the things that was missing was that kind of front of the net element that nothing else is working. The U.S. are really great defensively guys.

You've seen it. If Canada ends up facing them, they're going to be hard to score on, they're going to be hard to generate against, and sometimes the best way to do that is to do it the way he got his goal the other day. Just get the puck to the net and see who can stop Tom Wilson.

Right? So he's a good fit on that line. I think it's smart for John Cooper to have gone and taken a look at this line and said, okay, we can just switch these two players. And now this line goes from being extremely dangerous, but having this edge to extremely dangerous and having this edge, I think it's smart to do that. The one other thing I think John Cooper has done a really good job of here is for the most part.

It's almost, you know, maybe I don't have this right. But because Sidney Crosby is tied for second in this tournament. He's on the third line. really do feel the way that John Cooper has run this team is with the top six, like a traditional NHL, we've got our two scoring lines, we've got our third line, and then we've got our fourth line that doesn't get out as much. He's feeding Connor McDavid as much as he can get out there. Now, that can be tricky if you're an all-star team, and if you're a guy like Reinhardt, who's sitting there on the fourth line and not getting out there very often, that can be

difficult. But I think it's the right way to do it. You know, if you're just trying to roll the same amount of time for each line, then no stars get into the rhythm that you're trying to get them into. So I think you get a couple lines, get the Nathan McKinnons of the world, the Connor McDavid's of the world, into that superstar rhythm. And then you just hope that on your third and fourth line that those guys take the time that they have and just let their skills show through. Sydney Crosby, no surprise, has been the best guy at doing that out of their bottom six. But I think running it like a traditional hockey team, sometimes again, you can gals.

Galaxy brain yourself. Canada's been maybe the worst country in the world in hockey at doing that in the past. Maybe they've learned those lessons and they're moving on. You're watching and listening to Sean Reynolds, Sportsnet reporter in Milan, covering the Olympics for us sports net. So we know on this side of the ocean how we felt about watching Tom Wilson fight. I think we all like laughed and chuckled and what did they expect, right? NHL, all of that. And then we know how France feels about their player as they, don't think it's in the spirit of Olympic competition,

so they give them the boot. But overall, how did that play out over there? And is it still much of a talk? Everybody's put it behind them. They're moving on. It's just something, Sean, we don't see in the Olympics. Yeah, I mean, Nathan McKinnon was really upset about it. Not about Tom Wilson, but about the hit.

I mean, he talked with us afterwards, and he said that on the ice, the player apologized, to him and he said, good, I guess. You could tell you he wasn't happy about it, didn't think that there was a place for that at that time. I love your thoughts on this Kipper because it's an interesting situation. In the NHL, if you run up the score on a team, what do we always say? Show some life.

Go out, fight back, get in a fight, do whatever. When you run up the score on a team, guys get pissed off, and then you start to get the rough stuff going. That's exactly what happens in that game. So you've got a system where Canada needs to. They're required to get that first seed. They needed to run up the score. They need to get as many goals as possible.

And so you're basically under a system that is encouraging the other team to get rough. And then you don't have those same rules that you have in the NHL where the players can police that and say, if you're going to get rough, this is what's going to happen. I mean, I don't know. If you're hearing it on the broadcast, there's a lot more, you know, they've got a lot. access to a lot more. Up in the press row, everyone was watching this happen and thinking, well, is this Tom Wilson's tournament? Is he going to like run himself out of this tournament right now? I think that's a little bit of the concern if you're the players. You made the point. Tom Wilson has been really important

for this team, not just for that kind of element, but for what he brings to that line, the different kind of offense he can create. It's not a player that they want to lose. So it's interesting because hockey has been refined over a century in Canada to have these defined roles and how you police the game. The rules here kind of clash with that and created a little bit of a situation and a little bit of a blind spot that I thought Canada did a great job navigating to make sure that Tom Wilson wasn't lost for too long to this team. Yeah, it's going to be fascinating to see how much usage some of these guys get Sam Bennett,

another guy who plays a little bit like that, see if he gets some more minutes. but it's been fun. You know, I think a lot of what we do, and we talk about it for years leading up to this, is who should they take, you know, and we play that game all the way up, all these fake lineups and everything. After a 20 to 3 preliminary round,

it's really tough to second guess anything. Do you at all feel like, hey, maybe Schaefer over Sandheim might have been the answer. Hey, maybe they're missing Zach Hyman. You know, when you see it in practice, sometimes you get a different sense. Obviously, things are going well so far, but do you feel like they left anything on?

at home that they could be using here. Well, first of all, I always coach this by saying there's people who make a lot of money to make these decisions that I would trust over me every time. So every time I second guess these kind of things, I feel a little ridiculous doing it. I'm thinking somewhere if this ever plays in the people who are responsible. Yeah, yeah. But for the people responsible for leaving Matthew Schaefer at home, they're sitting here and there listening to me, okay, Sean, we'll take that, you know, under advisement kind of thing, right? Back to what we were talking about, I mean, I think it was really smart to bring Celebrini.

I think when you'd hear the conversations before the team was said about, well, Celebrini is great, but he's a little bit too young. As a guy who in 2006 was pulling my hair out when they left Crosby off that team at that time, I was thinking, don't make that same mistake again. The one thing I will say, and it's going to sound maybe a little bit ridiculous, but there's been times that I've seen Celebrity play here, where he does look a little bit young. And I think John Cooper has had some talks with him about, you know,

maybe puck protection and some of the decisions that he's made. You are talking about one of the most elite and mature young players in the history of the game. But he's young, and he's still making some of those decisions here or there. You've got a great team that's basically overcoming that. But, you know, those young moments may still be in the future. They may happen in the quarterfinal, in the semifinal, and the final.

And if it ends up in the back of your net, that's the moment where people will turn around and say, well, it's all great that he became the highest goal-scoring teenager of all the time at best-on-best Olympics, but in the most crucial of moments, his youth showed, right? So I do see the element of the argument to, like, leave younger players at home. Do I think Schaefer should have been there? I do.

I think he's amazing. The stories that I've heard from players off of New York, who have basically said, like, he walked in and he became our culture. I've been in this league for I don't know how long. I'm a great player. And all I can do when I get the puck is look around and see where's Matthew Schaefer. I need to get him the puck. Like he's a leader already on that team.

And I think having a game's under his belt to take him forward for 2030 would have been really, really valuable for Canada. That said, if you've got another guy on the back end and there's that element of youth, that element of I've seen a lot and I'm way ahead of where I'm supposed to be, but there's still some things that I haven't seen. And if it catches me at the wrong moment, it ends up in the back of my net at the worst possible time. That's a tough decision to make. So I do understand the decisions that are made to try and make sure, especially with the depth picks on this team,

that they're guys that they just feel have been there, have done it, and aren't going to get caught with any kind of, you know, haven't been there moments. Sean, great stuff, man. Really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule. We got the women's game wrapping up. Hopefully in less than two minutes, we'll let you get back to work, pal.

Thanks. Well, I missed you guys. So I'm glad you reached out. I feel free to see you so while I'm here. They look great. Enjoy Italy. Sean Reynolds, everybody. You just wonder if they hit some adversity now in meaningful games,

like how patient will John Cooper be to keep Celebrini on that big line? Or do you drop them down? and if so, now you put yourself in a position of going, okay, did I pull them off too early? Should I waited? If you get to that point. Yeah, the other part of that too is like, other players will make mistakes too,

but for Celebrini when he makes them, we'll go, it's because he's young, get him off of there. You know, like how much patience are they going to give him? Will they at least let him make the same amount of mistakes as everyone else before they draw that conclusion? It's one game that we're worried about. I think they are going to be, I mean, here's idiot looking past Czechie and Finland, two proud hockey nations that have had history of playing us tough.

I understand that. But we're talking about what Celebrity is going to look like in a potential gold medal game against the U.S., and that's a huge moment. I'm not worried about it. I'm not either. I got to tell you, I mean, BX has been fabulous throughout the games, but him talking about the confidence he's showing playing with Matt David, demanding the puck from the best player in the world.

It's like, that's when you see that. A shift he heated one up, one T. But he hunts puck's down too. Does he ever? Right? Yeah. It's like it looks like a nothing play, but he'll go, he'll go close a gap on somebody. And then next thing you know, two passes later, it's a goal.

Coming out of Pops of Pucks and just making guys miss, deception. And he's, he's shifty, man. What did you make? I mean, we talked about it a little bit with him, but would you guys make of the Wilson moment? You know, Wilson is just a guy who has a sense for the moment. Kip, you often talk about guys not knowing when to do. do it. And to me, you know, McKinnon takes that blow behind the net. It is seven minutes left in a game. It just felt like the right time to show awareness. But I, he wasn't the aggressor

to start. No, he just went and finished his check. And I don't think it, it escalated to where he wanted it to go. No. To be honest with you. That's what I win is. Well, because Crin didn't want to fight him. He pulled him down the second. He pulled them down. Exactly. I don't want to fight this. Right. And so I think he's doing his. best. I think Tom Wilson is doing his best to be really conscientious of not hurting the team and going to his strengths, which is finishing checks and maybe putting a puck in the net or making a play every once in a while.

But yeah, I had no problem the way that that whole thing played out. Yeah, I thought he did a good job. Right. I thought he did a great job. And I don't know, we can talk about this now or after the break, but like France, like bailing on this kid. Yeah. No good. Bad.

I'm embarrassed for France. It's funny you say that. They were so circumspect about bringing him. They didn't, you know, it was like a controversial pick as this guy fought a goalie, I guess, and got suspended for seven games in the French league this year. So it was controversial that they brought him in the first place. Then this happened, and they didn't necessarily say it was about the fight,

but he was given this to the Canadian fans on the way out and, you know. I mean, what do you think, awesome? Oh, no, I don't care. No, that's like, to be clear. If I'm a French hockey fan, my, our nation's greatest moment. Like, that he got the jump on Tom Wilson

and got Tom Wilson down and like stood in there for a second. Like that's, what's a better hockey moment in French history than that? Take, take whatever you want out of it. But the only thing I see is that you brought a guy in to be a part of your team and you're bailing on them. And yes, our game has shown over the course of history

that, players make bad decisions on the ice. Yeah. And we can go through a hundred years of them. Yeah. Right? From Marty McSorley to Brad Marchand, licked a guy's face.

Now tell me where that is in the spirit of anything. Right. My point is we don't bail on players who make bad decisions on the ice. We don't. That's our history. He's one of your guys. You go down with him if you have to,

but you don't bail on them and you don't punt them to the curb because you feel like it's unbecoming of you now. No, I'm sorry, you're in it together. You don't bail on them. Bad. You know, it's tough to...

Tell me I'm wrong. No, but like, it's just... I can't, Kep, I can't. It's clearly very different sensibilities when it comes to how they view hockey. Like, they viewed it as... Well, they don't know how to win. No, well, clear.

a win in hockey. Clearly not. Part of me, you know, is I've been trying to not make the joke that their French are all, you know, just so used to surrendering. They're not used to seeing, used to seeing someone go back at them. Don't you know that's not our thing? We lay down. But no.

That's exactly what they did. And I didn't, you know, I don't like the kid. He went at McKinna of a cheap shot. You know, you know, I first thought was leave shit sign him. Well, I'll be honest. I'm telling Sam, walking the dog today. I was like, I wonder how old he is. Like, just wonder if some of Americans.

American League team would like, he's 30, he's playing in the French league. Like he's not a player. He would get, he would get, of this way, he would get cocked in the age. I don't care. I don't care. I'll just sign him just, just to send a message. Yeah. I don't know.

I just, the fact that he did that and like, I just, I love Tom Wilson. Was it bad? Howe in the Olympics is unheard of. No, but was it, what's the guy's name, Belmar? Yeah. Pier. Pierre and Moore, Belmar, by the way, incredible career. Yeah.

see him out there doing it. But like Tom Wilson went and talked to him and basically was like, you guys want to do this? Like you guys want to play like this? Like I know it's 10 too. No, no, ma frere. You don't want this. You don't want this.

I love that conversation. And then he goes and finishes his check and buddy gets a jump on and pulls him down. And like, I think it's a really good thing that he did that because he probably would have got like it probably would have turned into a bad thing for you. You know, we're saying the guy's name. He knew it was his chance to be in the space. spotlight. He took his moment. Way to go. Pierre Crennan. Yeah, listen. He said his name on Canadian sports radio talking hockey. So good for him.

Game time? Game time. It's game time. Instead of by Bet365, visit the app play the Stodz. And see why it's ever ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 plus. Ontario only, please play responsibly. So four games on tap for tomorrow. Italy versus Switzerland is the first one, France versus Germany at the same time. At 6.10 a.m. Denmark, Czechia, 10.40 a.m. And the lake. Any chance for Denmark in that game? And the late game is Latvia, Sweden. I was going to go through the all huge baves. Germany is a minus 800 favorite over France.

France is plus 550. And without our boy, Crenton, there's no chance to win in that game. Leon's getting three. Yeah. Switzerland is minus 2,500 favorites over Italy, as you would imagine, because I thought Switzerland looked pretty good against Canada, even though they lost 5'1. Chequia is minus 450 favorites over Denmark, the smallest favorite there, plus 350.

very similar to what Canada was versus them in the opening game. In the last game, it has Sweden as minus 1,000 favorites over Latvia. So Bet 365 is predicting a Sweden checkia, Switzerland, Germany Day. So, yeah, I was just going to quickly see if I could find the odds for the women's final. As our women won 2-1 over Switzerland to set up a final matchup with the states, I think on Thursday afternoon, if I'm not mistaken. Can we just have the talk? Can we be?

Let's wait the break. And let me do finish this off and then we can have the break. That was game time. I said by bet three, six, five. Visit the athlete of sod and see why it's ever ordinary at bat three six five. Must be 19 plus. And Terry only, please play responsibly. Okay.

Give the tease of after the break we're going to get into what. Do we need to be worried about the Canadian women? Feels like Poulan is the only one that can score and she's almost going to retire. Does that mean more generally? All right. Okay. We'll talk about that after the break. break also

Matthew Kachuk, choice words for Leon Drysidal. I want to get your thoughts on that. Interesting. Right into his kitchen. Kevin Fiela loses his season. We'll get into that as well. Plenty more when we return to Real Kipper and Bourne.

Everything you need to know about the Raptors and the biggest stories around the NBA. Smith and Jones. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. A reminder of this hour of Real Kipperman Bourne brought to by Beth 365. Nick Kippreel's Justin Bourne. Sammy McKee.

Derek Brandale. I don't think I mentioned Derek Brandeer at the top of the show. I usually do. David Siss, boom, bah. We're all set. All right. I got that in. I was mentioning before the break,

Matthew Kachuk on the ice. They've got the mics right now, so stuff gets picked up. It doesn't get picked up actually on. TV, but somehow the internet always finds it. And he's just giving it to Leon about always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Right. What did you think?

Ouchy, ouchy. What do I think? My first thought is it's unnecessary. Yeah. Right? I don't really like it. I get it. You're looking for competitive edge.

getting in a guy's head, frustrating him. I get all that. I've lived it all. I've lived it all. I've seen it work. But I just think too highly of Leon. And I don't think Matthew needs to go there with that guy. Just so much respect for the competitiveness and the way Leon plays.

And he's there representing a small hockey country and doing his best to drag him into the fight. You know, I'm with you. I don't, I think it's obviously it is disrespectful. and it's intended to be disrespectful, and that's hockey chirping, and so I'm being a snowflake. But that one, I don't know, they'll love it personally, whatever. And then for me at the same time, it's like, if you switch Matthew and Leon on any of these teams

where Matthew gets to be the bride, they still win. And it's the other guy. There's a lot of luck involved in this. Anyway. Yeah, like, I don't think you're good to chirp when your team would 100% trade you straight up for it. Yeah, that's a great point. Like, if you, like, if the oilers called for like,

yes. He wouldn't even, like, he wouldn't even finish the sentence. But he, you know, he won. He gets to do it. And that's part of who he is as a player. That's part of what people like about him. Competitive, you know, never take your foot off the throat sort of thing. And I don't know.

Are you a karma guy or not? Because Matthews, one loss away from being a gold medalist. gold medal or Canada versus U.S. bridesmaid, right? Four nations now, gold medal. You might be 0 for two. God, the states are so high if they play. Right?

And maybe that's what makes it so for Sammy and others like Sammy who just continue to love the stakes being so high. Do you see Jack Michaels tweet today? He tweeted, you know, Kachuk's chirps are all well and good, basically. And he called them pre-planned these chirps. And he said, but, you know,

It doesn't record what, you know, when he doesn't know when the mics are off or whatever. And he shows a bunch of the American guys walking by fans, not giving him high fives. Canadians walking by the same thing. Given all the Canadian fans some love for being there. That doesn't bother me so much. No, it doesn't bother me. It's just interesting that, like, it offended, I think, a lot of people, particularly Oilers fans who love Leon.

Oh, no, that part does. I'm just talking about, like, you know, whether you come off the ice and slap high fives. It does. It does. It's not hard. do and it means a lot to people. It does bother me. He's filled in the Danes. You beat the Danes or whatever he did.

Like, come off. Slap hands a little bit. Particularly when you're the one staying in the village because you're there for the experience, you think you want to be one with the village. Now, Connor is best friends with Leon. Avenge? I just...

I assume that's just another reason for Connor to want to just stick it to the U.S. You know, it's not impossible that the Germany could be Slovak. in that quarterfinal matchup and that Leon could see Matthew again. I'm not saying they would beat him, but I think he'd be looking to give him one or two if he could. Viewer sent him to Matthews. Do you want to talk about Matthews?

Because he's been a lightning rod. The Americans have, Matthews thought we were mean. The Americans have locked on to him. Yeah. I don't think anything's really going to change. He still has the ability to score two goals and an assist, but he's just, he's not going to do it with, with a tremendous amount of flair or, you know,

he's just, he's just set up right now as, as you said, a lightning rod. He's just not, he's not, he's just not going through people like Brady and, and Matthew, and he doesn't have that. And it's, people are noticing it. I have a thought on this. If he wasn't the captain of the Toronto, May, please,

none of this would be talking about. interesting. It's just the easy target. Well, if he's not the captain of the Toronto Maple Leaf, he's not the captain of the Utah Mammoth, no one's having these conversations. It's because they know, because whoever sends a tweet out from America,

they know that it's a big, bang, it's going to hit. Like, I mean, listen, we do it every day. We talk about Austin Matthews every single day because people are in team we cover. That's what I mean. I'm not dismissing what you're saying. It's a cheap pop for. people just be like, oh yeah, Matthew's Choker, Matthews this, Matthews that.

Like, it's just, it's an easy pop. It's a little sprinkle on being a leaf. It's a huge factor. No, it's not a huge one. Definitely. No, he's a 70 goal score in the NHL and one of the fastest scoring players in our history. He would have got it anywhere, Sammy. I disagree.

Yeah. No, that's just, you're being a little too Maple Leaf centric right now. Well, I just think that. The guy is historically ahead of Ovechkin in scoring goals. He would have had the attention. attention anywhere. What do you think people love doing that are outside of Toronto

more than making fun of Toronto as hockey fans? It's the number one thing that people do. And you're super sensitive to it. No, almost swore for the first time in a long time. No crap. No duh. Of course I'm sensitive to it. But I just find it fascinating that

I think he's, what is he, fifth in the tournament and scoring. You know, he's got five points to the first three games, three goals. I mean, and you're going to be like, oh, they're playing against crappy teams. Everybody is. Like, it's just, he's been totally fine.

and I've had to have multiple people sending me all this stuff about how he's he sucks. Listen, it's just, one of the worst things you can say if you're in a relationship or anything like that is the word fine. Nobody wants, he's fine. Nobody wants fine. No one wants fine. He's been better than fine. I was your date last night, fine. Fine is contextual though, right?

Fine's not great. Three goals and two assists leading his team in scoring. You're not saying. not fine. Conor McDavid is fine. Well, yeah, but he knows he's been excellent. And I shouldn't say that Matthews, he's been leading the Americans in scoring. Yeah. But people want to read tweets about how he's losing a face off to a guy in Denmark.

People, when you're linked to greatness, when you're linked to greatness, they want greatness all the time. They don't want fine. I'm just saying that like, it's, like, it's just like Aaron Judge, if he was playing, when Aaron Judge plays for the world baseball classic this year, I'm assuming, Yankees, he will take get way more criticism than anybody else because he plays for the most popular team that's the most fun team to make fun of that people hate the most he will take the criticism by far the most

it's just you you don't think so but i have a hard time to deliver and they have to do it in a with some flare they do it's funny how small the sample was that it didn't happen fast enough so you know if he had two and one in the first game no one writes an article so like where's brady kachak at i don't know like i'm just quickly looking at the points. I thought it was very funny. Do you see Katie Nolan? Talk about Brady Kachuk. He's like the greatest thing since sliced bread.

So he has B Kachuk on his jersey and his brother just has Kachuk. If I'm not mistaken. He's the one who got the initial and Katie Nolan tweeted, take the B off Brady's jersey and sew an M on Matthews, which I think is a very funny, like put it on Matthew Kachuk. He needs the initial Brady's the Kachuk. Yeah, he's definitely the better Kach. I don't know. Which is fun.

I just find it. hilarious. Listen, if they lose, he thought Toronto was bad. He's got all of them, Eric, mad at him, because he will be the guy that everybody blames. It's, it's... On the other hand. The score two and a three-two loss or some.

He can captain the greatest thing that's ever happened to him, too. That's the upside for him. I think I'm not to go too long on this, but I mean... Yeah, I'd love to be done with this now. But just, I think it comes down to a lot of the Americans complaining about it is that there's not a lot of spots where they have an inferior. priority complex when it comes to sports, but they look at us and we own them.

We've always owned them when it comes to hockey. And they see what our leadership core is. And it's Crosby, it's McDavid, it's McKinnon, and they're measuring their guy against us. It's just not a fair fight. I actually think we're probably skipping over what we're watching from Connor McDavid, like it's no big thing.

Sean Rattell says he's a point per game. He's actually a three point per game player so far. And he's like a slip street. behind him. The whole game is just falling in behind him. It's tough to put greatness into words. He's playing a different game. It's unbelievable.

If you were watching him at like Junior or something, he'd be like, okay, he needs out of this league. He's ready for something harder. The goal, I think it was to start the third period where it goes back into the Canadian end. And it honestly felt like

under five seconds or like under two seconds. Yeah. And the puck's in the back. That neutral zone is so small. It's one stride. Celebrity hits them, cuts it to the backhand, slides at home. It's happening fast out there. It is. Especially against France.

Nice to have them on our side. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah, go ahead. I want to ask you about a leaf thing. Can we do a leaf thing? Yeah, sure. Jeff Skinner was on unconditional waivers today.

Yeah. Tell me no. I would think that he'd be of interest to the leaves for sure. Tell me no. Well, why? Why? For what? If you move McMahon for a pick, you wouldn't want something to come in and fill in.

I'm good. Yeah. No, I'm good. I know. But they're not thinking like that, Sam. They're not. They're going to have to pick up a few assets and still make people believe that they can stay within five or seven points for the next three weeks, four weeks, five, three points out. Yeah.

So he's got an expiring contract. It's not. expensive. He has expired ability. So hold on. You're going to claim him off unconditional waivers for the purpose of buying out his contract. You're going to claim him off those waivers. No, he's going to play.

McMahon's gone. You're going to plug him in as the NHLer who's going to fill McMahon's minutes while they try to make their playoff. Well, you're trying to drive Matthews at a town planning with a man stick Skinner on his slag. Listen, full respect to Jeff Skinner and his career. Come on. It's been great, but we're not. It's not helping with the least to you right now. I'm not saying it's happening.

I'm just saying that those are the things that have to be discussed. So he would be... Oh, people would be discussing it. He would be bought out by them. Like, he's on unconditional waivers, and then the lease would sign him to a $750,000-dollar contractor. Somebody would? Like, is he going to have interest around the league?

I don't know how it's going to play out. I would imagine he wants his money, all of his money, so he doesn't want to be bought out. So I don't know. It's not an issue for the Leafs. Money's not an issue. It's just a matter of if you're going to move assets out. The Leafs, if they miss the playoffs,

they got to still have the impression that they're going to push Sammy. There's no white flag for them. It's not a Sammy look for them. It's true that they're, you know, since you're giving up your pick, you're just not incentivized to lose. So you're kind of trying to win as much as possible. It's a nothing burger. But like to me,

Jacob Quillen is far more what you need. You know, someone, give me a six two guy runs into people and tries. If they decide to move Lotton, then yeah, he's there too.

But they're going to need bodies. Anyone else down there? How's that Haymes kid doing? If you're shifting, if you're shifting out bodies for draft capital, you still got to fill those spots in this year and next year.

Yeah. I mean, you know, easier said than done. But it's true, you know, the Leafs are allowed to trade four players that are going to be here. If they intend to win next year, guys with two years on their contract, whatever,

I'd like to see them try to find some real solutions, personally, than just stop gap in a way that won't stop the gap. But anyway. Slim pickings out there, guys, that's the problem. Yeah, but they don't have to pick. There's no pickings for the Leafs. Like, they don't need. Lots of time to talk about it.

Kevin Fiala, we, last time we saw a name. injury like this. It was John Tavarous, right? In Vancouver. Broken leg. Well, Ellie just makes the trade to get Panarin, right? Like, they're trying to make a real push this year.

And then they just lose the guy. You know, basically now they're right back to tread and water, right back where they were before. A score out, score in. That's a shame. Well, you just hope that still a lot of hockey to go. You don't want to see anybody yet to lose their season. Didn't see any blame for Tom Wilson and all that.

I don't think there should be. Okay. Good. Did you want to weigh in in the curling controversy? I mean, it's the finger touching the line or over the line. The internet's unbelievable. Have you seen some of these things that are out there? The greatest thing ever. It's just so.

I saw one where they were like, where it's the figure skaters and they're doing the falls and it's like Mark Kennedy coming in and like poking at their skates with it. Is it cheating? Sammy, do curl? I do curl. I've tried it. I asked around the club on Saturday morning. Ooh, you did some research.

I did some digging. I would say general consensus. It's a no-no. It's an extremely gray area where it's maybe into unwritten rules territory and not sure what the actual advantage of him doing that is anyways. It would be if you immediately recognize you didn't put enough oomph on it, right? Do we need a camera over the net, like the puck crossing the line? Some sort of straight down cam?

I just, I think curling needs some more FU matches. I think it would really help the popular. Not a fan. Not a fan of the mics catching all that. I'm a fan of all that. Listen, then you have to be on your best behavior and you cannot start FUing everybody. I'm sorry, but I'm drawing a line on that as well.

I'm proud of our Canadian reputation as polite and nice and whatever. It's fine to be competitive. But I actually don't like how that all should go. There's a way to state your case without drawing. dropping F-bonds. There's some guilt in that rear reaction. There's definitely, you know. Me thinks that the lady doth protest too much.

I don't know if the actual line is. Yeah, yeah. I enjoyed it. And I've enjoyed the memes that have come off the back of it. So it's been good. Any. Bob Sletters, did you catch their interview after? I did.

Dropped a bunch of pucks in deep of good Canadian boys. Did they win a medal? I honestly don't know. But I want to shout out our Bob Set team for getting the hockey references is in there. So they got interviewed after. I don't know if they won a medal or not, though. Do we know, Sammy?

No idea. Okay, but they went into this full-fledged, typical, cliche, NHL player after the game with the puck's in deep and... National identity. Yeah. And this guy here on our other TV,

Trent Mischot, I believe his dad threw a puck on the ice after, big hockey fan too. Your puck on the ice. Like as a tribute to his son's huge hockey fan, tribute to him, whatever. He's hoping to bring some good luck to the Canadian men's team. So shout out to them too. Love the overlap between the sports.

All right. So tomorrow there's do you think in any of these four games, which will be the upset, if there will be one? So how bad do we think Sweden is? Because I saw someone being like, oh, well, it's too bad the U.S. has to face Sweden. It's like, well, they finished down there for a reason. Everybody thought they'd be right there with Canada and U.S. Like, they used to have higher-end superstars. Like, right now it feels like Willie and then, I guess, Raymond. Their decors where... It feels that you used to be like Peter Forsberg and like...

Sundeen. Yeah, yeah. The Siddins. I wonder like that they're top in. Sweden is not losing to Latvia. No. So none. So none.

No. Can they find it then and give the Americans a push? Can they start to find their game? Finland seems like they're finding their game. Yeah. I think we killed them on here. I definitely killed them because everyone from Finland was saying that the coach, no good,

no one's happy playing there. And he'd need Paul Maurice. And they're just like awesome since. Yeah. It really should shape up USA, Sweden, Finland, Canada. Yep. That's probably what. Bennington's our guy, hey?

We're just doing Bennington. No one has any doubts. I thought Logan Thompson looked fantastic against the Swiss. Really good. And then it's hard to tell. So tomorrow we're five to six again, Sammy. And Wednesday we go back to four to six. Correct.

And then Thursday, back to five to six. Our thanks to Sean Reynolds. It's covering the games for us. All right. Sit back and relax tonight. Have a nice meal. Read a book. Read a book.

Talk to your family. Go zigzags. What time tonight, Sammy? 9 p.m. I don't know if I'll make it home a time. I won't be able to get to sleep because it's so late. You know, wired. Those Americans.

I don't know. If you get a chance, give us a rating and review. We'd love to hear from you. Have a great night, everybody.