Real Kyper & Bourne - Scanning the Second Round

Episode Date: May 8, 2024

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee start the shortened show by discussing where the Leafs are with their offseason plans as the news cycle hits a lull. Then, they look at last night's Rangers gritty overtime win over the Hurricanes in Game 2. Later, to the Avs' 3-goal comeback over the Stars in Game 1 and how a drained Dallas team can respond in Game 2. Finally, Canucks analyst Dan Murphy (30:50) tees up the series opener between Vancouver and Edmonton - the keys to the series for the Canucks, the challenge ahead of Arturs Silovs and the latest on Thatcher Demko.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 get her going. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee, Derek Brandeo, David Siss-Boombaugh. Welcome in to our Real Kipper and Bourne Show, the shrinkage edition. We suffered shrinkage, guys. Were you in the pool? No, no, no. This isn't George Costanza. This is the Blue Jays that take away an hour of our show. They got a win

today. But at least they left us with the national show. That's the good news. So wherever you are watching, listening on Sportsnet, Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver. Sportsnet 960 in Calgary. We're glad you're aboard.

And remember, if you don't catch us live, you can download us at any time. Or watch us on YouTube. Or watch us on YouTube. Give us a comment there as well. And let's not forget that this hour of Real Kipper and Bourne is brought to you by Bet365. All right.

Before we spread it out, including that terrific series that we anticipate with the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers, just here in Toronto, it just seems like it's rather quiet on Sheldon Keefe, to a lesser extent, Brendan Shanahan. We don't expect to hear much, I think, moving forward on Brendan Shanahan, but there are some people that think Sheldon Keefe's definitively done,

and there's others saying not so fast. Who are the others? Well, the others are a few people that are making suggestions that the Leafs are shopping for a coach. They're making calls, and if they don't get the call that they like, then maybe someone stays. Wow. Yeah.

Or maybe not. Yeah, listen. It is quiet. It's surprisingly quiet. I thought Wednesday of this week we would be awash in news. We would be neck deep in hirings and firings. When Kipper, we sat down here, full transparency, the show planning that we did today, Kipper sat down.

He's like, well, we should talk about the Leafs or the Lowe's. What do you want to say? There's literally nothing to say. There's been no news. There's nothing. No, but there is. But that is news. But I'm picking your brains now in terms of were things so bad

that you have to just make a change for the sake of making a change? Like would you fire Sheldon Keefe without a replacement or would you look for a replacement first and then let him go? You guys know I think Sheldon's a good coach. I don't think it's easy to go out there and just find a better coach than Sheldon, but I recognize that something has to change. You cannot do nothing. So that's Sheldon then.

At a minimum, that's Sheldon's job. Could you be on the phone about players and saying, would you do this, could you do this with some other teams and getting a sense that could you change up the core? Maybe, but I presume it's happening. I presume that a one for 21 power play in the postseason and four straight exits sooner than people would have liked is probably a death sentence for a guy,

whether it's the right call or not. I know they're looking for a change. He's probably the scapegoat. Yeah, I just thought we would know by now. I do think and think is probably understating it, Shanahan's not going anywhere. Yeah, I mean,

if there's something that you thought we would have heard about by now, it would definitely be the long tenured president here who, you know, I think he would probably be gone if it was going to happen. I think if there was just one owner, one family owner who could just pull the band-aid, but when you're talking about a Bell and Rogers situation here, it doesn't necessarily work that way

when it comes to letting executives go. No. Buddy, try getting an ad approved to this network. network you got to go through 13 levels of people there's no way so how are you going to get rid of that uh brendan shanahan's title and and not have a replacement already to fill in it's not happening so we're all in agreement there. Right. I mean, reluctant agreement, I would say. I understand everything, yes. I mean, it wouldn't be my first choice, but I understand the thought process

and I understand what you're saying. I would say going into... Reluctance. A reluctant agreement. I would say going into 24-25, the wattage on the bulb of the spotlight Shanahan is in has been turned up. Yeah.

It's a bright light. It's those new high beams. You're driving on the highway. It's Shanahan is in, it has been turned up. Yeah. It's a red light. It's those new high beams. It's a high-weight floodlight road repair. Floodlight. Yeah. Never a boring moment when the Leafs get knocked out in the first round. Yeah.

So, you know, it sounds like things are happening behind the scenes. We don't know publicly what those things are. All right. There will be news. In about 25 minutes, we're going to be joined by Dan Murphy, host of Hockey Night in Canada, connects hockey, of course, on Sportsnet,

and help us tee up what should be, I think, a great series. Man, I hope so. I think it's going to be two. Has a lot of potential. Shelovs? You're going to send Shelovs? Connor McDavid? Vancouver fans are going to hate you by the end of this.

I don't know. I'm having a tough time getting there with Vancouver. The bubble could burst tomorrow, right? Tonight, tomorrow. Maybe never this year. She loves me. She loves me now. Jordan Binnington, once upon a time.

Like, there areerella stories in the past yes yes absolutely it can happen and obviously vancouver is had tons of time to game plan for the oilers they know who to shut down and how to go about it they got tons of good players themselves and a very good decor they'll do their best to slow the pace of the game down that'll be a challenge all right um so we'll we'll wait on murph to get into the the great details of that series but last night we also saw some interesting storylines including a double overtime i found myself um watching it screaming my toe my toe my toe yeah that's a flashback yeah flashback so did you see this did you see the stat I put in there for you, Kipper?

I did not. The Rangers begin a postseason 6-0 for the second time in franchise history, joining their Stanley Cup playoff run in 1994. People talking 94. Everybody's talking 94 from Rangers, Rangers winning President's Trophies to the Knicks being hot. And, of course, in 94, we were running toe-to-toe with game sevens of a NBA final. Wow.

With the Knicks. Yeah. Who lost. Yeah. And I'll never forget on one of those off days. OJ, yeah, I was on a pro-coach. Anthony Mason. Yeah. Do you remember an Anthony Mason?

Yeah. The Knicks. Yeah. Anthony Mason came in on one of our playoff intermissions and ran around the room in between periods and high-fiving everybody. And we're all looking at each other going. Big moment, pal. Can you get out, please?

That's crazy. He's like, hey, it's just hockey. And you guys are like, no, it's our life's work this is a big deal now i go do that on the knicks in their playoff final i'm getting arrested okay i'm not just not gonna imagine you heard make my rounds around the room. Imagine you heard Grady Dick was running around the locker room. Scram, beat it. You'd be like, what? I think Anthony makes it. I was trying to figure out who's the best player left on the Raptors.

And I was like, maybe it's the new guy. Scotty Barnes, maybe. Good point. But at least we didn't blame him for losing. Yeah, that's good. That was a good thing. But there's so many of these kind of, you know, OJ making news, OJ making news.

So let me ask you, when the, every time, I believe it was the Patriots who were like 17-0, and all the Dolphins guys of the perfect season were rooting against the Patriots. They didn't want another team to have a perfect season. Do you find yourself rooting against the Rangers so you're the last team to have won the cup with the Rangers? Do you want to be the yes for the first maybe 15 years and now you're ready and now it's so over

yeah right like because you know it's a selfish thing right like they win the cup and they're going to forget about us yeah for sure but guess what they kind of forgot about us already yeah and it's not it's not my generation they they'll never forget but the kids are all looking at you like yeah nah i've forgotten you i think that happened with you know my dad's islander teams where you're like you know you want to be the team but then eventually it's like when they have success your names get brought up again and you're brought back into it oh that reminds me of that year. So if Rangers go to the final,

they think they're calling the alumni down there. Oh, yeah, then you're cheering hard for them. I think just bringing us back to life for these comparisons is really cool for all of us in and of itself. Yeah. So if there's a lucky charm for them, maybe that's a fun way to be a part of watching something right now. But still a long way to go, right, for all of them. Yeah.

But it's looking good so far in terms of the balance that they have, the goaltending, Panarin. Power play looks like a different sport. Lafreniere putting the puck in the net. The pace of these games, like Carolina plays fast as is, but the Rangers can kind of hang with that. So this game this game you know this series is feisty and mean and fast it's a it's a great series i i can't believe the rangers ended up pulling it out i just figured carolina they just keep coming yeah waves and waves of shisterkin was fantastic and first time

coach peter laviolette mike keen first-time coach for the Rangers. First-time coach coming in. Wanted to get more experience in. I don't know. I feel bad for Gerard Galland. I think he's a good coach. But right now it's looking like the right thing that they did in terms of Laviolette. Do you remember our Laviolette interview last year?

Yes, he was good. It was one of my top five interviews on our show. He was really, really good. He was really good. He knows his stuff. He was good. All right, let's go to Kipper's clipper of head coach Peter Laviolette on his goaltender, Shusterkin.

He was fantastic tonight. Both goaltenders had to make big saves or the game would have went in a different direction. But he was, I thought he played a heck of a game. He made, and then you're in overtime too. And when your goaltender is making those saves in overtime, I mean, when you do it in the second period, you got maybe half the game to fight back.

But in overtime, those saves have to be made. And he was fantastic. And like I said, I thought we got better as the game went on. I thought he got better as the game to fight back, but in overtime those saves have to be made, and he was fantastic. And like I said, I thought we got better as the game went on. I thought he got better as the game went on, too. And I think it's just natural to stick up for your goaltender. Guys are going to jump in there, and they know how important he is to this team, and they're going to defend him.

You know, I love that move by Feshnikov. That's old-school hockey. Greasy, get a piece. That's old school hockey. Greasy, get a piece. He's like, hey, this guy is really good, and he's a huge reason we may lose this series. Throttles Cage a little bit.

And he didn't try to hide it. He didn't try to kipper on Fuhrer, make it look like it was on purpose. Oh, don't do that. You have to bring that up. Because the guy ran it all the time. Why? Everything's going great right now. We're having a nice day. Hey, it's a nice day out there.

Add a little spice. Smile on my face and you bring that up. But he jacked nice into the ground. And I thought Louis DeBrus did a great job of being like, yeah, it's a playoffs and you don't want to have a reaction. But he's like, but at some point, you got to do something. It was like a great, I thought DeBrus nailed it and they all kind of jumped in on him. And I thought that kind of turned the temperature up on the game. And I don't know, both those teams could easily win.

Serkin was mad. Mad. He, like, wanted to go fight him while the play was going on. Yeah, he was really mad. And by wanted to go fight him, I mean, like, how goalies do it. Yeah. Like, I'm going to go over there so someone else does it. And then Laviolette sent out Rempe,

and Rempe went down to the other end and bumped into Freddie, and then he got pushed over. And I just, I wasn't necessarily going into it expecting it to be this kind of series because you don't think of Carolina like that really, but it's been a pretty gritty one through two games. That Rempe, he turns the temperature up whatever game he's in. He does. He's a punk.

See, the one thing you can't deny through all the eras that we've been through with the tough guys and whether or not they could play or not play was that when they're on the ice, you don't go to the bathroom. You don't go for popcorn. Something could happen out here. Even if it's a train wreck, I'm watching it. And it's going to be a train wreck.

His percentage of dirty hits per minute played is absurd he's like he may puts patrick coletta to shame it is a absolute war zone out there the only hit that seemed rempe like though was jacob truba trying to end the career was it marty natchez yeah i mean did you see that? I did, of course, like everybody else. I'm listening on the radio coming in and people are trying to guess if he hit him how many games he would be suspended. I'm like,

what a stupid conversation first and foremost. I'll have it. It was an absurd play. It was not he had the l i love truba and i defended him though he didn't hit him he did it but it's the points moot i mean is attempted murder a crime but unless we have but i did unless we have an outcome or result you don't know and i also think you go to run a guy and he's not there. And all of a sudden you're getting your boots in for the boards.

I don't think you said elbow like that. It's just a miss. It was going to be clean as hell. A missed two-minute penalty. A missed potential two-minute elbow penalty. That's all I'm giving you. Two minutes for elbowing. That's it.

That's all I'm giving you. You should have had one minute for potential elbowing. I don't know. Like, I love Truba. Could have been, should have been. Come on. Okay. Although, let's be honest.

Nate just pulled a chute there. Oh, yeah. He felt the ball come. No, I would have for sure. I'd have been under the ice. I mean, but yeah, that's a... So Truba was all over him the next couple shifts. He had a bit of a parade to the penalty box, too, though.

He's got to calm down a little bit. I thought the Rangers were pretty wound up in general. Fox swinging at Svechnikov after the trip was a pretty good... You want to talk about if that lands situations, he's missing a couple of hockey games if that one lands. Just one note on the goaltending. Freddie kind of hung in there. He did.

He's always going to let in one bad one. Seems to be he's always on the uh the short end of uh of a bad one but i mean he i thought he was gonna pull it off i thought there was gonna be this moment where freddie gets over a bit of a hump last that game i think would have been really important for anderson's to be like a hung in there just all those disappointments in the past either with carolina being injured or with the leafs early in anaheim he had a little success to start his career but last night if they would have found a way to win would have changed i think a lot for the way maybe we look at frederick anderson or the way he looks at himself. I mean, it still goes through his legs, right?

He didn't get it done. And yeah, the overtime winner is a power play goal, whatever, on maybe one of the worst penalty calls I've seen in all playoffs. Let's talk about that. But I mean, you want your goalie to find that one. He's scrambling around. He loses it and he bangs it through his legs. I would have gone ballistic if I was Rod Brandon Moore.

So I went and listened to his postgame because I was going to grab a clip. He didn't even get asked about it. He didn't even comment on it. They need a Luke Fox in Carolina badly. Because no one even inquired. I mean, to me, that's the first question. It cost them the game. I mean, it's a gentle hip push.

Yeah. Defending in double OT. I mean, what does that mean? Oh, go ahead. You think it's a penalty? First five minutes of a hockey game maybe maybe maybe but at that point away from the net like that not a what a crazy call that's a penalty i mean you it's got to be a penalty penalty at that point you're pulling the guy down on a break away or chopping him across the wrist or something.

But that's a terrible, that's an unfortunate break for Carolina. There's a couple penalties they called in the first overtime that weren't necessarily great either, but that one to me is egregious. You gotta keep calling the game the same. Can't put the whistles away.

You can put the whistles away. It's not like Rod's gonna avoid that question. It's just delayed. Yeah, that's still coming. But you want it to get him while he was hot. Practice, off days. I think it was a smart move that if nobody is bringing it up, then don't answer it in the heat of the emotion of it

because you can only get yourself in trouble. And make the refs mad. He has, on a number of occasions, that organization's been hit hard in the past against the league and officials. We're talking about $25,000, $50,000, $100,000 fines. They've been hit before. Really?

Yeah. Doesn't sound like the owner would like that. $50,000 fine might come out of your paycheck. Especially when they're arguing still over $25,000 on his contract. That would end that argument, wouldn't it? So do you want to move to the other series, or do you have anything else on that? Let's mention Trocek, who draws the penalty,

scores the OT winner. Pretty awesome yelling at the fans at Madison Square Garden. It looked like a painting. It did. Like all the people just kind of around him. You just see his face. Yeah, the old Renaissance painting. Underrated guy.

It didn't start out great when he got there either. No. Because there was a sense, too, that they made the decision to let go of ryan strome ryan strome was playing some good hockey for the new york rangers yeah but they just felt like they needed to upgrade a little bit on that it was a free agent too and they weren't sure about five a year to go to anaheim or something yeah so they weren't sure if they wanted to spend that much money on them so they found a way to bring trocheck in and you know strom had a good thing going with panarin too they were they were good but now you watch trocek and panarin and you're like

wow this is this turns out player might just be very good very good and plays this time of year yeah you know chris crider such a force right with that speed and size like he's a good over to our playoff type of player reminds me of another guy who scored a big goal yesterday for the colorado avalanche miles wood who is six foot four and skates as fast as anyone in the league that was a great game those two teams and i don't know. That was going to be hard to maybe get over for Dallas. I think. That one's like. They had a bag at home.

Ten days from now, they're going to go, okay, we were at home and we blew a 3-0 lead. Yeah. Was that like the Boston Bruins coming off of a game seven with adrenaline and unlike the Bruins who could finish it off for 60 minutes, they just hit a wall. It's the same thing where they came out playing. Funny you mentioned that.

Pete DeBoer addressed that very thing. We have a clip on that, clip one from DeBoer. We're starting this again, right? And I think tonight was a, you know, it's a tough turnaround for us as a group. I thought we had a great start. I thought the fatigue from the game seven hit us in the second half of that game. I thought our group rallied, though, and really made a push in overtime,

had some opportunities in overtime. But I think at the end of the night, when you look at the score sheet, they're big guys all kind of delivered and are all over the score sheet. And, you know, I thought a couple of our guys were, but, you know, we need to find some, you know, some of our scoring has to step up. You know, we've been waiting for, you know, a series plus a game now

for some of that. Ooh, buddy, that's a spicy meatball. Game one. But seriously, if that was here in Toronto, that would be a huge thing. Oh, yeah. He's been waiting for a series plus a game for his stars to deliver. I think it's a tough spot when your stars are older or young, which we've talked about. Yeah.

The kids, you give them the benefit of the doubt. You can't ask them to do it. And the old guys are old. Simmons is old. Can't go home because he hates his wife. No, but that's the thing with like the way Dallas is built is the deeper they go, it's going to be harder for those top guys to pull their weight.

So I guess he would probably be looking at Jason Robertson when he's talking about that. He had one goal in the Vegas series vegas series i guess after that i mean hints hints hints for sure duchesne no yeah not a reputable guy this time of year there's just too old to really say he got asked about pavalski and being like are you worried about how like jesus how quick it is for him? And he's like, there's a lot of guys we've got to worry about, basically. Skipped over it.

And I'll tell you who else he's talking to. This is going to be the difference between them making it or not making it and making me look good or not look good is Ottinger. Oh, yeah. Ottinger, I'm sorry. Overtime goal. Miles Wood coming coming in he's defending this post he's out of the net you're you're Samsonov on the on the leaf overtime goal you're just sleeping in your crease and you have no range what is he six five six four he looked like he was five foot two in the net.

He didn't spread his legs. There's not a chance that Miles Wood should walk around Jake Ottinger on his backhand from post to post that easy. Around him should never happen like that. Just to skate it around the goalie. I thought Ottinger was way off his net on that one. He's not even six five jake andrew six six flying yeah like it's a great come out aggressive he doesn't fake a shot he just pulls it across the net come out i can go through you make him go eat your stick get your block get your hands out there get get your legs out there yeah the brazil one is better to me his left leg

was elevated he elevated it and babrovsky's at least out like on this one like ottinger's pretty deep in the net and but still i mean great finish by miles wood yeah great finish for sure but why don't we listen to miles wood bedner the colorado avalanche coach talk about the ot winner we got caught out there tired multiple times in overtime and guys just looking to get rid of the puck like you gotta he we we lack some poise coming out of our zone when tired right and they kept quick up in it and we we had some stretches like that in the second period and and we're hoping to try and do it again in the overtime, and they kind of did it to us. So we were scrambling around a little bit in D zone coverage,

defending hard, but good poise. That was a fresher line that was out there. It was good poise. Cogliano goes in and helps make the defensive play to get the puck back, and instead of just turning and firing it or giving it back to him in the neutral zone, he gets his eyes up, and Wood was fresh and went slashing through their D, and Coggs made a nice play to get it to him. When Woody gets going like that, he's hard to stop.

He's fast, and he's powerful, and he just took it to the house. Great skill play. Well, at least they have down 2-0 to Vegas to fall back on. Yeah, they've done this before. Bad starts to series. I mean, Cogliano's had an unbelievable career. It feels to me like this is the fifth straight year. I'm like, is it over yet? How many games do you think he's played in regular season first?

Oh, I don't know. I want to say, like, it's under 1,000. It's not. It's not, eh? It's well over 1,000. It is. 1,150? No, it's 1,294 games, boys.

He's played. He's almost 1,300. He's played 126 playoff games. Yeah. So he won the cup with them two years ago. Would he have been on that Anaheim team that won the cup? No.

What am I thinking of? It's his only cup then. Yeah, but he went deep with the stars. He went deep with the stars too. He's just had an awesome career.

Underrated guy. Played for a lot of teams. When did he first start? He started in 07-08 with the Oilers. What was Anaheim's cup? They were actually 0-3 or somewhere.

Way long ago. Oh, was it? Yeah, just kidding. Never mind. I was thinking of his years in Dallas. Yeah, yeah. Well, I got no excuse. But he's already got four points in six games for the Avs.

All assists or whatever, but he's been... He can skate. Fly. He can skate. Martin can skate. And he's not one of those guys that skates really fast to the wrong spot either. He's got high IQ. He does.

So Colorado gets the goaltending they need out of Gorgiev. You know, he makes a save on Sagan in overtime. A last clip here before we move on from this. Bednar, clip two on Gorgiev. You know, we didn't give up a lot of scoring chances in the second and third, but we gave up a couple of chances that I looked at. Off the rush, late in the period, third period, I think, they get a really good chance with Hintz coming through there.

We made some mistakes, but he stayed with the puck, and he looked really athletic on a couple of the saves that may have taken some funny bounces or plays they made side to side down low in the zone. I mean, they're huge. Every save you can make that's an A or B chance, like a good quality chance, that's well executed by Dallas, I mean, you've got to take it. And maybe a little bad luck from him on the first few goals,

first one he didn't see it. You know, I've kind of gone through those, but he certainly stepped up as the game went on, and we've seen that from him here in these playoffs. Wow, when you consider the start that he had. I was just looking at his save percentages for the six games they've played. He started in the first one, 696, not great.

933, 917, 963, 8, 944, and then 864 last night. Wow. So he, like, cleaned it right up immediately. So give him credit. Georgie the Fifth, like our boy. Georgie the Fifth. Like our boy Rob Brown says. All right, do you want to do game time quickly before we go to break?

Let's do it. All right. It's game time presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary. Bet365 must be 19 plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. So there's two games on the ice tonight.

And big one for the Florida Panthers, who fell down and won nothing in the series. They, as you might imagine, are heavy favorites tonight over the Boston Bruins. Minus 170 on the money line, plus 145 for the Boston Bruins. What's the puck line on that? It is plus 155, minus 1.5 for the Florida Panthers if you think they're going to really come out flying.

Also think that this could be a tighter game. You know, two good defensive teams in a must-win game. Wouldn't mind the under at minus 120, under five and a half. And then we're going to talk to Murph about the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers. The Vancouver Canucks then at home ice, plus 115 underdogs. The Edmonton Oilers minus 135 going into Vancouver. Can imagine that's going to be a raucous barn.

Oh, boy. You see the fans going back and forth on the interwebs? I saw some of the worst music. I couldn't even watch it. I had the video sent to me seven times, and I just said, can't. Yeah, it's bad. It's bad. But people are making music.

Go Team Go music video. Is it a rap, probably? No, no, there's one that's like a La Bamba one. That's like really tough. That's a tough one. Yeah, it's a tough one. If the Leafs were in the second round,

you'd be working on some few. Sammy's got a La Bamba. There is no less musical person in the world than me. Hey, pal, don't count me out. All my core buddies from Owen Sound

are sick musicians and I'm just super jealous of it and I just never had a musical bone in my body. I would not make a song. If they were like sing a song or get fired, I'd be working on my resume on this show. Couldn't carry a tune in a bucket? Give me a couple Bud Light lines

and I'll sing you a tune. Anyways, hey, visit the app. It's game time. Resign by Bet365. Visit the app. Play the stats and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 plus Ontario only. Please's game time. Resigned by Bet365. Visit the app, play the stats, and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Don't know why I said Bud Love.

Never had one of my wife's. Alright, we're going to take a quick break. When we return, we're going to bring in Dan Murphy, host of Hockey Night in Canada. Canucks Hockey on SportsNet. He'll get us ready for the big series between the Canucks and the Oilers starting tonight.

Game one. We'll get the vibe out of Vancouver when we return to real Kipper and born covering the blue Jays from an analytical perspective. Jays talk plus with Blake Murphy. Be sure to subscribe and download Jays talk on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, and Sammy

McKee. Real Kipper and Bourne show. Can we wait on Dan Murphy? You don't have to wait anymore. Oh, he's there? He got through the crowd? The crowds? Is it going to be like Scott Oak and Winnipeg crowd surfing? When Winnipeg went deep, Scott Oak became like a true celebrity, right?

My people, all of that. Dan Murphy's going to go through the same thing. You don't think Dan Murphy's already a huge celebrity? No, I'm talking next level stuff. Next level stuff, like Buble stuff. Right? Right. Buble, Bubly.

Murph will have a product out soon. I'm sure he does. In the meantime, he just comes on with the biggest hat he can find. Murph, what's going on? Oh, Marine Drive, though. I'm good, boys. How are you? When people see me, they're like, oh, look, it's John Shorthouse.

Nice stuff. Oh, my gosh. What's going on out there? Clearly, you're not ready just yet with your big hat and your white T-shirt on our on our zoom channel here but like preps preps coming soon for you what's what's the feeling out there is uh as the Canucks got through the Predators and now face the almighty Edmonton Oilers yeah well we're at the rink this morning um but uh you know it's a gene there and uh and rudy and cc and simpson they're all there getting set

for tonight's game you know i think the mood uh is still of excitement for the fan base right because you just remember like a year ago they were you know watching the draft lottery you know for the 10th year in a row basically and. And, you know, just the unexpected season they've had, the fact that they were able to kind of pay it off with a first-round series win against Nashville. And like if one year ago you would have said, okay, you'll be moving on to the second round playoffs thanks to a shutout by Artur Shilovs

and a late goal by Piusu, people would have thought you were mad. So I think people are excited. They're happy. Of course they want more, people would have thought you were mad. So I think people are excited. They're happy. Of course they want more, but they understand, you know, that the Canucks are prohibitive underdogs in this series. That's not to say they don't have a fighter's chance,

but I think the fans have really enjoyed this season and especially that first round of the playoffs. Kind of a two-parter. Is it all gravy going forward now? And also, how do you handicap their odds in this series do you you know you call it a fighter's chance um what has to go right um well i i think you can say now it's been a successful season i would say that um i would characterize it as that i don't think that rick tocket or you know j JT Miller or some of those players feel it's all gravy now. I think they want to continue to win and to beat Edmonton. I mean, so the other day,

two guys that have participated in the Battle of Alberta playoff edition was Zdorov and Lindholm. And they were asked one question, you know, separate from each other. What's the one thing you can't do? And Zdorov said, turn pucks over. And then Lindholm, a little while later, said, take penalties. And I think that sums it up. I mean, you know this Edmonton offensive transition, the speed. That's just like food for them, any turnovers. And the power plays, you know, it is next level. It's got a million options.

It starts with the guy that usually has the puck on the left half wall, McDavid. And he can go back to the point, to Bouchard. million options uh it starts with the guy that usually has the puck on the left half wall mcdavid and he can go back to the point uh to bouchard he can go into net front to hyman across seam pass we always see a lot uh over there to uh dry sidle and then you still got nudes you can you know facilitate plays himself so it's just a real problem i mean i think for the canucks if they don't draw any power plays, they'd be happiest that meant that the whistles were kind of away and the Edmonton Oilers weren't getting power plays either

because that is obviously just a massive difference maker. Is there any thought that confidence has grown enough that they can legitimately find a way to shut this power play down or at least slow it down? Yeah, I don't know about the power play i i think that they you know vancouver's penalty kill during the regular season was middle of the pack and it was 17th something like that in the first round it was excellent now people are going to say that's national not edmonton which is absolutely correct but after the all-star break

the predators had the second best power play in the league and they were the second highest scoring team in the league uh the difference being is thatators had the second-best power play in the league, and they were the second-highest scoring team in the league. The difference being is that Nashville had a good power play that got super hot. Edmonton has got the best power play that went next level in that first round. So the ceiling is so much higher on the floor, you know, is about where Nashville's was when they were hot. I don't know. I think they'll take confidence from the penalty kill and the way it played.

But we've seen this thing at full force before, and it's a tough one to stop. I do think that they believe that they can defend against the Oilers better than the Kings did. This team basically, the second half of the season was all about defending more so than it was about scoring. But it's still a big, tall task in front of them. So, Pedersen missed practice yesterday due to illness, is my understanding. Sounds like he's going to be in.

What are your expectations for Pedersen in round two? Well, I mean, the last year has ended on a high note for him in the fact that he won that puck battle with Lozon, got it to Besser, got it to Suter, and that was the game-winning goal. You can tell he's a little tired of talking about the lack of production, but, I mean, this is going on with a couple of weeks left in the regular season. He was struggling. I do think it's a confidence issue.

Maybe he's a little banged up like most people at this time of year. He has a chance here, though, to be a difference maker, because you have to believe that Tauket is going to utilize Miller versus McDavid, Lindholm likely versus Dreisaitl. And that gives Pettersson one of the other two lines, whether it be McLeod or I don't know who's going to the center he'll go up against. So he has a chance to create a mismatch with his linemates, Mikheyev and Hoaglander. And so perhaps he can take advantage of that and put home ice here in the first two games. You know,

the fact that he's in a bit of a Valley here, I don't think it should be surprising for people to follow the team. He's always kind of had these, you know, pretty high sustained, a great play. And then he'll fall into a little Valley for a while. And that,

you know, just kind of goes away for a bit. And then he climbs back out of it. The fact that he's happening now is a bit of a concern. I'd like to use body language a little valley for a while and that you know just kind of goes away for a bit and then he climbs back out of it the fact that he's happening now is a bit of a concern i'd like to use body language a little bit better i'd like to see him get back uh you know into the fight a little bit so to speak um because we do remember which was a different time but the bubble playoffs i mean the way he you know tracked pucks and ripped pucks off players and was just really really good both ends of the ice i think the team would like to see a little bit more of that.

He's overthinking. There's no doubt. So let me ask you about this climb with the goaltender, Shelobbs. And a mid-round pick in 2019, if I'm not mistaken, to where he is today and just how much fun has it been, first of all, of covering him and I do mean this in some sort of compliment type of way but is he just dumb enough to realize or not realize what's going on

here is that like the perfect kind of place to be yeah you know when you said like is it just gravy I think it's just gravy for someone like Arthur Shielos at this point. You know, I didn't talk to him a lot. He played five games last season for the Canucks and then played four this season. So he talked to him a little bit. I do think what kind of set him up, I love his attitude. When he took over for Casey DeSmith and DeSmith was hurt,

he goes, I guess it's my time to shine. So right away he wasn't backing away from the moment. But I think what really set him up was the World Championships in Latvia last May, playing at home. He was the MVP. He beat Casey DeSmith in the bronze medal game, if that's ironic enough for you. And he said that was a lot of pressure being at home. And so I think that then when he went into Nashville, he said, yes, it's pressure. But you know, it's not home fan pressure. You're trying to shut people up you know you're not doing it for your country you're doing for your teammates and I think that moment prepared him for for this because he

looked much better in the playoffs I know his record was I think 3-1-1 this season but he had some shaky moments in the last couple of starts looked nervous and I don't think he looked nervous at all so far in these playoffs the Edmonton oilers are kind of a unique animal right i think the best record since knoblock took over and just the amount of offense on that hockey club um is there any thoughts about beyond those mcdavid and dry sidle about how the canucks match up is it simply that the canucks need to take care of those two guys and they match up all right everywhere else? Yeah. Well, that's the thing.

Like, can you take care of those two guys? Right. If you're minus one or minus two a night, can the rest of the guys, you know, pull the weight? You know, I think there is some simplicity to that argument, Justin, but I think we know that, you know, Conor McDavid and Leon Dreissel are going to get theirs. Yeah.

I don't think that JT Miller's line wants to simply defend. I think they do want to attack. I think they do want to try to make the top players in Edmonton defend, and they've been pretty good at that. I will say this. Everybody's throwing away the regular season sweep, and for good reason. It means squad douche right now. But the Canucks can take some confidence out of it

because of different pressure points, the beginning of the season, there was a ton of pressure on them to get a good start after last season. They lost their first seven games. So to go out of the gate with that 8-1 win, I think was big for the Canucks to say, okay, we can do it.

Maybe we caught the Oilers sleeping, probably. And then game 80, they went into Edmonton. No McDavid, mind you, but the Canucks didn't have Demko. And they played a really good game on 1-3-1. It's basically 2-1 with an empty netter. So I think they will, even though the regular season means nothing, I think they can look at those two games

as points in the season where, okay, we've got it done versus this team, kind of when it mattered, and I think they'll draw off that. I think their main focus for defending is keep everything to the outside as much as possible. You know um that's the biggest thing and they protect the middle of the ice uh very well they've got uh you know some

big guys back there uh in Myers and Zdorov and Cole plays bigger than 6'2 um you know so they have some big big lads back there to defend um and I think they'll do their best to keep those guys to the outside which is easier said than done. We're talking to Dan Murphy where we'll enjoy his work as early as tonight on Hockey Night in Canada and Sportsnet as the Vancouver Canucks take on the Edmonton Oilers. So we've got the Canucks with home ice advantage, meaning they start at Rogers Arena,

and not to put so much emphasis on this first game, but Murph, how important is it that Vancouver looks the part in game one at home? Like, what would a bad start do to the psyche of starting at home or being the team that had five more points than the Oilers in the standings? Like, how important is tonight? I think, I'll put it this way.

I think if the Canucks get, you know, beaten 5-1 or something tonight, I don't think that's going to affect the players on the Canucks. I think it's going to affect the players and the Oilers to say, OK, you know, this is, we are whoever he says we are, and this is going to be easy, right? I think that's going to affect the players and the Oilers to say, OK, you know, this is we are whoever he says we are. And this is going to be easy. Right. I think that's going to be one thing. The Canucks have been relatively resilient this season. I don't think that one bad loss would cause them to collapse, depending on how the goaltending goes. So I don't think I think a win would plant a seed of doubt in the Oilers.

I don't think a loss is going to plant a seed of doubt in themselves, if that makes any sense. Yeah, absolutely. Just because they played this year. But obviously a win would go a long ways into making them, you know, just saying, yeah, we said we belonged and we're going to show you we belong. But I think if Edmonton wins in a big fashion, that's going to do more for the Oilers than against the Canucks.

Dan, one last big question. How are you hitting it so far this year? I've only played that one time in Arizona. That's it. With world-class players. Yeah, was it Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor that you were playing with? Yeah, you can never play with Nick Kiprios and Justin Bourne ever again. Well, Ferber was in there too.

I needed someone else to embarrass themselves at the same level as me. And I will say that Nick and I took down Adam and Ray, but it's a beautiful day here today, 17, 18 degrees and sunny. So depending what time availabilities are tomorrow, I'll probably try to hit balls. Usually second round, end of second round is when I start to try to play. Alright, there you go. Alright, I can't end this segment without one more hockey

question here. What would the Stanley Cup playoffs be in Canada without some sort of drama? So, where are we on Demko, and will he or won't he appear? What is the latest, Murph? So,

I've heard whispers that he could be available for the end of the series if it goes six or seven. I'll believe that when I see it. I mean, the only times I've seen him on the ice, he's just done movement drills, basic drills. I haven't seen him take shots. I just don't know if it's

realistic. Maybe if he feels healthy and they're down 3-1, you're like, okay, it's time, let's bring this guy back, you're riding on the white horse. I just don't think it's going to happen. I haven't been given information of that. In fact, I've heard the opposite. It could be available.

I just think it's a stretch to think that he's going to be contributing to the Canucks in this series. If somehow they get by Edmonton, I wouldn't rule them out. Looking forward to it, pal. Have a great series. Thank you very much. Thanks, Murph. Appreciate it. That is Dan Murphy, host of Hockey Night in Canada.

Sportsnet. Was it Darren Drager over his shoulder? Who was in the picture? Brad Fay? I couldn't quite make out who was in the picture. No, that's the great Don Taylor. Was it Don Taylor? Yes. Oh, cool.

Yes. Yeah. Been on Don's show. Wonderful man. Mentioned that the San Jose Sharks won the draft lottery. The San Jose Sharks won the draft lottery. There were no changes to the order. Did you watch that celebration?

No. That they had on video? video non-celebration no they you know they try to they try to pan it was nice how it was no they they panned to like what looked like like their draft party yeah oh yeah it looked like it was like at the lobby of a howard johnson's and they're like they try to you can tell it was like can you can you guys all get in a little closer and just push each other and high five each other and then they're like i actually don't think they should have the gms on camera for that like they're never going to give a reaction like

it's called davidson you'd be like ah you know it's that's who you are that's what they're hoping for but it's never happened they know to not do that they're planning for. But it's never happened. That's why they put him on there. They know to not do that. They're planning. And Macklin Celebrini, like, he hasn't, I don't know, like, he's going to go first, I know. But, like, do we need to, like, dangle the prize in human form? Here it is. Like, Vanna White is like, take a look at what could be yours. Is he definitely going to play next year in San Jose?

Yeah. He's, I mean, he's their best guy by far. Could stay in college another year. If I were him, I'd college so san jose a few things though i'm dead serious yeah like why would you go and join that american hockey league program they have nobody coming up they are only financial reasons they are gonna suck for a long time yeah like this kid should just go back to them and say hey listen when you guys get your act together yeah start getting some guys that you think can contribute how many years does he have for eligibility i don't know but he was a freshman

he was 17 this year so he played like for four years third in the nation and scoring is a 17 he doesn't sign insane if he doesn't sign he can go back in the draft oh my god kipper what are you doing but he likes the sharks he's from there yeah he's a sharks, he can go back in the draft. Oh, my God, Kipper. What are you doing? But he likes the Sharks. He's from there. Yeah. He's a Sharks guy. He's a Sharky guy. Okay.

His dad worked for the Warriors. He's a Bay Area guy. Yeah, go then. Go. No, no. He'll maybe go back to college, but he's going to sign there. First day after all, the San Jose Sharks fans. Tell them to get better.

Tell them to improve. Tell them to go sign some guys. Look like an NHL team. You just want to start that ELC as soon as you can, I suppose. Right? You wore your teal in honor. I did. I wore my shark shirt.

Blackhawks, good second. And, yeah, there you go. I mean, nice for Bedard to have another good player. That'll be a perk. A perk for all of us watching, too. That team needs to sign some guys for Bedard to have another good player. That'll be a perk. A perk for all of us watching, too. That team needs to sign some guys around Bedard. I would imagine they're going to be really aggressive here. I don't blame them for trying to be like,

let's try to get the next Taves and Kane and figure it out from there. I don't blame them. But if they try, Kip, if they tried this summer to have as many as they could and win as many games as possible, they're going to pick seventh next year. You know, like they're still going to finish 25th. News with the Ottawa Senators, you mentioned? Yeah, some news.

Thomas Chabot had surgery on his wrist. Apparently that's been ailing him, but he'll be available for camp next season. But interesting that it could have affected his performance. And what was the other thing? The draft. Oh, yeah, they're keeping their seventh overall pick they can defer so they lost a pick because of the dodonov trade who had a no trade they can

defer the pick till 2026 if they want yeah so they are going to pick this year which is smart well they they want to tell the whole world we're not going to be picking seventh next year we're going to be picking much much worse so We're going to be picking much worse. So don't give up the pick now. Well, but also don't you think that that buys them time to say to Gary Bettman, hey, we didn't do it. I didn't own the team at the time. And a first is so punitive for a franchise that is dying for good players.

Can we talk about this? No, I don't think. Can we maybe work on something? There's just no way. Maybe there's a new commission by 2026 and you can about this. No, I don't think. Can we maybe work on something? There's just no way. Maybe there's a new commission by 2026 and you can talk to... I don't think there's any way Gary would change his mind.

That's a crazy punishment. He might not be the commission two years. A first round pick is wild. In the NHL, it's so valuable. Like a third would have been... And I'm a Sens hater through and through. Unless the new owner, Mike Anlauer, wants to really challenge it.

He should throw a fit. That's what he should do. He didn't like it right away. I liked his stance on it right away, that this is too much. Yeah, he brought it up in his introductory press conference. And nothing to do with this. That's an asset that they've stripped us.

All right, two games on tap tonight. Oh, baby. We got the Florida Panthers. Boston Bruins. The Boston Bruins. What happens there? 1-1, guys? Yeah, 1-1.

Comprehensive victory for the Cats tonight. They'll go to a shootout maybe. Give me a score in Vancouver tonight. 3-1 Oilers. 5-4 Vancouver. I like that. You? I think Vancouver needs to win tonight.

If this thing is going to go as far as I think it will, it will have to come after game one win in Vancouver. I can't believe I just picked McDavid to get only two on Shelovs before the empty netter. And what, 0 for 3 on the power play? It seems unlikely. Come on, say it. Say it.

Enjoy your games, everybody. We're back tomorrow at our regularly scheduled program, 4 to 6 Eastern on the Real Kipper Inborn Show.