Real Kyper & Bourne - Sens' Playoff Hopes + Jets' Final Stretch Focus

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne are joined by Sportsnet.ca's Ottawa Senators writer Alex Adams (5:36) to chat about team's road towards the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Thomas Chabot's injury, the team's physical identity, Drake Batherson and Brady Tkachuk's futures in Ottawa, whether the front office have concerns about an outspoken Tkachuk on his podcast, and how much the organization will spend during the offseason. Afterwards, Sportsnet's Winnipeg and Hockey Night in Canada reporter Sean Reynolds stops by (27:36) to discuss the Jets' edging closer to securing a post-season spot, how they've changed their defensive approach, and whether the team should focus on a playoff berth or look ahead to the 2026 NHL Draft.  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. The National Hour on the Real Kippron Born show. Live on Sportsnet, Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, 960 in Calgary. And streaming always on Sportsnet Plus, if you can't catch us live, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and of course, YouTube with that amazing chat line. How about a big thumbs up for our boy, Sammy, and J.B. Do you get paid in thumbs-ups? I really like the thumbs up.

I do. why? Just a little piece of validation every day, I'm in. Why? No, they just forget to turn it on. Samuel has no microphone. All right, well, I'll relay the message from the rest of the show.

I'm going to say because, oh, there you go. Because you work with grapes for so long, you love the... All right, maybe that's it. It's ingrained in us. Maybe that's it. There you go. Alex Adams is going to join us. Ottawa Senator's writer for Sportsnet. Yep. Sportsnet.com, of course.

boys, where did we have Buffalo, Ottawa, and Columbus at Christmas being the hottest teams going into the very last stretch of the season? Yeah. You know, I'm actually going to go ahead and check what the standings were around Christmas here. But, I mean, Columbus, when they fired their coach, was 19 and 19.

They were dead last in the east. They're 19, 3 and 4 since. That worked. I mean, that went pretty well for them. for sure. That's insane. I know. Ottawa was well out of a

playoff spot at Christmas. Like, it's just, it is crazy to see. It suddenly clicked for teams. And it's got a lot of teams going, how do we do that? First time since December 3rd for the Ottawa senators

to be in a playoffs position. I think, though, the Sends would tell you that they've been pretty good all year that just haven't been getting saves. And it's turned for them recently. And they got the magic mojo going last night. They call up that.

I always want to speak. I always want to put an R in there, but they call him up. Hey, he's good, good. I know. He gets two points. They beat the Red Wings. Like, Rady Katrach actually does something to somebody who pushes his goalie. Like, everybody was buzzing.

Like, it just, they got that, they got that. It feels like at the end of every hockey season, there's one team that's kind of out of it, that catches fire right around this time, and they get into the playoffs and people start thinking big about them. It feels like that's the sense right now. It really does. I wrote a bit today, three up, three down. Baseball's on the way, and I wrote three teams that are going up

and three teams that are going the other way amongst the near playoff team. So I looked at some Ottawa stats, dead last save percentage in the NHL, all strength, team save percentage combined. So just terrible, like, how do you win like that? And so now they're starting to get some saves. And it's as simple as that for them. Their decor is excellent, but they need to be healthy. They go in with the biggest win, I think, last night in Detroit.

they don't have Shabbat, they don't have Sanderson. Yeah, the first games for some kids. They still look like it doesn't matter. Yeah. Well, it's really a great story. I think also the wings.

Wings, I mean, boy. Some awkward conversations there. Stevie Y's getting toasty. But, you know, you talk about Jack Adams and you talk about guys that deserve credit for it. Travis Green, I mean, he's got those guys playing. Like, they are dialed in, they care. I don't know.

It's scary for me. If they sneak in, it feels very scary. I take it you like Ottawa a lot more than Buffalo. I know last week a few Sabre fans out there have made it clear that... Is they get mad of you? Yeah. People think I'm a buffalo hater now. Did you get mad at it?

For years, you guys back me up on this. For years, I have been the foremost pro-Buffalo, let's go guys. So you've heard it then, obviously. Yes, I have. Okay. Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. Pro Buffalo, like this team, let's go.

I'm excited. They're doing great. And I'm genuinely thrilled for the city of the fans. It's a hockey city. But now you're going to be in the playoffs against the best 16 teams. So what we do as hockey analysts is we look at the numbers and we go, that's not great.

It's not good. They've been, they're a top PDO team, high shooting percentage, top three, top state percentage, fourth best. They're, you know, in the 26th and expected goals against. Like, they got a red flag. You can either choose to hear about them. or you can go la la la la savers real same you know i'm just telling you i think you did kind of question though

like how far can a guy like zucker take you right on on the top six yeah and it's i'll stand here never never been there before um i i i don't think it's a completely unfair comment to make for the record i didn't say zucker i said i said they're left winger i said crebs zucker Yes, yeah. Okay, he's including. And the context is for years, you did that with the Leafs. You went, can you win a cup with bunting, Nais, Achari? Listen, I don't know about a cup either.

Yeah. You said early, you said like, oh, no, conference final. I could see them all day long in a conference final. Yeah. I mean, it's good. The Atlantic's interesting. It feels like it's pretty open. Like Ottawa.

Ottawa now and Buffalo seem to be, I think, the biggest challengers to Tampa Bay. I got those as two totally different teams. Let's talk about it. Okay. All right. Let's welcome in Alex Adams. Covers the Ottawa Senators for Sportsnet.com. Alex, how are you, my friend?

I'm great, guys. It's been a fun couple of games here in Ottawa. Yeah, so how much easier is your job now covering this team? It's been a roller coaster every year. So just to focus on some wins in the sense kind of driving up the playoffs rather than kind of extracurricular stuff is much more fun to talk about. But it's been a blast. And this team's been playing.

playing really, really good hockey for the past basically two months. And Linus Allmark's been incredible as well. He's really turned up kind of his game. And Tim Stutz has been amazing. And even without Sanderson and Chappot, they still play really structured good hockey. So, yeah, they're a really good team right now and they're playing really well. So let's assess what are the concerns? What are the biggest ones?

Obviously, there's the injuries, is the goaltending? Where do you sit for, okay, the sends are in the spot by one point. it's kind of perilous. What are fans nervous about? I think the fans are just nervous about. Obviously, Yakimchuk had an unbelievable debut last night. He looked the real type of kind of star type of defense. Been offensively, the senators think he can be kind of like Evan Bouchard light a little bit.

But the problem is, is you're missing Thomas Chavotte and Jake Sanderson, and you're trying to make it into the playoffs. And as you said, they're only kind of a point up. So the good news is Sanderson's supposed to be back. Hopefully next week. if you get him back down the stretch, this team's pretty much a well-oiled machine right now with just how well defensively they're playing.

And I think Travis Green deserves a ton of credit for just how well this team is playing. Like you know this morning, like their expected goals metrics are like off the charts in the past 20 games, but really all year. And I think they're definitely good enough and should be a playoff team. And I think if they can sneak into the playoffs,

they could go deep and honestly go on a little bit of a run because I think outside of Tampa Bay, There's not a lot of kind of big heavy weights in the east. So just stay healthy, get some saves, and I think the senators will be fine if that is the case down the stretch. If they get Sanderson back, Shabbat, it kind of not a ton of attention around the cross check from J.T. Miller the other night. Any sense of if he actually broke anything or, you know,

could we not see Shabbat maybe until if and when they make the playoffs? He was seen with a cast after the game in New York, so that does not sound good. That sounds like maybe if they get into the playoffs, maybe he can be healthy. I don't want to speculate. I'm not a doctor, and I don't have anything kind of hard kind of evidence. But that doesn't seem like something that he's going to be back in a week. Travis Green said he's out for a while. I think that's right.

I'd be shocked if he's back anywhere before playoff time. And even then, I think that will be a question mark as well. So the sense kind of, I want to get your sense for them as like a playoff team. To me, they kind of have a bit of like hidden scrappiness. You know, like Clodgeroo is not a tough guy, but he plays a competitive game, right? He's feisty. Well, that kind of goes for Greg and cousins and both the other cousins. And like, there's just a lot of guys in this team that kind of have a little bit of bite to their offense.

Ridley? Yeah. They're a really interesting team that way where they lead the I think according to sport logic they lead the league in puck battles one so they love getting on the forecheck and just imposing their will on teams I think michael amadio is like just an unbelievable player like that but dylan cousins he can get in a fight really great loves to kind of stir the pot as a lot of leif's fans know obviously brady He caught it for the first time in that Islanders game and really just kind of galvanized his team. And he's, I think that's part of why he's been a bit up and down this year, just because until the Olympics, he wasn't allowed to fight.

And I think that kind of gets him up for the fight, no pun intended. So, but they're a scrappy team. Like, they basically have not played a bad game for two months. And they're in the fight every night. They don't give up. They just really love to kind of compete. And I think even Tim Stutzel, like he loves to kind of snarlat guys, give guys cross checks. So when your best players can kind of, you know, be physical and kind of up for the battle,

I think that translates down the roster. And as well, Nick Cousins is a guy that no one loves to play against. And he's always during the pot as well. You know, a guy that I really like a lot is Drake Batherson. And I think he's eligible for a new contract as early as, July 1st. And then this time next year, he could be looking towards a UFA.

Is this a guy that Ottawa's got to find a way to keep? Can you see him being outpriced in Ottawa? I think for Drake Batherson, it's an interesting conundrum for the senators because I think, you know, I know Drake a little bit, I think if the Sends gave him the offer that he felt was right, I think he'd want to stay in Ottawa.

He's been here for almost a decade now, which is crazy to think about. But yeah, he's in that place where he's not necessarily, you know, that elite kind of 80 point guy, but he's on pace for 30 goals and almost 70 points, right? So that's, is that in this new market, is that $8 million, eight times eight? Like, that's a lot.

They just gave Shane Pinto 7.5 million. I would say Shane Pinto in a lot of ways is more important than Batherson for this team just because of how good he is at shutting down guys. But that's kind of your comparable. And the good thing is the senators do have cap space, but they're a small market. Do they want to invest a ton of money in a guy like Drake Batherson who's really skilled, but can be a bit perimeter oriented at times? So they're kind of in this. I think that's going to be a really interesting negotiation.

And if the senators feel like the price is too high, they're also in another bind because the team's ready to win now. You don't want to trade one of your best top six players now when you're on the come up, when Brady's. He could chuck is two years away from free agency after this year. So I think Batherson is, and what happens with him long-term, I think will really set kind of where Steve Steyos is kind of looking at his team and what, maybe in the sense, how all in he is for next year as well. So the Brady-Kichick-Coch conversation is one that, you know, it's similar to the one we have here with Matthews, which is like,

all right, a couple years left. USA just won. They took some flack from us, mean old Canadians. what do you anticipate happening with the captain there? Is it tough to get a read on his long-term future? I think it's tough to have a read on it. I think, you know, winning cures all, right? If the senators go on a deep run this year,

if next year they're kind of close to that contender type of elite team, does Brady Kachuk want to leave that? And does he want, like, what's necessarily the better place that he's going to be going to? But I do think if the team is not winning, I don't like the Sends chance of retaining Brady Kachuk. You see Matthew in Florida. They have a podcast now. I think he's probably in his ear fair enough about, he said some stuff about Canada as well.

Like I think just with everything going on, you know, outside of the hockey world, that's probably not helped Ottawa's case to keep Kachuk. I'm sure every time there's been a kind of, let's say, like the rumors and everything. and the Team USA after the Olympics. I don't think Steve Staeos was happy about that in terms of his pitch for Brady. But I think it's going to loom large as we move forward. It's going to be the talk of the town until he signs an extension or until something else happens.

But I think for the senators, if you keep winning, that's the best pitch to Brady Kachuk. And right now, I think they look in a really good position to win this year to next year and into his final year of Wisconsin. contract. Is there a sense on behind the scenes how they feel about his podcast?

I don't think the guy's minded. I don't think... No, I'm talking about the people upstairs the office. Oh. Management. I wonder if Leafs fans dislike it about the management after Sammy's made a few comments on it. He's a favorite pod on it by far.

Florida Ottawa Pod. Sick. I think the one thing I would say about the podcast, I think because he is you know, the most important player of the captain, I think they're like, you can do whatever you want. As long as you're happy, you can podcast.

And maybe if there was a response from the Leafs, maybe it would have been different on Saturday, but it didn't seem to really affect the game. So I don't think management's too fussy about it, but I'm sure they're mindful of it at the same time. Do you think the Sends in the years to come will continue to be a spend of the cap team? I think it's going to change for a lot of organizations

as the number goes high, high, high. I don't think so. Now, where is that going to be? Like, where is that going to land? You know, are they going to be $5 million below? Are they going to be $15 million below? I think that's more the conversation. I think, you know, credit to Michael Ann Lawyer, he's spent to the cap,

and I don't think they've had the revenue necessarily to spend to the cap, and he's done that. There's still a couple million dollars short this year, but still, they're basically a cap team. Good playoff run to fix that, Alex. Exactly, right? So if they go to the third round, I don't think next year they're like, okay, we're going to be pinching pennies and we can't spend to the cap. At the same time, if it does balloon, like it's suggested to balloon, I think Ottawa is going to be in a really tough spot to kind of spend there. The good thing for them is they've signed essentially outside of Batherson, Zubb and Kachuk, like a lot of their core signed to very team-friendly deals.

So they don't have kind of these bloated contracts they have to decide upon until maybe Batherson and Kach. But no, I don't think that's going to be the case. Maybe a new arena in a decade from now will change that, but that's not close either. So, um, Adam, uh, Ann Lauer went on record. Did he nod about being, Ottawa being a smaller market team? Yeah, yeah. He's, he's talked about that and the finances were he, you know, he didn't, I don't think he expected the finances to be exactly where they were at the time when he took over as ownership.

And I think he's seen kind of, you know, behind the scenes and the finances. And it's like, oh, okay, this is different than what I expected necessarily, alongside losing a first-round pick, which, you know, the famous quote that he said, which is why I inherited this was beyond me. But I think he, at the same time with Ann Lauer, he wants to win. He's invested in this team behind the scenes. He's hired a bunch of new staff. the gym's better.

So he's investing in the team, which wasn't the case under the old ownership. So I think all in all, Sends fans should feel grateful that it's not just business from the past where just not enough money was being put into the team to be a contender and to be a good team. Yeah.

Well, he did sell his primary business, and this is, I guess, full-time, this is it. This is it, right? And we see that every game when we pan up to the boxes and we see him, you know, we see Michael, we see Dave Poulin, we see Rob DeMio, we see Steve Stahos. I love that handler who gets to chew going, tosses one in, a lot of decky for the boys.

All looking like they're ready to step on the ice and do it themselves. It's funny. He's at almost every game. Like he's there. He's passionate. Really nice guy, like very jovial guy. He'll say hi to you in the hallways. I really like him.

And I think it's just been good. good to have kind of steady ownership. You know, people talk about, you know, the nickname for Steve Steyos and steady Steve Steyos. I think that kind of applies to the ownership as well. It's just been much more calm behind the scenes, although there has been a lot of drama this year for the senators, which just seems to never escape them as well. So hopefully that can end, but, you know, Ottawa's never dull and never boring, apparently. Well, down the stretch, Ottawa senators right now in a playoff situation.

Adam, really great stuff, man. Thanks for doing this. Alex, guys. I really appreciate it. Appreciate it, man. Thanks so much. Alex Adams. All right, perfect.

I mean, you look at this for a group, Stutzla, Kachuk, cousins, Bathurst, Zetterland, Pinto. You called him Alex. Okay. And then you called him Adam on the way out. Well, I told you, I have trouble with people that have two first names. Yeah, you have.

This is a thing. But Adams, who's named Adam? He's got two first names. Hi, I'm Adams. That's that. You can be Latinian. Sammy, just go Whatever comes out of my mouth

Please, at times, just go with it Buddy, we've been doing that. Yeah, this is how to show runs, but Anyway, I was saying That group, like if you were to go, hey, they won a Stanley Cup that year, you went back and looked at that lineup And you went, Stutzelik, Cousins, Batherson,

Zetterland, Pinto, you know, Sanderson, Shabah, but, yeah, they were loaded. It's a good team. Oh, and they're all, like, top picks and they're... I'm age. And they've locked them in, too.

It's a good team. Right? That's the key is locking them in. And I also like Cleven, Matt and Paulo, Yakumchuk, I like their other D. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's what you suck forever. You get good players.

Totally. That's what happens. They should be good by now. They've sucked forever and picked high. That's what happens. That's what happens. Yeah. Same with the haves.

It's like, oh, the habs are so great. Pay the cost to be the boss? They sucked. And now they're good. It's like that's what, that's kind of how it works. Rob DeMio, I didn't know he was part of the front office. I played in one of those like, you know, events that we did with Eric Lindross. He was our pro.

He was fantastic guy, quiet, but like great guy telling stories or whatever. He shot a puck so hard at the end of one game, like a wrist shot. The sound of the bar still rings in my ears. Like he split the puck in two. I'm like I've ever seen anyone shoot a puck. It was some like random guy. And he could fight too. Oh yeah, he's, he had that look about him.

He's like that 5-9, 5-10 that you just kind of go, you know, you want to flick him? Yeah. He definitely had that. And then he'll just pound your head in. Yeah. I was one of my first fights. I picked some kid.

I was like, he's not very big. I'll fight him. And I just ate left. And then I found out for many years later. Very time. I did that with Mark Tenorty. Yeah. I'm in the east.

He's in the west with Minnesota at the time. I'm calling him a tall drink of water. behind the net and then douche, doosh, doosh, doosh. I got like Everlast on my forehead. He's speedbagging me. I just looked up, Alex. I just looked up Mark Tenorty,

his hockey DB, just because of his picture that comes up there. Buddy, just Google right now, Tenorti Caprios. And he fills me in. Is that on YouTube? I don't know. It might be. Somehow, none of my good fights ever made it there.

It's shocking. It's shocking. How recent. recently the video footage was atrocious. Or there just wasn't video. You've had to like the 90s, which I grew up watching. I got it. I mean.

He's huge. He's huge. This looks like Cowan versus Sador. Oh my God. He's, oh, this is one-sided bout. It's like he's watching the car and I'm the rag. I don't know if we're allowed to put this on TV. I don't think we should.

There's kids watch the show. We're not going to do that to Kip either for God's sense. I hit a guy in Dallas. Now Minnesota's in Dallas. And I hit a guy, James Black, a few years later. You played in Dallas, it? And I split his forehead from one side to the other. And I come off the ice.

I'm ready to go in the dress room. He's waiting for me under the hallway, Mark Tenority. Oh, my God. And I already been speedbagged once by him. And I'm like, security? Security? Security? I look over.

There's this. Goz town. lady that takes tickets and I'm like, oh, she ain't helping me right now. You know, I had one of those junior brawls. The coaches kind of going out in the benches. Let's meet in the hallway. Teams go into the hallway behind there.

I mean, there was, you know those steel divide, those gates? Yeah, they were getting thrown over the top. One of their guys got dragged to our side. I mean, it was a war. I love that stuff. It reminds you of torts. Yeah.

Was that Vancouver and Calgary? Was it? Bob Hartley? Yeah. Where he like went to the room. dressing room ish and like there was just that picture of like all the guys like holding him back yeah Vancouver torts feels like a lifetime ago as a reminder this hour of real kippern born brought to by bet three six five all right sammy what are we doing here we could okay maybe we'll get into Vegas a little bit with

sean because they played uh the jets last night but god nights not very good boys they have two more wins than the least do this i'm telling you the line of the year belongs to connor mac david with our The division is a pillow fight. It is the defining quote of 2026. Oh my God. It's crazy. It's the best line I've heard in a long time come from a player. You want them more animated.

You want them out there saying stuff. You got it out of Connor McDavid. Vegas 3-7 and 0 in their last 10. 3-7? That's terrible. No one who can catch them though. Who's going to catch them? The Kings with their minus 27 goal differential?

Right. That's the next best threat. I really hope they do. Nice point. Night 8 by L.A. Yeah, well, did they choke another one away? Yeah.

They lost an O.T. the night before, too. To the Flames. To the Calgary Flames. Cracking. Aren't getting, crack at are struggling since they got the great Bobby McMahon who's...

Hey, can we do that now? Go ahead. You know, why didn't the least get a first round pick for Bobby McMahon? Because he's the third line winger. But he... Is he... Yeah.

Third line? Yeah, yeah. I think... You want to say that... 20 plus goals, multiple seasons in a row, it's third liner? That's not. I'm checking my calculations here.

He's got 25 goals this year. He's big. He flies. He makes a million bucks. On a last place team. Seattle? Toronto. I think they could have. Right? Maybe a little bit better. He's not a proven top six player. No. And that's why you can't get a first rounder for him. Okay. To me, this is like, if the Leafs intend to turn things around next year, like, Nick Waugh makes sense because you get a big haul.

trying to find McMahon's 25 goals and Lotton's 20 goal or 15 goals. Nick Wah's first round from Colorado to the Leafs was a gift from the hockey gods. Oh, I know, and that's why you take it. That's why I'm not sitting here going, they shouldn't have done that.

But, you know, if they're serious about trying next year, it's tougher to see why. McMahon has all the potential in the world to be a top left winger. Look at this guy. That's not a first round pick. He's got five goals and seven games there. It isn't when you see that once every four or five.

game, Sammy. And that's just, that's where he is right now. He can do it. He can do it. No one gets hot like him though. He gets these runs. He still hot. Needs to bring it.

They're going to miss the playoffs. Oh, by a good distance. Yeah, they suck. Yeah. Class. It won't be McMahon's fault. Game time. Game time presented by Bet365.

An official partner of the NHL must be 19 plus. Interior only please play responsibly. Stink Bowl tonight on Sportsnet, Wednesday night hockey the Leafs better than that for me the kids got to put on a brave face tonight the takeoff on Spons Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey

what are you guys going to talk about for half an hour before this one starts cause he suggested we wear tank tops on the show I actually love that we got a lot of losses I got a lot I do know I got good arms you seem bigger arms than a snake

strings dangling from your shoulders the Leafs are somehow underdogs at home to the New York Rangers. Does that make you happy? That is unbelievable. That's actually greatly humiliating. Bet the Leafs, unfortunately.

It's because they're on the road. Well, no. The Rangers. Oh, yeah. The Rangers are favored. Oh, and they're terrible. Oh, yeah. They're way better on the road.

They are. Get them out of MSG. Let me give you the Rangers Road and home split. On the road, 1916 and 2, respectable. At home, 918 and the. seven. There it is. That's insane.

And more wins on the road than at home. That's insane. Okay. That was game time. Instead of by, 365, an official partner of the NHL must be 19 plus, Ontario only, please play responsibly.

Okay. Jets talk. Jetstock. After the break, our very own, Sean Reynolds, will join us. Is there still life in Winnipeg?

Five points out of a playoff spot, boys. Just five. How bad is the last? We're going. Oh, my God. Deep. on Jet Talk. But kind of the West Leafs, so you nailed it.

Okay. Back after these words. Get smarter when you listen to Hockey Talk, the Hockey PEOCast with Dmitri Filipovich. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a reminder, this hour of Real Kipprenborn, brought you by Bet365.

Let's welcome in Sean Reynolds, Sportsnet Reporter in Winnipeg, hockey night in Canada, and the leader of our, Jets talk. Sean, how are you, my friend? I'm doing great. How are you? Five points out,

11 games to go. Not saying there's a chance, but is there a chance? Based on what you guys, I hear you guys were talking about the pillow fight that's happening out here

in the Pacific. That kind of sums up the West. Like the Winnipeg Jets had said some time ago, they weren't going to give up on this. They felt they had the opportunity to kind of fight their way back into this. They thought they could play some pretty good hockey, but that they'd need some help. And boy, oh, boy, have they ever been getting help? Like, it was a great line someone gave to me the other day. It's not so much that the Winnipeg Jets are rising towards the playoff line.

It's that the playoff line is falling towards them. Like, when they were coming out of the Olympic break, I had it basically calculated around that time. it looked like it was going to be about 93 or 94 points was going to be that eighth place spot. So the Winnipeg Jets had about five losses in them. From that point till the end of the season, they could only afford five losses, except that playoff line is now getting closer like 88, 86 points or something like that. And it's really, you take a look at all the teams they've had to chase. Almost all of them have fallen apart. I mean, the Vancouver connects the Jets were dead last at one point.

Vancouver sunk like a stone. so did Chicago. San Jose was looking pretty good for a while. Now they've fallen, they can't get up. The L.A. Kings are having problems. The only team that is kind of not fitting the script for the Winnipeg Jets right now is the Nashville Predators,

who all of a sudden out of the blue gone 7, 2, and 1. If it wasn't for them looking like all of a sudden, okay, we're a capable team and we're willing to fight for this playoff spot, which seemingly no one else was able to, it almost looks like

would be a foregone conclusion that Winnipeg Jets were going to go to the playoffs. That National Predators team right now is the fly in the ointment. So this Winnipeg Jets team, like I can't really get a sense for where they're at because I look at the roster and it's not that different from when they're really good. So is it still within them here to just kind of snap to attention, get a few more saves and all of a sudden get hot? Yeah, people, because it's Connor Hellebuck, people have that tendency to think, okay, it's just the goal attending. The goaltending jumps up and everything's fine here, right?

It hasn't been, Connor Hullabuk's had a pretty tough year here for the Winnipeg Jets. So that hasn't been it. I was on the show earlier this year. I talked about all the guys that they let go were some of their fastest players and how that affected them. I think what we've seen that Scott Arneal has been able to do in the back half of the season. I think the first half of the season, the Winnipeg Jets kept trying to be what they were last year and they didn't have the speed to do it. And then there was an acknowledgement of maybe we need to tweak things a little bit here. And that's what they've done. Rather than being a pressure for checking team on you in your own zone, they're kind of a little bit more of a neutral zone trap team now.

They've rediscovered their really kind of five-man kind of perfect defensive zone play that makes them really, really hard to score on. And what it does is down the stretch here, especially in the West, where we've talked about it just now. There's not a lot of teams pushing to get into the playoffs. And what the Winnipeg Jets require you to do is it's going to be a grind. It's going to be hard to score. You're going to have to fight to get to the front of the net.

And so a game like last night, the Vegas Golden Knights had the puck a lot, skated it around, but didn't seem interested in getting to the front of the net, and then they couldn't score. Whereas if you go back to last week, the Winnipeg Jets took on the Boston Bruins. The Boston Bruins are in the middle of an absolute battle. out in the east to get into the playoffs, and they kind of rolled over the Winnipeg Jets because they were willing to pay the price.

So the Jets have really been capitalizing. What they've done well is said, if you're going to win this game, you're going to have to work to win it. And they've just found there's a lot of teams down the stretch here at this time of the year who are either so high up that they don't feel like fighting for it or so low that there's no point in fighting for it.

And they're making hay off of it. You're watching and listening to Sean Reynolds, Sportsnet reporter in Winnipeg. Does a great job for us on Hockey Night in Canada as well. Okay, so back to back with Colorado Avalanche, I would have said must win sweep here, but to your point with a pillow fight, would one be okay?

I think so. Like, it's funny, I thought you guys were going to ask me, are the Jets going to make the playoffs now? That's a loaded question. That question is coming. Don't worry. It's a loaded question because, you know, I could sit there and say everything that they're doing looks like they're giving themselves a shot. They've been closing the window at a pace where they would catch that playoff line right at the end of the year.

So I could come on your show here on Wednesday and say, oh, yeah, the Jets, they were giving themselves a real good shot and then play their next two games. Lose both of them to the Colorado Avalanche, which no one would be surprised. And then if Nashville wins one of their next two, they're up seven or nine with the Jets having nine left to play. that's too big of a mountain for them to climb. But I'll say this. The Winnipeg Jets have been given themselves a chance. They played the Colorado Avalanche who were playing a little bit off from everything that I was reading from their press clippings and what their coach was saying. And they clip the Colorado Avalanche.

It was one of those games where the Colorado Avalanche were clearly the better team, yet somehow the Winnipeg Jets found a way to win. And that's another thing that the Winnipeg Jets have been doing really well, is whether it's, with offense or with defense or timely scoring or kind of rope-a-doping teams. They've probably, since the Olympic break, by my count, have like three or four rope-a-dope games, that they had no business winning that game. And yet they somehow found it out. There's a veteran savvy to this team. You don't win a president's trophy without it.

They're rediscovering that or at least very much using that down the stretch. And they're finding ways to win games. It's a cliche, but it's what the Winnipeg Jets. are doing now. So if they hired me today and I replace Kevin Shevolde off and they say it's yours to run for the next 11 games, Hellebuck's not going in net. You know, we're taking a guys out of the lineup. I look at it at this right now.

We're talking about them making the playoffs. Sean, they're three points from a top five pick. This is a team they're not going to win the cup this year. If they just are bad for a few weeks, they can get, I mean, they're going to have a great chance at Gavin McKenna or a superstar here. Sean, you are talking to two of the, like, kingpins of tanking. Tank nation. But the Jets are a better spot than the Leafs.

Guys, guys, good on you. You are speaking to a vast swath of the Winnipeg Jets audience. There's a whole bunch of people in Winnipeg right now who are saying, thank you guys, thank you, please talk more about this, because there's a whole bunch of people who are saying that. And the likelihood of the Jets making the playoffs is still low. The more likely outcome, if they keep climbing like they are, is to just blow up their spot on getting a good pick.

And here it is. Right now they're sitting 26th in the league. But they're two points out of 21st, right? And everyone around them, you know, the teams that they need to catch the Toronto Maple Leafs, they're struggling. The Florida Panthers kind of seems like they're waving the white flag, the Seattle crack. And they are completely and totally lost.

I don't have a lot of faith in the New Jersey Devils. And who knows what's going on with the L.A. Kings. Would it be a surprise? if the Winnipeg Jets made up two points on those teams in the last 11 games of the season that where they're playing, I would fully expect it. But it still is a long shot for them to make the playoff. To get executed by the avalanche and then be done? Well, that's just it.

But here's the deal. Guys like Mark Schifley, guys like Connor Hellebuck, Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey, these are not the kind of guys that you are going to ask to lay up, right? These are the guys who are trying to clear the water with a three. 300 yard drive and stick it right next to the pin. That's the kind of golfers these guys are. That's the kind of hockey players there. So it's funny, you could have that conversation,

but those guys would never entertain that. It's not who they are. So it's not really an option in Winnipeg. To your point, though, you could be tweaking the lineup. You could be putting certain guys in. Although I thought you were going in a different spot with the Connor Hellebuck thing because Eric Comrie, the backup, has won six straight games right now.

actually the more successful of the two goaltenders. So you may kind of shoot yourself in the foot if you were trying to lose by putting in Eric Comrie. Who he got in the American League? Who's the net there? So, Sean, part of that tank conversation, especially with

Sammy and J.B. around the Toronto Maple Leafs is a coach that's trying to save his job, right? In Toronto with Craig Barubi. Is that what's happening now with Scott Arneal? Can he be in a position right now where a strong finish could

enable a lot of people to say, yeah, let's stick with the program here. Yeah, I put him in the same category as those players I mentioned. Like he's not going to give up and he's been racking his brain and he's been doing all the things that you want out of a coach to see that there's still some fight in the coach. And listen, I wouldn't have thought he would go anywhere anywhere anyway. this is a guy who's had deep ties to the city of Winnipeg for a long time.

He was Mark Chittman's coach with the Manitoba Moose years ago. There's deep connections there. Kevin Shevold-Dayoff has been said in the past by his owner to have a job for life. They prioritize loyalty in Winnipeg. I get outside market journalists coming to me being like, how is Kevin Shevold-Dayoff still the GM of this team? And it's like, you just have to have a conversation with Mark Chipman and you know that he's not going anywhere.

Scott Arniel is a guy that I thought was pretty safe regardless, but he strikes me as a coach who has a lot of pride in the fact that he hadn't had a shot for about a decade, comes in, wins a president's trophy. He hated the idea that people were going to be out there thinking that he just lucked into a team that was coached up by Rick Bonas and that muscle memory carried them to President's trophy. He wanted to figure this problem out.

He wants to put them in a situation where there's belief for next year. He's doing it within the room. I think he's probably doing it up towards management as well. You know, it's not hard to imagine a world where they're much, much better next year. It is fascinating. So their deadline to me was, I guess it made sense. It wasn't really clear if they were going up or down. How is it played out not having Stanley and Chen?

Well, I would have thought they would have been kind of, you know, the wolves would have moved in on the sheep, right? Like, that's a lot of back-end beef that you're letting go. Six foot seven, Logan Stanley, I think he's around 230 pounds. Luke Shen, big, strong guy, two of those guys who have been handling a lot of the fighting duties for the team so far this year. And instead, what we've seen is a Winnipeg Jets team that is just finding a way to defend by committee. So like I said, the

Winnipeg Jets have been, if you've watched their games as of late, they're really, really hard to get inside on. And, you know, so it's a team like Vegas comes in very capable and they get one goal. Colorado Avalanche a little bit before that, they come in, they get one goal. The Jets, when

they are on their game, like people forget, they're back-to-back Jennings trophy winners, right? And Logan Stanley was only a little bit of a part of that last year. This is a team that knows how to defend and they defend by committee. It's almost like moving those guys out of the room has kind of removed the option to be

tough and strong and brawny and keep guys from the front of your net. So now we need, I'm going to need your help here. They're like those Roman soldiers, right? Like I protect you with the shield off to the side. That's what they're doing. They're a full team. It's working really well. Last night, if you go back and watch that game, the Vegas Golden Knights out shoot the Winnipeg Jets.

But if you take a look at the entirety of the game, they really don't create a lot of good chances, and they just do not get inside. Other than the one goal, they get inside for one goal, put it in the back of the net, and then they never got there again. Winnipeg Jets have done a good job finding way to defend, not with size, but with strength of numbers.

Okay, just quickly, who's not going to make it for Winnipeg to make it? Who's not going to make it? Yes. Well, it has to be Nashville. Like, Nashville has to fall out. I don't know. They basically eliminated the pack. You think Vegas is okay?

You saw them the other night. They can't get a safe. But they need a wild card spot. What happens in the Pacific doesn't concern them. Whoever falls out of the Pacific is going to fall out of the playoffs. It's two central division teams that are occupying. So it has to be one of those two teams. You're right.

You're right. You're right. Maybe a crossover, five and three. Yeah, it's pretty. limited for trying to get in there. So just lastly, quick thought on those central teams. You see a lot of Dallas, Minnesota, Colorado. Do you have a sense for, is Colorado that far above and beyond the other two? I don't think so. It's going to be interesting that like that it's been important for the last number of years for for the team coming out of the central to try and get that

top seed because the best you're going to do, you know, if I'm Colorado, I'll take a first round series against the national predators rather than playing Dallas or Minnesota. Minnesota looks like it's going to be a slog to me. Like that team, whoever knocks them out of the playoffs is going to know that they knocked them out of the playoffs because they're going to, the story of the bumps and bruises on their bodies will tell the story of that series. But yeah, the central division is always a slog. And wouldn't it be something if the pillow fighting out of the Pacific division ended up

leading to whoever comes out of that division facing a beat up central division team that has done so good all year and then gets walked over by the pillow fighters because they're nice and fresh. I can see what happening, guys. Sean, great stuff as always, man. Thanks for your time. Great to see you guys.

Thanks. Yeah, I had Winnipeg on my, or at Vegas on my mind because I know you guys wanted to. The pillow fighters is a great thing to call the Pacific. It is. It's nuts.

The Winnipeg Jets, by the way, though, they might find their way into the bottom. They got Colorado, Colorado. Yeah. After that, they play Chicago. Then they get Dallas, Columbus. They finished the year with Vegas, Utah. What do you are?

What's on your mind here? Vegas. Utah, I was not impressed with Utah last night having the Oilers at home. And there's another team that looked awful. Oilers look good though. Yeah, I know full credit to the Oilers, but like, come on. Did you see the second goal? The Jari let in, though?

I was like, oh, God. Yeah, not good. It was 2-1. Oilers made it 2-1. Yeah. And then I don't know how much longer it was, but maybe a minute later. Puck comes off the end boards under his blocker.

Like he tries to stop it. Utah. Utah, like you win last night. You just put it to bed. Yeah. And Utah coming up here has four straight non-playoff teams. Like they're okay. Utah's going to make the playoffs.

But they can't beat Edmonton in a seven-game series. I'm convinced last night. No. No. You know, the more I watch this, and I know we've done this over and over. Like, Edmonton's been through the war. There's one team in the West that's going to beat them.

It's going to be whoever comes out of the central. In the third round. Right. Like Vegas in the first round, it's probably Edmonton. I wrote today, I don't think Anaheim is. Edmonton will be fine. I just don't think they're going to get through Colorado. No.

Right? Did you want to, quick for our Western listeners, a quick sim lottery, run of the draft here? Yes. I got it open. running it all day. With the first overall pick. Wow, this is a tough one for our Western listeners.

The San Jose sharks jump up to the first overall pick to take it away. The Toronto Maple Leafs go second, and then the Vancouver Canucks get the third overall pick. Calgary drops to sixth. Yeah, that's not the outcome of West that they're looking for us, for sure. It's tough. You guys see Robert Thomas go down last night?

Yep. Greasy. Five-minute major. It's enough? No. Game? Game? Yeah.

You want him to get a game? Yes. What would he's not? Yeah, he's fine, I think. His face bounced off the ice a little bit, but a five-minute major match penalty. Mm-hmm. Pretty sufficient.

I thought it was interesting, Simmer, talking about how the publicity from the Leafs not defending Matthews, because Toronto major media market, so that gets blasted out to all the... Yeah. The international referendum on softness from Toronto. Right. And now it seems like every team. Anything that's happening is like,

oh, no, no. And it's like, don't want to get, want to blow up the system and get rid of George. And, yeah, but it's always the case from year to year every once in a while. It becomes really hot. And then it kind of goes away. I don't think it's ever gone away with the,

with perils, bud. It's every year. There's definitely years. We do it every year. But you know what you don't do? Maybe it's just me. What you don't do is look at, like, the trends. and how they've gone down with suspensions.

And, you know, if you want to talk about deliberate acts. Yeah. Like which last night was? We've never had fewer. Totally. Ever. Well, the majority of suspensions, the majority of suspension, Sammy. Yeah.

Are accidents. Not because guys are trying to kill each other. Sure. It's not. Yeah, but I think a lot of people would argue that we've had less suspensions because. He's not suspensions. spending people? There's been,

that's not true. Well, there's been lots of things that have been fines over this season. It's cleaned up, for sure. I'm not saying it has, listen,

I'm not talking to my whole life. I understand that it's cleaner now. But we want it perfect, right? We want to, we want guys to play at a very high level and not get suspended and show any disrespect. And it's like,

what world are you living in? You just want guys to get suspended for suspendable acts. I think, and it's inconsistent. I think that's it. No. No, no.

It's, It's been cleaned up. It's been cleaned up. I'm not going to sit here and argue with Kippy League office. No, it's okay. Don't argue. Just give me points of how you don't think it's improved. Well, it just, there's been tons of times over our whole show

where guys have gotten 5K fines for something that another guy got suspended for. For example, Pierre Engvall accidentally whacked Sean Jersey on the top of the head. The softest guy in the history of the league who's never been suspended for anything gets a game suspension. and then Jacob Truba rips around and slashes a guy in the face and he gets a fine. It's like it's just it's the inconsistencies are what drive people crazy. And sure you can say it's cleaned up, obviously the game's a lot softer than it used to be. No question. But just because there's less suspensions doesn't mean it's just because he's not suspending guys.

That's how I feel about it. But that will always have that no matter who's in or who's making the decisions. That will always be the case. There is a minimum number of whoopsies every year. the big picture where we go you know someone's going to get killed or this is just it's like just stop

with that narrative I'm okay with you want to argue whether or not a guy gets suspended one game or two games it's fine that that won't change but I'm not going to reward George Peros and the league for it becoming a softer game it's not it's at the grassroots it's you can't you get suspended

for 10 games for fighting three times in the OHA it's not because they're making it a cleaner game it's just a games changed. It's not there. I'm not giving them credit for that. Are you? Well, I mean, I give the overall system credit.

It's the players. It used to be, you know, when you think of the Rappi-Torres headshot era. Oh, my God. It was the league. Like, you have these guys that were really inflicting pain. Patrick Colletta. Yes. It was the league that stepped in and made changes once the players wanted changes made.

The only changes from here on end is if the players get together and they go, hey. let's suspend ourselves longer and take more money out of our pockets. Who thinks that's a good idea? Oh, me is a clean player in the league? Yeah, I'm in. Can we suspend these morons who keep doing this? Because I'm not getting suspended. But the softies like you, there's not enough of you, buddy.

Buddy, have you watched hockey? Buddy, like, no chance. You guys... The softies are a... We have our own union. The tough guys in the room will look at you and you will cower. You won't... We will out.

The meek shall inherit here. It's fine. We shall outnumber you in time. Not a chance. The players are going to suspend themselves longer and take more money out of their pocket. It ain't happening. They're fine with it. Okay.

I got a hockey game to do. Bye. Have a good one tonight. Rangers, Toronto, Scotia Bank hockey. Tune in. All right, thanks to Sean Reynolds and Alex Adams.