Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny on Team USA winning Olympic gold, Mammoth vs the Avs tonight at the Delta Center, What to expect after ov...

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Between The Pipes: Adrian Denny on Team USA winning Olympic gold, Mammoth vs the Avs tonight at the Delta Center, What to expect after ov... · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: You were listening to a Sean O'Connell show. You're a
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Speaker 1: source for the best utes football copy. Here's OC from
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Speaker 1: the Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred ninety two
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Speaker 1: to one A f am, Thank.
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Speaker 2: You, Welcome back to the Shawn O'Connell show.
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Speaker 3: Our Utah Mammoth in sider here in studio with US
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Speaker 3: Adrian Denny Between the Pipes, brought to you by Valley
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Speaker 3: Plumbing and the Latin Industries. Early sign ups, by the
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Speaker 3: way open for our ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
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Speaker 3: one FM Million Dollar Bracket Challenge. Go to ESPN seven
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Speaker 3: hundred sports dot com. Get ready for the madness brought
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Speaker 3: International Sportsman's Expo, and the Utah RV Super Show.
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Speaker 2: Adrian, good to see you again. How are you great
0:56
Speaker 2: to be back? OC? How's it going? Man? I feel great.
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Speaker 3: I feel like we are collectively we are gold medalists
1:03
Speaker 3: in hockey because Team USA brought that back for our
1:06
Speaker 3: entire country. So I'm gonna unjustifiably be gloating about that
1:10
Speaker 3: for the next four years.
1:12
Speaker 2: I think that's fair. We get good four years to
1:14
Speaker 2: celebrate it. How how great's that first gold medal at
1:19
Speaker 2: the Olympics in men's ice hockey in forty six years.
1:23
Speaker 2: I think that's a rare thing, oc that both you
1:27
Speaker 2: and I can say last time that happened, we weren't born. Yeah,
1:34
Speaker 2: Like so much of the stuff you can go back.
1:36
Speaker 2: I yeah, I remember that or I was a little kid,
1:39
Speaker 2: But forty six years, that's that's before us.
1:42
Speaker 3: We were talking about that on the show about the
1:46
Speaker 3: you know, the impact that that game had on hockey
1:49
Speaker 3: culture in the United States, on sports in the United States,
1:52
Speaker 3: on sports storytelling in the United States, like the highlight
1:56
Speaker 3: is played at nauseum over and over and over again.
1:59
Speaker 3: Al Michael's wishes he had royalties on that sound because
2:02
Speaker 3: he'd be a billionaire off by how many times that's
2:04
Speaker 3: been part of some package, And of course there was
2:08
Speaker 3: a major motion picture made about it. Mikel Ruzioni and
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Speaker 3: some of those guys still get speaking engagements because they
2:15
Speaker 3: were involved with the miracle on ice. But from an
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Speaker 3: American sports culture standpoint, even if you weren't alive for
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Speaker 3: the moment, you know how significant it was. It has
2:25
Speaker 3: been told to you, There's been books written about it,
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Speaker 3: and now we have that inflection point.
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Speaker 2: But it's actually a memory.
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Speaker 3: It's actually something that anyone forty six years and younger
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Speaker 3: knows what happened. They'll we'll remember where we were. I
2:40
Speaker 3: will never forget where I was and who I was
2:42
Speaker 3: with when this gold medal happened, when that overtime goal
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Speaker 3: went in. And my six year old daughter, who was
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Speaker 3: watching with me, I hope she never forgets that either.
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Speaker 3: Such a cool thing. And if nineteen eighty had that
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Speaker 3: big of an impact on American sport, what is twenty
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Speaker 3: twenty six gonna do.
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Speaker 2: Actually With the fact that we were all up at
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Speaker 2: six am to turn on the TV, right, that's that's
3:06
Speaker 2: going to give you a distinct memory of it. But
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Speaker 2: international hockey has always been something you watch, you like, Okay,
3:15
Speaker 2: this this can, this can boost youth hockey, the NHL,
3:22
Speaker 2: the game in general, especially as we come back out
3:25
Speaker 2: of it with twenty five games left to go, less
3:29
Speaker 2: than two months to go in the regular season, You're
3:32
Speaker 2: you're really in it right now. So for the Mammoth,
3:38
Speaker 2: I'm going to start things off tonight with the best
3:40
Speaker 2: team in the NHL the Colorado Avalanche. It only seems
3:43
Speaker 2: appropriate right to go from the gold medal game to
3:48
Speaker 2: best team in the NHL for us.
3:50
Speaker 3: Well, I want it. We will get to this. Yeah,
3:52
Speaker 3: I do want it, because I haven't had a chance
3:54
Speaker 3: to pick your brain about the gold medal game, the
3:57
Speaker 3: way the team I mean, and more typically, most especially
4:01
Speaker 3: the way that Connor Hellibuk stood on his head in
4:04
Speaker 3: the crease and saved forty one shots against not just
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Speaker 3: like the Colorado Avalanche, which, by the way, that would
4:11
Speaker 3: be incredibly impressive, but with an absolute who's who of
4:16
Speaker 3: Canadian superstars, which of course our NHL superstars, I mean,
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Speaker 3: one of the best individual teams ever assembled in the
4:23
Speaker 3: history of hockey. And he without a ton of support
4:27
Speaker 3: for I don't know, sixty minutes of that game, probably
4:30
Speaker 3: not that long. Forty minutes of that game, he managed
4:34
Speaker 3: to shake the reputation about can he win the big
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Speaker 3: one completely off and win the biggest one there is.
4:41
Speaker 2: Sidney Crosby said it at the start of the Olympics.
4:44
Speaker 2: Like being a Canadian and being on the Canadian Olympic team,
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Speaker 2: it's a responsibility to win the gold medal, and Connor
4:54
Speaker 2: Hallibuck making forty one saves in that game. I once
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Speaker 2: had a coach tell me, we don't want our goalie
5:04
Speaker 2: to give us a chance to win. We want to
5:07
Speaker 2: be the reason that we win is because of our goaltending.
5:12
Speaker 2: You you can have goalies steal games and Hellibuck making
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Speaker 2: forty one saves there that the story kind of going
5:20
Speaker 2: into the Olympics was would the Canadian goaltending situation be
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Speaker 2: a liability? And you leave seeing that the goaltending situation
5:31
Speaker 2: for for Temosa was a huge advantage, Like it wasn't
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Speaker 2: It wasn't just the forty one saves, but the breakaways
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Speaker 2: that that he stopped, Like the it was key saves
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Speaker 2: at key moments is something that that you talk about
5:48
Speaker 2: and hockey and and Hellibuck was was right there.
5:52
Speaker 3: That golden save that is now you know, the the
5:56
Speaker 3: overhead shot of just how crazy that save was and
5:59
Speaker 3: the disk of getting the stick back behind him to
6:02
Speaker 3: stop that goal there. I mean, there's been some iconic
6:07
Speaker 3: sports photographs, you know, the Muhammad Ali standing over the
6:10
Speaker 3: knocked out opponent kind of thing that's going to go
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Speaker 3: up there, at least from the modern standpoint.
6:16
Speaker 2: Along with Jack Hughes with the flag his teeth, missing teeth,
6:22
Speaker 2: whatever happened there, pretty cool to see, pretty cool to
6:27
Speaker 2: see that moment. It was. It was it was a
6:29
Speaker 2: great day. It's like, for me summing it up is
6:34
Speaker 2: it was a great day to be an American.
6:36
Speaker 3: Well, and maybe the most patriotic and tear jerking moment
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Speaker 3: of the whole thing was, of course, when they go
6:43
Speaker 3: to center ice to pose for the team photo and
6:47
Speaker 3: a couple of guys skate up into the stands and
6:49
Speaker 3: bring Johnny Hockey's children, his three year old daughter's two
6:52
Speaker 3: year old son, who happened to be his second birthday,
6:55
Speaker 3: I think on the gold medal day, uh, and you know,
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Speaker 3: hold up the sweater and have those kids in there.
7:01
Speaker 3: It it's not something that they have to do. It's
7:05
Speaker 3: not something that it did not seem to come from
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Speaker 3: like a a hanger on or some type of like
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Speaker 3: Olympic liaison or some marketing specialist. It was it looked
7:17
Speaker 3: very much like that's what the guys felt they needed
7:20
Speaker 3: to do to help honor that family, make them feel included.
7:24
Speaker 3: And I thought it was just one of the coolest
7:26
Speaker 3: things that. Look we deride other pro athletes probably too
7:30
Speaker 3: often more often than we should, but the fact that
7:34
Speaker 3: these are professional athletes, These are all star caliber athletes
7:38
Speaker 3: whose thoughts after winning the biggest game of their collective
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Speaker 3: careers were on a teammate that wasn't there with them
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Speaker 3: and how to make it better for him and his family.
7:47
Speaker 3: I thought that was one of the coolest, most patriotic,
7:49
Speaker 3: most Olympic things that I've ever seen in my life.
7:52
Speaker 2: It was really really nice. And that is Jersey in
7:55
Speaker 2: the locker room hung in the Olympics. They did it
7:58
Speaker 2: at the World Championships last summer, had it at the
8:01
Speaker 2: Four Nations face off, and oh see is his family
8:05
Speaker 2: was invited from from the beginning from and they they
8:09
Speaker 2: they they're they're very modest, you know, kind people, and
8:14
Speaker 2: they they they didn't go. And then as things started
8:19
Speaker 2: to heat up, they they said, we got to be there,
8:23
Speaker 2: and and they got there. So that was that was great,
8:27
Speaker 2: and you just you just can't, you know, but ache
8:31
Speaker 2: for for their family. Two sons lost on a bike
8:36
Speaker 2: ride the weekend before their sister's wedding going home from
8:42
Speaker 2: the rehearsal dinner. Crazy. Oh my goodness. So those those
8:47
Speaker 2: guys loved, loved Johnny and and his dad, you know,
8:50
Speaker 2: typical hockey dad, a coach like they they they feel
8:54
Speaker 2: it and and uh it was. It was really really
8:57
Speaker 2: nice and and you know you saw you know, equal
9:00
Speaker 2: respect from the Canadians on the ice at the time. Yeah,
9:04
Speaker 2: just a cool thing.
9:05
Speaker 3: And I think for a lot of us, who are
9:09
Speaker 3: you know, We've watched hockey for years, but now are
9:11
Speaker 3: actually you know, standing in hockey culture and mersing more
9:15
Speaker 3: in hockey culture. I think it's, you know, one of
9:18
Speaker 3: those those culture moments that shows you for Team USA,
9:23
Speaker 3: how much that those guys that they all came up
9:25
Speaker 3: together and then they've known each other for a lot
9:27
Speaker 3: of them since you know, early adolescents or even sooner,
9:31
Speaker 3: how much they mean to each other, and how much
9:34
Speaker 3: representing Team USA means to them. And then you juxtapose
9:38
Speaker 3: that against Now finish your celebration, you sing the Amptman
9:44
Speaker 3: of Miami night club, you know, go to the White House.
9:47
Speaker 3: Now get your butt back home and make this final
9:50
Speaker 3: push for the Stanley Cup playoffs. It is a tough,
9:53
Speaker 3: wild schedule that these guys have to follow.
9:56
Speaker 2: It would have been wild enough, but then you add
10:02
Speaker 2: the last couple of days to it. Right that the
10:05
Speaker 2: game was Sunday, and you're you're ticketed back to get
10:08
Speaker 2: to the the USA, and then you know, you get
10:13
Speaker 2: invited to the White House, right like is is is
10:17
Speaker 2: an American? Like Clayton Keller said it this morning, that's
10:20
Speaker 2: a once in a lifetime thing. And to be able
10:26
Speaker 2: to go there, those those guys were proud to be
10:29
Speaker 2: there and and be in their their jerseys and they're
10:33
Speaker 2: they're red, white and blue. But gosh, yeah, Clayton got
10:37
Speaker 2: back late last night, as our Governor Ryan Smith tweeted
10:44
Speaker 2: outside of a private airplane as uh Keller landed back
10:50
Speaker 2: here in Utah.
10:52
Speaker 3: All right, so now turning the focus back to this
10:56
Speaker 3: final push, this home stretch of the regular season, and
10:59
Speaker 3: like you've already pointed out, it's the Colorado Avalanche right
11:02
Speaker 3: off the bat. Glad you're at home. But that is
11:07
Speaker 3: going into the Olympic break, they were the best team
11:09
Speaker 3: in the NHL. I don't expect anything to change coming
11:12
Speaker 3: out of the Olympic break, and a couple of their
11:14
Speaker 3: big stars are obviously licking some wounds and probably very
11:18
Speaker 3: motivated by the fact that they didn't win a gold medal.
11:21
Speaker 3: But Stanley Cup would of course take the sting off
11:25
Speaker 3: that for guys like McKinnon and macar.
11:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, you get the impression from several years of watching
11:31
Speaker 2: them that they don't handle losing well, which for them
11:39
Speaker 2: and for the Avs and their fans, that's a good thing.
11:43
Speaker 2: Maybe one of the bigger storylines tonight. Oh see, And
11:47
Speaker 2: I think we're kind of getting to this spot where
11:50
Speaker 2: you're realizing, okay, they're gonna play, especially gauging off of
11:54
Speaker 2: what just happened at their morning skate at the Delta
11:56
Speaker 2: Center in terms of who was on the ice and
11:59
Speaker 2: amount of play as you can dress, et cetera. But
12:02
Speaker 2: Jared Bednar, the head coach of the ABS, maybe kind
12:04
Speaker 2: of planting the seed on Sunday, not not sure of
12:10
Speaker 2: who of their four players who played in the gold
12:12
Speaker 2: medal game would be in the lineup tonight. And then
12:15
Speaker 2: we started to hear, you know, at practice on Sunday
12:18
Speaker 2: that maybe they've they've got it back to back. They're
12:21
Speaker 2: playing Minnesota at home tomorrow. Did those four guys do
12:24
Speaker 2: all of them not play tonight? Nathan McKinnon, Cale mccar,
12:28
Speaker 2: Devon Tapes and Brock Nelson the one representative from Team USA,
12:32
Speaker 2: and then their head coach, Jared Bennard said yesterday those
12:36
Speaker 2: guys will be with us in Salt Lake for the
12:42
Speaker 2: game which is tonight, and but they're traveling separately, which
12:47
Speaker 2: is kind of odd. They weren't at they weren't at
12:49
Speaker 2: the morning skate this morning. They'll be joining the team
12:53
Speaker 2: this afternoon, it sounds like. But based off their their
12:57
Speaker 2: morning skate numbers, looks like at least three of those
13:00
Speaker 2: four guys will play in the game tonight. So you
13:04
Speaker 2: know how hockey is, you keep it close to the vest.
13:07
Speaker 2: Game time decisions kind of usually mean that they'll play,
13:11
Speaker 2: So at least three of the four it sounds like
13:14
Speaker 2: from those guys will be in the lineup. Not a
13:16
Speaker 2: not a complete night off for him, but they do
13:20
Speaker 2: have a big game tomorrow with with Minnesota too at home,
13:23
Speaker 2: who's only five points in back of him in second
13:26
Speaker 2: place in the Central.
13:27
Speaker 3: Should we anticipate Logan Cooley having a nearly full shift tonight?
13:33
Speaker 2: Head coach Andre Turney after morning skates said, there's lots
13:37
Speaker 2: of game time decisions. Is we've watched practice over the
13:41
Speaker 2: last week. He's been a full participant, him and Alexander Kerkfoot,
13:48
Speaker 2: So if you gauge that, you see how he's looked,
13:54
Speaker 2: which has been great, and just just kind of how
13:58
Speaker 2: things have transpired in the time table that Bill Armstrong
14:01
Speaker 2: has given us as we've gone throughout the process of
14:03
Speaker 2: over two and a half months without Logan Cooley, I think, uh,
14:08
Speaker 2: you know, I think, if you've watched him practice and play,
14:12
Speaker 2: if if all goes well, no no setbacks, it has
14:17
Speaker 2: sounded like he'll he'll be playing tonight, though Barry did
14:20
Speaker 2: say some some game time decisions again hockey keeping it
14:23
Speaker 2: close to the vast. But he's looked good, he's looked uh,
14:26
Speaker 2: looks ready to roll.
14:28
Speaker 3: As a general rule of thumb, how how long should
14:32
Speaker 3: the reintegration process actually take before? I mean, it's mid season,
14:37
Speaker 3: but he he's missed a lot of the season, so
14:39
Speaker 3: you can't expect him to be in mid season form
14:41
Speaker 3: right now. Uh to callous himself back to NHL hockey,
14:46
Speaker 3: how long does that process generally take?
14:48
Speaker 2: The best part about this is he's not just getting
14:51
Speaker 2: dropped into the lineup on a random Wednesday when Utah's
14:55
Speaker 2: in the middle of it, and that's that's that's a
15:00
Speaker 2: good thing here is he's been practicing full participation for
15:03
Speaker 2: over a week. The Mammas started practicing last Tuesday and
15:07
Speaker 2: back at it tonight for the first game in three weeks.
15:10
Speaker 2: Everybody's playing their first game in three weeks, so it's
15:13
Speaker 2: it's gonna take every team, you know, a couple of
15:16
Speaker 2: games to get back to it. I wouldn't say it's
15:18
Speaker 2: gonna look like first couple of weeks of the season,
15:22
Speaker 2: but I think that's good for Logan Cooley to be
15:25
Speaker 2: able to be eased back in the way he is
15:28
Speaker 2: with a full week of practice and then the team
15:31
Speaker 2: comes back playing for the first time. So that's good
15:34
Speaker 2: coming off of an injury, because we saw last year
15:38
Speaker 2: with Sean Dursey and John Marino when they were coming
15:40
Speaker 2: back off the long term injuries and just kind of
15:42
Speaker 2: dropped right back into the lineup in the middle of it.
15:45
Speaker 2: It was an adjustment. They were in NHL shape, but
15:48
Speaker 2: they weren't in mid season form, ready to go condition.
15:55
Speaker 3: In terms of guys that didn't maybe miss significant time,
15:59
Speaker 3: but we are dealing with bumps and bruises. That's obviously
16:02
Speaker 3: a lot less visible even on an injury report most
16:04
Speaker 3: of the time. Who do you think benefited most from
16:07
Speaker 3: the Olympic break Well, I think all of them.
16:13
Speaker 2: I think I think that you're never really quite one
16:17
Speaker 2: hundred percent, and I think I think all players and
16:20
Speaker 2: all teams uh are going to be fresh and ready.
16:27
Speaker 2: I don't think that when we went into the break
16:30
Speaker 2: there was there was anybody really kind of like, Okay,
16:33
Speaker 2: just just just get to this so we can you know,
16:36
Speaker 2: get get treatment and these two weeks off will be good. Uh.
16:42
Speaker 2: Maybe your goaltender Caralva Melca might be the freshest coming
16:47
Speaker 2: back because played in all those games. He goes over
16:53
Speaker 2: to the Olympics, does not play, but he's practicing every
16:57
Speaker 2: day and so he's he's not coming back after you know,
17:02
Speaker 2: being in in the sunshine for a week and a
17:07
Speaker 2: half and then just getting back into practice shape. He's
17:10
Speaker 2: been kind of in game shape just just not playing.
17:13
Speaker 2: So I'd say it's huge for VOMLCA. Number one, the
17:19
Speaker 2: trade deadline is approaching.
17:20
Speaker 3: Here, we got what nine days before you got to
17:23
Speaker 3: make your trades in the NHL. Any idea on whether
17:27
Speaker 3: the Mammoth will be buyers sellers stand pat big moves,
17:31
Speaker 3: small moves. What do you expect from him in these
17:34
Speaker 3: next seven eight nine days?
17:36
Speaker 2: Yeah? So what do we have five games before the
17:39
Speaker 2: deadline three at home, and then the team will hit
17:43
Speaker 2: the road next week starting Tuesday in DC. I'd say
17:48
Speaker 2: for the whole NHL, this is, you know, a five
17:54
Speaker 2: game stretch over the next nine to ten days of
18:00
Speaker 2: making your final evaluations. You had heard before the Olympic
18:05
Speaker 2: break that baby teams wanted to wait till they got
18:08
Speaker 2: back from the Olympic break to just to wait and
18:11
Speaker 2: see who comes back healthy, who is healthy. So for
18:19
Speaker 2: the Mammoth, in terms of what would they add if
18:23
Speaker 2: if it's a rental, if it's somebody, I I equate
18:29
Speaker 2: it this way. You drive down the highway and a
18:32
Speaker 2: car passes you, You're like, I like that car. Well,
18:34
Speaker 2: what's the cost? Oh, I can't do that? Right? If
18:39
Speaker 2: if if a rental, a player who's got experience, who
18:44
Speaker 2: can help you win. Now winning the playoffs comes along,
18:50
Speaker 2: what's what's the cost of it? For Utah, it's it's
18:54
Speaker 2: it's all about they're not going to trade a prospect.
18:58
Speaker 2: They're not going to trade first second round draft pick.
19:02
Speaker 2: Maybe a second. They do have a lot of seconds
19:04
Speaker 2: in the in the next several years, but but it's
19:09
Speaker 2: not gonna be anything big In terms of parting ways
19:14
Speaker 2: with the with the player he doesn't have term. If
19:16
Speaker 2: it's a guy like Pa Sergachev who has. In Sergachev's case,
19:21
Speaker 2: he came here with seven years left on a deal,
19:23
Speaker 2: and Patkas signed a five year deal, he's got long,
19:26
Speaker 2: long term. You'll you'll you'll judge that because it's a
19:30
Speaker 2: guy that can be with you next year, the year after.
19:34
Speaker 2: You're gonna have that. That's part of your core. So
19:37
Speaker 2: I think that's that's what it is. But you know,
19:39
Speaker 2: you're you're always looking and and I don't even know
19:43
Speaker 2: for for the Mammoth. You can look at a couple
19:47
Speaker 2: couple areas, right, maybe you know another another D. You
19:52
Speaker 2: can never never use enough defenseman, uh third fourth line player,
19:58
Speaker 2: you can never use enough of those. But if it
20:01
Speaker 2: comes along and it's like I like it, maybe you
20:04
Speaker 2: get something that you didn't know you wanted or needed,
20:08
Speaker 2: but the exchange on it is good enough to add
20:11
Speaker 2: a piece to carry into the playoffs.
20:15
Speaker 3: You mentioned five games before the trade deadline. The next
20:18
Speaker 3: three for the mammothar at home Colorado, Minnesota Chicago, so
20:22
Speaker 3: all divisional opponents, and two of those are two of
20:25
Speaker 3: the best teams in the NHL. What kind of point
20:29
Speaker 3: results do you think this team can realistically grab in
20:32
Speaker 3: these next.
20:32
Speaker 2: Three I think if you were making a schedule from
20:35
Speaker 2: scratch and you had to say, when are we going
20:38
Speaker 2: to play the Colorado Avalanche this season? I think the
20:42
Speaker 2: first place you put them is the first game after
20:45
Speaker 2: the Olympic break. Knowing that you've got eight players coming
20:51
Speaker 2: out of the Olympics, four of them who play in
20:53
Speaker 2: the gold Mill Game, I think it's a good time
20:55
Speaker 2: to play Colorado at home. So you got that. You
21:00
Speaker 2: got Minnesota who's coming from Colorado. They play there tomorrow,
21:04
Speaker 2: so they're gonna be on a back to back. Wild
21:07
Speaker 2: have won five in a row, so they were good
21:10
Speaker 2: going into the break. And then you got Chicago Sunday
21:14
Speaker 2: at two. Team that's kind of dropped out a playoff contention,
21:21
Speaker 2: you'd like to say three and oh right, that did
21:25
Speaker 2: give us another nice home stand. You got a four
21:27
Speaker 2: homestand you got a five to zero in one home stand.
21:30
Speaker 2: You're two and one currently on this homestand that that
21:33
Speaker 2: went into the break with with three games left. You know,
21:37
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm I'm conservative. I don't take chances. You know,
21:43
Speaker 2: I'm always prepared with an umbrella. I play it safe
21:48
Speaker 2: for me, probably like four or five points easy. How
21:54
Speaker 2: how vanilla? How boring is that answer? But four or
21:58
Speaker 2: five points out of six, if you take two out
22:02
Speaker 2: of three in stretches like this throughout the year, you're
22:06
Speaker 2: in a good spot. Can we go three and zero?
22:11
Speaker 2: I think they can too. I think they could. I wouldn't.
22:14
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised if the Mammoth come out beat Colorado.
22:17
Speaker 2: You got Minnesota on a back to back and then
22:18
Speaker 2: you come out on Sunday and pound Chicago.
22:21
Speaker 3: Something I have to say that I like about the
22:25
Speaker 3: NHL and the fact that the players in the last
22:28
Speaker 3: collective bargaining agreement really wanted to make sure that Olympic
22:31
Speaker 3: participation was a thing. Miko Ranton gets hurt and Cydny
22:36
Speaker 3: Crosby gets hurt in the Olympics.
22:38
Speaker 2: That's something that.
22:41
Speaker 3: Fairly or unfairly, I'm projecting it onto the NBA, and
22:44
Speaker 3: I'm like, great, now they're never going to play in
22:46
Speaker 3: the Olympics again.
22:47
Speaker 2: Major League Baseball.
22:48
Speaker 3: Oh great, NFL players, you get hurt doing something that
22:52
Speaker 3: is not geared toward the success of your professional teams,
22:55
Speaker 3: and now everyone's gonna panic about it. The NHL and
22:58
Speaker 3: the fan base and the media seems not to be like, yeah,
23:02
Speaker 3: you kind of knew what you signed up for a
23:04
Speaker 3: month out, at least for Sidney Crosby.
23:06
Speaker 2: It sounds like a couple of weeks for ranton In.
23:08
Speaker 3: I mean, these are teams that have high hopes, they
23:10
Speaker 3: want to do things, and players that are obviously stars
23:14
Speaker 3: and reasons people put their butts and seats and all
23:16
Speaker 3: that stuff. But to me, and maybe you could correct
23:20
Speaker 3: me for being wrong, but it seems like there's no
23:23
Speaker 3: overreaction coming to the fact that these injuries were sustained
23:26
Speaker 3: in a tournament that is not important necessarily to the
23:30
Speaker 3: NHL's business, but it is absolutely important to its players.
23:34
Speaker 2: You go over there, you know there's gonna be injuries.
23:37
Speaker 2: You hope it's not any of year guys. You hope
23:42
Speaker 2: it's not stars in the league like Sidney Crosby and
23:46
Speaker 2: Mika Rantonon and Kevin Fiala La have got hurt in
23:49
Speaker 2: the first game for Switzerland. I mean, they knew it.
23:58
Speaker 2: I think one thing about high key in the players
24:00
Speaker 2: is they they they take a lot of pride in,
24:04
Speaker 2: you know, building building up the fan base and and
24:08
Speaker 2: putting on shows and and ownership gets it and it
24:13
Speaker 2: and it benefits the the teams, right I I I
24:17
Speaker 2: would say that you'll probably see some some good ratings
24:21
Speaker 2: for some NHL games on TV nationally going down the
24:25
Speaker 2: stretch here with with the momentum from the Olympics. But
24:30
Speaker 2: but you're right, you haven't heard the the outcry with
24:37
Speaker 2: guys like Sidney Crosby and Miko rant and getting hurt
24:41
Speaker 2: for Pittsburgh there where they are and not where we
24:46
Speaker 2: thought they were going to be. And so now they're
24:48
Speaker 2: without sid for four weeks here. You hope they they
24:52
Speaker 2: keep winning, but because because that would be too bad,
24:56
Speaker 2: especially at this point in his career, for him to
24:58
Speaker 2: have a chance to get back in the playoffs and
25:00
Speaker 2: not be there. But but I think I think the
25:03
Speaker 2: greater good everybody sees this as a is a win.
25:10
Speaker 3: What do you think of our idea on how to
25:12
Speaker 3: get under the skin of Nathan McKinnon if he indeed
25:15
Speaker 3: he plans on playing tonight, where everyone just finds the
25:19
Speaker 3: the freeze frame of him missing the open net and
25:23
Speaker 3: silently you just put that on your phone and you
25:25
Speaker 3: just hold it towards the ice so that he or
25:27
Speaker 3: a teammate has to skate over to the boards and
25:29
Speaker 3: what is that, Oh, what do you think? Do you
25:33
Speaker 3: think too much of a low blow?
25:35
Speaker 2: You could do that, or everybody could bring in a
25:40
Speaker 2: small stuffed animal and just just hold it up.
25:45
Speaker 3: The consolation stuffed animal. First of all, we were talking
25:49
Speaker 3: about the software. It is the wrong size. Okay. If
25:53
Speaker 3: we're talking about you're giving somebody a stuffy, it has
25:58
Speaker 3: to be at at least bigger than your hand. If
26:01
Speaker 3: it's something that fits like comfortably in your hand, that's
26:05
Speaker 3: too small for a stuffed animal. There's all these comical
26:08
Speaker 3: memified photos of well McKinnon specifically, but other players and
26:13
Speaker 3: other athletes being handed these like beanie baby sized stuffed
26:16
Speaker 3: animals at the Milani Olympics and you're said, what is this,
26:21
Speaker 3: Come on, Olympic Committee. You can't go with like the
26:24
Speaker 3: twelve inch what are we doing here?
26:26
Speaker 2: It reminded me of when I was a kid and
26:29
Speaker 2: we were on vacation and we would each be able
26:34
Speaker 2: to pick out something from the gift shop to take
26:39
Speaker 2: home as a souvenir, and we would only have enough
26:46
Speaker 2: money for the smallest, most underwhelming item in the shop,
26:54
Speaker 2: and we were going to either get that or go
26:56
Speaker 2: home with nothing, so we'd get it. Yeah, it sounds
27:01
Speaker 2: like now.
27:03
Speaker 3: The bargain hunter in me was born at zoo gift
27:07
Speaker 3: shops when I was a very small child. Okay, the
27:10
Speaker 3: Minnesota Zoo the Como Parks Zoo were both favorites of
27:13
Speaker 3: mine when I was like six, right, and same thing.
27:17
Speaker 3: It's like, all right, begrudgingly if you want to pick
27:20
Speaker 3: something out, it's in like the two dollars shelf category.
27:24
Speaker 2: Right.
27:24
Speaker 3: But back in those days, you know the like the
27:27
Speaker 3: little squeezy stick. It has like the trigger on the
27:29
Speaker 3: bottom and then there's a stick and there's an animal
27:31
Speaker 3: at the top that's mouth opens. Yeah. Those were actually cheap. Yeah,
27:36
Speaker 3: so I got a bunch of those. That was my
27:38
Speaker 3: go to.
27:38
Speaker 2: Yeah. You just go straight to the cash register and
27:41
Speaker 2: you see that the bargains in the little cups, and
27:43
Speaker 2: it's like, I want that.
27:45
Speaker 3: I want the uh, I want the lion that opens
27:48
Speaker 3: and closes its mouth. And invariably, the the little string
27:54
Speaker 3: or the plastic membrane that actually pulls the mechanism breaks
27:58
Speaker 3: after like three days or whatever because it's made of
28:01
Speaker 3: wet toilet paper or something. I don't know why they
28:04
Speaker 3: can't just manufacture that with some fishing line for us
28:06
Speaker 3: little kids.
28:08
Speaker 2: But man, love those things back in the day. Don't
28:10
Speaker 2: go with the smallest stuffy ever.
28:13
Speaker 3: Let this be a public service announcement and an official
28:16
Speaker 3: stance of the Sean O'Connell show. We don't like AI
28:19
Speaker 3: all right, and we don't like the cheapest, smallest stuffy
28:23
Speaker 3: in the gift shop.
28:24
Speaker 2: And it was just a bad time. There's stuff that
28:28
Speaker 2: happens and it's just not a good time. Could those
28:32
Speaker 2: not have been the welcome gift? Could those not have
28:37
Speaker 2: been in the gift bag you get when you check
28:40
Speaker 2: in to the Olympic village? Did those come in late? Yeah,
28:45
Speaker 2: well we shipped in late from Taiwan? Or what happened here? Also?
28:48
Speaker 2: Did they have extras? Like just trying to get rid
28:51
Speaker 2: of them?
28:51
Speaker 3: Who decided that the sequence of when you would actually
28:55
Speaker 3: be handing them to the athletes was metal first and then.
28:59
Speaker 2: The stuffed animal? Like the stuffed animal was the grand finale.
29:03
Speaker 3: It's like and to be the guy that goes through
29:06
Speaker 3: and shakes hands like the first person hangs the metal
29:10
Speaker 3: over your neck. If it's a silver medal in your cannon,
29:12
Speaker 3: you're disappointed. Ignominius honor. I suppose just like, oh, yes, sorry,
29:17
Speaker 3: here's your silver medal. But then to be the next
29:19
Speaker 3: guy who goes through the line with a bin full
29:21
Speaker 3: of tiny stuffed animals and demands a handshake.
29:25
Speaker 2: Here's this handshake.
29:26
Speaker 3: All the players are like, what get away from me?
29:30
Speaker 2: Maybe a bin as they exited the rink with a
29:34
Speaker 2: sign that said take one, and then they can grab
29:38
Speaker 2: him as they go out, And it's the honor system,
29:42
Speaker 2: and you just saved a volunteer or a dignitary or
29:46
Speaker 2: whoever in the heck that was.
29:48
Speaker 3: Okay, I do need you to ask Clayton Keller this
29:51
Speaker 3: question for me, because you're gonna talk to him before
29:53
Speaker 3: I talked to him. Okay, aside from the gold medal itself,
29:57
Speaker 3: I want to know what the best keepsake or souvenir
30:00
Speaker 3: he brought home from Italy was, because some of that
30:03
Speaker 3: gear that tmusa gear is really really cool that might
30:06
Speaker 3: fit the bill. Maybe he found something in a gift
30:08
Speaker 3: shop over there, and maybe the Olympic village has schwag
30:12
Speaker 3: bags we don't ever get to see as the fans.
30:14
Speaker 3: So I need that answer from Clayton Keller. Aside from
30:19
Speaker 3: the metal itself, his number one keepsake from the Milan
30:22
Speaker 3: Courtina Games. On It, Love It. That's the Adrian Denny
30:26
Speaker 3: homework assignment. He is our Mammoth Insider. He served as
30:29
Speaker 3: our Olympic Hockey Insider as well. Brought to you by
30:32
Speaker 3: Aladdin Industries and Valley Plumbing