Real Kyper & Bourne - Vegas Ups the Ante in Game 2

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne, and Sam McKee kick off with some golf news as the PGA has announced it will be merging with LIV. Then, back to the ice and the Cup final where the guys break down the Golden Knights dominating the Panthers in Game 2, the 10-day break hurting Florida, the big hit Matthew Tkachuk laid on Jack Eichel and how Eichel responded to it. Next up, Mike McKenna from the Daily Faceoff joins the show to give his take on the young goalies making an impact during the playoffs, Bobrovsky losing momentum, the ascension of Adin Hill and Joseph Woll being the future in net for the Leafs. Finally, the guys wrap up the show with how the Florida Panthers and Matthew Tkachuk can respond going into Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals.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.  

This is Real Kipper and Bourne on Sportsnet 590 The Van. And the jam-packed version. We are in summer hours, baby. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Derek Brandeo, Jen Rolnick, and Sammy McKee in a jam-packed hour where we'll have Mike McKenna join us in about 20 minutes. Talk about goalie Bob in those first two games.

Leafs fans got to be sick to their stomach watching Bob. Cinderella hit midnight here. Yeah. I know I saw McKenna tweeting last night and he was talking about how people who were critical of Bob last night don't know goaltending.

Talking about Florida's structure and the guys in his lane and whatever. I just see an awful lot of hockey pucks going through. So we'll get into that. Aiden Hill and the magic continues to roll for him as well. I want to talk about Sean Burke. I brought him up the other day. And just how influential is a guy like that for a core group that we wouldn't have looked twice at in September?

No, no, no, no. We would have laughed at in September. Vegas? You're talking about the goalies. I'm talking about the goalies. Okay, yes. I'm saying that we would have laughed if we would have sat in September and said the likes of Aiden Hill, Laurent Bressois, Logan Thompson, and Jonathan Quick would get you two games away from winning the Stanley Cup.

What's crazy is last night, and I forget who tweeted this, but in the game last night, there was a combined cap hit between the two goalies of like 2.8 million. And on the benches between Bobrovsky and Quick, there was 15.8 million in goaltenders. Tons to get into with Mike McKenna. I do want to start the show, though, going a little off the board. Because that's what we can do. You can do whatever you want. We're going another sport for just a few minutes. Oh, my God.

Let's do it. All right. Liv and PGA are getting married. Yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Odd couple. It's happening.

Okay. Opposites attract, baby. Opposites. It's a nonprofit and a murderous Saudi regime. This is a big story. I have to say that when I saw that story come across my Twitter feed today, that's as floored as I've been ever in my life. Like, no hints, eh? No, like, oh, this may be coming.

It was just, this is happening. And I have a hard time making sense of it until Barney said some stuff to me today about from maybe a potential lawyer, some lawyers speak on it, which it's all money. It's 100%. It's all money. Right.

But I just, I do feel. It's all about the money. I feel for a lot of the players. Why? Because they got played like fiddles. Rory got played like a fiddle. Justin Thomas got played. Go out there and fight, fight, fight until we tell you don't

because we're all about the money. And a lot of people within the golf media who, and media at large, not just the golf media, who really stuck their neck out there for the morals of the PGA Tour. To watch you crawl. And then immediately, not even a year, like it's year to the date of the Liv's first event. Well, not the date, but a couple weeks here. And now they're just getting to bed with him.

It's in one of the wildest stories in sports history it's insane go back and listen to all rory's comments and now what does he say yeah happy to have them all back it's it's it's humiliating for him but the problem is there was nothing ever wrong with anything he said about it he was on a on proper footing with it he's now just put it been put in such a bad spot by the people who he went to bat for you know one of the things that you know sammy and i talked about was just the idea is that you know the pga tour sells itself as a non-profit enterprise they're a non-profit which okay yeah definitely sure you are definitely but so the idea you know they run their corporation as a monopoly and live if live takes them to court i mean they probably lose their non-profit status once they have to show the books and see where you know money is going

so a lot of this may be just a defense of before we have to show our books jb you couldn't figure out that a year ago. You couldn't read the tea leaves on this and know that that's where it could get. What kind of leadership is this at the PGA that you can't? So what should they have done then? Merged then? Yes. Make the best of a bad situation.

Know your opponent. Know your enemy. Prior to Liv coming to fruition, they went to the PGA the last three or four years and said, we want to do this. And they laughed at him. And then the following year, they came back to him. And finally, they said, okay, you want to keep laughing at us? We're doing this.

And then they go and buy Phil Mickelson. They go buy Dustin Johnson. we're doing this yeah and then they go and buy phil mickelson they go by dustin johnson and then they actually dig their heels down and still can't figure out they're not going away yeah and now now that brooks kepka embarrassed them by coming back and winning the pga then a light switch goes off and says let's do a deal you know i yeah i think this is there's no way like i want to live in that world too kipper where it was you know brooks going in there and beating all the p this has been in the works for longer than two weeks it's 100 you know not showing the books in court and stuff like that i i just you know it's funny when i first heard it sam, my first thought was like,

do those guys who got paid all that money get to keep it all? Yes. Probably yes. Not only that, they just get to shove it down everyone's throat. And so, yeah, congrats on mission accomplished, Phil, on bringing the Saudi world into. Listen, Phil was right from the start. Greg Norman was right.

Phil was wrong about everything. He just made a lot of money. No, he just sold his soul. He sold the sports soul. But he wasn't hiding. He sold it. He did. You're right.

To the highest bidder. 100% he did. Just like everybody else did in the PGA. They are the exact same people. But Phil was talking about how the PGA. That's the most brazen about it. Phil had been talking about for years how the PGA Tour was holding out with money and how they were hiding money and all of this stuff.

He said a lot of wrong stuff, but he nailed it. Phil is going down as one of the most influential people in sports history right now. Yeah. Okay. And a universal bad guy. No, I don't think so. I don't think so.

Listen. Where is he a universal bad guy? This is the exact goal of the Saudi player investment fund is to gain credibility with North America and with the global sports world. They want to be taken seriously. What's more, they own the league that we all watch now. We can go back and go to any industry and say they own a big portion of the world. So why should golf be any different?

Well, it depends where you stand on things, right? Like if you want to dig in on the humans' rights abuses and all that, or if you want to say, I guess they're just everywhere now, which is what they want, right? He has let them in the door. They care about their money. That's all. Everybody just showed their true colors by saying we can be bought it's crazy though that like if

you're rory who knows what live offered rory but like to have turned down a show a half billion dollars and now you got it you would get to keep it and play in the tour anyway tiger 750 they offered him almost a billion dollars and then come back you know like those guys are not going to be pleased with, you know, that we dug in and turned that money down for you. Yeah, and we got nothing to show for it. And now we're just back with these guys? And we got the same deal.

It's there. They bought. How do you buy a nonprofit anyway? It's crazy. All right. There's certainly not going to be 54 holes anymore. I can tell you that. And do away with the team garbage.

I can't even make sense of that league that they tried to. I'm like watching a game show when i see all those colors and uh scoreboards they found a legal loophole and they're in they didn't have a good product i think i it's apparently they're gonna make some of the guys buy back into the pga tour so like you know some of the live guys that win are gonna have to pay a price to get back onto the pga pick a random number so basically what it comes down to you're good not very much you suck a lot 100 yeah 100 on your goal on your golf show saturday just play our first uh nine minutes of of real kipper and born show by the way we can do this for an hour for sure i feel for my boy gunner yeah he was one of

the he was much like rory he dug in he put his neck out there he dug in yeah and he was much like rory yeah you know killing them and defending the honor of the pga tour and the honorable how they would never take blood money and now they just throw out the same thing the root of all evil baby there you go sorry gunner cold hard cash look forward to saturday morning pal okay 10 minutes mike mna. So we got a few to get into. Vegas now two wins away from hoisting their first Stanley Cup

in franchise history. 7-2, guys. JB, where do you want to begin? I mean, it was a non-match last night. It was just not a hockey event. Vegas was so good. I tweeted last night, is this Vegas being bad? Or sorry was so good i tweeted last night is this vegas being bad or sorry vegas being good florida being bad or a little of both i don't know where you

guys fall on it but florida looked like the team they were all year last night and vegas was dynamic they were i mean vegas it doesn't look like a close hockey event to me right now which is really frustrating so i don't know kudos to vegas i thought some excellent play from stone stevenson barbachev eichel even we'll get to that i know but um just a great performance from the golden knights and looks like they're your boy darren millard's gonna be sporting some jewelry i uh i just have to go back, and I'm not sure even if the 10 days off would have mattered with the depth of Vegas, but it did something to them.

It forced them to have to come out in the first or second game and just hit it right off, and they have not been able to and now they are in serious catch-up mode but i i do believe that uh we're gonna look back and and think 10 days i think it was 12 was it 12 whatever it was 10 or 12 whatever it was yeah it's hard it's really hard yeah that long it was too much and when you're a hot team you just want to keep it's like being at the craps table like you the one time you just want to keep rolling while you're hot right you step away for an hour and come back it ain't that same sort of vibe and that's you know i'm not blaming anybody here because it's just that national natural progression where

you know if you do have 10 or 12 days off and you're Matthew Kachuk and all of a sudden everybody wants a piece of you. You're on TNT or in People Magazine. Exactly. It's like, is there a chance you could lose focus a little bit during this nice little celebrity run? Yes, absolutely there is. And I don't blame him for doing that or think it's the reason things have gone badly.

I just feel like Florida since March has been in if we don't win this game we're screwed our season might end you know very short after so it's been pedal down pedal down pedal down and everyone's been saying can they keep doing it can they keep doing it and then once they got to the cup final they had time to exhale look at what they'd accomplished, enjoy, you know, really, all of a sudden people call them the favorite and how good they are. And it's just a different vibe for this team that played much better as an underdog, who took advantage of rushes and got big saves.

They're not getting big saves. They're scoring on the rushes. I just think Vegas is way better, fellas. Way better. The idea is so good. Kipper, I definitely agree with your thoughts that the break hurt the Panthers and the momentum. But to me, there's just no comparison between these two teams. Like, I just, I look at the D cores.

I look at the four lines. Like, when's the last time the Cats' fourth line even played? Like, it's just, it feels like. First line in Vegas is unreal. Yeah, it just seems like almost insurmountable the amount of talent that's spread around and different types of guys and gritty guys and skill guys and the combo of both like that mark stone man i i'm obsessed with that guy where do you think he is we had a chat uh bunk sam and i last night we're like in terms of nhl players if you're picking to having your team in the playoffs you know he's a top 20 guy in the nhl even though he's not an elite scorer he is a top 20 guy just you know you go through the

mcdavid's macars and the obvious names he's up there i think bunk was saying last night that he's got 83 playoff games in the last four years and something like 30 playoff goals like he has been a force in the postseason and he's just so good picking pucks off the broken stick shot block retrieve a puck lateral movement you know play to to me you know one of the my favorite things and what favorite skills of anybody that plays hockey is the ability to stop a play and get it going the other way quickly and he's one of the best in the world at it. Like the way they think about that goal he scored in this first game where

it's like the stick, it looks like a high stick almost knocks it down one motion bar down the other way, like in the net, like he's just so good at it. Like four or five weeks ago, we're watching him leave the practice ice with a bad back. And you're going,

I ain't playing. Yeah. He could really stand up. I mean, Stone's back is all bad. And he's janky off the ice. Eichel has his neck taped together a year or two ago, whatever it was. You know, like these guys are, that they're doing what they're doing is a, their doctors, Kip, should get two rings each.

That's it. Okay, JB, you mentioned it, hit jack eichel oh my god when matthew kachuk absolutely laid him out as good as any open hit you will ever find at the perfect time down four in the game down one in the series second period perfect let's go to bruce cassidy head coach of vegas on eichel getting hit so it's okay to get hit in june this is part of the journey you know it's it hurts to win and it's it's not supposed to be easy so good for him i think he saw some of it coming but not enough to get out of the way uh it was a clean hit that's hockey um and we were very, very, I think, as a group, great to see him come back.

Not only does it give us juice, but sometimes it can take away juice from the other team if they see a guy come back. So it was good for the group. Okay, from Bruce, let's go to Jack Eichel on what he saw or didn't see. Yeah, you know, just get the puck on the right. Took a couple crossovers, kind of toe-picked a little bit. And, you know, saw him at the last minute. He finishes a hard, you know, what I saw was a clean check on me.

And it's a physical game. You're going to get hit sometimes. So you just kind of move on, you know. You guys want to go to Matthew Kachuk for the trio here? Yes, absolutely. Yes. I don't, I really have no idea what uh what what that uh what came about for that but i did uh i don't know i think i just came off the bench and so i'm

middle of the ice with his head down and doesn't matter who you are shouldn't be going through the middle with your head down you're gonna get hit like i mean that's i would go get hit too if i had my head down in the middle like it's nothing uh not a big deal like he's this is a really good player and i mean it doesn't really good players can get hit too i just went to the bench just thinking get some rest before power play but um they have a sent off he's there's so much i love the guy. Like jabbing in there. He's right though. He is, but it's intentionally inflammatory. To watch that hit and watch Jack Eichel get up as scrambled as he looked. He didn't look great. No, he looked horrible.

He was all frenetic. Scrambled. But he was like, I ain't lying down on you that's what i absolutely jack's gone to another level for me on that play this is like career defining moment for him jack eichel went up 10 notches in my book gets off because he said i would rather die than lie on that ice right now gets off the rink comes back and in his very next shift, body someone to win a loose puck and make a great pass to set up a goal, to go back up a goal like that to me is what we'll talk about for, with,

with Jack Eichel. That's when he wins his Stanley cup ring or if I'll, I'll think you're right. I'll think of a lot of things during this series. I will remember Jack Eichel getting up and then setting up a Marsha. So after they give up on fifth on 14 seconds into the third period, you maybe think Florida's got an opening. He makes the play to turn it around.

It's funny now looking back that he was okay and he came back in the game. There was that moment where he got up off the ice. He's like, oh, like the look at his face. He's like, oh boy. I think he wanted to complain to the ref, but he didn't know what happened. He was just like, oh boy.

I got to get out of here. I got to go. And this is where our game kind of gets in trouble a little bit because then there's us that's saying, this is what you need to win. That's awesome. We need more warriors. Correct.

My exact thought. And then there's the medical side that says, you shouldn't be playing. No, it's not well. You put him back out there yeah are you nuts cup final let's go yeah i know it's hot you know what it's hockey still enough of being like yeah isn't that horrible of us that's when you can go be you know what though if you ask those guys i was reading something the other day about a study that asked professional

athletes and olympic athletes if you could win a championship this year but know you were to contract some fatal condition that would kill you like within 10. An alarming amount of people accept that. Like they are this success driver within some of these people. They'll make that trade. I would have negotiated 20 years. Can I get 20?

25. What are you jumping a 10 for right away? 10's a short number. Hey, a couple of bad summers, and you only got eight golf seasons. Yeah, you're right. But, you know, these people, you know, I talked to my father, and maybe you would feel this way too, does not regret what has undeniably happened to his brain.

And you ask him on that, doesn't regret it, for having won the four Stanley Cups and legacy and all that stuff. Yeah, I know. But we are humans. We get to make these choices with our body. Playing a professional sport like hockey is a choice you get to make. And that's where we probably should leave it at that. I should stop talking.

No, no, you shouldn't stop talking. You get paid to do that. True. But that's where it really comes down to that. Yeah, in many ways, you're're right probably shouldn't have come back there was some brain trauma that he sustained we all could see it presumably uh probably in the best interest of his health he should not have come back but he's he's an adult he made his choice it's funny listening to kachuk be like you know you shouldn't skate to the middle with your head down like that you know i think when he looks up

he can't see kachuk initially no he had plenty of time to see kachuk he did he did he had plenty of time once he cut to the middle there but i thought uh kevin bx on the panel great job he was the only one who really pointed out that and i'm'm sure you've done this, I know I have, is the bail right before you realize you're about to get crushed and you just kind of like let your body go boneless. You're done. But like usually you're leaning back so it can like go over you. Like he said, either he toe picked, but he could not.

He let go, I think. He could not plant. No. He was not in a position. It would have been worse if he had dug in and cut. What had happened was he wanted to wheel the puck out. His first

thought was to go backhand up the boards on his backhand side and he thought that he could almost kind of lean towards it and then he'd have all the type of room in the middle and then by the time he got his head up night night he was corned beef yeah that was that was a vicious hit you know i

was talking to my dad speaking of on the way here today he was talking about like it seems this year there's more of these hits where with guys getting completely flushed like a hundred percent contact straight on whether it's timo meyer or what gudas did to uh camp and it's all just like guy guys don't anticipate getting hit like that because there's not as much of that in the game but there's none of it in the regular season not none but very little in the regular season i think kachuk had to be looking at that point down i think we'd have way more if we just had way more guys like matthew kachuk andouba and some of these guys that know what they're doing. I would say 90% of the players in the game have no idea how to have an open ice hit.

They don't. They don't know. Or they've never trained that way. Their mentality has never gone that way it's like it takes a real special kind of player to have that mentality to even want to go and hit somebody like that yeah we don't we don't have those players anymore and when we do you tend to hold on to them okay let's welcome in mike mckenna daily face-off hockey analyst he's done a terrific job all season long for the real kipper and born show mike how are you pal man i'm living how about you guys did you have fun watching that game last night yeah i think so we're just uh you know talking about the big hit

and how they're far and few because i i think there's just guys that just aren't willing to do it. And even if they could, I'm not sure they want to. Yeah. Well, you think about how well-rounded a lot of players, I mean, they used to be, right? You had to be able to give and take a hit or you weren't going to make it. And there's less of those players now. But I will say this. It is funny to watch the Stanley Cup playoffs and see how players you may not expect it from or players that don't hit or play tough regularly during the regular season.

You get this deep, it really starts to go. Because, man, I watched Ivan Barbashev get traded out to the Vegas Golden Knights at the trade deadline, and he was fine with the Golden Knights during the regular season. But that guy turns into an animal in the playoffs, man. He broke Sam Gerard's sternum last year against Colorado avalanche when he was with the blues. And now he puts good us out with a massive reverse hit. Like some people can just step up and make it happen.

Yeah. And you just can't live like that 82 games a year. Some guys prefer not to live like that, even if you can. So it is that that's part of what makes playoffs fun is finding another gear. You know, we wanted to talk to you about the goaltenders and finding another gear aiden hill in the net for vegas uh this guy i if i recall talking to you about this i think you like his game a little bit where do you stand on the idea

that some of these guys that don't make a ton of money who aren't the starters aren't that much different in terms of quality a goaltender than the guys who are starters. There's such a, there's not much of a, of a difference any longer. Like the Delta between your best goalie in the league and the worst goalie in the league is just so small now. And that's been helped since I retired, obviously. But, you know, you think about like, you've got this mid pack of goaltender. I try occasionally it comes to me.

But, you know, occasionally you look at it, though, and you get this mid-pack of goaltenders that are pretty interchangeable. And I've said this for years, that goalies typically get more credit than they deserve, and they don't get enough credit when the team doesn't play well. So if we don't have this big performance gap any longer, is it feasible to think that teams can run with two quality goaltenders and win a Stanley cup or go deep in playoffs? Yes, absolutely. It is, but you got to pick the right ones. You got to pick stable ones and you have to have a system that surrounds

them. And to be truthful at the start of the season, I, I did not expect Aiden Hill to be able to do this. There's an unofficial stat that I've been keeping track of. It's called time on butt per 60. And he was really high on the list. Him and John Gibson were probably like one, two in the NHL. And he's taken that number and lowered it so much during the course of the year. And I have no doubt in my mind that that's a product of working with Sean Burke,

a goalie coach in Vegas, because he had a similar body had a similar body type and, and probably is the guy preaching, Hey, play inside out, let the game come to you, which Hill has done for the most part. So, you know, you can't argue the fact that Bruce Cassidy system is making goalies look great in Vegas. Okay. Hill, I'm not taking a thing away from this guy. I think he's been awesome in the playoffs. He stopped just about every clean shot he's seen. That's all you can ask for. But when you look at the shot map from last night, I'm looking at it right now. Vegas put seven shots into the top third of the

net last night. They scored two goals there, Florida, two, two shots in the top third of the net all last night. How are you going to score on a guy that's as big as Aiden Hill with those big flippers of his if you're not going to raise the puck? Those glove saves he's making, they're all in the middle of the net. They're right in his glove. He's picking cherries. And part of that is because the Golden Knights have given no time and space to Florida.

They're not letting them pick their chances. We're talking to Mike McKenna daily face-off hockey analyst uh mac when we uh when we think of aiden hill now just being two games away and such a small sample size he's also a ufa and he's 27 it's not like he's 32 here if he closes this thing out, where does this put him? July 1st. I'll put some driving a Lamborghini compared

to driving a Yukon. I'll say that, you know, like I think here's the thing. I think Aiden Hill is probably due for a pretty good raise in the first place. He's making just about a little bit over 2 million bucks on a two-year deal, and of course that's expiring at the end of the season. But he's put himself into the lexicon now of showing that

I think he can be a number one goaltender in the NHL, but I do think that it's most likely to happen with Vegas as opposed to taking a gamble on another team. If he goes to another team, I'm not sure what that might look like. So I would very much want to stay with the golden Knights if I made an Hill, because first off, if, and when they win the Stanley cup, cause I don't know how Florida's getting out of this, the way they've looked after the first two games, he's going to be a legend there. He could, he could play there kind of as long as

he wants unless the wheels fall off. And I think that there's a need with that team to have affordable goaltending and buy affordable. I mean you've got Logan Thompson next year under a million bucks. Even if they give Aiden Hill four and a half, four, four and a half million dollars for three, four years, four, probably being the top end of it, that's manageable from a cap-it standpoint. And they need to thank him, even though they're up against the cap. So I think it's a little bit of give and take.

I think on the open market, Hill could probably do a little better than Vegas maybe, but I don't see any way where he's going to bit of give and take. I think on the open market, Hill could probably do a little better than Vegas maybe, but I don't see any way where he's going to be under $4 million. That's the going rate for a number one goalie in the NHL, much less one that's performed like this under the pressure and won a Stanley Cup. Guys, Cal Peterson's making $5 million. He was stashed in the minors, and he's getting traded right now to Philadelphia. Tell me Aiden Hill's not worth more than that contract.

That's the comparables you're looking at. We are a Toronto Maple Leafs show. Would you rather have Aiden Hill or Samsonov? I'd like to have Samsonov because I know that Joseph Wall is the guy that I believe in, and I think that by the end of next season, he might be knocking on the door to take over number one and do so at a more affordable cap hit. And I like the control that the Leafs would have over Samsonov as an RFA. So, you know, Samsonov here has got to play this carefully.

He already had one team give up on him in Washington. He's got a team in Toronto that I would have to believe likes him. I mean, obviously Brad Tree Living's coming in. That's a different general manager. But you've got Brendan Shanahan still in place. There's other people still there. They've got control over what they could do with Samsonov. I think that if you're Samsonov, you look at Toronto

and think this is a good place to be. I just don't know if he's going to be the guy that could win a Stanley Cup. And we had this discussion during the season. I think Wohl's ceiling, guys, I really liken him to Jake Ottinger in a lot of ways here. And it's a little bit different. Keep this in mind here, guys.

Say it again, Mike. Keep it in mind. With all due respect. Follow my train. Follow my train of thought here. How much have you watched of Wall that you're so confident? I watched him for five summers training him firsthand, knowing his personality.

So, of course, there's a vested interest here. But my point is this. When you look at them, when I'm talking Ottinger and Wall as teammates at the U.S. National Team Development Program, even par, you look at them when I'm talking to Ottinger and Wohl as teammates at the U.S. National Team Development Program even par you look at what they did in college BU BC even par what happened to Wohl is that he didn't have a great first year pro and then injuries and COVID slowed down his progressions whereas Jake Ottinger hit out of the ballpark right off the bat I think the ceiling is similar there now I'm not not saying wool is going to be a world beater, but I think he has a higher ceiling than Samsonov because he has more structure to what he does.

Samsonov has to find that structure in the next year or two. And that's why if I'm tree living, I wouldn't go over three years with him. I think you look two to three years, again, going right on a goalie, you're probably looking three and a half to four and a half for Samsonov. That's just reality of what it costs for goaltenders that have that experience, especially if Vanacek got $3 million, Linus Olmark got $5 million after playing not a single playoff game with the Buffalo Sabres. So I like that combination.

I would not go outside to pick up an Aiden Hill in that case. We are walling over here. Look at this. This is a very – Oh, I like that assessment, though. Really good, really good. The wall thing is interesting. If you believe in in him it does change how you feel about your other guy um i guess i'll just i we have to ask you about the guy who was the best goalie on earth

until he wasn't here in bobrovsky i saw your tweet last night that said everyone giving bob a hard time doesn't know goaltending tell us what's going on with goalie Bob in the finals for Florida. That's right. And let me be very specific on this. If anybody lays last night's game, specifically on the shoulders of Sergey Bobrovsky, get out of town. And I think that's true for the first two games of the series. Um, reason being, man, he, he, he hasn't had the team playing defense in front of him at all. Like the number of pinches that have gone wrong and led to odd man rushes going the other direction for Florida. It's absurd. It's absurd to see Aaron Eckblad leave the slot to go chase a guy in the corner and leave it wide open for Marcia.

So to come striding right down the middle, like you can't do that. Like it didn't matter who was in the net last night. The Panthers were going to get crushed no matter what, even saw Alex Lyon go in and to make two or three unbelievable saves and still allow three. So this isn't on Bob. What it is on, though, is on Bob to find a way to be better. He's got to communicate to his defensemen that they cannot keep taking his eyes away.

They have to give him the short side shot. They take the far side. Do not cross my eyesight. You can't do that. Bob has to communicate there. He has to make that clear. I didn't like the first goal against last night. He's looking on the wrong side of the screen. Mark Stone is playing right in front of them. He should have been looking short side,

but beyond that, I don't have much of a complaint other than this. I do think Sergey Bobrovsky last night was a little bit impatient on his edges. I think he's needed to beat pucks on his feet rather than sliding into them. And it put him behind the play a little bit. So am I saying he was great last night? No. Is there room for improvement? Yes.

But that game's not on goaltending at all. That was a complete team collapse by the Florida Panthers in Vegas. They made them pay. Vegas has been that good that they've forced those problems. Mike, what would 10, 12 days off do to a goalie with rhythm, the mindset, and where does this play into the first two games we've seen out of Brobroski? I really don't think it's much

for Brobroski on a specific level. I think it's, again, I think it's just very team-oriented in that way. I will say this, though, that when you're feeling the flow as a goaltender, Pucks just hit you. And I think Aiden Hill is in an absolute zone right now. And we saw this earlier this year in January when he actually got to play

consecutive games. That's when he played his best hockey. And you're seeing that again now. But there was less of a layoff for the Golden Knights than there was for the Panthers. So it's just really hard to replicate anything that you see in an actual game. Like live fire is so different than practice for a goaltender. But just judging by the way pucks went in, I don't think Bobrovsky was affected by the layoff. I think that again, I think his team's

trying too hard defensively in front of them. They're playing stupid hockey in front of them and frankly in their own zone. And I think that bob has probably been a little bit impatient so if there's anything we can draw from that time off i think that impatience might be it mike you spent uh time in the vegas organization um you know being an analyst for that team knowing that what what's different with this vegas team than the teams that couldn't get over the hump? Well, they've got the biggest salary that they've had all along ever. Yeah.

And I got to tell you, thanks to the NHL general managers that don't want to change this system of having no salary cap in the playoffs, because the Vegas golden Knights are not over the salary cap. There is no salary cap in the playoffs, but bringing Mark stone back into the fold and allowing this roster to be so deep, you know, even if they did it right. Yeah. Another $95 million cap or whatever that they would have here. It's legal. It's, it's what you can do. But think about it like this, like Phil Kessel's out of the lineup. You know,

they had to make that call. That was a great call by Bruce Cassidy. It's worked out. Teddy Bluger's not even playing. That guy's one of the better penalty killers in the NHL for my money. Good defensive forward. That's what it's given Vegas more of a chance to do is to have their depth. It's not that they have more talent on paper than Florida,

but they have more players that are quality. Florida now, man, they're in trouble. If Gutis is out and not hurt, Luster Reynon, go on down the list of missing players. That depth wasn't there in the first place. Florida, really? Their top 4D could compete top 6? I don't know about that compared to Vegas. It's rock solid. You've got White Cloud at Hague as a 5'6".

So I just, I look at that depth of Vegas, man, and you hear Cassie talk about it all the time, that they've got the best team on paper, and I think I agree with that. The moment Mark Stone came back in that lineup, it rounded out the four lines into being a diverse attack for Vegas. And you see it. Cassidy doesn't care who his fourth line plays against. He'll put Nick Walsh line out

there against Barkov, man. That's gross. Barkov's one of the best 200 foot players in the world. And here's Vegas putting their fourth line out against them. All right. We'll just, we got to get going here, but have we got any more word on the three-way trade between flyers,

LA and Columbus? And I'm just wondering where you think Carter Hart ends up in all of this. I'm curious to see because LA needs a goaltender. Corpus hollow is obviously going to be on the market as a UFA. I really believe in Carter Hart. I think he's a fantastic goalie who hasn't gotten a lot of help out there in Philadelphia. It would be a massive breath of fresh air if he would be the goaltender that was going to LA

and thinking about Peterson coming off the books. Maybe that makes sense. But guys, doesn't it seem like the whole endgame here was that LA is trying to get Gavrikov signed and they need that salary cap space. So I'm curious to see how that plays out. But I think if Harder's on the move and he goes to a good team, you're going to see him take off. I thought he was really good for long stretches last year. Got worn down a couple of times with the Flyers.

But when he's healthy, he's phenomenal. And I think his ceiling is just that much higher as he learns to grow into being an NHL goalie, having fun at that level and, and learn to be a little bit carefree, which he saw last year at the Flyers. Mike is always great stuff on our show. Thanks for coming on pal. It's always fun. I love talking to you guys. Enjoy game three. Appreciate you, Mike. Mike McKenna, daily face off hockey analyst.

Seen it all from the NHL, AHL, ECHL. Phil Kessel about to get his name, well, I know it's not over yet, but on a third Stanley Cup. Yeah. He played 82 games for them. Oh, yeah, he plays every game all the time. But, yeah, unfortunate that he has to watch, but good decision-making by the coach.

Team's clicking along. There'll be a lot of happy guys with two more wins in vegas yeah how about the wool stuff how do you feel about the wall stuff he say ottinger yeah i loved it yeah yeah uh the only problem is is you gotta win now right we've been saying you don't want to develop a guy. Three years now. The Leafs have to challenge for a Stanley Cup. Can he do it as early as this season, next season coming up?

I tell you, seeing Bayton Hill and Alex Lyon in the Cup Final doesn't make me feel like he can. It's just a crap shoot. It is. That's all. He also makes $766,000 for them this year and next. Which really helps. And next.

Yeah. So you want to give Samsonov maybe three times four or whatever, three times three and a half. Or you give it to somebody else. Yeah, someone cheaper. Yeah. I just, watching Aiden Hill again and Vegas do this with minimal money on a goaltending cap, there was a stretch there for six weeks where you're like,

okay, I get it now. Bobrovsky looks and acts like a $10 million goalie. Yeah. Until he gets beat by a $2 million goalie. Yeah. Until he gets beat by a $2 million goalie. Yeah. No, it is. It's a tough position to figure out. You know you need it.

The numbers for Hill are through the roof. You just don't know how to find it. You have to pay for it. Spend a couple minutes on this potential trade here. Yeah, Provorov to Columbus, Mike Babcock. I was in the Maple Leafs room cutting a lot of tape when they were looking at potential people to draft in that draft. Babs liked Provorov.

Was this Marner's draft? Yeah, it was. So it was either Provorov or Hannafin that Babcock really wanted. I will say Babs liked Marner too. He did like Marner. He did. I was there to hear it. Yeah, sure he did.

Sure he did until he fought hard not to take him with mark hunter i i don't know if that fight happened it didn't while i was there i don't know you wanted a d well the yeah i mean the d we talked about he thought that hannifin didn't have the hockey sense to be a true number top pairing guy so he didn't want hannifin he liked the proveroff could break the puck out so he's he's a one-man breakout machine. That was the thought. And he liked Marner, but I remember them watching Marner tape

and him going, what does he do when he doesn't score? You know, and that was the whole, well, they made him into a penalty killer, essentially, right? That was a Babs initiative. Can we do more than just get points? It's going to be really hard for Babcock

not to be the biggest star for the Columbus. Oh, he's going to be the biggest star. He is, obviously. And I am tuned in. Yep. Can't wait. That's just. Can't wait for him to do the next presser dripping sweat after running laps around the concourse.

Doing the right things. Yes. Doing the right things. To one camera. Yeah. The funniest thing to contradict the two coaches last night. course doing the right things yes doing the right thing it's so fun to one camera yeah the funniest the funniest thing like to contradict the two coaches last night keith's morning availabilities where he's talking for 11 minutes babs was a hard three see you guys and he just run out of there

yeah hard three up all night grinding through video although i will say babs used to get there at like 5 30 in the morning or something he put in his time but of it didn't want to chat about it well be interesting to see how this works out with johnny gaudreau and babcock and the ability... Patrick Laine is still there? Forgot about that guy. And the ability to now... I don't know. Is it more of a destination for maybe potentially free agents? Columbus is like the island of misfit toys.

They're like, yeah, Laine wasn't happy. We'll see if we can fix him. We'll see if we can fix... They just seem to like... Provorov had some issues. We'll see if we can fix him up. They just seem to be trying to fix guys like the old Patriots used to. Any thoughts, indications on where Carter Hart might be off to there, Kip or Borny?

Not offhand. I got to think that LA needs to win next year, too. Buffalo's interesting. LA needs to win next year, too. Buffalo's interesting. LA needs to win next year, too. Yeah, could they complete a bigger piece of this with Hart going there? That's an interesting thought. Sam McKee, before the show, I will say, gave the old, is LA clearing cap space?

No, he didn't say. You didn't say why. Did you have an Austin Matthews, like, you know. The implication might have been there. A phobia of losing him here. I, you know, woke up in a cold sweat thinking about it, yeah. You don't want L.A. to have a bunch of caps. No.

That's all I'm saying. That's something I would prefer not to happen. I would prefer them to be right jammed up against the roof. Give Gavrikov six and a half mil, please. They know Kopitar's deals. Yes, we know. We've heard to happen. We prefer them to be right jammed up against the roof. Give Gavrikov six and a half mil, please. They know Kopitar's deals. Yes, we know. We've heard about that. It's come up.

That thought, yeah. Is that true? Take it easy there, Leaf lovers. Take it easy. God. It's in the show logo. Is any Brad Tree living in Arizona sight sightings tree up to anything we hear anything you fire a coach talk to matthews what's going on i'd love to see a picture of him in like

you know in arizona with matthews kyle just kyle fired eight ten guys his first day yeah his show baby you got to make room for all those Leafs people who are coming over. They're going to have the picture of him. Everything's great. Playing golf wearing off-white Nike shoes, him and True Living are in Arizona. When I see that, I'll be happy. Yeah, that's when you know they're playing in slides and socks. Yeah. All right.

We got to get out of here. All right, we got to go to break? Yeah, we should break. All right, we're going to go to break. After the break, we'll come with Sammy's playoff picks and real kipper and born back after this the best blue jay show out there period blair and barker be sure to subscribe and download the show on apple spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. This is real Kipper and Bourne on Sportsnet 590, the van. All right, Sammy boy, let her rip.

Time for playoff picks presented by Bet365. Visit the app for the latest odds. Looking ahead to game three, which is that tomorrow night or is it Thursday? It's tomorrow night no it's not thursday what yeah thursday saturday yeah shows what i know play on thursday so look ahead start applying yourself on your job sorry pal oh that's funny um so panthers are a favorite in game three so you can get the it's a slight favorite i think they're minus 115 and you can get the golden knights at plus 105 so any i mean any plus money for the golden knights who look way better right now seems like a seems like home ice i feel like if vegas plays poorly they have a chance to win correct you know i i like that number at plus 105 and if you think the

knights continue to dominate you can get them uh minus one and a half so win by two goals and plus 225 which to me is a very juicy number even if they're winning they could get an empty netter and that that would hit for you so i like that one a lot and the other one that i have for you guys is the con smith check-in which is one of my favorites to do, and I've been doing it since the start of the playoffs. Overwhelming favorite now is Jonathan Marcheseau at minus 110. Interesting. You know, I'm glad to hear that. Very impactful guy in terms of big goals, running his mouth.

You know, like he's just a competitive guy. Where's Stone at? He is further down the list at plus 1,400. Oh, wow. He's way out there. I mean, Jonathan Martin, it's recent. Like, I think, was it you that talked about it yesterday, Kipper? With when they reward.

Like, the finals matters the most in the Conn Smythe thing. Like, I know, obviously. I don't know percentage-wise, but you've got to almost put 70% of importance for Conn Smythe into a final. Do you think so much? Yeah, I do. And he's already got four points in two games, Marcia. And big goals. I think the narrative's there, too.

He's an original, one of the misfits on that first team. And that line of theirs is plus, plus, plus a million. I think he's plus 16. Yeah, it's all lining up for him to kind of have this moment. But he's had an awesome playoffs. He's got 21 points in 19 games, 12 goals. He's plus 16, fellas. Are you disappointed about Matthew Kachuk's drop-off in this final?

Like, you know, I only bring this up because he was one of the favorites coming in for the consmith into the final. And, you know, just listening to the conversations about Matthew Kachuk coming into this final, how he is the new face of the NHL. I don't know about that. No, I know. That's what I'm trying to get to. Is that everybody loves a player like this.

But when you have a side to him, you'll never put him in the same bracket as a McDavid or... Well, nobody's in that bracket. I'm just saying, though. You think it's because of the physical edge and runs his mouth? Go search up a couple of articles on conversations about how Matthew Kachuk is now

the new face of the NHL. I've seen them. Oh, that was out there. But that was like a thing as a people magazine. Whatever the case is. It's not true. You can't have that ugly side to him every once in a while and be willing to get in those ugly trenches and do that. No?

No. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You don't think Sid's got that? Oh, Sid's not like Matthew Kachuk. I won't spear you in the – No, he's not. No, no, no. He's not doing it every shift.

You don't even – I'll chop your hand off. No, there's no comparison. No, there's not. There's no comparison. Kachuk's 36 combined penalty minutes are the most in nhl history through the first two games of the stanley cup finals but i also think like duane sutter uh from on the islanders had 30 in the before was the record i

also think on the relax perspective with kachuk like what he finished third in the league in scoring this year and that's the highest he's ever finished by a good distance that's never going to be face of the league stuff connor mcdavid face of the league sydney crosby still a face still a face matthew's closer than kachuk the media has a way of building up guys and kind of like giving it a little bit of a fake kind of news feel to whatever they want to portray. We started this show on a non-hockey topic. I'll kind of end it up non-hockey and give a comparison to media buildup for an athlete. Alex Minow. Alec Minow?

Alec. Okay, so we'll just end off. That was playoff picks presented by N365. But I'm watching Minow get this buildup into the season for the Jays. That's a ball opening day. The man. Absolutely, this guy is the stud that's leading the Blue Jays. And I found it very sad watching him the other night.

It's a big, I think in baseball in particular, it's a big shift from when you're like, this guy is a nice story to you are our ace. Here is the ball. Go be the guy. The attention's on you. And then Sammy had a good point earlier. Yeah, you think that's hurt him.

100%. I just think that, you know, he's not there. Too big of a buildup. He's not. No, he's a pitch clock. The pitch clock has killed him. He's just not as fit as a lot of other guys out there. And he was one of the slowest workers in the league.

That can't just be the whole, the only thing. Yes. He was almost 30 seconds, 35 seconds between pitches. He was one of the slowest workers in the league. And now you have to go where you're under 20 seconds. And it's more of a physical, athletic thing. I think that's the biggest reason. I really do.

All right. You know. That's my take. I'm sticking to it. Or just thanks, boys. Stay tuned for tomorrow where we break down cricket. Darts. 190.

What other sport can we pull? Okay. Our thanks to Mike McKenna. Always with you throughout the Stanley Cup final. Nick Kiprios, Justin Bourne, Sammy McKee. We're back tomorrow.