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The Flyers' Goalie Situation & Lehigh Valley IronPigs Talk! (PST Episode 560) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff. We wanted to let you know were
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recording this podcast episode on Wednesday, April third, twenty twenty four. By
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the time you hear this, some things may have changed, but we hope
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you enjoyed the show. All right, everybody, you're listening to the Philadelphia
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Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the
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world, just about eleven years strong. Here, Yes, we are the
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longest running Philly sports podcast show in the world. As Hey just mentioned,
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I don't know why I had to do it twice, but I'm Jeff Warren
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and I'm here at my good buddy Len Hunsicker, who is a tired boy,
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but he's a good boy, coming on the show this week to get
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into some Phillies talking some Sixers talk here, Len, buddy, how you
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doing, man, I'm good, good, glad to see, like just
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excited. Baseball's now in full swing. So interesting to see what the Phillis
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are going to do here this year. The first two games left quite a
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bit to be desired, yep, as did the blow in the game the
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other night. But but yeah, I mean, this is what they do.
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You know, they start out slow, every year it's the same damn
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thing. So you know, they start out slow and then they you know,
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have a little bit you know, we'll see how April goes for them.
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But yeah, I mean I think if they come out of the gate
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slow and and you know, kind of heat up as they go on,
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it'll be just like every other season the past couple of years. Absolutely.
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Yeah, I mean, why don't we get into that well really quick,
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folks, if you're new to listening to us, just to let you know,
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we got Phillies talk here on the way some Sixers talk now that Joel
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Embiid is back and on the court. I'm also going to be talking to
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Kurt Landis, the general manager of Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, about the triple
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season and lee High Valley and w what's in store for fans at Coca Cola
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Park this year. And then we're gonna talk to Kelly Hinkle from broad Street
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Hockey dot Com about this Flyers team as well and the goaltending situation that's going
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on with the teams as we're seeing here. So let's get into the Phillies
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a little bit more there, and to piggyback off what you just said,
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Len, I feel like it's it's like schizophrenic Phillies right out of the gate.
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You know, they losing, Now they're winning. There was these there
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was this bizarre expectation, just like it was last year, where they're gonna
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come out of the gate strong because we love the roster. It is a
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powerful offensive roster. There's a lot of power, he just said. And
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it just hasn't necessarily happened. Of course, Bryce Harper hitting three home runs,
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you know, doesn't necessarily help that argument. Still, it's so bizarre
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how schizophrenic this Phillies team is right out of the gate. But you know
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they're they're not the Marlins. They're not the Nats. And I'm very appreciative
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of that that too. And of course two different teams or all of them
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are different teams and organizations with their own problems, the Nats in the UH
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in the Marlins for sure. But I don't know, like it's it's the
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same thing every year to start off the season. You know, I think
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at the end of the day, we just got to be patient. Yeah,
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and you mentioned Harper, and I mean I will say this, I
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mean, I think this conversation not that it would have been like, oh
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my god, doom and gloom. But I think it would have been a
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little bit different had he not had the knife that he had last night with
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the three home run game, because you know, this is a guy in
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Harper that in the in spring training people like where is he? Why is
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he taking the bats? Is there an issue with the back? And then
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he comes out of the gate in the in the regular season and he's just
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behind. He's having fastballs he normally you know, murders get blown right by
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him, and it's just like, oh, man, is something wrong?
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Yep? Is there is there a back issue? Ye is there something?
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And we're not seeing. But then he has that night last night where it's
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like, okay, maybe it's just a slow start, you know, maybe
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maybe where we're kind of just making something out of it that wasn't there,
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but it was. It was good to see. You know, I don't
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need him to hit have three home run games all the time. It would
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be awesome, but you know, it's fantasy land. But you know,
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it is good to see him kind of just get into the groove a little
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bit there in a game and hopefully he can carry that forward, you know,
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get the average up a little bit and you know, just just continue
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to be the guy that they know he can be. So yeah, with
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him, I was very, very relieved by what transpired last night. Absolutely
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Well, there's another area of this team that I wanted to dive into with
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you, Land, because I'm absolutely perplexed and I think a lot of folks
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within Phillies Nation are perplexed by it as well. And it's it's the lineup
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choices early on that have been made with regard to Brandon Marsh, and it
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seems like the Phillies that these lineup choices here the Phillies are making, whether
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it's Rob Thompson or just you know, the coaching staff in general, they
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still don't appear to view Brandon Marsh as an everyday player and it's baffling to
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me given his early productivity thus far. I mean, I personally think he's
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earned the right to play every day. Look, Bryson Stott last year,
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he showed us what he could do and he was given that opportunity. Now
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let let Marsh do it. It makes no sense not to let him work
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through his situation against lefties, you know, and having Rojas out there at
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times, who is again let's let's face it, he's totally lost at the
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plate right now. You know, I don't understand why these lineup choices early
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on here still are hinting that the Phillies don't view Brandon Marsh as an everyday
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player. It's kind of perplexing to me. I mean, these guys are
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the experts. Were just I'm just hope here in front of the microphone.
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But I don't know, have you been thinking about this at all? Yeah?
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I mean, I mean, well, first off, we need to
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you know, you know, just say up front. This is tonight as
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we're speaking, they're playing the Reds game that has been pushed back I think
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a couple of times today because of weather. Yes, but this is game
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six out of one sixty two, so very small sample size that we're dealing
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with when it comes to the numbers. But he's been their best hitter so
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far, so I mean, yeah, I think this is you know,
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something that they should want to see. They should want to see him.
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Okay, can you step forward now in your age twenty six season, you
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know, still a relatively young guy. You need the same age as Stott,
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you know, a year younger than Boem So you know, can you
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make that leap and just and be the full time player. And I think
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they need to let him hit against lefties and just see if he can make
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that leap a little bit. I think he needs to be you know,
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obviously you're going to shuffle guys around, You're going to give guys a day
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off, right, right to be expected. But yeah, I mean I
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think at this point he needs to be close to an everyday player. I
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mean, I think it's time to, yeah, you know, take off
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the kid gloves and let him go do it, because thus far he's been
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there, Like I said, their best offensive player. Absolutely. Look,
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I agree with you. Marsh deserves a chance to play against lefties every day
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until he proves that he can or he can't. Because look, with Merrifield,
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he's only going to be here for one year. Brandon Marsh could be
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here for the long term. And if they are publicly saying that they're trying
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to build a consistent contender for the future while also winning in the near term
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as well, you have to figure out what Brandon Marsh is capable of being
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for this team. Give him more chances. Merrifield is you know, he's
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a big boy, he's been around a while and I'm sure they can fit
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him in and keep him happy without sitting Brandon Marsh every time they face a
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lefty. But look, like you said, it's early. I think they're
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gonna work this out. But at the end of the day, they need
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to give Marsh a chance to play against lefties until he can prove that he
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can or can't do it. Yeah, and with Maryfield, I mean,
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you don't. He is a guy that you can put him at a number
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of different positions. He does not need Marsh's left field spot to get it
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in the lineup. I mean he's going to be in there for Stott when
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Stott needs a rest, He'll be in there for you know, Rojas sometimes
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in center field. I mean, he's gonna be in a couple different spots
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on the diamond. So I mean, I don't worry about with Maryfield getting
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at bats. I think as lone as he produces, and thus far he's
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off to a slow start. But I mean if I think if he you
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know, just can show that he's you know, he can be a reliable
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bat in the lineup, I think what Maryfield's going to get I think more
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at bats than a lot of people think, because I think he can really,
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you know, be in different spots in a lineup, and Okay,
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this guy needs a day often, well we'll put Maryfield in the spot.
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I mean, you know I can do that with like real Mudo or something.
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But right most other you know a lot of other places on the diamond,
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you can just plug him right in there and he'll be fine defensively,
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So I yeah, I mean, I think he's gonna be just fine in
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terms of getting at bats. I'm not worried about that with Merryfield all right.
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Before we get into some sixers talk, just wanted to mention and bring
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up really quick from the pitching perspective, I wonder, I mean, Aaron
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Nola's next outing is gonna have to be a pretty decent outing because I mean,
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my gosh, this first start of the season, he gives up the
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most his most hits ever and it just wasn't a strong outing at all,
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And I think we're gonna need Aaron Nola is I think who he is in
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a lot of ways. You know, we've seen him crap the bed here
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and there, and you know he comes back and surprises a lot of us.
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Has really fantastic outings after crap in the bed sometimes. Again, do
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you think we just need to be patient with regard to Aeron, Look,
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because he was a big quote, I mean, yeah, it's one start.
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I mean, you know, he'll have games where he looks like,
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oh man, there's that guy that we thought could be an ACE, and
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then I'll have, you know, game not quite as bad as the first
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one. But you know, yeah, he's had an ERA in the fours
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over the past couple of years. So I mean there's a reason for that.
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He's not going to come out there and be the guy that we thought
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could be an ACE every single time. There's gonna be some stinkers in there.
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Yeah, and again he's going up against literally one of the two or
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three best offenses in baseball at the start. I mean, I I if
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you need a reminder, go on Baseball Reference and go to Atlanta's twenty twenty
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three team and just look at their Look at that lineup's numbers, and it's
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pretty much the same lineup. It is cartoon numbers. So I mean that's
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what he was going up against in this first start. Look, he he's
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not going to be the last guy this year that gets smacked around by the
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brains. It is not by a damn sight. So you know, let's
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get it. Let's let him get a couple you know, starts under his
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belt before we worry about Iron know absolutely, And I brought that up because
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there are some folks, and I don't know if they listen to this podcast,
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but within Philly's Nation, where second game of the season and they're like,
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it's over, it's done. Aaron Nola's stinks, gives up twice,
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gives up seven runs. Oh my gosh, come on, it's it's I
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don't know. I mean, if that's honestly what people were thinking, then
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I don't know where they've been in the past few years because it's been essentially
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the same thing. It's just the doom and gloom folks that are out there,
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so it's it's gonna happen. But I'll tell you I did not have
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doom and gloom at the end of last night's Sixers game when it was Joe
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Ellenbiid and him making his debut return after that meniscous injury and rehabbing it over
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all of these weeks that he is now been on the court. I mean,
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they beat Okac in Philly. It was an it was it was ugly
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at times. But look, I think Embiid's early minutes went about as I
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think we all expected. He was a bit out of sorts here and there.
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Initially he played in short bursts due to probably his conditioning, but he
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was eventually able to get to his spots knock down some shots in the mid
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range area where he has always thrived. Len and Embiid also, you know,
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he had a he had a trio of early assists too. You know,
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that's something I was watching for, you know, one of which coming
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after uh deciding to bring the ball up himself like a point guard. So
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getting back into the swing of things. It's great that he's back, of
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course again looking a little bit out of sort. It's gonna take a little
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time for him to get back to it. And I think that if he
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can, and if the if the medical staff is able to continue to treat
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him the way that he needs to be treated and he doesn't re injure it,
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and if he's smart on the court, I think this is a team
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that can get into the playoffs and then let's see what happens there. Yeah,
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No, I agree with that. I mean, I think that they
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would not have especially like when you look at what happened right before the injury,
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right before Jonathan Kaminga fell on his leg, you know, he was
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he looked like an injured player before that ever happened. So yeah, I
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mean they know that, Okay, we're looking to go to the playoff run
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here, they're not going to, I think put him out there if he
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hasn't passed everything that they want to see in terms of you know, coming
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back and what he's doing in practice and how he looks there. I think
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they're gonna I don't think they would put him out there without you know,
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being like, Okay, he's good to go, and I I don't think
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they would take that kind of risk. So I'm not really worried about that.
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You know, he's going to need to play his way into in the
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shape a little bit and I don't think that's going to take too long.
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But yeah, I mean what does it do for for their for their chances?
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I I mean I think it greatly bolsters their chances. I mean you're
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talking about a guy that you know, depending on which side of the fence
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you want to be on in terms of him, and this is one of
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the two best players in basketball. I don't think that, you know,
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this is a guy that you know, basically all season long has averaged you
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know, has had more points than minutes, which is a ridiculous stat.
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So I mean, that's that's who we're talking about here. So I I
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totally think that he can you know, come back and lead them into a
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better playoffs spot. Yeah, and and and the and the important thing is,
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you know, let's look at what the at the games they have remaining.
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Looks like we've got six games remaining in the schedule here, So that
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first one is the Biggie on Tomorrow night, April fourth, against Miami at
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home or no, in Miami, I'm sorry, in Miami that is a
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must win game. That that's a team that you're trying to keep pace with.
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And then you have a Grizzly team that hasn't been too great. You've
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got the Spurs who are young and they're just trying to find their way,
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I mean, and be and will be fun. Pistons are terrible, Magic
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aren't great, and and the Nets are not really good this year either.
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So you look at those teams and there's no reason why they can't in those
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last six games, you know, at least maybe go I don't know,
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four and two. Now, that's I don't think that's gonna get them.
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I don't. I don't know if it'll get them, you know, to
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where they want to be to avoid the playing tournament, but it should.
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I think you think it'll put them in a better position now. I mean,
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I obviously if they can do better than that, that would be awesome.
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Currently they are, they are sitting in the eighth position forty one thirty
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five, one game behind Miami, which is why that is a huge game,
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and two games behind Indiana for the sixth spot. You get in that
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sixth spot, you don't have to worry about this playing tournament at all.
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So yeah, I mean that, I think they're in a good spot right
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now. They've got their best player back. We'll see what happens with Tyrese
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Maxi dealing with the hip tightness yep, that he is currently dealing with.
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It would be great to have both of them back. But you've got one
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of the two best players in the NBA back, and you are navigating a
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pretty easy last six games of the season. So I mean, if they
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kind of stumble here. It was never going to happen to begin with.
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Right, Well, there's another aspect of this situation with Joel and be coming
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back that I wanted to get your opinion on real quick before I let you
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go and before we get to our interviews this week, Lynn, is that
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you know Buddy Healed, I mean he I think from here on out these
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last six games here, he's the main piece to watch alongside Embiid. As
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you know, he's the best shooter the Sixers have had since trading Seth Curry
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and if not since JJ Reddick left the team. So Embiid formed a pretty
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lethal two man type of games with each of those guys Seth Curry and JJ
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Reddick when they were here, and the Sixers I think should try to spend
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as much time as possible between now and the postseason getting Buddy Healed and Joel
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Embiid acquainted with each other in order to really maximize that potential that comes with
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the pairing. See what's there, see how the chemistry works, and see
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if we can't get the type of production from Embiid and the best shooter on
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the team in Buddy Healed, that that Embiid had, you know, with
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Seth Curry, because that can pay dividends as they're potentially heading into this postseason.
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That's what I'm really going to be watching. Yeah, yeah, I
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definitely want to see how how him Healed mesh, you know how having him
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you know, he plays all over the place. He will play behind the
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three point arc, but if he's down low, you know, kicking it
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out the Healed for threes. I mean, if they can get that game
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going, that's going to be super helpful. Kelly E. Ray Juniors has
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had a good season. Yep, he's you know, another decent scoring option.
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Tobias Harris. For as much maligned as he has been because of the
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contract, you know, he's still averaging seventeen points a game. So it's
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not like, you know, okay, oh, you know they have EMBIID,
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but they don't have Maxi. So it's just EMBIID and a bunch of
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stiffs. I mean, they have guys that have been in the league for
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a while that can play right. It's just a matter of you know,
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there is some unfamiliarity there, especially with a guy like Healed, who you
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know came in recently. Yeah, well it's going to be interesting to watch
18:57
for sure, and if you're new to listening to us, subscribe on whatever
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Table at gmail dot com. Shoot us off an email about anything in the
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in the show at Philadelphia PST. I'm on Threads as well at mister jeff
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Warren in the show at Philadelphia Sports Table. Buddy, I know you got
19:41
to head out because you're gonna be needing to get to work sooner rather than
19:45
later. Here, any last thoughts before I let you go. Before we
19:48
get to our interviews, my alarm goes off in a hair over four hours,
19:52
so I'm going to be all right, go to bed, buddy,
19:56
and uh, we'll see you later. And folks, we're gonna take a
19:57
quick break right now to pay bills. We'll be back in a bit.
20:02
All right, We are back, and we're gonna get to our first of
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two interviews on the show this week. If you're into visiting some minor league
20:11
ball fields, whether you're in Pennsylvania or any other area, you gotta come
20:17
to the Lehigh Valley and we're gonna be talking to the general manager of the
20:19
lee High Valley Iron Pigs right now. So let's get right to it.
20:23
Joining us now from Coca Cola Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is the
20:29
general manager of the Lee High Valley Iron Pigs, the Triple A affiliate of
20:32
the Philadelphia Phillies. It's great having him on. He's been coming on for
20:36
the past few years to talk about this Iron Pigs team. The season.
20:40
We've got the general manager, Kurt Landis Kurt Man. How you doing and
20:42
thanks so much for taking the time to join us, Buddy, Jeff.
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Always my pleasure to talk to you. I consider you one of the biggest
20:48
Iron Pigs fans. Oh, thank you. So we appreciate that absolutely.
20:52
I love bringing my family to the park every now and again throughout the course
20:57
of the season. There's always so much to do the family atmosphere or the
21:00
environment. It's just so fun for families. But you know, on the
21:04
flip side of that too, it's where we come as baseball fans and Phillies
21:10
fans come to see you know, who may be coming up the ranks in
21:12
terms of the miners and what this farm system really looks like as well.
21:18
But like I said, I love bringing my family to Coca Cola Park throughout
21:21
the course of the season, and every year there's always something new, There's
21:23
always something engaging for fans. You all do a lot of work during the
21:27
off season to make sure that that continues to happen year after year. So
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to get our discussion started here, you know what's new at the park here
21:33
in twenty twenty four, Kurt, you know what's on the horizon this season
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in terms of you know, entertainment for the Iron Pigs with the fans this
21:41
year. Well, there's always something new, you know. It's it's tough
21:48
because we just had a very large renovation project take place to year prior.
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In reality, we were still working on some of the fine tuning and some
21:56
of the final elements of that through as late as in February this past year,
22:00
and we're going to get to that for sure. Yeah, that was
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a large, a large project, a fourteen million dollar project in total.
22:07
But you know, from the this past year, as I look out and
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it's pouring rain right now, we just replaced our entire infield and our entire
22:15
warning track, as those aspects have been seventeen years old, so from a
22:22
drainage perspective and making sure that the playing field continues to be the best in
22:26
Miling baseball, and we're starting to have some dates where the warning track wentn't
22:32
drained as well and we'd lose a game or have to postpone. So now
22:37
as I look out, even with inches of rain falling, there's not one
22:41
puddle on the field. That's such a critical aspect to us that every night
22:45
we can play, you know, as scheduled is important for our fans.
22:51
You know, there's always things that are new at the ballpark, from food
22:52
items to promotions. You know, we're excited we announced promotions wise, we
22:59
have our very first Catter Day event at the ballpark. On Saturday, April
23:03
twenty seventh. We've always had dog nights and dog promotions. We've renamed ourselves
23:08
iron pugs and all kinds of you know, iron wieners. Yep. But
23:14
to have a night for cat owners is something that I've always heard we should
23:17
do. So finally we have a night for you know, Jeff, if
23:19
you can take me out, me out to the ball me out, yes,
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yes, So that's that's kind of fun. We are annual Salute to
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Philly Night, which is a huge success, different promotion each year. This
23:33
year we're going to be focused on the Mummers Parade and we'll be wearing uniforms
23:38
and colors that are more representative of the Mummers Parade. We're excited for that.
23:42
Oh, you got to get Jason Kelsey up here. You got to
23:45
get Jason Kelcey dressed up in his Mummer's outfit. Gosh, we'd love to.
23:48
We'd absolutely love to. We've been trying, we've been trying to get
23:52
in touch with him. So you know, every night at the ballpark you
23:56
have a chance to plan seventy five different themes and it's a lot of fun
24:00
to make the ballpark entirely that theme for the night, if it's Easter celebration
24:07
or like we had this past weekend, or if it's Eighties Nights or Star
24:12
Wars or you know, there's some tried and true promotions that we have each
24:15
year that aren't new. But people love Pirate and Princess Knight, and they
24:19
love Star Wars, they love Superhero Night. But then to fill in with
24:25
something different, you know, each each year as fun as well, food
24:29
wise, a lot of different new food items on the menu. I was
24:33
gonna get to that here because like really quick her before you got like the
24:37
ballpark is very well known for its food, especially in the Lehigh Valley region.
24:41
And I mean, you got some new burger concoctions this year as well
24:44
as some healthy choices as well for folks that might not want to dive into
24:48
the to the to the bacon necessarily or the or the burgers and hot dogs.
24:52
I mean, and so many people correlate their entertainment with food within our
24:57
world today. You know how the food offered at the ballpark over the years
25:02
really kind of been part of what I would call the quote entertainment package at
25:06
Coca Cola Park. That's so great that you say that because I think people
25:10
forget that we're the largest restaurant in only High Valley. That's absolutely correct.
25:14
Yep. It's not easy to serve, you know, up to ten thousand
25:18
people in a two and a half hour time frame, and we have a
25:21
great staff that does an amazing job of it. But food is absolutely a
25:25
part of the entertainment experience, and I think some venues and ballparks are now
25:30
starting to realize that. And we've done it since day one to understand that
25:36
you come to the ballpark, it's just as much about the hot dog and
25:40
the beer. And if it's the you know, the candied maple bacon on
25:47
a stick, or if it's the salmon roasted nuts or the Ashucks roasted corn
25:52
or the Philly pretzel, the Jandle turkey stick, whatever it might be,
25:57
that there are staples here. But you know new this year you mentioned some
26:02
healthy items. We do have people from time and time to say, hey,
26:03
we need some more healthy items, and then we put healthy items on
26:07
the menu and no one needs something you're so yes, I laugh because a
26:14
lot of people will will request those but they don't sell. Well, let
26:18
me have them. So we have something for every fan, But yeah,
26:22
we had we added a yogurt parfay. But it's amazing. When people come
26:26
to the ballpark, it's like a nine inning vacation, and when you're on
26:30
vacation, you're not really necessarily looking to eat healthy. You're looking to enjoy
26:34
your your life. And that's what I don't want to park. Yeah,
26:38
that's what Bacon and porker nachos and deep fried oreos, that's that's what those
26:45
items are. The only parfait that I ever wanted that I got at Coca
26:49
Cola Park once was the mac and cheese bacon parfang. I'm not kidding.
26:53
It was the grand it was the most grand thing. It was a few
26:56
years ago you all had it. I was like fan task stick for sure.
27:00
The pork par fe is one of my favorites. So it's it's mashed
27:03
potatoes, nacho cheese, pulled pork, and then additional layers of the same,
27:10
you know, mashed potatoes, pulled pork, nacho cheese with onion hives.
27:15
It's a genuine fantastic item. I don't know where we started with that
27:19
one and where we came up with it, but it's it's done really well.
27:22
Every year, and you know, each year we put things on the
27:25
menu and take things off based on success and sales. But you know,
27:30
the candied maple bacon on a stick, aw Shucks, roasted corn, chickies,
27:37
and peats fries, which have been with the ballpark now for about four
27:40
or five years. Those are staples. When people come, they really indulge
27:45
and enjoy, and we keep finding new items as well, so the experience
27:48
is unique for everybody. But or if you come multiple times, there's different
27:52
types of foods to explore it. We're the only team still, Jeff in
27:57
minor league Baseball and maybe major league. We have a website dedicated just to
28:03
the food journey at Coke Cola Park. It's called Pigs Foodfinder dot com.
28:08
So try to look at pigs foodfinder dot com and not get absolutely hungry.
28:14
Absolutely God, I'm starving right now just talking about this. But something that
28:18
you mentioned earlier, Kurt, you know, it's we're moving along with our
28:19
conversation here just a couple more topics and wanted to bounce off of you.
28:23
You mentioned the renovations recently at the park. I mean it's been a little
28:26
over the years since some of those renovations were unveiled at Coca Cola Park.
28:30
You mentioned the fourteen million dollars in renovations. They were mandated by Major League
28:37
Baseball to get done not just at Coca Cola Park, but other minor league
28:41
parks throughout the United States. So I guess after this past year and you
28:44
just recently said that some of those renovations have like finally come to fruition in
28:48
recent weeks and months here and as the season starts, you know, what
28:52
are what are some of the reactions by the players themselves to these new renovations.
28:56
I would imagine they're happy, but I wanted to hear from the general
29:00
manager's mouth right here, and the players last year and then again this year
29:04
have walked in and their jaws are dropped wide open, because listen, there's
29:11
a lot of great Triple A facilities, but now to have rehab, the
29:18
medical, the weight training, the food nutrition spaces that we have our own
29:26
kitchen just for the clubhouse, recovery room. There's things that are here that
29:32
are not in other ballparks now, and we did have to make a number
29:36
of improvements to stay current with Major League Baseball guidelines. Right then, on
29:41
top of that, our partners, the Philadelphia Phillies, jumped in and made
29:47
additional investments because they want to do things right for their players as well.
29:52
At this level and this year, a lot of our players, I think
29:55
seventeen or eighteen of our players have played in the big leagues before. So
29:59
you have guys that come here and are saying to me that there are major
30:03
league venues that aren't as nice as what we have here at Triple A when
30:07
it comes to the clubhouses, training and batting cages, and that's great and
30:12
they're blessed as well. And Double A they've just gone undergone I think something
30:18
down north of forty million dollars and renovations to that facility for player amenities that
30:25
were also necessary. And that was a much older ballpark. They had many
30:29
more needs than what we had at Coca Cola Park. But between Double A,
30:33
Reading, Triple A, Lehigh Valley and then the things they've done in
30:37
Philadelphia, the players have the best of the best and they have the best
30:41
tools in front of them to be successful. I think that's fantastic. And
30:45
again, folks head to Coca Cola Park in Allentown to watch a game,
30:51
get that experience for a Triple A ballpark. It's fantastic. It's it's it's
30:56
budget friendly as well. And I know I got Curt On here, but
30:59
I'm saying years and years that I've been taking my family. It is a
31:03
great, great atmosphere and environment to watch some baseball and just to have a
31:07
great time. And with that being said, is we're closing out our conversation
31:11
here, Kurt. You know the Iron Pigs, they're truly a community partner
31:14
with so many nonprofits and various institutions within the Lee High Valley region and beyond
31:18
too. So I'm wondering, you know, what plans does the Iron Pigs
31:22
have for you know, making an even greater impact in the Lee High Valley
31:26
community and beyond this year. Sure, it's a great question. So there's
31:30
a lot of things we do annually, but you always want to get better.
31:34
So, you know, how do we make the fundraising events that we
31:37
have more successful? So, you know, analyzing the golf outing or a
31:41
winter banquets, our Suitech and Treats event which we host for about a thousand
31:48
kids in the community who are either underprivileged or differently able to be able to
31:52
trigger treat here in a safe, accessible environment. How do we improve our
32:00
our sponsor relations the sponsors become more engrossed and not just the Iron Pigs,
32:05
but also on our charitable efforts and want to support the things we do.
32:08
We've looked at hosting additional events and additional fundraisers. One thing that're excited about
32:14
is we're going to be hosting a spelling Bee, the corporate Spelling Bee event.
32:19
Oh nice. It's about trying to do you know. We fundraised as
32:23
much as we can because through our charities to our foundation, we've now given
32:28
back, between the Iron Pigs and the Foundation combined about two and a half
32:31
million dollars in cash grants to the community of the last fifteen sixteen years.
32:36
So a lot of the JEFF is trying to fundraise and support other nonprofit organizations
32:42
who do great things in the community, as well as our own programmings such
32:45
as the Sweets and Treats event. But some of it's just trying to be
32:49
as visible as possible so people know we've been giving out cash grants to local
32:58
youth leagues, be a baseball or soccer or basketball for many years and just
33:02
trying to spread the words that we have people that apply for the money we
33:06
have. We have hundreds of thousands of dollars we raise and some groups don't
33:13
even apply. Where we support to we want, you know, to provide
33:17
new lights for a Little league field that are broken, or fence around the
33:22
field so it's not vandalized or it's safer for the kids and there's not ruts
33:25
from someone drove through the infield right the outfield. So we do those things
33:30
consistently through grants back out to the community, be it our winter grant process,
33:36
our spring grant process. So we're constantly fundraising or looking to support or
33:40
even support through raffles, Chinese auctions, all these things that we can give
33:47
tickets or merchandise or apparel give back to other organizations to help with their own
33:53
fundraising efforts. Lee have Valley Iron Pigs doing a great job here in the
33:57
Lea Valley community for sure. And again Folks is the general manager of the
34:01
Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Kurt's always great talking to you, my friend, come
34:05
back join us down the road. We'd love to talk to you more in
34:07
the future, my friend Jeff, anytime, it's my pleasure. And thanks
34:09
for being a proud supporter. We appreciate your fandom as it were. What
34:15
a great discussion with Kurt again. I can't wait to take my family,
34:19
can't wait to get to some games at Coca Cola Park. But right now,
34:22
we are going to take a quick break. We are going to be
34:24
back in just a bit. Got a lot of Flyers talk coming your way.
34:29
Let's take that break now. All right, we are back and let's
34:32
get to what we are thrown down on the table this week. Some changes
34:37
are happening within this Philadelphia Flyers team and some changeing some dynamics as well,
34:42
So let's get to it. We got a great guest, that's what we're
34:45
thrown down on the table and now on the table joining us to get into
34:52
this Philadelphia Flyers team and some of the ongoing news and just amazing stuff still
34:58
going on with this team. It never ceases to amaze us. From Broadstreet
35:00
Hockey dot com, I am a subscriber. You should be as well.
35:05
If you enjoy Flyers hockey and you enjoy Flyers content as well. We have
35:09
the one and only Kelly Hinkle. How you doing, Kelly? Who doesn't
35:14
enjoy Flyers hockey and Flyers content exactly? It's a light Jesus. You know,
35:17
the trade deadline comes and goes, you think, okay, all right,
35:22
this is gonna be it here, we're gonna see other this team,
35:23
and then no, there's always something. You know, you got Tortorella getting
35:27
tossed from a game, getting fined. Now we've got a new goalie.
35:30
I mean, you've been on the podcast a couple times throughout the course of
35:35
this season, Kelly, every single time I say to you, this has
35:38
been an incredibly interesting season. It's been a fun season as well, given
35:43
what our expectations were to start the year that it was rebuild year. I'm
35:47
just absolutely shocked that the Philadelphia Flyers have been able to keep so much of
35:52
our attention throughout the course of all these months. Never a dull moment with
35:57
this team. They're keetting all of us employed. Yeah, well I say
36:00
that loosely. Employee. Yes, doing a hobby that we make sometimes make
36:06
money do it? Yes, very minimal, very minimal money, right they
36:12
called passive income anyway, But look, let's get into some of the bigger
36:19
storylines of course with this team right now, and I guess it would be
36:22
the biggest storyline at the moment with this Flyers team, Ivan Fidotov, who
36:27
is finally playing some NHL hockey after years and years and years, he is
36:30
finally playing, and he's playing here in Philadelphia for this team, in front
36:36
of this net. I'm wondering, is he the spark that this team needs
36:39
to, you know, quote kind of get back on track here from what
36:43
we saw earlier this season. I mean, that's the first question for you,
36:46
and the second question I think should be Kelly, what should our expectations
36:52
for Fidotov be right now at this point and threat rest of the season.
36:55
Well, I think the hope was that he would be some kind of spark,
37:00
But I think the way the Flyers played in front of him in the
37:04
second period of that Islanders game when he came in for his first showing as
37:08
an NHL goaltender, came in in relief for Sam Rison, who looked not
37:14
great in the first period against the Islanders. The Flyers did not play with
37:21
anything resembling spark in that second period. They looked pretty bad for most of
37:27
it and didn't really pick it up until like midway through the third. So
37:34
I'm not sure that we can rely on I'm in Fodotov by himself to be
37:38
a motivator for this team, because if he was going to motivate them,
37:43
I think he would have done it the second he came into the net,
37:45
and they would have been like, now we're not losing this game. We're
37:49
not going to let this guy lose his first game, Like we're going to
37:51
get this done. They didn't do that, So I'm not sure we can
37:55
rely on him to be a spark. I think that the team is going
37:59
to have to find that within themselves. As for expectations, I think with
38:02
goaltenders it's always a good idea to keep the expectations kind of tempered. They're
38:09
weird. You never know if they're going to be good or bad. Like
38:12
we've seen it with Sam Rison. He was very very good to start the
38:15
season. He's been very good in moments, and he's been very bad in
38:19
moments, And you just don't I don't know how anyone evaluates goaltenders, to
38:23
be honest with you there, it seems nuts to me. But I do
38:27
think just based on what we've seen, we've seen him play for forty minutes
38:30
in the NHL. He looked pretty good. He looked pretty steady. That's
38:37
a key word steady. That's a key word steady. I think. I
38:39
mean, he's freaking humongous, so like, just by virtue of the fact
38:45
that he is an absolute beast of a man, he just takes up so
38:47
much space that I think it's hard for shooters to know exactly where to go
38:53
because there's just not a lot of room for them to shoot at. Yeah,
38:58
you're going to mention Charlie something that you're Charlie made a point that you
39:02
know, given that he's played forty minutes of NHL hockey, no one has
39:06
a book on him yet, no one knows where his weaknesses are. No
39:08
one knows where his strengths are. No one knows like, oh, shoot
39:13
high blocker on him every time, Like, no one knows that stuff yet.
39:15
So that's an advantage for him and for the Flyers. And I think
39:20
based on what we saw him coming in ice cold, like ice cold,
39:24
didn't get to warm up. I think maybe half a practice with the team
39:29
at that point, flying in from Russia, all of the craziness that he's
39:32
had to go through just to get here, he looked pretty dang good.
39:37
So I think it's reasonable to expect that if nothing else, we've got a
39:42
solid backup, which we didn't have with Felix Sanstrom or Cal Peterson at all.
39:49
So if nothing else, I think maybe for the remaining games we've got
39:52
a solid backup goaltender that we can rely on if we need Sam Rison to
39:57
get a break with which I think it's clear that, but he needs some
40:00
breaks in here, like he's he seems to be struggling. So it's good
40:05
now that before when you had to put Sanstrm in, it was hard not
40:09
to pencil that in as a loss, just because he never looked very good
40:14
and he wasn't expected to be good. He wasn't good up here the first
40:16
time. He wasn't good with the phantoms, he wasn't good when he was
40:20
backing up Sam Marson. Now I think at least we can put Fidotov in
40:23
and Harold probably play. I'm assuming he'll play tomorrow against the Sabers, just
40:30
because, like why not, you know, keep the momentum going. Sure,
40:34
But I do think that if nothing else, it's a bit of a
40:39
steadying force that like now we know, okay, at least we have a
40:45
chance in these games when we've got to start the backup. Absolutely. Yeah,
40:47
I wasn't planning on asking you about Felix Sanstrom, but I'm wondering what
40:51
that experiment is going to look like, if there is even an experiment moving
40:54
forward. I mean, John Torrella had some things to say it is calm
41:00
and so on Felix Sands from what about a week ago or so, which
41:02
he apologized for, but the Felix Sands From experiment, Like, I don't
41:07
know what to make of it at this point, and I don't even know
41:08
if he is going to be a relevant, valuable asset for the Philadelphia Flyers
41:15
themselves in the future, because even on the AHL level, just it hasn't
41:20
been pretty by any stretch of the imagination. No, I mean, I
41:22
feel like, regrettably, I think that that experiment is kind of wrapped up.
41:27
I think we've kind of gotten the results that we need. I would
41:30
kind of expect that heading into next season he'll be backing up call us Off.
41:37
For the fans, Yeah, I'm guessing. I'm sure that they want
41:40
calls Off to get a lot of time down there to really find his game
41:45
in the North American hockey. But I don't think feel like Sanstrom is going
41:52
to factor into the Flyers plans at all. Yeah, I don't think maybe
41:55
he'll, yeah, maybe he'll find a spot on the phantoms, but I
41:59
don't even think it'll be the starter for the fantoms of anything. He's been
42:02
given opportunities and he just hasn't seized upon those opportunities. And and not that
42:07
it has to be some some or having Carter Hart shining moments type of thing,
42:12
but just some forward progress. I don't think that we've seen from Awa
42:15
sand exactly right exactly. He's nowhere near. Yeah, yeah, I think
42:21
I think we've kind of Unfortunately I was super high on him when he first
42:25
came to the team, but you know, goalies, you never know what
42:30
you're going to get. Exactly. Regrettably, it looks like he's not going
42:32
to be one. But is what it is at least we know now,
42:36
right, Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Well, Look, I mean we just
42:37
talked about whether or not Fidotov can really give this team a spark maybe in
42:43
front of the net, and you know what now happens with Sam Erson and
42:47
you know, you briefly talked about him. He's had some real bright spots
42:52
and he's had some down spots too, and not just from a playing standpoint
42:55
of what happens with Sam moving forward here. And I think it may be
43:00
a thought that is kind of overlooked, but more from a pure sports psychology
43:05
perspective, because like you said, he's had a pretty damn good year.
43:07
He's had a pretty damn good season, and US fans thinking, Okay,
43:12
the situation with Carter Hart happened, and boy man, we had a juggernaut
43:15
in front of the net with Sam Erson, and now we're seeing perhaps some
43:21
sports psychology ors, some mental based issues coming into play with him. The
43:28
dynamics of everything there I think has to do something with him from a mental
43:32
perspective. Would you agree with that? And do you have any thoughts on
43:37
that? Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's if he's in
43:40
his head like if you've got the yips, or if he's just like physically
43:44
run down from having to play so many games. It's probably a little bit
43:47
of both. My read on the Sam Yerson situation is at the start of
43:53
the season, when Carter Hart was the clear cut number one goaltender getting the
43:59
line in share of the starts, and Sam Yerson was backing up, maybe
44:02
like thirty percent of the games he was getting starts. We kind of saw
44:07
Kart Heart was obviously very good. Ayerson seemed to be like okay in the
44:13
backup role, like he seemed like an average backup, which was fine,
44:16
but once he started to play more, he got better. And it seems
44:22
like he's the kind of goalie where being a legit backup, like where you're
44:28
really not getting many starts, like maybe you're getting one start every seven games
44:32
or something that didn't seem to be optimal for him. It seemed to that
44:37
he struggled a little bit not playing as much. Once the games between he
44:42
and Heart started to even up, it seemed like Airson got better. And
44:46
now that he has taken over as the starter and is playing just about every
44:52
game, it seems like that's not good for him either. So I think
44:55
that with Sam Errison, I think to get the best out of him,
45:00
A one A one B situation is where he's going to thrive the most,
45:04
where it doesn't really matter who's the starter, Like it's almost a fifty to
45:08
fifty split, like pretty much what you see in Boston with Swaymen and Omark,
45:14
Like a very even one A one b goalie split, I feel like,
45:20
I mean, obviously I don't know this for sure, but I feel
45:22
like that might be the sweet spot for Sam Yerson, where he's getting enough
45:25
starts to stay hot, but not so many starts that he's wearing down like
45:30
we've seen him do over the last couple of weeks. Yeah, I wonder
45:32
if I'm hoping, oh, go ahead, now, go ahead, go
45:35
ahead. No, I'm hoping that Fodotov is good enough that that's what we
45:39
can look for going forward next season. Like this season, I mean,
45:43
there's not enough games left for us to figure this out. Maybe they get
45:45
into the playoffs, maybe they don't. I don't know if there'll be enough
45:49
games in the playoffs for us to figure this out. But next season,
45:52
I'm hoping that we might be able to see them kind of settle into I
45:58
mean, not in every other game kind of thing, but pretty even split
46:00
of games between these two guys that will allow both of them to thrive.
46:05
And that would be I mean, when when it was starting to happen with
46:07
Heart and Erson, before all everything went to shit because Carter Hart is a
46:13
bad person, I was starting to be like, yes, yes, this
46:16
is awesome, Like This is what I was hoping for, a tandem goaltending
46:21
situation where both of the guys are good yep, both of them can take
46:23
starts, both of them can play back up. And that's what I'm hoping
46:28
we'll get out of Fudotov and Aerson. I don't know if we need either
46:30
one of these guys to play seventy percent of the games. I don't really
46:34
think that's how it seems like the trend in the NHL. I was just
46:37
gonna make sure of a tandem thing. Yeah, like it doesn't seem like
46:40
a starter and a backup is like the way to do it anything. That's
46:44
what I was gonna mention to you, because it seems that that is what
46:46
has had that's the trend here in the NHL anymore. And I think it's
46:51
smart. I think it's smart, in a smart move on GM's parts to
46:54
have that tandem goaltending because it's going to prolong careers. It's going to take
47:00
less stress off of these guys, you know, like you said, playing
47:04
seventy percent of the time or seventy five percent of the time. It's crazy
47:08
how it's always been done. It's okay to progress in terms of this,
47:12
you mentioned it's it's been done in Boston with some success, and so why
47:16
not bring that to Philadelphia here. I think it's fantastic as part of this
47:20
rebuild. Let's see what these guys have here. So I think it's gonna
47:24
be really interesting to watch for sure. But as we're moving along with the
47:29
conversation here, Kelly, you know, justin over at Broadstreet Hockey dot com,
47:34
your colleague, he wrote it. He wrote a piece recently about how
47:37
Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost are becoming inseparable and truly producing well together as a
47:43
pair on the ice. It was a really really great piece. Folks,
47:45
head on over to brous Street Hockey dot com and check out that article.
47:47
It was really really great and really eye opening. It seems this could be
47:52
one of the more defining storylines perhaps that really does come out of this this
47:57
year's rebuild. What are your thoughts on on how they've been playing together and
48:01
how that may bode well for their future in Philly and with this rebuild as
48:07
well. Yeah, so, Morgan Frost turning things around is like, I'm
48:14
not sure that people realize how big of a deal it is, just because
48:17
like, okay, he's a third line center. Okay, but the Flyers
48:22
have like no centers, right, and when this team is going to be
48:25
good, they're going to need a very good third line center. Like the
48:30
very good teams have three lines that can score, not to so having Morgan
48:34
Frost come into his own in a way that looked very up in the air
48:38
at the beginning of the season, especially when all the stuff with Tour started
48:42
happening, it was very unclear if he was going to have a spot on
48:45
this team at all. And he has looked incredible over the last few weeks.
48:51
And not to bring up other people again, with Bill Mattz recently,
48:54
on an episode of their podcast over Phly, he he made the argument that
49:00
you could you could argue that Morgan Frost is the Flyer's most skilled hockey player,
49:07
Like as far as argument, hands, passing, like hockey IQ,
49:13
all that kind of stuff, he's real good at it. Like his passing
49:16
is like, oh, incredible. And then you pair that with Owen Tippett,
49:21
who can shoot like nobody's business, and you've got a very dynamic couple
49:27
of guys that when they're paired together on the ice, are very fun to
49:30
watch because you have a guy that can. It seems like the Flyers are
49:34
having a lot of trouble with the outlet pass lately, like the rush games
49:37
really died down since Sean Walker left, Like they're having a lot of trouble
49:40
just like getting that rush going like they had been doing at the beginning of
49:44
the season. And guys like Frost and tipp it together. Both of them
49:46
are fast, both of them can see the ice very well. Frost can
49:52
lay out those perfect saucer passes to like, you know, a streaking Owen
49:55
Tippett who's going to go and pick a corner because he he knows how to
50:00
shoot the puff. Like having those two guys together and having both of them
50:05
be young enough that they can be a central part of the rebuild is huge.
50:12
Like everyone focuses on top end talent for obvious reasons. You have to
50:15
have top end talent, like you're not going to get anywhere with a bunch
50:17
of death guys, but you also need the depth guys. And right now,
50:22
the Flyers I think have an incredibly good base of depth players that are
50:28
of the right age to be a part of this rebuild. That when you
50:32
start adding the top end talent. When you get Mitchkov over here, hopefully
50:37
he turns into what we think he's going to be. Then maybe you add
50:40
a guy and free agency, maybe you make a hockey trade, like there
50:44
are other ways outside of the draft for them to get very good hockey players.
50:46
And once they start filling those holes at the top end, you don't
50:51
have any more work to do because you've built the base up already, and
50:54
that I think is a very big deal for this hockey team. But I
50:58
think a lot of people overlooked because it's not as sexy as your you know,
51:04
number one center or you're like you're you know, you're your top pair
51:08
defense, but like it's not as as exciting as those things. And the
51:13
Flyers definitely still need those things of this central part of the rebuild and they're
51:22
still doing it. It's not done. So having this base, this like
51:27
middle six, and then you have like even when you get to the fourth
51:31
line, like the paling halfaway pairing on the fourth line, like once the
51:37
team is good, like that is a fourth line is going to be like
51:40
it's gonna be off. So like having that built, that base built,
51:46
I think allows Danny Brier to be able to focus on the big things and
51:52
not have to worry about backfilling all of these, you know, assistant pieces
52:00
that you also need. So they've kind of done the easy part. They've
52:02
filled in the base, they've got the middle down. Now they have to
52:06
go out and get the top end talent. But having guys like Morgan Frost
52:09
and Owen Tippett give you a chance to, you know, watch fun hockey
52:15
while we're doing this rebuild, which I got to tell you, I don't
52:17
know about you, Jeff, but we didn't think it'd be fun nice.
52:20
It has been nice, nice watching fun hockey. It's been a while that's
52:23
been and I've been enjoying it exactly. And that's basically what I was saying,
52:28
you know, to start our discussion. It's like you've been on the
52:30
pod here a couple times over the course of the season. It's like we're
52:32
seeing fun hockey. We didn't think it was going to be like this.
52:36
We thought so, We thought it was going to be dreadful. We thought
52:39
it was going to be a slog and it just hasn't. Every freaking night
52:44
that I put on, I would say, seriously, ninety five percent of
52:47
the games there is something that is completely interesting and fun to watch with this
52:52
team. It's been it's been incredible. And I guess, you know,
52:55
to close out our conversation here, given another part of this team, team
53:00
that I think has been interesting and a storyline that just you know, has
53:04
been in front of our faces, is when John Tortorella really took a risk
53:07
in benching the captain Sean Katorier recently, a risk that seems to somewhat have
53:13
paid off. I think, so I'm wondering, you know, what do
53:15
you think about that particular situation, what it did for the team overall as
53:20
we're moving forward here in this final leg of the regular season. So I
53:24
think I have kind of an unpopular opinion, Okay, these kinds of things,
53:30
because I mean, obviously it's easy to say team was losing, team
53:36
looked like shit, scratch Cotorier, Team plays better, right, and then
53:40
say, well, the reason that they playing better is because he scratched Sunkaturier.
53:45
Would they have played better with Sean Katurier? Maybe? Right. You
53:50
can't be black and white. You can't be black and white. There's a
53:52
lot of gray here in hockey, folks. I just have a problem when
53:57
you're like, I understand doing it with young I mean it annoys me with
54:01
the young players too, I don't. I just think that this kind of
54:04
like this one tactic that Towards goes to every single time he's upset with a
54:07
player. I just find it kind of annoying. The punishment. Yeah,
54:12
but like, if you're doing it to like Bobby Brink, you're trying to
54:15
teach him a lesson. You fucked up in the game, Go sit in
54:19
the press box watch everybody else learn something. Okay, I get it.
54:23
Sean Katuri is thirty one years old. He's the captain of your hockey team.
54:29
He's not like the only thing you're teaching him is that you think he's
54:36
expendable enough to be able to be taken off the ice for a couple of
54:39
games and the team still have a chance to win. Now, to be
54:44
fair, Over the last couple of weeks, a few weeks, really,
54:47
Katorny has not been good. He's not been great. I'm willing to bet
54:53
he's never been one hundred percent since coming back from the last time he was
54:59
out. Agree with you. He hasn't played a full season in hockey in
55:02
like two years. So there's probably a lot going into the fact that Sean
55:08
Katurier doesn't look good outside of he's just playing bad, you know what I
55:13
mean, Like, I don't think Sean Katurier has forgotten how to play hot,
55:15
right, There's probably a lot of factors here leading to him looking so
55:19
poor on the ice, and I just think that like going out there and
55:23
like chastising your captain. And then there were the comments from Katorier saying there
55:29
has been a lot of communication. These are the kinds of things that I
55:31
worry about with Tortorella that impact the team long term because we do know,
55:37
we've like this is just like an established fact. Eventually he loses the room.
55:42
Yes, it happens in every team. He loses the room eventually.
55:45
And part of me worries that this is like the little seed that will grow
55:51
into a bigger problem because now it's in the back of everyone's mind, Like
55:55
you made this guy the captain and then immediately started shitting on him, and
56:00
then you benched him, and like you don't talk to him about it,
56:04
like it's it just seems messier than it needed to be. I think there
56:07
was a way to do it, like you could have post like you could
56:09
have presented it as Couturier's tired, he needs a rest, we're taking him
56:14
out, Like okay, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Like you don't
56:17
have to go out and say essentially he sucks. We're sitting in right,
56:22
and I'm not putting him back in until he doesn't suck, right, and
56:24
when when I do put him back in, he's getting fourth line minutes,
56:27
right, Like, I'm not sure you need to do the tough love thing
56:32
with your established captain. I completely agree with you, you know, I
56:37
think you need. Yeah, you sit down with him, you have a
56:38
talk with him. Yeah, you figure it out. But I don't know,
56:44
I just it just seemed like a messy way to go about it.
56:47
And it could be purely coincidental that after that then the team starts playing better.
56:52
It could be purely coincidental. You know, they could have had a
56:55
few bounces here and there that went their way. As we see an hockey
57:00
every now and again, and we're here, you know, well that's true.
57:05
Yes, that's true. We don't know. It's still fun. It's
57:07
still fun, and that's what's important. Again, folks, I enjoy it.
57:14
I love the fun. So much Kelly Hinkel Broadstreet Hockey dot Com at
57:19
hinks onto Hi n X. By the way on the Twitter slash x a
57:22
fantastic follow, always entertaining my friend. Thank you for joining us here on
57:29
the show this week. You are awesome. I love having you on the
57:30
show all the time. You're always so candid and wonderful, and you are
57:35
always giving out great content, not just here but on Broadstreet Hockey dot Com.
57:37
So come back and join us down the road. I'd love to have
57:39
you back on the show literally anytime. Thank you. Jeff always a great
57:44
time talking to Kelly. She is certainly candid, and I love the takes
57:49
that she has, and quite frankly, it's not just takes, it's just
57:52
the honesty about this Philadelphia Flyers team, where they are at and where this
57:57
team could possibly be going within this rebuild. There's a lot of optimism.
58:00
And I think that really was the tone of our conversation just now. Optimism
58:05
surrounding the Philadelphia Flyers. It's something that we have not felt, it's something
58:09
that we have not embraced for a very very long period of time. But
58:14
I think that here is right around the corner. I think here it's around
58:17
the corner. So I feel like we can like touch it, we can
58:22
reach out and just kind of touch it. And can't wait to see what's
58:25
gonna happen with the rest of the season if this team gets into the playoffs.
58:29
If they don't, folks, I mean, I gotta tell you,
58:30
I mean, I'm not gonna mind, because, like Kelly and I were
58:31
talking about, it's been a fun, fun season of Philadelphia Flyers hockey,
58:36
something a lot of us were not expecting. So it's gonna do it for
58:39
us this week. If you are new to listening to the show, subscribe
58:43
on whatever podcast platform you are on. You can always head on over to
58:45
Philadelphia Sports Table dot com. We've got all of our shows over there as
58:49
well. As I mentioned at the top, we were just about at eleven
58:53
years of doing this podcast and were so very grateful, so very fortunate to
59:00
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59:04
hope you are continuing to enjoy the content here at the PST podcast show.
59:07
Make sure you follow the show on the Twitter slash x at Philadelphia PSD.
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So you all take care, have a good rest of your day or evening.
59:45
Whenever you are listening to this, take care. We'll catch you next
59:49
time. His sis