In 442 career National Hockey League games, Nick Kypreos scored 46 goals and accumulated 1,210 penalty minutes. His HockeyFights.com fight card lists 91 scraps in his career. The former Washington Capitals, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs player will always hold a soft spot in the hearts of Puck Daddy because of his 85 games as a Hartford Whaler.
Never did his play in the NHL mimic that of a Wayne Gretzky ... or even a John Druce.
These days, Kypreos is a pundit on Rogers Sportsnet and Hockey Cental on the FAN590, where he most recently broke the news that former Toronto Maple Leaf defenseman Bryan McCabe was going to finally waive his no-trade clause back in August. Let's also not forget that he also missed out on that Mike Knuble to Columbus deal.
Also doing some commentary on Sportsnet is Toronto Blue Jays catcher Gregg Zaun, who was helping out with the network's Major League Baseball playoff coverage last month. After some playful trash talk, Kypreos and Zaun decided to hold a shoot-out with the Blue Jays catcher tending goal and the former NHL tough guy betting he could go 10-for-10. Zaun had barely skated in his life and never put as many pads on that an NHL goalie does every night.
Last Friday, the shootout went down and as you'll see, Zaun's goaltending skills, even with some help from Curtis Joseph, made Kypreos look like a modern-day Maurice Richard.
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I'm pretty sure Kypreos took a dive on that shot just to keep Zaun's self-esteem intact.
The two now have plans to hold another mano-y-mano competition, this time on Zaun's turf, the baseball diamond. Kypreos will take batting practice and attempt to catch a fastball (Roy Halladay busy?). Hopefully Kypreos doesn't take one off the mask and wind up in the same position he was in after this fight with Ryan VandenBussche.
