Real Kyper & Bourne - Vally's View: Stealing Wins & Breakout Seasons

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne welcome on MSG Network's Steve Valiquette (3:16) to discuss early returns from J.T. Miller for the Rangers, the next steps for New York and Filip Chytil's health concerns. They also get into what it means for goalies to 'steal a win,' how careful the Leafs should be with Anthony Stolarz's return, the difficulty for goalies to repeat breakout seasons and the importance of net-front save percentage. Later, Nick, Justin and Sam McKee catch up to weigh in on Miro Heiskanen receiving knee surgery, Ryan Hartman getting a 10-game suspension and how Mathew Barzal's injury impacts the Islanders' deadline direction.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.

taking the real Kipper and born show national on sports that 650 in Vancouver sports that 960 in Calgary this hour of real kipper and born brought to you by bet 365 Nick Kiprios Justin born Sammy McKee. Couple minutes we'll welcome in Steve Alliquette analyst for the New York Rangers on MSG and CEO of clear site analytics plenty to get into including JT Miller's return to New York City where we saw them lose Saturday to the Boston Bruins only to come back and beat Vegas. I think he's got four points in two games already.

Yeah, he's been impactful. Yes, impactful player for sure. And we got to see Willie Cooley destroy Alex Petrangelo in that game. What a hit. That'll give you an ailment. Oh, yeah. He's ailing. Oh my god. He's ailing. He saw that hit coming. He knew it was happening. Just. I'm backing out of

the Four Nations for a future hit. Preemptively. And somebody was nice enough to tweet me and tell me that the Rangers took Will Cooley one pick after the Leafs took Ronnie Hirvonen in. Oh. Yeah, that's a tough one. Hindsight. 30 teams can play that game. Why would you want a six foot three tough guy from that skates and scores that's from the area?

Why would you want him on the Leafs? Because he might be. You better take a five nine Finn that no one's ever seen play. That was a good choice. We haven't seen anybody else drop out of the four nations since Petranjal have we that's your job and no no It's not my job. You've been mentioned as every show who? No, I have nobody okay. I have no well. I mean it was the truth I Can use camp play right now this week. So... Marner?

Jake Sanderson, pack your bags. Those are legitimate questions those fan bases are asking. Right? What about the other Hughes? Jack Hughes? Jack Hughes, there's some rumblings, maybe he's not 100%. But I would hope that whoever is in a situation where they feel like they're not playing, whether or not, you know, we want to judge whether it's legit or not, just do it like

the day before the tournament starts. Do not do it two and a half weeks out and then keep playing. Can I ask you who you think is more important to Team America, Quinn Hughes or Austin Matthews? Hughes. Borney Matthews? Hughes. Borney? Yeah, Hughes. The blue line. Just more control.

Do NHL players care about Four Nations? Pierre Lebrun, I believe. No, it was just the NHL staff or the athletic. Did a poll of 110 active players. 81.82% say yes, they care. Keep in mind that included asking players who aren't in the event and who aren't of the countries in the event. So, I think that's the key.

I think that's the key. I think that's the key. I think that's the key. I think that's the key. I think that's the key. I think that's the key. I think that's the key. I think that's the key. I think that's the key. I think that's the key. I think that's the key. I think that's the key. 81.82% say yes, they care. Keep in mind that included asking players

who aren't in the event and who aren't of the countries in the event. So that would solve it. We'll pick up that conversation. A little later in the show, in the meantime, Steve Alliquette joins us, analyst with the New York Rangers on MSG. 14 games tonight,

but I think you got a rare night off tonight, right? You and JT Miller. So you're gonna take him around the city get reacquainted I'm a two-hour train ride from the city How how how has it been since his arrival and expectations, you know I'll never compare like a JT Miller to a mark Messier player wise, but the situation is kind of the same where the Rangers brought in Mark Messier because they thought their

team was too soft, right? Back in the 90s. And similar situation, JT Miller's here because they thought Chris Drury thought that the Rangers were too soft. You know what? Accurate. And if a team wants to go from Charmin to sandpaper, you need to make some changes. And I think that when you look at a team and I think you guys can do the same thing in your studio, any workplace, I think every player you look at a team, and I think you guys can do the same thing in your studio, any workplace, I think every player fits

into four different categories. And you have sheep herder, you have sheep, you have corpses and terrorists. And if you guys remember being in the locker room, a terrorist is a guy that undermines the coach's message. They have small groups that kind of chirp each other and they can really bring the overall spirit and morale of the team down. And I think that when you look at the next category, the corpses, sometimes you need those guys in

your locker room because you need to get to the playoffs. A corpse doesn't care if you win or you lose, but they get their points. And sometimes you can look back on championship teams and say, you know what? He wasn't all in, but we won because he was a timely scorer. He was a game breaker in his own way. And I think that right now the Rangers had a lot of sheep and they didn't have any sheep herders. And some of these sheep are, you know, Lafreniere, Cooley, just because of their age, Schneider,

Keandre Miller. These guys need to be raised the right way. And I don't think that up until this point in the season, the Rangers could say that we had enough sheep herders. They had Truba, he's gone. Kako, Veezy, Zach Jones have all spoken out with lack of ice time kind of motivating their negativity. But all of these things and all of this noise, I think does need leadership to correct a

path and I think that really does help with JT Miller coming in and just stirring it up a little bit. It's funny now, like when you go through their roster, pretty good hockey team, you know, like, do you think there's still more changes to come? And what do you think about their chances of getting back in playoffs here? I think they have a 20% chance to get in. Oh, wow. Yeah, I don't.

Yeah, it's low ish, you know, but it's because of the number of teams they have to jump over. They do have one of the best goalies that can back it. But every time they take a step forward, Borny, they take a step back. Saturday's loss against the Bruins was brutal. It's like, what are we doing? Are we right back to where we were? And that was after a push in January

that gave them shouting distance. But even after having a great record in January, they only made up a point. So you've got to do it again. You've got 30 games to go and a lot of teams ahead of them playing well. But in saying that, I think this is more about next year. I think JT Miller was a move that was happening now because it was convenient for everybody to get it done now. But I think this is also a move for next year. I won't be surprised if Riley Smith possibly gets moved Jimmy Vesey who's not happy about his ice time Zack Jones as I said there could be moves guys that go into what's gonna be coming up next year for Not a it's almost a rebrand, you know, I haven't heard that term yet, but it's almost a rebrand

It's like can we take what we have, clean up a little bit, trim the fat? But trimming the fat most likely includes trying to move Mika Zabandajad at the end of the year as well. Speaking of Zabandajad, no interest in going to Vancouver, thus you settle on Philip Heidel and pretty good debut, scored a goal. But a lot of people around the New York area always felt like he was one hit away from disappearing again and just your thoughts on on what the upside is for Vancouver Canucks fans when it comes to

Filipino you know boys I remember talking you guys about this last year the concussion conversation is close to me. I've lost my two best friends with CTE. And a week ago, Scott Page, who was the first captain of the Mississauga Ice Dogs got his information back on his brain scan from BU and he was stage two CTE, 44 years old, Steve Montador, 35 years old, stage three, and I saw it escalate. And I know that from speaking to Chris Nowinski at BU and the CTE Legacy Foundation, he told me on one of our first calls

that if one of my two boys has a concussion, they really have to be careful they don't get a second within a year. And I do believe in that. And look, there is evidence that and Steve Montador was at Dr. Carrick's office with Sidney Crosby when Sid was going through his thing. And they if you've ever seen the gyro chair that they kind of spin in to, you know, loosen up what I don't know all of the mechanics of it. But I do know that Sid went a year and a half

without having a concussion and he's been healthy since. I think it's hard when you're a fringe player to take that amount of time off. Look, I understand that I was. And when I was in Russia, they shot me up full of everything and I took it because I had to. And I think that sometimes we do things during our playing career that we don't think about the ramifications of long term, but he does had multiple and I didn't like seeing him play this year. It was hard for me to

watch. I was always worried when he was on the ice that he was going to take a hit and I didn't feel like he was seeing the ice well enough the way he did before and look he had a seizure last year in practice stepping on LeCision Stick, an AHL player that was called up just a red shirt with him so like it was it's very serious for him and I hope the best for him. Belly I don't mean to imply that you would know this sort of thing but they can diagnose now in living brains the CTE? The stages? No, so for Scott Page and for Steve Monodore they were deceased. I'm sorry I didn't know Steve also. So Scott Page, so these are the two best men in my wedding morning and Scott Page he was a fighter in the

OHL he was my teammate in Sudbury, he became the first captain for Don Cherry for the Mississauga Ice Dogs, he had a great OHL career, played pro and he was a fighter, you know, and he was the most vocal guy in the room and the party guy and everybody loved him but, you know, it got the better of him and, you know, he passed away at this time last year. You're watching and listening to Steve Alliquetteette analyst for the New York Rangers on MSG and CEO of ClearSight Analytics. So what would our segment be without focusing in on goalies?

We had a conversation the other day regarding Joseph Wall and the Toronto Maple Leafs and I asked him okay how many points do you think this guy single-handedly has won the Toronto Maple Leafs? And you know, Vali, in my day, we get on the back of the bus and we go, oh my God, did our goalie just steal one for us? And then we just leave it at that. But is there any way today to quantify what stolen games mean today in 2025? Yeah. So this is interesting because I loved your conversation

about it. It's really how we came up with this years ago, which was what we talked about after a game. Our goalie was great, we won. Their guy was better than our guy, we lost. And there are ways to quantify it with, of course, expected goals. So you go to Saturday's game, which is a 4-3 win over Edmonton for the Leafs. And we'll just use that as an example because it's really fresh for you guys. So Edmonton in this game created just a little over five expected goals in the game. So Joseph Wall surrenders three goals in the game, which means Joseph Wall records a game of plus one or more.

So you need that as step number one. Now in the same game, you need this to happen. Edmonton as a team outplays Toronto by more than one expected goal because it was 5.15 versus 2.30. So you get a plus one or more there. And when those two things happen in the same game, your team gets outplayed and your goalie outperforms expectations, it qualifies as a stolen win. So pretty simply put, plus one by your goalie and plus one when your team is being outplayed, stolen win. Five have been recorded by Joseph Wall this year and two by Stolarz. And did you have five, Borny? No, Sammy called five yesterday. Is seven

the highest combined total in the league? It is. It is. Yeah. I'm not sure if that's good or bad if you're a Leafs fan. So tonight we've got Calgary and the Leafs. I would imagine Tonight we've got Calgary and the Leafs. I would imagine. Flames have you stolen? Flames with Dustin too. Who would be in the top two or three? Well, you know, this is, I think the interesting thing about looking into this stuff

is when you get into the weeds of it, I like to look at who's actually won in the past. That's the trophies. And quality starts, really what you're trying to measure is who's consistent enough to give you a chance to win every night. And I always heard in the locker room from Benoit Allaire, our goalie coach in New York, give the team a chance to win.

And obviously staying healthy is a big piece, playing consistently over time is a piece, and you do those three things and you're in the Vezina Trophy race. Now for me, Dustin Wolfe is the rookie of the year as of right now, but we'll get to that. Right now in quality starts and overall positive games, so playing consistently night after

night. Logan Thompson right now is a 91% chance that he has a positive game. So you can imagine that that's like saying every night this guy's giving his team a chance to win. Washington is a little bit on the dangerous side of getting a great save percentage while also being on a shooting percentage bender and usually those things kind of normalize so they may come down to earth but when you look back to the Vezna trophy winners of the last three years just for some context when Igor Shosturkin won it three years ago he was an 81 positive game. So 81% of the time he gave his team a chance

to win. Two years ago when Almark won it, he was an 89.8% positive game percentage. Last year Hellebuck was a little bit lower, 81.7. But Joseph Wall this year is fifth with an 81.8% positive game percentage. And when you factor in expected goals, the only two goalies in the top 10 from the same team are Stolarz and Wall. They've combined for 26 goals saved above expected. That's Vezna caliber goaltending between the two guys. And what it really equates to is 13 wins. Now those numbers can come down if they happen to give a bunch of games back down the stretch. But where you're at right now is roughly 13 wins because of your goalies in Toronto this year. Wow. Yeah, that's great and concerning news

for the rest of the team leaning that heavily on goalt Wow. Yeah, that's great and concerning news for the rest of the team leaning that heavily on goal tennis. So let me ask you, Joseph Wohl is going to start again tonight. He's been playing goal, night in, night out, playing a ton of high danger chances. What are your thoughts on Stolarz? Should he come back before Four Nations? How do you think the Leafs should be handling this here? Well, I think that you need to be sure. You know, I wonder, look, these two goalies are the two of the top in the league. And can you just play through a season right now,

keeping them both healthy for when it really matters? And I think that would be the objective. There is the benefit of running wool right now because you've got a cushion in the standings without harming Stolarz. I don't think it's absolutely a necessity that Stolarz has to play a game before the Four Nations, but it wouldn't be bad for feedback. Just getting one game, having some feedback.

That's what we always want after one or two starts is just some video to look at where am I at? Where was I at before am I getting my reads? He may be able to get a lot out of that if there is no concern for injury But if there's any concern you have to side With caution because these two players as we know have a tendency to get injured Valley we just had Eric Francis on our Leaf Hour edition of our program here talking about Jonathan Hubertou and how the salary cap's gone up

and there's a little bit more forgiveness on his 55 point seasons at 10.5 million. But still doesn't seem to be that kind of forgiveness when it comes to goaltenders Making five or six million dollars. You just find a way to get rid of them and the latest one is group hour in Seattle who's just shy under six million dollars a year Why is that? Well, I went through an exercise today guys and it's pretty wild when you look at what we're paying goalies and what you're getting in return as far as consistency and it's year over year consistency and I went through a list of the amount of inconsistent goalies that are making five or more million.

Bobrovsky very inconsistent since he signed his big term with Florida wins, of course, but very inconsistent Jeremy Swainman the newest to it He's really giving a goalie hug to the bottom of the standings with all the goalies John Gibson Jordan Bennington Kemper all mark now. These are guys that are inconsistent because they're not always available or their play is inconsistent these are guys that are inconsistent because they're not always available or their play is inconsistent. Consistent guys that are making that kind of money it's not a long list. It's Vasilevsky, Hellebuck, you could say Sorokin, Markström, Sjosturken, Saros. To me that's it. Like those are the guys that over the

last five years always end up near the top of the list. Billy Huso, Spencer Knight, those would also go into guys that are because of injury having instances of making good money, making good money, but not being available with Thatcher Demko, Robin Lennar, Tristan Jari on and off, Mersleekens and Gru Bauer. And I think that, you know, I think it's got teams worried because we want to get into a trend where you're going to pay them for what they're going to do. And it's very difficult to predict year over year

if the guys that are doing it right now are going to be available to do it down the road. I think that Logan Thompson signing his contract with what he's done and where he's come from. It's a remarkable story. It's a remarkable story and we love it this year. I think it's just a matter of can you keep it going? You know, and it's like this guy's story is incredible though. I think this is amazing. This guy is Brandon Wheat Kings as an overager. And then he goes to the Washington Capitals development camp as an invite because the amateur scouts identify him

as being somebody that can come to the rookie camp. It doesn't go great because he doesn't get signed. So he goes to Brock University and then goes the next year to Washington's development camp gets an ECHL AHL contract for two years and then finally signs a one-way after two years with Vegas. He has a two-way contract for three years and then parlay's that into the deal that he's got right now.

But his safe percentage at Brock 935, he's got a safe percentage in the East Coast League at 929. AHL 943, 920. So there was a lot of evidence of him making these breakthroughs, but for him to be able to turn his career into six years, 35 million with a $5 million signing bonus, this is one of the coolest stories that we've seen guys. And right now you can look at his pre-scout and it's pretty fascinating. Slot area shots this year, he's faced 58 shots from the slot, hasn't allowed a goal.

So two on one where the puck carrier becomes a shooter. Anytime a player walks into the slot and is able to look at him in the whites of his eyes and tee up on him, hasn't been beaten. He hasn't allowed a goal on 58 shots. Rebound's 43-face this year, only four goals against. That's first in the NHL. Broken plays, he ranks fifth. East to West, he ranks fourth. So he's a top guy in many areas, and I think the one thing that we have seen going forward off of career years is that they just haven't been repeated and in the three years coming

off of really big years goalies just don't get back to where they once were. There's always a setback and you can go through that from anybody recent to the past, the last 15 years. We've only seen in fact, this is actually a little bit of a trick that I came across today last 25 years guys Vesna trophy winners that have won the Stanley Cup in the same year. There's been two. Can you guys think of who those two guys are? Asilev ski?

No, he did it the year before. How long? Hopi? No, no, right around the same time. Close. Quick. Not quick. No, beat a Canadian team in seven games. Thomas.

Yep, Tim Thomas. Tim Thomas won the Veznas the same year he won a cup and before that it was 0-3 with Marty Brodeur. But in the last 25 years, haven't seen a lot of consistency with Vezna guys coming off of that season and carrying it into the playoffs. So do you need the best goalie or do you need the guy that is stable under tight conditions? But still, we should have the guy you just mentioned on our team Canada. Should we not? Yeah, well, I mean, I told you guys what happened there. Share that.

De'Bora, we're going to have it, you know? Yeah, you think that was his personalities at the top? Yeah, I think it was. They didn't have a great experience with him in Vegas. There were times that they wanted him to play and he wasn't available and yeah, I know a little bit about what happened there and I can't get into it but that was never going to happen never made the assessment. This isn't one of our 3 best goalies they said we don't want to do this. We don't want to do this. Yeah.

It happens it happens. I know he's been terrific. He's been terrific but but I know you guys have wolf tonight and Talk to his goalie coach this afternoon who was my old goalie partner Jason LaBarbara and you know, I was sharing with him Here's what I've got on this guy's pre-scout Breakaways third ranked goalie in the NHL now keep in mind his size, right? I remember talking about this previously with you guys about rebounds and how good he is for an undersized guy that doesn't really have the wingspan. But he ranks third in the NHL and safe percentage on rebounds. And screens he ranks fifth. And it's interesting to watch this

guy because man does he battle he goes tall when he has to go over the shoulder. And when he gets cut off, he can get off the hip. And he seems to do over the shoulder and when he gets cut off he can get off the hip and he seems to do all of the work necessary before the shot and that's an oldie but a goodie but the harder you work before a shot the easier the play is that's what he does. He is a workhorse again I think he's going to win rookie of the year this year he is he's in the top five with all the veteran goalies right now in every single category and To me that tells me you're playing with the big boys

And I don't know if any of their forward skaters or D skaters that are up for rookie this year Are in the top five with the big boys Valley one more on the goaltending front here and that is Contending playoff teams or even Stanley Cup playoff teams. Is there anyone that could look for some reinforcements between the pipes? Yeah, you know what, Kipper? I'm thinking that there's two teams. And if there's an injury to any starting goalie, I think the first look would be to John Gibson. He's got two years left on his contract, and he's playing the best hockey

that he's played in six years. And he's going head to head with Doestal, and I know that they're gonna go Doestal in the future, but if there's cost certainty there, you could eat into the money, I think it's six and a half million. But if there's anybody that should be looking right now, it would be, in my opinion, Carolina

and Detroit. Carolina and Detroit. And those two teams, they are pushing for legitimate spots in the playoffs. I like what Detroit's doing. Long before Detroit went on this run, they've been playing solid defensive hockey. And for Carolina, they're actually a little bit on the other end of the spectrum, they're giving up a lot off the rush. We covered them last week with the Rangers, they lead the

league and breakaways against odd mans, they are 30th to 32nd and everything off the rush, which is shocking, because they're usually not typically there. But they lean in so heavily in the offensive zone that you can get behind them. So they're going to need more than what they have in net to carry them through, in my opinion, or they're not a real contender. Freddie Anderson getting yet another chance there. You know, again, it's the same old story, right?

I love Freddie at his best. I really do. But it's very difficult to buy into guys just not being healthy. If you can't take the hospital bracelet off, how can you how can you really rally around that you guys know how it is? Yep, absolutely. So do teams Carolina has a reputation for having a couple, you know, stats oriented people in the front office, are teams able to pursue goaltenders based on style and their shortcomings?

You know what? That's a really good one. I could reach it. Give me a second here. I was looking at this today because net front save percentage is really important getting into the playoffs, right? And I feel like the few stats that really do reveal themselves going into the postseason for success are your net front and how you either front pucks or box out and your goalie safe percentage on those because we know how important that is when things tighten up in the postseason and odd man rushes. And my interest in odd man rushes went back three years ago, the Rangers played against the Devils in the postseason. Shosturkin got beat 14 times in the series.

Seven of those were odd man rushes. So I felt like I had to bring this to the guys that really mine the data and look at it as, you know, the data scientists can and find out what leads to victory. And we looked at the last six Stanley Cup winners, all being amazing rush defenses through the regular season top five rush defenses, specifically odd man rush defenses, and then match that with goalies that are really good off the rush. And one thing like revealed itself for me was Vegas winning a couple of years ago, and Aiden Hill came in as an unknown, but he had a very good rush save percentage. And

when Vegas did gun, he was able to hold the four he stopped 16 went 16 for six on 16 on breakaways that playoff here. So you need somebody that can fit the mold that way. And you need somebody that has a good net front save percentage. So net front save percentage. Fourth right now in the NHL is john Gibson. So, you know, he can play in traffic and he can battle and he's a good scrambling guy, he gets rebounds and broken plays. If you can defend well in those areas, you have a chance to win. And that's

that's where it's going to be difficult for Edmonton. Because right now they're sliding with their off the rush defense, they were top five points this year, and now they're down to 15th. And their rush goalie is not one of the best rush goalies in the NHL by history, he was having a good stretch this year. And now's kind of set back again again You just watch the game Saturday night Can't leave this segment one one quick just can't leave the segment without at least giving Jonathan quick You know some kudos on a 400th win and giving all goaltenders You know the the thought that you can you can play into your 40s and 50s Yeah, you know what, Kipper, it's amazing when you look at the goalies that are elite that can play long. And I think about Ed Belfour and Patrick Wa and Brodur and Quick, he's one of the best that we've ever seen.

He really is, from accolades, Stanley Cups, as well as his overseas. And for him to get 400 wins and be the first American born goalie to reach 400. And I've seen this guy mature, you know, I remember being at golf tournaments when he was a youngster, and he was a wild card. I actually didn't know if he was going to be able to reel it in and make it. And one of my favorite stories was, when he was late for the bus in one of his first training camps

with the LA Kings There was three buses there one going to the American League one going the East Coast League one going of course to The airport for LA and he went to the LA one because that's where it is way warranted Well, they grabbed his bag and they told me get to the next bus and when he got to the next bus Which was the AHL bus they told me grab his bag and go to the next bus. And when he got to the next bus, which was the AHL bus, they told him to grab his bag and go to the next bus. And that's how he started off. He started off in the East Coast League. You know, and you talk about Logan Thompson

and it's an amazing run of perseverance for some of the special ones. And Jonathan Quick is a great example for everybody. He matured a little bit late as far as, you know, what was warranted for him to be an NHLer. But man is he loved by his teammates and he's proved it over his entire career. Everybody loves him. Yeah, we're waiting for Sammy to mature too. So we know how that feels. Valley great stuff

as always man. Love your stuff. All right, boys. Great being with you. Take care. Thanks so much, Valley. Appreciate it, bud. Enjoy your night. Steve Ellicott. Really good stuff there again. Endless, endless good stuff. And I've gotten like zero time to

really focus on goalies because at the end of the day, they're just nothing but targets, right? But his is fascinating. I find it like... Yeah, they're doing something totally different They're not it's not systems and it's not either there's no it's just a different position a different thing So we need experts because we are not that I do feel smart that I nailed the five goal the five Yeah, seven, but you know, but I will say I respect that many

Professional coaches now are thinking like I just said where they're like, you know used to be you'd have guys Coaches they go. Hey, keep your glove up or whatever and it was like, what do you know? Yeah, now guys are just like I don't know like a Sheldon Keefe was always like they'll tell me I just go back to that video of Paul Maurice Talking to his players. Oh, yeah. Up here. With the glove and blocker.

They're so out front now. And the goalie stick. How did they not break out laughing? I would have started laughing. I would have reached for the towel over my head. He's got a point to make and he's putting himself on the line. Front of the boys. Such a blowhard.

Game time. It's game time. Presented by Bet365. This is the app for the latest odds of findhard. It's game time. Yeah, it's game time presented by bet 365 This is the app for the stars of find out why it's never ordinary bet 365 must be 19 plus I'm here only please play responsibly. So like you said a lot of games tonight quickly going through them here We'll start with the Calgary Flames hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs The Calgary Flames are slight underdogs on home ice plus 120 Leafs are minus 140 on the money line there. I feel like it's gonna be a

really good game tonight. I don't know necessarily why I think that but I do think it's gonna be a fun one. I know you guys hate when I make this observation but fantastic jersey matchup tonight with the Reds of Calgary, the White of the Leafs, tons of people in the crowd. I used to write an article for the score every play. I'm not talking about Kepra I know I hate it but there'll be a ton of Leaf fans there so it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm not colorblind I could see nice colors. The Western the Western ship to me is like a real highlight and I feel like this is always a really good game last year I think Matthew scored a hat trick in this

game so it will be a good one tonight Other Canadian teams in action the Montreal Canadians are in San Jose to take on the Sharks Montreal Canadians They've been scuffling recently on having a bad go here Patrick line. They got benched Was it and who else got benched for them too? The dock Kirby dock got benched as well at the end of that game They are minus 180 favorites in San Jose taking on the Sharks Absolutely, not I love taking a shot on my sharkies plus 150 on the money line. That's a way too big of a number That's a great bet for the end

Last one I'll bring up tonight the Vancouver Canucks the new look Vancouver Canucks hosting the Colorado Avalanche at Rogers arena Which has been a bit of a house. It's a big person in Peterson lots of petersons Been a bit of a house of horrors this year for for the what I said house of horrors. Oh jeez Yeah, I thought it was a different They haven't won a ton there as Vancouver fans know Get your head out of the gutter pal. They haven't won a ton there as Vancouver fans know. Plus 130 on the money line for the Vancouver Canucks. Minus 155 for the Colorado Avalanche.

All these games for them feel like they must win. Pedersen feels like he needs to get it going. So those are the ones I'm looking at for tonight. The other Canadian team, the Blues hosting Edmonton, Winnipeg hosting Carolina. And Ottawa on the second half of a back to back-back taking on the lightning and that was game time Because of a bet three six five is the app let us dogs and find out why it's ever ordinary at bet three six five Let's win 19 plus on terror only please play responsibly All right, we'll take a quick break. We return we'll get into some news and notes including how tight the standings just got

Talk about the Ottawa Senators a little bit. Put the jersey back on. Ryan Hartman. Ryan Hartman gets a million games. A lot more games than we first thought. Well, actually, yeah, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about that after the break. So plenty more. Don't go away.

It's real Kipper and Bourne. Dive deep into Toronto sports and the NFL. The JD Bunkus podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the program. At Kipper Real's Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. As a reminder, this hour of Real Kipper and Bourne brought to you by Bet365.

Couple of things around the league, including Mero Heskinen out after knee surgery, month to month. That's... That ain't day to day, baby. That's another guy that can bring a puck off the wall and get it to the middle of the ice with ease. And like we said about Quinn Hughes and his importance

to Vancouver and to Team USA, he's that for Dallas. Dallas doesn't have a lot of top end elite offensive guys. So this hurts them a lot. Now the one thing they do have going for them is, God, are they gonna... Caps space? Yes. Are they gonna have him available in playoffs after not having them for the next? Three months two and a half months. I don't think he had the like the big ACL surgery, so I

Don't know if it's that he had a surgery. Yeah the surgery maybe MCL or something so What are we? March, April, two months? February 4th, two and a half months takes you to mid-April and playoffs start. Wow, that's so sweet. I know. Golf at a no time. Oh yeah. There is a chance.

He has not been ruled out for returning for Stanley Cup playoffs. I don't even know with him and Sagan if they have enough space on LTIR. Can you LTIR a zillion dollars? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. No, there's a limit to that, I think. So yeah, that's it. That's a big blow for Dallas.

We'll see how that affects the standings or what they decide to do. Well, surely Cody Cece will fill in those minutes ably. Heisskin enroll. Cece, you know, he's come a long way from the reputation he had as an early player in the league and with Ottawa and Toronto, Edmonton, pretty good player. I'll never forget the shot over time for the Leafs. The one where he just came in off the, it was in the bubble and he hammered it and he musted, it didn't even cross the goal line like this,

like it hit the glass in the corner. It hit so hard, you must have missed by 30 feet. Do you remember anything from the bubble? No, what are you talking about? Yes, every single thing. What do you wanna know? I can vaguely picture Corey Perry, Neen John Torres in the head.

That wasn't the bubble. No offense. The bubble the bubble fans the bubble was against the bubble was against Columbus Columbus where they were down three nothing with under with under five minutes left It felt like hide it tied it. Yeah one over tea over time Matthews scored in overtime on the power play and then I think they got shut out in in game five after everybody was all excited About it, but I still stick to my take this day that I'm happy they didn't win that cup still no fans the Montreal Corey Perry they started mixing them in towards the end They subjected our poor health care workers to a game seven in Toronto where they were nurses got to go to the yeah Yeah, the health care workers needed nurses. I watch you're like hey, are you go watch this health care workers

You've suffered so much. It's time to suffer more Cruel. Anyways, are we that surprised that the NHL gave Ryan Hartman 10 games for driving? Tim Stutzler's head into the ice. I would have been had you not yesterday said, what do you think 10 games? I only I thought for sure six or seven and then I said And I based I based it on the fact that this is the third time that he's come in under 18 months from his last suspension Yeah, this is the Jim Carrey and liar liar yelling into the phone. I still think it's breaking the law absolutely remarkable that

the phone I still think breaking the law absolutely remarkable that the league could just say okay now fork over half a million dollars that's what it's costing them yeah 483 well half a million dollars can't do that no that's too much I'd rather go spend three nights in jail than give up half a million bucks I'm serious I see a I don't know. Duh. So what do I? I see a week. Like, I think you'd spend a little longer than a week. It's.

Listen, you can't play in the league if you're going to keep hurting people. I just think it's like, but baseball and basketball, they make $60 million and they don't get fined half a million bucks. When they get suspended, they don't get fined half a million bucks. When they get suspended, they don't. I don't think so. I could be wrong, but I think it's the harshest out of any league that the fines.

I think that's intentional. I agree. It hurts, but stop doing it. So we can go find a guy half a million dollars, but we then are limited to like sticking fractions for like three or five thousand dollars Right, but really weird the maximum fine Thing being five grand and then a guy losing half a million dollars I kind of get where kippers coming from on that. It's just I did way out there for me And also ten games is too many ten games too many ten games is insane. Well, I think they're trying to say an easy target problem

No, but like he's not Rafi Torres. He's like he's not no they think he's a problem That's why you have him ten games. The most dangerous person in the league is Matt Rempe by Head and shoulders. He's the Connor McDavid of dangerous player Carmen might be next He's he's got a bad. It's up there, but he did he go okay. He gets two dollars every time he does anything He's just cheap. He's greasy and Nick cousins is number two who am I kidding and Bennett? But to leave it you and it's all about it punches you in the head when he does a flying punch everybody Just like looks away. They're like I didn't see that that's fine

You can come an assault on Matthew Nye's behind the net and he just yeah we just keep going. Top of the show we just had Valakett talking about CTE and Ryan Hartman drove a man's head like on severity of it yeah, yeah, I still thought ten games is crazy. Yeah, okay Hey, that's six or seven. Yeah, I mean nobody gets it's the last time somebody got ten games over Sorry double digits was Tom Wilson in 2018 when he got 20, but Tom Wilson at 24 I think you I forget who he hailed that circus when the Rangers had to get Reeves after? For an illegal check to the head. I don't remember it. Was that the playoffs? It must have been but

Suspension 20-minute games I'm googling here, but I don't know. I got a text Sammy says tell Sammy to put some respect on the senator's name Okay, congratulations on your first good season in a hundred years. Well, listen, since fans have been telling me they've been good for five years and they're finally half decent, they're all like, look, it's great. This is what you're supposed to be for. I'm not whining. No, they're whining. They're a fine wine. Oh, they just need time to breathe. Listen, like I just they can't help but make it about the Leafs

That's what I love the most. Like I don't know. I saw some ex-accounts are like Oh, look at the sends are right with the Leafs and this is supposed to be the best version of the Leafs It's just like can you just enjoy? Your really good team that's having a fantastic season for the first time in when's the last time they were good? Like when they went to the conference finals against the Penns that was the last time they were good. That's been a long time. Just enjoy it. Why do you have to compare it to the Leafs? Like all you think about the Leafs. And you're an expert because you've enjoyed many regular seasons. And guess what? They turn out poorly. They hate us. But I will say this is a little different because it's not San Jose comparing themselves

to the Leafs. It's the Battle of Ontario. This is a measuring stick for them. I think it's coming. This year. Yeah. Yeah. The 2-3 matchup is very viable.

Sometimes the standings will appear on our show. I don't know how. No. Because I think we're the only ones that actually there's no button around here I know And Jen do a terrific job and sometimes every once in a while we'll see a standing board which is really cool I will just say that if you're not a senator's fan you're listening to this I'm very happy for you that you're having your first good season in a very long time

Just stop comparing it to the Leafs and enjoy yourself it's not always about the Leafs guys and by the way uh as Sammy makes it about the Leafs no our show but like but they all they all compete like that's all they ever talk about is at least 20 games suspension was a hit to the head of Oscar's sung fist on the Blues so there you go and he got suspended after that for seven games for boarding Brandon Carlo. And then he got that's his last discipline. According to our Elliott Friedman, the Canucks have made Carson Sousi available for a trade. He's still got I think 3.25 left on his contract.

Next season. Just 30 years old. I like him I know he's having a bad year and I know Canucks fans are like yeah, yeah do it but he was really important before he wasn't important like in terms of Driving play and defensive play and stuff. He's had good stretches of hockey. You can't sign Marcus Patterson without unloading his three million bucks. Six five, two fifteen. It's gotta come from somewhere. Thirty years old, can play both sides I think. I'd say, I mean I think he's having a pretty wretched year. Yeah I've heard

it's been atrocious so I get why they want it to happen but I'm just saying there's a history of him not being wretched. Yeah he played really well for them in the playoffs last year like he was remember It was him and wasn't him and Myers that they were together. They were shutting people down like they they're long I don't know. We'll see if they get anything for him But interesting want to keep an eye on that's continued to remake their rock we went what it's like. Yeah another guy They're gonna trade. Yeah, good Lord Anderson's gonna go to the e peterson. No wait real peterson not new e-petters Your islanders have a big game against Vegas tonight because they won seven in a row there. Everybody says they're back in it

They're not trading Brock Nelson and that's done. They're sorry Barzell's done. He's done for like the year They're done Now they're in sell mode again. Am I putting Brock on my trade list or taking him off? I have them in sell mode. You're my expert here. You're in sell mode. No, Kip.

I mean, like you can put them on there for sure. It's just a matter of where do they win a few games. Lou is not going down without a fight. What other guys are you going to sign out of the KHL to like pick up their seasoning? They're without Barzal and Dobson and got one of Pollock or Pellet. They're just they're a mess. They're in trouble. We'll see. Might be just might be the year of the goalie because like what happened all the scoring? This year it's down. Is it? Yeah, it's down early in the season. It was up

Goes up and down. Yeah, they tighten said tighten up timing. Is there anyone gonna score 50 goals this year? No, but he's not on pace for it right now, yeah 30 some with 30 to go He's at 36 goals. Oh yeah. Is he gonna get 50? Yeah. 14 goals over the next. He is on pace. Will he get that many though?

No, not many. Not many. Last year we had a lot of guys. Yeah. IHF extends the ban to Russia for the 25-26 season. Does that mean Russia is banned from the Olympics? Has to be. I think it is.

Why would you make a statement and then turn around and bring them back six months later? Well, yeah, they said that they are no decisions made on 26-27 and because the Olympics were in 26. I was like, which one overlaps that? Could the league have not invited Russian players to play in this four nations and then but not honored or not put on a Russian jersey and just call them something else like the Olympic athletes of Russia but column the athletes of without a been possible or the stars the stars of the

world just the stars of Europe! Then we're dentists. Could you have gotten away with that? I don't think Gary would want to. I mean, this is the NHL trying to make a product where they sell tickets. But as Gary alluded to when we had him on the show, he, Kovetskin plays for the Washington Capitals, right? So that's, he's Russian, but he's not representing Russia.

Could you have made a team that does not represent Russia? But I mean, if they're all Russian playing together, it kind of represents Russia. I think it's impossible. Like the only way you do it is if you do the stupid team North America again. I'm not kidding. Team Europe.

Yeah. Where you put dry side, like it's like this all stars of, so then you just have a stupid hokey thing again. And you're like, and the best country at hockey is all of Europe. All of the other ones combine. And you're like, and the best country at hockey is all of Europe. The other ones combined. Like you have Dreissel from Germany and you have Natronach from Czechia and you have, you know, it's like, I don't know. No, no, we did not want that.

So there you go. We did not want that. So we figured it out. All right. Inch and ever so closer to the Four Nations tournament. We get through this weekend. Tonight, a very busy schedule. Like we said, 14 games yours pick yours and then we're back here tomorrow to do

it all over again break it all down for you tomorrow solve nothing our thanks to Eric Francis in our first hour of our program and then Steve Alliquette off the top of the show. What's for dinner tonight? Beef stew. Beef stew? You excited about that? It's one of my favorites. I could get into beef stew. Something boring, I don't know. Whatever's in the fridge. Alright. I'll have some sausages. Have a great night everybody. Music