Real Kyper & Bourne - USA Takes Olympic Hockey Crown From Canada

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee look back on Team Canada's loss to the USA in the gold medal game on Sunday morning. They break down the game and discuss whether there are any roster regrets, missed opportunities from Connor McDavid, Macklin Celebrini and Nathan MacKinnon, and Jon Cooper's coaching in overtime. Later, former Leafs GM Gord Stellick joins the show (30:49) to share his take on the game, whether Canada brought the right group to Milan, what a gold medal run can do for Auston Matthews, players at the Olympics poking fun at Leafs fans, and whether the Olympics should review 3-on-3 overtime for future events. 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. Two full hours, the Real Kipper and Born show. We call this our wrap-up the Olympic portion of our show. And tomorrow's the wrap-up part two, and then we'll have the wrap-up part three in the NHL. It is the Real Kipper and Born show. We are live on Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet 590, the fan in Toronto, and streaming always on SportsNap Plus.

Also available, Spotify, Apple Podcast, and YouTube. Nick Kipreels, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. Jake the Snake Shills, Derek Brandeo with you, to sort it all out as Jack Hughes scores in overtime, lifting the USA to their gold medal win versus Canada. Sammy, let me just start by telling you, the doctor is in.

Oh, yeah? Just let it out. Dana's coming today? Dana Sinclair is coming today or no? Just where do you want to start with your feelings? Where do you guys? want to start. You guys name are on the show.

You talk first. I don't know. I got to start with you. Like that kind of feels like we're a kid for a thing. You're right. Listen, we're going to dissect the crap out of this thing. We know that. Tell us about your Sunday morning.

How was it spent? What did you do? No, I did go to real sports. No, I did go to real sports. Went to another establishment. I drank hockey games worth of beers. I had a coffee before. So 7 o'clock you had a coffee?

No, I got, we didn't get there until 8. I mean, the subway in Toronto doesn't. run until 8. 8.10, 812. Got there, you know, was feeling pretty apprehensive about the game. I think I'd maybe not said this on air to anybody, but I had definitely spoken with it about you,

Borny, that I didn't want to put this out there because I didn't really want it to be in the ether. But, you know, eventually these things flip. Like, you can only win so many times in these scenarios. Like, eventually the other team's going to win one in one of these spots. And I kind of had that feeling looming over me for a week or so. How about you? in terms of everything just you know we had an awesome neighborhood get together one of our neighbors

norahs and eddie had the whole shebang over so we sat there in full Canada regalia with another 10 adults and sat there with my son all the kids downstairs in the basement watching it was awesome it was a great experience it was a great hockey game to sammy's point you're not going to win every we're not entitled to winning every big close game for the next jillion years yeah good to throw them a crumb and keep them interested but uh yeah yeah Gifford, what did you watch? Just woke up, pajamas, watch the game. Robe, do you wear a robe?

No, I'm not a robe. Any beer's? No, no beers. Knee-length robe and a beer? This is like the playoffs. For me, this is like, I cannot be in a room with a bunch of people asking me questions or even listening to them sometimes. So I just needed to watch the game.

just me and my wife and my oldest kid went, found his buddy somewhere and just hung out. Like most Canadians, I would think, would join in on what you experienced and why not. Yeah. Those are far and few moments, right? Yeah, it was awesome. And, yeah, I think it was pretty incredible to see how many people are out and about. I know it's a big game, but it's still like 10 in the morning and the city was buzzed and everybody was out and about.

Okay, so it was great. It was great. If you kind of went in a little apprehensive and you just said moments ago, these things flip. Yeah. You're just strictly basing that on like the percentages, right? Yeah. So percentage flip.

But was there anything else that you saw through the last few games or the last week that that would suggest to you that Canada was a little vulnerable? I guess going to overtime against Chequia, I guess the way they kind of started against Finland, but in my opinion, they played their best game in the final. like in terms of them how good they looked against such an incredible opponent in the States and for them to almost double their shots and look as good as they did,

I know they missed chances and all this stuff, but by and large part, I think that's probably the best game they played all tournament. Would you guys not agree? Yeah, I thought they were really good. You know, there wasn't a ton of tests along the way for the U.S. either, obviously. So this is like the first time that you, well,

may call it the second time where you see them exposed where early on we felt against Chechia that they looked a little thin against Finland. They felt top heavy at times. I get the sense where you're going with this is when you don't win or when you're in those moments, you start to question, did we bring the right guys?

This is what we do in Canada, right? Sure. You win, you get the roses, you get the glory, you don't. This is what we ultimately do. We've done it on anything historically of importance when it comes to the game of hockey. We break down, we dissect. Now, I don't think you could say here, and maybe you'll prove me wrong,

but I don't think you can say they missed by much. Like, I don't think we're sitting here today going, they should have had five different players than they brought. Maybe I'm wrong on that. But listen, they're dominant against the best team in the tournament, gave themselves a great chance to win. Their goalie played great. You know, they couldn't have missed by too much.

And they got big moments from depth guys in this tournament. Like it wasn't like it was just the big. Well, is that true? Well, I mean, Nick Suzuki scores a tying goal against Chequia. Marner scores a game winner. Shea Feodor scores a tying goal against Finland. Like, you know, they're big guys. We're big in these moments.

And the heartbreaking part about this is you want to sit here and talk about team selection and who they didn't take or who they should have taken. But it's Connor McDavid on a breakaway. It's Macklin-Sellabrini on a breakaway. It's Nathan McKinnon looking at a net that if he had no, virus and no legs, he should shoot that puck in the net. Like, whatever you can talk about who they didn't take. But the heartbreaking part is it's the big boys that let them down.

It's the three best players on the team on the ice when they lose in overtime. Like, I really have a hard time sitting here and blaming Doug Armstrong for who they took when they were right there and the big boys let them down. Well, also, I don't like the idea of let them down because they create those chance. They earn the breakaways. They, you know, they make enough good plays to get in those spots. You got it. Pucks got under the net, Justin.

Yeah. I do have a problem with just thinking that this game was won and loss on McDavid and McKinnon and the missed opportunities. I mean, it does happen. It does lend me to think, though, over the course of what I've watched, especially in the last three games, that it really felt like John Cooper turned himself into Noblock, the head coach in Edmonton where he just said, I've got these horses.

And essentially what I watched, I think, especially in the final, was they looked like a one-line team to me. It was Celebrini, it was McDavid, it was McKinnon or Buss, to his point. And then kind of the finger gets pointed on them. Like, this wasn't the Oilers. This is not just dry-sidal and McDavid, Hyman, and maybe one other guy. This is the best of the best here.

And it just felt like watching McDavid play 25 minutes for three games in a row and then going to him, every other shift it felt like just kind of ended up like an Edmonton Oil or game six or game seven where it's like the guy's out of gas. Yeah, you know, and maybe that's the case. It's tough. Like it was 24 minutes in a game.

game, an overtime game, you know, too much for your top line. I'd rather err on that side than 21 minutes. That's just the physical part you're talking about, but you're not factoring in the stress that comes with it. And it's like, okay, one game, one bounce, but it's also an accumulation of the three games. And you can't just look at the last three games of Team Canada and say that they're all separate and they all don't have anything to do with one another.

They do. They do. When you are stressed in a quarterfinal game and then you need a mariner goal, you give it this one for 24 hours, and then you go into another stress scenario against Finland when you're down two goals and everybody's staring at you and McKinnon to dig them out. They did. And they did. Yes. And then you're asked them to do it.

again a third time. These are three stressful games that had something to do with the outcome. It's just not the last game. You know, I don't like, I didn't like the flow of the last three games between McDavid and their 13th forward. Totally. And I think that's a super fair criticism.

You know, if you want to play the game where you're critical of who they brought, who they didn't, and I wrote this and my recap of the event, you know, the guys that they brought, like I would have liked to have seen more offensive guys come over the boards. It had been nice to see Connor Bedard out there,

Matthew Schaefer, Evan Bouchard. You know why? Everyone in those events is worried, doesn't want to be the guy to get burnt, so they pay attention to defense. They err on the side of defensive caution. So that kind of means you can take some riskier players. And I think we forget that guys are going to be super aware

of not being the guy. who gets burned. So then you're sending Seth Jarvis out and you didn't get much from Stone or Hagel or some of those guys at the bottom. What do they play? 12 minutes? 10 minutes?

Sam Ryanhard played 657. Stone. Let's see if I can find him on here. Stone play 1453. Mariner 17. Please tell me Sam Ryanhurt's better than six minutes. Please tell me he's better. The 13th forward thinks too.

Okay. Please tell me he's better than that. Did you think he was? Did you see a good shift where you're like, get him out there more? I just, first of all, he's, he's a 20 minute guy and a number one guy winning two Stanley Cups.

I think, I don't know what the effect of feeling like one shift every 15 minutes does to him, what it, how it makes him feel, the rhythm that he's used to the last few years and then walking into that scenario. I don't know. I mean, no, he was not noticeable. He was not strong.

He had a great redirect goal that was huge. But outside of that, you know, you didn't get much out of him. I think it's a great point to say that if these guys played more consistent, would you have got more out of the guys at the bottom? That's possible. I mean, what? Every, if an almost biblical amount of things didn't go wrong in the last game. Yeah.

They filled in the second best team in the world. Yeah. filled them in. Like it was not, America looked like Finland for the whole game. Like they had the first 10 minutes of the game where I thought they were fantastic, the first shift they rolled it.

And then from that point forward, Canada rolled and it wasn't meant to be. It wasn't on team selection. I don't buy that. I don't buy that. It was not meant to be. I don't buy it. So you don't have to buy the spiritual angle

that you're going out there. But I think there's a fair point that if you're that much better, you're going to win most of the time. It's a one game thing where they had their best goal, the goalie stand on his head. Okay. Like, I'm not outraged about this.

Let me ask you something, okay? If I told you a week ago that Canada was going to meet the U.S., okay? And in this one-win take-all scenario, Canada wouldn't have one forward get a point. Goose eggs from Connor to the 13th forward. Would you have told me back then that you could still find a way to tell me that Canada deserves the gold

if I told you not one forward score point? Well, probably not, but I mean, the way it played out, I mean, it's living at that time and living this time are two different things. I watch the game. I'm just telling you, there's no world. What do you want me to say here? I'm saying that...

Like, what is it that you want for me? You want me to be super upset about everything? I'm not sure they absolutely deserve the win. That's fair. Well, they obviously didn't because they didn't win. When you have a five on three for a minute and a half to put a team away that you deserve the win. I mean, if your point is that Canada didn't deserve to win, I think you're going to find a very small percentage of the country agreeing with you,

like 5% or less. I get it on the surface. A bounce here. I get all of that. but I think we didn't have the right guys. Okay. I think we didn't have the right guys. And if McKin.

Hold on. Who did you want it to be? But if McKin shoots it in the net, we did have the right guys? You know, I look at that power play, and I would rather have revisited a better net front presence with Zach Eman than three shooters, Celebrini, McDavid, and McKinnon, all wanted to be on the,

Primiter all wanted that, that open space to shoot the puck 20 feet, 30 feet, but I saw nobody stand in front of the net for a minute and a half. Okay. The other one, it was like 50% till the final. The other one that bothered me looking back, and you guys tell me if I'm wrong, okay? But Drew Jowdy couldn't play. Seventh D. Please tell me why someone would say,

would be in a meeting for Team Canada and say that if we lost McCar or Morrissey, Drew Dowdy can come in and fill that. And you don't feel like that he could. But they couldn't play him six minutes.

You know, the loss of Josh Morrissey ended up being a massive story in this. He played big minutes and had Four Nations for them. He's their only other puck mover, point getter. It was, Just a big mistake. And they got to wear it. I like Drew.

But Drew's at the end of his career. Drew couldn't play. Couldn't play. I mean, we can have this. There's. Before the tournament, you were out. Before the tournament, we all were saying that he should be there. Because yes, we were.

We went back on Schaefer. We did. And Bushard. And at the end, I said Bushard, too. right you needed you needed one of those two guys to step in for morrisie being out drew dowdy was not it so are you so result centric that to sam's point that i interrupted before mckinon shoots at one in the net they win two one in regulation they took the right guys i think uh yeah i i think we would have been in a situation where you're like it you don't have to answer that question

right you don't but we do now we do i think i think a better lineup where you're would have left them with a bigger cushion to put the game away. Do you think if you're watching that game, Kipper, you're thinking, like, boy, I think Connor Bedard would belong in this game. Boy, I think this person would belong in this game. Like, that's such a big boy game. I don't know. I do feel like the small guys went away.

I, you know, I thought, you know, let's his name, Jarvis, wasn't able to be as effective. Marner made some great passes. Yeah, he did. He should have set up, you should have set up the game, one of the game went goals with theaves. His past him, David on the breakaway was all world. And the past of Taves and the past of Taves. He said, yeah, he was good. You know, he had a couple good setups.

He was great. Yeah, but the, you know, the Hegel wasn't able to be overly effective. I just didn't feel like, you know who I liked Bo Horvat all the whole way along. Yeah, me too. One of the few guys that I, you know, from the bottom that I thought was consistently effective. But Stone was disappointing for me. I think R.D struggled. Paraco.

Paraco struggled. Yeah. for sure i i think then the people when i'm watching the games throughout it the ones that i was the most worried about when they were out there preco definitely was top on that list i think he said multiple times that he probably won't be involved the next time we do this felt the same way about reinhart a lot of the time he was out there but shaffer would have been a difference maker i thought sanheim played very well you know for what he is you're right though that like sanheim isn't who shaffer is but i thought for sanheim and i think we all agreed pre-tournament that

Schaefer probably should have been there and that if they had a retake after the whatever December 31st thing, they probably would have taken them. So it's just heartbreaking to lose it to the States. I'd be lying to you. If it just that part of it is just, it just sucks so bad. Yeah. But here's what I'll say.

I don't come away from this game thinking to myself, oh, we're never going to beat those guys. Oh, there's not. No, there's not that. But like that for me is the biggest worry when it comes to Canada. And you're like, oh, they couldn't skate with them or something. Or no, but like for the future that for the next World Cup, whenever it is, and the next Olympics, my biggest worry would be is that our men's team looks like what happens with the women's team now.

Where we're not even in these games. It's a miracle that we're like I. That's not going to happen. That's what I mean. Yeah. It's a rivalry. Yeah. They got one on us.

They never get us and they finally got one on us. And it took all of the hockey gods on every situation, not letting the puck enter the net and have it go to three-on-three overtime and have Jack Hughes shooter in the net. Like, the amount of things that had to go right for them to win that game are astronomical. And they did.

I know people want me to be super pissed and have all this stuff, but it was just so damn close. Absolutely. Absolutely. I thought going into it, there's a chance that it would be the Hughes Brothers running wild and they got the puck all game and Kachucks all over the board. He even playing.

Jack played 13 minutes? Yeah. And took a brutal penalty with a minute left in the game that could have cost his country the gold medal. There was a point in the third period where I was saying to the people around us, like is so-and-so playing. And it could have been about any forward on the American team.

We do need to produce a few more defense, though, because how many defensemen on Canada would have made the USA blue line? Oh, I don't know. Besides McCarr. I mean, that's a... I'm just saying, though, skill-wise, when you look at it, it's a hard

like that's a blue line and meanwhile they didn't touch the puck for two periods. Yeah the one thing I did think about that I know I know. I think we may have oversold that blue line a bit.

That blue line is combined for currently zero Stanley Cups. They're smaller. They weren't able to control the power. Wrenski made a play in overtime that few guys could probably have made. No, they have some very simple. And that's the skill

and that's maybe that's what you needed to they were still insulated enough right? And Bouchard probably would have been that guy that you could insulate and still have the ability to make a play like that. And I think, I think McCar got a little stressed out

on, he was fantastic. But especially in the overtime. Co-picked when he tried to stop the buck. The read he made, if he does get a poke on it, McDavid is behind the other two. So it's like, we either win the game or we're cooked. But why, why do you have to feel? feel in two minutes you got to win the game

or we're cooked. Well, I think, Kipp, it's a split second. Are we going for it or not going for it? And he chose go for it. If I had one complaint hockey-wise about the game and if you mentioned Cooper, I hate the way they approached the three-on-three. I mean, when did they score a minute 57 in?

They were acting like it was a five-minute period of three-on-three. I'm with you 100%. I hated the way. It's like, why do you feel like you need to win it in the first minute? McDavid, I mean, the way he'd roved down to the, he tries to blow him out while he doesn't have it, takes a puck,

throws a force to the front of that he's caught deep, and that leads to everything going wrong. It just felt, and to his, he's wearing the sea. They wanted to go take it. He's wearing the sea, he's the fastest guy in the world. I understand all that. And the pressure of that and having that feeling of the, the golden goal being passed on.

He started with him, and then he went right back to him. Double shift in a minute. I know. And it's, again, like you have. Three and three minutes. But you're 25 minutes in. He's going to sit there for four shifts, well, you know, they get scored on.

We're going to be going, how do you not put him out there? Maybe he's resting. Maybe he needs a break. Maybe that's what having a team is supposed to do. You don't just. No, no, they have, they have, like, they're supposed to have 12 best guys out there. This isn't, again, the Edmonton Oilers,

where you look down the bench and you go, not a chance. I'd rather lose with you. Can I ask you a question, though, to your point, when you're sitting there as a Canadian hockey fan or you're not like, please, more than 97. Yeah, another 96.

He's been on the bench for a minute, had a sip of water. How is, how is, Cooper, I guess, has to, you know, Marner's good in three-on-three. They tried them, they did the, it was Marner's Celebrini. After Horvatt wins the draw, they go to the Marners-Selabrini thing, then they go right back to McDavid. By that, leave Horvett out there.

Yeah. And it looked to me like McKinnon was still thinking about the empty net. He missed in overtime. You know, the hesitation. he's the one guy that would have been still thinking about the empty net goal like that if there's if there's guys that things can kind of rub off you know fall off their back he's not one of him hey I was joking with bunk I was texting with him about it and like for McKinnon for the way he's wired like that's going to be like Ray Finkel stuff to him like that's going to be like

laces out but he doesn't he's never going to not think about that. I don't know what it's going to do the rest of his season or even Colorado's. I don't know how it's going to affect him. Yeah, that's unclear. So I think the one thing we need to get to, so we've talked for 23 minutes here, no, Sid. You know, that five on three with Sid to grab a puck, control it, slow things down, get everyone in their spots. I just think.

They lose that. They lost so many big draws. He makes a play. He makes a play. I'm not saying Sid goes something. He just, he makes a play or two for them. As a poised guy who's been there, done that in those moments, that hurt bad boys.

No more, as he knows, it hurt a lot. It had an effect. It certainly did. So, you know, ouch. That's the game. Yeah, no, no, I know. It's one of the- Guys leave, guys get hurt, next man up.

Got to hit curve balls. He came in, try to eat up some of those minutes best he could. Yeah, like, listen, Suzuki was fine, and he had a huge moment for Canada, a huge moment. Yeah. But, you know, he just wasn't that involved. Yeah. And to your point, maybe he should have been mournable.

How about Sid, like, at the end of the game, putting the jersey back on? They're really going to trot him out there like that. Jesus. No, no, no, no, no. That's not them. That's not them. That's Sid. You don't think that's them?

No. No. You think that's him? That's Sid. If Sid didn't want to go out there or felt like, you know, I'm not dressed, he doesn't go out there. That's Sid and the class act that he is. Okay. If that's the case, then I like it.

Those poor guys getting handed a stuffed animal, man. Is this the Olympics, or is this like minor pee-wee Christmas tournament? Seriously. Give it to him in a gift bag behind the scenes if you got to give it to them at all. But like these guys just had their hockey dreams shattered. What I wouldn't have given to see McKinnett just, pah. I thought he might eat it. I thought he might just eat the whole thing.

It's like humiliating. It really was humiliating. an extra. I can't even stand up right now and I got to sit and wait for you to present 30 stuffed animals. What am I at the C&E? Did I win

something? Can I just throw a dart into a balloon? From the American perspective just to give... Just give a credit. You know, the talk about the locker room stuff later

maybe. Didn't love that clearly. But like The Godreau stuff is just heartbreaking. Oh, man. And I have to, I thought. Tip your cap to the Americans for. It was beautiful with Matthews carrying the jersey and his dad in the crowd. It was just like, I don't talk about it now.

I have to tip my cap to that. I thought that was fabulous. It was a beautiful, beautiful moment for them. So the family. And I mean, I got to eat it here big time too. How many times have I made fun of Connor Hellebock? Oh, he's fantastic. For absolutely blowing it and big.

Imagine me in a Jets, Canada. a fan yesterday being like, hey, bud. You figured one of those out at our rank? You know what's funny is his numbers in like elimination games were sneaky good going into that, but he was truly unbelievable. I mean, he just looked like a giant. He battled.

He really battled in the scrambles around the net. There's one that hops over that we don't even talk about that McAvoy keeps out on the goal line. There is five different moments in that game where you're like, oh, that's the moment that they're not going to win. How about McAvoy's chest saver? or whatever was in the net. I know.

Right? I mean, it's, this is the thing. It's like it just felt like they poured all they could at that. You got to give Bittington some credit to. I know some people don't like the game winning goal, five whole, whatever. But like, he's three on three, man. And he's coming down, he's coming right down your, right down the alley here.

So, but he's just, he's just one save less, you know. Was it Matthews he got with the cross ice? Was it Matthews he got with the Cross Ice Club? Love save. Craig love save and overtime. Oh my God. It's like another one of these. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think Boldie was trying to put it where he did. He was trying to go back in five hole. Anyway, what a play by the way. Yeah. But to hack that through the D there,

through Taves and McCarra, that's a pretty exceptional play by Boldy. He's good players. I'm sure there's a lot of people expecting me to be a lot more bent in a shape today. But it's like, I just want to read. You're not. I'm just not. It's like, let's re-rack it.

You know, like, let's. It is. It is. And again, three on three, we're talking about like flipping a coin for goodness sakes when you're talking about all these guys. But just one thing on the three on three, I hated Coop whining about it in the post game. I hated it. I hated it. You had way too many opportunities.

We did before though. We've done it for a week and a half. But post game, you had the way that game played out, you had way too many opportunities to end it in regulation to be talking about three on three. They asked them about it. He said it's not hockey. I don't hate it as much as you. I just... Basically, I hate giving fodder to the Americans for anything

where it just makes it look like we're crying. And it's just like that's what they usually do. And to have us do it, it's like I didn't like it. Three on three sucks, so. sucks. But what can you do? It's the rules. All right, what do you want to do?

Keep talking a little bit about it. I don't know. I think... Gord and we got a break. Yeah, well, I mentioned this to Borne before we go quickly. I think I texted a morning. about this yesterday.

I think the Jays kind of broke me. I think you just can't. Some real calluses on people's hearts. You can't break what's shattered, boys. Like I just, what I feel like... This is where the doctor comes back in. No, but like what I feel like today...

I think there's something to this for a lot of people in Canada. I mean, if you're listening to this, text in and tell me how you're feeling, but I... Yesterday isn't even in the same galaxy as the Js. It just feels like the Jays got somewhere. They never... Canada's giving me a... incredible hockey moments my whole life.

It's not like we lost last night or the Jay's lost with a home run competition. Yeah. Or fastest pitch. That was the end of a two months every day. Odyssey, yes. You know, of like overcoming odds and big moments. You know, Canada is just like, ah, we're the better team. We got beat in one game.

Bummer, we'll get them next time. And they got to play more than once. I'm sorry. We got to, if we're going to do these best on best tournaments, the Olympics got to figure out how to play these guys more than once these guys have to play more than one time. Canada, the same group. Canada, USA.

They got to play in the round robin or something. Find a way. It's too good. But the World Cup is going to happen two years from now. Well, we'll have Schaefer. You want Bouchard? You got him. Wow.

You got him, pal. You asked for it. I'll remember that. I said I wanted him too. I'm the Evan Bouchard guy on Twitter. Like three months ago, I was like, Bouchard has to be on Canada. Chris Fronger, Co.

We did have, we, we, we had ample conversations on Bouchard, and do they have enough on the blue line? And so, yeah. And that was real. And it ended up being a factor. I think so. We got to go to break, but when's the last time we saw Austin Matthews, smile like that? That was nice to see.

I can't believe we just didn't talk about Matthews. Well, I mean, we'll get there. We got Gordon Stelich. Yeah, I'll talk about it, M. Stelotricity. Stelotricity and then David Amber at the top of the hour. Yeah, we just invited our friends. Yeah.

For the people at home, we were like, should we have an American guest then? We were like, absolutely. Nah, let's use invite our friends instead. More when we return to Real Kippin-Born. Hey, it's Ben Annes. And I'm Brent Cunning. We got you covered on all things, Leifes, Raptors, and Blue Jays.

Every weekday morning, 6 to 9. It's the fan morning show. Sportsnet 590 The Fan and wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back to the program. Nick Kippreos, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. All right, let's bring in Gord Stelich, former general manager of the Toronto Maple, Leafs, analyst for Sports 10590, the fan.

Gordo, how are you, my friend? How is your Sunday morning pancakes and a gold medal game? Yeah, nice kind of breakfast early on. Watch two periods at a friend's house, then watched third period at home. We did an hour show on Sirius XM. So I, like everybody else, was disappointed,

pulling hard. I love the game, but I was not surprised by the result as it played out. I mean, just, you know, Jim Gregory's a guy you guys both know, maybe my favorite guy, the best guy ever. The guy, so the late Jim Gregory, he was a general manager, Leifes, he was head of Central Scouting. And back when nobody had cell phones and followed that stuff, he would be at a game and he would have a knack of any game, kind of seen the ebbs and flows and predicting what would happen. It was a really, really neat knack. And I felt that yesterday, just about, that you cannot miss all those kind of chances of your team Canada.

you can't be coming from behind as well if your team can. Those little things that even though you outplayed them, quite often they bite you in the ass, so I wasn't surprised. If we dig a little deeper than that, we do most of the time when it comes to Canadians and the game of hockey, where are you on this lineup? Where were you? I mean, I just talked to the guys and I said,

listen, we love Drew Dowdy and everything and the future Hall of Famer, but it was a big ass for him to come in and start eating up minutes. left from Josh Morrissey's absence. Where were you overall on the players that went there and hindsight's 2020 of course, but where

are you on ultimately the lineup? You saying I'm not a deep guy that I just give puff answers? Is that the thing that I can't go well not on our show but I have heard you on other programs. You got to kill three hours man whatever. Okay, okay, Drew Dowdy. What was the biggest

thing they were missing goal scoring? They didn't score enough goals. Okay? So, okay, Josh Morrissey, they missed. They missed Josh Morrissey. They missed Sidney Crosby. Was Nathan McKinnon 100%? It didn't look like it. So anyway, they had two big misses in the lineup, particularly Morrissey on

defense when he was one of their top D. So all I can say is we always thought on Monday, whichever team lost, okay, that you would start quibbling about the makeup of the roster. Okay, I have zero quibble. Zero quibble. The defense tandem that got beat were McCarr and Taves, okay, that

was I have them out anytime, anywhere, anyhow. The Canadian team did not get the Matt Boldie goal. A deaf player did not come up with the goal, whatever, all these other things. So hey, what, what, would Matthew Schaefer, would Shifley, would Connor Bredart? No, no, I am okay about the makeup. Okay, Cindy Crosby gets hurt. And again, this idea of playing McKinnon Center didn't, for whatever, didn't seem to last very long. So they went away from the depth at center and you know maybe it wasn't as deep as you would have thought at the end given those guys not playing it but i'm okay on the monday after so one thing we didn't get to in the first half of our show is the Toronto Maple Leafs captain wins a gold medal uh really cool to see

him post game smiling relaxed having some laughs um you know i i've talked to i was telling mckeith that i'm talking to darrell sutter he's talking about owen nolan when he played for the san jose sharks and how frustrated nolan was there having to have a little bit of the i'm sorry that a tough time. Nolan gets picked in 02, wins a gold medal, and he came back and Darrell said he was relaxed, satisfied, like it felt like he had a chance to win something

and that helped him out the rest of the way there in San Jose. Could this be something that helps Austin Matthews as he goes forward in his career? By the way, nice takes on things, Justin and Sportsnet.com, you always do, so we have some good takeaways about that. Okay, so Matt Zundane

was the captain and they won a gold medal. I know it was Sweden. They didn't play candid in the final. and there seems to be some, I don't know, animus for some Lee fans about this because it's USA, it's whatever. Hey, last year, Austin Matthews took his lumps about being asked by Kevin McGrane about, hey, you were on for the goal, Mitch Marner scored against. So I really do hope he gets appropriate appreciation about that. Just like, you know, Nathan McKinnock was back,

would have gone back to a great Colorado team in McCar with a goal with Team Canada if it happened. So to your point, Justin, Daryl Sittler always talks about, I'm going to almost 1976, but success at the Canada Cup then put him and Lannie McDonald in a better category and they never look back. Mitch Marner last year gets a big goal. No, now Austin Matthews does. So I hope you got Austin Matthews, Connor Hellebuck, and Jack Hughes. They're all going back to bad situations. Connor Hellebuck, Winnipeg Jets fans or let's do it here.

Jack Hughes, everyone's saying, what the hell's going on with New Jersey? There's slip sliding way in Austin Matthews, a leaf team with a disappointing season so far. So let's hope that could be the case. But I'll tell you, I'm getting tired about Leaf fans, getting the crap kicked out of them. It's become a big joke. You know, you got like Hughes saying it, Stone saying it, like, what, it's our fault? We ran Mitch Marner out of town. Did you pay for games five and seven from Florida last year?

Like, what are you talking about? And then given the same shots after Austin Matthews won. We take so much crap. We are abused and beaten fans who show up all the time, pay top prices. And then, oh, no, oh, no, no. It's impossible here in this freaking coddled environment they set up for so many years. Oh, my goodness. So anyway, let's get back at it.

Let's build off that gold medal for Austin Matthews and hopefully get to the promised land, a better place in the playoffs. And that's pretty feasible. That's a great comparable. You mentioned about Owen, Nolan, and why not for those that had elite performances? Gordon, where is that coming from? I mean, we've heard players defending Mitch Marner. we've heard from Stone, now we've heard from, you know, the Hughes Brothers.

Like, where does that come from? Because we're the best hockey city in the world. And that's not manna, nan, and Anna. It's just, oh, Toronto. Like, you remember you'd get people on from, like, Vancouver and Edmonton, Calgary. One of the first things they'll say is, well, and Leaf Nation. Like, John Garrett would do it for fun, whatever. So it's kind of like you're the New York Yankees or you're the L.A. Dodgers about it.

I don't mean winning all that, but, you know, as far as the hockey interest, par none. So, you know, there's nobody else there. There's a lot of great hockey cities. A lot of great Canadian hockey cities. There's America, but there's nothing like Toronto. And I don't know. So it's kind of fun to poke the bear. They know it's a rabid media in some cities where you're lucky to go one podcaster

and one Twitter guy out for practice. You know, so they know. So Brad Marchand's great at it. You say something and whoa, it just goes and gets everybody going. And then we turn on ourselves and say, well, who would want to play here? Like anybody and everybody, okay? You ask the great alumni, Kipper, you're one of them, but you ask, so I get tired of that. It pisses me off, whatever, and let's just hopefully at some point have that kind of playoff and move on from it.

So what's happened has happened. It's not the fan's fault. It is fact nine consecutive years in the playoffs. Phenomenal team, phenomenal, regular season team, exciting team, entertaining team, full value, flashes of playoff, enjoyment, relative small success. but at the end of the day, not able to do what Austin Matthews and his gang did yesterday, or Mitch Martyr and his country did the year before. Yeah, no, that's great. Sam. I was really into your answer there.

I know that some people, I read Anthony Petrilli's piece, and he talked a bit about Mark Stone taking a shot at Toronto, well-wearing, you know, Canada jersey. It didn't sit particularly well with him anyway, and I think some other people didn't really appreciate that as, you know, a big part of the people rooting for Canada. Not a fun place, take a stab. So Captain Canada's not in.

Sidney Crosby doesn't get his chance. 13th forward was available to us. He must have been pretty hurt to not play. Did you feel, I don't know, Gord, I kind of felt like I would have him just sitting on the bench if he could go and give us, you know, Reinhardt's six, seven minutes. But obviously he didn't feel like that was best for the team.

Yeah, so the comparable I used, and you're right, Justin, and was Stephen Stamco's that game in the bubble where he finally played. He played 57 and scored. Yeah. Yeah. And ideally, if you scored a goal, it would have been a bonus, but just that kind of inspiration. You know, and set up that way with the 13 forward because you roll four lines. And in some cases, the 13 forwards of pain sometimes to try to try to fit them in in certain circumstances.

But I will say that the way Connor Hellebuck played, even a 50-plus goal score like Nick Kiprios and Jr. Er, Sidney Crosby. Well, I said. plus, okay? I know, whatever. I appreciate that. Yeah, the officiating wasn't so good back then. You were in the crease all the time, whatever. Should have been like 30. But anyway,

it wasn't going to, it was Carter Hellebuck's Day. And that trumps. That wins everything. When your goaltender is that, and when you miss the glorious chances on top of his great saves, to me, that's a difference maker. Sydney Crosby or no, Sidney Crosby. Did you say Trump?

Yes, yes, the Bower. Let's do the Bower. The Bower and Ucrie. You're correct. Yes, the Bauer. By the way, I take American history, the separation of powers, the Supreme Court all of a sudden, that's an interesting weekend for those that take a little bit. I enjoyed it. But anyway, I viewed that as a positive step. We move on.

Overall, Gord, you know, the thought of now, two years from now, the World Cup coming, you know, did it do everything it was supposed to do 12 years later, the Olympics for the NHL? Yeah, it did. I think in some case, Kipper, you know, Absin's made the heart grow fonder. So, I mean, every two years coming, we got kind of a rider cubs set up. Well, it's not quite the same. It's kind of like, you know, the Olympics and then kind of the Olympics, whatever. But it seems like everyone's in sync about it.

I think what we've come to understand, it can't be in September, okay? It just doesn't resonate the same. It's got to be in hockey season, whether it's what's going to be a six or eight nations challenge next time and then the Olympics. And so, yeah, I think it did it. And in all honesty, you. USA was overdue. They were overdue. I mean, since 1980, they've had a great hockey program for a long time. I think the next thing, Kipper and Justin, everyone, particularly, again, we don't care in Toronto as much because we're the best hockey market.

And again, like going back to things, it's here. It's all the other places that are saying, trying to quantify, how's it going to grow the game? Are more people going to buy tickets? Are they going to spend more money? Are more people going to take up hockey? I don't know. I don't know. That's tough to quantify. All I know myself is, I don't know what you guys feel, the Olympics, summer or winter. So for two weeks, you put five rings there, and I'll watch Rhythmic Gymnastics. You want to know if it's the year of the ribbon or the ball. Three years and 50 weeks, I'll watch nothing. Okay, I will watch nothing. So I don't know how much that applies to hockey or not.

Ski Mountain Tearing? That was, wow, that was different, huh? What an event. Electric theater. That should be the new closing event before the closing ceremonies. Well, I thought they should play the Rocky theme when you run up the stairs, too. Like it had that kind of feeling. Contact should be allowed, Gord.

You should be a battle to the top. Yeah, way. Hey, and again, I talked about it last time. Who was the biggest story here beyond hockey? Us badass curlers, okay? Do it. We take no crap from anybody. And whatever, if Swedish people want to pile on and say we cheat, we'll tell them.

We'll tell them. He sure told the old Oscar to stuff it, didn't he? That's right. That's right. Anyway, it certainly got a little bit of edge in there for a couple of days until things calmed down. Hey, and those were nice wins. I mean, you know what? In all serious is Brad Jacobs, big win.

And Rachel Holman, that was a really good bronze. That was a really good bronze because she had a tough go to get there. So, you know, silver, I know Drew Dowdy kind of showed he took his medal off right away. Nathan McKinneman, he did not like that little teddy bear very much at all, whatever may be. But, you know, in the case of the bronze medal, sometimes when you have to earn it in a game, you go off as a winner, it's a bit of a different feel. Am I missing something that the teddy bear presentation has been there all along

and I just noticed it now? Yeah, I don't think it's a new thing. It's still just a silly thing. Just because it's been there doesn't mean it's great. You know, a lot of just. But is it always a teddy bear or is it something the host country decides they're going to give? Like, I don't remember a teddy bear per se. But yeah, I do think there's some kind of.

some kind of token about it. So, yeah, it just, it seemed like the rubbing in your face. When you're getting the silver medal, you know, you're lining up there. Oh, and here's your teddy bear. You want to know where you can put that teddy bear, buddy, whatever, as they shake hands. So anyway, that was kind of, because I love the genuine. It's the raw emotion. And it's so quick right after.

And, you know, really, I mean, Team Canada, this thing about being proud or whatever, they should. I mean, it was a great battle. It's what we hope for. It took a little bit of blood pressure and heartbeat, you know, irregular heartbeat to get there. I mean, those other games were a little too difficult. Like I said, you were chasing. You were chasing in the quarterfinal, the semi-final, and then chasing in the final. And this is the team that had held the lead in Olympics for like hundreds and hundreds of minutes going back to 20, or never been behind for hundreds and hundreds of minutes going back to 2010.

So it ends up being a bit of a different dynamic to go back to the puff answer I gave Kippie. in the first place. Do you think that the Olympics would revisit a 20-minute three-on-three? Do you think it should, or do we just need to accept the way it is? Well, whatever the rules are, there were the rules. And I think it's going to be this way, so yes, accept the way it is. You know, you could argue that four-on-four wasn't the right way to do it when Sidney Crosby scored in 2010.

I still would prefer more players on the ice if you asked scored Stellick. But three-on-three is a fact. I don't like it. Maybe just because I'm not used to in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Maybe it is the right way to do things, but I still don't like it, but it's reality. Before we let you go, McAnsellabrini going into this event, we were like, he should make the team, I think, right? He probably should. And it was like nine seconds into his first shifts.

We're like, he should be on the ace all the time. Like he played a ton and they needed him. I think he played too much. Well, that's fine if you think you played too much. But he was, if your takeaway from that event is he played too much and not, holy crap, that guy's as good as the best players in the world. He's one of the best players. Unbelievable. Sure.

Give him 18 if you want. Well, you know, Justin, they talk about the emphasis, both countries on experience, but really shows youth be served. And, you know, the young talent, they won't be kid kids anymore, but Connor Bedard,

Matthew Shaver, Celebrini in four years, you know, whatever. But also, if you got a player like that and you're whatever country next time, you lean towards taking that player. And maybe Kippey,

when we started off, Matthew Schaefer, okay, one is a wild card. Yeah, I could see that. But again, I'm not today quibbling about one or two particular choices. Great stuff, as always, Gordo. Thanks for doing this, pal. See you guys.

Take care. Thanks, Gordo, you too. Wow, that was electric. Steel electricity just came in hot today. Yeah, if I, we would have just said not a chance that Celebrini is going to come in and play 24 minutes. I just. It was unbelievable. Every loose pocket, he is all over.

and he makes the right plays and he's not afraid of the moment. He had tween the hashes with about a minute left on that power play. Had he held up on the wrong way and he missed the net. He missed his shot too on his breakaway. Trying to go five hole. Well, he's trying to go, yeah, sticks to heel and skate triangle. Yeah, he just missed it too far to the toe. And Connor on his breakaway?

What did you see? Pretzel. Stick handle himself into a pretzel. He tries that move all the time where he quick back and back to the forehand and hellabuck's just too big. And he didn't bite on it. Yeah, he didn't execute the move well. No.

He didn't. That was tough. Celebrini did have a bunch of looks from that spot and missing it a few times. That's the, he's in a good place there, though. I liked Gord's answer about the Matthews stuff. I thought it was pretty funny. Like, literally a week ago, all of America and American media were like, with this Austin Matthews guy, could he do something?

And now they're all like, you guys are so hard on him. I thought it was a pretty quick flip. Quick flip. It's like, I mean, he was leading the team in point. for a while. But it wasn't, like, there were the American fans that were all over.

That's what I mean. Right? But then they turned it into a Toronto thing. Yes. I know. It's like they were being so hard on him for the entire tournament. And then they win.

They're like, God. But it's the players, though. It's just, no, we're talking about the players, not the fans. Well, the American fans are all over us for it. All over him during it. And now they're all over us.

It's the way it is. It is. It was remarkable how many, like, just stray bullets hit Toronto during the Olympics. It was like, what does it? going on here?

Did you like Gord's answer? Loved it. They're just jealous? I think there's... They hate us because they... I don't think... I don't think hockey players want the attention. I think a lot of them look at it as a big, scary thing,

and they like to make fun of it because they're afraid of it. Before we go on... It's not a good thing for the Leafs, by the way. No, but I mean, it says more about hockey players than it does about Toronto. I think more important to get your thoughts before we go on Matthews. Well, we can do in the National Hour, too. We have tons of time. Save that.

Yeah, I think we have one minute. So we should probably hash that out a little bit after Amber, do it with Amber as well. If we need more than 60 seconds? Yeah, we do. Where'd you want to go? I was happy with the guy. I thought he had an amazing first period.

I thought he was one of the better players in the first period, the start, and then he kind of faded, but the whole team kind of faded. Yeah. Right? Yeah. So he produced points. Does it change how you feel about him as a leader or a winner?

Well, we'll talk about that. We've got lots of time. Or after the break. Okay, David Amber. Studio host Hockey Night in Canada, NHL on Sportsnet. We'll join us next when we return. Bill Kipper and Boren goes national.