Real Kyper & Bourne - World Series Heartbreak + State of the Avs with John-Michael Liles

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee reflect on the Toronto Blue Jays' crushing Game 7 loss in the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Then, they react to the Oilers playing the World Series on their jumbotron during live play. Later, former NHLer and Avalanche analyst John-Michael Liles joins the show (29:45) to discuss Colorado's play to start the year, early returns on Brent Burns, their struggles in overtimes and shootouts, Martin Nečas's outlook with a new big-money extension, and what to expect from Cale Makar's next contract.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.

All right, we're back. Real Kippren-Born show. Season 5. Nekiprios, Justin Bourne. Our Sammy McKee is in. Jake the Snake Schultz. Derek Brandeo. We are live.

Yep. On SportsNet 360, Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver, SportsNet 960 in Calgary, and streaming on SportsNet. If you miss our show, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube, this hour of Real Kipperman Bourne, brought to you by Bet365. Okay. I'm talking to you now. Yes. yeah yeah i'm worried about savvy yep i share your concern for him someone we care about dearly and on friday we all came to the conclusion that this thing was going to wrap up on the weekend

and we're going to go through whatever we need to go through on monday and then our show's going to come back at four to six eastern back in its regular slot uh the baseball guys blare and barker fabulous job and by the way kudos to them no no but fabulous job from everybody from Dan to Buck to Hazel to Jamie Campbell to Caleb to all of them

Joe fantastic job and me and you we're outside but for about 10 minutes Kevin Barker's there and we went through game 7 that was honestly one of the cooler sports experiences for me getting to have someone like him

fantastic i'm telling you if if we could have captured that 10 minutes between me you and kevin on game seven it would have been some riveting fascinating stuff because i learned so much in 10 minutes about game seven that i didn't necessarily know before and don't worry they'll take it to air for everyone at blaren barker they're they're coming up next so you're you're gonna just go right back into it and get all the good stuff from from barks but here's the part that worried me our sammy's like seven feet away from us and did not participate in one word no okay not one word no so and now here we are this is the longest he's ever gone without piping up at all right and uh i'm worried so i mean i mean i mean

No, hold on. We built a show up, right? Like we do. We have some discussions about at least, you know, what we think we might be doing. And I said, we'll give us some room to breathe a little bit. We've gone two weeks basically talking about this team a little bit. We got to put it, we got to wrap it up a little bit for our show. And Sammy sends us in our chat, you're going to torture me.

Well, you are. You're torturing him right now. It's torture for him. I don't want, I'm not trying to torture him. I know. I'm just trying to stay a little consistent on, on how passionate we've been the last couple of weeks watching another sport. By the way, kind of play out a little bit like

how we think hockey teams should play out. There's a lot of lessons, a lot of overlap. Right? A lot of overlap. so I don't want to torture him but like I mean look at him right now just look at him with the hood up first time he smiled today like what is going on like with the hood up now are you okay first of all are you okay I am the furzes thing from okay I have had the worst weekend in my sports life by far didn't go to game six lucky enough to go to game seven um yeah i mean the overwhelming i mean i've been trying to think about for two days because i knew

this was coming and i was trying to say what i was going to potentially say yeah and i think the overwhelming thing is that you know when the leaves crash out and i go on leaf stock and i come on here with you guys you get to hide the pain with extreme anger at a core that's never got it done or there's these moments where you're like how could they know come through how could they not come through and you guard your sadness with anger and i i just i don't i don't have the anger emotion to guard the sadness that that is yeah that's i don't think anybody like i think it's it's anger would be a wasted emotion but i i wish but i wish that i could have it like i i wish that i could you know get mad at somebody for something like you know all the principles that

apparently have been blamed because my phone's been off for most of the last couple hours, a couple days, and I've been watching Brooklyn 9-9 reruns in bed, pretending that that didn't happen, still haven't seen the home run from Rojas. Allie's out of town, so he's got no... I've been home alone, not speaking, not talking, went outside twice. I haven't talked about this. This is the first I've spoken about this to anyone. And I just, like, I know what people are blaming.

You know, it's ICF, not a big enough lead, bar show. How do you not get a ball out of the infield? You know, Ernie Clement, Andy Pott, all these things, I understand it. But this team was last place in April, and they went all the way to Game 7 extra innings of the World Series. And what people are saying, it's the best World Series and the history of the sport, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff. And I just, I want to be mad to guard the sadness,

but I just, I'm not mad. Yeah, I don't get mad. I don't get mad. If there's, like, listen, people deal with these things in different ways, which I totally understand. I totally get, but like, if you're sitting, if your first emotion is anger, that's fine by me. You can have those angers and you can have those feelings. But like, that shouldn't be what you're feeling. You should be feeling extreme sadness. And people, oh, Hoffman, you know,

all right, I knew Hoffman was going to blow it. Hoffman was lights out for the entire playoffs. Like people forget two weeks ago when he went six in games, two innings in game six against the Mariners. And when a closed it out in game seven, he was nailed. for the entire playoffs. He gave up a home run to a nine hitter and a hang a slot. People want to be mad at him. Oh, they shouldn't have brought him in.

No, they shouldn't have brought him the $11 million closer to finish off the World Series. They shouldn't have done that. It's baseball. And there's just nothing more painful than baseball. And I just, I want, I can't believe it didn't end with them winning.

I'm still, I haven't got past that part. That's, that's the part that you are, you're sad for those guys. That's it. I'm crushed for it. You know, I found myself. Sunday I was I golfed but you golfed how I mean I oh listen it's it's it golfs very much you know I'm with my buddy Elvis Mandela oh my god you guys you guys making fun of me you and Elvis no no but like

it's still very much you're in your own thoughts you walk up to your ball so it was it was it never left me and then like you know you're in the car by yourself and then you hear this kind of sad song and It's like, now it's even worse, right? I would have played golf if I could have on Sunday, but I walked from the Rogers Center to a Tobico after the game. So my hip didn't have it after that. I've lived being on the other side of a game seven, you know, and it's just that's such a fine line between how it can change your life

or the way you feel about yourself or you feel with your group, right? And I was gutted. I was gutted for all these guys who unfortunately had the greatest experience with the greatest guys, you know, and we know how close they are and what they said about each other. And that part even hurts even more that when you look at each other, it will, the most common denominator that you have is that feeling of losing. And it's just so hard to think about. at all with not imagining the scenario where, you know,

ICF's foot is a, you know, two inches farther along and it's safe and we're all doing the celebration thing. It's just how close it was makes it so much more painful. You know, my, my nine-year-old son was ruined. My wife was in tears. But, you know, all I can take away from this group is, you know, is how wonderful this was, how many great memories that that team gave us. But also think about, I was thinking about this from, like, a hockey,

perspective and the Leif's perspective, think about the next generation of fans has had their run here, has had this moment where now my son wants to stay in baseball and we were going to take him out of it. And my wife wants to get a jersey and Jay's fans are, there's this growth in it. God, Leif's fans haven't had that. The next generation hasn't happened for them like this. I know, but don't tell that to the guys that lost because. I know. I know. I know. I'm talking about fans here. Yeah, I know. But for those guys, It's different, I know. I grew up a J's fan.

This experience, the last two weeks a month, I turned into a baseball fan. Like, there are times in June or July, you're in the fourth inning. Like, you know, you're not paying attention. But this game, I discovered what a fine line it is between winning and losing. Like even a count, a simple thing

is a pitch count and how after every pitch it's as if you feel like your collar getting tighter and tighter on every pitch like i i'm sitting there Saturday night and i'm like please a ball just please a ball throw ball walk them walk them the game will start and it's suddenly two oh count to otani to start the game and you're like oh it's ruined he's going to see a strike and it's like it's incredible on how truly this is a game of inches and we know the play at the plate for sure and the lead off and people want to dissect that all but like I get

why they say it's it's so romantic the sport is just so like it'll break your heart I get it now I totally I totally get it unlike hockey a little bit you know

there's ways through the neutral zone that you can stay calm for a little bit but pitch to pitch it's almost impossible stay calm let me explain it to you better there is literally half the game where nothing but bad things can happen. Yeah.

You're sitting there for 15, 20 minutes at a hot time hoping for bad things not to happen after potentially nothing good happened for your team. Totally. It's, I mean, and, you know, to feel, to feel what it felt like in game seven when Boba Shet hit that bomb off Shohei Otani and to have a no,

knowing that they didn't win. Like, I mean, I, my, bless my TikTok algorithm, they knows I don't want this. Like, it's feeding me everything but this, which is God bless algorithms. But I haven't seen a highlight of it. I haven't seen a highlight of one thing. But like, I mean, I witnessed it live.

I saw it fly. Like, that was supposed to be the moment. That was supposed to be the moment where, and they get in the top of the, in the top of the eighth, or bottom of the eighth inning, they get Ernie Clement to second base a lead off double and they can't get them home and that for me is where the Toronto Blue Jays lost the game. You have to get that run home. I also learned that I feel way better with a

three nothing hockey lead than I do a three nothing baseball lead. It's like it's not even close. Well, yeah, obviously. Yeah, for sure. And listen, like, I don't really know how much more I can say, but it was an incredible run and it was a special group. I just, I'm really, really upset for them that they didn't get to finish it off. It would have been fun for years to go back and look at this, what they did, Yankees. I mentioned the terrific job our crew did at SportsNet covering this thing from beginning to end.

You know, Caleb went on very emotional and said on SportsNet that the baseball gods got it wrong. God, I love that quote because he's right. Do you believe that? 100%. Yeah, I don't believe it. Yeah. I love a terrific world.

I just don't have the opinion that, I believe that, you know, just in terms of, I'll get my poppy here. Oh, did it fall? Here's what I'll say. I mean, they outscore them by a bunch of runs. They, you know, like, it just. Like pretty much every metric, they were the better team over the series. Far better team.

And listen, he's, our boy, Caleb's taking a beating online, and I've seen a ton of people making fun of them, but I probably would have said something similar in the moment. It's just, it's really hard to go on as a team broadcaster who, you know. For sure. I get where he's coming from, and I get it. But I think this is the true beauty of sport is that it comes down to certain things. And there's such a fine line between winning and losing. And I think we just saw that.

And people are saying that the Dodgers are ruining baseball. I don't agree with that. And again, I don't agree with that either. Like, you cannot buy, even with a billion dollars, you can't buy what they have. Well, you can buy Yamamoto. You can buy talent, Sam. But what you can't buy is a group of guys that come together. And we were so focused on the Jays of being this true team that loves each other and watches backs.

I don't think we paid enough attention to the Dodgers have that too. They have that too. Okay. And they were resilient and they refused to die. they had every reason to die the jays had it and they refused to die that's not the hot that's not the golf or golf can i get the sport right that's not the baseball gods getting it wrong when a team champions refuse to die okay you know you're just you know you're down to millimeters here and i can't hold up the Dodgers as something better or brighter than what the Jays were after that

series particularly they didn't get the guy they had base runners they didn't get them in now we go into the details and what uh hanging okay tray i love them but they squeezed every last drop out of him and then he goes up there and he's probably a little overwhelmed and he throws up a beach ball to Muncie But he That was a batting practice pitch Yeah they

I mean he also He crushed it He also got out of the six inning And you know He'd earn that spot I'm just telling you I'm telling you that That's

You can only You can only squeeze so much Like to ask I'm more in the agreement That yeah Maybe the Js helped Put it on a platter For them to take it

But they still took it Yeah. And you still have to execute to take it. They started, yeah, I mean, I don't think anyone has come in and said the Dodgers were a bad team. You know, I do think that everyone's making the point that over the course of this playoff run of that series head to head, the Blue Jays were the better team. I know they didn't get that final game. They lose by one in the 18th inning.

They lose by one in the 11th inning. They beat the brakes off them three times. They didn't make the pitches that they needed to at the right time. the base running was subpar and you left runners in scoring position. I'm not sure how much game seven. But this is why it hurts so much that by a toe, we got to come in here and argue about whether they deserved it or we deserved it. You know, if you want, you think the Dodgers deserved it.

I know, I know. You know, it's like, okay. Yeah, it's a philosophy difference. For sure. And there's also the, I think there's the feel good vibe that people have had throughout this whole thing where it's like, people connected with this team on a personal level. George Springer battling through injury to stay in games coming up with big hits.

Bo Bichette with the knee surgery, can't even run the basis, hits a three-run dinger. You got guys getting pegged by pitches left and right, and they kept coming up. You fell in love with it. And that's, absolutely. And that's why it had this vibe of like a movie where it's like it was destined to be. And the fact that it wasn't, I think, was just crushing. Absolutely devastating.

You know, McKee's not alone in feeling the way he's feeling here. I have to say that if there's one thing, like, you know, the amount of people over the past 48 hours, well, whenever the game ended until now, however many hours that is, that have reached out to me and said, hey, man, love you, thinking about you, has been completely overwhelming.

Like, truly. And it's like, I mean, I'm just a fan of a baseball team. Like my dog didn't die. Like, you know, but like the fact that people care enough to reach out to me and say hey like i love you i'm going through the same thing as you are i i mean it feels pathetic to be as sad as i am right now i just i i can't i guess that's why people you know kind of identify with what i say because i truly care and i truly and i know there's a lot of people that are probably looking to me to come on here and you know push back against kipper being like

oh the dodgers earned it by hitting 209 in the world series and getting lucky on two plays like i'm sure they want me to push back but i just can't i just can't like andy pa has if there's one thing that will haunt me until the day I die is sure IKF maybe oh you should have got a bigger secondary lead they don't want to they don't want to get doubled off it's at third base far show hits hard line drives all over the place they were coached to not go off for yes i understand that yeah and let's let's make that clear you can that's what you're told you can crap you don't go against a third base coach who wants you to if if you want to blame iKF the 26 man on this roster is not you think that's the reason they lost the world series be my guest

That won't be the thing that haunts me, although you could have had for a slide, maybe. Mixing a, mixing a slide. It's the Ernie Clement ball that was absolutely roasted. You just felt like the game was over as that guy's running back to the wall. Well, I mean, off the bat, off the bat, the sound and the look. And, I mean, Pahas comes out of nowhere. That, to me, will be the one that will always haunt me because it's been Ernie Clement, who's been the story of this postseason, another unbelievable game in Game 7.

and, you know, he has that picture of him sliding home that would have been on every t-shirt across the country for the rest of our lives, and you had this chance. It was the first pitch, and he roasted it. It's like, that is the one that'll keep me up at night. Not, you know, Kirkie being up there, getting his bat sawed off, like, whatever.

And Vladdy, too, eh? Right down to the last inning of the last game, hits a double off Yamamoto to start that inning. They can't cash him in. They've been money all year long with runners and scoring, position and when it mattered the most it dried up varshow killed them in those two games he absolutely killed i tell you it's it's painful to listen to hoffman to talk about not being it he he's the reason why they're not wearing it i read the quote i didn't see it

uh championship rings or he's what do you say he just says he says he costs everyone i hear a ring yeah which is just you know one pitching in baseball you're talking about a placement of gut wrenching. Six inches different from where it should be and it's gut wrenching. Yeah.

I don't even want to bring it. Anyways. Did you want to play stuff? No, we promise we promise, uh, thank God. We promise, uh,

we get to hockey. Listen, John Michael Isles coming up. You may, like, you were going to make, okay, this is what makes that.

Mad, mad, mad, what's that? You were potentially going to make me pour over the tape of my boy, Ernie Clement crying. I loved it.

Yeah. We were even going to play it? Like, I'm not listening to it. I just love it because it's not, Because it's not baseball, hockey, per se, or anything else. It's just, this is how you're supposed to be.

This is how you win championships. If not this year, hopefully next year for the Jays. But this is what people want to see and feel. And there's a lot of teams that don't get it right. And I just think it's a wonderful reminder to all of us. this is this is this is the difference between winning and losing championships or at least getting yourself in a position to come as close as they did the care the care i got to tell you it here's the really this is where i'm going to get like my you know how i get

you know you guys though everybody listen you know how i get this felt like a one in a million season and i they could be under 500 next year you know bow may be gone you know like you know Shurs are maybe gone, probably gone, you know, Basset, Beaver. You don't win. Make changes. But I'm not saying which ones. Far show is my first choice. You change.

You make a few changes here. Far show is my first choice. You know, there's certain things that you can't unsee. And I got to find that stat. Let me quickly look it up. But I think he was pretty good in the field, man. Yeah. He made a great catch.

He made a great catch in that game. But when it came down to. Slam, too, didn't he earlier? Is that barger? Oh, Barger. He had a home run, though. Same game. Yeah, yeah, same game.

You know, like, he, pretty good ball player. I understand he's a good ball player. Okay, so one more thought before we go to break here is that Saturday night, I was at the game as well. You were right? Yeah. I was in Section 119. The L.A. Dodgers family or friend. Oh, my God.

They were next to me. Nightmare. And it was a nightmare. No, and there were. The nightmare wasn't that they were obnoxious. They're nothing to cheer all game, basically. They just like, they're behind until the 11th. Just watching them at the end celebrate was like,

and I loved my section because I was up at the top. So there's the standing room fans, which I all like, they became like family. You know, you're just high-fiving, hugging everybody. And it's like, it was an unbelievable experience. I just want to throw one more thing in. I now get what. why people spend $10,000 for a ticket or $5,000, even if you don't quite have it, I get it now.

That experience was that special. That experience, I've never done it before. I played in a game seven, but I've never been in that situation where it's like, if you offered me a trip somewhere with free hotel and meals and maybe a couple rounds of golf, I wouldn't take it. I wouldn't trade it in for being there Saturday night. Yeah, agreed. I wouldn't. Well, I mean, I would now. Yeah, now you will.

You're not allowed to pick after. You pick before the game. Here's what I will say. You know, we talk a lot about game seven. Game six was horrifying too. So, you know, it's not like it was a one-night affair. No. I said to you guys out there, that was actually the least fun I've ever had watching a sport.

That ball lodging is a one-and-a-million chance that that happens. I've never seen it happen before. that baseball game second and third nobody out with a chance to win the world series and the game was over on three swings that is as painful as you can ever imagine for a game six and i gotta tell you it's like you just i was just hoping that you'd be like no it's not toronto sports it's not this team is not tronto sports and it just it's the same one more thing before we go to break i got the bar show stat in game six and seven he was combined oh for nine with 13 left on base yeah that that's the difference Okay. One more thing, hockey related, Saturday night in Edmonton. Congrats to Easton Cowan for his first NHL goal. Yeah, we got a leaf hour there, save it, pal. They showed the baseball game live with sound up. During the Oilers game.

That's the most insane thing I've ever heard in my life. Unacceptable. Somebody said that to me and I'm like, not a chance they would do that. It's true. It's true. And Connor, I learned about it. from the McDavid quotes after the game. How can you do that?

Do we have McDavid after the game? I actually thought of that too in terms of like rights and like if you. Do we have that? No, we don't have it. Okay. The quote from McDavid is like I found myself sitting on the bench watching the game. And when I was on the ice, I found myself listening to the crowd to see what was going on. If it's a big spot, you're on the ice.

You're like, did they get a hit? I can't think of a bigger distraction ever in a hockey game. Like there's fights going on while you're still playing. there's beer pouring on you during a game i've had mustard thrown at me in those little packages like but i cannot believe that they would do that like they turned it off for the third period they said they turned it off for the third that's even that's even more dangerous that's way worse that's way worse just finish it off you're going to leave it up there yeah because now everyone's like what's going to the lobby

So 9-11, the Rangers, after 9-11, they had an exhibition game in Philly. And the Philly building decides to show President Bush at the time up live during the game, right? Really? To talk about, you know, what the next plan of the United States is. You were in this game? No, I was not in this game, but I know this story. and and then they shut it off and people went ballistic and they actually put it back on and then they canceled the exhibition game.

Come on. Talk about falling all over your shoes. It was like it was nuts. That's a mess. It was nuts. But this, like, why don't you just tell people if you're going to drive a car and text, be careful? You know, it's like, I don't, like, why would you send your players out there with such a big distraction. I found it

like almost like a... That's interesting that you think of a safety thing for the player. A safety thing where you're focused, you're not focused, you get hit, there's a collision, a goalie looks up for a split second because it's maybe one of the greatest sporting event in our history going on. It's like...

And then, play by play at Jack? Jack Michaels, yeah. Like... We think we might have that. Maybe we don't. Do we have that? Jake or no? Just we do. We do. Okay, let's But just, Jack, Michael, calling the game. Under duress, Mangapani rides him into the boards. Henry creates a drive-back behind. The Blue Jays have just won the World Series.

What? The, or no, they're calling them out at home. The Blue Jays... The Blue Jays just won the World Series. And you know what? I feel so bad for Jack. Can we go? No.

on cap no i feel i've been here for 26 minutes man let's go i feel horrible i feel horrible i feel horrible i feel horrible for jack because he was in a position now to comment on something you have to and he's trying to call a game and he's trying to focus on what's going on at the jays game and try to match it up and it was wrong and you know it's like what do we do to them they tried to give everyone what they wanted, right? Everyone wanted the Jay's game. Everyone wanted the Oilers game. They tried to give them what they wanted.

Let's go. Catch your breath, everybody. I promise you more hockey talk. I promise you hockey talk. On the real Kipper and Born show after these words. Hey, it's Matt Markeesie. And I'm Mike Futa. We're discussing the top stories of the day across the NHL

and the hockey world. Weekdays at noon. It's the fan hockey show on Sportsnet 590, The Fan, and wherever you get your podcast. don't mind us we're just amongst ourselves I ended up in a box for the first time in my life at the Rogers Center for Game 7 of the World Series

that was interesting about Drake I did see Drake a reminder this hour of Real Kipper and Bourne brought to you by Bet365 Nick Kippreel's Justin Bourne Sammy McKee John Michael Isles he's there yes thank God

no more Jay's talk thank God John we out Jay's talk baseball talk is over buddy how are you Oh, I'm good. I, man, I watched that game seven and that was heartbreaking. I was with Darren Helm, actually, the next day. And we were talking about it. And I said, you know, can you imagine being on the Leafs team that lost to Boston

after being up four to one with 10 minutes left? Like, that might be worse. And I experienced that one. So I feel for the Js and just Canadian baseball fans. I was rooting for him and I'm not a Jay's fan and I was still rooting for him. Well, that's good to hear. It was certainly heartbreak up here.

I'm actually really glad to get to talk to you. Turn the page. Talk about a team that's winning a little bit here. The Colorado avalanche off to a good start this year. Could you just sort of give us a check-it on the abs? Where are things? How have they got to the top of the standings in the Central? Well, I think, you know, going into training camp,

there was a huge focus on getting out of the gates a lot better than they did last year. They didn't get over 500 until, I believe, it was November 13th last year. So they've done a good job of getting out of the gates well. Solid goal tending. Mackenzie Blackwood just played his first game of the year in San Jose the other night,

but Scott Wedgwood has been playing really well. And they've been getting contributions up and down the lineup. It feels like there's a really solid depth on this team, and that's forward and D. Brent Burns has been fantastic addition on the back end. And, you know, having healthy Gabe Landisog in the lineup has made a huge difference. And it's noticeable. I would say, you know, looking at their, you know, their kind of record in the games they've played thus far,

there haven't been any games where we sit there as analysts and announcers going, wow, that was a stinker. They've had a period here or there, but it feels like they've been in pretty much every game, had an opportunity to win every game. and it shows in the standings. You're watching and listening to John Michael Lyle's former Avs Leaf Hurricane Bruins Avalanche. Am I missing anybody, John? That pretty much nailed it, I think.

You mentioned Brent Burns and what you've been able to see, the longevity, the consistency, what makes him still an effective guy at this age? well i think you know watching him for so long and playing against him for a long time as well i mean you know the offensive ability is you know the way that he's able to to get shots through to the net pretty much every time very rarely does he have them blocked but for me just the smarts uh the way that he protects the puck he he moves it so efficiently whether it's in the offensive zone or you know coming out of the d zone and it's just um It wasn't something that I necessarily keyed in on when he signed here,

but it's been just, you know, front and center pretty much every game. And the way, I mean, listen, you're 40 years old. You've been in a league for 15, you know, played 1,500 games. You have to take care of your body in order to be doing it that long and still doing it effectively. So the way that he just, you know, he approaches each and every day and we've had them, you know, on the set and just, you know, talking with him in interviews and whatnot. just he loves coming to the rink every day and and uh and just you know having that guy back there 40 years old i'm not saying it's it's ray bork ask but you have somebody that's been in the game for a long long time he hasn't won a stanley cup and and he has an opportunity with a really

good team here in colorado i would say that you know it gives guys a little bit of an extra motivation coming to the rink each and every day and seeing how he approaches uh the game on a daily basis. So when like going through this team and sort of doing a little prep to chat with you today, looking at their record after regulation, like we're talking about all the talent. They've lost Utah, New Jersey, San Jose in three on three. They've lost a couple of shootouts. What is their deal? Why can't they get that extra point? Yeah. I mean, listen, the shootout record over the last few years, it hasn't been great. And I look at it. You know, you've got so much talent there. For whatever reason, Nathan McKinnon, when he has a guy on his back, seems to score like nine out of ten times.

But when Nathan McKinnon has, you know, in a shootout, he's got time and space, it just, it hasn't clicked. And, I mean, when he's going, you know, 110 miles an hour, that's where he's most effective. So I'm not saying this is all Nathan McKinnon. It's just weird how it plays out in a shootout. And as far as overtime, you know, like it comes down, especially during three on three. it comes down just to the littlest details. And if you're a half step behind a guy and, you know, you've got an opportunity to call it offensively and you miss the net

or there's a rebound and all of a sudden it kicks back out. You know, they have, they've gotten beat on a couple two-on-ones. There was one bad bounce in Jersey, you know, McCar passes it up to Natchez. Natchez tries to grab it with his glove because it was, you know, in the air and all of a sudden it hits off his glove, kicks back to the Jersey player who feeds Jack Hughes in front for his second opportunity and call it 10 seconds.

You give Jack Hughes two opportunities in front of the net in 10 seconds. He's probably going to bury one of those. So just, you know, some weird stuff. I know they've been experimenting a little bit trying to, you know, see if they can dial in, you know, the forward combinations with certain decombinations.

So it's definitely interesting this many games into this season and to have this many losses past regulation with the talent that they have. John, we know that Gabriel Landis Cog's comeback is something of we seldom see in a career. And that alone is a huge accomplishment. But he's still looking for his first goal. There's some nights that he's playing 12 minutes, which is a far cry from earlier in his career

when he often led the team a nice time. and that could easily average 20 minutes a game. Is this just the way it's going to be moving forward for this guy? And is it more just to continue to kind of protect him a little bit? Is there ever a chance that we can see that guy prior to the major injury? Well, what I would say when we've talked about it on our broadcast is there definitely has to be patience, right? I mean, you're out of the game for three years. You come back in the playoffs last year,

but we all know how playoff hockey is, especially when you've been out that long. You're running on pure adrenaline at that point, in my mind. And the way that he was in the playoffs and the way that line was in the effectiveness, it's different than stepping into game one of the regular season and now you've gone through a proper training camp and you feel like you're right there.

You're not running on that adrenaline when you're going every other day, with the travel and so to me it's now you're seeing that kind of three years away from the game a little bit and and my thing is okay like there's there's got to be patience involved at this point give him time to really get himself back up to speed for that that grind of a season and um we've definitely seen flashes of it thus far um you mentioned no goal i mean he scored a goal in Utah on the road that would have put the abs up to nothing that ended up getting called back. It was a bit controversial. You know, they were saying Nchuschen's forechecking caused Genther to stick handle it back into

his own end, which then, you know, resulted in the offside. We talked about it for, it seemed like, you know, the next week straight. But, you know, it would have been nice to have him on the board with that one because it would have been a critical goal on the road in a hard fought game at the time. and Utah ends up flipping the tables and really, you know, dominating, I would say, a good portion of the remainder of that game. So, you know, for me, I see Landy and I see what he's doing. You know, they moved him on a line with Jack Drury and Victor Olifson kind of off of that Nelson-Nachushkin line.

And so I think that probably, you know, goes to some of the, you know, the 12 minutes versus the 18, 19 minutes that he was playing prior to the injury, you know, sometimes 20 minutes. And then, you know, also they've been experimenting with some of the power play units, that top power play unit with McCarron McKinnon. A lot of times can play, you know, a minute 30, a minute 40. So, you know, with Landy being on the second unit, you know, you're only seeing 15 or 20 seconds, maybe 30 seconds of a power play. So I think there's, you know, so there's some reasoning behind why he's only playing, you know, 12 to 15 minutes at the time or sorry, right now.

But it wouldn't shock me if that continues to increase as he, you know, as he battles through that that you know the cobwebs of having three years off and and essentially just rehabbing for three years to try to get back to where he is right now yeah no that makes a lot of sense um first off go two things number one uh that hat is awesome that abs a alumni rope had is really fantastic the gear is wonderful right they have that nordique's uh thirds the other day the abs got great great gear these days uh but the question for you is about martin nature so the abs end up with martin atchis he signs this nice contract your thoughts on ending up with NACIS and that contract, I guess in the contrast of the Rantaninan situation

a year or two ago, I know that it's there, right? Like that's, everyone is like, everybody still wants to talk about it. Well, it's just how, does it feel better now that you have a guy that you know can run with McKinnon and score and all that locked up for an eight year deal? Yes, it does. And what I would say is you go back to the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the and stuff what did happen what didn't happen i mean it's it's a long time ago it's there's some PTSD involved from the ranting situation if when you go back to it right so now all of a sudden you have

natures coming in he's due for an extension it wasn't signed in the summer bam it gets signed so now all of a sudden i think people are feeling good he's now he scored him back-to-back game since signing the extension he's a guy that that now that he's had some time with mckinan there's a definite chemistry there anybody would love to have miko ranton on their team team but in the end you have kale macar and you have nathan mckinan they're always going to be your top two and so that was how it was going to be with the abs the abs are always going to have mckinin and mccar that's your top two who's going to be the third in the end there was contract negotiations i you know whatever happened behind the scenes happened but you know miko

miko ended up in dallas because of that and and realistically the abs have always been focus on the McCar extension, right, which is going to be coming up in the summer. And Kail McCar can push a number if Kail wants to push a number. And that's, you know. No, no, no, no, better question. Oh, John, better question. Are people nervous already? No.

Okay. Not at all. Not at all. I don't see it being an issue. Kail loves being here. The abs love him. He's, first of all, he's an unbelievable player, but second of all, he is an unreal person, right and he's a he's a great teammate and he's the guy that you want okay you know on your

so all you're saying is big discount coming big discount he loves it here big discount i'm saying i'm saying kale could could could pretty much uh determine what kale makes yeah right and if kale wants to push a number i don't know that the abs are going to you know they could but um i don't see the abs you know backing away from any number and and if kale wants to say, hey, I want to win and I can take this, I'm sure the abs would be pumped with that as well. So I don't see Kail being anywhere else other than a Colorado avalanche. I just think that he's too valuable, what he does, not just offensively, but defensively in the way that he can dictate a game from the back end.

And when you put that with Nathan McKinnon and you put that with Marty Natchez, and you've got Nelson and Natchewskine and, you know, Landisog, like their top six is the best it's looked in the last, call it, four years, five years since they won the Cup. And I would say the forward depth is as good as it's been as well. It's just, I mean, you know, top to bottom, the goaltending from where it was a year ago. You've got two completely new goaltenders that have been fantastic since coming to Colorado. So I think there's just a lot to like. And I don't see, you know, the K.L. McCarr extension being an issue, you know, when it comes

around, you know, after the season's over. John, great stuff, man, as always on our show. One question, one quick question here. What kind of alumni player are you? Because I stink. Oh, man. I don't know. I wish I could say. You quarterbacking out there?

I'm still good offensively, but I just, I can still skate. There you go. He's good. Young legs. Young legs. Appreciate it, pal. Thanks for doing this. All right. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Oh, I'm telling you, I'm like, I step on the ice and I'm like, did you really play professional in the NFL? Yeah, I mean, listen, I haven't played a game in five years. Both of these conversations are just such crap. You guys are both going to step out there. You're going to be hard cross. And now we're snapping in our ass. Friday's Friday, Easter Seals, Eric Lindross tournament.

Yep. You want to flash it up on the board? We'll do it during the Toronto hour. We'll do it during the lease hour. Well, let's do it twice. Okay. I'll tell you why I want to do it twice. Yeah, yeah.

Because our fundraising, like, we're in last place, like, basically. Like, we're, like, yeah, we need help. We're doing our show, so we get to do it every year. Yes. Yeah. If you can, like, even like, like the Js next year. A quarter, 50 cents, whatever you got. Just get us out of the basement, please.

Um, can I be honest? You're in shoulder pads? But I haven't worn a shoulder pads since game, like, my last game of the year. Good to hear. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Or a neckguard, too. I feel better.

Feel better. How do you feel better? You talked it out. Buddy, I feel a lot better. I said to Sam, it's too bad hours out there that you couldn't have talked about before doing it on air. I talked to her.

Like we FaceTime multiple times, but like she FaceTime me after I was walking when I did my marathon home. Two hour walk. She facetimey and I picked it up. And she was bawling her eyes. And I'm like, why did you face us? This isn't the time. This is helpful.

Off. You also walked home, didn't you? Yeah. Well, did you, I don't know if we should get into it. What's that? I mean, city of Toronto. Oh, they got in big trouble for shutting down the trains.

And they sent like a super connoisseting tweet about it too. They did. They did. Oh, not good. Up late, transit won't wait. It's like, why not? Probably should. Anyway.

But yeah, I mean, I, yeah, it was really nice. Like, I'm just pictured walking onto that subway when everybody would be feeling like and, like, having that mass. sadness. I'm like, I'm just going to not do that. Yeah. So listen to a couple albums. You feel better now? I do. Yeah, I do. Not good. Not like, oh no, but like

the sun came up. That's what therapy is. Can I talk through? I, you know. And he's often in therapy on our show. What our show is. I would say that I love you guys. And that like it means a lot to me that you guys have given me the platform to talk Chase, which I truly care about. And yeah, like being able to talk about with you guys with the audience, it's awesome. So I do love you guys. So thank you. A lot of people connected with that sentiment, I think.

Yeah. What other hockey stuff you guys want to talk about? Hockey stuff. Habs again? All right. Will they please start losing a bit? Yeah, the habs are. Another late time goal that are just on fire. I tell you what, it's going to be a dog fight, man, for playoff spots.

But in terms of playoff spots, I think I, you know, we have four minutes left in our NHL hour. Need to shout out Matthew Schaefer and what he's doing with the Islanders. Unbelievable. Scores two goals. I know. He's five already on the season. ever for multiple goals and you know now we got a tweet i'm sure you guys saw the one tweet of someone just being like could this guy be on team canada's radar and it's like absolutely not

and then it's not a hundred percent no it's close radar you're having a conversation you just how long can you do this but you also yeah exactly you got to see it uh what it looks like in the next six weeks that's really that's the window the next six six weeks that's really that's the window the next six weeks is the window for him to be taken seriously. It's an insane thought. On a spot. It is, I mean, I'm just looking at the Eastern Conference standings, which the Islanders are involved in this.

Every single team is either at or above 500. Not a single team is below 500 in the east right now. Yeah. By the way, Sam, I actually wanted to make this note, so I'm glad you brought it up. Let me pull up the standings here with you. I don't think any team has half of their game play total and regulation wins. So the leader in regulation wins in the entire conference has eight.

Okay, so New Jersey is above the halfway mark, but pretty much everyone's below. Like the Leafs, how many regulation wins in 12 games? Four. And that goes the same for most of these teams. Montreal, four regulation wins in 12 games. Yeah, you're just talking about it with John Michael Liles. They've lost five times an overtime. Like, it's weird, a lot of overtime.

Tampa Bay, four regulation wins. All these teams of people are talking about how good they are. Detroit's played 13 games. Six regulation wins. Just one note on Matthew Schaefer here. Ottawa has fours, well, I'm 13. If you're the islanders, I'm not even sure it's a great idea, you know, for him to go. Well, what's crazy is he can go play the world juniors.

This guy. You still have to be very careful with this guy. This guy will hit a wall. And for some, you go like, oh, yeah, he's hit a wall. For some, it might not be as noticeable. he may be so good that when he does hit a wall or when he has that point in the season where it's not going well he may be able to hide it a little bit more but they all hit a certain point it it won't be this rosy for him either on or off the ice over the whole season you got to

still want to protect this guy what a bounce on yeah that one was lucky the other one ripped in and yeah i mean speaking of sports God's, you know, I mean, he's getting some bounces and it's, it's going well for him. Can I ask, do you think that there would be any value in him being like a taxi squad guy for the Olympics, like just going and being around those guys? I do believe that they, they do consider that. Yeah, they do consider that. And the maturity that he's shown certainly would lend itself to that.

And what change? I was going to say, what changes things here is international competition is going to be a regular thing now. Every two years for the next 10 are basically planned. And guess who's a big part of it going forward? It's going to be Schaefer, Celebrini, Badar. It's their team. It's their team. In a few years, it'll be their team. Getting their feet

wet or do you focus? I just win this one and worry about the next one when the time comes. I kind of lean towards win each one the time it's up. World championships good for development. It's not a development situation. The Olympics, maybe said the best. That's the next heartbreak coming for Canada.

Oh, my God. Our thanks. My last one. Tough day. To John Michael Liles. Gave us a pretty good read into a very strong hockey club in Colorado. Sammy? Yep.

Still got an hour to go, buddy. I'm good. And it's on your Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leaf Hour edition of our program is up next as the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Pittsburgh Penguins get set to battle tonight. Don't go away. Thank you.