Real Kyper & Bourne - Vally's View: Trusting Your Goaltenders

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne are joined by Steve Valiquette (6:33) – analyst for the New York Rangers and CEO of Clear Sight Analytics – to discuss the most important position in hockey to win a Stanley Cup, David Pastrnak reaching 900 points with the Boston Bruins, the changes in Ilya Sorokin's game in net after recording his 6th shutout, the trust the Maple Leafs have putting Anthony Stolarz back in net without a stint in the AHL, the numbers around Joseph Woll's low-glove saves, and how another hip surgery could impact Thatcher Demko's performance. Then, Vally runs through a Leafs-themed Grill Marks with Nick, Justin and Sam McKee. Afterwards, Nick, Justin and Sam touch on Mattias Ekholm's first career hat trick, not participating for Team Sweden, Carson Soucy's trade from the Rangers to the Islanders, and Evander Kane's agent kickstarting his trade market. 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.

It's the national hour on the Real Kipper and Bourne show. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. We are live on Sportsnet. Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, 960 in Calgary, and streaming always on Sportsnet. Plus, also available at your convenience, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube, where we appreciate a thumbs up. In a few minutes, we'll welcome in Steve Aliquette. It's Tuesday. I've been taking a beating on...

grill Marks Grill marks Is that what we're calling it? I don't know Heat the grill. Heat the grill. Grill the panel.

Grill time. Got a ton of choices. I am in third place. So I don't even want to focus on the next 20 minutes with Valley. I'm just going to just just dial it in. But we're looking forward to Valley, of course.

In the meantime, Vancouver fans are watching Demko get shut down for the remainder of the season on something that's plagued him now for, God, I can't even remember when it first crept up to eat this, this injury issue with Demko. You know, you feel bad for these guys because you don't want an injury to tell you that your playing days are over, right? You want to make that call for yourself, so he's going to continue to try to come back and play. I just, what are you smiling about?

Well, I saw it. No, I'm not. just thought of something. I've lost my track of thought. That's what happened. This is from Puck Empire on X that, you know, Thatcher Demko out for the rest of the season, he will have played just 95 of a possible 258 games

over the past three seasons, 36.8%. And comparatively, you know, Vasilesky, they play more close to 60% of the game in that same kind of time. So. been playing. There are just some guys who their bodies, you know, Josh Norris is going through it now. So we've quickly gone from could Dempco be in play? Could it be a chip?

Yeah. A trade chip for the Vancouver Canucks to, is he ever going to play a game in the NHL again? Is his career potentially over? Yeah, that hurts, obviously. You know, you feel for the individual, but for the team trying to turn the ship around, that's just yet another loss for them. So now that Besser has been put on IR after wearing that elbow from Brian Russ, not sure if you saw the replays of that.

It's pretty bad three games for Russ. Here's what I'll say from Vancouver, from a fan's perspective for Vancouver, you're getting what you wanted. Yeah. You're the worst team in the league where they lost 13 to 14 games. They're downright awful. They're going to have the best shot at getting the first overall draft pick this year.

Definitely. They're the worst team. This is what you wanted. It's going to suck for these. next two months. It's almost February tomorrow. You're almost there. It's going to stink.

Yeah. But this is probably, not probably. It is for the best. So I know Vancouver has always wanted a true rebuild. And a good way to start is to get the first overall draft pick. You know, it's terrifying, though. What? Terrifying when there's a draft.

I know there's a few very good players. I think Stenberg, obviously, McKenna, yeah. Verhof. Uh-huh. There's not a consensus on who's the best or what that makes it tough. You just, you just hate to miss. I mean, the scary thing. would be having the Swedish connection with Alvin

and him going Stenberg won and then having McKenna score 1500 career points be the stars of Team Canada for 15 years. That might be a tough pill to swallow. We'll see. The pressure of that pick. That pick, right? Sometimes two is better.

What would you prefer? Like if things were kind of equal, centerman or defenseman? And I only go back to, I only go back to Brian Lottin, who's been on our show many times. And they had the situation there where you weren't sure between the Islanders and Tampa on whether you wanted to try to trade up or if you really felt like between Tavares and headman that you wanted the price possession of junior. either way, right? My understanding is, and I think he's reiterated it on our show, that he would have probably gone headman even if he had number one.

Now, we're 15 years later. Trophy, Stanley Cups. I don't know. Defense or a centerpiece centerman. Yeah, I think that's a very convenient one to use. Kippert's like, well, you know, headman's one of the best defense of all time. There's been plenty of times

when they've gone with the center. Oh, they took Steno first overall. The center, that was a mistake. Like, I think it's... But it took a while for headman to come around. For sure. I think it takes longer for defensemen to become what they're going to be, right?

But I think using that is... But I would take the defenseman first. To answer your question, you? Yeah, you think about Stanley Cups, and I think who's won Stanley Cups last 15 years? And it's Sedano Chara, Duncan Keith, Drew Douty.

You know, you go through the list of fantastic, You know, I guess the Panthers haven't exactly had it, but headman obviously pretty good run in there. God, number one, centers aren't bad either you do the run. You got to have all three-ten posts. You're a goalie, a 1-D, and a 1-C. And then you have Colorado who won who has Kiel McCar and Nathan McKinnon. So they have the best of both worlds.

That helps. We just finished our Leaf Edition. You could sit there and talk about defense in this organization since the last time they won the Stanley Cup. Sam was like, well, I take a D. It's like, you've never had that guy here. Yeah. Leafs have, it's been alluded to the Leafs and other teams, a true number one superstar defenseman.

Vancouver just let one go in their prime, in his prime. Well, they have no choice. I don't know. I'm not, I'm not talking about circumstances here. I'm just saying that it hurts. It hurts when you, when you don't have one. And it hurts when you've got to lose one. Yeah. Yeah, they are, they are a hot commodity.

but I will say, we've talked about this more recently. Oh, we've got Valley. There's more and more of these puck movers now, and the Leafs need the least one. Okay, let's welcome him in. Steve Aliquette. It's Tuesday, from covering the Rangers to covering our show, CEO, ClearSight Analytics.

How are you, my friend? Very good. Nice shacket, Borny. Yeah, thank you very much. And I like you, the Blue Jays Black on Black there. I also enjoyed watching you last night of the broadcast. Great job, as always. So we just... That was not an easy one.

We just, Valley, we just came out of a conversation about Vancouver and the unfortunate news about Demko and where this is all heading for the Vancouver Canucks. And I think at this point for the fans, it's picking number one. And then a centerman or a defenseman, right? He's a goalie. He's picking a D man every time.

I'm picking a D-D. Time for the time. They watch. They watch. They watch. If you're going to build a championship, what position in your mind is most important?

Always a D because of the minutes they log and the importance around net front. It's no question for me. I felt like when you have a D that can carry it out themselves, it makes life for everybody just a breath easier on their way up the ice. And we saw everything change here when Adam Fox joined the Rangers Kipper before Adam Fox.

There just wasn't anybody. And then Adam Fox came on the scene and the team took off. And, you know, covering the Rangers team without Fox for the last month, it's a different look. And, you know, again, covering the game last night against the Bruins, a game in which the Rangers won, it still didn't have the look of a team that had a lot of confidence getting out of their zone. It was very difficult for them to string passes together. And one thing that I always noticed because I was a goalie is that D to D D passes that happen in front of me sometimes 15, 20 feet away.

Are they passing it tape to tape so on first touch you can move or is it in the skates so you lose a split second in the four checks on you? And that's the biggest difference when you don't have one of those big boys back there. It's the small fractions of a second that the dominoes fall the wrong way. Well, I think, you know, while we're talking about the Rangers, we might as well just keep it there for a sec. You know, their direction obviously is they've pivoted and they're going in a new direction this year.

Carson Sussi got dealt to the Islanders. What were your thoughts on moving him? I thought it was interesting because it was only the third trade, I think, between the two franchises. Is that right? Yeah. It just never happens. Right.

He, I guess, just had a baby and I was wondering if it was goodwill to keep him this side of the border and really close. I have no idea. It was something that came down before the game, Borny, that we weren't able to announce because it wasn't official. So, yeah, Susie was out for roster management purposes. We couldn't really report on it. We're like, and then everyone else is reporting on it.

Emily Caputon had something to say about it. We're like just sitting there like, okay. So at any rate, a third rounder coming back is exactly what they gave up for him. And, you know, I think that's a part of what's going to happen here. which is, you know, a lot of the players are going to be moving out for either what was given up for them initially or hopefully more. Valley, when it comes to teams, including the Rangers, I guess, with their public message, the difference between a retool and a rebuild. And I don't know if you thought that maybe the Boston Bruins kind of showed teams,

including the Rangers, that you can get rid of a Carlo and a Brad Marchand and still compete for a Boston Bruins. of a Carlo and a Brad Marchand and still compete for a playoff spot the following season as long as you got like a good goalie and swayman and Charlie McAvoy and you got lucky with a couple of kids here but is retooling really the way to go now for some of these clubs including the Rangers? You know, Pepper, I thought about it all day yesterday

as I was playing or preparing rather for the game And one thing that came up right away is that, you know, Posternak is a special player. To me, he is one of the top five culture guys that you can build a franchise around. It always starts with leadership and then it goes from there. And that's the one piece that Boston has in place that most teams can't say they have. I would say Washington did a similar type of retool because I can remember three years when the Rangers played them in the first round and just walked through them four straight. the next year coming back being a top team and being able to score a five on five the way they do.

One thing is, though, is you have to get lucky. Morgan Geeky guys came into the game last night with 28 goals. He scored again. He was a player that the Seattle Cracken allowed to walk. And I can't believe that that guy, just to walk. He was 1.4. They didn't offer him his 10% raise to keep him. And he walks.

And Carolina allowed him. him to walk before that, really. And you look at two franchises that are starving for a game changer. This guy, boys, I was doing this assignment yesterday before the game, a research assignment. He had 13 goals going into the game last night from the faceoff dots up to the blue line. That's most in the NHL. And, you know, just seeing him score from distance, his goal, if you didn't see it last week against the Montreal Canadiens from the blue line, it was in the back of the net,

and nobody even knew it was there. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. And you know, Kipper, when I look at a guy like Raddish in Tampa Bay that the Rangers had for three years in Hartford, or even going back as far as Jonathan Marsha, who they had in Hartford, and you start to reevaluate things when you're in the position that they're in, I think they have to. And all teams have to do a self-audit and say,

are we evaluating the people that we currently have that are future NHL? in these cases, MVP machines like stars. So it's strange that you can walk these guys out the door and they're players. I mean, not for anything, but Fraser Minton as well. He had a hell of a game last night. I'm watching this guy play hockey. I'm like, the Leaf just gave him away. What are we doing here? So there's a lot of that. It's almost like every room needs a wait-a-sec guy. Like, before we do this, just wait a second.

Yeah, yeah. Totally. I forget who said this. I'm one of us for that. We need one of those on our panel. I saw someone, though, it was almost the opposite of that. Someone tweeted long time ago the idea that if every front office just had one guy who was allowed two nopes a year, it would save millions of dollars. Yeah, we're going to trade, you know, this for this or whatever.

And you just got a guy whose job was just a, no, you're not. You know, you can save a lot of drama. You want to hear a good one? This is from a few years ago because it was Jack Campbell. And when Jack Campbell signed the five times five with the Edmonton Oilers, One of my first calls was to somebody out there. And I found out the goalie coach wasn't even asked. The goalie coach at the time wasn't even asked.

And Borny, the goalie coach at the time wouldn't have vetted this deal. You know, and so it's in-house. It's in-house. And oftentimes it's in-house. Yeah. No, that's interesting stuff. And you're right. It just, if a coach doesn't like a guy in the minors or even in the NHL,

it's like, are we sure that the coaches with this one guy's opinion is enough to hinge a trade on. That's a, you know, actually, I can kind of segue this segue into something that I find interesting. Sorokin. Sorokin is in the Vesna conversation this year and this year they made a change

where they said, we think we can get more out of this guy, get a different goalie coach in there. Has he made changes? Why is he looked like one of the best goals in the league now? It's so fascinating. And you know what, Borny, when the Rangers played against the islanders, it was a home

game somewhere around, I want to say 10, 12 games into the season. At that point, Sorokin was sitting at an 878, but his goals saved above expected just because he was facing so much, he was 15th in the NHL. And you never see that where somebody is in the top 20, but seemingly having a bad start. And I know the move there, what it was, it was first Patrick Waugh was dealing with him one-on-one, and I had heard rumblings that maybe the head coach thought he was a little mentally soft. Sorokin was. And then the goalie coach changed. And I remember being on with you guys shortly there after that where, you know,

Serocha O'Rocan just took off. But to me, he never really had a bad start. I think it was overblown because the start to an NHL season for all of us has that magnifying glass on it. And the Islanders at that time were giving up a lot. But make the goalie change. It's almost almost as beneficial as Buffalo. getting a new GM right now and how they've taken that dead cat bounce the same way that the goaltending coach gets credit on the island. I think there's a very similar story to be told there. You're watching and listening to Steve Alicad. Analysts for MSG, CEO ClearSite Analytics is his company. So you're the Edmonton Oilers and you're kind of watching out of the corner of your eye, Skinner,

in Pittsburgh. And you have sellers from Morse. I don't know. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. I was covering that up this morning. He had a 929 safe percentage, you know, so far this month. And that's his best safe percentage in his career, but for one other month. He had a 953 two years ago in January. So he's playing his best hockey.

Pittsburgh is defending in a way that is definitely benefit to him. I think we always have to spend time looking at the environment that we're playing in. and Pittsburgh is reducing the chances off the rush. They're reducing the chances east to west, sort of fitting the profile that Skinner needs to be a playoff performer. But, you know, it's funny, guys. I was going over a lot of different data points today on the difference between playoffs and the regular season

and what type of game we can expect and what goalie you want to have in your net that helps you perform better or at least getting through the playoffs. And there was a few things that really came up that kind of shocked me. You know, we know that the common narrative is around net front and how important it is in the postseason and how goals are scored there more frequently in the postseason. Would we all agree that that's what we oftentimes hear?

Oh, yeah. 100%. So I thought the same thing. And one thing that I was able to come up with right away is there is a bump in net front scoring chances in the postseason. You see more of them. but fewer of them are scored, which is pretty fascinating. So you get more net front chances, but the goal scoring actually goes down.

The execution and the conversion rate goes down. So one thing that I was looking at was that the net front conversion rate during the regular season is 17%. You have a 17% chance to score if you can get a puck from the point to the net with a screen, create a broken play, or a rebound or a deflection. All of those are net front chances. That's the way that we categorize them. And then it drops. And then the playoffs,

then the playoffs, it drops of 13%. And the one area, now if we look at four different areas that are key scoring areas to score in the playoffs. And I think that the reason why this has value to me is I'm trying to get the understanding of a goalie that is strong in these areas matched with a team that is also strong in these areas,

defending in these areas the right way. And if they are even better than league average and the team defends worse than league average, can you still get that horses for courses fit? And the biggest one that really stuck out to me, and this is the killer stat, the odd man rush goals jump from 33% to 43%. They go up 10%.

So it's really the goalies that have a better safe percentage on the odd man rush. They'll have a bigger impact in a playoff series, meaning the mistakes the teams make are much more forgivable on net front than they are on odd man's. So the playoffs don't choose where you shoot from, but the chance and the mistakes really decide the game. I've got a theory and a question. The theory for the net front stuff is you've got the 16 best teams, which are probably better at generating net front opportunities, right?

That's probably some skew in the data there. The next question is, are you guys able to track pressure at all? Like, if they're more opportunities for these guys, but under pressure, there's guys on their back so it's less likely better defensive teams that they can put it away? Yeah, so time and space is a stick length or more away. So if you're taking a shot from the point with nobody charging your lane and trying to block it, yeah, we would have that as a,

Okay. Net front chance from the point with time and space. Macar, of course, leads the league with time and space scoring chances from the blue line. And do you credit that to him or to his team? I give that to him because he's usually evading on his own at the point and then getting it through. Yeah. You know, so I think that, you know, I was looking, of course, at what's going on with your net in Toronto because the goals have been going in at a rate that we haven't seen in a way.

while with top goalies. I watched Stolars's start. I saw Wolves start the other night. And, you know, the one thing that comes up here, guys, is that you're not getting the saves off the rush this year, you know, and that's a big game changer for the team. And teams that are with good goalies that have a good odd-band rush safe percentage. And it's, you know, McKenzie Blackwood, Vasilefsky, Logan Thompson, you know, one that's actually an outlier here.

is Danil Teresov, Florida's backup. But, you know, those are the goleys right now that are leading the way with save percentage on odd man rushes. And I think that's important when you get in the postseason. If you are, you know, one of now, Joseph Woolle is 60 out of 64 this year on odd man rushes, his save percentage.

And Stolar's is 59 of 64 goalies. These guys are both near the bottom with Marilin, Dobish, Calvin Picker, and Stu Skinner. You know, Skinner's still near the bottom and overall season save percentage on the odd man rush. Valley, I want to tap into your expertise

on the decision by the Toronto Maple Leafs to start Stolars in a very meaningful game, an emotional game for a guy that's been off for nine weeks. Now, prior to the game, on our show, we kind of joked around and attributed the decision to go with Stolars after being off that long to the accident Craig Bruby had in the gym. But can you speak of how big of a challenge that was for Stolars to come in without even a warm-up game in the American Hockey League?

So why I did catch your show, but I didn't really understand why he didn't get games. Was that his call or was that the team's call? We don't know. We don't know. But I think Craig Brubeys went on record to say it wasn't his call. Interesting. It is interesting. You know, I think that he should be playing games in the minors to get in because of the value on every point in the standings right now for your club.

You just can't risk it. I watched the game. He was not even close to his level, not even close. You know, like, look, the first goal of the game, he's down early. And this is what team offenses are looking for. This is, I'll give the coaches that are listening to break down here. If you really understand what makes a goalie deficient, you can really exploit them in a game. Now, on the first goal, Vegas puts the puck very cleanly to Barbachev below the goal line.

And when he gets the puck below the goal line, Stolars predictably goes down into that reverse VH moves. And he's down. And he shouldn't be down there. He should be up because it's easier to move laterally from your feet rather than being down on your knees early. Barbashev takes one move and he gets the puck out to stone. And now Matthews has isolated net front to protect the slot line, the pass across. And he doesn't protect that. and McMahon was late to help.

But there's a pass across, and that's a tap-in slam-dunk goal for Ikel. But to me, again, the domino effect there is, we know he's going to be down early on this play. Let's get the puck below the goal line. Let's work it from side to side. Let's get him used to west. Big guy can't move from his feet, and it's his first game back. Second goal is a really bad rebound, brutal rebound off of his blocker,

didn't control it, back out in that front, high glove for another goal. don't like the game from from his perspective. But if you're going to have a game like that, do it in the American League. And then maybe have a second one if you need it. That would be my call. Yeah. And it's going to be curious to see how they use them now because every game, the stakes are huge for the Leafs.

Like they need a real run. And it's that they're going to throw them in again against in a game they need to win now. Well, you know, again, I'm watching Woll the other night. And he doesn't have his stuff. One of the things that I looked up today on him because I've seen it so often lately, since January 1st, he's faced 20 east to west scoring chances, nine goals against. That ranks 23rd out of 25 goalies that have faced at least 15 east to west this month. So you have a 55% chance to score a goal there if you're passing it across.

Now, the other thing was the low glove, two goals in his last start. And you know what? I brought this on here to show you guys. Okay. Here's the goalie glove. Yeah. Nice. That thing is huge.

Cheaters. Most of us are holding it high like this, fingers up towards the rafters. And when the puck is coming low, you've got to rotate it. And when that rotation happens, look how small the glove looks. And that's why pucks get underneath it. Goalies right now in the NHL, they've gotten away from making a low glove save fingers down. See how big the glove is again? Yep.

You know, goalies aren't making that low glove save fingers down. anymore. And that's why we're seeing so many goals being scored low glove. Right now this season, Wohl has allowed 11 goals low glove. He has one of the lower safe percentages in the NHL. He's actually amongst all the European

goleys. I think I mentioned that a few shows ago. It's like there's a lot of Europeans in the bottom 10 and then there's Joseph Wall. So again, when you start taking laps around this league, everybody has a book on you. If it's Stolar's going down early below the goal line or your goalie,

getting beat in specific places. I mean, I think that Brock Nelson knew exactly where he was shooting when he shot low glove on Joseph Wall. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting because you say, so you want guys to go fingers down? Could you push the elbow out and just use it as a blocker, the bottom wrist piece?

No, you know, my goalie coach in New York, French guy, he was really funny, great accent. And he would take his arm away from his body and he would say, Valie, the arm separated from the body. It doesn't stop a puck. goes in.

Can hit you in the middle of the chest. It'll go through the hole. You know, you have to be compact. Yeah, yeah. It made a lot of sense. Any goal that goes through you or under you, Borny, is a bad goal. That's just the way it is. That's the standard.

All right. Well, can I check in on one thing? We need a Canada check in. Jordan Bennington, has he got any better? Should we feel any better about our Canadian keeper? I'm a little nervous, buddy. I mean, again, like these Tuesday, These are my days where I'm in the office just grinding over all of our scoring chances, trends.

My God. And he is three slots above Dennis Hildeby for the bottom 10 netfront safe percentage. And that's not a good number going into this tournament. I do think that net front is going to be important. And I do think there's going to be some east to west off breakdowns. I think the one thing that the high level guys understand is that in unsettled, offense when you get a puck off a four check or off a giveaway takeaway. East West is like the next the next thing you're looking for. You're not just giving a free shot to the goalie when he's

out on angle. You're trying to make him pay there. And I think we're going to see goals being scored by the top guys by design. And, you know, one of the thing quickly that I looked up today that I thought was quite interesting was that the goals that are being scored this year in the NHL and the top five areas. Rebounds specifically, weak side rebounds. So rebounds that you've got to move to the weak side of the ice. The low east to west, 35%, the slot line double, which is across the ice twice, east to west twice. Those are converting at 51%.

We're seeing more broken play goals than we've seen before. I don't know if you saw Will Borgon's goal last night. It was the tying goal for the Rangers. He aimed for the net front defenseman's back instead of shooting it clear on the goaltender. He hit peak for the Bruins in the back and then got the game tying goal. Everybody, when you put the best guys on the ice, I think they have the best outcomes because they're thinking that far advanced, including the pass off the rebounds. Passing off the rebounds this year, guys, it's up 10%.

It's up to 50% shooting percentage from 40% last year. So all in, you're looking at a lot of extra goals being scored, which is why the 897 safe percentage hasn't moved. And that's as low as we've seen it since Kipper played. Valley, before we get into Grill the Panel here, just your quick thoughts on Demko's season for our fans out in Vancouver getting shut down and how concerned would you be for his future? You know what, Kipper?

I don't have the medical results. for every goalie in the in the NHL, but I did bring up last week that nearly 22% of the league is injured or unavailable right now in net. Like we've got a lot of injuries, one out of every five goalies, okay? And this is the only multiple hip surgery that I've heard of. I haven't heard of guys having multiple hip surgeries. And that's what I'm hearing is going to be Demko's surgery. It's going to be a hip and it's a multiple. And I don't know, I don't know, Kepra, if you're coming back from that, man.

I feel terrible for him. I've been a long admirer of his of the goalies in the NHL that play with the best technique. He is one of them. He is one that helps goalies across all countries learn how to play the best way, technically. And to not have them in the game, it's like saying you don't have a top team in the playoff hunt. It's like not having one of the best goalies in the game. You don't get that heavyweight matchup every night that you want in that. All right, pal, excellent stuff as always.

What do you got for us? So for grill marks, I've got trivia leaders born 29 points, McKee, 26 points, Kipper 21 points. We're going to do this a little Toronto-based this evening. and we're going to talk about screens. What player has screened his own goalie the most on the Leafs this year? Is it Carlo, McCabe, Benoit, or Riley? Riley. I'll take McCabe.

I'll take Riley. Riley, it is. So Riley has screened his goalies 31 times. And that is ninth most in the NHL. Yikes. Ninth most. And I think that reflects the minus 14. And, you know, part of the reason why your goalies don't have good net front save

percentages is because your own guy is screening you. And those are harder. It's harder to look through your own guy. And you know what, Kipper, your former teammate broke this down for me. And it really helped me see it a few years ago. Jeff Bukabum, he said, Valley, you don't know how many guys. that are just wanting to look like they're blocking a shot, but they don't really want to get hit by it.

Hey, in the dressing room, we know. I looked at through a different lens now, exactly. Not fooling the boys. All right, what player has screened the opponent the most from the Toronto Maple Leafs? Nicholas Waugh, Matthew Nyes, John Tavaros. Who has recorded the most screens? I'll go with J.T.

I'm taking nyes. I go wah. Nyes. And Nize is tied for 14th most, which is right up there. He's a top 20 screener. And that's with Josh Dohn and Corey Perry. That's who he's tied with. Don and Perry, what a combo that is.

Only 20 years apart in age. The last one here, guys, the team that has allowed the most net front goals this season. All right. and we've got a list of five teams Bruins, Leifes, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis, Blues, Anaheim Ducks. Blues.

Blues. Give me the ducks. Ducks. Oh, that's big for Borny. That's a big one, wow. Hey, Bernie, why ducks? Why did you go Ducks?

Because their goal tonny numbers are atrocious, so I assume there was a lot. Dostal's having an off year. You know what, Borny, they give up so much. Yeah. They give up so much. so much. They didn't early. No, I was on your show with you guys and I said,

they give up way too much and that's something I tweeted out at the beginning of the year. I don't know why they give up so much. They've got Quenville there. I thought he'd keep it tight. But the Leafs, this isn't a good sign though. The Leafs have 34 goals against. That's fourth worst net front.

Yeah, not great. Not great. All right, boys. Yeah. Great stuff, buddy. Thanks, brother. Appreciate you. Hey, listen. You see one of the, awards in the background there. Emmys on Emmys on Emmys.

Can you just change the angle a little bit of the person holding the globe? It looks to me like she's giving me the finger. Oh, oh, geez. Grylliam Neelander over here.

I don't know if you guys want my opinion on that. No, no. No, let's go. We don't have time. We don't. We don't. We're good. Thanks, Val.

Thanks for joining us, Valley. Oh, man. Oh. Game time. He's so much fun. Game time. So interesting. My opinion, no.

No. I've heard enough opinions on that. It's game time. Preserve my bet 365. Visit the athlete and I stodz. And see why it's ever ordinary bet three, six five. Most 19 plus. And Terry only, please play responsibly.

Ten games on tap tonight. Like I mentioned, lots of Atlantic teams playing non-Alanic. And how do you do it on these this year at 365? I don't even really do picks anymore. I just stay at games. Oh, yeah? Yeah. My football sucked this year and all that.

But it's great. Sorry. I don't know. Don't take my picks or take them. No, take them. They're great. Yeah, I'm taking the sabres tonight, so take them. Ooh.

Are they plus money? No, they're minus 105. Leas or minus 115. I just think the sabers are in a great spot looking for something to prove. Leas are in a bad spot. Yeah. It really feels like outside of betting with your heart as a lease fan, that's the correct bet. A little later on, good one.

No, it's not later on. It's the exact same time as the lease game. I lied. It's just further down here. The Montreal Canadiens hosting the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas Golden Knights have been on a long road trip. They just got embarrassed by the, who was that? Ottawa.

Mark Stone went a little squirrely on his team. I would expect a response. Give me the Golden Knights tonight. And the last one that I'll bring up the Vancouver Canucks think, but their plus 105 underdogs tonight. Give me the sharkies. Sorry, Vancouver. Now is game time.

Presented by Bet365. Visit the Afflatas Oz. and see why it's Ever ordinary at Bet365 was a 19 plus and terror only please play responsibly. I don't rarely do NFL stuff

but this just came across my desk because we've been doing the interview with Valley and I find it this is one of the most unbelievable stories that I've ever seen. Bill Belichick

you're familiar with his work? Yes, I've heard of the man. Was not voted as a first ballot hall of fame. Did not make the Hall of Fame on his first vote. How many people hate that man for that time?

happen. Can I read you just some quick Bill Belichick stats? Well, he's... They're Scottie Bowman. Most Super Bowl wins as a head coach. Most Super Bowl appearances as a head coach. Most playoffs wins as a head coach. Most playoff appearances as a head coach. Most divisional championships as a head coach. And three, third all time and wins as an NFL coach. Like, that's a haul of pretty good for me. Is that not one of the most insane, like, snubs ever? What is it? What is it? We're on to Cincinnati. He just was never nice to anybody. I think you'd mean to the media. Yeah. But I mean, at some point, you've got to put some

bias as a side for Phil Valich. That's insane. Anyways, that's just wrong. That's just wrong. We just go to break. I just thought I'd bring that up. That's insane. All right.

You know, just prior to our show, you mentioned our buddy Daliwa in Vancouver did a whole segment on on what, Kit? On getting the finger in his life. You couldn't even say it the way you wanted to say it. Don't say.

No, no. And, You remember when I lost my train of thought about 45 minutes ago? It was because I was just picturing how many people has given him the finger. Never on this show. It won't come from us. Oh, we love you, Dolly. You're the man.

All right, let's take a quick break when we return. We'll stick with the Vancouver Canucks for a little bit and talk about the suspension, three games on Rust, on Besser, and also a Vander Kaine name. is out there. That plus more when we return to Real Kipper and Born. Hey, it's Ben Ennis. And I'm Brent Cunning. We got you covered on all things, Leifes, Raptors, and Blue Jays.

Every weekday morning, 6 to 9. It's the fan morning show. Sportsnet 590 the fan and wherever you get your podcasts. Reminder, this hour of Real Kippenborn, brought to by Bet 365. Nick Kippreos, Justin Bourne, and a giggling Sammy McKee. I just have really hilarious, friends.

that when the group chat gets cooking, it's just hilarious. And they're just cooking right now. And we were in break, and I was laughing about it. I wasn't going to bring it up, and you did. So that's why I was laughing.

So anyways. Share with the class. Nah. It's not appropriate. I don't know what to say. Yeah, don't bring it up then. Well, you brought it up. I share with the class.

Oh, yeah. Right? It's a great group chat. Shout out the boys. Is he allowed to do that? Have a good giggle without us. I feel left out. Sorry.

I'll tell you after the show. Geez. I'm in the car going home. Yeah, that's true. Open it up with a glass. The only person out of your faster is Barker. Barker at the end of a show is. Oh my gosh.

She's like dust. Comes to the door like Kramer. It's awesome. You can't be standing on the other side of the door when he's coming through. Boom. Bang. Cool, man. No.

At home. Yeah. So first time in NHL history, a team has had back-to-back hat-tricks by defensemen. Bouchard had a hatcher the night before. At home of the hat-trick last night. What you're telling me is like in 1971, Bobby Orr and like Nick Beverly never did it. Never happened. That goal right there was super nice.

The little touchback. Eckholm way up in the rush a couple times, which is great. And then, yeah, you got the empty netter for the finale. I mean, actually ripped it. So by the way, Ekholm not on team Sweden for the Olympics. They just named a replacement. Hampus Lindholm named to the team not Matthias Ekholm, which shocking to me, also Arvind Still out?

What's Irvington? What's his name? Detroit Edvinson? There it is. Oh, that was bad. That's okay. Oilers fans are so happy. That is not going.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, do you think maybe he told them like, guys, my legs could use. That is. I bet you maybe the Oilers had a lot to do with it, too. If it was teetering on, we really like you to kind of stay well. I'd be curious to know behind the scenes if there's some guys going to look. You are our anchor.

You are our. the one guy that we're going to have to throw out there 25 minutes a night to play defense and shut down the other team's top guy. The other guy not named, Sweden named another replacement today. They haven't named Mikhail Backlin. Backlin went to the World Championship for them this summer and had nine points.

And don't want them. Don't want them. So that's another shocker for me. Anyway, let's listen to Eckholm. Tell us about his hatcher. Yeah, I don't know. It was like you look at the goals too. It's just trying to join the rush on the first two.

And sometimes they just happen, right? There's no real explanation. It's not like I changed my game overnight to then obviously score a hat-trick. It's just one of those things. Some nights you have your balances go your way and whatnot. And try to enjoy this one because it's probably be my last. All right. He just took himself right off the hook.

Yeah. Well, media perspective, too. It's like the worst case answer When a guy is well aware That's like, yeah, sometimes you just have happens I don't think it'll be Bouchard's last hat trick No Might not be his last hat trick this year

He hits it hard and often And he's just He's smart Just have the puck That's the best defense Is when you have the puck So Bouchard Any hesitation

Since Canada's picks being made No Bouchard, no Matthew Schaefer And you're watching Doughty And Sanheim Some of these guys kind of trip and fall a bit? I think it's got potential to be an issue until it doesn't have an issue. Right.

Until there's no issue. If they don't win, everyone will think, oh yeah. If they win, everybody's things, it would be great. I do believe that if it doesn't end up gold, they'll be talking about that missing component. Yeah, Schaefer is making it look tough.

It's still hard. Like, there's still a ton of mistakes out there. Like, Drew Dowdy has been through these moments. these games and how to handle yourselves in them. It matters, right? Learning that, I've, uh, yeah. Would you like, would you like to know when, uh, Drew Doughty's last point was? Uh, 12 games ago.

December 27. Yeah, that's the, he's not there for the offense. Yeah, but I mean, experience and calm things down. I like, he, it's going to be, he, it's going to be him and Sid that, that everybody's going to be leaning on, including Connor McDavid. Yeah. I love Drew Doughty and want him there. It's just eye-opening.

Doty is so competitive defensively, even though it's not physical. He's really, he's learned how to handle that part of the game. You hope that that's going to matter more than the guy getting points. Earlier we talked about Sussi being traded to the Islanders. You grew up in that environment through those dynasties with your dad and your father-in-law, Clark. like second or third trade in history between the Rangers and the Islanders

like how would Islander fans and Ranger fans feel about this? I have to believe it's almost an insult to Susie from the Rangers that they're like we don't think you're going to hurt us. We just don't think this is going to matter. You don't take our phone ahead. You don't really count.

Yeah, it's like highest bidder, Islanders, okay, this doesn't matter. But I will say if you look at the Islanders, you know, the guys that are playing kind of a 60 minutes for them. They're playing 12 minutes, 13 minutes, HL call-ups. This guy's playing 17, 18 minutes a night.

He's a legitimate depth guy, and he's not... Depth pair guy. He's not 900,000 a year. The guy's making over 3 million bucks. Yeah. And he's, which I think part of the reason he's cheap, but like he's 32.

He's not 42. He's, I don't hate it for the islanders trying to shore things up. That's what I'm going to say. I like just adding a... You're already good and you're having a, I think, better than expected season. and you have one of the best young players in the league on your team.

You have the best goal in the league maybe on your team. And you're in a playoff race and you're just be better. It's also weird. You look at the standings and it's like, I like the Islanders. You know, I think that they're plus four goal differential. Like I'm talking about the underlying stuff beyond. I like them. You know, I don't have them as one of the five, seven, you know, best teams.

But, God, they had a guy or two. Yeah. There's no one great. You never know. You got the best goalie and you got a star D. Good things can happen. Speaking of our buddy, Rick Daliwa, he reported that Evander Cain's agent

has permission to make calls, Dan Milstein. I love our boy Dollywell, but I probably could have reported that one. Any takers? Kane makes 5.125. Really? I thought it was less than that.

How much will they have to eat? Not nothing is the answer Yeah Like half Two and a half For a playoff team I I don't know

Like he carries a reputation with him He looks slow this year Can he go somewhere And find it again For a bit And playoff hockey maybe If I'm a contender I gotta tell you

That's a fat no thanks Yeah Like we're not We're already doing pretty good I think they're gonna have a tough time I think he might just finish As a Knoch What do you have on Miller for us

Oh you had a clip just about on speculation around the team with guys getting traded and them kind of selling after the letter. You listen to it if you want. Sure. J.T. Miller, Rangers. To be honest, I have, you know, I try to think about it. It is what it is.

At this point, you know, we have a close group in here. This is in the position we all, any of us thought we were going to be in at the start of the season. But it's a business and we're just trying to trade like normal days. You know, we have a lot of fun together in this. I don't think we're worried a word about that. We're just going to go day today. Now he's got a no move, complete no move.

Is that right? I'm asking. Look right now. I mean, he did get moved, so I guess he had the willingness to get moved. I would believe that they want to have the perception out there that they're re-tooling. And you're going to have to keep a few pieces. They just brought them in. They just named them captain.

I don't think they're going to turn around and ship them. them out. No, you name a guy captain. Were they named captain four months ago? Start of the season, yeah. You can't trade a guy you just named your captain. I agree. I agree. I don't even know if it's the right move or not, but I agree with you. If someone's willing to take that contract, I think you should maybe consider moving your captain. Yeah, I agree that they should, but it's just, to me, that would immediately reflect on your

management. Who can take it? That's a great point. Who can take it? One, two, three, four more seasons at $8 million a year. Yeah. It's not that much. That's another one, eh? Can you eat 40% of it? Yeah, if they want to retain on Miller, you could get an asset back.

Yeah. I take J.T. Miller for $6 million. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That sounds good. Yep. Talk it. Yeah, boy, he was sour.

Last night. Let's play that clip quickly. We don't have a ton of time, but it's a good clip. Talk it clip, please. Let's start for the short-hander goal. You know, that was kind of the killer. We had no energy. This kind of disappoints is a division game.

After, you know, coming off the road, that's a tough effort. That's on me. I think we're 3, 11, and 4, something after a win. So that's on the coach. That's on me. So I'll wear it. So I've got to get these guys ready to play after a win. I don't know what guys are doing for the last two days,

but I don't even know if anybody played well. I think the aisle just did enough to win. They didn't really do much either. They just clog the neutral zone. So we decided to keep putting pucks in the middle instead of having speed. We didn't have much. You guys had any speed tonight, so that's on me. He actually slandered everyone involved in the game.

The announcing was brutal. Popcorn was stale. I thought dinner reeked. Yeah. I thought they'd hang in there longer, but they're just, they're fading. It's so funny, you guys, because we just did that leaf sour. The flyers are ahead of the leaf. Oh, yeah.

All right. Comfortably. Our thanks to Steve Aliquette. I'm going to get my stitches out, boys. Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. No, I'll get my wife to do it. She doesn't know it yet. She's going to be taken out eight of these bad boys. Get the nail clippers going. Have a glass of red wine before that. How many games on tap? 10.

Yep. Find yours and join us again tomorrow on the Real Kippron Born Show.