Real Kyper & Bourne - Vally's View: Alberta's Goaltenders & Early Chase for Vezina

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne welcome in Steve Valiquette (3:35) to chat about the Calgary Flames' success with Dustin Wolf in net, taller vs. shorter goaltenders, playing with different stick sizes, Stuart Skinner's improvements against the rush, leaders in the Vezina race, and the Maple Leafs' struggles on the power-play. Then, Nick, Justin and Sam McKee preview Filip Hronek's return to the Vancouver Canucks' lineup, Adrian Kempe getting fined for slew-footing Connor McDavid, and Boston Bruins' ability to win games through a down season.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.

The Kipper and Boran Show. We are live on Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, Sportsnet 960 in Calgary. This hour, Real Kipper and and born brought to you by bet 365 we are national and Sammy forgot to change the leaf jersey. I did go go I want a Calgary Jersey up there. Okay, do it live Do it live go go Go cuz we're Gonna celebrate Calgary's win last night and they are very much in the thick of things

In the western conference They're not trading anybody Because they're going to go make the playoffs. That's right Absolutely, they're they're legit this uh, these canadian teams boy We we we're doing some stats for hockey central, which is why i'm in a suit because i'm on that later tonight um We were doing some stats for hockey central, which is why I'm in a suit. So I'm on that later tonight. Um, and Canadian teams in the playoffs. Do you know the last time that every Canadian team, all seven made the playoffs? I think I worked.

Um, it was this century. It was 1986. All seven teams made it 86. Yeah. Okay. But so we had six of seven. No. So yes Okay, but so we had six of seven? No. So yes, you did.

You had six of seven. You're thinking of... 12. You know what, Kip? 2012? 2019-20. No, no, no. 2019-20 was the Canadian division.

No, no, that doesn't count. That doesn't count. 2016-17, five made it. Five. Yeah. So that's the best we've done. I thought we're back in our day And also the years that was very excited by the way because we had so many Canadian yes When all seven made it there was no Ottawa and there was a Quebec and there was also 20 teams in the league and

16 teams made the playoffs So it's been a while since we had this many good Canadian teams. Also like to clarify that that year the Leafs made the playoffs with a record of like 25 and 48 or something. So. Oh my God. Yeah. Anyway. You also asked me before the break to look up Dustin Wolf's home record. Yeah. And I found it for you. Yeah. He is in 26 games played at home He is 17 and 6 with a 924 percentage in a 2 to 8 goals against he likes the home cooking Mm-hmm on the road. That is great. Well

Listen he's We're gonna get to ever we're gonna see Valaked who's gonna join us in a couple minutes He does a great job covering the New York Rangers on MSG but also CEO of ClearSight Analytics. I want to ask him about Dustin Wolf because, you know, goaltending, if you got it, you got a chance to win. That's that simple. Like, I get it with everybody in front of him. But still, over the course of history, it's the one position that can really, truly steal

you a game. Yeah. Is there more contrasting goaltenders in the NHL than Wolf and Skinner in the province of Alberta? One is like this kind of big lumbering positional whatever and Wolf is just zipping around out there at 5'11". It's pretty cool. Zipping's a great word.

And the Edmonton Oilers with a nice win last night on the back of Stuart Skinner as well. So let's welcome him in, Steve Valiquette, who knows something about goaltenders and pretty good display the other night in Alberta Valley. How are you, pal? Very good, Keper. How are you? Valley. How are you pal? Very good Kipper? How are you? Good, so listen, I made Sammy take a leaf jersey off for our national hour and put a Calgary flame jersey on and that to me is a credit to Dustin Wolfe and what's going on in Calgary and you know Rickies are supposed to get tired this time of year or just be a little overwhelmed and None of that's happening in Calgary. Yeah, it was interesting.

It was brought to my attention about a few weeks ago about his record. I just came on and heard you talking about it at home versus on the road. Also hearing a lot about how they were picking his starts early in the season and he had the easier games, which is why his stats are better you know I wonder about that stuff too because when you're playing

with another goalie specifically when you're in the American Hockey League and you're both trying to get called up Borny it's always in the back of your mind you know do I want the Hershey game oh I want the lighter game that's in Albany on the weekend you know and pad my stats So anyhow went and looked at wolf versus Vlodar difficulty of starts and chances faced Wolf is playing in an environment of 887 save percentage meaning the difficulty of all of his shots faced should yield an 88% chance to make a save versus Vlidar,

which is 8-8-0. It's the same. So we're not really, we're splitting hairs there. Calgary is what they are, even though they're performing better at home. Overall, chances faced, all things being created equal. Vlidar and Wolff have faced the same measure of difficulty. The American League is wild because you have such different motivations.

As a winger, you'd rather score twice and lose. You know? It's like just... You think I didn't hear that? With guys that were behind me on the bus, you get spanked 6-1 and the guy's celebrating with his wife about his goal. I'm like, I got my goal. Yeah, whatever.

I got... That used to driving me nuts. And in fact, the year that I coached in Bridgeport, Barney, it was, I gotta say it was before you. Barney, when were you in Bridgeport? Oh, 7-08. Okay, then it was after. It was 12. And we had 65 players that came to the roster that year.

Try building team camaraderie with that. Yeah, no, you're playing for the name on the back at that point. I know. So is Wolf, is this play sustainable? Are we looking at the start of a career with someone who really has the potential to be around? A thousand percent because like this has been going on for years. I mean, I've been hearing about Dustin Wolf for five years going back to his time in the WHL. And you guys have had Kevin Woodley on from

Ingold magazine. If anybody that is into goaltending catches Ingold the podcast, Ingold the magazine, it's really good for content bringing up guys through junior you get to watch their pro reads going through the American Hockey League into the NHL. And I'm a subscriber to Engole magazine. And it's just educational to get, you know, firsthand knowledge on these guys from interviews, with basically their, you know, teenage years being exposed and how their highs and lows are managed. Wolf, he's only been on the high. Like this guy's been trending at every level. He excell excelled in the American Hockey League hasn't missed a step in the NHL. I admire him because of his size I coach a lot of goalies as you guys know

I'm on the ice five hours a day in the summer times a lot of the goalies I coach are under six feet tall So I need examples of smaller guys like Soros and Wolf are always appreciated. And you know what? It's just the way that things have changed height wise in the NHL Kipper, you'll get a kick out of this. Mike Richter's rookie year was 86. And when I interviewed him a couple of years ago, I went back and did some research and 72% of the goalies in the NHL and 86 were less than six feet tall. And two years ago, there were only four in the NHL under six feet tall.

So and Ricky got a huge kick out of that. And you know, in fact, I talked to him the other day, but you know, it's it's amazing how much size has changed in the league over the last 30 years. Ricky's shrinking. I think he's 411 now. And he plays D in the alumni game. You can play handball against the curb now. He used to wear goalie skates too. I was all over. I'm like, if you're going to play out at least put the players skates on. Rick, can I ask you like Dustin

Wolf if he's six feet, right? Five 11. I don't know. But does this, does this put faith into like you don't have to find a six foot five goalie now That's the trend is like they're all monsters well, I think that to be fair that analytics kind of saves these guys because there used to be a fairy-kipper that Rebounds would go in more frequently on a small guy because they didn't have that extra desperation length. And it's not the case. You just look at Saros' safe percentage on rebounds the last five years, you can look at Wolf, you can go through the smaller guys and really just section it off. So I think that in-depth analysis that isn't just the eye test can really tell you a lot. Also videos helped because when you take video

of these guys from a GoPro or from even an iPhone works really well from ice level now in a practice environment, and you just do it from the face off dot, and they capture the proper challenged depth in their crease, there's no net on the small guys either. So it doesn't matter. Plus, we spoke last week about elevation, and Wolf has very big shoulders that come forward.

He's got great size. And I think that for any young goalie that's either listening or watching your show, your job is to expand your size and your stance, standing stance, stance and butterfly stance, and still be able to move. If you can do those two things, you can play. Do you have any, speaking of, you know, from six foot five to six feet, is there any analytical stats on the length of a stick and how it can benefit you

or how it can help clean out a rebound or, like, is there anything that you consider, you know consider important on the length of a goalie stick? It's a fascinating one because as we all golf and we get sized for our clubs, we never get sized for sticks and I'm speaking for you guys too. Did you guys ever get sized for your sticks? No. No, right?

I just, I look back at my career and I'm like, I played with too short of a stick. It's amazing that no one there was, but there was no one who basically, unless you had some random assistant coach, never thought about my a hundred years. I've been around this game. Everyone, anyone ever came up to me and said, Hey, if you, if you try to a different stick or better on the four, two, three years, no background in the top of his two short take you cut it Well, you know what though and Sammy I got in trouble for this when I was coaching the American League because the goalie that We had I could tell from the eye test It's very easy to see a goalie stick when it's too long

All you have to do is ask them to butterfly and when they have their hands in the proper position If the stick is too far to their left, they have too much stick in their hand, and it opens up the seven hole. And it's also harder to move your blocker to go down and make a blocker save because you've got to get that stick out of the way. And I was on the ice every day with this goaltender. And I mean, I'm seeing his stick late to protect his right pad with shots that were delivered on the ice,

pass off pad shots. And I just finally said to him, look, your low blocker is gonna be better. You're gonna be more compact when your butterfly slide and you're gonna be able to protect your right pad better for potential rebounds. And he ended up doing it, but the assistant coach gave me a lot of crap about it.

He's like, you can't tell anybody to change their stick. I was like, why not? I'm sitting here watching them spray rebounds every day. What are we doing? Right, like, and it's also, what are we trying to do when we coach? To me, it's, I want to keep this guy in the league as long as possible and not the American league.

You want to get them up to the NHL and keep them in that league. When I look back at my own experience, you'll get a kick out of this. The NHL length of a goalie stick the paddle. That's what matters. The top of the handle is all the way to where the heel breaks in the center point. It's 26 inches. That's the length of a goalie's paddle. That's the max length. And when I was playing, Chara got an exemption for length, right?

So at remember that so I went out and got I got an exemption length because at the time I was before bishop. I was the tallest and I got a 27 we played against Philadelphia at home It was a game in which Henrik gets pulled I get thrown in we come from down to and we go to a shootout and I get thrown in we come from down to and we go to a shootout and I'll never forget it Carter and Richards They must have seen this giant panel because they both just hammered the post low blocker side because I'm using my 27 I felt so nice and big but there was a huge window down there and I'll never forget it after the shootout we won and Shani British had a head scapes. I'm sweet. He goes. Hey Valley. That's the ugliest shootout, we won. And Shani, Brendan Shani headscapes after me and goes, Hey, Valley,

that's the ugliest shootout win I've ever seen. And I was like, Yeah, Shani got it. Like I was using too long of a stick. And I just kind of got caught because I was backing up with it. I got rid of it the next day. I had this conversation years later with Gar Snow. And he believed that everybody that played in the NHL, the longer they played, would go down lower and lower each year as they aged, just to get closer to the puck, rather than being further away from the puck. And I think the main reason really is being a little more compact.

Do you know that Bobrovsky, he uses a 22. A 22. Really? Yeah, so he gets all the way down, and that's why he's really very rarely leaky through the elbow hole. You know, I've always thought that players or teams would benefit from like a week long almost just gear trial where try all the different curves, the different sticks, flexes. How about your skates?

Try different pitches and rockers and you know, hollows and like spent. I don't think guys ever, you know, once in a while I'll tinker I'll say I tried something different a morning. I got a good one for you. Listen to this one So do you guys remember Aaron Vorel? Yeah played in Fairbanks golfed with him. I think yeah and Tapa He's a he's a hood of a guy. He's a character He's a character So I was on the ice with him in the summertime at the training center years ago before the season begins and Bordy to your point, he was choosing all new gear from his jock strap to his chin pads to his shoulders. And it was all based on weight. He kept going

on the scale. He dropped four pounds. It was unbelievable. He was thrilled. He's like that. Can you believe this? I just dropped four pounds I'm so much faster now. Yeah, exactly Bernie's spending too much time at golf town. He thinks it's like There's a hockey town somewhere. This is the type of reaction you would get from coaches where it's like just try I mean did you at any point in your career try a different curve and go? The equipment room. Yeah, I loved it Yeah, no, and I you know, there's I've done that where you and go, oh, wow. I love the equipment room. Yeah, I loved it. Yeah, no, and I, you know, there's, I've done that where you're like, oh, wow.

Like I saw us the puck totally different with this different. And in my second year, I came out of the equipment room with a Jofa helmet. Trainer goes, where do you think you're going? What do you think? You've been in the league 10 years, put the Jofa back. So what about the other goalie in in the province there? Stu Skinner is kind of

on a roll lately. Has something changed for him? Is the team playing better? Confidence? Why would you make his hot run here? This is really neat. So I loved your conversation about the Champions League last week. And when you guys were talking about what top four teams would be cup contenders, and it's just a fascinating conversation, because you're really trying to narrow down at this time of year who the best we do on this show. I know I know you guys come up. Well, you got the best producer in show business. Right. Oh,

stop it. Skinner. Last year, we talked a lot about him being very weak off the rush, which was very challenging for Edmonton, being that to win a Stanley Cup, you need to be a very good rush defense, among other things. But last year, he was a minus 12 off the rush, meaning based on all the rush chances that he faced, he allowed 12 more goals than league average,

and that ranked him last in the NHL. This season, he is a plus five off the rush, and he's in the top three. So, it's a remarkable change. If you watched the game last night or caught the highlights, he made some great saves last night, he was really good. And in some cases, off the rush last night, forced a post

because he was out expanding his size and forcing the shots around. Last night there was a two on one and a four on two. And in the two on one, he was out a little bit more than last year so he could carry a little bit more momentum back to get himself across. Made a big save with his glove. You might have saw it on the highlights.

And then on the four on two, he was playing deep in his crease because on four on twos there are more passing options, obviously, and you want to play a little bit deeper to take a shorter distance line, to take a straight path, to be able to set your feet. Stolarz does it very well. He's adjusted that since his first couple of years. So he's doing that very well. And overall, really what it is, is it's experience, it's depth

management. But he's one of the top guys now off the rush, which I think is fascinating coming from being dead last, which I think, when you're having that conversation of who the best team is in the NHL, maybe the best chance to win. I think all in, of course, there's going to be some moves before the deadline. But if I'm a gambling guy, I'd put some shekels on the Edmonton Oilers. You're watching and listening to Steve Valacat, analyst with the Rangers, MSG and Clear Sight Analytics. So the other day I mentioned Leon Dreisaitl and what a stud he is and

right up there with the MVP and JB jumped all over me and said Connor Hellebuck or you did Sammy and I'm like, yeah But we're just not used to goalies winning the heart, you know, but why is that? Valley why isn't it more? kind of ingrained in all of us that you know they should be equals whether it's forward defense or goalies for this award before Valley jumps in I'll just know that Hellebuck has as many shutouts as losses six of each this year interesting I think that the argument from from you

guys typically is the goalies already have an have an award. Isn't that it? The Vesna? Yeah. You know, I get it. Um, look, I think that good for you. Yeah, he has like he's, he's running away with, with what I consider the most important, which is how many goals are you saving your team every night? And he's certainly leading that by a long margin right now. I wouldn't say that he's been the most consistent though. You know who's been really consistent is Joseph Wall actually. So as far as like looking at game quality and stolen wins and trying to get consistency from,

do you want a quality start from your goalie? That's one area where Hella buck doesn't really rate out that well because he's had a few clunkers along the way. He's about 14th on our list and had six bad games and he's blown for now when you blow a game, it's your team should have won, but it just didn't get a save on that particular night. So there's been more of a swing in his performance than you'd expect. If you watch all of his games and you go back on the video, you're going to say to yourself, although he is overall having these massive highs, he's had some lows that have evened out his overall.

And as far as most consistent goalie in the NHL with a 91% positive game rate, it's Logan Thompson. The only bad game Logan had was against the Leafs. And other than that, he's really played well. Really, he's groaning because team candidate and pick them. Yeah, I told you why. So yeah, at the top of the list, though, best goalies in the league right now, Hellebuck, Thompson, Shusterken, Gustafson, and the sleeper right now is Vamilka. Vamilka is a sleeper guys. Any team, I don't know if Utah is going to let them go, but if anybody's looking as

we get closer to when it matters, Vamilka has been really good. He's a funny goal He was great two seasons ago had a real down season last year And he's back on top this year and just outside of that top five at number six is stole ours Hoping you guys have some info. I don't know what's going on with him skate now just skating It'll it'll be it'll be challenging for him to get a start I think before the Four Nations tournament, but speaking of the Toronto Maple Leafs 53 and a half million dollars on a power play and they can't get a big goal Is there anything in your little analytics book that can suggest?

Can suggest it's not little I Got a big budget here kepper. All right, get your big budget talking. Here we go So looked at last season versus this season last season the team was a sixth ranked power play as far as The quality and the rate stat and what they push out over and over again every night, their quality versus everybody else last year, sixth, this year, eighth, not that far off. Last year, top five in breakaways, deflections, one timers, east to west plays. And

that's the key one out of the four that I just mentioned, is the East to West last season versus this season. That's gone way down. This season, top five in broken plays, so they're good at getting the garbage around the net. Bless you, Borny. Deflections, slot area chances, but they rank 20th in the East to West.

So I know that the theme in Toronto has been more north south, but they the thing about going east to west guys, is you just get a big advantage from the broken plays, as well as the rebounds that go east to west. It's not just about the chance itself. It's what comes off of that. I have a few I have a few tips. And my tips come from my experience either playing or on the bench. Because one of them that I remember being very important for us was when we played Brodur.

And he was great, as you know, at handling the puck. And we're in a playoff series against him and we didn't have any success on our entries. New Jersey would shut us down. We dump it in, Brodur's playing it out. But what we ended up doing was firing it on him. And that's something when I watch the Leafs right now and they're having a couple of denials,

fire it on the blocker and I guarantee you it will be available to you at the left corner. It goes there 10 times out of 10, every goalie does it. Fire it five hole on the ice, try to stay away from the corners like the post because the goalie could angle the puck out and then well, you get a face off. But if you shoot it five hole, again, 10 times out of 10, it'll go to the goalies right or

your left corner. So you just get on a horse and get going there and be predictable that way really helped us get set up. We put two guys in on the four check hard, get the puck back, get it off the yellow and get back into play. The first shot of your power play when you are hurting a little bit should be predictable to everybody. In my opinion, the best is get it to the low guy

below the goal line and it's a hard blind wrap at the net. Now, the reason why you do it is because, A, you could get a scoring opportunity off the initial and everybody knows it's going there and it could create some crap. And then you can go east to west if you recover it quickly. But number two, and I think this is more important. The goalie now knows it's a possibility for the rest of the game. And you can no longer cheat and get a jump on that slot area guy that's looking for the

bumper or that one timer on the same side of the ice. So now you catch the goalie sticking a little bit harder to his post and not cheating out and being able to advance in the crease and off of face-offs. When you get a face-off in zone, did a lot of research on this in the last few weeks, the Rangers have seven goals this year on their power play. Face-off, back to the point, shoot it right away. It's one of the very few times in the NHL where you can outnumber at the net because you've got more on the ice than the opponent and everybody's on the same side of the ice. Just shoot it through

the forest. It's going to hit something and it oftentimes does and creates chaos and then again, you can recover a puck. A lot of teams, what they're working on now is if it's a strong side rebound, rather than shooting it right on goal, kick it across the crease to weak side. You can get those benefits too. But shooting it right off the face off, face off goals, they're not pretty fellas. It's not east to west.

It's not set plays. It is get it back, off the stick at first touch, get bodies to the net. The other benefit of the hard blind rap thing is it's a mindset thing for the offense of just taking it to the net just being there and creating offense and I like that a lot. You know you mentioned subscribing to Ingold magazine I'm sure you know there the Islanders goalie coach Piero Greco you know you're in New York

I know him I worked with him with the Marlies. You know, he's very... He coached me when I was a youngster at the Jim Park goalie school at Westwood arenas in Toronto. So you know what he's all about. He's like... He used to hit on my mother. That is the least surprising thing I've ever heard someone say. But he, you know, Grex believes...

Hey, Val, who drove you to practice today? Like, easy. Come on, keep it family. It's a family show. I know, I know. He believes goaltending is not rocket science. You know, like, it's a pretty simple art. In goal, I know, is a lot of, like, head tracking and technology and, you know, what's the new way to do things?

Where do you sit on these two things? Is it is the position evolving greatly or is it still just stop it? I think that you can teach compete. A lot of kids are working hard, but they don't understand the difference between working hard and competing. And to me, there are two different things. And oftentimes goalies are very good actors. They can make you believe they tried to go for it, waving the stick, or, you know, finding traffic to get caught up and tied into. Or I remember last year being on and talking about this one, the Bobrovsky over the glove. And he's like, you know,

you can really make it look like you didn't really see it. Right. And, and I think that when you teach kids to compete for every single puck in practice, they will come up with saves that will surprise them in games. You guys know it as well as I do. You've gained all of your confidence from practice and a big piece after you've got the technical, that's not the answer for every goal being scored. It's not a technical answer to that. Now, one thing that I always work with young goalies is at least having something that can keep you safe to prepare for practice. Three cues that I would use just to get myself set

the right way on a puck would be look at it, which is head trajectory, just making sure your head is square on the puck because it's down there, it's not up here, you're not playing lacrosse. And then finding your timing at the beginning of practice, making sure when the puck comes to your upper body that you feel it and then you drop down to your knees. You're not on your knees and getting punched up by pucks

because then you're gonna spray pucks up. So your timing, to me, I would just say, first couple drills, let it come, let it come. If I don't have my timing, let it come. And then tracking down would be the technical aspect of making sure your head is driving down towards every release. Those three things are important.

If you look at it the right way, you let the puck come so you get your timing and you're able to track down, you're gonna have success as long as you compete in practice. You can't just be out there saying, oh, I worked hard today, I got a good workout. You have to understand what competing is.

One more for me and that is Darcy Kemper. I know we mentioned the game last night with Skinner with the shutout, but man, he was really, really good. Mackenzie Blackwood also stands out for me. If you got a quick comment on pick one or both. Yeah, I'll go quickly on both because I watched the game last night and I thought Kemper just looks like a different goalie. And I was impressed. Did you see that? Like Connor comes right down the gut a couple times, Kipper, and it's a low blocker save,

but he's just hanging over the puck waiting for it. And as I'm looking at scoring chances for the company in the morning, we're always looking at the puck being halfway between the goalie and where it came off the release. And I'm telling you, the guy's like a statue. He's just silent. And that's really what confidence is.

It's silence is deadly. Somebody that's out there jittery, that's not confidence. They're fooling themselves. I was looking at something that I think's very important here and it relates to LA. And the confidence that he's playing with and the confidence that Hellebuck's playing with as well as Blackwood in Colorado,

it's time and space chances, Kipper. It's not having time and space versus having it. Now I'm going to read you a list here the 10 worst teams in the NHL are giving away a lot of time and space. All right, and keep in mind here that these are not playoff teams. Pittsburgh, Anaheim, Nashville, the Rangers, Philly, Calgary, Buffalo, Boston, and Carolina. Surprising at the end there, maybe. But the good teams at not allowing time and space, giving their goalies clear reads, always being within a stick length away from their player, from their check.

Winnipeg's the best. I know I think Borny you're maybe high on them as a cup winner. Not, not a bad, not a bad pick LA, which speaks to why Kemper is so much better this year. Dallas, Tampa, Edmonton Detroit, which is really interesting because they're pushing Colorado, Vegas, Ottawa is pushing and Montreal's right there. So when Montreal comes out of nowhere or Detroit or Ottawa, I think there's something there with this stuff. It's to me, it always comes back to how you check how you check. It runs a lot of enthusiasm and belief through the room and it gives everybody a clear role on what's about to happen. I'm sure you guys agree. Yeah, that's great stuff from goaltending to long sticks to your mom. What a segment. Yeah, you went from a cougar

to a mountain lion Rangers and the abs tonight have a good one always appreciate your stuff here on Tuesdays. Thanks, Valley See you boys. Have a good one. Thanks, buddy That's a pretty fast half hour it kills me I I really really loved the Equip equipment conversation. Yeah. I, you know, it's so true. You are right, it's very underrated.

But like a kid. Put in some time. Yeah, like if a kid say that's plays for, you know, my hometown attack in the OHL or whatever, and they're like, hey, are you gonna go, because a junior golfer is gonna go into the lab they're gonna go golf Canada they're gonna get dialed in and then like Bauer just ships a hundred sticks and they're like here you go.

Well it's great you know one time. You cut it down a little bit like you do whatever but it's a really fascinating thing. I got traded once and I got to the new team new trainer did my skates a different way and I just had more blade on the ice I I had, you know, whatever you call that, a longer pitch rock or whatever the word is. And I was like, Oh my God, I'm so much faster. Like it made a tangible difference in my speed and I had just had never had anyone try it. Where would Albert have been without Canadian Tire? Albert, Albert, that commercial?

Is that the remember that you don't remember that to you? You're way too young. No, no, that was I am very impressed no idea no idea you it's a game time Like how long ago he just had Albert on the Like the pukey little kid then nobody paid any attention until he went to Canadian Tire got fitted and then he became a star I know not we don't like to do free ads, but there's no smell better in the world on Canadian Tire and got fitted and then he became a star. All right, no, we don't like to do free ads, but there's no smell better in the world than Canadian Tire.

Anyways, it's game time. Presented by Bet365, visit the app for the knowledge. That's just creepy. And find out why it's never ordinary at Bet365, Mr. 19+, Ontario Only, please play responsibly. That's a thing. The smell of Canadian Tire is a thing. It's like they sold novelty candles of the smell.

It's a thing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no It's a thing. Anyways, yeah, so looking at the games tonight, I got to tell you, I just quickly pulling up the number here. Nick Robertson loves this matchup. And I got a funny feeling that tonight he's going to get on the score sheet again. I'm just quickly pulling it up. Yeah Austin pulling it down here. Segment catcher by surprise today? No he is plus sorry it just takes me a little while here. He's plus 550 for a goal tonight Nick Robertson. I love that number. The Leafs have had a lot of success against the Dallas Stars over the last few years. So if you

wanted to parlay a Nick Robertson goal with the Maple Leafs win or something like that but I'm just telling you my spiders senses are tingling that there's a good chance that Nick Robertson is going to shoot one in the net tonight he loves this matchup. Other game that I'm looking at tonight the Detroit Red Wings are home to the San Jose Sharks. They're looking to win eight, they're eighth in a row tonight, right? Yep. Sheesh. So they are minus 190 on home ice against the Sharks. Tomorrow we're going to have a former Detroit Red Wing on Darren McCarty to come on to talk about the red hot red wings. So that'll be fun. And the last game I'm going to look at the stinky Boston Bruins host the Tampa Bay Lightning

tonight. You can watch that game on sports that one the Boston Bruins are plus 125 on home ice Tampa Bay minus 150 give me the Tampa Bay Lightning and you could even talk me into the Tampa Bay Lightning by two goals I really think they're a way better team and the Boston Bruins kind of stink and they barely beat Florida over the weekend they were holding on for dear life in that game the Bruins are outside the wild card spot yeah I gotta tell you I think they're gonna stay yeah and that was game time back presented by bet 365 visit the app latest odds and find out why it's never ordinary at bet 365 was

19 plus Ontario only please play responsibly I can see the Rangers finding it I'm just looking you know deep down that Eastern Conference standings all right let's take a quick break. When we return, we'll get into some NHL News and Notes. Hironic set to return against the Winnipeg Jets tonight for the Vancouver Canucks. And I'll tell Sammy why I think Boston is still in the thick of things here. When we return, Dary Real Kipper House Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. A reminder that this hour of Real Kipper and Bourne brought to you by Bet365.

Canucks-Aronix set to return from injury against the Winnipeg Jets. That's coming off of pretty good win Saturday night. The Vancouver Canucks season changing win. Do you think that the Leafs are sorry, everything's not going to roll into Winnipeg and do it again? Yep. I do. I didn't bring it up on game time, but I'd be they'd probably be underdogs going in there

and they'd be a live dog to me. I have some absolute some crazy stats on Quinn Hughes. So when he's on the ice plus 135 the Con when he's on the ice their goal differential the connection is plus 37 Without him minus 43 Shot attempts with him are plus 478 without him minus 612 scoring chances plus 199 without minus 274 if you're He's turned himself the heart him the heart trove. I was gonna say, you're a hard voter.

Like those stats, if I present that to you, it's like, yeah, he is by far the most important, most valuable guy. He's at the top of my list. He's turned himself into a point guard in the NHL. I like that, yeah. Just a distributor, he gets it every, he brings it up the ice, he has it every possession.

He just controls the game. Yeah. That's it every every he brings it up the ice he has every possession controls the game. Yeah, that's all. Like it's not hockey's never been basketball where a guy can literally play 48 minutes a night. It's like you're only playing a third of the game yet. This guy when he's on the ice and Mero has has ice can in tonight for Dallas against the Toronto Maple Leafs. I think he played almost 30 minutes last time against the Toronto Maple Leafs. So that's half the game that these star players can go out there and control the pace of play.

Yeah. And so your team is going to be fine in these minutes and he's playing half the game. That's a pretty unique gift. And getting his partner back is pretty nice. I'm sure that I think talk it said today they're gonna limit his minutes a bit so they're gonna they're gonna monitor that but have that before until it ends up being like it's a close game and 20 minutes. He's like yeah send over the boards.

Maybe send him back out there. Yeah send the good guy out. You know? Yeah. It's funny too because like Connor McDavid plays 21 minutes and so does dry sidle But like Hughes is out there for 25 minutes a night or whatever it is. It's it's more valuable speaking of Connor McDavid wretched slew foot from campaign last night Kicked his feet right out from under him and you got he got fined today five thousand bucks

I gotta tell you that's it. That's a game for me It's he comes right up behind him grabs him by the chest kicks his feet out from him totally malicious dirty play That's one of the most dangerous plays in the game. Like I mean you guys but like there's no Yeah, I think the knees exposed in the back of the head. You're exposing the knee like it's just I can't believe of the head you're exposing the knee like it's just I can't believe even if he's not a repeat a performer that somebody comes up behind the back of your meal ticket the most important player in the league and kicks his feet out from underneath them slew foot to me he gets a 5k fine that's a suspension all day it's crazy yeah crazy it's they've got somebody's got to be hurt

so stupid yeah the intent is there that is an intent to interest is greasy move whether the guy gets hurt or not Anyways, I bring that up. I was surprised to see him want to get in 5k The Florida Panthers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers last night First off Sam Reinhardt is unbelievable. What a goal. Holy smoke and. They're really looking forward to rooting for them. Between Larikov and Reinhardt they're like they're never out of it. Yeah no they're not. I think they're a team that you know there's gonna be some nights when you watch them and they they're gonna lose to the Flyers or Anaheim or something like that and when you think of the amount of hockey that they've played in the last three

years, like kind of makes sense that they can let their guards down a little bit. You think they'll be able to find it again in the big moments? There's no finding replacements for Montour or OEL. So they are hurting back there compared to where they were. I don't know what's going to be left. Like it's kind of dry right now with assets and draft picks to keep going to the well march at the trade deadline. It just may be that you hope that They save enough energy to make another push if they don't then

They're spent. Yeah No more there's no more gas in the tank. It's still a good decor. It's not bad. And you know that Mikul is it? There's a big mean guy and cool. It called plays with an egg now There's a big mean guy and Kulikov plays with an edge now. Ekblad's still a minute muncher. Unbelievable Forsling and Schmitz giving them decent minutes. The biggest thing is that Bob looks like a dog. Yeah, that's really it.

Well, Bob looked at it. Bob made some big saves against Philly too. Yeah. And also, Bob is on the list of like, don't want to play him because you know he can find a high level That's the thing like he could have a seven seventy five say percentage for the entire season and you're going into a first round Matchup with them. You're terrified. He's just gonna snap the fingers. It's really the opposite Yeah I want to say that this happened was it during their first run run to the cup final where he struggled in round one or like Spencer Knight got some games

Or Alex Lyon did and and then he came back in and found it and went but he is he is in 30 starts this year. He is dipped below a 900. He's 899. I know it's saying it but like he's he's dipped below Which brings me to oh, we have we have a we have a we have a great Maurice clip from last night I know we haven't we haven't played a marie's cause for a while So if Derek we could play that clip well we have more turnovers than shots on goal in the second period And then you lose the flow of the game, so oh they look like they're skating faster. We look like we're slower I don't know that either is true. We created that event, and then we've taken 12 Minor penalties in the last two games, and I don't think in either of those two games anybody needed to wear equipment.

They're not heavy games. They weren't mean. They weren't angry. They're just, I don't even know what the hell they are. But with Aaron out of our lineup, we can't be in the box 12 times in two games. We just can't. We're good on four goals and that's the difference in both of them. There you go.

Just tired. Just get tired, I think. I mean, it's the midseason malaise. These guys have had a thing. I mean, they've been good enough this year. They know they're gonna be a factor once the playoffs starts. I'm sure there's nights where you're like,

crap, I don't have it tonight. Much like the Leafs without the success in the playoffs. Yeah, I feel like we give them lots of passes, but they've won the cup. They won the cup, which you're allowed to. I'm with you on many nights watching the Boston Bruins that this is just like it's caught up to them too and they're not as good as they've been in the past but like they have been god-awful.

Their numbers are god-awful. Their goalie's been awful. Goalie's been awful. The worst in the league maybe by some metric. Specialty teams. Awful. Yeah, they're in the playoffs right now. Yeah, they won't be for long.

No, no, no, which means like there's room for them to get better. Oh yeah, lots. Yeah, but there's tons of room to get way worse too. No, no, I'm not sure how much worse they can be. I'm a kid, so there than they can be if there's There they're brutal and they're still there but they don't they're not a threat they might make playoffs I'm telling you not a listen red wings are coming Charlie McAvoy has been god-awful. He's hurt now

He has been Horrible, they have no Lindholm, okay? Pastornak. They moved him to LTIR by the way, Lindholm. Pastornak and Marchand have not been very good on the power play. Like if they just, alone, get a little better than what they've shown which they will then There's more room to go up than further down in my opinion. Let me just say

Swamen Like yeah, he's got better to it's gonna get better. He's not the worst goal in the league He's got he's at some point between now and he wasn't the best goal in the league either between now and March This guy will find it a little bit. Yeah If you look at this mess where we're like everyone's still in it in the East. No, they're not like, you know, give it some time here. Detroit's gonna make it. Yeah, I think Detroit will too.

And they're gonna take Boston's spot. But like the Bruins, the Rangers, the Senators, Rangers not going at they're not they're they're way too far behind it now. I feel like you're probably and they're like what are they minus 30 gold different like they're nice nine minus nine I thought they're way worse. Not my bad, buddy They'd be Colorado tonight Rangers be Colorado tonight might be a different to it started so good that you can afford I mean you can't afford to be terrible. I got we're just talking about the Bruins I got a DM from just a random guy about it with a tinfoil hat theory that I

Thought was a fantastic theory. This is not like this is a random guy He said that the you know, the rumor of Pasternak and Marshawn hating each other He texts me and he said that maybe the Bruins management put that out there to try to like Inspire the Alvin I galvanize the group inspire they use that radio host as a punching bag to like that theory. Okay. You know what? I didn't mind it.

I think it's a decent theory. I just imagine how are we going to fix this? Someone gave me a theory of well, not necessarily a theory about purposely putting it out there that both Pedersen and JT Miller are available, but it's nice to know from a management perspective of where their true value lies as you shop them around the league. And it's like, wouldn't that be beneficial for every team to know exactly where everyone's

value on their team sat constantly to know? But you'd have to go do your homework. So in Toronto, you'd have to go do your homework and find out what Matthews could get you back or Marner or Riley. Trade clauses or no trade clause. It's it's not a bad exercise to know exactly Where your pieces fit around the league, right? Okay. All you have to do is Create a complete circus even make it up. Yeah, I just text the radio host I can't really proven NHL veteran. Oh, you're right there with I just thought it was a great tin foil hat. I love a tin foil hat theory

Let's talk what heimann. Okay, but OHL team with his dad. Yeah, but his dad's had a history of minor hockey organizations like he owned eight or nine when it was like You know actually probably a smart business move because they were all so valuable and they still are valuable that anyone that owning a GTHL team has value is a criminal indictment of the way minor hockey is run that their for profit enterprises rather than the players pay to play. But we can do a three hour show show on that you know what like like a Triple a from start to finish is gonna cost a parent. Yeah. Yeah, give me a number We've had this talking. I don't know like a million dollars thirty thousand and so that he going that that is the money That isn't the money the player needs to play

That's the money so someone's making a profit on that Someone's making money on the money you put into your kids' ice time? Who's doing that? When did that start? And why was it okay the time it started? Buddy, be careful. We could turn this into Hockey Canada real quick. Anyways. Brutal. We don't want to open up that. Just quickly, speaking about ice time and everything last night

Zigzags and 11 p.m. Puck drop my my beer league team horrible time for a puck drop We're down a bunch of guys injuries or whatever I got four listeners that came out and played my whole decor was all call-ups listeners of the show That they all played and they all they all played the Mitch Matt Dylan and Kari Came out and we won 8-1. So they boys were buys in everyone was really thrilled one of the guys mark a and be Sponsor his team one of them brought beers for everybody

It was a spectacular performance by the boys and born on the jerseys. We sponsor if your... If you guys pay for our absurd league fees all day. Gipper, you can do it. Is it like 30,000 like in the GTHL? It's closer than you'd think. Anyway, so shout out to boys. Thanks for coming out last night. It's awesome. And a shout out to Marty Turko in our Leaf Edition Hour.

And of course, Steve Alliquette. Yes, wonderful. Did we learn anything today? Did we solve anything today? Did we solve anything today? Nada. Feathers. Two hours of complete... We're rock tumbler. We're just turning it all around. Smooth things over. I don't know what it's complete. But wherever you were watching and listening, we sure appreciate it. Get a chance, download us, send us a rating and review. We'd love to hear from you. Have a great night everybody. 13 games on tap. Pick yours.