Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Mike Folta on the Utah Mammoth's Game 4 OT loss to Vegas, Game 5 tomorrow on the road + more

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Mike Folta on the Utah Mammoth's Game 4 OT loss to Vegas, Game 5 tomorrow on the road + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: You're tuned to the Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: half am. Okay, welcome to our number two here on
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the Sean o'connall Show. Welcome in Mike fulta radio voice
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of the Utah Mammo and a man who I mean,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: he probably sounds better than I do.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I don't have an excuse, but that was a loud
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: one last night, even with the mic right in front
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of his face. I imagine he had to get loud
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: in order to be heard over that Delta Center crowd.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Mike Fult, Welcome to the Sean O'Connell Show. How are you?
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Oh see? Great to talk to milk, peanut butter and
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: English muffins. That's how you wind down and go to
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: bed after a crazy night. And that's what I was
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: pounding last night at about two AM, trying to fall
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: asleep after what was one of the craziest games we've
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: seen at the Delta Center, at least on the ice
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: for the Utah Man. It's five to four overtime loss,
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: but a thriller, and afterwards, a little glass of milk,
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  Speaker 3: some English muffin with some melted peanut butter on top,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: and that'll put you right out, no counting sheep.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: For me, I think we just became best friends. That
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: sounds exactly like my kind of a post work snack.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: That's lovely, well done to you, sir, so I looks
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: let's talk about the game, and then I want to
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: get into some of the more big picture stuff with
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: this Utah Mammoth team. They go down three nothing, and
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the context of heading into this game knowing you could
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: go up and take control of the series at three
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: to one, there's a certain amount of pressure that comes
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: with that. But then you go down three to nothing
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  Speaker 1: and you could lay down. You could be like, oh man,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: all right, we'll get him next time. What did you
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: see from this team after they dugged himself a hole
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: that still makes you believe they can win the series.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Well, that's just the thing, Sean, is that I was
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: starting to pull out the joke book in the period
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: period two. I was like, we're going to have to
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: start entertaining the fans in different ways than just calling
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: the game because the game ain't going so well. Man
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: has went down three nothing. As you said, and Logan
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Cooley takes a bad penalty and I'm thinking, Okay, here
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: comes this is this is when the wagon wheels fall off.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: We'll get them in Game five. But no, the man
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: has turned on the Jets and brought it to within
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: one at the end of the second period. And then,
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, I gotta be honest with you. I don't
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: know if I've ever felt anything like I felt before
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: when Michael Carconi tied the game at three, and then
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: when Clayton Keller gave Utah the lead in the third period.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: And look, there's no such things as moral victories. It's
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: the Stanley Cup playoffs is all or nothing, right, You
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: don't get any stand points for going to overtime. You
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: either win or you don't. And we all walked away
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: from the Delta Center disappointed with the results last night.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: But I think the Mammoths learned something about themselves in
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: these high pressure moments that even staring at what seems
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: like an impossible mountain, they can climb their way back.
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  Speaker 3: Now they don't want to fall behind three to zero
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  Speaker 3: again in any of the next games, especially tomorrow night
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: in Game five on the road, in a pivotal game.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: But this is. I think last night was a performance
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: that can instill some more belief and confidence in this group,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: knowing they can come back in game, and knowing that
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  Speaker 3: they're good enough to erase these big deficits against the
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Golden Knights team that's feeling it right now.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I asked this question earlier on the show, and it
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: was rhetorical. I have no real answer to it. You
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: probably have a better shout of answering it for real
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: because you've been so close to this team and on
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: all these games. But how how many times has in overtime,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: especially but in any kind of crucial situation, how many
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: times this year have we seen Veggie lost in the
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: crease with no stick? I mean, it just it just
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  Speaker 1: doesn't happen that often. And I don't recall seeing at
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  Speaker 1: anytime this year. How many times did you see it?
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  Speaker 3: I don't remember it a ton. I mean it was
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: it was an unfortunate sequence for the Mammoth. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: there's a minute left in overtime, and and you know,
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  Speaker 3: give credit to the Golden Knights because they had they
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: started to turn on a on the afterburners they're in
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  Speaker 3: ot and they found a second gear and it looked
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  Speaker 3: like Ian Cole, one of Utah's really good defenseman who
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: scored a goal.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: In the game.
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  Speaker 3: Uh, he kind of bumped the stick out of Veggie's hands.
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  Speaker 3: And then without your goal stick, it's like not having
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: a rudder for a goaltender, Like they can still move
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: around without it, but it's so it's so important to
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: a goaltender's balance and their stance. And Veggie just couldn't
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: get back and net. And you look at how overtime
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: goals are scored in the playoffs, and very rarely is
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: it a perfect tic tac toe passing play. Typically it's
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: a it's a reader wreck that's going in off of
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: somebody's backside, or or just a crazy bounce. We saw
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: a couple of nights ago and in Anaheim a controversial
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: goal that barely crossed the goal line, and then it
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: was a scrambled sequence in front of Amelka that that
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  Speaker 3: led to Vegas as OT winners. So that's usually how
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: it goes in OT. You know, the Golden Knights had
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: a couple of those sequences in overtime and they were
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: able to score on one and and that's all it takes.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: But I tell you what, though, like we've We've seen
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: some dramatic moments in the Delta Center this year, but
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: knowing that it's all or nothing in overtime, that that's
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: a different level of desperation and fandom. And that place
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: was on fire last night.
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  Speaker 2: It was amazing.
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  Speaker 1: It was, I mean, wonderful game to watch as long
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: as you Because you just mentioned redirects. There were a
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: couple Golden Knights goals in this game last night, and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: it was howding on both of them that I'm trying
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  Speaker 1: to equate the way he redirected the the I mean,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: this was not like him re angling the puck with
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: his stick. He's plucking it out of mid air when
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: it's going eighty miles an hour with his stick and
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: bouncing it off the dang ice at shoulder level. I mean,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: these are not exactly high percentage redirects and goals, and
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: he got two of them. So you're more of a
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: hockey guy than I'll ever be. So like, if you
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: had to do that a hundred times, how many times
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  Speaker 1: could he do it successfully?
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised. These guys practice it,
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: and a lot of times it's not a specific drill
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: in practice where it's led by the coaches a lot
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  Speaker 3: of a lot of those skilled things like you know,
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  Speaker 3: stick handling or pulling pucks off the wall or hipping pucks.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: A lot of times that guys staying after and practice
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  Speaker 3: and working on that, and clearly Brett Howden has worked
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  Speaker 3: on that. Cole Smith had a crazy tip the other night.
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  Speaker 3: I mean this shot that was going about ten feet
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  Speaker 3: wide and Smith tips it down off the ice and
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: pass Smelka for one of one of Vegas's goals. But
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: it's something that these guys have worked on their their
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: entire lives. Remember these guys are skating since they're five
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: years old. But like tipping pucks, I never played at
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  Speaker 3: a high level, so it's hard for me to fathom
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  Speaker 3: how these guys are so good at it. Imagine, imagine
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: you have like Shoho Tani throwing fastballs at you, and
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  Speaker 3: you're not just trying to hit the ball, You're trying
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  Speaker 3: to tip it past the catcher right like it's almost
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: and the catcher's wearing twice as much as equipment, yes,
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  Speaker 3: as normal. So it's hard for normal people to understand.
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  Speaker 3: But these guys have done it their whole lives and
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: and look it doesn't. It doesn't work every time right.
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  Speaker 3: If it did, the hockey scores would look like football scores.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: But last night it was five to four, and that's
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  Speaker 3: the high scoring game. It takes a lot for it
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  Speaker 3: to go right, but when it does, it looks like
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  Speaker 3: a masterpiece.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I've decided that he must be like the most the
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  Speaker 1: most geometrically genius person I've ever seen in my life
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: to be able to get the right angle on those
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: two and put it. I mean, same thing he was
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the first one that he scored. It's not going anywhere
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  Speaker 1: near Vimelka. If he doesn't redirect it. It's like sailing
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  Speaker 1: past the goal. But yeah, it's a what a specialized
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  Speaker 1: skill and sucks to be on the wrong end of it.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: But of course Utah scored plenty of goals this year
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: that way as well. And that's something that we talked
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: about after Game one, in the third period, especially of
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Game one, where Vegas kind of imposed their will and
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: were physical, and it became clear that there was a
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: disparity between how much traffic Vegas was putting in front
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  Speaker 1: of Vimelica versus you know, the other end, where you're
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: getting these beautiful finesse sniper type goals and there's not
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: as much of the sort of ugly rough stuff being
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: played in front of Heart. And we saw, i think
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: in improvement on that in game two and improvement on
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  Speaker 1: that in game three. Is that something that you need
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: to see this Utah Mammoth team get back to just
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: ugly ing up the waters in front of Heart and
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  Speaker 1: when he's in the crease.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think they did to an extent last night.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: You look at the first goal, it was a rebound
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: off of Carter Hart that Nick Schmaltz picked up and
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  Speaker 3: stashed home to start the rally. And then there were
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: other goals. You know, I'm thinking of the slap shot
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: for Ian Cole that came just twenty nine seconds later.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Alexander Kirkfoot doesn't get an assist on the play, but
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: he's standing in front of the goaltender Carter Hart and
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: taking away his eyes, and the defenseman that's standing next
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: to Kirkfoot covering him is also taking away his own
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: goaltender's eyes. So it's not always just getting these greasy goals.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: It's about, you know, making things difficult on the goaltender,
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: crowding that that creased area, making him you're blocking his
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: vision so he can't pick up these shots. Because Carter
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: Hart has been solid this series when he's been able
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: to see the shot. But when the Mammucks can get
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: him moving a little bit and when they can take
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: away his eyes, that's when you found found success. And
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: and look, I think that's a big storyline in this
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: series of goaltending and Carrel Milk has been pretty good.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: You hate to praise the goaltending too much after five
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: to four games, but I think for the most part,
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: but Milk has been good. And a lot of the
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: goals that Vegas has scored have been on those tips
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: or loose tucks in front, and you can't fault a
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: goaltender too much because it usually doesn't have time to
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: react to those types of shots. And then on the
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: other end, you to scored four or more goals and
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: back to back games now against Carter Hart, so you
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: feel good about your ability to kind of solve the
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: riddle that was Carter Hart in games one and two.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Now the shots are starting to fall a little bit more.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: But I asked bear our head coach Andre Tierney about
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: the net front, and I thought it was a pretty
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: good question. I thought it sounded really smart, and he
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: kind of he kind of brushed off stand, well, we
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: can always be better. So that's I think that's that's
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: a constant focus for this team and a constant focus
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: in this series. The nets run at both ends.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't want to be picking on JJ
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Peka because I feel like I'm asking a lot of
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: questions about him. He only played ten minutes last night,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: He had a penalty, he had a kind of a sloppy,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: ugly turnover, and uh, this is a guy that we
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: were all excited about the trade. I think he's got
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: a ton of ability, and I just do we know
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: what's going on with him?
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Is he slumping right now? Why?
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Why is JJ Peterca in this playoff run not not playing?
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: I think to the level of his true ability at least.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: Found himself on the outside looking in in the second
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: half of the game. That's that's for sure. He didn't
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: take any ships, I don't think, and I'm not sure
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: if he took a ship in the third period. Definitely
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: wasn't out there in overtime. And I think his line
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: has struggled a little bit this series. The third line
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: with him Kerfoot and Michael Carconey. We saw Carconey score
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: a goal last night that got him going a little bit.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: We saw We've seen Kerfoot do a lot of the
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: little things on that line, and for whatever reason, it
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: just hasn't clicked in the postseason for JJ yet with
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: those other two guys, And I think yet the flip
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: side of that is Brandon tanne got promoted and kind
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: of took JJ's spot on that line, and tanneb is
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: maybe a little bit more rugged and built for the postseason.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: He hasn't scored a goal all year, but he's been
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: poised with the puck and makes good decisions with the puck,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: and he's always heading north where sometimes JJ tries to
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: make a play and it doesn't work out. And so
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: I think part of it was JJ. The other part
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: was Brandon Tannet playing well, and he's a really fast skater.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: He's played in the playoff a bunch for is more
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: experienced than paterka is, and I thought he was effective
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: and deserved that increase in ice time. But the thing
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: with JJ is it doesn't take much to get him going.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Like we might not call his name a whole lot
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: on the radio broadcast. Some nights, or maybe he only
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: plays ten minutes tomorrow night in Game five, but his
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: shot is so elite that when he's out there, you
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: can't take your eyes off seventy seven because he can
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: turn nothing into something. And some of the some of
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: the best goals this season have been scored by JJ Paterca.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: And if he can find some offense, if he can
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: find his footing in this playoff series, that's another level
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: of scoring that the Mammoths have been missing.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Mike Folta is our guest here on the Shot O'Connell show.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: He is the radio voice of the Utah Mammoth. All right,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: so a quick turnaround hockey players are used to it.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: But that was an overtime game, or you had several
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: guys both in old Night's uniforms and a couple guys
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: for the man. If pushing thirty minutes or or skating
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: for over thirty minutes in that game, what is that
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: going to do to game five? Are we going to
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: see different lines, are we going to see different shifts
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: or is this just stay the course and push through
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the pain.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: No, I think everybody will be ready to go. I mean,
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: this is playoffs, like you have to put your best
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: players out there. And these guys were used to playing
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: every other night too, Like having two days in between
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: games is abnormal. They don't like that, they want to
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: play and so so having one day in between is
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: just fine. Everybody's resting up here today and everybody will
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: be ready to go at full throttle, will come come
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: Gay five. And that's what you get in the postseason.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: It's all Gas, no breaks. And you notice it in
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: the third period in overtime, like Ivery turn. He's not
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: messing around with who he's throwing out there, He's not
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: necessarily rolling all of his lines. He is trying to
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: give his team the best chance to on every single shift.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: And that's playoff hockey, and that's overtime in the playoffs too.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: It's it's do or die. There's no constilation prize, there's
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: no standings points and overtime for a loss like you
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: have to get it done. And that's why on the
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: other side, Vegas is rolling out Jack Eichel for basically
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: half the game, who's been out there a ton, and
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: Utah has been been countering. One thing for Game five
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: to look out for is that the home team in
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: hockey has the last change. If you don't know, it's basically,
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: when guys are going out there for a line change
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: at a face off, the home team is able to
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: send their guys out last, which means they can kind
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: of choose the matchups a little bit more.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: So.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: That was an advantage for Utah the last couple of games,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: and now that advantage swings back to John Tortorella, the
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights. In game time.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Have we heard an update or anything about Cooley's risk?
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: He took a puck right off the inside of his
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: wrist and had ice it during the game, and obviously
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: he played through, but oftentimes it's the next day that
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff hurts worse.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Do we know if he's all right?
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: I didn't see anything about those see To be honest,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: there's a couple of guys who ate some bucks. Last night,
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Alexander Kirkwood blocked a double shots on one shift. He
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: was in the middle of shooting lanes a whole bunch.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: I did see that one from from Cooley, And unfortunately,
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: risks are complicated, so you know, there's a lot of
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: bones and ligaments in there, and you really hope nothing
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: got got damaged too much. He played quite a bit
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: the rest of the night. So I didn't see any
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: ill effects from from taking that taking that puck to
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: that area, So we'll keep an eye on that. Mammuther
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: are mostly healthy right now. There are some notable absences
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: Jack McBain and Barrett Hayden, two centermen who are very versatile.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: They've been out of the lineup all series. But other
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: than that, everybody is as healthy as you can hope
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: for this time of year. I mean, everybody's playing through something.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: Oh see, like I got my allergy right now. I
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: only got a couple hours of sleep last night. We've
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: seen guys play through broken legs, broken ribs, broken jaws
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: in the playoff. That's normal in the National Hockey League.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: My allergies almost took me out. That's what I'm battling through.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: I'm sure you've, you know, maybe had the sniffles or
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: something and had had to do a show, But that's playoffs,
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: that's this time of year.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: I'm dealing with that right now.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: I got to I've got a probably a grade one
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: sniffle happening as we speak. But we're pushing through and
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I got the playoff. Beard happening and everything we're just
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: going it's the playoffs, baby. Big picture here, we saw
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: some real chippiness between these two teams, and I'm excited
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: about that. I'm a fight guy, I'm a combat sports guy.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I want this to develop into a real rivalry. It
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: seemed like in this last game both teams kind of
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: shelved that and said, all right, let's play some hockey
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: and let's just let the goal scoring tell the story.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Do we expect the chippiness to turn back up in
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Vegas or what do you think is going to happen
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: with that sort of aspect in this series.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: It died down a little bit the last couple of games,
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: and I think a big part of that is neither
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: these teams want to take a bad penalty, and we
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: saw that in Game one where there was an altercation
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: and the Golden Knights were roughing up some of the MANETs,
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: and the Golden Knights took it a little too far
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: and they put themselves on the penalty kill. And Utah
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: has one power play goal through three games in this series.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: Vegas has two Utah penalty kills. Looked really good recently,
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: but in these close games, goaltending and special teams are
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: the two things I think more than anything that could
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: put you over the edge. And the last thing you
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: want to do in a game that's decided by one
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: goal is to put your team on the penalty kill.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: And for Utah, especially again against Vegas, I don't think
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: the Mammoths care as much about getting into extra the
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: extra curriculars Vegas. That's a little bit more of their style.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: They want to try and you know, assert their brutality
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: in the series. But I think the Golden Knights feel
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: good about their game. The Mammoths have actually out hit
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: Vegas the last couple of games. That's a little bit
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: of a turnabout in this series. But the Golden Knights
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: possessed the pucket and as long as they're scoring, they're
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: not going to worry about missing it up too much.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: After the whistle, we'll see what we get at the Fortress.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: That's another great home environment and it can it can
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: turn on you quickly, so we'll see what we get
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: tomorrow night. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's a
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: lot of passion after the whistles, but no crossing of
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: the of the line in the sand. If you will
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: to avoid the penalties.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Last thing before excuse me, last thing before I let
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: you go. We're what two years in four days into
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: this experiment with hockey in Utah, and I won't call
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: it an experiment anymore because the state has obviously embraced
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: it and the fan base is loud and excited. But
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: if you go back to two years ago and I was,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: you know, I walked up to you on the street
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: and said, hey, man, you're gonna be calling a really intense,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: awesome playoff series in two years, what would you have said.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: I would have said, I hope I don't screw it up.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: It's been an incredible ride. And last night with another
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: reminder of that. And you know, I'm so grateful. I
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: came up through the minor leagues and had some great
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: experiences there, but to be able to call National Hockey
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: League games like it's still it's still surreal for me.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: And I know everybody in Arizona who came with the
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: team to Utah is grateful. For the ownership of Ryan
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: and Nashley Smith. We have a great broadcast crew. Adrian
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Denny and I have a ton of fun on the radio.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: Our great producer, Will Trumpshaw, and then all of Mammoth Nation.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Like we have people coming up to us and saying Hi.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: It's not because we're the world's greatest broadcasters. It's just
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: because everybody is excited about this team. And it transcends
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: political beliefs, religion, it transcends where you're from. Like we
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: are all all mammoths and all part of Mammoth Nation,
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: and that's really special. And we got to see that
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: manifest itself last night. We're going to see a whole
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: bunch of Mountain Blue in the crowd tomorrow night, and
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: we're going to be back for Game six on Friday.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: And oh see what I was What I was telling
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: Adrian earlier is you can't have a clint a playoff
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: series clinching win at home if the Mammoth were to
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: win in five. So we have everything we want still
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: in front of us. If you talk and get it
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: done in Game five on on Wednesday night at the
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Fortress and then back home here at the Delta Center
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: on Friday.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: That that is the right way to look at it.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Win in Vegas, clinch home, be happy, and on to
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the next one. I love the attitude, Mike. I can't
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: tell you much I appreciate your time. We love ourselves
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: some Major and Denny on this show, and we're excited
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: that we got to talk to you after you know,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: long last.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: So let's do it more often.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: All right, anytime. Ote always happy to chat, always happy
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: to talk some pock, especially this time of the year.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: Let's go get it done in Vegas.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: All right, have a great call tomorrow night. Thank you,
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Mike Folta utah Manmoth Radio voice