Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny on the Utah Mammoth's OT win over Winnipeg, Tonight at Colorado, NHL should take over Christmas Eve + mor...

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Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny on the Utah Mammoth's OT win over Winnipeg, Tonight at Colorado, NHL should take over Christmas Eve + mor... · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Love them. What Christmas? This is the Sean O'Connell show.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: You were home of the best Inside of your Utes.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Let's get back to OC from the Murdoch Chevrolet Studio
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: of ESPN seven ninety two one Am.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Listen and children.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Shout out to James for the excellent DJ work as
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: a Christmas playlist brings us in our final show live
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: show of the year. Before we go on our own
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: little Christmas break. We're gonna have classic Utah football games,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: the best Kyle Whittingham games playing on air, and of
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: course there's bowl games and everything else happening over the
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: break that we'll get to.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: But right now, it's time to talk a little hockey.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Our Mammoth insider Adrian Denny takes us between the pipes
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: here in our studio. Adrian, I love the It's not
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: an ugly Christmas sweater, but it is a it's a
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Christmas sweater of sorts.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a Christmas tree hoodie. I did not make
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: this myself. People think that I made it myself.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: I did not.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: I purchased it at Target and it's you know, it's
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: got the garland and the glitter and the sparkles, and
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: I love it. I've worn it two days in a
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: row now, in fact, it's totally fine seasonal attire.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Overtime game winner for the captain doesn't get any better
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: than that for Mammoth fans.
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: How about it another another early one fastest goal to
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: start an overtime this year in the NHL thirteen seconds
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: in on Sunday. You know when the Mammoth go to overtime,
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: it's gonna be is Keller gonna pass to Gunther or
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: is Gunther gonna pass to Keller? And Gunther I think
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: could everybody thought that he was going to shoot it,
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: passed it to the captain, and Utah's now scored four
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: of their five overtime winners in the first minute because Sergatchev,
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: Gunther and Keller just go out there and don't mess around.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: So how important was that win relative to the competition division,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera. And honestly, the trend of what
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: this man a team that we've been talking about these
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: last couple of weeks not finding. I think the level
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: of consistency the coach Bart and others would.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: Like gosh, like they they they did everything right and
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: then they made two mistakes and three to one became
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: three to three in twenty five seconds, and Bear called
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: time out and just told him, guys, just calm down
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: and play. Just calm down and play. They went back out,
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: they took the game back over again and went to overtime.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: But gosh, it was kind of getting into that neighborhood
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: again of you did everything right, and now it's three
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: to three in the third period, after you've led for
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: over fifty minutes in the game, after going up one nothing,
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: and then he made it too nothing. Because that was
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: the issue with the previous game Friday night against Jersey
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: looking great, the game was only one nothing, couldn't extend
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: it to two nothing, and I thought they really outplayed
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: the Jets to a point that when they made it
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: three to nothing early in the second thought, Okay, this
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: is what this game should be. This is a three
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: nothing game. So the scoreboard is justifying how Utah's dominated
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: and with their speed and skill playing a team like Winnipeg,
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: who's the third slowest team in the NHL, Utah's the
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: second fastest. But I thought they were able to take
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: over that game because they use their speed, but they
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: also outworked Winnipeg so sometimes you know, they say will
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: over skill and will beat skill when skill doesn't work hard.
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: And I thought it was will and skill for the
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: Mammoth on Sunday for ninety five percent of that game.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: So it was glad to see they could they could
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: pull it out, take the two points, and we weren't
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: talking about another aus where you get a point.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: So five and five in the last ten and now
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: they go up against the best team in the NHL
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: on the road. Obviously you want a win, you want
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: the points here. It's probably not one you panic about
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: if you don't get because the Abs have been getting
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: the better of a lot of NHL squads. But what
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: do you need to see to show that the Mammoth
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: are on the right track even against a team like this.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: They played Colorado maybe as good as anybody sure this year.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: They went in there on opening night, which I thought
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: was a scheduled loss. They lost two to one. It
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: was one to one in the third period, Nathan McKinnon
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: scored a power play goal.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: They won two to one.
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  Speaker 4: First game of the year, and the Abs had already
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: played and I thought it was a real tough situation
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: to go into.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: They that was a one goal game.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: Then they beat them at the Doubles Center on October
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: twenty first, in a game where they fell behind, tied it,
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: took the lead, Avs tied it a couple times, and
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: then that was game where Keller Gunther in overtime to
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: win it in the first minute and Gunner said, passes
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: kind of behind me. I had to kind of retrieve
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: that little bit there to put it to put it
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: at the back of that. So they've played, they've played
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: Colorado as good as anybody. This ABS team twenty six,
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: two and seven, fourteen to zero and two at home.
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: They haven't lost to a Western Conference team in regulation.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: Their only regulation losses have been to the Boston Bruins
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: and New York Islanders. They just went into Minnesota on
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: Sunday and snapped Minnesota's seven game winning streak and their
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: three to zero record since they made that blockbuster. Quinn
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: Hughes trade, I don't know, man, like Utah has played
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: well against him last game before Christmas, Colorado hasn't hasn't
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: had a dud all season. I guess they did lose
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: six to three at the Islanders, but like they they're
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: the best in every category, Like this is a team
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: that could have below average goaltending, and their two goalies
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: have as good a numbers as you'll see. Two guys
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: that before they got to Colorado were you know, a
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: backup goalie and another backup goalie. So everything they've done
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: has turned to gold. And they they lost in the
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: first round last year. Remember that trade with Miko Ranton
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: and was going all over the map last year. Got
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: rid of him, yes, and then they lost to Miko
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: Ranton in seven games in the first round when they
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: had a two goal lead in the third period, So
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: they were sour about that.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: They very series basically, yeah, exactly.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: And this year they've got their captain, gave Laniskog back
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: after he missed three years basically with an injury. So gosh,
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: they looked like the complete package. I said, I thought
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: they'd probably do this like Winnipeg did last year, unbeaten
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: in fourteen to fifteen. But twenty six two seven, that's
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: that's record breaking territory there. So for me, go in
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: and play another another solid game, like when you beat
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: Detroit four to one last Wednesday, when you beat Anaheim
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: seven nothing. I think those are games you could say,
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: all right, A plus you did everything perfect, and uh,
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: that's that's what it'll take.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: If you if you shave off the obvious superstars. McKinnon,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: who you already mentioned, has sixty one points already this season.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Mccarr is a monster. But who is kind of like
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: the if that's Batman and Robin.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Who's Alfred for this team.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: Marty Natchius, that's the guy they got in the Ranton
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: and trade him. Mccarr and McKinnon are all three in
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: the top ten in the NHL and scoring. I think
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: I think Natus has like five goals in the first
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: ninety seconds of games this year. He's got forty seven points.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: It's in thirty five games, so that that might not
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: be a guy that you know, everybody's heard of, right
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: dialing in on on Utah's NHL team, But number eighty eight,
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: Martin Nachs, they've got Brent Burns.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: You probably know him from the Beard yea right.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Multi former Sharks, longtime San Jose Shark Burns.
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so he's he's a guy that's you know, forties
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: I think, and but they don't need him to play
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: twenty five minutes a night. So he's been he's been
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: a big part of that team. Brock Nelson, who they
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: got last year from the Islanders and a deadline deal,
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: has got fourteen goals. So I think everybody's everybody on
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: their team's having a good year. They're they're good. It's
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: it's it's a challenge. It's a good challenge. I think
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: the Manmotho would love to go be that first team
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: to beat him from the Western Conference, be the first
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: team to beat him, beat him at home. And going
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: back to last year, you played him pretty good too.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: They won a game three to one there right around
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: on Christmas time. They came back from the break on
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: December twenty seventh, that it was a close game going
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: down the stretch. So Mammoth to play Colorado is as
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: good as anybody in the NHL.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Do you like that the NHL does have the mandatory
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Christmas break the NBA, It's like we were just talking
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: with Gordon Chays about this. It's it's kind of their
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: thing now, the Christmas games, And for players it's a
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: love and hate and coaches it's a love and hate
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: thing because you know, those are special games. Everyone's watching
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: star making opportunities, et cetera, et cetera. And look the
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: NHL is a winter sport, and it feels like maybe
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: you could take advantage of that Christmas break to get
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: more eyeballs on your games, but they've decided instead to have,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: you know, a hockey break.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Is that in the best interest of the league.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: Do you know what sean? As a sports fan, Christmas
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: Eve is brutal. It is terrible every single year. Like
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: for me, I've like I'm a last minute shopper and
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: so I'm running around on Christmas Eve, but that's every
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: place closes like one one or two. You're done in
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: your home and there is nothing on. And if we
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: got lucky and there's a Hawaii Bowl on it five
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: in the afternoon, bank goodness. But I I think Christmas Eve?
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: Could you take over Christmas Eve? Could you make it
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: Christmas Eve and still make it the twenty fifth, twenty sixth,
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: and twenty seventh for your mandatory three day break.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I love this idea. All right, here's what you do.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: You bring Santa Claus to every arena and he's watching
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: the game, and at the end of the game, you
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: make it a thing where he's leaving with the reindeer
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: to go start his duties on Christmas.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: See all right, love it. This is genius marketing because
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: because I.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: Mean selfishly having been in pro hockey for twenty plus years,
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: the three day breaks great, and for the Mammoth it
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: goes a couple extra days, don't play the twenty fourth,
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: and then you're back on the twenty ninth against Nashville
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: on Monday. So it's great personally. But I've always thought
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: Christmas Eve is so underutilized in sports, and it drives
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: me crazy, Sean, because all I do is watch sports.
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: I don't have anything else. I tried to watch a
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: comedy special last night falling asleep.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: I'd like put me right to sleep.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: So on Christmas Eve, with no sports to watch, will
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: you fire up a Christmas movie?
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah? You do.
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: The Christmas story rolling Christmas story is great. Love Christmas story,
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: Elf Sell, He's great. Okay, if you look at my
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: Christmas tree hoodie I'm worrying, you can probably say you
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: are definitely a national Lampoons fan.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Which Christmas vacation?
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Vacation?
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: All right?
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: Love a good one that just just feels like Christmas,
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: feels like everybody's Christmas over at Clark Griswold's house. Like,
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: who doesn't live that every year. I like it, all
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: of it. The three weeks leading up to it.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Two games sorry, second wild card spot. Is this where
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: you thought the Mammoth would be at the Christmas break?
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: I like it, I'm I do.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: I mean the Western Conference right now? You look, you
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: know if it was the Eastern Conference, the Mammoth wouldn't
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: be in that wild card spot. But the way that Colorado,
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: Minnesota and Dallas are just rowing through everybody, You've got that.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: So the Mammoth at eighteen seventeen to three are in
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: that second wild card spot.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: And there are two points up on San Jose.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: San Jose's Vegas tonight, So you got to figure percentages
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: are in your favor the regardless of whatever happens tonight
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: in Denver, You're going into Christmas vacation with that wildcard spot,
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: and I like it. Bill Armstrong said, all along, just
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: want to be, just want to be in a decent
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: spot going into Christmas, New Year's coming out of that
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: three game road trip right at the first of the
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: year too, that the Devils, the Islanders, and the Rangers
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: just to be coming home for that seven game homestand
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: in January around the line. So I think they're there.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: I think they feel like they're under the hood numbers.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: As we say they're analytics offensively and defensively say they're
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: better than an eighteen seventeen and three team right now.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: So I think that with the schedule and with the
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: way that they feel that.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: They're playing, I think they're in a great spot. I
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: love it. I feel fantastic about the mammoth right now.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Hopefully you get some mammoth merch under your tree if
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: you're out there listening right now. Adrian probably doesn't need anymore,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: but I also hope that you get some.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: I'm headed to the Team store at the Della Center
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: right now, in fact, to do some family Christmas shopping
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: before the game tonight. So if anybody wants to head
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: over and meet me there, I'll be hanging out because
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: I'm one of those people, Sean, I go in and I.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: Just don't know.
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: I can't shop, man, like you're a bad shop going
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: back to the I just watched sports thing. I go
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: into a store and I don't know what to do,
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: and I'm there for a long time. So that's where
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: I'm headed now. So wherever you are in the valley,
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: if you head down to the Dalla Center. Now, I'll
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: probably see and I'll be in my Christmas tree hoodie.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: If you see a guy with tinsel and glittery ornaments
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: on his hoodie, that's Adrian.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: That's me.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Merry Christmas. Thanks for coming in.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Merry Christmas, John, thanks for having me.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: As always, Adrian Danny between the pipes on The Sean
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: O'Connell Show