Real Kyper & Bourne - Pre-Olympics Check-In with Ryan Getzlaf + Players-Officials' Relationships

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee discuss Kyper's slight hesitancy towards the upcoming Winter Olympics and Team USA's decision to add Jackson LaCombe due to Seth Jones' injury before being joined by former NHLer and now Player Relations Advisor for Hockey Canada, Ryan Getzlaf (13:05) to chat about his transition into the organization, if there's any concerns with the Olympic rink, juggling roster decisions, their options if Brayden Point can't participate, and working with the NHL's Player Safety. Then, Nick, Justin and Sam touch on star players' relationships with officials before reacting to the Buffalo Sabres signing a seven-year contract extension with forward Josh Doan.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

All right, let's kick it into the national gear on the Real Kipper and Born show. We are live on Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, Sportsnet 960 in Calgary, and streaming always on Sportsnet Plus, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube is where you need to go to also follow us. This hour of Real Kipper and Born brought to you by Bet 365. Nick Kippreel is Justin Boren, Sammy McKee. In a few minutes, we'll welcome in Ryan Getslap, former National Hockey League. now working for hockey Canada as a player relations advisor. And we caught up with him at our Easter Seals charity event earlier on this season.

Yeah. Fun guy. That's kind of where, I was like, oh, this guy's fun to talk to. And we've been wanting to get him on since then. And you gave him a hard time about the jerseys. Yes. And I also bent his ear about Ted Nolan doing the off-the-bench play. with Latvia, where he sent the guy off the bench

and the guy changed and he had a breakaway. A cross play. Yep. Fake back in, top cheese and Kerry Price. So yeah, it was fun to talk to him. So get him on again. Plenty to get into with Ryan, including a fast approaching Olympics.

Like this thing is right around the corner. Seth Jones now officially out in Team USA. We haven't heard anything. No updates on Team Canada. regarding Braden Point. But can you imagine like dealing with this day to day and getting injury reports

and follow-ups with doctors and projections? Like what a pain it must be. Yeah, you know, one of the things I'm interested to ask Ryan about. Here we go. Sorry with the pun.

Oh, yeah, but here we go. What a bother this Olympics is. Oh, yeah. Oh, this is so. What a pain. There's an NHL season going on where people are trying to win a Stanley cop. I get it.

But I think if you're going to have somebody be injured, it's probably a guy on the team that your head coach or your Olympic team's coaching. Like, I'm sure there's probably a pretty constant communication between John Cooper and Doug Armstrong in terms of what Braden points status is. But I thought it was interesting. Lacombe got put on the team and not Hudson.

Habs fans are pissed. Hudson's what second in points among D in the NHL right now? You know, it's funny as I saw someone be like, what else does he have to do? It's like, well, there's other. things than points and there's other things when you're building a team and they have Quinn Hughes, they have

Brock Faber, they have small skill AD I just think it's a needs based thing more than anything with Lecombe. How big is Lecombe? I think he's bigger. Oh yeah. Jackson La Come I believe he is. 6-2-6-3? 6-2-10.

Yeah. It's a lot of person. Right? And he's not exactly inept. He's got 31 points in 49 games this year. He's he's a darn good hockey player. So I am curious, like, is Lane Hudson the next man up? If someone else is hurt, probably. But I guess it depends who gets hurt, too.

If it's Quinn Hughes, definitely. So TBD. I just, yeah, I guess Jackson Lecombe's pretty young, too, but it's just a lot to ask, to go and play. Like, I think it's pretty incredible that Macklin Celebrating is going to be such a big part of Team Canada. He's really young. Like, to send Hudson into some of these games that are really high impact and just, like,

There's no doubt he'd be good. Like, no doubt at all. He's awesome. But you're trying to, these games are, every time Canada and USA plays, it's 1-1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, like, it's tight games. And Hudson's been known to cough a puck up here and there. Like, that's what it could come down to.

You're avoiding. Yeah, it depends your manner of thinking. Because to me, it's like he'd be the next guy to break that open. They've been so dangerous at the end of games. Saw it again last night. So, yeah, it's going to be fascinating to see if they made the right choices. just watching McDavid last night play against New Jersey and Cova Savage took a pretty big run at him.

Yeah. Last night. Yeah. And the only thing I'm thinking of is like some of these guys are still just a hit away from not playing in this thing. Of course. Yeah. I mean. But him.

Sure. Yeah. Especially him. Yeah. I mean, like we're all just a hit away from. You know, the other thing. The other thing, too, is like... Yeah.

What's your point? My point is, especially in Edmonton, is maybe not play the guy 25 minutes a night every night. Well, you're preserving him for the Olympics? Well... Oh, so you're eligible to be hit there. Preserve him, more importantly, preserve them for after the Olympics. Like, this is New Jersey. They're playing New Jersey, one of the worst teams in the league.

and he's playing 25 minutes in regulation. If they go into overtime, that guy's at 27 or 28. Yeah. Like how much you want to squeeze this guy out? Because once he gets into the Olympics, it's like more of it. Yeah.

I am curious to see, are you able to find out his Four Nations minutes? I don't remember how much he played in those games. I can't imagine it's nearly as much with that with the other good players on the bench. Here's another point I want to make. Does you have to play in every Olympic game? Like, just pick,

the important ones. Don't worry about some team that sucks. Don't play them. So what? John Cooper's going to be like, let's do the Oilers a favor and rest McDavid. Oh, let's make sure he's healthy when we go into a metal game.

Yeah. Do they play Denmark? Is that one of the early ones? I think they play. No, Sam, would that ruin your enjoyment? Yes. You're watching enjoyment.

It's your whole point. So make sure he plays so he can win 11-2 against, I don't know. Germany, Latvia. I'm not going to make it through this. But you're just going to argue. No, no. You should play.

All right. Connor played, thank you, Brandeo, played 2056 per game at the Four Nations faceoff. Two of those games went to overtime. So, you know, I feel like you. I'd be nervous if I was an earlier fan. Yeah. I mean, we know you would be.

Everyone's going to be your, like, you think the Colorado Avalanche fans who's sending their entire starting lineup to the Olympics aren't nervous? Everybody's nervous. Florida Panthers are sending, more than any other team in the NHL, they're sending 12 players to the Olympics.

Like, you know, a lot of non... Half their team. Yeah. And there are a couple points behind the least right now. Like, like, ah, I was pretty sure about Florida. We're going to do a bit tonight before the game. Like, I think they're going to get in the playoffs,

but that might be enough. That's really going to hurt Florida. What are the Leafs send it for? O. Oh, yeah, Matt. Matthews, Willie, and Willie maybe not. Who knows? They've dug themselves in a hole here.

Pretty big pit. And the problem, again, isn't just the points. It's the other teams. You go 500. Someone's going 600. A couple people probably are. Can you imagine making the moves that they made, the commitment to Bennett

and the commitment to Mershant and then missing the playoffs. Florida, is that a possibility? So the worst five, Yeah, it is. Worst five on five goals against per 60 in the NHL among players who actually play, like 500 plus minutes. Morgan Riley's the worst, Willie Nealander's second worst. Third is Brad Marchand. Then Nick Jensen, then Max Domey.

That's the five highest goals against per 60 minutes on the ice. So Brad Marchand has not exactly been the shutdown defensive stalwart that I think that they were, they pay him to be. He had a great start getting his points. but leaky defensively. Also Morgan Riley, again, the most in the NHL against. Just thought I'd throw that in there. It's working on Ryan here. Okay.

We've got some Zoom. Issues. Yeah, at this moment, they are issues. I do forget once in a while that I am the producer of the show once in a while, so just working on Ryan. That's all good. Listen, we had a drop, our first dropped call the other day for the first time in, what, two years, three years, Sammy,

you've been on a hell of a roll. Tell Getsy, Dollywalfe. figured it out. He can figure it out. Well, we can get him. Dolly had a tough first day with it. He got it after that. Thank you. If, alone, he's producing. Since the Easter Seals tournament,

is he getsie to you guys? I just getsyed him for sure. We're having a live television here. We're having a disagreement of opinions between two people. I'm trying to figure that. Talk about yourself. All right. Well, we'll carry on. So tell me

why we feel this resistance to the Olympics from you? I don't have necessarily a resistance. I just, I'm not sure the payoff is there when it comes to shutting down the league and giving them access to billion dollar players and in return you get one. What? Just the feel that you're part of the history of the Olympics, I guess.

But that argument, the in return you get what is the perspective of the NHL owner, right? Yeah. So this is just, well, not the owner. I think certain fan bases as well that. I think most fan bases love this, though. Like the playoffs is dangerous, but that's a risk you want to see them take for the action. You know? Gary, Gary Bettman in the league and the owners were smart enough to use it as a,

as a bargaining chip. Yeah. Right? And the players kind of fell into it a little bit. At the end of the day, it shouldn't have been used like that, my opinion. It could have been one of those things. Like, you want us to go, we'll go. You don't want us to go.

We won't go. But we're not giving you something back for you giving it to us. But they do want to go. The players. Yeah. Oh, no. Connor made it abundantly clear. But I also, I hear that the general rank and file also likes this break.

You know, like this is a nice little hiatus in the middle of the season. You're speaking of owners or? No players. Like if you're not going. Yes. If you're, they're all, they're all in Turks and you're going to the Bahamas. And yeah. Yeah.

You know, I think there's some guys that are like, this is a good thing in February. Can we do this every year? Now, I will say, I get the idea of why the World Cup is so appealing. to the league, right? Like, you can play NHL rules. Get those guys want to go at it, they can go at it. I'm for one that was almost shocked at the four nations and how hard the guys played and how it meant something.

And of course, there was that political scope at the time that played into it with Canada and the U.S. that helped build it up. but it still, I think, didn't take away the intensity that I just thought we wouldn't see. And I was almost shocked, to be honest with you. I am curious how much of that was just that it was pent up. What was it a decade since we had had best on best? It had been a long time.

So that was part of it. You know, if it's every two years, you're going to get that sort of fire out of the gates every time? Probably not. But I know the World Cup, like there's no. oh, hey, the Italians don't have a rink ready yet. They're like, hey, it's in Boston. We know where it's going to be. Like, you can control all the elements a little bit more.

So I get why the league likes that. And I think whether you're hockey Canada or USA, they hung the Olympics over the players on Canada and the U.S. Where it's like you perform well here. You get a better chance of being in the Olympics as well. Yeah. That's the other thing, right? Which is why it's worse to be Bennett and to have contributed there and not yet to be on it here.

Yeah, that sucks. That sucks. That sucks. He's got a really good case that he's earned it, I would say. So I don't know. I get some frustration there. Maybe you and Getsier aren't as tight as we thought, Sammy. Listen, I'm trying here, okay?

I'm trying. But it's all we can ask. Well, then stop chirping me, man. I'm trying. I'm producing. Like, I'm texting up there. They're not listening up there. I'm not listening up there.

You're hammering me. We're on live television. I'm not hammering you. I'm trying. Golly. Oh, my. Gatsy. You're killing me.

God. Oh, my God. Oh, my goodness. What a buildup. Ryan Gets laugh. Wow. I thought it was something Sammy said to you, maybe changed your mind. You're good?

This is, this was quite the. ordeal trying to get this thing. I'm not exactly technologically advanced either. Well, you're doing great. Thanks for joining us so much. Of course, good portion of while we were waiting for you was over the Olympics, of course, and it being right

around the corner. From your perspective of your involvement with Hockey Canada, just give us a day to day on what is really going on up to the buildup. Is it more about solidifying the roster, not knowing

who's healthy, who's in, who's out. Is this an hour-to-hour thing, day-to-day thing? It's kind of a day-to-day thing now. I mean, with the, you know, roster spots and you deal with injuries kind of leading up to, we saw a move today by the Americans. Just the way it is, when you're leading up to the tournament, you pick the team this far in advance.

There's always going to be certain things that happen between when we name the team and when we're going over to Milan. So we're still paying close attention to the players that we have eyes on. Ryan, the title player relations advisor. I know sometimes people just make up titles because they're like, we want you around, we want your input.

What specifically are you doing with Hockey Canada? Well, it's kind of changed. I mean, the whole thing I've been with Doug and Scott Salmon now for about a year and a half, two years, and been going through all the world championships, the four nations, all that stuff. And I've been kind of growing as it went along. with the GMs in every meeting and just kind of there to bounce ideas off from a player's perspective

of someone who's around the game a lot, been in these events before. And I think that's what originally started was the fact that we were going to that Four Nations and the majority of the team had ever been to a best on best event. So I'm able to kind of give a perspective from somebody who sat in that seat. Ryan, a lot's been made of the rink. And will it be ready? will it not be ready? Of course, we are all of the belief that they will play, right?

You guys are going to play. And that is the most important thing. But from a player's perspective, the stuff around the ice surface, how important is that to the players? Of course, there's family and friends there. Could the fact that other things aren't quite set be somewhat of a distraction, in your opinion? Well, I think that it can be for sure.

And that's kind of up to the players and up to us to kind of limit those distractions. And I think that there isn't a better organization in the world than Hockey Canada at limiting distractions. They've done their homework. They've had guys over there on the ground. They do everything in their power to make sure that everything is taking care of outside of hockey. There's always going to be things when you go to the Olympics. That's part of the experience. And I think that players know that going in.

And it's part of the excitement and the adrenaline rush when you get over there and all the stuff going on around the game. And then you get to just finally put your skates on and settle in. And that's where we're most comfortable as players is when we get our skates on. And we know what that rink looks like and we know what to do when we get on the ice. My very minimal experience with coaching staff was in the American Hockey League doing video coaching. And I thought it was really cool before the games to get to look at the lineup and put together your optimal. lineups. And I imagine as you guys built this team, you did a lot of

what does our lineup look like? What are the game situations? How many players deep did your own list run? How hard is it on a given day for you guys to come up with what looks like Canada's best guys? Yeah, I mean, that's the one benefit and fault that

we have as Canadians is we have a lot to choose from. And when we went through and you're on that whiteboard doing all different lineups and all different things and some things look like they work at first and then you kind of go through it again and we beat that roster up more times than you can even imagine and I'm going to give all the credit to to Doug Armstrong and the rest of the GMs that were involved in this staff. They do an unbelievable job at understanding players from every perspective, every angle,

and you know, I put together this roster of just elite players. You're watching and listening to Ryan Getslav, former national hockey leager and now player relations advisor for hockey Canada as we got set for the Olympics so can you give us a Braden point update? I wish I had one for you.

I think we have a meeting actually tomorrow that we'll probably get more of an update but you know hopefully for us and for Tampa sake Braden points back healthy and ready to go for us. Okay let me rephrase this. So without naming names are you involved in

conversations constantly if this guy gets heard. Who do you like to go in? Yeah, we're constantly going through our roster and our backup players, so to speak. I don't, that's not really the correct term as backup, but we have a list of guys that we're looking at. And obviously, what injury happens determines on what spot you have to fill. It's not as simple as the next man up. We're in a situation where depending on what part of the roster gets hurt or what part of the roster isn't able to come. We have different guys. in different areas that we need to fill those holes.

What's it going to look like over there for the players? Like I know some of the amenities are maybe a little off. Do you have any idea what the whole setup's going to be? Yeah, we have a pretty good idea right now. Like I said, Hockey Canada's had boots on the ground there numerous different times. These guys work their tail off to make sure we know what's going on. So, you know, things are going to be okay. I mean, we live at an elite standard when you talk about the NHL

and the way the players are treated, the way that we travel, all that kind of stuff. And a lot of that stuff is just perspective. When you get over there, you're in the Olympic Village, you're in the Olympic experience. You just take it all in and really absorb the fact that you're in that setting. And things may not be perfect, and that's just the way it is. And I went through two totally different scenarios, one in Vancouver and one in Russia. And we were warned many times that Russia was going to be horrible. And it was going to be a tough experience.

we got over there and everything was great. We had a blast. You know, winning helps, but just the overall experience, you just absorb everything and really sink into the Olympic experience. Ryan, as someone that's gone through the process and lived through it, when you look at Macklin-Colabrini coming in and just how young he is, is there a thought process on how you play him or where you play him and how if it's called upon,

you wait a little bit before you thrust him into any more of, of expectations or responsibilities. I mean, it's incredible how young he is and now going into that environment. It is. And you know what? Macklin showed us a lot at the World Championships that he belonged there. And obviously, he's played throughout the start of this year.

He's carried him on. But luckily, from my perspective, that's John Cooper's job. to use as players as he sees fit. And I think John's going to develop such a relationship that these guys, they'll go through a wall for that guy. And I think that Macklin is going to go over there with and gain experience, but also we expect him to be a big part of our roster. And he's earned that right.

And he's shown us nothing that the moment's going to be too big for him. That's great. So obviously the goaltending is all short up. Do you guys have any idea who's going? We need to know who's starting night one for you. you got? That's a John Cooper question. We need to get some other people.

Yeah, John Cooper's, you know, he's going to go through his roster and go through everything. And that's up to him from now on. Now, you're also currently doing player safety as well in the NHL, right? Yes, sir. And how's that? I mean, this league is way too squeaky clean for me, cats. Can you get it going? Like the goal he fights the other night.

Terrific stuff. That was awesome. It was exciting. But no, you know what, being part of player safety, I've learned a lot about the league and the different ins and outs of it. And I think that, you know, we're having a squeaky clean year, knock on wood.

And that's a good thing for the game. I think when you're talking about, you know, the things we want to see out of the game, we haven't had a lot of instances this year. And that's good for us. I mean, I'd rather be bored watching hockey than having to be busy going after guys. The game's at a great place as far as speed and scoring.

And, you know, and there's still things like the other night that are that are part of our game. And we felt that, you know, obviously they were part of the game and not an area where we need to step in. So do you know, last one for me here, just do you know, you've had a taste of everything? You're at the league. You're with the GMs. With everything. Do you know what you want to do within the game? Do you want to manage?

Do you want to coach be with the league? What's your end game? Yeah, host a show one day. A host a show. No, you know what? I don't really know the answer to that to tell you the truth. I love being in management. I love the idea of putting a roster together

and understanding what it takes to sit in that locker room. Those are probably the direction I'd like to go. I don't think coaching is really in the cards at the moment, but you never know. One more for me, Ryan. And that was, I caught you earlier. You shared, I don't know what podcast you were on, but you shared the thought that maybe certain players may not want to play in certain markets.

Toronto was mentioned. Let me ask you something. Is it more today with these players than in years past? I mean, in my era, of course, you could look at a guy in a small town and go, maybe he's not that comfortable in a big market. But is that a bigger issue than it has been in the past? I don't think so. You know, my comments earlier were a little bit taken out of context and the fact that they brought up a few different things.

But I think when you're talking about a small town kid or the way these kids are raised now, all the markets are, they're great. I mean, going to Toronto and having the opportunity to put that jersey on, it has so much history. And these kids, they love that. They thrive on that. So I think that there's, you know, there's an area, there's a decision made by every player when it comes time to where he wants to play, what his family wants to do, all those things. And I was fortunate enough to stay in the same place my whole career. And I made some decisions at the end that were based on what was best for my family. And ultimately, that was staying in the whole time.

Interesting stuff, man. We really appreciate you coming on. You got it, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. The great Ryan Getslav. Good stuff.

He's great. I really enjoy talking to it. He's an awesome guy. And you know what? He's just, some guys, you kind of need to pull things out of him. He's just,

he'll tell you how he honestly feels. Yeah. At the end there, was he implying that he could have come to Toronto and just wasn't the best thing for his family at the time? Oh, I have no idea about that. I was wondering about that. I don't know if you caught him.

But he just talked about the challenges sometimes with certain markets. And, you know, it always comes back to the taxes or, you know, the media market in Toronto. It comes back to you. Trapes is never coming on after our leaf shower. He held his feet to the fire. Just had that old big bad Toronto. It's always our fault that all these guys want to leave. They never want to come here.

I didn't mention your name and the pressure that you. you put on guys. It's all her fault. We should have. I didn't mention that, you know, you plug your nose at certain players if they signed for too much money. I didn't mention any of that.

Yeah, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. No, no, it's all good. It's all good. All right, the, while we do game time and get to the other side of things. I don't work for you? I'm not producing.

It's game time. It's set by Bet365, visit the athlete of Dodds and see why it's ever ordinary at Bet 365, must be 19 plus on terror only please play responsibly uh five or six games on ice tonight uh including justin born and why he's wearing a very fancy outfit today i'm going to prom no we're getting a bank loan from you i mean the youtube chat has uh submitted some peeky blinders some peeky blinders stuff uh that you look like the mob pinstrap they wouldn't feel that way

if they watched you play the game yeah probably not Way too nice. Anyways, Kimber just hit a berry. I'm just saying he's the sweetest guy you'll ever meet. There's nothing peaky about him. That's definitely what you meant by that. I get it.

Anyways. You wouldn't murder anybody on this. No murdering. Leaves and Red Wings tonight. Leafs favorites tonight. Minutes 25 on home ice. Red Wings plus 105. I guess it's, you know, the death.

from the Leafs looking to get back on track. They got to keep one in to keep their place in the playoffs. I was going to quickly look it up here if I could figure out how many, how to bet Patrick Gain getting three points tonight because it just feels like a lot of different players get their milestones against the least. Oh, that'll be a bench clear too, won't it? Would that be a bench clear? Most points by an American-born player with the Red Wings all come streaming off the bench

and stop the game. Would they? No. No. No? I hope not. So Patrick Kane to get three points tonight is plus 1,400. Give me Patrick K to get three points tonight.

Jeez. I think that is absolutely a bench clearing situation. No question. That's a bench. I mean, they cleared the bencher, Awesome Matthews, being the all-time leader for the Toronto Maple Leafs. What's a bigger accomplishment? In goals?

Yeah. They did, yeah. Yeah, they definitely did, right? Oh, here we go. Everything is a band's a player. between a club and country country

big difference I think it clears well I hope if that happens I hope they do it for every country I hope when Uvis Balinski's leads Latvians

and points the Florida and the Panthers all come off the bench Hey here's what I'm saying it may not happen tonight but we'll bet some grill marks on it that the bench is clear when he gets to the league

okay so yeah Patrick Canning get three points tonight plus 1,400 that was game time to set away at Bet365, visit the athlete of thoughts, and see why it's ever ordinary at Bet365 must be 19 plus. If you're only, please play responsibly. Okay, let's

catch our breath. We return. We'll go around the National Hockey League, including James Reimer, earning a big win for the Sends. That and plenty more when we return to Real Kipper and Bourne. Hey, it's Matt Markeesie, and I'm Mike Futa. We're discussing the top stories of the day across the

NHL and the hockey world. Weekdays at noon. It's the fan hockey show on SportsNeper. 590 the fan and wherever you get your podcasts. As a reminder, this hour of Real Kipper and Born, brought you by Beth 3, 6, 5. What you got, Sammy? Are you looking at me like I got something? You always look like you swallow the canary.

It's a contentious day today. There's this term in radio where, you know, I've been producing shows here for, I guess, probably close to 10 years now. It's called the producer squirms, where like the host kind of makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable with some of those things he says, I got the squirms today.

Grill and drapes. Hitting Getsy, our new friend Getzey between the eyes. I got the squirms today, Kiff. You couldn't get them on at like at the top of the hour. Listen, I don't know what happened up there. I don't know what going's on up there. I'm like, what's his name from Wedding Crashers. I don't know what she does back there.

J.B., do you remember the good old. days where Sammy was behind the glass. I do. You know, there is, there is part of me that longs for those days. Or I could just sit back there and you guys could talk in this. Zone out. Yeah, zone out. You want to back? Stick your fist in Brandeil's bag of chips

every once in a while. Bring Jaja in here. Have him sit in here. He'll have his day. Yeah. He'll have his day. Did you see Lane Hudson last night? I did, yes. Yeah. And so Lane Hudson, it's on Power Play. It's a break in. He's standing here the blue

line and I forget who it was at toe picked. Oh, Felino, Marcus Felino I think. Skating backwards, just toe picks, falls, arm goes up and Hudson gets two for interference. Obviously the ref didn't see it because he didn't touch him. And not reviewable. Yeah. And Marty St. Louis going, he didn't

touch him, whatever. Hudson goes to the box after the period. This is like near the end of the period. The ref came back to the penalty box, which Hudson was still in and apologized. Of course he did. No one feels can't take him out of the box. No, no one feels worse than that official.

She should be able to take him out of the box. Wasn't a penalty. No, no, no, no. Is there ever a world? You can't. There's never a world where you have, like the NFL now, they have this like indiscriminate eye in the sky that no one knows where they are or what they do

and they just come in and they reverse calls where it just, there's a problem. Is that right? Yes. So what you're saying is we're going to hire somebody full time to just be a guy looking for phantom calls. Yeah. No.

No. No. No. I'm trying to find this clip, though. Like, who is that person? I don't know. And what are you paying him? Maybe Getsy can do it.

He works really. Gets he can do it for sure. No. You don't hire somebody to look for calls that are, that's a one every 1,300. There's nothing. We don't see that very often. Oh, there it is. We got it.

Right? You don't see it very often. But so this is actually what's entertaining. to me. So I think on the same night, Connor McDavid is standing beside a linesman and the linesman and him are miced up. And the line he goes, hey, look, I think we got off on the wrong foot tonight.

Or like, you know, basically we're having a lot of battles at the face off circle. And McDavid says, I think we got off in the wrong foot, but we're good now. And he says, Leon, I can't get through to Leon. He doesn't listen to me. You know, can you talk to Leon? And Connor's like, it's just inevitable. That's just the way it is. Connor's like, I'm not even talking to Leon. That's just like he's hot.

You're just going to have to deal with it. So how often when you were playing in the NHL are you bargaining with an official and going? Oh, there's, yeah, yeah. Like, hey, you owe me one. There's some guys that can really, like I listen to that conversation that's running right now with Connor and the official. I think he, I think Connor, I thought Connor played it beautifully.

By basically saying I'm not going to. We're good. At the end of the day, whatever exchange you have, it's how do you want to leave it? Right. Right? You can turn around and say,

I hate the way you do things. You're screwing me. I'm not getting any respect. There's a lot of different ways players could talk to an official and I've seen it. And then you know what he says? Yeah, a little bit here, a little bit there, but we're good. We're good. There's a level of respect.

And that's all the official. officials want. So when you got on the ice for a game, would you know where you stand with the ref? That guy hates me, this guy likes me? Well, I just felt like I liked this official better than this one. I mean, at the end of the day, there's... Would it affect your play?

I've never been accused of being a diver or faker. I've never had any official ever tell me, stay on your feet. I was so friendly with officials. I've got like, we're Facebook. I was really good at trying penalties, though. But it's got to be impossible to not have personal biases bleed into this. Where, after all, they are human beings.

And if, for example, Leon Dricidal, if you're getting berated by a guy the entire game and he's like, you're brutal, what I like, where was that? And then he commits a minor infraction, bang, hand up. Like, how does that, that hashtag? But the other side of that is that I think some of these guys do get starstruck, where they go, it's Leon. I'm not, you know, I'm not burying Leon Drysadle. I'm going to be in the news or it's Connor.

This is one of the best players on Earth. I'm going to cut him some slack. As much as last season where people were screaming, Connor doesn't get calls. And, you know, he's getting screwed on the calls. Well, and that's because those guys are going, well, if I call that every, you know, I'd call five a game. And it's like, well, then call five a game. You know, Connor gets hooked. constantly.

Because if you're drawn up a game plan to play him, you go, here's what you do. And then they get excused of bringing their autograph book to the game. Right. But I mean, so what? Different treatment.

That, like, that there's always going to be that argument about the weather. And I think we've had this conversation in years past, where I think, Borny, your side of it has been give them the LeBron treatment. Give them the quarterback treatment where they're the most important people.

Protect our stars. And I think, I mean, this is just memory of doing 100 shows together. you've been like it should all be a level playing field on hockey. Do you feel it should be a level playing field? I just look at what... I don't know how we got here from Lane Hudson, but let's keep doing it.

Look at what the NFL. Missing calls. Josh Donne and Buffalo seven years, 6.95 million per... Interesting. That's a nice ticket. It's a nice ticket. He's been exceptional this year.

Yeah, he has. Power play. They're trying to build on it. Nice hand. He's hot. What? That Petirca, he might be better than Paturka already and greasier and also Kessel ring. Anyway, talk about that after.

The NFL. has gone out of its way to make offense the priority. They want points on the board. You score, we score back and forth. Don't touch the quarterback. Can't touch the wide receiver. Can't touch anyone except the guy who's got the ball. I think the game has grown from that.

People love the back and forth action. I don't think it's great when the scores in the NHL or 2-2. I think you have to call these penalties so you know you can't put your stick on guys. So Connor can skate fast. Yeah, I'm starting to buy in it a little bit more. Interesting. And I'll tell you what's really driving me nuts is that at times, not only are we not seeing the offense,

we're seeing like six, seven shots on goal in like a period. Right. And it's like 20 scoring chances. What happened here? But you don't. We took out all the clutching and the grabbing. We've made offensive zone face-offs when really has no business being a face off there.

We've done so much. We've given penalties for flipping a puck over the glass. Like all this to open up the game. Yeah. And then some nights, again, four shots on goal. I'm like, it's like watching paint dry right now. Yeah, it's funny because remember, was it when you played when goals were really far down? Or was it coming maybe after that point?

Yeah. When it was really bad. And then they did the lockout, the dead puck era. And yeah, because I think a Ginnla won the Rocket Richard with 41 goals, if I'm not mistaken. And then we came out of it with penalties like crazy. Like penalties per game, we're through the roof. And not that penalties are fun, but it made people stop interfering.

And it helps the 5-on-5 play because you know tickety-tack calls are coming. I don't know. It's a tough balance. The one thing that I love about our sport is that the referees and the officials are accessible to every player on the ice. Yeah, you don't have to. to wear a letter to talk to you can talk there's conversations we heard a great one of course you know between connor and and the linesman and i don't ever want that to leave i don't ever want to

hear that just a captain or an assistant captain can talk to the official and everybody else go that's actually when you know an official's not going to be great at maintaining the game is when you go no no no senior captain it's like okay well we're just trying to have a chat here pal okay so we got on that yeah we I'm just looking at that contract that Josh Don't signed. What's the rush for that one? Well, this is actually a conversation we've had many times. But I think it's a good time to have it again.

No, no, totally. It's the idea of signing Jack Hughes to eight times eight when he's worth 12 and a half almost immediately. But you do risk. It's the lure of the big number. He's played 111. 43? Is it 43 million? I don't know the math.

7 times 7.09 minus 0.05, 7 times. 16, or sorry, 48. 48. It's just, it's just that number. Okay, you can look at everything around it, how many years. Yeah. At the end of the day, I know I've got $48, 50, $60 million in my face right now. And don't mess with that. It's there. And once I say no, I don't know what's waiting for me down the road.

Who do you think of turning down a big deal? Klingberg. Absolutely. And I think his number was 50. 55. And he was offered something close. Now he's lighting it up for the shark. He's fine with the sharks.

But he will never see that number ever again. Like we think he turned down 45 or something like that probably. 50. He turned down 50. He was looking for 8 by. Seven-year deal, yeah. Whatever it was, it wasn't enough. Took a one-by-eight.

He had thought that he could get himself into top-10 status in Dallas. And then you get hurt and your plays in decline and you took a million-dollar contract twice. And now he's... He got four and a half from the lease. Remember when he came off the Ducks contract? He got one year four-and-a-half. One year. Yeah.

That's all they were willing to give him. Yeah. And that was to restore his place on a NHL team. and, you know, he's doing great right now. San Jose's in the mix. We expect them. They already made a big trade. They're going to be in a position to even get better.

Again, when we talk about assets to certain teams like Utah now and San Jose. So Josh Jones played 111 games. 111 games. He's on pace for, you know, mid-50s in points, mid-20s and goals. He's 6-2-200, 23 years old. It would just suck to be like to go online. you just signed the biggest contract of your life and everybody being like,

what a steal for the savers. Like, why would he sign this? It's like that reaction where I'm just looking... Is that the vibe you get? I'm just looking at the reactions, just first blush to Elliot Friedman's tweet about it. And everybody's like, you know, holy steel, master class, Yarmo, what a steal.

It's really screwed up. Like, in my era... You used to have to earn it. You'd have to do it eight times, 10 times before you got a payoff. And usually it was like third. 31, 32 years of age. Now it's the complete opposite.

You're just, you're paid. They're hedging their bets right now. Every team's got to hedge their bets on a deal like that. Yeah. Where, okay. Have you seen enough? Yeah, we've seen enough. Could this guy become a $10 million player in two or three years?

Yeah, it's a possibility. But let's get him at six and a half or seven. And I think the potential outcomes here. So you know, if he gives you this season that he's given you at 23, he's probably worth around that. Call it $5, $6 million. So let's say you're underpaying him. He's worth five.

You're paying him seven. You can live with that disparity, but there's a chance you're paying him seven and he's worth 12. You know, at some point in the deal, and he's fantastic, and it's a massive savings, and then you can really build.

So they tried that with Samuelson on their decor, who's now come around and it's playing very well. They've tried it with a bunch of guys. It's, I'm in favor. If I were, you want to pay for what you think going to get over these years and under, you know, pay beneath the value. I get it. I like it. We do have a clip from

Connor Garland today responding to what Foot had to say yesterday. If you guys want to play it. But the veterans being part of the problem. Derek, I just put it into shows there if you want to play it. But it's just, yeah, he's one of the veterans and he responded to what it had to say. So if you want to play that, that'd be great. I don't think there's any surprise or any

issue with the RN. Obviously, like I said, we lost a lot in a row here. You know, I think he's, I think Fuddy's a fantastic coach. I think he's got a good job with, you know, what we've had to go through this year. I thought early on we were playing really well, really fast. And, you know, we've dealt with some things here. But, you know, as the vets, I mean, we've got to be a lot better. We got to, you know, what he's talking about, just not the play.

I mean, obviously, you know, losing teams do, you know, have losing habits. And we can't afford to have those at our games. So that's something, you know, we have to clean up. But, you know, we also got to play a lot. better. We're going to play faster, harder. And, you know, we're just got to find a ways to win games here. Great response. Nothing to see here. No story. Move on. I love that.

I want, I would be seeking him out from the ownership. They're selling people. Like, do the Leafs or just for any team? Well, Leafs, sure, but yeah, any team. I think he's a great player who was built for a playoff environment. Trocheque from the Rangers. Totally. Those are the guys that you seek out to win Best of Seven series.

Yeah, you know what's really hard, though, like when you're on a losing team, everything you do becomes losing habits or whatever. And I think it's hard to some days just go, we don't, our guys aren't as good as our guys. They got better guys than us. You know, it's like, oh, we got to play harder. We got it.

That's all the stuff you tell yourself when you're on the teams. But you also tell yourself, they got better guy. You're going up against the oil, he's got no chance. They got better guys. But you also tell yourself, like, on any given night, you can win.

Yeah. Right? You don't not try, but I do think sometimes you create these reasons why you're losing when the reason is not that right there. It's not rocket appliances. I mentioned James Reimer going in the other night, getting a win for the Ottawa Senators against Columbus. We don't know when Ulmer. Almark. Oh, Mark, sorry.

We'll be ready here. Not many choices out there for Ottawa. but hey give him some credit here yeah i mean had a you know totally serviceable year last year guys get hot the hamburgler gave him 11 straight wins or whatever he did in ottawa once upon a time you just need someone to give you a league average save percentage i can't even remember the hamburgers actual name andrew hammond right yeah that makes sense ham ham berg berg yeah makes sense but uh there's uh Travis green talked about it a little bit i don't know i saw a quote about them if you want to play it.

They do. Travis Green on Rimer. Play that. Yeah, I mean, you know, our team hasn't wavered from the beginning of the year. You know, James has been around the league for a long time. A lot of guys have played against him or probably know him.

And, you know, a real veteran calming presence, a lot like some of the older guys in our team. And he's looked sharp at the first two games. Here you go. calming influence. I played with James Rimer in the ECHL 300 years ago. You did? Yeah.

Yeah, I played one game for the team. And then the Leafs sent two guys down. I got traded to Idaho. We were in Redding. Yeah. I was going to say a joke about Idaho, but you can't say that on the radio. So, yeah. They're still in the bottom, though.

All right. For the standings? I think probably three or four points back from the hour. They're last in the Atlantic tied with Florida, but that's three points behind the Leafs and five points out of playoffs. So sitting at the top, do we give, do we start talking about Tampa? of Bay a little bit. Give them some love. Yeah, I think they're 11.01 in their last 12.

I think there are 14 games with at least a point. Yeah, extend their points straight to 14 games and Srelli suffered an injury in the game last night. Apparently it's not supposed to be bad. So he's not Olympic risk, injured? 4-1 last night

against San Jose watching Hagel, boys. Love Hagel. Like, remember we were looking at each other like we had three heads when they paid that price to get them of Chicago.

One of the most fascinating least what ifs was Nye's first or maybe a Nize two first to Mark Andre Fleury for Hagle and Mark Andre Fleury at that point. And that Hagle deal was heavily retained. I think they had him for two years at like $1.5 million or something

while he was scored 80, 90 points. They did. And then I love him. Was that Kyle Dubas who said no? Remember there was like the beef where it got out and there was like the Kyle's were beefing about it? Like Dubus was really upset. that that got out and he didn't know how it got out or whatever but you know what probably would

sounds pretty good haggle on the least i don't know it's a tough one because nigh's one of their best young players but it was interesting time yeah still watching kutjurov he is so much fun to watch he's unbelievable hey i just got to throw my two cents into the ring and you know people talking about mvpp races is it mc david is it mckin whatever one of the names you're hearing more is like macklin celebrini you sent me the thing sam about how the second best player on their team by yeah yeah is like is tyler tofoli or something like that i don't believe that the intention

when before gordy howe they created the heart trophy or whatever i don't think their goal was who's the best player in the league who is on a team with the worst second best player yeah like they were like who's the best guy yeah it's the best guy trophy the heart trophy so macklin celebrini absolutely does not have a great supporting cast compared to a lot of these guys. To his team, but not the league. But yeah, to me, we're looking for the best guy.

McDavid McKinnon take your pick. We'll see how the rest of it goes. But so far, those are my two front runners. Celebrini, full marks, not taken away from him. You can't be that valuable if you still miss the playoffs, though. To me, that, it's a bad look. This is, he's so much valuable. I thought some time for that.

And it's like, okay, well, how valuable is he? Because I could stink without him, too. I can miss the playoffs just as easily without. them. Yeah, I think there could be exceptions to that rule, but typically, I mean, if your team is god-awful, I mean... But the Islanders are not God-awful.

They've got good players. Islanders. We're talking about... Did you mention Schaefer, sorry? Oh, no, I didn't mention Schaefer. I was talking Celebrating. Oh, Celebrity. Okay, so they got some good players.

Yeah. No? Do they? They're getting there. They're getting there. I just think the McDavid-McKinnon point race is going to be a left-old. Okay, so would you put you... Schaefer in that MVP?

No, I wouldn't. No. To me, we're looking for the best. I'd hate to know where they are without him, though. Oh, yeah, they'd be much, much, much, much worse. I hope he finds a way onto Canada somehow. Not that I'm rooting for injury, but I... You're rooting for somebody to be like, he's his spot. It's his time. I'm just stepping aside. Our thanks to Ryan Getslav. Six games on tap, including our very own Justin Bourne, goes national next.