Real Kyper & Bourne - Vally's View: Declaring Starting Goalies

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

New York Rangers analyst and CEO of Clear Sight Analytics Steve Valiquette (3:22) joins Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne to chat about building culture within a hockey club, where it starts from within an organization, leaning on talent vs. character players, why the schedule doesn't work in Columbus Blue Jackets' favour for them to sneak into a playoff spot, what has gone wrong in Tristan Jarry's game, the reasons for the Edmonton Oilers to declare Connor Ingram as their starting goaltender down the stretch, and who will lead the Montreal Canadiens in net. Then on Grill Marks, Vally asks which players have had the most low-danger goals, which defenseman has had high-danger chances without converting a goal, and more! Afterwards, Nick, Justin and Sam McKee discuss Doug Armstrong's decision to step down as general manager of the Canadian men's hockey team and who could be next. 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.

Welcome to the National Hour. The Real Kippenborn-Born show. We are live on Sportsnet, SportsSysh in Vancouver, Sportsnet 960 in Calgary, and streaming always on Sportsnet Plus. Also available at your convenience, Spotify, Apple Podcast, and YouTube, where we got a lot of, a lot of loyal watchers and listeners. Thumbs up for my boy, Sammy, and J.B.

This hour of Real Kippron Bourne brought to you by Bet, 365 in a few minutes on our familiar Tuesday. Steve Aliquette, analyst with the New York Rangers on MSG, and CEO ClearSight Analytics will join us. In the meantime, Sammy, what am I looking at the background? Where did that come from? Oh, that old thing. What's happening here? The Blackhawks?

A lot of drinks consumed in that jersey over the years, boys. Oh, is that your... Oh, that's my... That's my... No, that's the... That's a... That's a Jonathan Tate... St. Patrick's Day, Blackhawks jersey that I bought on a, like a D.H. Gate or whatever from China. Fake. I just consumed a ton of beers in that jersey. And it's St. Patrick's Day. So I brought it in. It's really weird. It does seem like the contrast is off on our set or something. It's just a really weird jersey. Is that jersey going on after the show?

No, I got to go home and I got to watch the Leafs and do a Leafs talk. I'm not going to consume one beer on St. Patrick's. No, no Guinness for you today. Zero. Really? Not one. We got to get this day off. next year. Tuesday? I mean, maybe not for boring. If you're a proper drinker,

this is not the day to be out drinking. There's a bunch of people in your bar and it's not good. This is my favorite day of the year. I love St. Patrick's Day because most of the time, not in Toronto today,

it feels like it's the depths of February. But most times, this day kind of warms up. It's in like the 10 to 15 degree range. You can maybe hit a patio for a couple. You're maybe outside. I love St. Patrick's.

day, man. I'm not even going to get to have one Guinness. Oh, well. Just my favorite day of the year. Don't worry about me. I'll have it on, I'll have it on a curling on Saturday. I'm a Thanksgiving. Did we not interview somebody on St. Patrick's day a few years ago? Yes. From Boston.

I won't mention his name. Yeah, one of the worst most uncomfortable things ever. Having an actual. Yeah. When I said to Kippa, I was like, you got it. And Kippers like, and another. He's leaned into question four. I was like, let him go.

Ryan Leslie was actually. actually he was actually pretty good he was actually he got through it he did get through it but you could you could hear it was boston first of all so he had no chance to step out of hotel room in my in my defense i actually think it's my bad i shouldn't even ask my fault he's my fault he's like in boston no no right he he pulled it off we we got through it he pulled it off all right so um before we get to valley uh Last night, the Detroit Red Wings with a key win. And Patrick Cain looked like Patrick Cain when he was playing with Jonathan Taves.

Hold on. You think that's the story of the day here? Dry Ceddle is out for the year, bud. Well, we talked about that yesterday. We said he was out week to week, and we said that he'd be lucky if he got a couple of games in. I don't know. I was saving dry sidled. Okay.

We have Valley anyway. Now we got Valley? Now we got Valley? Yeah, we got him. All right, Valley. What's going on, my friend? What are we, Kipper? Good.

Are you been out drinking yet on St. Pat's Day? No, not today. I was on the ice this morning. I've been running around today. Just happy to be here at one piece, quite frankly. Happy to have you, pal. All right, Valley, we're down the stretch, right? And any particular place you want to start?

I'll leave it wide open for you, my friend. Boy, you know, guys, I caught some action last night. We had the Rangers' L.A. game. and L.A. took it to the Rangers last night. Listening to your show over the last week and a half, it's been a lot about culture, hasn't it? And we know it's a buzzword, but it can get overused where it almost loses its power

and its influence if you don't give some examples. I was on the ice for two hours this morning. One of my shooters showed up late, right? I think part of playing sports is teaching punctuality, so that's one example of being able to show a young man what it means to be on time. And I skate them. We do herbies.

And if you show up twice within the same summer, late, you do two sets of herbies, and the third time you just don't get paid for the entire week. So there are standards. I have my goalie at one point sitting on the boards. That's one that I don't go for either. I think that looks lazy. It looks disrespectful to the game.

another one of the guys left the gate open. These are all examples of in my day-to-day, if we're talking about culture, the standards are set because the accountability is there. And I've listened to you guys talk about the Matthews incident, but this is a long-running culture issue. And I want to bring to your attention. I have the book that you guys must read.

And I read this a number of years ago. when I was really getting into team culture. Unfortunately, the title of this book, it's not really meant for being able to say it on television or on the podcast. Oh, I read that. You've read it? Yeah.

All right. It's great. How good is it? Right, Borne? Excellent. Great book. Simple concept. In the book, it's the no ass something rule.

That's the book. I think you'd like that's just a part. Yeah, exactly. I thought he wouldn't say ass, you know? You're fine. Okay. So, but a big part of this book, guys, is that when you take away sometimes even your highest performer, as much as that hurts the optics, the overall infusion is about 30% to the rest of the group and overall production. CEOs, it's all in this book, Fortune 500 company leaders.

One part of this book that really speaks to what I've seen in New York, you guys have seen in Toronto and other cities experience. the unspoken standard in American sports is that the more often you are right and the more often you win, the bigger the jerk you can be. And, you know, Kipper, it goes back to when sometimes you're talking about the fungus on the sandal. If you win, it's okay.

And otherwise, it's just bad rapport. You know, it's a thing for us, right? And we have the same problems north of the border that you guys have south of the border, et cetera. It's the same problem. So, Valley, as it pertains to our game, hockey, where does it, where does culture begin for you? It starts with your leadership, meaning you need the right leaders because their power to enforce it is greater than the coaches. There's nothing better.

Do you remember the story that came out last year with Florida? Part of the reason why I was rooting for them last year was when this came out. I think it was Brad Marchand dumps, or excuse me, should have dumped the puck in into the neutral zone. He didn't. Came back to the bench and the guys were like, hey, we don't do that here. You know, it's a dump. You got no play. We're not doing any stupid stuff at the blue line.

Get it in. We're going to go in and forecheck. But the players enforced it. You know, why doesn't it work? All of a sudden, Jack Eichols, a low culture guy, low attitude guy in Buffalo, but he's able to get over to Vegas and become a culture carrier. Or you can go through all of those examples of the Buffalo guys. I heard it about O'Reilly when he was there. And he goes to St. Louis.

He's a culture carrier. It's like if you don't have it sometimes in the place that you are, but you can have it somewhere else. Doesn't it say a lot about the athlete and the player with what they truly want to be and represent themselves as? It starts with your leadership group because they can enforce it. That's where it starts. And it comes from the coaches, coaches to leadership,

but leadership has to enforce it. I think one of the things we get wrong or the things we struggle with when we talk about this sort of stuff is, all right, let's say the Leafs don't have great culture and this summer they want to improve their culture. And they're going to go out and they're going to get culture guys. Taping a guy to a team that doesn't, it hasn't been working has never fixed it. It's never been able to do it. To me, it's like your team has to win. It has to be good.

You know, before you can even worry about this stuff, to me, there's a level. of like, how bad can a team be that has awesome culture who then becomes a winner because of their culture? We don't have many good players, but our culture's great and we win. Almost never happen. You have to have great players

in order to win enough for this culture stuff to happen. We never hear. You put in talent before culture? Yeah, I am. 100% I am, and you're a fool if you don't. I am so against that. Go get 20 Scott Lottons

and go play Mitch Marner. No. I don't need, I don't need, it's not one or the other. You just find enough of a balance that you get away with not being as talented. I'm not opposed to balance. But until you have the talent, you're not going to win enough games. And when you're losing, everything becomes fungus on the sandal. But what about, what about Luca Donchich?

He said this recently. He said, you go through the process of building your team and you start off bad. I've been covering the leaves too, guys. I've been watching everything that's happened. in their last 20 years. They were bad. They became good. And when they had a chance to contend,

they had failure, but they didn't learn from the failure. They just missed the final step. They were right there. And I think it's the final step. Yeah. Yeah. But,

Barney, I think you're both right. The culture comes while the talent is building. It's happening continuously at the same time. But some way, somehow, your culture, a certain degree it was a ranger's culture as well, so I'm not just pointing fingers, but I've seen it.

While the build was happening, the culture was missed. It was bypassed. And it wasn't built. And because it's not built, by the time you get to the adversity stage, you can't handle it. And the other thing, too, Valley is, you know, in your experience is the mentoring, the who's in the dress room taking who under their wing. And again, the only example I can. give you is the New York Rangers, 1992, 93, young great players, one of the best defensemen in the history with Brian Leach,

no culture. Mike Richter, a promising goalie, little to no culture. They bring in, not only Mark Messier, they got five of them who won in Edmonton. And Mark and Kevin now take a Brian Leach under their wing. And Brian Smart.

enough to go, I don't know. I'm listening. Teach me. And it's so important to have those guys, not only to be talented like you want them, J.B., but to have the responsibility to say, I'll never be as great as I can be unless I help you. I pull you up. And that can't be missed, that mentoring part in the room. You're just not a teammate. You can be a teacher too. Well, that's the entire picture right there, Kipper. I think one of the issues a lot of organizations have is they are misguided when they select what they think is high character people in the draft or the ones they choose to keep. You can't select high character if you don't have high character yourself. It starts at the very top, at the top, tippity top.

It all trickles down to the ice because those guys that are keeping the players that should be kept for the right reasons that have the amount of talent required to Borny's point that you need to win. Those guys, then it funnels down. I think a lot of this is J.T. Miller in a nutshell, right?

Like when he's been on really good teams, people are like, this guy holds guys accountable. He's, the Rangers sought him because they felt like someone who does that, made him their captain. But when you're on bad teams, it becomes toxic and aggressive. And it's, I get what you guys are saying.

And I see how important that is that, you know, guys come along and the Matthews, Marner, Neelander era didn't have it. They didn't have mentorship. They gave them the keys when they were 20 and said, go be talented and win. They couldn't. And that's where the money got out of hand early for that group, guys. It just spoiled everybody early. It was too much too soon.

That's just the way it is. I mean, we've seen that in this game forever. And we can talk about this for hours. Yeah, we sure can. You're watching and listening to Steve Aliquette, New York Ranger, analyst with MSG, CEO, ClearSite Analytics. All right. Valley, where do you want to start?

How about some of the teams knocking on the door that still aren't in? How do you see the races? Who are you looking at in particular that could get in? I look at Columbus here, and I'm like, wow, they're knocking on the door, and so are the Ottawa senators. You know what worries me with Columbus a little bit, Kipper? They have the second hardest remaining schedule. That's one.

They've got some big games coming up. They have Carolina three times, Buffalo, Montreal twice, Boston twice, Islanders, Detroit. They have the second hardest remaining schedule right now. One thing I can say from the time that bonus took over January 12th, offensively, they went from a rush team that was eighth. best in the NHL and they went, or excuse me, yeah, they went offensively from 8 to 25th off the rush. And typically what happens when teams do that, they kind of bring back the horses a little bit, they defend better. So although it looks bad on paper where we're getting fewer rush chances,

we're actually giving up so much fewer. It's helping us. They are now the number one rush team in the NHL since January 12th rush defense. So rush defense. They are number one. Overall at five on five defending, they are number two since bonus took over. Their overall record, guys, is 15, 2, and 4 in 21 games. That's an insane 8, 10 winning percentage. And they're still not in. There's still two points out.

What is that? So that's the kind of run they've gone on. The only thing that hasn't improved for Columbus since bonus is taken over is the penalty kill. They are 32nd in chances against before him and after him. However, their goalies have the second best save percentage during that time and the bonus has taken over. So it has lifted them up. They've been getting great goaltending. They've been defending really well. But there's a mix of plus and minus on their offense. I just, I see them playing great hockey with a lot of confidence, with a great culture, but they got to continue going at the pace they're going at to

get in. All right, well, then, you know, this goaltending thing pretty important to some big stretches here as teams head down the final, final stretch to be redundant. The Eddinton Oilers, Connor Ingram, he's going to be the guy. He's going to be the horse that they are riding. Your thoughts on their decision to basically say, hey, it's yours. Take it from here. They don't have a choice.

And guys, I'll tell you what. The way that I found your show in the first place was because I used to, watch Hockey Central and I saw Kippra on there and he used to make me laugh. All right. And John Shannon was on there, Darren Millard and Doug McLean of course. Now, so we amuse you? We amuse you?

Well, there's content and there's comedy. It's very entertaining. But listen, my rule of thumb is anytime somebody asked me to come on a show, if I listen to it for free, I deserve to come on. So I do the same thing with John

Shannon and Darren Millard asked me to come on their show 100% hockey, and they do a great podcast. So I was on with them earlier in the week, and we were talking about Jari. One of the things that I brought up, Darren got a kick out of it because he's a goalie. He still gets out there and plays a few times a week. He thinks he's a goalie.

So we were talking about how goalies, they need somebody to look at them every day and look at their feet, look at their knees and their hips and their shoulders for alignment. It's like taking your vehicle in and getting your vehicle in and getting it checked up. Now, one way that I was able to look at my alignment when I was playing, and I'm never forget it, I'm in Bridgeport, Borny, of all places where you played.

And you remember the Wonderland of Ice? That's where your practice facility was. Do you remember that in Bridgeport? So that's where I'm on the ice this morning as well, by the way. But we're in, yeah, we're in Bridgeport, and I stand on the blue line because I have to figure out whether or not my hips are out of joint or not, because we've been on the plane, off the plane, on the bus, off the bus. And I just feel jacked up in practice. Like everything's kind of beating me long side.

So I put a puck in the neutral zone. I stand on the blue line. I square up to it. I look down at my feet. And my right skate is two inches ahead of my left skate. But I felt like I was square. Not a good sign, right? I should do that before golfing.

Well, 100% you should. Check your alignment. Now, there's another way to check your alignment as well. And it is putting a puck at Center Ice, standing on the red line, but having it separate your body in two. so you're looking at it from the boards. And then checking your feet. And if the distance from your right skate to the red line is equal to left skate to the red line,

you know that you are in proper balance. Two easy ways for anybody to check their alignment. What I'm telling you all this is because Jari's alignments off. If you watch him as the players, and it gets harder when the players are advancing with the puck versus being stationary, but his alignments off. And that's why pucks are coming off of him, getting to weird areas, creates more rebounds. Three areas that he's really struggled with

since the Olympic break are screens, broken plays, and rebounds. And those are also areas where you're required to fight. You have to really dig in and battle, and I think that he's missing that piece as well. So there's, to me, a little bit of compete there, which is why you sit them down right now

if you're Edmonton, get his alignment right, figure it out. I don't care if it takes two weeks, run Ingram, when Ingram runs out of gas, which is going to happen, you've got Jari ready. That's the best they can do right now. Okay.

I agree with everything you just said. I just want to ask you now, what is the benefit of going public with really giving everybody the idea that Ingram's the man and essentially we've given up on you, Tristan Jari? What would that do to him? Check the analytics to the side here. What does this do to that guy mentally moving?

forward. Remember last week when I was on? You got to piss him off. Piss him off. You know, you can't shame or blame a millionaire. Let's face it, but you can take away their ice time. And when you take away a goalie's ice time and you sit him down and he has to watch, he has to prepare like everybody else and wait all day and watch, especially to a guy that's been a number one before. He's been on the struggle bus for two years. And for him to get off of it. He's got to get really pissed off and want more for his career. And that means it's either time to quit Tristan Jari or commit more. And that's everybody's message. We've all been there during our careers, guys. At some point or another, we all hit a wall. I can tell

you three times for sure that I was ready to shut it down, but I loved it too much and I didn't want to quit. And he has to show himself that way. You changed my mind on that. Yeah? Yeah, he did. All right. The one I have a question about is it was going on in Montreal there. Are you good on Edmonton? I am. Is Dobish? Is he going to be the guy for them?

Are you confident that Montreal, as they go forward, have a solution here? You know, I wish that we were just a little closer with Fowler. Because he's the best out of the three. This season, in expected goals, just basically what he should stop for the common family. what should you stop based on what you're seeing every night? It is Doebusch at 19 or, geez, I wish I had my list right in front of me. No, Dobish was 40. Dobish was 40.

Fowler's 19 and then Montembow's off the charts. So Fowler is your best option. Let's just call it. And the minutes that he's played in the NHL, he's a top 20 guy. If you want to be, you know, apples to apples and the shots and chances face, he doesn't have the big sample and volume that everybody has. but if he's a top 20 guy, once upon a time, we saw Patrick Gwa in his rookie year,

absolutely run the table and win a Stanley Cup for the Montreal Canadiens. And I believe that was 86. And I think that we can see something like that happen again that we've seen, even in the last 20 years. Go to Cam Ward. Cam Ward played 14 games the year that he won for Carolina guys. It was Martin Gerber. It was Martin Gerber all year.

Cam Ward played 14 games. games. So, you know, like we've seen it. Fowler is a high-end talent. I don't have the same confidence in the talent of Dobish. Gotcha. You know, he just, you know, he makes me a little nervous sometimes. So I can't recall, Valley, that we've seen a handful of teams that we can consider right now legitimate Stanley Cup contenders with questionable goaltending. Would he put Buffalo in there, Carolina in there, Vegas in there, Edmonton in there. Like, does it seem a little strange to you? It does until you kind of get down to the nitty gritty of what I believe is going to really matter in the end,

which is what team, when we talk about defending the middle of the ice, guys, we have to narrow it down to not just the entire location area. It is middle of the ice, meaning don't let the puck cross the middle. If it crosses to the other side, you're making it very hard on your goalie, very hard on your defense. That imaginary line, I refer to it a lot on your show. I call it the slot line. It's a line through the slot. The team that defends that the best has the best chance to win a Stanley Cup.

The differential or the difference between offense and defense for that particular club in how many more they can get offensively to outweigh or outright what they're allowing defensively, the top two teams are Colorado. and Tampa Bay. That metric matters a lot to me because over the course of going four rounds deep, you're giving a very predictable environment to your goaltender. So you're allowing him to flourish under those conditions. That matters to me. The rush defense, that matters greatly to me.

Those two teams have great rush defenses. They've won and know how, and they have the know-how deep in their lineup to know how to shut it down. I think that matters to me. And the goaltending, Those three pieces, I think, go hand in hand, but they're also the most predictive. Rush defense, slot line differential, and then goals saved above expected for high danger chances. So your goalie's got to have a good grade A number.

He can't just be giving up, you know, two out of every three grade A's. You're not going to win. So those three things matter for me. And I think the two most sound teams in the NHL right now, Colorado, Tampa Bay. Yeah, that checks out. Except last night for Colorado. Yeah. We're all allowed to have imperfect.

It's a long year. Everyone loses 22 to 24 games before they win a cup. Anyhow, what are we talking about? All right, I hear you. So talking with McKee before the show, and we're talking about like the West and Vegas, and, you know, they should win that division. And I said, like, they're probably going to get Utah and walk through them.

And he goes, are we sure they're going to walk through Utah? I'm not sure. So I'm looking at the bottom of the West and looking at goal. If you're looking for a surprise team down there, Utah, Seattle, L.A., San Jose. Is there any team down there where a goalie could get red hot and maybe Utah's won and carry them through a round or two? Boy, boy. Veggie? You like veggie?

I'm not all the way there. I've liked him for stretches, but for steals. Like we haven't, when was the last time we've seen a mid-level or low-level goalie steel a series? I can't sincerely name one. Would you have named Mike Smith, a mid or low level, or was he a star? He was a star. Halak? Halak.

At the time, Halak stole that series, he wasn't a star, was he? No, not yet. You know, like, so that was, that was a good one. I'll go with Halak. I could say also Ottinger, when he beat the Vegas Gold Knights in the bubble. He wasn't a star yet. Start of a star, yeah. Start of a star.

He was a lot. Did it against Calgary, too, didn't he? It's not an every year thing, is it? Like, it's just not. I think that the gold. that are going to be playing that are mid-level to lower-level tier, they just have to give a really strong defending team a chance to win. That's the best they can do.

You know, like back to the slot-line conversation, just because I looked at this a little deeper today, even the overall goals that are scored in the playoffs, guys, compared to the regular season, it's about the same. Like, there's not a drop-off. It's still the way to score, moving the puck from one side of the ice to the other. So far this year in the NHL, the conversion rate on that pass across is 30%. And the total number of goals scored in the NHL this year passing across the ice is 23%.

And that's 10% of the total chances, but it's 23% of the total goals. Like, it's how you score in hockey. If I was, Sammy, are your zigzag still playing hockey right now? Let's not talk about it. Zags have recently been eliminated. Oh, is that right? Okay. Major changes coming in the off.

I've heard new GM. Heartbreaking. Let's talk about how we can possibly build a roster that can protect the slot line, okay? I'm sure if I wouldn't watch you guys play, it's probably open season across the ice for one-timer's back door. You need some rangy length back there.

There would be no bigger nightmare for me, Valley, than you come in to watch a six-hast. Truly my nightmare. Oh, my God. Just guest appearances play golfers. Oh, my God. We need to add an hour to the show. Remember last week, Borneo

we were talking about Colorado and I had said their power play. What are we doing over there? Right. This is funny to me. The number I gave you was 10 low slot line passes all season long. Worse in the league, wasn't it? And 30 was the top.

Worse in the league. Worst in the league. But how come they're best in the league with the high east to west above the hash marks, high hash marks? They go up top all the time. It's probably McCarr. They're like, let McCarr run it.

Yeah. And guess what? They've scored five goals from up there all power play, all season on the power play. So this Colorado team, amazingly enough, at 5 on 5 is a top east to west passing team, but don't do it at all on the power play. I don't get it. You got to get it into cadre in the bumper now. Cadry should help that, though, long term.

I think Cadry is going to help as a decoy there, and that's what you need in a lot of cases. I always look at the bumper as a decoy, guys. Again, I was on the ice this morning making that pass from below the goal line to slot for the one-timer. It's a same side of the ice one-timer. generally your goalie, your expectation should be that he stops that one. It's, yeah, it's not one that you should be too worried about, especially if you have coverage and you're clamping down on the guy. But, yeah.

What else, Valley, anything else? Or are we going right into grill marks? Well, I had some Allmark and I had some. Oh, Mark. I was actually going to ask you, Omar. Yes. Can he get this done for Ottawa? Well, I'll tell you what.

He certainly lost some goodwill with me when he, came after that Montreal game with the post game saying spot on. What was that? I don't know. He was snippy. You can't. How can you go there after? If you're going to use the mental health card and go there, you can't be spot on,

spot on. Like what are we doing? I know. I've never heard, listen, I've been around for 40 years, man. I've never heard anyone answer a question spot on. No, I was not happy with that. Now, okay, you want to talk about what are the chances to get through, all right?

Yes. Here we are. Here we are. And I think when I label screens and rebounds as far as what do you need to be successful at those two things, it's not just technique. It is go for it. And it's compete and it's come out of form. It's scrambled to make a save. Right now on screens, Allmark, 774 safe percentage, that's second worst in the NHL.

to give you some context, Spencer Knight is best on screens. He has a 906 save percentage. That's a famous Sheldon Keith clip where he says, you know, can I get a save on those ones too? Like the goalie coach is making an excuse. Oh, well, that one was tipped. That was screened.

Well, can I get a save on those? Yeah. Well, you know what? It starts in practice and I had a bat if I watched him in practice. He's not going for all of his rebounds in practice. It's oftentimes if I'm talking to a goalie and they're struggling on break, You know how you get your way out of it? Take more breakaways.

How do you get better on rebounds? Play your rebounds. Go for it every time. As soon as the puck's leaving you, stay attached, go for it. There's nothing that pisses me off more when you see a goalie. Just wave the paddle in practice. Just wave it and give it to you. I call that a let.

Like he's letting you have it. Go for it. So the rebound safe percentage. He's a 635 safe percentage on rebounds. That's worst in the NHL. Again, for some contacts, the best rebound goalie in the NHL is a 9-1. 02. Soroken,

my Vesna trophy winner that's not getting Vesna odds yet, Borny, what's going on with that? I don't know.

Bet it, bet it folks. So, yeah, that's my take on Omerk. I'm not that high on them. I don't know. Going back on our shows in the past, I've always been really high on them,

so I don't know what we're talking about. I don't know. Stay consistent, my friend. Stay consistent. Hey, did I go three for three last week? I don't want to pat myself on the back or anything,

but. I don't want to pat myself. on the back, but how we looked at... Oh, my God. Oh, my God. That had to cost you $0.48 cents in ink. That's a full sheet. You're not allowed to ever tell us

you're too busy now to come on our show. He's never said that once. If you got time to do that, you got time to kill, my friend. McKee's got to make up an MVP guest, a yearly heart trophy. Yes. For those of you that cannot watch him,

a very colorful. could be mad. Standing board. So, yeah, what we have on our standing board here is we've got, first of all, Kiprios was on fire last week, and it was kind of neat. I got flames here to represent. Oh, my. I am right back in it. So we got 40, 35 points.

Kippur was a plus six last week. He's up to 28. Sammy Kia is now down to third. He's 27 points. Now, for grill marks right now, guys, we're going to talk about a few, different fun topics. First one, what player in the NHL has had the most low danger goals? So let's just call them they've scored the most bad goals. The goalies have been bad for them. Gifts. Gifts. Gifts. I've got on my list, Morgan Geeky, Cole Caulfield, Alex DeBrenkitt.

Caulfield. I got to be honest, I do like that pick somewhat, but give me, give me geeky. Give me the brinket. Caulfield. I like Coffield. That was my first. Yeah, boys, he's got 39 goals this year. Nine of them are low danger goals. So goals that you'd want your goalie to have a save there.

And he has seven broken play goals. I think this will end up being his career year because you don't get that much luck year over year. I think I've said this before on the show. Once you get to double digits in either low danger goals or double digits and broken play goals. It's buyer beware. Don't sign a guy for too high.

Don't worry about that. This guy's got five more years at 7.85, so he's a deal. Yeah, you're okay. Next one. We are going to look at the goaltenders that have the most chances faced across the slot line. So these are the goalies. And what's really interesting about this list is in the top 20 for the last three years, no Stanley Cup winners.

Again, protect your goalie against this pass. Now, these are the bottom three in chances faced across the slot line. It's either Dostal, Wolf, or Osoros. Give me Dostal. Wolf. Blaine's top. The stall. Yeah, it's Wolf.

Sammy's on fire. Sammy, mighty Sammy. Get that in going, Valley. So that was a big part of the research here this afternoon is just how wide open Calgary is playing with Dustin Mulfanet. It's horrific for him. He's faced 149 chances. East West. It's ridiculous.

Lord. It's ridiculous. Yeah, tough have good stats when you're diving across the net. It's impossible. It's impossible. Yeah. There's. We had Calgary in here this week.

They were, they might be the worst team in hockey right now. Now, this one here is, um, Kind of interesting. Most goals scored by a player with high danger chances. Excuse me. Most high danger chances without a goal is what it is. Most high danger chances, but they haven't scored a goal on a high danger chance. Okay. And it's defenseman. You can imagine why. It's Severson, Josh Manson, Brady Shea. So Damon Severson, Rady Shea. So this is most high danger chances. without scoring a goal. Manston.

They have zero goals. Manson. I'm torn on the other two names. I don't want. You're awfully quick to go first all the time, too, eh? Well, yeah, I mean, you could, you got a mic. You could come in there. Buzz in Jeopardy here.

I'm very methodical. Manston's a good. I'll take Severson. Manton's a butcher on a good team. I'll go with Sammy's Manson. It's Manson. Yeah. Oh, man.

Man, I'm getting... Let's go. I'm going to answer ready. I'm riding. train. Let's go. That's hysterical. Good job getting ahead of everybody. Nine points.

I don't know how many points are six. Six. It's all you get. I did get a couple messages. Everybody's asking you about your hockey cards in the back. That's a nice sheet right there. That's the O.Beechee. Pretty cool sheet. Are you on it? Are you

there? No, this is before me. This is Darren Pang right here. Oh my gosh. I could be in there. Pete Peters, my goalie coach and Edmonton's right here, up there, Sean Burke. So I looked for you, Keper. I have two of these, and I don't think you had a hockey card that year. Is that any, yeah, we used to call a common. No, no. I had, um, we got to go.

I had granny apples in North Bay card. Old May or whatever the bakery was about there. I actually forget what year this is, but this used to hang in my basement. That's 89. Is that 89, 88, 88? I got a double check. It sounds like 88, 89. Okay.

That's it. Valley, love you, pal. Great stuff. Be good. Love you, boys. Great stuff, Al, YouTube. Thanks, buddy. All right, you're chasing me.

Kip would take it right to the end of the hour if we let them. Let's do game time before the break here. I got a new fancy read here, so I've got to find it on my sheets. Here we go. It's game time. I'm at my bed 365. An official partner of the NHL must be 19 plus. Ontario only, please play responsibly.

nine games on tap tonight, including the Toronto Maple Leafs, hosting the New York Islanders. And I'll tell you right now, boys, it's a pretty easy bet for me. Give me a Matthew Schaefer goal tonight. He's been unbelievable this year. He's coming home to Toronto for the first time. Plus 350 on the money line for a Matthew Schaefer goal. I'd be curious because the Leafs golies are playing well, what, like, Matthew Schaefer, three shots or something. I could probably figure that out if I get a shot total.

You want Matthew Schaefer. One shot is minus $2,800. So probably not going to do that one. Minus two shots is minus $450. I'm out. Three shots is minus $140. That's mental. Four shots is plus $182.

Five shots plus $400. And then it goes up from there. Would you take him at over 25 minutes tonight? Oh, yeah. Maybe over 30 minutes tonight. Yeah. 27, 28, 28 minutes. I forgot to do this in our lease segment, but it's Kippers Tank Watch.

Big one for the leaf. tonight. The Jets are hosting the Predators. Jets are minus 130 in that game. Preds are plus 110. The ideal scenario in that game is it goes to overtime and then the Jets win in OT. So both teams will come out of that game with 68 points, which is two back at least 70. Anyways, that was game time presented by Bet365. An official partner of the NHL must be not team Placentery only. Please play responsibly.

All right. Catch your breath. Grillmore. Let's go. You go over three. Two weeks in a row. There should be a bonus if you get all three right in one show. Oh, I like that. Like an additional bonus point.

Okay. We're back after these words. Leon Drysidal, Doug Armstrong, plenty of big names still to discuss with our NHL news and notes. 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, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a reminder, this hour of Real Kipperman brought you by Bet365. Nick Kippreel, Justin Boren, Sammy the Key. Do we have a Doug McLean chat person? There's somebody in the chat that, you know, I keep an eye on the chat.

Yes. The mean things people say about me on there. No, they're loving you today. They're saying you're great at that game. Rare. Oh, yeah. Just somebody named Doug McLean, 818. Couch and Valley.

Yeah, and I'm like, Cowaging Valley. Like, what the hell? Doug McLean in here. I tried out for the capitals once fun. And just a reminder, subscribe to our YouTube channel at SportsNet. Yep. Appreciate you watching, listening, and giving us a thumbs up.

Love it. Did you want to talk about Doug Armstrong? Sure. We mentioned it a bit in the Leafs Hour with the Leafsland on it, but we can mention it as a more national story now. We have a clip, Andrew, of him talking about his decision to step down. If we could play that clip, Buck Armstrong, on Stepping. I knew going in, this was going to be it.

I wanted to experience this one time. And it just took really, I thought it might be 2018 or 2022, just happened to take to 2026. And I was fortunate enough to hang around long enough to get to do it. But it's certainly time for someone else. I've enjoyed it since 2002 to 26. That's a long run. And I'm looking to cheer him on now.

And I'm looking to next time they play, have my feet up in the sand somewhere. He's been a part of it for that long wait. He has. This 0-2? Yeah. No. Oh, Hockey Canada?

Not as like the dudes. No, no. He's been around Hockey Night or Hockey Canada for a very long time. Wow, yeah, no, he should definitely. But I like that. You know, it's just, yeah, fresh, fresh eyes, fresh look.

And for us to elect a new Pope, we got to get all our people in one room and when the red smoke goes up. You know, who may get it. Don't say it. Kyle Dubus. Oh, my. Yeah.

I think so. I'm a lot more on board on it now than I was. A few years ago. Yeah, because he's not in Toronto. Well, no, because he's doing a better job now. No, that's why. Nah. It's not that.

This is Dennis Mulligan's chance. He's learned a lot. Hold on. He's coming around. He's doing a perceived better job in the down swing of a team that's supposed to be bad and is having an exceptionally good season above expectations. It hasn't done a full draft yet and hasn't had, like, where he's at right now in the trajectory is better.

He made a great trade to get rid of job. that was an excellent trade. I'll give him credit for that. But like, let's just everybody just pump the brakes on him being the savior, okay? Nobody's saying anything. You just said he's doing a good job. That's not saying.

It's worth him as a serious candidate. You think he's going to be the general manager of our national team? Give me two other names. Julian Brisewa. That he wouldn't run at least in a competition. See, all you're doing is just going like, I don't know, Stanley Cups or, right?

Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Yeah, correct. I think this is very good. I think you'd be fine at it. Oh my God. But yeah, I think there's certainly more experience.

But I got news for you. You don't you don't groom him like that if you're hockey Canada and not have him now be a serious candidate. He's going to be part of it, but he can't be the grand Puba.

Could be. You guys really think? You guys think I'll be the video coach for Team Canada? Like, is this just, it's just this pure speculation or is this like, I've had phone calls with people. Is this what it is. Is this, I've had phone calls with people that I do my little calls with and I have a,

it's a, it's just got to read the tea leaves on this, Sammy. That's all. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Right. He has come a long way. Great.

Great. I'm in. Let's do it. Listen, he made a ton of mistakes here and those are growing pains. And, you know, give, like, come on, look at Pittsburgh right now. They lost Malkin and Crosby for a significant amount of time. They had a huge win last night. He's doing something, right?

That Chinikov, I almost tweeted this last night. Every time I watched the Penguins, he absolutely pops. He flies. Probably going to score, I don't know, 25 goals and 60 points next year. If I had to guess, this year he's always got 21 points and 29 games with them. Chat wants Dubas. So, Chad loves Dubas. They're just, Sammy's an idiot.

He's never taught it. Yeah. I live through Dubus for, listen. If you saw the trades, I guess he doesn't have to make any trades. There's nobody more critical than me on Dubus, but you got to be fair. Okay, sure. Yeah, he's gone to Pittsburgh and got to tear down some of the stuff. And like, I'm just, what I've seen so far from Pittsburgh, I'm not ready.

He's doing a okay job. Like, sure. We're talking about Team Canada boys. Yeah, the teams he had here had 100 plus points every year he was here. Wayne Gretzky. I need more information. I'm not ready to give it to him now. Just pump the brakes.

We don't actually get to design. You're fine. Thank God. Yeah. Okay, what else he got for us? Do you do pero stuff? Drysidal. Drysidal.

I'm really interested to see the look of this team without him. Yes. For a long period of time. We mentioned the other day, week to week. And they're hoping still he could sneak in a game or two. but it may be into the playoffs. There's been significant amount of rattling of his MCL, and it needs time.

To me, when you announce a guy out for regular season, like you don't think he's back, unless you're very fortunate, April 17th, the day the season ends. Like, they're not sure if they'll have him game one.

It's going to be close. That's kind of the timeline. So hopefully he's ready in four weeks. The thing with the Euler season, they could win the Pacific, no doubt, and they could miss playoffs. Much harder to do, but they could still do it. So what's going to come down to is goal tending, defending. I'm not worried about their ability to shoot it in even without.

It's a similar amount of points in either direction. Yeah, well, there are only two points out of first in the division. And what, three points out of the last, like out of the playoffs? Yeah, four. Yeah, it's not. Too shay. It's a nice edge, brother. Like not having dry sidle on the power play.

and now the emphasis of just now, the threats, of course, McDavid and the pub getting back to the top. But it's a lot easier to take that area of the ice away from them when 29 isn't waiting somewhere in a quiet area. How's that Edmonton schedule look the rest of the way? Coming up, they got San Jose, Florida, Tampa Bay. So those are all at home, three games. San Jose, Florida, Tampa Bay.

And then they head out to Utah, Vegas. and I'm Seattle, all playoff teams. Yeah. What about Jim Nell? Futes just texted me and said Jim Nell. For the guy. If you're picking based on Stanley Cups, we're not going to get you across the line,

but he's obviously very experienced. Jim Nell? I like Jim. I feel like everyone was involved in that management group. Like, I feel like they... Well, I mean, there's a guy that has won a few Cubs as a player and won gold medals, but with Steve Eiserman. Would he be interested?

Oh, my God. You're going to mention Carlton the bear before you go to Dubus. I just mentioned Steve Iserman. It's not like it's a... Unfortunately, Steve Eisenman needs to make the playoffs this year. For the first time since he's been in Detroit. Okay. I'm just saying.

Steve Eisenman needs to get the Red Wings in the playoffs here. Okay. Fair. Okay. That's fair. What about, and hear me out on this? Doug Armstrong. Would he do it?

That's, like, full of confidence in his ability. Sam's got bigger plans, I think, for Doug Armstrong. Oh, this frees them up to be the Leafs president, right? President or GM, which one or both? I think president. Yeah. And then you bring in somebody underneath him. Bring in what's, yeah, bring in Moldover as a GM and get, what's his name here?

Get McDavid here. I have heard worse ideas. Yeah, why not? The general manager. Why not? Get a vote over here. He loves Toronto. Edmonton did that.

They hired Connor McDavid's agent. Exactly right. How about Nate McKinnon? Nate McKinnon has recently made a comment here about the avalanches struggles where he kind of implies they were struggling before. I don't know if we have time. Do we have time, Andrew? Okay.

I'm not sure we have time. He basically said winning can mask some stuff, which the implication to me is that they were maybe not as good as their record in the captain's mind. There's a lot of teams that could have used more masking this year. Yeah. Yeah, but also a more honesty from their captain that even when you're in first, he goes, not good enough.

This is the contrast of these years. I actually was an excellent scrum. I listened to the whole thing. Talked about at the start about how the chemistry's kind of struggling, like some of the new guys getting in there and working on roles and some guys playing in center and wing that shouldn't be playing there and just the communication needs to be better. We need to have better pregame meetings and all this stuff.

He's at pregame meetings? Yeah, we need to be committed and all this. Like, he was. That's the coach. But it wasn't, like, mad or incendiary. He was just, like, talking about it and saying it. That's what, he's a freak. So Nick Ra, Wa, and Cadreier playing wing?

No, he just, like. No, but I'm looking at their lineup. Like, they got those guys on wing with Brock Nelson, Drury at center with Parker Kell and Keeva Ronta and that Bartokov on the fourth line center. That's what you call him a Kahnian Culture Reset. They'll probably win the next game. He'll probably win the next thing. I would imagine they'll win the next.

All right, just like that. Good bet. Two hours gone. and we've solved nothing. Our thanks. He's okay. Our thanks to Claire

Cal Clutterbuck and Steve Alicat. Nine games on tap. Find yours and meet us here tomorrow.