Real Kyper & Bourne - Vally's View: Bobrovsky's Future, Speaking Up and Game 1 Goalie

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Steve Valiquette, New York Rangers analyst and CEO of Clear Sight Analytics stops by for his weekly chat (4:11) with Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne to chat about what's gone wrong for Sergei Bobrovsky in Florida's net this season, if the Panthers organization will re-sign him, the Maple Leafs' path to climb back up in the Wild Card, the increase of NHL goalies speaking up including Tristan Jarry, Linus Ullmark's return, and will Jordan Binnington or Logan Thompson get the first game of the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games. Then, Nick, Justin and Sam McKee discuss Rick Tocchet's comments about Matvei Michkov getting his minutes cut down and the list of names for Barry Trotz's Nashville Predators job.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.

Time to go national on the real Kipper and Born show. We are live on Sportsnet. Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, 960 in Calgary. And streaming always on Sportsnet Plus. Also available Spotify, Apple Podcast and YouTube, where we appreciate the chats and the thumbs up. In this hour, we'll welcome in Steve Aliquette for his Tuesday hit. Analyst with the New York Rangers, CEO, ClearSight Analytics. plenty of news around the National Hockey League. Sam Bennett.

There's some Philadelphia Flyer rumblings there. A lot of fans are not happy with what's going on. Rick Tocke goes public a little bit on Mishkov, which is rather interesting. The Preds, of course, now looking for a new general manager. Later on in the show, I'll throw out some names that we're starting to hear. a lot of agents guys talk about

getting more involved at the executive role now with hockey clubs so there's been a lot of success so far with so far yeah yeah I mean Ken Hughes is doing a pretty damn good job Jeff Jackson takes over the Oilers as the president like there's there's a path there just on Sam Bennett

a name that we all talked about what three weeks ago about being excluded what were the odds really? Like the team that they named ended up all going and not seeing one substitution, right? Yeah.

And I mean, we made a very strong case for it to be Sam Bennett. Con Smyth Trophy was won less than a year ago. Pretty good performer in big games helped the Four Nations team. Seems like kind of the no-brainer guy to step in there. He did disappear last night. Florida losing to Buffalo last night.

But, man, I want to win for this. All indications were that he was fine. Yeah. Very relieved that he's going. Like, I got to be honest, I feel sick for Anthony Sorrelli. I can't imagine how upset he is right now getting hit. Does he still get to, like, go and get a jacket and stuff? I don't think.

But you're not going to Italy to get a jacket and come home. I would want to be a part of the whole thing still. Maybe team Italy will take him because he needs to rally. Maybe they'll be like, I won't take him with one shoulder. But it just, it really is. It really sucks for him. That, what, two days before you start to think about leaving, I don't know what it is, but I just, this is.

Shoulder separation, collarbone, something went on there. Sam Bennett should be there, and we all knew it, and now he's there. And it kind of worked out in a way where, like, even the guy that we all thought shouldn't have been there got taken off due to injury. Like, I feel kind of bad for putting it out in the world so much, but it is what it is. And now Sam Bennett's going. Now, how do we get Schaefer? or Bouchard there.

Yeah. Yeah. That's our next mission. As far as not. We'll get Roberto Luongo in his prime. Yeah. Ship him in. We're going to welcome in Steve Aliquette soon here,

but maybe we'll just squeeze this real quick here. Yeah. So many have been talking about the Florida Panthers running out of gas, right? How much, like, come on. And when does it catch up to you? When does it finally hit them that, they've gone on this amazing run the last three years. And I think it happened last night.

Not even like, you know, a mental thing or whatever. They just got no bodies left. They had no centers in their lineup last night that was on their cup winning team. Like they were all gone by the end of that game. So like how competitive can you be missing your entire spine up front? So I think that's part of it. But last night was the night. I said when things are going to flip for the sabers, here it is.

Florida Panthers is going to catch you and it didn't happen. And to me, that's damn near a death blow. And to fall down early too, right? To go down Tuesdays and still like find their way back into the game. But. All right. Time to get to the star of Tuesdays on the Real Keperun Born show. Steve Aliquette, New York Rangers, MSG,

and of course CEO, ClearSight Analytics. How are you, my friend? Very good, boys. How are we? We're good. I think we're good. getting towards this break where we can all just kind of sit back and watch some fun international hockey.

But maybe you can just put a bow on the Florida Panthers for us just in terms of what they've been through the last three years, Valley. And, you know, I look at Bobroski, who is like a freak of nature, being in the league as long as he's had. And I don't know if people can truly equate to the amount of hockey they've played or Bobrowski has played. It's the equivalent to adding one more season than, you know, 20 teams, 22 teams in the league. You know, that's fair, Kipper, because, like, it looks like wear and tear on him more than anybody right now.

I felt like watching that game last night that I caught the drift of what you were saying as I signed on here. Like, that was it. That was the one that put them out. Bobrovsky, he is performing. It's shocking, but he's performing at the lowest level of all goalies in the NHL right now. Two years ago, when the team went to the final and won their first cup, he was a plus nine, meaning he saved his team nine more goals during the regular season. Last year, he dropped to a minus six, but right now he's a minus 22.

a minus 22. He's in a world of his own right now, and that ranks 91 out of 91 goalies this year in the NHL. So that's not just struggling and off his game in all your last place. The goalie airs, the go-ahead goal last night against him, the number three goal, it was a misplayed puck. And like, that's what I think I'm hearing from you, which is, like, it's mentally exhausting.

you just start making mistakes that you wouldn't typically make. That was his 11th bad goal this year. That's ninth worst in the league. And I've brought this up in the past. When your goalie allows a bad goal and the opponent does not, you lose 74% of the time. So there's 11 losses right there where he's put his team up against it. And I went through all of his like per shot

because I wanted to see if there was noise around one or two. things. And it's not. He's a minus two in breakaways. The east to west, he's a minus three. He usually dominates that. Broken plays minus four. Screens, he's given up four more than he should have. And then rebounds, which has been his biggest issue this year is minus eight. And when you're a minus eight, now it's league worst. And rebound goals, what that really tells me is you're not seeing it clean off the release, which is why you're not finding it first. And I think, think for Bobrovsky and it starts with the goalie out that's the biggest issue that Florida's having right now.

Just real quick here and then we'll move on. He's at the end of his contract Valley. Would you bring him back if you were Bill Zito? No, no. I just wouldn't. Yeah. Oh, it is. Really?

Yeah. Yeah. 37 years old. And, you know, like as much as I love him and he always. comes through in the playoffs, there's a point for all of us. And the one thing that always gave me hope with Bob, even in past years where he, at one point,

this was the worst contract in the NHL four years ago. And the thing about Bob is he gets a little more rope than most because he's the hardest worker, most committed. And I think there is a toll to be paid when you have that as your, I guess that is what you are. You're known as that guy. think that that takes its toll on your overall game.

He's not stopping the puck, guys. I mean, it's time to hand it over to the nil because he actually has been. It's crazy. And then watching in Tampa Bay, I was just looking at the basic stuff I can access. And, you know, the save percentage and stuff, Vasilevsky's been that dude again. You know, two-part question, Vasilevsky's back. Does that mean they have a chance to win a cup? And also goalie fights.

He fought. He fought. Does that make you like him more or less? What did you think? Well, okay, on that one, I wasn't as excited because to me it looked like it was just staged. I was watching the game. I mean, hug it and kiss it afterwards and stuff like that.

Like, it was nice. I'm sorry. He's like, too, told you was staged. We're in the other nets. How do you stage it? What are the odds of that happening in an indoor game? No, of course it's because it's the outdoor game. What I thought, Borny was staged as in like,

let's just do this because it's. fun. We're having fun out here. That's all goalie fights. Every goalie fight is just because. No, I want to see. You know, no, I think that a goalie should fight because he has to fight to stick up for a teammate. The other goal he sees it and he makes the distance. But no, I don't know. I wasn't into that one. Sorry. All the boxes there. That all happened. Almost all the boxes. You're right, though. No, Vaselowski's, he's playing well. I mean, but they were down five one in the game. So tough to say about that one. Fair, fair. No, but he is. He is. He's playing well overall. and he's near the top.

I mean, Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay, interesting enough, how they've been able to remake themselves and build themselves back into a great team, and they are a great team. I mean, how many great teams are there this year? Colorado, Tampa, after that, it gets pretty thin. I did this pretty neat exercise today, guys,

that I want to share with you. You know, when you've heard GMs say this before, where if, when pitchers and catchers report, you better be in the Stanley Cup playoffs or you're not going to make it, Was it Brian Burke or was it Mac that said it? I don't know, but I've heard it before. So I went, yep, I went back and looked at it and it was pretty neat.

So last year, pitchers and catchers, they reported February 9th. So I went back into the standings and there was one team that was out in the east at that time. It was Montreal. And there was one team that was out in the West and that was St. Louis. St. Louis went on a run to get in last year, guys. They went on a 19, 4 and 3 run from February 9th to the end of the season to get in. So although I think you're being a little cynical sometimes about the Leaf's chances of getting in, there's still a chance. Montreal went 14, 6, and 6.

Detroit went 10, 13, and 2. That's why they flipped. Vancouver, they were in the lead at the point that St. Louis took over. Vancouver actually had an eight-point lead. last year at that February 9th marker. So it was one team in each, the east and the west last year. Two years ago, pitchers and catchers also reported February 9th. I had to look this up.

It was the Dodgers and San Diego Padres. But that was it. There was a little bit of a gap. And then three more days, everybody else had their pitchers and catchers. But Philly was in, Detroit was in. Washington was out by seven points. The Islanders were out by two points. And so Washington and the islanders,

Islanders got in where Philly and Detroit missed. So once again, just two teams. And three years ago, it was also two teams. Pittsburgh was in, Washington was in, the Islanders were out by a point. Florida was out by two points. They both got in. Calgary, Minnesota, they were tied with 61 points. Minnesota got in.

And that was as of February 15th, four years ago, because I went back that far, the playoffs were all set. They were all set in the east and west. Oh, excuse me. Dallas came back from five points out. Vegas was in. They ended up missing. So it was one.

So when you go back over the four years, it's only been seven teams out at this point, pitchers and catchers, and then being able to make the playoffs. I thought that was pretty fascinating. So, Valley, if we assume that maybe Toronto and Florida and Ottawa think that they can go on a heater here, how much do they need Boston and Buffalo to kind of

have their floor cave in here? They're going to have to play three or more games below 500. And, you know, like I'm looking at, for instance, Buffalo is wild, right? Like we had a Buffalo Ranger game a couple weeks ago, and they were just starting their run. They were 11 and 1. But I looked them up, guys, since December 9th, they're 21, 4, and 1 Buffalo. Jeez. And, you know, it's, yeah, and Borny, I think that, I think it really dawned on.

them, the players, that they had to play differently. So what changed? And they went from being really the riskiest team in the NHL going up the ice off the rush and giving it right back against them. So they went from being a team that was going off the rush. They had the second best rush offense at the time of that December 9th was when they actually took off. But when they took off, they stopped playing off the rush completely.

They're right now, guys, they're the 31st ranked team off the rush. They still have success converting, but they're not going for it, and they're not giving up nearly as much back against. They went from 30th to 17th. They've really locked down the rush against. But again, they have to get into that top 10 to be a shoe in for the playoffs, although I think that they're going there. The last time we saw this was Florida.

When they won the president's trophy in 21, 22, They were the best rush team in the NHL, and then they shut it down and started focusing on protecting their rush against. And they are now number 32, the last two years, going into their playoffs as far as going for the rush. But a top five rush defense. So I thought that the correlation between what Buffalo did, Florida once did, Vegas did, as well as St. Louis when St. Louis won in 2019. there's something there to be said about the playing style and being able to shut down your urge to go offensively off the rush

so that you can protect home. Makes sense to me. So Valley tonight, the Oilers play the Leafs, Edmontons, Creece, you know, in kind of disarray. I don't know if you heard Jari's comments the other day. I did. Yeah, what did you think of the comments? What do you hear from the only comments this year?

He basically just said that it's the high danger chances and he can't even think about his own game the chances are so challenging. Yeah. So what's interesting there for sure is, you know, I can look that up and see exactly if he's feeling it or if he's maybe creating it. But he does play in a really tough environment. And let's just put his time in Pittsburgh into context as well.

His time in the net this year between Pittsburgh and Edmonton, he's had the fourth most difficult array of scoring chances against him. So I think, and this is my own theory, NHL goalies are feeling it because they're facing more high danger chances. They're facing fewer fluff shots. And I think they're agitated to a certain degree. So we've seen more goalies speak up this year than any year that I can recall. But that game against Minnesota, Borny, the one that he spoke after in that tone,

he faced 11 high danger chances in that game. That's a hard game. NHL goalie should be facing six. Five, six on a good team. Two games prior against Washington, Edmonton gave up 14 high danger. They gave up 11 in the game prior to that, which was a six-two loss to Pittsburgh. So he's seen a stretch of these games for a while here where he's faced a lot. And I think that, you know, the NHL's really moved from a put-it-on-net league to make-the-goly move.

first league and he like everybody else is just feeling it and is frustrated that that was my take on it um yeah 24 goalies that have faced yeah i got lots of stats i'll share him later you got something on goalies yeah i was just gonna ask i i looked at some sport logic stats today and the same sorry the dallas stars were 30 second in shots and 32nd in shot attempts six in high danger shot attempts or interslot shot attempts so like i couldn't figure out like it's Is that a bad offensive team? Or maybe in the world you're talking about, that's exactly how you want to be.

Well, you know what, Pornie, it is. And I think it really reflects even the game last night, Toronto, Calgary. Calgary, Toronto last night, the recipe is that really has and yields the highest chance to win, is seven or more high danger chances in the game while shooting 12 or fewer low danger chances in that same game. Last night, Toronto had eight high danger. chances they scored on all three or three sorry of them three of the eight they only had 10 low danger shots on net so that's a hard night for for wolf really difficult knife now conversely calgary they had five high danger but they took 18 low danger and they had four dumps from the

neutral zone so 22 quote unquote bad shots on joseph wall and calgary conversed to what you're saying with Dallas really is the mirror opposite because Calgary is the fourth worst shooting team as far as fluff, low danger shots. They've taken 854 of them this year. That's fourth worst. They've only scored nine goals on those 854. And I think what's worse for Calgary is that in the offensive zone, they're 28th in retrievals.

So they're not even getting it back after they shoot it. So I would say, you know, what would Calgary define their style of play? as, you know, because you can't define just shooting easy ones and then not getting it first. Florida does that. They do. They have top retrieval team the last two years, not this year, of course. Tampa Bay is the top retrieval team this year in the offensive zone. Colorado's right there.

Carolina's right there. The top teams get the puck back when they shoot it with intent to get it back. Not all shots are meant to score. Some of them are just to get the D moving. but Calgary to me they're confused offensive team for sure speaking of goalies

with some outspoken comments or out you know questionable comments over the season Stolars in Allmark Toronto and Ottawa Stolars will play against the Oilers tonight all marks just back you talk about a team that needs to get on

a serious heater it's both these clubs what are the odds of Stolars and Almar coming back and being real difference makers here? Well, I'll start with Almar Kipper because I think that Ottawa has him right where they want him. And where that is, is uncomfortable. I think he needs to be uncomfortable. If he gets too comfortable, I think he takes the foot off the gas and he is playing a complacent game that's too relaxed.

You can see with the way that he has intent right now on beating the pass. when a puck goes from below the goal line to the slot, you should look up and see the goaltender at a complete stop as the player that's receiving the puck in the slot, just gets the puck on first touch. And that's what he looks like right now, whereas before he was casual getting there on his own time, playing at his own pace.

But I think right now he's got something to prove to the fans, his coaching staff management. It's only on the first year of his extension. And he's got to prove it to his teammates, first and foremost. So he's on edge and I think that at least listening to his comments after his last start seems very grateful for the opportunity But now it's like the season has captured his attention and now he's thinking about what comes next for me I want to make this work everybody's been you know very supportive here when I've gone through this ordeal So I feel like you've got him right where you want him because you've got to you've got to stay on this guy as I said many times you need a strong room to support him

but in this case, I think keep him on edge a little bit, and you're going to get the best from him. He's very capable with his talent to go on a run, as long as he stays engaged. Stolars, his first start that I saw back, I mean, I was really worried, so I don't know what to expect. He looks far from what he looked like last year. I mean, technically, physically, positionally,

he looks like he's running around. I'm going to watch the game just to watch him, and trust me, I'll be watching it through a straw. I want to see exactly what he does all over the ice. Yeah, I'm a little concerned, more than little concerned. In fact, I heard your comments, Kipper, maybe a week ago, you said I'm not 100% sure about keeping both of these two guys, Wohl and Stolars.

And with the way that Hildebe's played, I think you have to strongly consider moving one of Wohl or Stolars. Didn't think I'd say that a year ago, but because I don't know day after day, who's going to be ready to play, who wants to play, who wants the net. You can have one of those guys that's supremely talented in your roster,

but you can't have two, and right now they have two. So what does Canada have? We have the opening ceremonies, the Olympics on Friday. How's our boy been or the winner? Are we okay? And are you going back to Italy because you've been there?

Well, I have a funny story to share about that. That's for sure. I will, I'll start with the story, okay, guys. So I played in Italy, Borny. I don't know if you know this, Kippa. I played there my final year. And I got there because my junior teammate, Mike Ellis, called me up. I was going to retire.

I was supposed to be on the airplane with the Russian team that went down in Yugoslavl. So I shut it down after that. And anyhow, it was February. I got a call from Mike Ellis. He said that they were going to get relegated to the lower league in Italy. if they didn't go on a serious run, their goalie was injured,

et cetera. Anyhow, I get there, I get smoked in my first game, smoked in my second game, and I'm like, I thought I was coming here for some pizza and wine, you know?

It proved to me that there's always pressure. That's what it really proved this experience. I figured it out. I had a little conversation with myself. I told myself,

I was just going to go out there and compete. We went on a run. We went on a 12, five, and two run so that we didn't get relegated. Now,

during this time, My son was there. He was three years old. After a win in Italy, now, we were playing in the silver medal building where it was built during the Torino Olympics. And we have 6,000 people coming to every game. And after the game, when you celebrate, you first skate around the ice with a flag, then you get off the ice and you walk around the ice on the rubber. All the fans stay and they give you high fives. So you go around the outside of the rink, okay?

Like the storm surge, but longer. It was so long. Then the third round is if you have children, you grab your kids, you put them in your arms, you skate around the ice, and they're all, my son's name is Dalton. They're giving them a thumbs up because he's doing thumbs up. So it's an amazing experience. I wanted to get a picture of my son and I on the ice. So the photographer in the town, they shut down every day from 1230 until 3.30.

Oh, that's nap time. That's a long time. Buddy, like, I mean, shut it out, okay? So we're in a small town. I want to get this picture. And every time I go in there, the guy that's like behind the desk is just coming back from his late lunch, nap and everything. He's got a big wine mustache. I'm like, I just want the picture.

It takes me until the end of the year. But I really figure out how the Italian people are moving over there really slowly because they're getting hammered at lunch. They wake up. They go to work from 4 o'clock to 7 o'clock, and then they go and get hammered again. So what you're saying is we should be really worried about the ice. I just heard you guys talk. I've been meaning to let you guys know. Yeah.

I know how it works over there. There's a reason there is delays. It always gets done, but nobody has more fun than the Italians. All right. I had an amazing time. What an amazing experience. But back to the hockey stuff, guys. Yeah.

Okay. So Logan Thompson, he is right behind Sorokin. He's not going to try and or he's not going to catch Sorokin as far as the Vesna goes, Borny. if Seroquin keeps going like this. He should be up for MVP and Vezna. He has better numbers today than Hala Bucke finished with last year. That's how good Seroquen's been overall.

So Seroken and then Logan Thompson is number two. Go all the way down the list of every goalie that's played this year. And then it's Bobrovsky at the very bottom, Binnington, and then Allmark. Those are the bottom three goalies in the NHH. like big names, big names, but those are the bottom three performing goalies this year. So do you want to go with Bennington who is, and I've watched every game, guys, he's not getting better. And I want him to.

I love watching him play. I want to see him compete. But he's not getting any better. And Logan Thompson, although he's got something going on right now, overall, he's been the second most consistent bowling league. I don't see how you can look past that. Okay. But not to say who doesn't get the first game.

Can I just, you know. Let me just go back because, you know, if he's not getting better, then why is he there? And he's there, and I'm talking about Bennington, why he's there is because he's proven he can raise his game up in high pressure situations. Logan's never done that before. So tell me where this has a potential to play out. Well, if you remember the Four Nations, it was after the Sweden game that he, he was possibly maybe not even going to get the next start. Look, it could go there, Keper, very early on,

and test them out against some of the weaker teams. They're going to have some fluffed. I don't know. The first one may not be fluff. It's the Czechia. Chechia. No, that's Czechia, France, and Switzerland are the three. France.

Can play France. So you wouldn't start them, right? Chekia is just like, here's Pasturac, Nachis, and Hurtle. No, no, no. I'm telling you, Logan, Thompson's too good. If Logan Thompson was middle of the road, I'm listening to you, but how can you not have a guy that's played? Logan Thompson, not as, it's been two years now he's been at the top.

Logan Thompson's game. Okay. Just don't lose that first game, Logan? Well, I don't, no, I don't think he will. I have a lot of confidence in him. He can play the game. He can move. He's not going to get smoked. He'll be fine. Okay. Yeah, just a little concerned here. Early tester. I'm not just saying a little early tester. Any thoughts on the additional pressure of single game elimination stuff for goaltenders? Is there any sort of way to play or different mentality in those scenarios? You're always trying to stop every shot, I guess. Yeah, I think most guys will tell you, Borny, it's actually better because it just tightens your focus. You know, I think the biggest issue a lot of goalies have is just at certain points of the game, losing their focus.

When they have their level played at their highest moment, they're always. going to get their best stuff. I think guys during an 82 game schedule of course they get physically tired but I think mentally there are certain points of the season that you lose your killer instinct a little

bit and like Logan Thompson the neat thing about this guy's story guys is this guy's like an AAU player and he came with a chip on his shoulder and he still has it so you know I think that that's something there and you know that he was left off last year and he's got a lot to prove

I think it'll help him. It'll help Benner, of course. But, you know, look, statistically, it's hard to support a decision to play Bennington in the first game. He scares me right now. I'd be remiss if we got into grill marks or whatever we call that segment where I'm in last place. Oh, you're a good. Be remiss to ask you going into a freeze tomorrow at 3 Eastern, whether or not we'll see any or you getting anything on a, on a goalie market out there.

I've got Walshsted from Minnesota on my list as a potential trade chip for Bill Guerin. But what are you hearing about the market? Definitely, definitely Walshdad. People are crazy about them. I don't know if Minnesota wants to go there, but I am a big believer in Philip Gustafin. So if they choose to go that way

and just go number one goalie and get somebody else, I could see that. I could see Calgary, possibly parting with, Devin Cooley. Oh, really? Yeah, to me. Lots of categories. A lot, right?

Borny. And if I was doing my homework, that's who I would call on because it reminds me of when San Jose had Toskala, they had Nabokov, they had Kippercoff. And Toskala got dealt. Kipper got dealt, of course, out to Calgary. But, you know, they have a really good development program. McKenzie Skapsky is their guy that developed. the goalies in the minor leagues there.

He's got a great reputation. I've heard as many as six NHL teams are going to change goalie coaches this summer. A lot of teams want to make changes. We've seen what's happened in the market. You probably have to have this guy on your radar as your first interview. And you look at Vladar.

I know he's out right now, but he had success in Philadelphia and he was playing really well. Sam Erison's really struggling. That's part of the reason why Phillies drop so significantly. but Devin Cooley has been a top guy in the minor leagues for a long time. It's one of the top guys in the NHL this year. You saw what they did develop with Dustin Wolf. So like you'll always want to go.

And that's what I've been told for years, guys with scouts and GMs. And I think sometimes when they're drafting, they know whether or not they are a team that can develop goalies, defense, or forwards. And depending on what teams drafting where when it's close between two players, I've been told there are times where, you know what, we're going to take the deed because we've had a lot of success. drafting, developing D. and we haven't done well with scoring forwards, for instance. And I know the teams think like that sometimes. Well, if I'm somebody that's acquiring, I want to see who's had success, drafting, developing,

and Calgary's that team. Yeah, absolutely. Are we good for the marks of the grill here? Yes, let's get some grill marks on Kipper's ass. All right. Last place. So we've, yeah, we've got Born 32. We've got McKee 26, Kipper 22.

All right. I even considered just doing a full lefty, righty, and going back 30 years and just calling out players to get Kipper back in this. Really appreciate it. Yeah. But I'll save it. I'll save it for next week. Okay. Thanks.

Okay. And you asked me this a couple weeks ago, Kipper, so I delivered for you here. You wanted to know who the biggest cookie monster was in the NHL. So who scores the most when their team is up by three or more goals or down by three? are more than us. Ooh, I love it. All right. Nick Robinson. Now here. Nope.

Sorry, do I say that? Matt Boldy, Tyler Bertuzzi, Jason Robertson. I'm going to take Bert. Yeah, I'm going Bert, too. Matt Bolt. Who's the other one? Not Matt Boldy. Matt Boldy, Tyler Bertuzzi, Jason Robertson.

I'll take Jason Robertson. Kippers on the board. Jason Robertson. Jason Robertson has nine. Bertuzi has six. Boldie has. With teams pulling the goalie the most, right? Against.

There you go. So you're thinking like Borny now. I was thinking of Black Ox from losing all the time. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I think you guys are going to like this one because this one's a brother combo. I couldn't believe it.

The brothers are first and second. Okay. All right. Okay. The Hughes brothers. Now there's three. Keep in mind. the Strom brothers or the Robertson brothers.

Who has the most? Now, wait, I got to add one thing to this. This is even better. This is when you're up by four or more or down by four or more. So this is a true cookie monster. I caught it right away. It's Robertson. Yeah, it's definitely Robertson.

Oh, yeah, I'm going Robertson. Across the board. It is. It is. It is. It's so funny. Oh, yeah. Roberts has four and Nick has four.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, are they trained to do this? Really? No. All right. All right. We're going to flip it now and look on the positive side.

Biggest game breaker who scores the most when their team is up by one, down by one, or score tied. These players all have 20 or more goals under these conditions. Morgan Geeky, Cole Cawfield, Nathan McKinnon. Caulfield. Great pick. Jimmy McKinnon. He scores the most. I'll go with the guy least suspected here and I'll go geeky. Cole Caulfield.

Yeah. All right. He's got 27 guys. He's on fire. This guy is on every, 27. He's on every single list. How is he not on the team? How is he not on team? How many goals does he have all year? I'm really happy. Thank you, Bill Garon. Thank you. Unbelievable. I know as a Canadian.

For what it's worth, Jason Robertson's on a lot of the good list, too, except for the Cookie Monster one there. So, all right, you guys. All right, Valley. We appreciate it, buddy. Wow, Valley. All good.

Awesome stuff. Enjoy your little break. And we're coming right back at you when we start up again, okay? All right. Sounds good, boys. Enjoy the hockey. I love watching you guys when I'm on. Doug McLean, all right.

Steve Valley, thanks. Steve All right. does a great job for us. His stuff from his clear-site analytics company is phenomenal. Always great. He was great. Lebrowski stuff was fascinating. Yeah.

Did you guys know his deal was up? I did. How does that not come up more? He's a UFA? Only Toronto and UFAs can talk about all day. It's game time. Presented by Bet365, visit the Afflatest Dodds and CY. It's every ordinary at Bet365.

It's 19 plus. And they're only. Please play responsibly. The feature game tonight on sports broadcast nationally across our wonderful nation with this face that face will be on the panel with who on the panel borny oh we got uh friedman gasdick and uh d a is uh is sam sick again i don't think he's in he's in milan i'm maybe he's in milan um so i just know that connor mc david loves to light up the leafs and he's been really good all year like he is every single year

i'm just going to take a very easy pick here yeah give me a Connor McDavid three point night at plus 210 and you could even talk me into four points at plus 575. Jeez. Leaves are not very good. They've played against three points for 210. Yep. I mean, that's how good he is at hockey.

Yeah. You're not even that big of a favorite to get it in the national hockey week. But the Leaves have played two tomato cans in a row and now they're playing a team with two of the best players on Earth. So give me Connor McDavid three points at plus 210. The actual line on the game tonight, Leaves are big time dogs tonight. plus 155 in the money line.

Oilers are minus 185. I looked into some stats. The areas where Edenton's offense is top five, there's like five or six categories where the Leafs defense is coincennes. It's bottom few. This could be a... It could be a route.

Yeah, my spidey senses are tingling. You know. Connor's going to play 38 minutes tonight, so he's going to have lots of chances to get his four points. I'm feeling for Stolears right now. They are throwing him to the wolves tonight. But they always win without Riley. So maybe they'll win with El Ryle.

Anyways, that was game time. Presented by Bet365. Visit the athlete of Stodd and see why it's never ordinary at Bet365. It's 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Okay, let's catch a quick break here. And plenty to get into, including what's going on in Philadelphia. Rick Talkett's been very public about his star young player in Mishkoff.

And I think there's a lot of people questioning right now the Philadelphia Flyers. Also, also Nashville Predators looking for a new head honcho. Some names out there. You get a call or what? I didn't get a call. No. No, but I'll tell you who may have gotten a call. I look forward to hearing.

That more when we return to Real Kipper and Bourne. Everything you need to know about the Raptors and the biggest stories around the NBA. Smith and Jones. Subscribe and download the show on Apple. Potify or wherever you get your podcasts. As a reminder, this hour of Real Kipper and Bourne brought to by Bet365. J.B. heartbreaking day for our hockey community after three junior players killed in an Alberta crash. Yeah, we just wanted to send our condolences out.

It's just an awful story. Southern Alberta Mustangs lost three of their players. So our condolences to their friends, family, teammates, Cameron Casorso, J.J. Wright and Caden Fine. Just really tragic, you know, a sad story. And so we're thinking of everyone there and our hearts go out to you. That's just brutal. Yeah, thoughts and prayers.

We talked about the goaltenders out there with some outspoken comments over the season. It just seems like it's been one of those hockey years where I think, and you've touched on this, in so many ways it's refreshing to kind of get more information. and have people more open and honest. And I don't know if there's anybody out there more open and honest than Rick Tockeet right now. But, you know, he calls it the way he sees it. And he's not scared to, certainly.

And that was the case earlier when Tuckett appeared on a Philadelphia podcast talking about one of his star players, young Mishkoff, who's had a real challenging year. It doesn't appear like he's, going to hit the same marks that he hit last year, scoring, I think, 63 or 64 points. Fans are mad because he doesn't play much. And fans are upset that they're not seeing this guy

turned into a star in front of their eyes. And it's turned into quite a story. It has. What did he go, seventh overall? Like, he wasn't, like, second overall. Some people knew there was some risk here, and I think this was part of the risk. People weren't sure what they were getting.

Do you guys want to hear the clip? Yeah. It's from the Philly Flyers podcast with Charlie O'Connor, who we've had on the show before, and Bill Mott. So let's play that. We've talked about it. I'll be very frank. And Charlie, I'm a very frank guy.

I'll go down swinging. Matthew did not come into camp and shake. And it's hard to play yourself in shape. I have not told him or any other players, take a guy one-on-one. Come out of the corner with a puck. On a rush, like, make a play-through rush. he's having a tough time in those situations.

So, yeah, you can say, well, other players, other players try. I mean, I get it. Maybe they don't have this skill set. But we're trying to get him to that level, right? How to develop him, practice, making sure that you're on time for treatments and things like. There's so much into that, the way you eat, the way you, that's it. I think there's real frustration when you're with a player every day, you know, having had teammates that had high, expectations were draft picks, having been with the Marleys and seen some of the guys that come in

that people were excited about. And the outside world is like, why aren't they on the first power play unit? Why aren't they getting the ice time to develop? And it's like, you need to watch. Like, there's a level where you want to give them opportunity, but they have to earn some. They can't just, you know, repeatedly be handed chances while their teammates watch it and go, how come he gets to go out there again? He's no good.

So I was doing some reading just like a month. the various Philly websites, and it was big news that freedom had talked about it. Like it broke contain. Yeah. And then they talked about it on 32 thoughts and now we're talking about it.

So like this was a Philly story that had been being talked about now. But now that this is kind of broken contain, it's got the potential to get pretty ugly. Oh, it's got legs. And just to speak on what you're talking about, think about how many times Rick or anyone else in the organization

would work with him or any other young kid and how many times would they have said something before they finally feel like they got to go public. Totally. So I get that frustration,

but I'm going to be a little bit of a broken record because I've had a bit of a theme this season on PR. And as frustrated as Rick is, you cannot go public with this. You can't turn it into a big story. And that's what it is right now. So here's a kid who doesn't get it, right?

And he talked about not coming on time to a treatment. Like people listen to that and go, how can that be? How can you not come in shape? And all it does is just pile on. And it serves no purpose now to have 10 or 15,000 people, kind of pull the curtain back and see what Rick's seeing. It does, it serves no purpose except having a fan base now. Look upon him going, you don't know what you're doing, you don't know what you're doing,

you don't know what you're doing. This guy, we're paying a lot of money to or he's going to ask for a lot of money one day and he hasn't have the decency to show up on time for treatment. You know when I think it changes and it becomes okay to do this is if you think it's not going to change. Like if you think that you can still work with this kid, because right now everybody's been piling on talk. And I've been following the story loosely.

And people have been saying that why doesn't the coach play him? He needs to be given opportunity. This is a major problem. If they're not going to make playoffs, get the kid going and it's on talk. So I think at some point talk, it's like, I'm getting a lot of heat here. Why is no one else seeing this? And I think he feels some need to defend himself. And so to your point, he shouldn't probably for PR purposes.

but if he genuinely does not think this kid cares or is going to make that change. So this is where the story gets bigger and it grows like legs. But Kip, if you hire Rick Tocke, you kind of got to know, like, we know this about him, why he was our favorite guest for two full years, is because he comes on, he speaks his mind. He did it in Vancouver. He's done it so far and felt like he's a painfully honest guy. He even said in that clip that he doesn't mess around.

Like, he is who he is. telling him to not be honest when he sits down on a podcast and gets asked about it. Maybe Mishkov is who is he is too. So what gives? That's the question. I don't know. Who goes? Who stays?

Don't know. Do not know. That's the question. I agree that talk runs the risk when he talks about this openly of, you know, room burnout or guys not loving the coach because he's airing out dirty laundry and public, whatever they call it. But I think at the same time, when teams cover this stuff up, and they kind of look silly

and they don't know what they're doing. At some point you just got to say, here's what it is. We're working with them on it. We want them to be better. We're rooting for him. Like he wants Meechka off to be celebrini. He would love to play him 22 minutes a night

and send him to, well, he can't, but you get the idea. Yeah. You know, like he would love that. Some teams should swoop in there. Well, that's where the story is the next thing in my mind is like, does this mean now? I didn't have any flyers on my trade board.

but they're thinking about doing something big and I don't know if there's enough time to do it at the trade deadline or this summer but if it kind of just trends where it's going right now there's going to be some there's going to be some tough decisions in terms of who stays and who goes I got two thoughts on that one is

the team knows first they know you absolutely know and if they think they want to move off while he's got named cash shake because right now you could still, he still has enough cashé and upside that you could trade him. Cool.

The other thing is, look at what Cutter Goce is doing in Anaheim. That's devastating. He's so good. But this guy is like within a whisker of being on a USA team for the Olympic team. I had him on my list. I think he's good enough. He is in his second year.

In his second year. And it's just, it's just not. And they turn that into Jamie Drysdale. Now if you take Mischkoff and he goes somewhere and he finds it. Oh. Yeah. That's a tough one.

That's a tough one for Flyer fans. We're watching that kid in Anaheim now. Yeah. You know, they were kind of backs against the wall, had to do something, but obviously it didn't work out. Don't want to do it twice, boy. All right.

As I mentioned, no shortage of names now starting to surface on Nashville. I still, guys, I've done this a long time. Yeah. Cannot come up with one decent reason why they would do this now. Why Nashville would? Yeah, Barry Trots would step down now

with a couple days before the Olympics, a trade deadline coming up and putting that energy out there when his contract doesn't expire for another year and a half. I don't get it. It has to be that there are big decisions to be made and that they want someone else to make those big decisions.

And it wouldn't surprise me if they name somebody in a week, 10 days, or just after the Olympic break. Someone to be there at the deadline. So we mentioned Brendan Shanahan. Everybody's got him at the very top of the list. But there's other ex-players that have gotten in management. Jason Spetsa's names out there.

I'm not sure. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Are you sure he'd leave Dubas? What's that? You sure he'd leave Dubas? Yeah, he would. Are you sure?

Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. Mark Bergevan, of course, is, probably the one that has the most experience out there in terms of guys that have just recently done it, although he's been out a little while. Then there's that list of assistant general managers that are on the outside that have been doing it for quite a while. We had Chris Draper on the other day, Gregory Campbell's in Florida now under Bill Zito the last few years. Rob DeMio spent 10 years with Doug Armstrong, I think, in St. Louis.

So those names are out there. And then there's these agents now. You know, Pat Brissan, his name's been out there. I'm not sure if he wants it. Wade Arnott from Newport. Judd Moldaver. That name's out there. Matthews.

But I feel confirmed. Ian Pulver, who used to work for the PA. You just named all the agents. Darren Ferris. But Bill Zito opened all this up, right? Yeah. National's got options. I don't know who's best.

Me or you? Yeah. Could Sammy do it? Give it a no. Yeah, I would be like, every good player to the Leaf. All right. Yosey for a third.

Leaves in Edmonton, National, tonight. And we're back tomorrow on the real Kippenborn show. Thanks for watching, everybody.