Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / Stars on Prime, Robo’s Contract Clock & Montreal Envy | Brien Rea | Ep 264

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Stars on Prime, Robo’s Contract Clock & Montreal Envy | Brien Rea | Ep 264 · Your Dark Companion Podcast

• Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano League teams. Don't... What? You said tip. Yeah. Tip. Okay. With a p. Keep jamming. The the ticket colon. Nothing but a big Gen X jerk off set. This is a cool night or what? I wish somebody would hear that and go, bullshit. I'm back. Like, that's that's on the same level. Hell, yeah. We are. Especially since May Kiss. Yes. That's that's you... That's... I mean, that that's that's as close to greatness as you're gonna get, and that's pretty darn close. I was happy to be a part of it. I must say. And you're right. Another stellar opening to the show. Yes. It really was you and me. It is as close to greatness as I have ever been or probably ever will be. Just being within an arm's length of many kiss. Being in the same place at the same time. I don't... You know, you you you should've let the arm's length joke just marinate. Just let that baby sit there. Nobody takes it. It's... No. No. I'm sorry. No. No. That's... No. Nobody... You let the world No. No. I know. I I Those who who I didn't realize it till I got called out on it. No. No. But that's one of those jokes where if you laugh at it, it was meant for you. If you didn't get it, it's okay. It wasn't meant for you. Right. We can all move on. It's just fine. And we're back. Yeah. We are. Yeah. We're back. Ew. Are you guys glad you tuned in yet? It is your dark companion. Hello, one and all. Was it you I used to know? Well, we're here and ready to roll. This is episode number Oh, my god. I I don't know. No way to know. Two eighty? Yeah. Now let's just say 300 and call it that. Okay? The mini kiss episode. Yeah. The mini kiss. It's the one about mini kiss. That's it. You you booked them. It's all. Book Mini Kiss? Book Mini Kiss. Oh, I'd love to have them. Yes. Playing at the they're playing at the fair. Oh, crap. Yeah. You know a guy. We know. Yeah. We do know a guy. Alright. And I do have my own experience. We opened for mini kiss once. We did too. My little Chili Peppers cover band opened for mini kiss Alright. And bowling for soup on the same day. I don't need to be on camera. That's pretty good. That's not bad. Sexy. That's strong. That that that trumps me. I don't know. I mean, bowling for soups in there, that trumps me. They're the headliner. Wow. Totally opener. Opener. Opener. Totally different arms length. Yeah. Totally different arms length. But similar to mine. Similar? Yeah. Too far off. Closer to many kiss than bowling for soup and arm length. We have Brian Ray with us today. Glad to back. Hello, Brian Ray. How are you, man? I'm doing good. Chevy would have been here, but he likes to sleep in. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard that about him. Let's do big time for us now. Yeah. That's probably it. Yeah. But Brian Ray is not. Brian Ray has been here before, and he is, I guess you're getting ready to go back to work, aren't you? Yeah. I mean, if we include training camp, we've we've... It's like the hybrid back to work, the return to office. Yeah. You start with training camp practices and the preseason game. And then once a while, Friday's a national game on TNT, but we're right. We're at it on Saturday. Then I was looking at the schedule. I'm like, oh yeah, October Every other night, baby. The train is leaving the station. Let's get it rolling. Hell yeah. No. I trust you all know what he does because what he does matters. He is the host of the Dallas Hockey Stars pregame show. And postgame show. Postgame show. And intermissions. Yes. And intermissions. In other words, for stars on TV, if hockey is not going on, he is. Yeah. And that's the way it ought to be. It's a great way to put it. And and on prime now. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Prime. Yeah. We're we're we're going we're going Amazon. That's why he's not here. He's too big time for us now. Yeah. I've got Amazon Prime money. I'd like to see that guy actually work Amazon Prime. I don't think he can. Sammy pull up office space on Amazon Prime. It might take a little while. Yeah. Just for one intermission instead of, yeah, doing a breakdown of plays, just have him try to log in to his Amazon Prime and and tune in to the very broadcast that he's a part of. Or if you really wanna rock and roll, have me on there and let me and him have a race. Oh my god. Okay. We have an idea, Brian. Intermission content is gonna look way different this year, and I'm excited about it, baby. This is quick story I told you about Terry Pendleton and Sid Bareem having the 40 yard dash. Something like that. Something like that. Okay. That's a It's along those lines, you could say. You know what? If you wanna have a a three man race, we talked to Norm about prime videos. Oh my god. I got him to try to see if he could get prime music hooked up in the Thursday. Yeah. Rob tried walking him through the idea of it without actually being on it. But walking through how he's supposed to do it, it did not register with Norm, but he tried. Well, I I can relate. It wouldn't register with me either. I understand. I mean, some of us just weren't made for these times. You're... You know? You have to watch Prime Vision. Prime Vision is the best of watching. I told him and he said he was out. What? You didn't? I did? Yeah. Told you it's... I didn't. I didn't. Rob. I told you it's gonna... You're gonna see the routes laid out for you. You're gonna be able to Yeah. I gotta try this. I haven't done this yet. So when you have a live game Yeah. You're down arrow, you're gonna see the refueling. Yes. Feed, the Spanish feed. Sure. And then you're gonna see next gen stat. And it's it's Amazon's stat mod. It's it's it's nerds. Yeah. It's for the... It's Yeah. You're the For sports nerds. To play unfold. Yes. Every player has a trail on the field where they're running Yeah. And there's more stats than you would chase. So I will say this because for whatever reason when I'm on your show, a tangent isn't enough. A tangent off the tangent is where we have to go. Right. But I actually, I am a huge believer for hockey on TV. They they did it with the Olympics when they had the drone kind of high up looking behind. Like like, we're now, you know, like, I'm I'm in my forties. So I grew up with the NHL video games on, you know, Sega, SCS, and all that. But no. But but but ever but ever since those came out, it was always the up and down overhead view. I wish, and I feel like the technology is there that NHL games could be shown in that fashion. Whether it's a cable cam, whether it's drone style, even if you just experiment with it on on a couple of special broadcasts, I feel like that would be something game changing. Just all from the overhead view? Or, the majority of it from the overhead view. Yeah. Because if you think about it from the side broadcast view, you still lose the puck along the near side boards. Yeah. Only It's game that is trapped in a box of all the four major sports. It's the only game trapped in a box. It it five. I'll I'll include, you know, soccer. But if you get to an overhead view, you now have a full interior view of the sheet of ice. And I also think as fast as the game is football, you can stop between plays and you can show each individual routes. You can't stop a hockey game. But if you can help a casual viewer start to understand maybe routes that players take, say on a four check or a breakout, they might be able to see those routes better because it's gonna look similar to the way a football play is drawn up. Say the glowing puck needs to come back. I would not be opposed if the glow puck came back. It looked it, and you know what? Because that was early Fox coverage. It was. And, and that technology is what led to all the on field graphics, like the first and 10 and the and the line of scrimmage and the first down marker. Like that was the technology that set all that up. I don't know if you need to go full glow puck with the red trail, the favorite trail, but I think the technology is there that you can start to manipulate camera angles and try different looks. I actually think it would be faster. I want, how do they experiment with, with stuff like that? I don't, I mean, I don't know. First of you probably write a big check because technology is expensive and it's easy for me to spend other people's money, but the way they have table can set up with with with all varying sporting events, the way they're using drones now, they they clearly experimented. NBC invested in in it in the Olympics because they were clearly showing that for power plays and different things. So technological advances are clearly there, and I just think somebody's gotta be willing to open the door, and I would love it for me to to be the NHL and try some of this. Try some different camera angles that people have never seen before. Have you treated yourself the cousin yet? I... No. I so badly wanna go. Oh my god. I see it on social media all the time. I went to the finals. Panthers were in there. Yes. And it's Your Panthers? I'm I'm from South Forth. Who who who I'm from Fort Lauderdale. Who who let him into this show? By the way No. Let me let me be honest. I didn't know that about him. If I would have known that about him, I would have done something. Let's be clear. It's a good thing. It's a good thing Chevy's not here. Yeah. At my house right now, the third jersey when it was the big star with my name on it, and it's not even screen printed. It's typing. Good. Love the stars. It's hard to I proposed to her at Star. Fair enough. Damn. Fair enough. But Did you make them stop the game to do that? There was there was no fanfic. Bruce and I were talking about this last night. They came out to warm up, and I... And it was me and my wife and I have been together for two years to the day. She remembers one day. That day, they would gotten DHA. We got married all the same day of the year. And I said, you know, we've together two years. That's that's brilliant. That is. That's. Yes. That's. And I said, why don't we just wait? That's chess instead of checkers. Why don't we just wait too more to get married? And she said, what's happening right now? I'm like, you kinda Well, not, you know, not planning as well as maybe I should have about a year... We've we've got money down on things. Things are Mhmm. Buddy might talk about a year out. He's like, you might wanna check your calendar. Our wedding was up in Texas today. Texas was up 49 to nothing in that. Yeah. Oh god. Yeah. But but you'll treat yourself to positive. It's. Yep. I need to go. Especially from a hockey standpoint. Yeah. And and runs can attest to this. He and Greg went to watch the World Series era. Yes, we did. Yeah. It's it's so cool. Sitting right behind. I know. It's so cool. We watched the guy get chased by security. Was kind of a clown. Got up on the glass and it was in Edmonton. So, of course, it can't make it to Canada. But the guys and we're and they go to break. When they go to break, you're still watching. Yeah. It's just the feed. It's still the feed. Yeah. And a half pay video. Yeah. So we're we're watching, and he's giving the finger to the superior guy. I'm like, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. But, yeah, I mean, and they're right up in the bowl too. Yeah. Like, it's Yeah. Insane. Yeah. I've been to Cosm. I've been to the Spear. Oh, look at me. I'm I'm I'm a high-tech guy or no? What do you mean you're not ready for these times? You're living these times, baby. You are these times. Best life. Yeah. I don't know how we get back to the stars from all of this, but don't know how we gotta do it. I don't know what got. So prime, Yeah. Yeah. That's gonna be great. What's up with that? Let's just work backwards. Prime and then what was before that? Well, hey. I think the stars, 13 national games, so that should be 71 because it's an 84 game schedule now. Yeah. So 71 games on prime. Only only only subject I got an a in in high school was was math. Hey. Well, good thing he's on show. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, that's that's the biggest change for the star season. We're pumped about it. We're excited. So tell us a little bit about how you guys rev up. I mean, do you have meetings that start in in late May for the next year? Or how how does it work? No. You know you know what? Because... Look. The... With the victory plus situation, it's kinda like, alright, what's gonna happen there first? And then depending on what happens there, what happens after that? Obviously, victory plus is no longer a thing. So now it's well then what is next? And so all of that's above mine in Sevi's head. We're just like, you tell us where to go, where we need to sit, and we're ready to go. Like we will, we'll, we'll make ourselves ready to go. So we were getting a lot of phone calls and text updates like, hey, it's probably gonna be this. It's probably gonna be that. You know, we don't know if you're gonna be, you know, in a studio here or is it gonna be something like this? You know, we're talking about these different arrangements and it's like, okay, cool. We're just like, Hey, as long as we know we're gonna be somewhere, we just need to be ready to go, you know, for day one of training camp. And so, you know, we we, at least I say we, I kinda worked under the the premonition of like, alright, assume we're gonna work all four preseason games. Like, just work under that assumption. And then you go back where, and we didn't have to work the first one. St. Louis had it covered. We did the second one. And then they told us the third one's gonna be a home dress rehearsal. The fourth game that was on TNT, we did actually a full dress rehearsal in our road studio. Mhmm. It just wasn't broadcasted to anybody because TNT had control of the game. Yeah. So from a TV standpoint and and the biggest thing for us, like we know what our show at a baseline can look like. There's a lot of things we'll experiment with with us, with this season, but it's the people behind the scenes. Like it's the control room, it's the bells and whistles. They gotta make sure signals can get sent to the right places. Amazon can make sure it has the right signal and get it distributed out. Like there's all that stuff behind the scenes. So there was a lot of people, I think, moving a lot of stuff that way. As for me and him, I mean, you know, we text here and there over the course of the summer and then probably the week before training camp, it's kinda like, you know, like, Hey, are you going to the first day? Yeah, I'll be there or no, he might have coaching or whatever. And then he and I, at every practice we're at together, like we're, we just sit and talk hockey we talk about the stars and it might be like, one of us is like, Hey, I had this idea for the show tomorrow or on Thursday or whatever. And it's like, what do you think about this? Yeah, let's do that. And so Starz stuff, it's kinda like you don't need to have a drill down meeting if you're talking about it every day or every other day with your producer and your broadcast partner. And we have a group, you know, a chat thread between the three of us. It's almost like we're always just kind of rolling stuff through. Were you able to retain most of the crew that works on? Believe so, There were a handful of new people I met, but like we have the same producer, Brendan, who we had the last couple of years. Brendan Williams? Yes. Yeah. Yes. And then, you know, a couple other people in the control room that were working on our show last year. I know that, but also like there may be more people that... Because a lot of independent contractors, freelance that goes on in that line of work. So people pop in and out all the time. So I've seen a lot of people. Hopefully we see more and, and, and yeah. So that's a good start. If I don't ask you this, people are gonna raise hell. So let's just get it out there. I don't know if Robo's gonna re sign. That's If I knew, I wouldn't be sitting here. I'd probably be in Vegas laying some money down to get the odds lined up. Good to know. But that's not what they wanna know. What they wanna know is where can they watch the stars? Amazon prime. Star... Dallas Stars on Prime. So if you have your Amazon Prime membership, the stars are in front of the paywall. There's nothing extra. You got it. If you're in the geographic That's how you get it done. Yes. If you're in the geographic region and you have an Amazon Prime membership, you got the stars. There you go. Yep. And I know that right now somebody is putting together some type of how to video because I just recorded the voice track for it. So I know, I, I know that my voice track is out there somewhere and it's getting put together on, on some kind of how to video. So would imagine what how to find Amazon prime. Yes, basically. Yeah. Yeah. It it's, and I think might even be like, listen, you can favorite it over here. And it's just, it puts it at the top of your list or whatever. Yes. How to... It it's the classic Amazon Prime... Stars on prime for dummies, which is great for somebody like me and me. Like I'm on my laptop right now and can already see Sharks versus Stars, October 5, upcoming. That's pretty awesome. There it is. More on. Ready to rock. Can you talk to through the dress rehearsal while they were doing the TNT? Mhmm. Has there ever been any thought of doing that as an alternate theme for people who at least listen to? Because they... Well, of course, TNT's got the video controller. But Broadcast rights. Yeah. I was gonna say, would that get sticky? But... Because you got the contract, it's just... It it can get sticky. I I thought it's worth a new book. Contracts above my pay grade. Pay grade. That's that's... I have a question for me. The math wizard. So that's no. I... You... If there's... If if whenever whenever a national rights holder has their exclusivity, I I just chalk it up to you. It's broadcast rights. You know, they invested for those rights and they're they're theirs. Absolutely. And that's it. Yeah. End of story. Yeah. Or is it? Or is it? Don't. That's always a good question. Croobs don't. Okay. Nice. Nice. You still have that audio drop tally made. I do. Nice. There's nobody like him. There is nobody like him. No. You ought to put him on the broadcast once and let him do his thing. Just once. His... He scares me with his audio. What... Because I would hear stuff in my ears and I'd be like, I don't know if this is on the air or if Grooves just isolated this in my ears and he's messing with me right now. I would try to entertain you. And now and now I have a terrified look on my face and anybody's watching going, what the heck is wrong with Brian the host right now? It... I... No. I don't I I don't trust him for a sec. I love the guy. I don't trust him for a second. Well, why do you think we call him the devil? I know. Yes. God bless you. Good to be with you. Yeah. The devil. But I don't, I think I only mess with you off air. I tried to keep it professional on air. Yeah. But I would, when we, when we worked together, was professional ish. Right. Yeah. When we work together, it was anything but. Yeah. Still isn't. So is team gonna be any good this year? Yeah. It's, look. It... From a from a from an x's and o's hockey perspective, in my opinion, first of all, just the roster talent alone, they're a playoff team. Alright? So I expect them to be in the playoffs. Where they go beyond that, I do think the waters get a little muddy. Mhmm. First of all, just they lost a little bit of depth, and I'll touch on that in a second. The other part is the division they play in. Like the central division, I called it the bloodbath division last year. It is going to be another bloodbath this season. Like, if you get caught in that two, three matchup and you're playing a Colorado or a Minnesota or somebody else, if they elevate themselves up there, that first series is it... It's Thunderdome. Like, it really is. It's it's going to be... And that that wears on you. It really does to get through that series and then who you potentially have two series more after that to get to the cup final. So it... It's messy there. And then the other side of it, they they lost a little bit of depth with with Maverick Borg disappearing. And, you know, Kyle Granlin was gone from a couple of years ago. Like, it... It's it's fair to look at this roster and think what's gonna happen with their death scoring. So they're gonna have I mean, do they had... Do they at least have guys? They they do. So Maverick Borg's gone, but Tyler Sagan is back. Is he really? Yes. He is. He was he was having a phenomenal near... Year last year. Yes. He was. And then injured for the rest of the season. Brought that up because that's what I thought too. Me, in my uneducated hockey mind thought he was really on his way to a nice year. Yes. He was on his way to a nice year and then bang, season ending injury. Yep. The question is, can can he stay healthy? And you you need Tyler Sagan's health to stay intact. If it can, then, okay, there's there's an internal boost. Thomas Harley had a down year last year. He even acknowledged it. Yeah. I don't think he's gonna have that same kind of year. I think you will see your bounce back from Thomas Harley and the contract extension kicks in this year. So he's, he's a big money player now. You need him to have that bounce back year. But if you get a better version of Thomas Harley than a year ago, okay, there's a second layer of internal growth. And and and this is stuff that Jim Neil acknowledged, to us when we were chatting with him at the end of last season after they lost their playoff series. And then, you know, Lee and Bischel, not from an offensive standpoint, I think just for maybe a stabilizing standpoint, I love his physical presence. I love the bite that guy brings to the game. Call it a twenty twenty six. He's got a little, little, little hatcher in him. If we wanna go in 99 throwback, to different type of game. It's not the same type of hockey that, that they played back in '99, but there's a little bit of that attitude there. But can he give you a little bit more of call it a stabilizing defensive presence along with that physical element and that edge and that bite. If that comes from a young player maturing a little bit more. Alright. Now you have these different layers of internal growth. If those things can come together, then your depth issue is not a question. You've got that built from the inside. But that's tough to predict. It's tough to wager what that's gonna be like. We're just gonna have to roll through that experience over these 84 games, but that that... Those are the things that I look at. You just made something go off in the back of my head. Hit me with it. And I wanna... I want your thoughts on this. Alright. Because, you know, when the stars moved here in 9993. '93. '93. I'm sorry. But they won in '99. That's right. '90 The nineties are a blur for me too, man.. Yes. In in '93, they they had... They were not a blur for me, but they were about to to be one real fast. But how would you compare and contrast the overall game of hockey in '19... It back then and right now? I mean, as far as the way teams play, the way teams are built Yeah. And I know this is a very overarching question. Yeah. It's probably just too much stuff for you to get into, but just give us what you got. No. And, and, I actually, because, because it is a football world and we are in the great state of Texas, you can actually, I, you can run this. Think I you can run this as a parallel to what's changed in the NFL, but I would say in the NHL today, the speed and pace of the game is the fastest it has ever been. And the level of skill and I'm puck skill, stick skill, goal scoring skill is at the highest level that it's ever been. If you wanna argue the physical component of the game has has dropped or has has withered a bit compared to the nineties, I would totally agree with that. But that was also partially by design. You know, as as as fun as the NHL was through the nineties, when the offense really started to dry up in the late nineties and the early two thousands. And I mean, gosh, look at the playoff games, the 99 stars were playing. How many were one nothing or two one, things like that. We we're an offensive society. We wanna see action. We wanna see entertainment. The league by design was trying to open up the game to get to this place, to have this speed and this skill and this talent at the furthest that it's ever been. And the cost of that is removing some of the physical component, the clutching, the grabbing, there's obviously less fighting. And and you don't see, I'll say predatory hits at the same level as you did in the nineties. And I think a Darien Hatcher absolutely smoking Jeremy Roanick and and and taking and and and taking taking the suspension, you know, to stand up for his guys. Yeah. You know? Anybody who saw that can't forget it. But you know what? Look at how the NFL has changed and how they have completely opened up offenses for quarterbacks and wide receivers. I mean, it's, you know, and I'm a college football fan. I'm not as much an NFL guy as I am a college guy. It used to be ten years ago, a spread offense quarterback couldn't cut it in the NFL. Now the NFL in a lot of ways, you see a lot of spread style offense because of the way they have opened things up. But I think part of that is also by design because fans wanna see play stretch the field. They wanna see how much offense can open up. I I think part of that is five to nine. That same thing's going on in hockey. Yeah. It's... They want... They wanted to open up the game because they wanted it to be faster, more skilled, and they wanted an uptick in offense. Alright. Let me ask you things have happened. Let me ask you this then. For players on the way up, when they're starting to play at the high school level, the junior level, and all that stuff, is that the way the game is coached? I mean, the the way these guys are taught to play? The the... The amount of skill coaching and private coaching that that players are going through, not even high school at the amateur level, at the youth level. It is incredible. And even I was having a conversation with Sevi last week and he was talking about, because he he works with players of all ages. The skating ability of a teenager today, it's he, it's, it's now caught up to him, you know, and trying to keep up with these players. Yeah. And that's that's... The the the skating component is the biggest one. If you could eat an excellent skater has a a real chance to to to advance into a professional career, and and you hope the other skills come along with it. But the skating component... Like when I was in the minors, there were guys that I'm like, okay, he can skate like the wind, and they got their cup of coffee or they got their shot, but didn't stick because the the puck skills weren't there or the hockey IQ wasn't there. But, yeah, that's absolutely the way it's being... The the way the game is being coached now. You think the coach for this thing is right? Glenn Gulletson? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I I I am a goalie fan. I am I am on the, the goalie soapbox. I think he's a great coach. I'm very excited to see what he can do this year. I'm asking this not from any particular point of view because I I I don't know enough about the game of hockey and the way it's coached and the way it's taught and the the, you know, the lay of the land inside the room or anything like that to have an opinion on it one way or the other. I just wanna hear what you think about them and why. Yeah. It's... And it... It's... It is the hot... The NHL coaching business is very fickle right now because it feels like there are coaches getting replaced after as little as two seasons. It's... It it it really is strange how that's happening. I don't think Gully is one of those coaches. I... The way he talks to us about about things when we have media press conferences with him and media availability. Like, it's just interesting hearing him discuss things. And I'll and I'll give you a... I know you got the mid show read coming up here. Oh, yeah. Do we do I need to pause? No. No. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Hey. I work in the broadcast business. I understand the advertisers. You gotta pay the bills, brother. Okay. Well, was just I was just thinking ahead a little bit, but I'm I'm listening to what you're saying about So so we we were chatting with him during training camp and he had this really interesting point where he said over the summer, he and the coaching staff did a massive deep dive with the analytics side. So there's a coaching evolution. One right there is you have a hockey coach or a sports coach that got into it hardcore with his analytics team. And there's still so much of that battle of eye test and instinct. Yeah. It's what the analytics say. You think they went into that kicking and screaming? No. I actually think they went into it with eyes wide open because he said after he went through that, they they they... He's... He said they went through the the analytics for the last five years for the Dallas Stars. So this is pre Glen Gulletson. This is now Peter DeBoer and and and even even Rick Bonus, I think. So... And they looked at the Stars numbers, and they compared it who they considered the contenders. Alright. The the real legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. And he said they found one area they thought they were lacking a little bit. And so he has now tweaked part of what they're going to do on the ice, and he wouldn't give us the state secrets, unfortunately. We tried. We think it's gonna have to do with how they attack through the neutral zone, between the blue lines, but, they made some adjustments based off that that they think is going to actually boost their offense a little bit. And, one, I'm very interested to see how this goes, but two, he even acknowledged this is going to be new for him because this is a way and a style and some things that he hasn't necessarily coached before. So there's growing pains whenever that happens, and there may even be some hair pulling moments for those of us that are fans of the team. Yeah. But that tells me a coach saw they underachieved, went through all the data, and is now trying to adjust as best he can based on what the information tells him. And he's even willing to go to a place that he hasn't been before personally as a coach. Doesn't guarantee you a Stanley Cup, but that that's how you survive in sports. Right? Like, always have to... What what what what was it Brad Pitt in Moneyball? Adapt or die? Right. The man's trying to adapt. I love hearing stuff like that. I... That fascinates me just as as as a sports fan to hear people talk like that. We've known coaches and managers and plenty of other sports that weren't no so eager to do that. And where are they now? You know what? Some had a pretty good run, Ken Hitchcock, but some had much shorter lifespans than Ken Hitchcock. You know? Oh, I loved Hitch. I love that man. Great character. Great hockey character. That that guy did more to form my sports thing than anybody ever has. Alright. There's a great Brian Ray with us here. You will see him on Stars Hockey, which will be here before you know it. Mhmm. He will be doing that studio thing that he does so well with Seve. On prime. Also quite good at it on on where? On prime. On prime. And Seve is On prime. That is the best studio analyst pound for pound of any NHL team. I'm dead serious. Man, he has grown into that role so much. Mhmm. I will put him up against anybody physically or as an analyst. We'll be back with Brian in just a little bit. You can chill out over there for a couple seconds if you want and try to think of what you're going to regale us with next. While he does that, let me tell you about three wide at scout. Now that is something, we are doing every Tuesday from 05:30 to seven. Join us, the Sunset Lounge at Scout and the Stadler Hotel. Be one of the first five people to give the bartender the password. Is the password football? Football. Is that what you're telling me? Yes. The password is football. And you will get either a free drink or a free valet service, whichever you may see fit, whichever rattles your cage the most. Stick around after for Ziggy with Beer thirty Sports O'Clock. Half price valet is available for everyone. It's every Tuesday, 05:30 at Scout at the Statler Hotel. So come down there and see us. We're having a big time down there, and, we would like to have you a part of it. Damn right. Yeah. Yes. He's warm and rough. That's right. Rob's doing great on in... On engineering this thing, by the way. Yes. He was pulled into emergency duty. Yes. He is. I said, dude. To go to the bullpen. Hey. We're happy to have him. Well, honored to be here. You gotta have a deep bullpen. Everybody knows that. Mhmm. Honor to be asked. Let's see. Do I do this one too? Yes. Oh, alright. Let me tell you about Dudley's. Don't do it yourself, your football watching party. Dudley Sports Grill is your football watching headquarters. Get your crew together. Get better food by far Greatest double eggs on the planet. Than what you'll be able to come up with yourself and let somebody else serve real drinks from a bigger selection. Get to Dudley's in Dallas. 2927 North Henderson, that's just to the Southeast of Central Expressway, or Dudley's Rockwall at 2975 Highway 66 out that way. Dudley's is a cool place. We go there a lot to hang out. We dig it. We bet you will too. Alright. We are back Yay. With the great Brian Ray, who's about to go back to work. And regal us with stars and hockey puck. You got the sound body sent over. Yeah. Yeah. What did you play? I didn't hear you either. A little bit of applause. Lot of... Yeah. Round of applause for me. It's good. Okay. So who's back and who's gone? Maverick Bork is out. Ilya Lebushkin is out. And because of the salary cap situation, Colin Blackwell actually went through waivers and is down in the American Hockey League. But you're gonna need your depth. I imagine we will see Colin Blackwell back up here at some point. In terms of who's back, everybody else. Robertson, Johnston, Ben, Sagan, Branton, Haskin, Odinger, Lindell, Harlan, all of it. Pretty much everyone. Yeah. They are running it back in a lot of ways. The only, roster addition essentially was Kivy Ranta, and he was already a star before. Exactly. Yeah. He returned. Yeah. Right. The revenge tour. Can write it as a JFK. Is the robo contract situation a thing? Yes. So during the negotiations over the summer, two days before they were scheduled to go to arbitration, they settled on a one year deal. So Jason Robertson is an unrestricted free agent now at the end of this year. The wrinkle in all of this is he is eligible to sign an extension with the stars beginning January 1. So this is going to be an overarching storyline for this team, whether they like it or not. They don't. They never do. Yeah. It's you all... You always wanna just have your best players locked up. No problem. No drama, no concerns, no nothing. But, come January 1, you better believe this fan base is gonna be on RoboWatch. And if there can be a contract extension locked in here. So, we will see what happens there, but it's a big storyline. It definitely is. So they were trying to extend obviously during the summer, right? Yes. But then now once they signed that one year deal, there's basically a waiting period. Yep. Cannot. Okay. Cannot. And even Jim was about that the first day of training camp and he said, I can't talk to him or his agent about this until January 1. Got it. Wow. Now, well, also, but he also did acknowledge like, look, they, you know, when he signed the contract and we had a chance to talk to Jim, he said they went over every single scenario and every possibility of contracts, short term, long term, high dollar load, everything. So I don't know how much information there is left to be exchanged between both sides. They sure they have a pretty clear picture where each side stands and what they're looking for. Is the gap big? I would love To your knowledge? To to my knowledge, based on what the social media rumor mill and the insiders had to say, I wouldn't call it big. The wrinkle in all this, Ryan, is the cost of a player has completely exploded in the last sixty days, to where the... There are now player... We have now reached 20,000,000 a year for the highest paid player in the national hockey league. Yes. Caused this explosion? That's the salary cap is going up. The revenues are going, the money's going up. And every time it was, I mean, is this a collective bargaining thing or did somebody no sign a contract that sold everything up or what? So, so what happened is over the summer, the Philadelphia flyers signed the top young center for the Anaheim ducks, who has not put up any numbers like Jason Robertson yet potential. He could be that player, but he hasn't done it yet. They signed him to an $18,000,000 a year offer sheet and Anaheim chose to match. And so they signed him to the eight year, dollars 18,000,000 a year contract. Anaheim signed it. Anaheim signed him. Alright. Philly had to go back to the drawing board. Well, after he did that, San Jose's stud Macklin Celebrini, who just had a 100 season and was considered by many, arguably the most valuable player in the league or most valuable to his team. He then signs his contract extension. It's like, Hey, if this guy's 18, you better believe what I've done already. I'm at least 18, probably more. And I think he got at least like 18 and a half or 18.5 or whatever. So then he did that Kale Makar in Colorado, then time to sign his contract. He's a defense. He's not a forward, but multi Norris trophy winner and nominee all world, put one of the five best players in the world. You could argue he now signed his contract. And I can't remember if he has the true 20. Does he have the 20,000,000 AAV or 20.4, 20,400,000 a year. Pretty good. So, you know, once one person sets the market at it becomes the new ground floor. Right? Yeah. Did everybody over the top. So have has the... Have have the goalposts moved compared to what Jason Robertson and Jim Nill and Robertson's camp were discussing over the summer? Or see, like, nah, man. Like, what we had before is... These these are all things we're never gonna know the answer to because we're not the fly on the wall in the room. But we do know, sorry, that robo turned down the deal from the Kraken or the extension from the Kraken that was what? 18? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The stars had a trade in place to send him to Seattle and Seattle allegedly wanted to sign him to 15,000,000 a year and he 15,000,000. Yeah. And he said, no, I don't wanna go to Seattle. He was he was not a bit song guy. Changed. Yeah. So It's crazy. Yeah. It's insane right now. I don't call it dire, but I do think the situation is delicate just because of all the moving parts. It's not necessarily something that a player has done wrong or a GM or a team has done wrong. It's just the marketplace is changing weekly in front of our eyes as it will do in all of these games. Exactly. Exactly. So once we January is when we start watching, you know, we could wake up on January 3 and there's a long term Jason Robertson contract extension in place and it's Kumbaya. Everybody's happy. Yeah. Or we could wake up a week before the trade deadline and there's nothing. And now you just start going, what are we doing? So it's gonna be a storyline. This did feel like the first offseason in Neil's history with the team that rumors actually came out of deals that Yeah. Didn't work out and, you know, what was it? Harley was about to be traded. Yep. He tried to trade for Zach Worenski from the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Thomas Harley was gonna be the player going back. And and... Yeah. So That blew up as Rowinski decided to stay. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not surprising too because Jim Nils seems like he's really, really good at Clemson. Yes. Yes. He is he is Fort Knox, man. So it's it's pretty surprising that some of that stuff got out. And he If you work in the media business, you love it when it gets there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you work in the player GM business, you don't like it. Fifteen years or so, that's the first offseason or really any time that there's truly been something like that Yeah. Yeah. To happen. And I remember plenty of times during my time in the game where something like that would happen with the cowboys or the rangers or whatever. And, man, that just used to to tickle me like crazy. I I was just like, man, in this game, you live for games like this. Yeah. Yeah. Is he looking around at who's the new diamond? Yeah. Right? Yeah, who's the mole? Yes, yeah. Yeah. I still feel like you can assume that someone from the STARS camp wasn't the one that leaked some of that info on who was gonna be part of the deal, but See, Grooves, now you're asking somebody who's a Starz employee. Yeah. Where did the leak come from? I'm putting I gotta tell you. We don't know that it's not you. It's not me. It's not me and it's not Sebi. I'll go on record for that. Hey. Yeah. Pretty convenient. I'm gonna vouch. I'm gonna vouch for my guy. I'm gonna vouch for my guy. Yeah. I don't want it to be grooves grooves, I'll support you. That's stand up for your guy. He'll beat us all up. All I know is this, and and you know what? I'd love to hear your take on this. The longer I live on this life, the more I come to realize ignorance is bliss, my friend. Hell yeah. The less I know, the less trouble I can cause. The less you know, the better off you are. Yes. I am so full of bliss. Yes. Ask me whatever you want. Yeah. I don't know, brother. I got no clue. You're 49. I'm great. You know? And I'm and I'm great that way. All I'm focused on is St. Louis on Friday and Nashville's pregame on Saturday. That's that's my Not only do you not know, you don't wanna know what you need to know. Yeah. You just talk about things that have actually happened. Yes. I did. Was facts, my friend. Stay in the moment. What you gotta do with this world, you gotta stay in the moment. Oh, man. Well, I'm looking forward to it, man. We are. I I mean, I know you are, and I know everybody is. And every... These days when the season rolls around, when hockey season rolls around, I think back of a time when, okay, hockey's starting great. You know? Now I'm into it. I'm on board. Like I've told you before, I become a fan of this game. We're glad to have you. I didn't grow up with it. I don't know. I don't have a lot of inherent knowledge about it. I can't watch a game and tell you why whatever just happened did. But You score more goals than the other team. It's a good day. That's all you gotta know about hockey. That's what I always come back to. And if you have a 35 pound chalice over your head in June, it was the greatest season you could possibly ask for. Those are the only two things you need to know as a hockey fan anywhere. That's it. Everything else you're fine. But I I will say, Mike, the next time you're at the game, you need to stroll up to the suite level or when you're leaving, the buffet because I know you do it. Aw, it's a good buffet. Wander out in those higher seats and look down at that height, whether there's anybody standing or not, you're going to understand what he's talking about, about seeing it from a higher level than where your seats are. Yeah. Not from your second row. Are you are you still... Are you on the are you on the glass? Bougie. You wanna... Yeah. Yeah. I'm the glass. Second... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm on the glass. I go to the games with her husband, and her husband is a pretty big go big or go home kinda guy. He's a high roller. He's the commander. It's good to know people in life that are go big or go. Yeah. It is. It's good to know those people. It is. And I've benefited from his go big or go home nature. Yeah. And, I I watched the game of hockey from that very close-up, that very close-up point of view. But I also know that, if I were up a little bit higher, there's another game I would see. My my favorite join the. My my Yeah. You know mean? My my favorite place to watch a hockey game, if you can do it. I mean, second tier is probably the sweet level, you know? But if you can get to that, like front row of the third tier and not at center ice and not at the end. One of the corners. I like watching it from one of the corners because I do feel like you see more of the play develop coming up the ice. Yeah. As opposed to straight behind. Well, I mean, straight behind, you can still see a lot. I just feel like you see more if you're in a corner. Mhmm. On that front row of the third tier. And it really... They... First of all, when you're up there, it looks so easy. It looks all... It... It's like it's like, I mean, like, really They're not skating that fast. I mean, I'll go make 20,000,000 a year and do that. They're not that big. Yeah. There... It's... It it looks so easy. But it's a great But it's a great thing. Having having seen it from the vantage point that I have, I know better. Yes. I know how easy it is. Know how hard those those hits are. I know what it must... I I could imagine what it must feel like to crash into the boards because I've seen all those other guys. You go to the glass, you're like, nope, Not for me. I'll watch it. Nope. Yeah. I'll stay on this side. And what... And whatever you do, don't ever put your beer on the ledge if you're sitting on the glass. Or set your feet up. Or set your feet up. But particularly because beers, you know Yeah. Beers aren't cheap these days. It's 48 events. Don't put your beer up there, man. $20 down the road? Gonna you're gonna get a body. Yeah. Well, the guy behind me knows too, and they don't like it. Yes. Yeah. Yes. So what can we look for on Starz TV this year? You know what? Real gonna be? We've got a brand we've got a brand new studio. Okay. We are not in the old studio. You're not in the ticket hovel? We are not in the old studio. Yes. We are Not in a basement? We are back at we are back in the arena and we are not in the old studio. We, we are excited for the new studio. We think we think people are really going to enjoy what it looks like. Some of the bells and whistles that we think we could do, it's it's it's like, I'm a walk before you can run guy. Mhmm. But we think there's some cool looking stuff we're gonna be able to do on road games. And then, as always, we will, you know, we're in the arena as we usually do. I don't think we have four nations or any type of international competition this year, so I don't think we're gonna see Sevi wearing a team USA jersey, unfortunately. I was looking forward to that. So was I. So was I, but, you know what it's, it's, it's a hockey season. There's going be times they drive you nuts. There's going be times you think we're winning the cup and the emotional heart attack roller coaster that it is, is why we love it. But I do think this is a playoff team when it's all said and done, and we will see where things fall once this team gets to the playoffs. That probably would be a good place to stop had I not just thought of something else that's going happen. Bring it on. It's your show. Brian likes to talk. Yeah. Let's talk about road arenas. Oh. What is your what is your what is your favorite place to so to watch a game? Unfortunately, don't travel. Yeah. But so, so I'll give you two. Alright. First of all, and I'm sure you've been to just about all of them. Right? No, I have not actually. Oh, really? Not well, I've been to just about every minor league hockey arena after ten years in the minors. So I can tell you that. And by the way, the one down in Cedar Park is a pretty good minor league arena. The stars. Yes. The stars AHL affiliate just outside of Austin. So I... If I have to pick one place that I would love to go see a game, I've heard enough people talk about it and then just watching it during the playoffs. Montreal on a... Ask Razor this question. You will see that man glow. Montreal, La Centro Belle on a Saturday night. I have heard there is no better atmosphere in hockey than the Montreal Canadians on a Saturday night. And so I would love... That's a sports experience I would love to have. And then the other one, to take it back to '99, it was a little different because they hadn't been in the playoffs for what, like forty years. That Sabres Arena for their game one playoff home game. I... People joke like, you know, all the roof's gonna come down or the building's gonna shake. I actually think the building did shake because the camera, like, it was... You see cameras move a little bit like at football games. Yeah. Alright. It could be the stadium, could be the noise, could be... Like, the way this thing was shaking, I'm like, I think that building is actually moving. It was... That was insanity. So it'd be cool. It'd that that would have been a cool atmosphere to be a part of, but, like, I would love to go to Montreal and see a game there. Let's go. It's... That's like going to the old Yankee Stadium. Yeah. I think for a playoff game. Yankee Stadium senior should be. Mhmm. Yes. That's that's the hockey equivalent of of of a cathedral, in terms of in terms of of lore and history and and atmosphere. You ever go to games for any other sports? Well, I mean, you know what? Like, I, well, I love the two seasons that I got to do some Ranger stuff. Like, I love being out at that ball party. It was the one they won the World Series. That was that was a heck of a lot of fun. But, no, like, I haven't been to Jerry World yet. I'll be out there for the stadium series. Stars are playing a game in Jerry World this year, so that'll be my first Jerry World experience in person. I'm looking forward to that just because I've seen stadiums. Like, they're they're they're unbelievable. But like, no, because like when I get to the summer, my wife and I were like, alright, what are we doing? Where are we going? What house project do I have to work on? I just patched some stress cracks today because we got the foundation worked on over the summer. So I was getting my drywall on a little bit. So you've been laboring today? Yes. Yes. Oh, man. I know. Tough living. Boy, what a hero. Doing that and then coming over here. Yeah. You you you I can't believe you kept your word to do our show. You don't even... You see that. You don't even need to ask me. I'll tell you how much of a hero hero I was today. But, but, but no, like you, if, if, if I'm traveling, I'm probably traveling for leisure. So like other than, where do you go? So actually we went to, we went to Quebec for two weeks for our anniversary this summer. Our anniversary is in July, so it's also to escape the Texas heat. Smart. So now where where in Quebec do you go? Because So we I've been up in that part of the world myself. So we we we went to escape the Texas heat, landed in Montreal and learned there was a heat wave. So it was mid nineties. Awesome. But we started in we started in Quebec City, hung out there for for a few days. Mhmm. Went up to, I think it was called... It was either called Beaupre or Saint Anne De Beaupre, but it was like a... We wanted to get like a little remote, little outdoorsy. Yeah. And so it was actually... It looked like a ski resort area because you could see all the runs, but it's just it's just clearance in trees. Like it's just it it they all look like ski runs, but obviously there's no snow up there right now or there wasn't. So hung out there, did some hiking, just, you know, chillaxed in this really small town. And then we went down to Montreal for the final week and wrapped up, ditched the car in Montreal because they have great public transit and just spent the last, like, I don't know, five days there. It's a fun place. It was awesome. Yeah. Montreal is a cool city. It is. It's a really cool city. Yeah. There I've been. Yeah. It is a fun place. Alright, Brian Ray. I guess you were dismissed. Awesome. Thank you for doing this. I I... Have we taken up enough of his time? We've taken up a lot of his time. I I would have a blast coming here. Alright. He was a Give me little bit your out of here. Not at all. No. Yeah. You you are grooves. You text me anytime and I'm ready to go. Okay. Alright. I will put down the drywall putty and I will come here and hang out with you guys. Maybe you could patch up a few things around here. Absolutely not. I got a couple of nail spots here that they're just... They're eyesores. I love coming on the show, but I'm not giving you the friends and family discount for drywall. That's fair. Fair enough. Fair enough. We'll work on some other kind of trade. Yeah. Yeah. You know? This world revolves on trade. Yes. Yes. So what the hell? Do for me? Alright. He is the great Brian Ray. Yay. Thank you once again, sir. You were a trip as always. Thank you, Shoopy. Thank you, Rob. Over there, Rob of the clubhouse. Listening. At the helm today. Thank you, Becca. Thank you for watching. And don't forget what we would really like for you to do is get us out there on your social media. Tell your friends about YDC. Get them on board here. YDC and the Sunset Lounge. Check it out for yourself. Tell everybody you know about it. If Yeah. Rave review. Rate rate us debate us. Whatever. Alright. I'm getting space here. Bye. Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. You're Dark Companion is a stolen water media presentation.