The Kevin Karius Show - Mar. 2nd, 2026 - Brian Smith

0:00Hey, it's Howie Mandel and I am inviting you to witness history as me and my Howie Do It gaming team take on Gilly DeKing and wallow 267's million dollars gaming in an epic global gaming league video game showdown four rounds multiple games one winner plus a halftime performance by multi platinum artist Travis McCoy watch all the action and see who wins and advances to the championship match against Neo right now at globalgamingleg.com that's globalgamingleg.com everybody games United health group is bringing in-home treatment directly to patients closing caregabs identifying risks earlier and improving patient outcomes in 2025 patients received over 19 million home visits learn more United health group.com slash commitment as we welcome in Brian Smith Philadelphia Flyers pre and post game show host good morning Brian with Kevin Kerry thanks for jumping on sports 1440 this morning really appreciate it. Sure thing Kevin yeah thanks for having me. Hey where are the flyers out

1:01in your opinion here with the deadline coming up on Friday Brian and they're sort of I kind of look at them they were like in in no man's land they're they're kind of knocking on the door but they're just a little bit far back and I mean where would you assess this team going into the the deadline on Friday Brian. Well deadline wise that kind of sums it up thank you you know it's it's a little bit of an odd situation in that you know again they're they're on the cusp of of maybe making a run here but it would take a lot at the same time there's there's not a lot for for them to sell in terms of a rental situation in terms of you know guys that are on expiring contracts things like that I think the one guy that jumps to mind for a lot of people as well especially after the Olympics he just had but you know he's been in kind of this boat for the last two or three years now so so we'll have to see it's going to be a pretty interesting deadline here for for Philadelphia but the one thing a lot of the folks in in failure watching is this whether the flyers become buyers not for this year but maybe

2:02for the future you know the the team was going along in a pace in the first half of the year where it felt like they were maybe one big deal away from taking a jump here and they're in their overall rebuild you know things obviously fell off a little bit in January but they've looked good here so far coming back from the break so yeah the fact that it's so quick here after the break is going to make it pretty interesting yeah I don't have to tell you Brian that you know and you mentioned him Rasmus Ristals Ristals Lane his name is popped up in this neck of the woods because the owners are in desperate need of another demand if they could land one I don't know what the acquisition ask would be for a guy like Ristals Laney but maybe just give us an assessment how you thought he's played so far this year well when he's been on the ice he's been terrific he is you know he's again he's been back to the kind of the jump that he made when he came here he got the Philadelphia it was a situation where he had been through I think a total we counter him up a total of 17 coaches when you count head coaches and the sister coaches during his time

3:08in Buffalo so he had so many different people he was working with and you know he was he was at the time up there looked you know he was he was kind of being sawed at as the the number one that the future and their defense so a lot of pressure on him there when he came to Philadelphia that wasn't necessarily the case and that's when he hooked up with Brad Shaw who pretty much changed his game they looked at him over the course of the training camp that first training camp and they came up with a bunch of things that they wanted to work with him on and then really just turned him around and now you know since our coaching changes here the guy that's coming now to work with him as Todd Reardon he's taking even to another level so he's been he's been terrific because this is a big big issue has been he's been injuries he's had to miss a couple of big blocks of time with the same upper body injury so the hope is that that is behind him now that he is all healed up and that he can he can move forward and still be effective here so but but when you know this past you know a few months coming back in that injury he has been terrific has he been

4:11partnered up with Travis Sinham for the for the most part here Brian I would say yes you know it's been again a little bit of a hidden missed situation because he was out with an unrelated injury in the couple of weeks before the Olympic break but he came back and played those last two or three games before the break with Travis Sinham and then has been paired with him here through the three games suppliers have had so far so that seems to be where they've been trying to find him a spot there and then again you know how it is with the defense you know you move one guy one place looks like okay well can this guy play left can this guy play right so you know they've moved and Sinham can move from back back and forth kind of so you know they've they've gone with that here the last two games and we'll see if it happens to get there by yeah in Toronto tonight to take on the meet beliefs Brian Smith with this one sports 1440 you know I always think it's a

5:12polarizing kind of situation with with Matt Vey Michkov I I'm wonder how you've kind of thought how this relationship if you want to call it that has has played out in in Philadelphia with a guy like Rick talk it and maybe just even before that how have you seen his development and how he's morphed into what I think a lot of players are thinking is a you know a really talented young young player yeah he really is and you know it's it's it's it's been a situation that I think has been blown up a little bit more than it actually is you know there there has certainly been he's certainly had his struggles this year and you know a lot of it has kind of been traced back to he took a more time off last summer than I think he ever has and and you know it was a tough it's a tough year for him last year and not not in terms of performance necessarily but you know you found about a guy that came over from from from from Russia can't speak the language here yet he's learning the language he's got to learn the culture you know his mother his brother came over

6:16with him last year and so there's just a lot to get used to before you even get onto the ice and have to get used to the NHL level so it kind of makes sense to me that he wanted to take a little bit of time off I think maybe it caught him a little bit by surprise that he wasn't able maybe to work back as quickly as he wanted to so we were looking at this Olympic break it's something that might benefit him more than anybody else in terms of you know kind of getting his energy back and stuff like that and so far that's been the case he's been fantastic through these first three games but as far as the relationship stuff goes and things like that I don't think there's an issue there at all there's been some things that have been I guess kind of blown out of proportion when you know there've been certain comments made on various broadcast TV radio and have you and then everybody kind of jumps to conclusions about some of the things that are said and it kind of gets blown up into more than it actually is but you know the terms sophomore slump exists for a reason I don't think anybody should be too surprised that when he came back

7:18this year that it was not going to be necessarily a linear path of development here but I don't think anybody's worried about him at all and certainly he's got a great start here in these last few games since the day yeah Brian Smith with us on the Kevin Carishon sports 1440 it's the Leafs and Flyers tonight Dan Vaudar we obviously knew a lot of him out here and play an open in the West for for many years but how how well has he played for the Flyers and Goal? Yeah right it's been it's been one of the biggest one of the most pleasant surprises of the year I think we we out here in the West you know we knew of him didn't know a ton about him you know he was kind of buried in the Boston system during those years where they had Tukarask and then they come back with a Swainman in Allmark and he can't really get to the top so then he goes to Calgary and you know you you guys know how the travel is out there I mean it's you know he was playing a lot of games where it was the back half and the back to back with travel in between things like that

8:20wasn't getting the greatest starts in those regards so the hope was coming out here okay he you have a little bit more easier travel in the East Coast and you have the opportunity to be the number one and he has grabbed it and run with it I think I should count on one hand the number of bad games he's had this year and he he single-handedly kept the Flyers and it against Boston the other night on that ESPN being down here in the States so it was you know he has been yeah really a great addition stabilized the gold tending here that has been kind of you know again Sam Harrison was kind of thrust into the number one role about a year and a half ago had to play a ton we didn't have necessarily a backup that was probably ready to be in the NHL guys that should have spent some more time in the NHL got thrust into that role so him coming in stabilized that and again he's really been able to run with the scenario that he's in so yeah that has been a big help here for the team here especially in the short term as they continue to develop a couple of

9:22bowling that are coming and yeah it's I would not be surprised to see him kind of locked up here for in the next few years. Hey it's Howie Mandel and I'm inviting you to witness history as me and my Howie do it gaming team take on Gilly DeKing and wallow 267's million dollars gaming in an epic global gaming league video game showdown four rounds multiple games one winner plus a halftime performance by multi platinum artist Travey McCoy watch all the action and see who wins in advances to the championship match against Neo right now at globalgaming league dot com that's globalgaming league dot com everybody games right now new fan duel customers can get up to three hundred dollars back in bonus bets every day for ten days place a tournament bet using the token and if it doesn't win you'll get up to three hundred dollars back in bonus bets every single day for ten days straight you can even mix things up with same game parlays for a shot at a bigger pale fan duel it's time to dance 21 plus in president select states bonus bets are

10:25nonwithdrawable and expire seven days after receive tokens are received an increments of one per day restrictions apply see terms at sportsbook dot fandal dot com gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler Brian Smith with this on sports 1440 how is Sean Couturier played this year Brian well Coutts has been again you know the the the kind of the steady reliable guy that he's he's been over the years he just is kind of dried up scoring wise he had an empty netter the other night that was his first goal since December the seventh and so a lot of folks have started kind of looking at that but his credit it took everybody here about two months to start looking at that because he does so much other stuff out there that uh you know again just kind of stabilizes the bottom six of the forwards um you know the the the flyers certainly have a a problem with center depth right now um and if they that that's one of the things that a lot of folks are looking at here at the deadline do they do something to address the center depth for uh for for a future

11:27situation not necessarily this this end of this year and and so you know if you had that center depth situation a little bit more secure uh it would probably stick out even less but you know he is again um you know uh what one of those guys that has always been a stabilizing force in your line up and when he suddenly disappears it seems like everything kind of falls to the way side it's just uh to kind of unravels a little bit so um you know maybe maybe not a flashy year but definitely one where he's um you know he he's uh helping the bottom six um you know do the job they need to do when you look at the minor league system and even uh you know in in junior and i'm thinking of a a player like jet lechenko you know came out of not nowhere but when he played those handful of games last year even brine you were probably surprised that you know he stayed up for the the four or five games that he played and now he's just he was traded uh at the deadline here from wealth to brandford uh where where do you see him a long term as far as um a player that i

12:31would imagine that they feel that he's going to be a big part of the future going down the road here with the flyers yeah definitely um you know he sees a guy that uh was quietly impressive at the starts of really both last year and this year um he came along uh at the start of last season and he got to camp and you know he just you you didn't want to take him out um and so he was able to hang around for those first eight nine games and then um you could you kind of tell all right well you know he looks good here but he could probably benefit from another year going out to junior and just kind of dominating he's one of those guys that if the rules that are now in place are kind of going to be in place about sending a first drop pick the a gel at 19 he's one of those guys that probably would have benefited from that but he's a little bit too early from that so um you know but he he he looked quietly impressive uh at the start of those seasons there and um you know again when he came back uh and and then was able to do a little playoff run with our a

13:34HL team last year uh was was impressive there as well um you know there's just been a couple of guides like him and Denver Barkey's another guy who was um with Lehigh Valley this year he's a year older than Jet so he's eligible this year um was doing fine there he came up and uh you know just became a player that you couldn't take out of your lineup uh didn't look out of place at all really surprised a lot of people that he was ready to go so looking at those two guys definitely a big part of the of the future we'll see where where Jet kind of fits in I think is the flyers start to figure out the rest of the lineup the other big piece of course they have coming is his quarter mark zone just a Michigan State and you know there's been kind of hints dropped that the flyers are expecting him to you know perhaps see some games at the end of the season here depending on what Michigan State does in their in their playoff tournaments in the NCAA so um you know those are the kind of the big three names everybody's looking at so far and then Alex Bump is already in the American Hockey League he's the other guy that might have a good back down the road yeah I watched more tone about two

14:37weeks ago was watching a game on the big ten network and uh you know very noticeable you you could see that he's probably ready to make a jump quicker uh the normal uh what do you what do you look at uh for tonight's game I mean the Maple Leafs have oh man uh they've lost three in a row and uh I don't have to tell you uh you know the stuff that we hear out east on a daily basis with what the Maple Leafs and where they are and the possibility of not making the playoffs but it's kind of two teams in a in a similar boat here uh going into tonight Ryan yeah yeah it is uh you know and obviously with with Toronto uh I guess a big uh big decision here in terms of what what direction they're going in we all kind of keep an eye on it because there's uh you got quite a few buddies on this team uh former flyers from the coach on down so kind of keep an eye on it a little bit but um yeah I mean again the flyers are are trying to see if they can't generate some momentum here to to make a run and that's kind of the focus for them coming in here is to you know they they begin uh come out of the break with the first two games

15:42were uh big spag uh great start in Washington bad finish bad start in New York at a great finish and then a good one overall against Boston so they're just kind of trying to duplicate that and you know when you look at uh kind of the stage that there is here in Toronto um it's one of those games where all right maybe an early goal kind of uh you know kind of it's kind of a bit of a team that can be um kind of knocked off track by an early goal maybe get you know get a jump in here and kind of keep the building quiet that seems to be the good mo for a lot of teams coming through here uh Brian great stuff really appreciated and enjoy the game tonight in the stretch run in the uh Friday trade deadline day in the whole bit uh we'll talk soon thanks as always for coming on all right thanks Kevin good to see you when it comes to what your family eats and drinks you know your choices matter you are the expert because you know what fits your life and getting it right starts with good information that's why America's beverage companies are

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