Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Tom Callahan on Olympic hockey, Mammoth players on national teams, Men's hockey gold medal contenders + more
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Belong May Yam, and I can tell it.
- 0:09Speaker 2: You were listening to about Sean O'Connell show, your source for
- 0:12Speaker 2: up best youths football coupleage. Here's oc from the Murdoch
- 0:15Speaker 2: Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven ninety one.
- 0:19Speaker 3: Am.
- 0:22Speaker 1: Wow, welcome out number three of the Shawn O'Connell Show.
- 0:29Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk a little hockey here with Tom Callahan.
- 0:31Speaker 1: Momentarily you tell Mammoth insider, who, like the rest of us,
- 0:37Speaker 1: is gonna have to turn his hockey focus to Milano
- 0:41Speaker 1: Cortina for some Olympic hockey. Right now, women's US women's
- 0:45Speaker 1: team is in action against Switzerland. One zero is the
- 0:49Speaker 1: current score, United States on top. The men's ice hockey tournament.
- 0:54Speaker 1: Preliminaries start on Wednesday. First game will be Slovakia versus Finland.
- 1:03Speaker 1: Obviously Utah Mammoth have some interest in that. Finnish team,
- 1:07Speaker 1: Sweden versus Italy, Switzerland versus France, Chechia versus Canada, Germany,
- 1:16Speaker 1: Denmark and Latvia United States.
- 1:19Speaker 4: That will be on Thursday.
- 1:22Speaker 1: That is the first game that's gonna be one ten
- 1:25Speaker 1: pm Mountain time as Team USA takes on Latvia, and
- 1:31Speaker 1: of course a lot of the interest here for fans
- 1:33Speaker 1: locally is the fact that Clayton Keller is getting the
- 1:37Speaker 1: Olympic nod. He gets to be on this men's Olympic
- 1:40Speaker 1: hockey team competing internationally for Team USA for the first
- 1:45Speaker 1: time since the World Championships where he captained, and he
- 1:49Speaker 1: was not on Team USA for the Four Nations last year.
- 1:53Speaker 1: A lot of people talked about how that might be
- 1:54Speaker 1: a little bit of an injustice. Well, hopefully gets corrected
- 1:57Speaker 1: with this Olympic cycle. Latvia, than you your first opponent
- 2:02Speaker 1: for Team USA in the men's World As I said,
- 2:05Speaker 1: the women are playing right now against Switzerland. We're lucky
- 2:09Speaker 1: enough to welcome once again to the show. Tom Callahan.
- 2:12Speaker 1: He's he's doffing his Utah Mammoth insider for now to
- 2:17Speaker 1: make himself a Team USA Olympic Hockey insider instead.
- 2:22Speaker 4: Tom, how are you?
- 2:24Speaker 3: I'm great, oc, thanks for having me back. Man. I
- 2:26Speaker 3: love the Olympics, and not just hockey. I just love
- 2:29Speaker 3: the Winter Olympics.
- 2:31Speaker 1: Outside of hockey. What's the what's the sport that catches
- 2:34Speaker 1: your interests most?
- 2:37Speaker 3: It is, well, curling is my one a but man,
- 2:41Speaker 3: there's something crazy about rocketing down an icy track at
- 2:44Speaker 3: eighty miles an hour that I love about Bob sled
- 2:46Speaker 3: and luge and skeleton.
- 2:48Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it's such a weirdly specific but awesome event.
- 2:54Speaker 1: I when every Olympics cycle, winter and summer, I always
- 2:59Speaker 1: look like, man, all of these things should be more popular.
- 3:02Speaker 1: And then, of course, like everyone else, you know, three
- 3:05Speaker 1: weeks after the games are over, I don't think about
- 3:07Speaker 1: them again until the next Olympics rolls around. But I've
- 3:11Speaker 1: always been a big fan of Bob Slid, maybe going
- 3:14Speaker 1: back to the cool run in this movie release days.
- 3:15Speaker 3: Who knows, Hey, that was a great movie. I watched
- 3:20Speaker 3: that when I was younger too, and I absolutely loved it,
- 3:22Speaker 3: so one hundred percent I can get on board with that.
- 3:24Speaker 4: All right.
- 3:25Speaker 1: So Tmusa opens this Olympic tournament with Latvia.
- 3:29Speaker 4: What do you need to see in this matchup?
- 3:32Speaker 3: Well, for Team USA, I think they actually have a
- 3:36Speaker 3: really nice group that should give them the opportunity to
- 3:41Speaker 3: tune themselves up, get through and get sharp and get
- 3:45Speaker 3: ready for the metal round. And really, for me, for
- 3:47Speaker 3: Team USA, it is about the metal rounds and that's
- 3:51Speaker 3: why the cool thing is here. You're going to see
- 3:54Speaker 3: them play. Probably everybody at some point in the preliminaries
- 3:59Speaker 3: and getting guys ready to go. And unfortunately for Mammoth fans,
- 4:02Speaker 3: it looks like Clayton Keller might be a scratch for
- 4:05Speaker 3: the first game, depending on how lines were at practice
- 4:09Speaker 3: today according to what I saw posted online. But I imagine
- 4:13Speaker 3: he is going to work himself in and this team
- 4:15Speaker 3: really it is about getting sharp. I don't think there's
- 4:18Speaker 3: anybody in that group that challenges them. I think they
- 4:21Speaker 3: do come out on top without much of a problem,
- 4:24Speaker 3: and they just have to make sure that it's not
- 4:26Speaker 3: too easy and that they are firing on all cylinders
- 4:29Speaker 3: for the metal round.
- 4:32Speaker 1: So no surprise there that Latvia is not exactly a favorite.
- 4:36Speaker 1: But when we talk about the real contenders, right, I've
- 4:41Speaker 1: asked you this question about the NHL itself in this
- 4:44Speaker 1: Olympic cycle, which countries are going to be contending for
- 4:50Speaker 1: at least a place on the podium.
- 4:53Speaker 3: So I look at it as USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland
- 4:57Speaker 3: are kind of the big four heading in with abilities
- 5:01Speaker 3: for other countries to make surprise runs, but that wouldn't
- 5:06Speaker 3: be shocking. For instance, I like Germany and they are
- 5:10Speaker 3: in the US group. I think the Germans, while not deep,
- 5:15Speaker 3: have pretty good star power led by Leon Drysidel and
- 5:20Speaker 3: of course j J. Patterka on Team Germany. They have scoring,
- 5:24Speaker 3: they have decent goaltending. The Germans could surprise a couple
- 5:29Speaker 3: of teams and catch them napping. Chechia is another one,
- 5:33Speaker 3: and you know it's great. All this ties in right
- 5:35Speaker 3: for me to talk about mammoth guys. But you know,
- 5:37Speaker 3: Corel Vijmalka is on Chechia and I think they have
- 5:42Speaker 3: better goaltending there than Canada. And those two teams are
- 5:45Speaker 3: in the same group together, so Canada really better watch itself.
- 5:50Speaker 3: I think they're deeper, CHECKI is older, more veteran. They
- 5:54Speaker 3: have a lot of former NHL players on a team
- 5:56Speaker 3: in addition to their current NHLers, so that's a talented
- 6:00Speaker 3: team as well. Now at the end of the day, yeah,
- 6:04Speaker 3: I go back to the Big four, I think for
- 6:05Speaker 3: the Metal Round, and really, I mean, Canada feels like
- 6:09Speaker 3: the team to beat if the goaltending is on. I
- 6:11Speaker 3: like Team USA's goaltending the best of anyone in the tournament,
- 6:15Speaker 3: so I really like where they're at. And then Sweden
- 6:18Speaker 3: and Finland are always crazy competitive, and Sweden especially I
- 6:21Speaker 3: think is going to be tough to beat. So maybe
- 6:23Speaker 3: those are my three medalists. I just don't know where
- 6:26Speaker 3: they're coming out.
- 6:27Speaker 1: Hella books, Swaymen Ottinger are the are the gold minders
- 6:31Speaker 1: for the netminders for Team USA?
- 6:35Speaker 4: How different will they?
- 6:37Speaker 1: Will the management process be for the Olympics versus you know,
- 6:41Speaker 1: if this if you put those three guys on an
- 6:43Speaker 1: NHL roster, obviously you know we see how that rotation
- 6:48Speaker 1: usually goes in the NHL, but it's effectively an all
- 6:51Speaker 1: star lineup. So will you see more of the for
- 6:55Speaker 1: lack of a better term, backups in the Olympics.
- 6:58Speaker 3: I don't think so because it is such a short tournament.
- 7:01Speaker 3: I think you have an established starter who will probably
- 7:03Speaker 3: get two of your three pool games, and in the
- 7:06Speaker 3: round robin you probably want to get your whoever you
- 7:10Speaker 3: consider your number two some work, but no, you want
- 7:13Speaker 3: your starter going to make sure that they are solid. Now,
- 7:16Speaker 3: if something happens and they have a bad couple of games,
- 7:19Speaker 3: you might, you know, change your schedule around or put
- 7:21Speaker 3: somebody else. And then we've seen that happen. But that
- 7:24Speaker 3: is the mystery. The secrets offs right in an Olympic tournament.
- 7:30Speaker 3: It is short, it is intense. You better have your
- 7:33Speaker 3: guy in net, absolutely going, and if he's not you
- 7:38Speaker 3: you've got to have a short leash. And I hate
- 7:40Speaker 3: that as a goaltender, I hate that, but you know,
- 7:43Speaker 3: you really do have to put a guy and it
- 7:44Speaker 3: gives you the best chance to win, because once you
- 7:46Speaker 3: get to the medal round, it's one and done. There
- 7:48Speaker 3: is no tomorrow.
- 7:48Speaker 4: So who do you think the one two three is?
- 7:52Speaker 3: I would, and so I think it'll be Hellabuck and
- 7:56Speaker 3: then on your Swaymen. For me personally, like if I
- 8:00Speaker 3: was going to pick, believe it or not, Jake Odener
- 8:02Speaker 3: would be my starter. I like him the best out
- 8:04Speaker 3: of all of them. Part of it is Hellibuck's having
- 8:07Speaker 3: a bit of a down year, but so is Winnipen
- 8:10Speaker 3: and that's tough. But I think based on the seniority
- 8:12Speaker 3: of everything, Hellabuck is your starter, and it would be
- 8:17Speaker 3: it would be a flight to him to not be
- 8:19Speaker 3: the starter if politics weren't a part of the messaging.
- 8:23Speaker 3: And probably Swayman ends up getting a game here in
- 8:28Speaker 3: the round robin. I would really like to see it
- 8:30Speaker 3: be Ottinger, but I think Hellabuck is that number one guy.
- 8:34Speaker 3: But look, if Connor Hellibuck is on and he's playing
- 8:38Speaker 3: well and he's locked in, lookout because he is one
- 8:41Speaker 3: of the best goaltenders of this generation.
- 8:44Speaker 1: Does does how these guys have performed in the past
- 8:49Speaker 1: in Stanley Cup playoffs factor into the decision making when
- 8:53Speaker 1: we're talking about this Olympic.
- 8:55Speaker 3: Cycle, I think it does. I think you have to
- 8:59Speaker 3: take a player's body of work, which is why so
- 9:02Speaker 3: many interesting choices had to be made by Billy Garren
- 9:05Speaker 3: and his staff and putting this team together. One of
- 9:08Speaker 3: the big stats that keeps going around that people continue
- 9:11Speaker 3: to talk about is five of the top ten American
- 9:15Speaker 3: born scorers current leading scorers in the NHL are not
- 9:19Speaker 3: on this team. So the US made a conscious decision
- 9:24Speaker 3: that they weren't just going to put together the most
- 9:26Speaker 3: offensively dangerous team and the most all star productive team.
- 9:30Speaker 3: I think they made a conscious decision to put together
- 9:32Speaker 3: a team that was a little tougher, a little more physical,
- 9:35Speaker 3: and quite honestly, at the end of the day, oh see,
- 9:37Speaker 3: I think it is yeared to beat Canada, specifically beat
- 9:42Speaker 3: Canada because that is like they're the top drawer team
- 9:47Speaker 3: coming into this and they're the target and they are tough,
- 9:51Speaker 3: they are physical, but they also have a ton of scoring.
- 9:53Speaker 3: They have great defense. Could be the goaltending as their
- 9:57Speaker 3: weak point. I don't think it'll be bad, but it
- 10:00Speaker 3: be their weakest link in the chain. So there were
- 10:02Speaker 3: a lot of interesting choices made that way in putting
- 10:05Speaker 3: this team together. And I think even for a short tournament,
- 10:07Speaker 3: they want grit, they want to be able to play physical,
- 10:11Speaker 3: they want to take it to those other teams, and so, yeah,
- 10:14Speaker 3: they made some interesting choices along the way here, you know,
- 10:17Speaker 3: but they still have Austin Matthews, right, I mean, you know,
- 10:21Speaker 3: they're still taking a bunch of guys that can put
- 10:23Speaker 3: the puck in the net. They're still a pretty deep
- 10:25Speaker 3: team and it's nice to have the luxury of making
- 10:28Speaker 3: those hard decisions.
- 10:29Speaker 4: Do you like that strategy?
- 10:31Speaker 1: If that's the one to like, Hey, guys, we gotta
- 10:34Speaker 1: we got to beat Canada?
- 10:36Speaker 4: I mean, is that is that a smart plan?
- 10:38Speaker 1: Because, like you mentioned, it's obviously Canada is probably the
- 10:43Speaker 1: lead horse in that race. But if you specifically prepare
- 10:47Speaker 1: yourself to take on one opponent or to be able
- 10:50Speaker 1: to beat one particular nation, and it doesn't end up
- 10:53Speaker 1: being them in a gold medal match.
- 10:55Speaker 4: Are you going to regret that?
- 10:58Speaker 3: And that is that is the risk, isn't it. There's
- 11:01Speaker 3: probably a couple personnel differences that I would have thought, oh,
- 11:05Speaker 3: maybe you go this way instead of that. But I
- 11:08Speaker 3: don't mind it because a couple of things. Number One,
- 11:12Speaker 3: the rink is not as big as a typical Olympic rink. Normally,
- 11:15Speaker 3: an Olympic size ice sheet is one hundred feet wide.
- 11:19Speaker 3: And I believe me, we've all heard ad nauseum about
- 11:21Speaker 3: the problems just getting this building open, let alone get
- 11:24Speaker 3: you know, getting hockey played on it. But it's not
- 11:29Speaker 3: as big as a traditional international size rink. It is
- 11:32Speaker 3: much more of an NHL size rink. So I think
- 11:35Speaker 3: styling your team for an NHL type of game, and
- 11:39Speaker 3: I believe in the NHL that yes, a physical roster
- 11:43Speaker 3: that also has skill wins in the playoffs. I think
- 11:46Speaker 3: ultimately that is my dream build for a Stanley Cup run.
- 11:51Speaker 3: I think in this particular case, given the circumstances, this
- 11:56Speaker 3: is a good direction to build this team in and
- 11:59Speaker 3: I think it will show some pretty good results. Now,
- 12:02Speaker 3: will they beat Canada? I don't one hundred percent know
- 12:05Speaker 3: the answer to that, but I can tell you no
- 12:07Speaker 3: matter who they play, and Canada included, it is going
- 12:10Speaker 3: to be a hard game to win physically as well
- 12:14Speaker 3: as mentally.
- 12:16Speaker 1: Tom Callahan, our guest here on the Sean o'connorshow, talking
- 12:19Speaker 1: a little Olympic hockey previewing. At least no men's hockey
- 12:23Speaker 1: does not start for a couple more days of women
- 12:25Speaker 1: in action right now, right now leading Switzerland after the
- 12:28Speaker 1: end of the first period. One nothing you mentioned Keller
- 12:32Speaker 1: could potentially be a healthy scratch, And obviously Mammoth fans
- 12:36Speaker 1: are hoping that he gets a lot of run in
- 12:38Speaker 1: this Olympic tournament and that we can see him score
- 12:41Speaker 1: some goals and whatnot.
- 12:44Speaker 4: We're gonna have to let it play out see how
- 12:46Speaker 4: it goes.
- 12:47Speaker 1: If I guess what is the best version of this
- 12:52Speaker 1: tournament for Clayton Keller, He's he's unlikely to be the
- 12:56Speaker 1: primary go to, the big star, the top line guy
- 12:59Speaker 1: on this particular lineup. But I also don't want to
- 13:02Speaker 1: see him, you know, be a healthy scratch multiple times,
- 13:05Speaker 1: or or be you know, a token ad to this
- 13:08Speaker 1: particular roster. Uh, what's an ideal outcome for Keller specifically
- 13:15Speaker 1: in this tournament.
- 13:17Speaker 3: For Clayton Keller, what I want to see is him
- 13:22Speaker 3: kind of regain his scoring, touching and his confidence out there.
- 13:26Speaker 3: I think, let's let's be honest. He's had a rough
- 13:28Speaker 3: year and it's been a difficult season for him. He
- 13:32Speaker 3: dealt with a lot personally, and I know that that's
- 13:37Speaker 3: I wouldn't wish that stuff on anybody. I would like
- 13:41Speaker 3: for him to just regain his focus and his sharpness
- 13:43Speaker 3: and his maybe his love and his joy of coming
- 13:46Speaker 3: to the rink every day. And I'm not saying he
- 13:48Speaker 3: doesn't have that now, but just there's there's something to
- 13:52Speaker 3: it when you when you have all those outside factors.
- 13:56Speaker 3: Everybody says, well, leave it at the door. You know
- 13:58Speaker 3: you're you're the rank now, blah blah blah. And some
- 14:01Speaker 3: guys can do that. Some guys that's difficult. I really
- 14:04Speaker 3: would love to see him rediscover that in his game,
- 14:09Speaker 3: and we'll see it on the ice. I think he
- 14:11Speaker 3: started to break through a little bit here towards the
- 14:13Speaker 3: Olympic break. I would like to see him get some
- 14:16Speaker 3: good solid ice time. I'd like to see him get
- 14:18Speaker 3: some special teams time out there as well, and you
- 14:21Speaker 3: know what, maybe he does develop some more leadership qualities
- 14:25Speaker 3: being around again the best players in the world foreign
- 14:29Speaker 3: against you. I mean, this is a best on best
- 14:31Speaker 3: tournament and it's it's awesome, it's a lot of fun
- 14:33Speaker 3: to watch, but the level will not be higher anywhere else,
- 14:36Speaker 3: and that includes the Stanley Cup playoffs. In my opinion,
- 14:39Speaker 3: I think there is a lot that you can learn
- 14:41Speaker 3: and a lot that you can grow from. And I
- 14:43Speaker 3: hope he is playing those games. I hope he makes
- 14:46Speaker 3: it a hard decision for them, especially after his World
- 14:48Speaker 3: Championship run last year captaining that team. I think that
- 14:53Speaker 3: that's important for his game, his confidence, and then bringing
- 14:57Speaker 3: that energy and enthusiasm back to the Utah Mammoth here
- 15:00Speaker 3: in their stretch run through March and April.
- 15:03Speaker 1: You mentioned Austin Matthews as a guy you can rely
- 15:06Speaker 1: on for some scoring aside from your captain, and I
- 15:10Speaker 1: guess I'll take away your associate, your ultimate captain as well.
- 15:14Speaker 1: The most important player not in the net for this
- 15:18Speaker 1: Utah or not Utah for this team USA, who do
- 15:21Speaker 1: you think that is?
- 15:24Speaker 3: You know, this is this is something I think a
- 15:26Speaker 3: lot of people focus on the forwards, which I understand.
- 15:31Speaker 3: I totally get that, But I think that we've got
- 15:33Speaker 3: to look at the defense here because I think there's
- 15:35Speaker 3: going to need to be scoring from the blue line
- 15:38Speaker 3: for this team USA. And that's why. You know, when
- 15:42Speaker 3: you get injuries, me guys knocked out, that's what hurts.
- 15:45Speaker 3: Charlie McAvoy thankfully looks like he's going to be okay.
- 15:50Speaker 3: He actually got injured in that game right before the
- 15:52Speaker 3: break and then came back in that game, so all right, thankfully.
- 15:57Speaker 3: But Zach Wrensky is an older guy who's having a
- 16:01Speaker 3: good season for Columbus. He's putting pucks in the net,
- 16:05Speaker 3: he's adding scoring from the back end. You know, I
- 16:09Speaker 3: look to see what he's going to bring. Noah Hannifin's
- 16:12Speaker 3: another older guy that are a veteran guy. I should say,
- 16:16Speaker 3: I don't want to make him sell you one hundred
- 16:17Speaker 3: years old. But to me, they're all kids. Oh see,
- 16:20Speaker 3: they're all kids. But you know, I think that's going
- 16:24Speaker 3: to be the important part for this team is that
- 16:26Speaker 3: they really do have to find some goals from the
- 16:28Speaker 3: back end, because upfront, Page Thompson can take over and
- 16:32Speaker 3: just absolutely dominate. I mean, that's the guy that, holy cow,
- 16:37Speaker 3: he can put the puck on the net. When he's
- 16:38Speaker 3: on a tear, he can shoot him anywhere. He's just
- 16:40Speaker 3: absolutely deadly. The Kachuck brothers can just change an entire
- 16:45Speaker 3: game all by themselves and absolutely dominate. But one other guy,
- 16:49Speaker 3: I'll give you one other other forward and it's not
- 16:51Speaker 3: Jack Eichel, but believe it or not, because of the
- 16:53Speaker 3: way he's been playing coming into the break, Jake Genzil.
- 16:56Speaker 3: I think Jake Enseil from Tampa Bay can be an
- 16:58Speaker 3: absolute game breaker in the Olympics.
- 17:00Speaker 1: Which NHL team was happiest to have this Olympic break
- 17:05Speaker 1: and which is like, oh no, we're on a roll here,
- 17:07Speaker 1: don't make the break now.
- 17:10Speaker 3: I think Utah wishes there was no break, quite honestly,
- 17:15Speaker 3: that's a tough one for them. Probably the Buffalo Sabers
- 17:18Speaker 3: because of the way they had started to play heading
- 17:21Speaker 3: into the break. As well. There are the teams that
- 17:24Speaker 3: are hurt and banged up. The Florida Panthers loved this
- 17:27Speaker 3: break because hopefully, and you never know when you guys
- 17:33Speaker 3: are going to be able to come back, but they
- 17:35Speaker 3: want to get healthy. Campa Bay was playing lights out
- 17:38Speaker 3: heading into the break. They probably didn't want it. Carolina
- 17:40Speaker 3: you know who else, the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is a
- 17:43Speaker 3: Penguins team that for years we've been saying they're too old.
- 17:46Speaker 3: They need to get rid of Balkin and let Tang
- 17:48Speaker 3: and Crosby and just started over. They won seven of
- 17:52Speaker 3: ten and points of nine of ten going into the break,
- 17:56Speaker 3: So yeah, they absolutely did not want the break. You
- 17:59Speaker 3: know who love the break? Colorado. They had been sliding
- 18:03Speaker 3: lately and coming back down to earth a little bit.
- 18:06Speaker 3: They had not had the best stretch here right before
- 18:08Speaker 3: the Olympic break, So unfortunately, I think the Avalanche are
- 18:12Speaker 3: very excited to have some time off.
- 18:16Speaker 4: Is there a game after this break?
- 18:19Speaker 1: We're going to talk before we get here, but is
- 18:21Speaker 1: there a game that right now is on your radar
- 18:24Speaker 1: for the Utah Mammoth to when you say, all right,
- 18:27Speaker 1: that's the one where we're going to figure out whether
- 18:29Speaker 1: this break was good or.
- 18:30Speaker 4: Bad for the team.
- 18:33Speaker 3: I think you're going to find out fairly quickly because
- 18:36Speaker 3: they go on, they come home, they play Chicago March first,
- 18:41Speaker 3: and you know they've got a little mini three game
- 18:45Speaker 3: homestand it's the Avalanche, the Wild and then Chicago. That
- 18:50Speaker 3: is a real tough way to restart things. But the
- 18:53Speaker 3: blessing and the curses that both teams are restarting things.
- 18:56Speaker 3: So they played the Avalanche well all season. I think
- 18:59Speaker 3: they're going to play the Langewell again. Minnesota is a
- 19:03Speaker 3: game that if you want to buy tickets for one
- 19:04Speaker 3: of those three games, I would tell you to buy
- 19:06Speaker 3: tickets for the game on the twenty seventh against Minnesota
- 19:09Speaker 3: because I think that is your biggest litmus test in there.
- 19:13Speaker 3: Now here's a secondary answer to that is that Sunday,
- 19:15Speaker 3: March first game against Chicago, they better win. That is
- 19:19Speaker 3: a must win game for me because of where Chicago
- 19:21Speaker 3: is in the standings, because of where Utah is. And
- 19:24Speaker 3: they then go on a five game Eastern road swing
- 19:26Speaker 3: that ends by looping back through Chicago and again Minnesota.
- 19:30Speaker 3: That's a really, really tough stretch. I want to see
- 19:32Speaker 3: him come out of that little homestand with two out
- 19:35Speaker 3: of three. But the most important game in there to
- 19:39Speaker 3: me is Minnesota.
- 19:42Speaker 1: Were there any guys on this mammoth roster that you're like,
- 19:45Speaker 1: he's going to really benefit from the rest, Maybe somebody
- 19:48Speaker 1: who's a little banged up or been playing through some stuff.
- 19:52Speaker 1: And obviously he is not part of his Olympic team.
- 19:55Speaker 3: Well, hopefully Logan Cooley. Man. We are all rooting for
- 20:00Speaker 3: for Cooley to get well soon. I hope he is,
- 20:03Speaker 3: you know, going to find the fountain of youth or
- 20:05Speaker 3: some healing springs somewhere and hang out in there. You
- 20:10Speaker 3: know who always plays so hard and is always getting
- 20:13Speaker 3: banged up and probably really does need the rest is
- 20:15Speaker 3: Sean Dursey. Jersey plays so hard, he plays a very
- 20:19Speaker 3: physical brand, He blocks shots, and he plays in all situations.
- 20:24Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure he will benefit greatly from the rest.
- 20:28Speaker 3: And he's a very important part of this defensive cores,
- 20:31Speaker 3: so I think that'll be a big thing for him
- 20:34Speaker 3: and you know, just some of the other guys. I
- 20:37Speaker 3: would really like to see Alex Kerfoot get healthy again.
- 20:42Speaker 3: He hasn't been for the most part of this year.
- 20:45Speaker 3: I hope that's not you know, his body starting to
- 20:47Speaker 3: break down on him. But I really think Kurfoot can
- 20:50Speaker 3: benefit because if they get Kerfoot and Coolly back, and
- 20:53Speaker 3: Jersey is back as close to one hundred percent as
- 20:55Speaker 3: he can get, that makes him a much better team.
- 20:58Speaker 3: That's like making a couple of trades at the Dead
- 21:00Speaker 3: Blind and acquiring some really key pieces so my fingers
- 21:03Speaker 3: are crossed for those three guys that this is a
- 21:05Speaker 3: very healing couple of weeks.
- 21:09Speaker 1: Tom, enjoy the women's hockey that's on today, and we
- 21:14Speaker 1: will probably chat with you after the men have already
- 21:17Speaker 1: played a time or two. So appreciate your expertise and
- 21:21Speaker 1: your time.
- 21:21Speaker 3: As always, thank you, thanks for having me on and
- 21:24Speaker 3: go Team USA.
- 21:26Speaker 1: Tom Callahan, Utah Mammoth insider who for now is going
- 21:30Speaker 1: to be our hockey insider, one of our hockey insiders
- 21:33Speaker 1: and specialists for Team USA Hockey