Real Kyper & Bourne - Vally's View: Early Goalie Grades

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee look back on the tough Thanksgiving weekend for Canadian sports teams, Lane Hutson's team-friendly extension with the Canadiens, and the Senators losing Brady Tkachuk for four weeks. MSG analyst and CEO of Clear Sight Analytics Stephen Valiquette (11:05) joins the guys to break down Hutson's deal, Linus Ullmark's start, shooters learning the book on Dustin Wolf, the Leafs' impractical offensive approach, the Panthers picking up where they left off, and much more. Later, Nick, Justin and Sam discuss the Kings' direction, Lindy Ruff wasting no time calling out the Sabres' early-season effort, and Josh Norris facing another injury setback.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.

Hope everybody's caught their breath after a very long weekend. And a good Thanksgiving, we hope, despite maybe some outcomes for Canadian sports teams. I'm Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. Derek, Derek Randale, Jen Rolnick. I can't even get it. We're live on Sportsnet 360. I'm going to

do this really slow so we can just stay on that shot of Sammy. Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, 960 in Calgary and streaming on SportsDap Plus, you can catch us when you don't catch us live. Spotify, Apple podcast, and YouTube.

Picture went viral. real Sammy of you sniffing something i don't know what you were poisoning so i don't have to experience the rest of that baseball game was what i was hoping for uh bunkus yeah our boy jd yeah jd bunkus podcast yep leave stock took in the game and there was a yeah there was a camera our cameras caught you now i didn't watch this live i missed it did they say oh and there's sammy mckee from real kipper and bourne show did they do that did they find you

did they know what they said uh dan trulman said tense it's funny is buddy what's that say about you that you've worked for sports net now on the national show for four years yeah we're going in our fifth yeah and they don't know who the hell you are listen that's fair i think it's just i got to get my i got to get my profile up around here i just i'm happy i wasn't picking my nose or staring at my phone like yeah that guy is locked in i got a ball no

I'm locked into the game. I care. I got a buddy who has a shih Tzu with anxiety that looks like that, just chewing on a towel. I just trying to get through the day. The towel is great because you can just kind of like hide your face the entire time and you can like kind of grab on it and do everything. But listen, I was built for days like today.

This is how I came up in Toronto Sports Media. All my teams. All my teams always lose. I was built for today, boys. For those of you that's been sleeping under a rock, the Toronto Blue Jays, losers, big losers to the Florida Panthers. Nope.

The Florida Panthers? Seattle Mariners. Did it not feel like a Florida Panther loss in game five or game seven? Here's not. No, great. No, you nailed it. Here's what I'll say. It's a Florida Panthers.

You can't, I mean, the thing with baseball is there's, like, it's really hard to be like, oh, they didn't show any heart. You know, it's like they hit the pitching and the Jays couldn't hit their pitching and whatever. but I think there's a parallel between a team that is historically owned a Toronto team and, you know, Cal Raleigh who is officially the Toronto Blue Jays,

Papa, like he owns them, he's owned them forever in that wild card series. He had big home runs. It's going to be the MVP this year. Parallels with him and like little Sam Bennett action, sort of Marshan kind of thing. They're just better. They're better so far. Steve Aliquette's going to join us in a few minutes. I just, I want

to throw this out there because I think you guys had a conversation outside the door with Mike who produces. Oh, Jen Kelly, yeah. Yeah. Mike Co-hosts in the summer. I know you listen all the time. No, no, no.

And I didn't get into it, but it's, it went around kind of the same thing I feel, okay? And that is that when I watch the Jays celebrate the division or a wild card and.

This is so. No, no, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but it has to be said. This is the oldest guy. I know it's... They do it in every series, every team. Every series does the exact same thing.

I'm not doing this. No, I didn't see Seattle act like the Jays. They had to go get on a plane. I don't care. And they ended up being focused and business-like. And our guys looked like they were filming Hangover 4. Okay, here's what I'll say. Jen, if you could put up that picture again, this is how I feel about that take.

Because it's just like, oh my God, that's what I feel. It's like, oh. They won their World Series. team does it. Yeah, they beat the Yankees on their home field. It was a big deal. Everyone was excited, except you. I know who says I want. But it's physically exhausting to party that hard. It's physically exhausting. The professional athletes couldn't recover three days later to go play a base. Listen, they couldn't hit their pitching. That's if they stopped partying. They're batting average on balls in play and talking to Sammy. Just don't look like you've

been parting for three days straight then. How about that? Listen. Hey, just don't look like it. This is an easy take to have when they lose two games at home. Don't look like it. Listen, there's low hanging fruit, and you picked it right off the tree. It's fine. That's all right. I see a Seattle team that looks business-like. Or maybe they're just better.

Okay. Is that tough to crush your mind? They're better at looking business-like. Oh, God. That's all. All right. All right. Listen, I hope they can come back and make a series of it.

I do too. I want them to. For sure, I'm a fan, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but like. Come on, guys. You can't be humiliated like that. You can't do that to Sammy.

Every team cannot make this guy look and feel like the biggest loser out there when the stage is at its biggest. I didn't like Gosman coming out when he came out, like a lot of people. Disappointed that... Listen, it was... You can make that choice if you want, but you can't go to Brandon Little. And I thought yesterday people were saying they should have left his Savage in there. These Savage's, the velocity was dipping.

He wasn't sharp. the entire time. I thought they should have taken them out to start the inning. Anyways, a lot of baseball left, boys. Don't let them win tomorrow. In a few minutes,

we're going to welcome in Steve Valaket, analyst for the New York Rangers, and of course, CEO ClearSight Analytics. Vancouver had a tough, tough game last night. The Leafs had a tough weekend

against Detroit, Ottawa. Didn't look very good against Nashville at all. Brady Kachos out four plus week. And that's a big. story to me like that that has a massive effect on the sends who are looking to you know vie for home ice in the playoffs and and take that next step they got to do it without their heart

and soul that's going to be interesting to follow big news in montreal they signed kent hughes and jeff gorton and lane hudson and everyone else who they think is going to be a part of their next stanley cup man i hate how well run they are i think i tell you that the app sheet's pretty It's really pretty. There's a few people thinking Lane Hudson gave him a break with the numbers escalating for star players. He ends up signing under $9 million on an AAV. How do you get less than Luke Hughes and how,

why do you give eight years? 8,85, yeah. Yeah. You see that he's in a contract until he's 30. I'm gonna I'm split right down the middle good contract for Montreal great contract for Montreal

and good contract for Lane Hudson listen when you haven't made money yet nice to take 70 million and that's we did the exhibition game we did the exhibition game against Toronto where I couldn't say enough nice things about Lane Hudson

he is a star he's got potential to be a star and I said he does things out there that can look and feel at times like a kale McCar and a Quinn Hughes but at the end of the day he's still 5-8 and 150 pounds 165 thank you very much no no he's if he's 1160 if he's 160 I'll be shocked I remember you were comparing him to Victor Met Day last year potentially Well, statured. Wait, when you come in and you play 20 minutes in your first five or 10 games, you are compared to Victor Mante. You are.

You don't know for sure how it's going to end up. And I do the same thing all over again. You just don't know. And clearly, he's going to be a top, exciting player to watch. But when you're staring at $70 million over eight years and you are one, cross-check into the boards away from having everything shut down. Take your 70 million. But like can't you take 50 and do it for five years?

Six years, you know, know what I mean? Like, let, no, you're not leaving. If he gets hurt, which guys that size tend to get hurt. Right? He's like Patrick Kane. You can't hit him. No. No, he's a defenseman.

First of all, he's a defenseman. And, uh, you can at times. Yeah. But he's, I think it's a good contract. At the end of the day, I think it's, I see why he took the eight years and the 70 million. Is it the 70 million? Is that why you see it? Yeah.

But don't, yeah, I think it's kind of at a sweet spot now where there's these huge advantages for these general managers to sign these guys to these long term contracts. But there's also the advantage for the guy signing it that it is literally $70 million. Right. No, sure. It's like, I get why they do it. It's like, oh, I could sign this for $70 million right now. Or like Kipper said, risk injury, do all this. stuff and signed for a hundred million in four years.

It's like it's still 70 Schmiel. But if you get injured on a five-year contract for 50 million or... It's not 19-20 anymore. They're going to be able to fix your knee. Like you're going to be, you're going to come back. Well, yeah. Unless your leg falls off. You've made 50.

You know, like you have the chance to me. It's just the, I just think they're leaving a lot of money on the table. But again, a lot of people at home going, who cares if it's 70 or 90? Some people do, but... All right. How's our boy, Valley. Is you ready? I don't know.

Has anybody said anything to you? I don't know. You're the producer. I haven't heard any such things. They, they usually say, Valley's ready in my ear, and then they usually say it to you two around the same time. So I don't think it's ready yet. Could chalk out socks for the sense. Yeah.

That's a blow. So he got thrown in the boards. Well, he was upset at nothing. He got a push above the goal line from Roman Yossi and had an awkward fall. It had an awkward fall. Yeah. But it upset him, obviously. He started kind of running around a little bit.

Yeah. He's looking for someone to point the finger out about it. Yeah. So we assume he cracked something, he broke something. Yeah, he was immediately looking like Santander in the outfield after the diving mist, just looking at the thumb, giving it the hole. So yeah, we'll wait details on that. Okay, with that on the Ottawa Senators and more.

Let's welcome in Steve Aliquette, who was kind enough to join us today. We weren't sure with your busy schedule. But looking his hands. him as ever as J.B. just mentioned. How are you, pal? Doing very well, boys. Here for you. All right. I'll get the train when I get the train.

Okay. So, so, um, let's stay on Lane Hudson here for a minute here because he committed to a contract where I don't know if it really reflects the new money coming in and whether or not he was able to hit the high level here of, of what we've seen so far. Did he give Montreal a break? More importantly, your thoughts on Lane and will he ever get to Akele McCarr or a Quinn Hughes status or is he, will he just be underneath that for you? I'd be pretty biased, Kipper, because I've skated with him quite a bit and I love the kid. So going back about four years, he was one of my shooters when I'm doing my goalie training in

New Jersey. His dad was running one of the rinks up there. There's a, there's a billionaire that has a $10 million hockey rink in his backyard that I go to there. It's all mahogany, marble. It's just gorgeous. What do you hang with us for? So, you know, funny story. Going back, geez, this would have been around 2012. I just stopped playing. Received an email from somebody. I answered it back like I always do. And he said, look, I've got a rink at my house. Would you come skate with my son? And I go out there and I thought it was going to be just a rinky dinky, like bubble. A lot of the guys, in Westchester have those in Greenwich.

You know, still expensive, but it's not the real deal. Anyhow, I get to this one. This guy's got a 60,000 square foot house. He's got the big pool house. It's a rig that is, it's the neutral zone all the way down, like full width. It's just got this beautiful viewing area.

And the first thing I say to myself is, God, this kid's going to suck. Overcompetition with the cash. Right? It turns out the kid ends up going division one. I coach him for 10 years. I went there three days a week. But Lane Hudson was one of the shooters there.

And, you know, I saw him the first time, and he was, you know, imagine what he looked like when he was 14 years old, 15 years old. He just looked so young. He looked 12. And the guys are saying to me, they're like, this kid is nasty. Like, wait until you see him on the ice. And we would play three on three. And he'd just be lighten the thing up.

And I'm like, this guy is a number one pick. Now, he went in the second round and look, as far as the money, 70 million, I guess the total pack is, you know, what would you do? I mean, I would take it. I know that it's leaving money on the table. The reason why I would take it is just due to injury and what could honestly happen at any moment. I mean, the hit by the bus syndrome, I don't know. For me, I'd take the money. 70 million, I'd take it.

I don't know if I'd risk it. But, you know, there is also. know enough of this to just speak to it but you could insure it too right guys like he could insure himself up to a pretty big amount if he did bet on himself and wait until the end of his contract

I don't know if that well again you assume Connor McDavid insured himself probably right yeah you're saying beyond his two year extension he'd be insured yes I would I would bet Connor McDavid's covered for 75 to 100 million dollars

Lloyd's of London Right. Oh, can we hear him? Are we good? We got Valley? Okay. Yeah, I think we just dropped the Zoom. That's all.

Valley, you're still with us, right? I'm sorry. Yeah. That's okay. Yep. There you are. We got them. All right.

Sorry, boys. Yeah, I don't, I saw that on my screen here. We'll keep it going. I don't know. Sammy hasn't dropped any of these all year. He's having a good year. I might be the first one. I love that we assume Sammy does anything sitting over there.

Not a whole lot. Where do you want to go? All right. So, yeah, let's keep it in Canada if we can here. The Ottawa senators are going to rely big time on Allmark to be good. Not sure that's happened yet this year. This contract that he's got, like they bet some real money that they're going to have a backbone goal tender for the Ottawa senators. Is it in him still?

Like, is this a guy that can be what they need him to be? You know, Borny, I learned this, you know, probably my third. fourth year pro because i was starting to get comfortable in the american hockey league but you're not any good if you just put your gear on and expect to just be a player without putting in the sometimes the preparation and the intensity that's required to play at a high level yeah like i'm watching thatcher demko this weekend i'm watching saros this weekend and these guys are playing with such intensity that they look like you know they're they're the dog on the bone and when i watch all mark as skilled as he is as skilled as he is

is he never looks like he has that level of intensity that would allow his skills to show up in its greatest form. And that's why the leaky ones are going through right now. I think that he's so good at the sport that he gets away with letting his talent carry him rather than having the intensity that's required to really be at his best, at the highest performer that he could be.

And I think it's going to be, look, I remember talking to you guys about this in October. last year this guy is going to make everybody in that organization pull their hair out and i think it's already happening and um you know we'll see how this goes i just never liked the contract i don't like it because it was his goals saved above expected i think he's dead last i mean is there some stats that you know he could be better than they're actually telling us no no not at all he's right at the bottom on everything and you know what though kipper this is actually funny no really It's been a funny year a little bit, too.

I mean, it's been a week, right? It's been a week. But it was a funny first week in the NHL, I thought, because you look at the goalies, and I went through the list this morning that are off to a bad start, you know? And typically the top guys get going right away because that's why they're the top guys.

When the games matter in the beginning of the season, which home openers are big games for guys. Like, I remember guys getting sick before the home opener and being surprised, but, you know, teammates that had won Stanley Cups would say to me, like, Valley, it's a home opener. Like, it's the biggest game of the regular season in a lot of cases until you get right to the end.

Now, Stolars is right there. I mean, as far as a bad save percentage for him at 866, Ottinger, Wolf, Sorokin. Sorokin looked really bad the other night when I watched his game against Washington. Doesn't look himself. Vasilevsky doesn't look himself at all. 859 right now. And Olmer's in a, he's an 842. So there are top goalies that are.

very talented and skilled, but haven't found themselves yet. And oftentimes, I think it's just they haven't hit the intensity button. But again, when you watch Soros or Demko this weekend, I'm like, oh my God, these guys are just incredible. They're mid-season form right now. Demko against the Oilers was all world. I mean, he had nine high danger chances against in that game uh the vancouver knox had zero they didn't have a single high danger chance on edmonton's net i don't even know what they're doing so just just to follow off the starters now if if some of these guys do not get the starts that they're hoping here how much pressure are is there on who's backing them up and i'll go to calgary with dust and wolf now and who's behind him is the coolly yeah

Yeah, Devin Cooley. And it's not Vardar. And how does that change the dynamics of pressure on a guy who just signed a huge contract and is expected to be one of the best players every time he puts the pads on? Yeah, look, I think that here's the dangerous thing with Wolf. He's not getting insulated starts to start the season. He played back to back this past weekend, right? It was Edmonton, Vancouver, back to back after that,

long Edmonton game with the shootout. He plays the next day in Vancouver. And look, I looked at last year his starts in October, November, December, and Dan Vladar really insulated him well because what happened was, where's my list right here? I wrote down that Dustin Wolf in his first 19 games played against four playoff teams. And Vladar played against 10. They were splitting. They were going back and forth, but Bladar basically got every difficult game. And there's nothing harder than, you know, being a goalie partner when you're the senior guy and you're seeing the young guy get all the acclim, uh, what's the word, boring accolades? Acquades. Yeah. Getting all the accolades. And, you know, you're kind of sitting there and you're saying, all right, am I even like going

to get my net back? Now, this year, they're going to go all in on Dustin Wolf. But I think the biggest issue that he has right now is at his size when you're making your second lap around the league and everybody's noticing there's a little more room upstairs. You saw Mangi Apani beat him over the shoulder. Robert Thomas beat him over the shoulder the other night. And I was looking at the one thing that when you're looking at size and net, where does it hurt you sometimes? It hurts you when you're really having to reach or extend to try and make a save with your leg that the other guy can just get a couple more inches on, but it also hurts upstairs because you can miss with your glove. You could go for it with your glove if you're a big guy and still get a piece of it

with your shoulder. And I think that Wolf, when I'm watching him play right now, he's caught in between sometimes trying to go for it with his shoulder or go for it with his glove. And last year in the NHL, the goalies that were giving up, the most goals over the glove were all the smaller goalies. It was Georgiev, it was Soros, it was Wolf. And, uh, Ms. Likens was on that list. I had somebody else. But, you know, it seemed to me that I was kind of, you know, cut up in, all right, how much does size really matter it does when there's a book on you? Right.

And he gave up a lot of goals over his glove last year. Devin Cooley is a really big goalie. Cooley, you guys will remember. He was the guy that played that really big game for San Jose a couple of years ago when they beat Seattle. He had 49 saves. And he said, you know, what's the big deal about my performance tonight? We're all going to die anyway. Yeah, that's right.

too. I forgot about that. So he was having a banger of a year last year. In January, he got a concussion. He was leading the American hockey league statistically and everything. But by the time they got to the playoffs, he was actually a healthy scratch. He never really

fully recovered from his concussion. So he's the backup right now. He might be on the same length of rope I was on when I was backing up Henrik, which is one start at a time. Yeah. You know, and I remember that. feeling, guys. I didn't get my first start my second full year until the 16th game of the season in

Toronto. Do you imagine the pressure and how much of a narrative that becomes, right? Because if you're in Calgary and they go back to back this week and the first weekend of the season and they use Wolf back to back to back, and now the backup's sitting there like, should I not be playing the second half of the back to back? I do think you'll see Cooley against Utah. Calgary has another back to back coming up and I'm telling you the guy can play he's a big guy six five he can move he can move almost as well as wolf and it's just a matter of whether or not he's all the way there again coming off of what I heard was a very serious concussion that he had a hard time coming back from right so looking at some of the early returns around the league for for these goaltenders cam talbot has

off to a great start last year my boy david amber was saying he should be on team Canada really liked him. Here he's off to another good start, but they paid John Gibson. They traded for and paid John Gibson, right, to be their starting guy now. Do you, I think Gibson has the, according to the money puck anyway,

the fourth worst expected goal saved above expected. Do you think that Talbot would be the guy getting the bulk of the starts there? Well, when I saw, you know, I was watching the game last night, and the one thing Toronto did in that game, Borney, was, man, the favor of nice shots on goal before they even had a scoring chance.

You hate those, like, distance warm-up shots, eh? You can't do it. You can't do it. You let Talbot right in that game, especially an experienced goalie. I think his first 12 shots were clear-sighted. And the shots were like, what, 23 to, I don't know, nine or 10, and it's two to one for Detroit. And I'm like, guys, like, you know, now you're starting to create some offense, but it's too late. Don't start the game with 10 or 12 feelers.

I thought that he looked big and he was able to get it. out. And I also thought that the Leafs on first touch, they're not getting the puck off their stick fast enough. And I think that's the biggest thing with goal scoring nowadays. You need to elevate the puck, but you can't receive it, drop your jaw, pick your head back up, corral it once, get it to where you want it and shoot it. It doesn't work. These guys, you can just put pause on your screen and see the goalie on the other side of the net. And the puck's on the player's stick. By the time they corral it and shoot it, the goalie's back in frame, and he's staring at you, you know, salivating because you're making it easy on the goalie now.

That's OVee's greatest strength as a shooter, right? He just hits it when it gets close to him. Well, pardon me, who? Ovechkin, for years, like he just hits it. Exactly. Ovechkin, great example. For me, Austin is, Puck is spending too much time on Austin's stick. He's got to get it off quick again.

He's, sometimes there's an ego there. I remember Patrick Liney went through it for a while, where everybody was talking about him when he first came in the league as he was one of the best shooters. But then he kind of read his own press clippings a little too much and started waiting. Even when the goalie was screened, he would wait for that screen to move out of the way so he could get a clean look at the goalie and try and beat him clean, almost with ego. And you lose your advantage there. You need to, as Austin has done so well over the years, shoot through the screen. and Patrick Gleine has gone through it.

Last year had a lot of success off his one-timer again because, again, it's on and off the stick. Plus, when it's on and off the stick like that, you're getting rebounds. You're going to get rebounds because the goalie's in motion across the crease and he's going to spray pucks. You're going to get more broken plays. I think the game always boils down to a half a second.

And the goalies are trying to capture it. The shooters shouldn't allow them to capture it. you're watching and listening to steve aliquette analysts with the rangers on msg and ceo clear site analytics uh the stanley cup champion florida panthers they lost their first game to florida to florida to the flyers uh yesterday uh barroski was not in the net but he's clearly picked up where he's left off and florida's not supposed to look this good without their captain or their grittiest player and Matthew Kachuk. So what do you see out of goalie Bob?

Well, goalie Bob, I think he plays in the environment that's best for him. And I think that Florida plays this game style that's best for them offensively, too. I feel like they have the best understanding of where offense comes from. And they also have the best understanding of where the strengths of their goalies are and how to protect them. When I see them play odd man rushes, and I'm going to use this example because it worked for us when I worked at Quinnipiac in my first year retirement. We gave up two-on-one after two-on-one in games and in practices. And we're about a week into the season. The assistant coach and I are having a meeting about what's best for the goalie. How can we work with our

defensemen? We took a magic marker on the ice during practice and just drew a line right through the slot and we told the defenseman, tomorrow in practice, nobody is going to cross that line, not with the puck as a carrier or a pass on all of our odd man rushes. We're going to do two on ones. We're going to do three on twos. Sure enough, the next day in practice, the forwards don't score. There was a clear expectation for the defenseman. The goalie knew what his role was and the way that we used it as far as terminology was the defenseman bought into this idea that that that was their net. That line was their net. And if it goes in their net, it will end up in the goaltender's net. And they won a national championship, I think, on the bones of that a few years

later, two or three years later. But that's what I see when I watch the Florida Panthers play. They look at how far Bob is able to come out on an odd man rush. Now, he can get away with it a little bit because he's such a great backward skater, but he comes out into the white ice and then has that big form because he's able to understand that his backside is covered. Offensively, the best team in the NHL, again, not to beat this drum again, but in unsettled offense, it's Florida. They're the best on the forecheck. They create the most backchecking chances.

They also have the best giveaways and takeaways that lead to scoring. And surprisingly, it's early in the season, but the Rangers are there. They're third. excuse me but you know it's the Florida recipe I think is just showing up again and it's consistently been there now

for four years I'm looking around at the best the high end of goaltending obviously Bob off to yet another good start Shisterkin has allowed two goals in three games

a 976%age is he just head and shoulders the best goal in the league well you're going to be surprised like he's playing his best Borny but it's really the same conversation as what Bob's been experiencing. I have Shasturkin's numbers in front of me because I'm covering the game tonight and it's a big part of our pregame. I don't have Bob's. I know

Bob's are just as good, but this is what it sounds like when you're playing really good team defense. Now he's had three starts, okay? And he has faced 36 clear sighted shots, shots that he's had no screen on. He's got clear view on it for more than half of a second. Of course, he hasn't been beaten. He's only faced nine one timers. Now, you know what a one-timers like. You've got to really come off a breakdown most cases. You've got to have time and space to get your one-timer off. He's faced nine one-timers, no goals against.

He's only had five screens. The Rangers have cleared in front of him. Yeah, exactly. I know you're surprised, so am I. Five rebounds is all he's had to face. And this is the most important number out of all of them. Back to that pass going across the ice east-to-west. He's only faced two.

Two. He was facing over three again. last year. Wow. Right? So for whatever it's worth, the Rangers have really tightened up. They got embarrassed on Tuesday at home

against Pittsburgh. And then they came back with defensive performances in the next three games. They've played four games. They're two and two, but their goalies have only allowed three goals. They're defending really well, really well.

I've been very surprised and pleased because you know what? It's no fun covering a loser. Yeah. We haven't had to figure that out. yet, but we'll see. One goalie we've got to mention is Vasilevsky in Tampa Bay because everybody assumes that they're going to be right there

in the thick of things in the Atlantic along with Florida and we're not sure where Toronto or Ottawa are at the moment. But like a couple of games where you thought they could blow it here. Two goal leads, they blew against Ottawa, Vasilevsky. Usually that just gets shut down by a goalie of that stature. I don't know how far back. Do you have to just go back with Vasilesky to his surgery, his back, pre-back issues, post-back issues?

Why is he very human these days? You know, it's interesting, Kipper, because I was watching his game the other night, and he was upright in his stance, like way too much. Now, you're not big when you do that, because your height is outside the net. the vertical angle the puck has to travel to get underneath the crossbar, it's at his belly button when he's at the top of the crease. That's with his height. I know it. I did it myself. I've done the

exercise. So he's outside of his crease and he's standing straight up and down on rush plays when they're approaching him. Now, there's a bit of a benefit because your feet are under you so you can really get your edges well and move laterally quite easily. But his height is out of the net. And what's more important and problematic is it brings your head further away from the puck. So you don't see it as well. And you're not as connected. And he's losing his net. Some of the goals that I covered and looked at this morning, he was really off. And when players are coming downhill, like if a right-handed shooter is coming downhill on the right side of the ice, as a goalie, you have to let them get ahead of you. You let them get ahead of you. And then as they're clamping down on the puck,

you then get into your set, and then you're going to be square in the middle of the net. Well, he was letting those guys get ahead, and then he took off. Like, out of nowhere, he got ahead. And the pucks were going blocker's side on him on shots from the right side of the ice that he was opening a window for. He just doesn't look like himself, but I think that a lot of his approach looks too high. And I wonder if he's so high in his stance because it alleviates a lot of pressure in his lower back interesting um i did want to give you credit for something before we you know while we had you on jack grieves hot start told you the guy's legit he's legit he's legit two good starts already under

his belt no that's why i think that columbus has a shot yeah they have a shot and you know what it did too to mersleekins put a little bit of a fire under him yeah he's playing a little bit better like mersleekins for the last couple of years he's really hurt columbus he's got one of the bigger contracts in the n hl and hasn't played close to up to it But with Jack Greaves there, we're probably going to see something like Wolf Vladar happen there. And at some point, Greaves takes over, and we're going to be hearing a lot about this guy. I think it's a, I think it's a shoe-in. Hey, boys.

Yep. Is it time? We've got grill the panel. All right. All right. These are great. I think you guys are on to this a little bit because you've talked about it a little bit. And when the media guides came out this year, we've got the heaviest.

team. We've got the tallest team. What team in the NHL do you think is the heaviest on opening night? What team was the heaviest? Was it the Rangers, Leifes, L.A. Kings, or Boston Bruins? I'll go Leafs. We've had the leaves of the discussion here, yeah. All right, that's why it was a one point. Prevy. Thanks to the preview. We'll take it. All right. Oldest opening night roster. Was it Colorado, Winnipeg,

Vegas, or Florida? I thought it would be Pittsburgh I guess I got a lot of young guys I thought yeah I say I say Vegas Nashville ain't in there Nashville's not in there

wow Vegas for me I guess I'll take Colorado what am I left with you're left with I'm not picking one of theirs you're left with you say Colorado in Vegas

Winnipeg and we left with Florida I'll go Winnipeg it is Winnipeg Super's getting to stake debtor All right What opening night roster Had the most Canadians on it

I'm not going to give you a multiple choice What opening night roster had the most Canadians on it Panthers I can think of a few I'm gonna go Vegas Yeah I would have gotten Panthers too but I'll go I don't

Winnipeg Seattle had 16 Seattle Yeah Wasn't it a thing Are they sucks so bad McLean made a big deal that Canucks had zero Canadians on their team

at one point a year ago or something Yeah I love that That was funny he got in trouble for that though right Oh yeah All right are you keeping Are you keeping tabs on our scores? I'm keeping score. I'm keeping score. What's the score?

I don't have it in front of me right now. All right. Expected points per panel grilling. Eight games on tap tonight, including your Rangers and the Oilers. Have a great call. Bally. Oh, thanks, fellas. It's going to be a good game.

I'm looking forward to it. Good one. Thanks for your time, man. As always appreciate you on this show. That is Steve Aliquette. Seattle. CEO of ClearSight Analytics. See,

doesn't look great. That, that, that, that, that, that, that's, um. You got all the bad ones? Yeah. I'm just gonna say it's not great. That wolf, that word, I think you mentioned the first, what, 15, 20 games. That's a great set. Like, only four playoff games.

These sort of things are such important contact. He's playing lesser opponents. That matters. Then warms them up and then you can play better against the good ones once you've had some tests against worse ones. It certainly gained his confidence. That's for sure. Yeah.

We should probably hit a break. and then come back and you want to tuck sabers and we come back yeah we do for sure the buffalo sabers some of the some of the social media went viral there on the fans leaving the building the other day screaming for scoring a goal the injuries not as a team this year i just want that city oh well yeah of course i like the vibe all right when we return a deeper discussion on the Buffalo Sabres. And of course, at the top of the hour, we go Real Kippurn-Born Leaf Edition.

Plenty more. So stick around. Back after these words. Hey, it's Blake Murphy. And I'm Map Honor. Join us weekday mornings at 11 as we break down all things Toronto Raptors. It's the Raptor show on SportsNet 590 The Fan. And wherever you get your podcasts.

As a reminder, this hour, Real Kippercerc and born brought to you by bet three six five he's he told me 10 seconds you didn't hear that no i didn't hear that i was just like just like that's good you're producing yeah i do like her song so i was like i was just saying to sammy yes do you need to say like uh anything that am i interrupting you by just launching to this random tidbit buddy listen if we worried about stepping over each other this show have been a, like, it would have blown up a long time ago. As a reminder, this hour of Real Kipper and Bourne is brought to you by Bet365.

They all are. I just said that. Okay. I was telling him, the worst plus minus players in the league right now, shocking and also completely not shocking. At minus eight, clocking in is Sam Bennett. Team is three and one. He's dash eight somehow.

He was brutal plus minus in the regular season last year, too, remember? How did that happen? I'll tell you how. How? He's not playing behind Barkov. He's taking on too much. All the top players. And I like Sam Bennett.

Of course. But Sam's now in a world he's never seen before. Yeah. Bizarre. Number two, Nikita Kucherov dash seven. What is going on in Florida? That's very strange for two teams that are quite good. And then the most predictable is the tied at third for the worst plus minus is the pair. I don't even know if they're a pair.

Brian Dumlin and Cody Cici. both signed by the L.A. Kings and the offseason. How much do they make combined? How much do they make combined? I don't know. They're like three, four million dollar players, were they not? Take a quick peek. I'm curious.

The bottom, all right, and then we'll do take the positive note. Nathan McKinnon's plus six. I know we're going to get into the Buffalo Sabres as we teed up before the break, but. Dumlin's first, is four years. Yeah.

I'm sorry, $4 million for three years, first year of that. And then I'm looking up CC. I think C.C. was four and a half. Eight and a half million, minus five, minus five. Got started. Yeah, four and a half. Oh, wow.

First, one year of one of four. Who could have possibly seen that coming? All of us. I know there's a ton of concerns on the Buffalo Sabres, but I'm not sure where L.A.'s going. I don't either. I really, really don't like, like before the season started,

such a focus on Copatar being this last season. it how can it not take a little bit of the edge off on an urgency to win it i don't know yeah it just it it tones it down for me but like they've also they've walked into playoffs four years in a row and just got lashed by the oilers repeatedly yeah and so to me it's like they need to like come back with reinforcements how about cecy i'm not sure that they did that so yeah and on top of that you go out and you get Ken Holland who is win now mode.

Yeah. Of course. He doesn't want to do a whole rebuild. How do you win now? There's talent there. How do you win now? They're just not going to. Start the Kempay to the least rumors, boys. Their number one centerman is still

Kopitar. I get Byfield. I get it. But the identity and the face and the field is your number one centerman is saying goodbye, I'm going to retire. Yeah. They're one, two, and one through four games.

Yeah, it's not great. Okay, the Buffalo Sabres. Did you want to play this incredibly depressing Lindy Roughcliffe? This is after their loss of the Bruins. So they did, they lost three to start the season, but yesterday they lost the Colorado. but on Saturday they lost the Bruins.

And this was after the Saturday game. If we get Lindy Ravreclip one, clip one. I thought our compete was terrible. Worst compete. Compete in skating, moving the feet that I've seen. How does your team need to see them? You've got to compete. It's not the guy that has the puck.

It's the guy from way from it. I thought we played some one-on-one hockey. We didn't move our feet. We didn't win races for the puck. You know, at the start of a game when everybody has energy, it's hard hockey. And we lost a battle. game two

we suck oh man it's you know I do this thing where I look at their D and I'm like there's no way a decor of Dalline

Byram power Connor Timmons you know like these guys can be bad and then I look up front and I'm like God it's Thompson tuck and I don't know their second line is

like Benson is Zucker Ryan McLeod and Josh Donne yeah Jones out there when they need a goal in the final minute all fine NHL players but as a

their second line in the national hockey league. It's fourth line of Josh. How is it still like this? Malinston. Malinstein. Can I tell you maybe one of the, it's, I don't want to say worst trades in NHL history.

But as far as the most head-scratching kind of big field trade over the last, I don't know. I've been around a lot longer than you guys 20 30 40 years Josh Norris I'm sorry oh boy but like

you have Dylan cousins 24 year old centerman not only 24 locked in at 7 1 and legit all day long top 6 forward second at worst second line centerman and you trade him for a guy who has shoulder issues multiple and

everybody's talking about Josh Norris but if he gets hurt but if he gets hurt okay but he's injury prone okay no they're more comfortable they must know more and the guy comes and last week falls awkwardly and now once again contemplating surgery again like

that that cannot happen that is a that's a five to ten years setback one of the I don't want to say dumbest but it's in the ballpark

I'll say but it's in the ballpark you don't have to stay okay because i don't know i mean josh norse could knock on wood the guy can come back still and maybe salvage his career but you had no business risking dilling cousins as one of your top assets for a huge question mark totally how do you look at your team that was struggling and make cousins the guy who you think is the problem like maybe he's not what you hoped he would be but he's a as you mentioned he's a very very very real, productive, helpful guy. Do you remember the video?

There's an actual video of Buffalo deciding to make that trade. Have you seen it? I watched it for the first time. You told me about it. Yeah. And so they're sitting around the table and Kevin Adams is going, you know, whatever, you're thinking of what we're going to do this deal for Norris or whatever. Is there any sort of objections?

There's not a peep. And Adam says something like our doctor says it's okay. And my thought was, or by doctors comfortable with it. my thought was is that the same doctor that wouldn't let Eichel get his neck you know surgery? Yeah I don't know Is that the same one that would cost the Eichel too? If it is then I mean

This doctor's like just Cost the Buffalo Sabres mightily You know the biggest difference like you mentioned cousins may not be perfect right Like I don't think No he hasn't exactly lit in the world on fire since he's gone there but you look at his NHL career in the shortened 2021-20 season.

He was 41 games, 79 games, 81 games, 79 games, 72 last year. He's always there. At the time, he was 23 years old at the trade. 6-3-205, center. Okay. And he gets you on 40 points? Okay, here's the, it's hard. Listen, I don't want to beat up on Kevin Adams.

I don't. I take no pleasure in it. Trust me. but like your organization was missing the playoffs for the 14th time okay why did you need to trade him why would you go into the latter part of the season and trade this guy why wouldn't you take him to the summer and invite 20 teams and drive his price up why would you It's a great point. Keep it to Ottawa and a few contending teams.

Anybody, even outside the playoffs, would have looked at Dylan Cousins, and you would have brought his value way up. I'm reading what the trade was. Not only did they give up Dylan Cousins for a guy that had a bad shoulder, they gave up a second round pick. With him.

A second. Yeah, I do, yeah. Like, that's like, the hot budge isn't good enough. You want to pour caramel on it now? Yeah, it's ugly. It's ugly. And then, if I'm not mistaken, is Bernard Docker in the trade as well? He is.

And then they didn't qualify him. They traded for Bernard Docker. And then they didn't even qualify. They didn't bother hanging on to him. Why get them in the trade? Guaranteed. Guaranteed. Didn't look out of the Red Wings,

Two grade A pieces, if not three, in the summer at the draft. You would have ended up with a first rounder. You could have ended up with a quality grade A or two quality grade A prospects. But I think they didn't want to talk about the future anymore. They wanted a current guy who could score in the league, and they thought maybe Norris is it. Maybe we're buying low on a guy who's going to get healthy. With a bad shoulder.

This is. Same way he blew us shoulders for. too. This isn't going to turn around anytime soon, unfortunately. Oh, boy. All right. NHL hour's over. NHL hour's over.

It's uplifting leaf hour coming up. Including Justin Bourne, who's questioning whether the Leafs look like they have a coach or not. That's fine. I tweeted it. Let's get into that. I read it, man. I'm like,

whoa! That is our Leaf edition coming up on the real Kippernborn show. Plenty to dissect. Don't go away.