Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Tom Callahan reacts to the Carolina Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup Final, How far away are the Mammoth from the Cup (?) + more
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: You tune to the Sean O'Connell Show for the without
- 0:07Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN.
- 0:12Speaker 2: HAF Stanley Cup Lord Stanley's Cup hoisted by the Carolina
- 0:31Speaker 2: Hurricanes ceiling it in Game six to do a little
- 0:36Speaker 2: recap on the series, and I guess on the season
- 0:39Speaker 2: now that it's over, Our good friend Tom Callahan locked
- 0:43Speaker 2: on Mammoth You Tom, Mammoth Insider, NHL Insider, You're on
- 0:47Speaker 2: the Sean O'Connell Show.
- 0:48Speaker 3: Tom, Welcome back. How are you, sir?
- 0:50Speaker 4: H You know what I'm in that same kind of
- 0:53Speaker 4: weird load that everybody's in. It's like sad that it's over,
- 0:56Speaker 4: but excited for the off season and mixed emotions right now.
- 1:03Speaker 2: The fact that Carolina did it in the way that
- 1:05Speaker 2: they did it. What was the number one thing that
- 1:07Speaker 2: stood out to you in the Stanley Cup final series?
- 1:11Speaker 1: Well, I mean it helps if their captain really picked
- 1:16Speaker 1: that team up. I mean for a thirty seven year
- 1:17Speaker 1: old guy who I don't think a lot of us
- 1:19Speaker 1: were thinking too much about Jordan Skull and you know
- 1:22Speaker 1: that second line, but it really and I'll even put
- 1:25Speaker 1: a Utah slant on this pretty early in the in
- 1:28Speaker 1: the show here that is the blueprint for the Mammoth
- 1:33Speaker 1: where they physically as big as Vegas. No, but they
- 1:36Speaker 1: played harder, they were tough. And I was listening to
- 1:40Speaker 1: some you know, breakdowns by various people, and I realized
- 1:44Speaker 1: that I'm listening to this. Carolina was not stronger physically,
- 1:51Speaker 1: they were not on paper the better team or the
- 1:54Speaker 1: bigger team, but they were just tougher, the team tough,
- 1:59Speaker 1: more different cult to beat. And to me, that screams
- 2:04Speaker 1: volumes about the blueprint for the Utah Mammoth and where
- 2:08Speaker 1: this team, even as constructed right now, can head and
- 2:13Speaker 1: become that type of Carolina Hurricanes team where man, if
- 2:17Speaker 1: they're willing to go through a brick wall and I'll
- 2:19Speaker 1: charge in the same direction, they'd be a really really
- 2:21Speaker 1: hard team to beat. And that's just really what it
- 2:23Speaker 1: came down to with Carolina is they were willing to
- 2:26Speaker 1: do whatever it took. They made it happen every single time,
- 2:29Speaker 1: every single shift. They worked harder than Vegas did, and
- 2:34Speaker 1: they ended up winning the Stamma Cup.
- 2:37Speaker 2: So you know, in these copycat leagues, right I was
- 2:40Speaker 2: asking questions like this earlier about the New York Knicks
- 2:43Speaker 2: and is everyone else going to try to replicate what
- 2:46Speaker 2: the New York Knicks were doing. And you know, there
- 2:48Speaker 2: are some similarities between the at least like the size,
- 2:51Speaker 2: maybe some of the speed on this Utah Mammoth roster
- 2:54Speaker 2: and what Carolina did. But did we see enough in
- 2:57Speaker 2: this Stanley Cup Final series to form the way that
- 3:01Speaker 2: other teams in the league, maybe even the Mammoth try
- 3:04Speaker 2: to approach the next couple of seasons.
- 3:07Speaker 1: Well, it's gonna be hard because there's only one Rod Brindamore.
- 3:11Speaker 1: And there was a good debate going with me and
- 3:15Speaker 1: some of my hockey friends, and I've seen a similar
- 3:18Speaker 1: kind of question online, as you know, give me another
- 3:22Speaker 1: coach that means as much to another NHL team, And
- 3:27Speaker 1: I think, like bring the Moore just embodies what the
- 3:31Speaker 1: Carolina Hurricanes are and has as a player, has as
- 3:35Speaker 1: a coach. He is the living embodiment in the personalification
- 3:43Speaker 1: of the Carolina Hurricanes. And so it's a little harder
- 3:46Speaker 1: to do that in Utah because there's only really two
- 3:48Speaker 1: years of franchise history. But man, it's just him leading
- 3:54Speaker 1: the way he does and him getting the buy in
- 3:56Speaker 1: he gets. There's no questioning that what Rod says they
- 4:02Speaker 1: want to do they want to accomplish. They look up
- 4:05Speaker 1: to him as a player who won the Stanley Cup
- 4:08Speaker 1: and now you know, as a coach who's won the
- 4:10Speaker 1: Stanley Cup. They believe and they always have in the blueprint.
- 4:15Speaker 1: You know what they did a couple of things that
- 4:17Speaker 1: we had talked about, just you know, being difficult to
- 4:20Speaker 1: play against, but cutting down on the grade A, scoring chances,
- 4:23Speaker 1: taking care of their own end and they just found
- 4:25Speaker 1: ways to score goals along the way. And that's that's
- 4:29Speaker 1: how you win. And they went and picked up the
- 4:32Speaker 1: Stanley Cup. They won sixteen games, and that formula again,
- 4:36Speaker 1: I mean, it just really that is it starts with
- 4:40Speaker 1: the coach.
- 4:43Speaker 2: The Utah Mammoth don't have a thirty seven year old captain.
- 4:47Speaker 2: They don't have a coach that won the Stanley Cup
- 4:51Speaker 2: as a captain. And those levels of experience are in
- 4:55Speaker 2: professional sports are impossible to replicate elsewhere. But you know,
- 5:00Speaker 2: when you've got what you do have, and you have
- 5:02Speaker 2: you know, Clayton Keller as your captain, you've got some
- 5:04Speaker 2: of these guys who've been you know, they've skated in
- 5:07Speaker 2: Stanley Cup finals, they've hoisted the cup in the past.
- 5:10Speaker 2: How do you convey what it takes from from that,
- 5:15Speaker 2: from the guys who've been there to the ones who
- 5:17Speaker 2: have not. Even Carolina had to do that. Now, probably
- 5:20Speaker 2: a little bit more direct when you're talking about Britda Moore,
- 5:23Speaker 2: But how did the mammoth try ton't achieve that?
- 5:27Speaker 1: Sure? And that's and that is why when we talk about,
- 5:30Speaker 1: you know on this program, hey, this is why winning
- 5:33Speaker 1: in the American Hockey League matters. A Calder top run matters,
- 5:37Speaker 1: a world championship, a World junior championship matters. You really
- 5:42Speaker 1: can't replicate it playing games in the regular season. So
- 5:47Speaker 1: there's a there's a special thing, just a special you know,
- 5:52Speaker 1: learning and understanding when you go through it. So that said,
- 5:57Speaker 1: how do you impart that knowledge? You You can talk
- 6:00Speaker 1: about it, you can try to say, look, you can't
- 6:05Speaker 1: imagine what it's going to ratchet up, like, what that
- 6:07Speaker 1: intensity is going to be like. But now that Utah
- 6:09Speaker 1: has been in a playoff round and they played a
- 6:12Speaker 1: very good Vegas team and I felt gave him a
- 6:14Speaker 1: good run, and if things had broken a little different,
- 6:17Speaker 1: perhaps if they get past them, boy, we might be
- 6:19Speaker 1: talking about a radically different postseason. But that is that's
- 6:23Speaker 1: part of it. Right, is those guys who have been
- 6:25Speaker 1: there said Okay, we did this well, we need to
- 6:27Speaker 1: do this better. This is where the gap is. And
- 6:30Speaker 1: it's easy now for Utah because they're direct measurable. Was
- 6:35Speaker 1: the team that went to the Stanley Cup final. So
- 6:37Speaker 1: if you want to get to a Stanley Cup final,
- 6:39Speaker 1: because once you're in it, you can win it. That
- 6:42Speaker 1: is exactly what Utah is going to do is look
- 6:44Speaker 1: back at that experience and try to not parlay that
- 6:46Speaker 1: into Okay, what do we change about our game? What
- 6:49Speaker 1: needs to be better? You know, what do we need
- 6:52Speaker 1: to fix? And maybe you know, do we need to
- 6:54Speaker 1: change some things about our game plan and the way
- 6:57Speaker 1: we go about it. So I think that for the
- 6:58Speaker 1: Mammoth there's a lot to learn from the Hurricanes. But
- 7:01Speaker 1: at the end of the day, what you're taking away
- 7:03Speaker 1: from the Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup is that they
- 7:06Speaker 1: play a sound team game, they're deep from top to bottom,
- 7:09Speaker 1: and they are just a very hard team to beat
- 7:12Speaker 1: in any length of the series.
- 7:15Speaker 2: Because we don't have the benefit of hindsight and we
- 7:17Speaker 2: get to look back on the whole picture, how much
- 7:20Speaker 2: of what Vegas accomplished in these playoffs was them overachieving
- 7:24Speaker 2: through the playoffs. You know, the regular season record was
- 7:28Speaker 2: not spectacular and especially in terms of direct wins, So
- 7:34Speaker 2: were they just overachieving up until the moment that they
- 7:36Speaker 2: couldn't anymore?
- 7:38Speaker 1: This is kind of the fun question for Vegas, isn't
- 7:40Speaker 1: it Did they underachieve in the regular season or did
- 7:44Speaker 1: they overachieve in the playoffs? Or is there the truth
- 7:48Speaker 1: somewhere in the middle. And I think the truth is
- 7:51Speaker 1: somewhere in the middle. I think they are a good team,
- 7:53Speaker 1: and I think they did do well in the playoffs
- 7:57Speaker 1: because the talent was there. Mitch Marner was awesome for
- 8:02Speaker 1: a long stretch, although he kind of disappeared the last
- 8:04Speaker 1: couple of games of the Cup fun, but he carried
- 8:07Speaker 1: them much in the way a Nick Schmaltz carried the
- 8:09Speaker 1: Mammoth through some particular hot streaks, you know, during the
- 8:12Speaker 1: NHL's regular season. I think Vegas number one maybe they
- 8:19Speaker 1: needed that new voice in the locker room quite frankly,
- 8:21Speaker 1: and nothing against Cassidy. I think he's an excellent coach.
- 8:26Speaker 1: I just think that perhaps that message had probably got
- 8:29Speaker 1: in a little stale. It was falling on deaf ears
- 8:31Speaker 1: and it just wasn't having the impact and the motivation
- 8:34Speaker 1: that it had in the past. So you bring in Tortorella,
- 8:36Speaker 1: who is a crack the whip guy. You know, walking
- 8:41Speaker 1: in the door, you know what you're getting. But you
- 8:43Speaker 1: also know as a player, he's got your back. So
- 8:47Speaker 1: if you do what he asks, and he's gonna ask
- 8:49Speaker 1: a lot, he's got your back. And I think that
- 8:52Speaker 1: that freed them up to execute, and yeah, it sent
- 8:56Speaker 1: a jewelt of energy into that room. Seven games or
- 8:59Speaker 1: eight games rather before the end of the Raidar season,
- 9:01Speaker 1: they won seven and they got into the playoffs, got
- 9:03Speaker 1: hot at the right time. Mitch Marner got hot at
- 9:05Speaker 1: the right time, Carter Hart played well enough at the
- 9:07Speaker 1: right time. They for the most part until the m
- 9:10Speaker 1: when Carlson got hurt, they were injury freer, at least
- 9:14Speaker 1: not so beat up. The guys are missing games or
- 9:17Speaker 1: entire series, so you have to have a certain amount
- 9:20Speaker 1: of luck. I think Vegas is still a very talented roster.
- 9:23Speaker 1: I think they're getting old in certain places, but I
- 9:27Speaker 1: think that they just underachieved a little bit. During the
- 9:30Speaker 1: regular season. They'd bring in the new voice and then yeah,
- 9:34Speaker 1: the spark might have had them over achieving a little
- 9:37Speaker 1: bit in the playoffs, but certainly, I mean, no one
- 9:42Speaker 1: picked them in the sweet Colorado, no one, and that
- 9:45Speaker 1: was incredibly impressive.
- 9:49Speaker 2: Tom Callahan talking Stanley Cup Final, the NHL season post
- 9:52Speaker 2: mortem a little bit here on the Sean O'Connell show.
- 9:56Speaker 2: You mentioned towards and you know, a week ago he
- 9:58Speaker 2: said he's going to be done after this Stanley Cup
- 10:02Speaker 2: Final with Vegas, which that statement by itself is just bananas.
- 10:06Speaker 2: You get the job eight games before the regular season ends,
- 10:09Speaker 2: you make this run, and while the series is still happening,
- 10:12Speaker 2: you're like, ah, I'll probably be done after this.
- 10:14Speaker 3: I don't know why. But now he says he hasn't
- 10:16Speaker 3: made a.
- 10:17Speaker 2: Decision, and he's, you know, the futures up in the
- 10:19Speaker 2: air from the Tortorella side and from the Vegas side,
- 10:24Speaker 2: what is the correct move here with that head coaching
- 10:27Speaker 2: position in Vegas.
- 10:29Speaker 1: I actually believe the initial intention was for him to
- 10:32Speaker 1: only come in and finish up the year and give
- 10:34Speaker 1: them a boost. I think that that might have been
- 10:35Speaker 1: the first agreement, and a lot of different people I
- 10:41Speaker 1: know around the league is basically said as much. But
- 10:44Speaker 1: now if he wins the Stanley Cup, he watks away,
- 10:50Speaker 1: no problem, But now there's a sense of unfinished business.
- 10:56Speaker 1: Now it stings. Now you lost the last three games,
- 11:00Speaker 1: and now the competitive juices start to flow a little bit,
- 11:03Speaker 1: where you think, ah, we could have done better, I
- 11:06Speaker 1: could have won a Cup with this team, And that's
- 11:09Speaker 1: your belief as a coach, right. If you don't believe
- 11:11Speaker 1: that about yourself and the team you're coaching, why are
- 11:13Speaker 1: you coaching. So I think that maybe a little bit
- 11:16Speaker 1: of that is kicking in. I don't believe that was
- 11:18Speaker 1: ever the plan. Lets keep Tortorella longer than get him
- 11:21Speaker 1: through the playoffs, and Vegas is cocky enough to believe
- 11:24Speaker 1: they should just win a Stanley Cup. That is that organization.
- 11:28Speaker 1: That is how they treat things, which is really cool.
- 11:32Speaker 1: If you're a Vegas fan, you just expect to win.
- 11:35Speaker 1: They expect to win and their cupthroat about it. We've
- 11:37Speaker 1: discussed that before on the program. But I really think
- 11:41Speaker 1: that what the odds were that Vegas was always going
- 11:45Speaker 1: to move on from Tortorella. But now maybe both sides
- 11:48Speaker 1: are kind of looking at each other going, well, should
- 11:50Speaker 1: we at least have a conversation, And I believe they
- 11:53Speaker 1: will have a conversation, It was never the original plan.
- 11:57Speaker 1: Could I see him coming back for next year? Yeah,
- 12:00Speaker 1: maybe I could, because I think he really works some
- 12:04Speaker 1: magic with that lineup. But you know, I don't think
- 12:08Speaker 1: that was the initial plan from the get go. I
- 12:10Speaker 1: really do think he was just coming into the last
- 12:13Speaker 1: you know, hey, get us into the playoffs, get us
- 12:15Speaker 1: to the Cup, and win it.
- 12:17Speaker 2: All.
- 12:17Speaker 3: Right, let's assume that that is the plan.
- 12:19Speaker 2: What's maybe a more long term Is there an obvious
- 12:22Speaker 2: fit to be the next guy? If it's not towards
- 12:25Speaker 2: is there an obvious fit to be whoever's next in Vegas?
- 12:30Speaker 4: Still?
- 12:31Speaker 1: Yes, And now you're gonna have me looking at this
- 12:36Speaker 1: real quick. But I'm trying to come up with the name.
- 12:38Speaker 1: But there's a guy in the organization who has I
- 12:42Speaker 1: think he's forty three, and I'm trying to remember what
- 12:44Speaker 1: his name is. But he's basically been a Vegas guy
- 12:48Speaker 1: for life, and I think he's probably the direction they
- 12:53Speaker 1: were looking at going in the first place. And now
- 12:58Speaker 1: because Tortorella, really what he did was he kind of
- 13:00Speaker 1: threw you know, gas on the fire by saying, yeah,
- 13:06Speaker 1: maybe it's going to be me, you know, and when
- 13:09Speaker 1: it wasn't going to be him, And so now that's
- 13:11Speaker 1: why I think they've kind of looked at it. And
- 13:13Speaker 1: I'm trying to look up real quick the guys and
- 13:17Speaker 1: jog my memory. There is an answer to this, and Gezu,
- 13:20Speaker 1: I wish I was better prepared to answer your question
- 13:21Speaker 1: right now.
- 13:22Speaker 3: I feel kind of do No, you don't have put
- 13:24Speaker 3: you on the spot.
- 13:25Speaker 2: And the reason I ask is because you know, like
- 13:28Speaker 2: there's there's a ripple effect in a lot of other
- 13:31Speaker 2: leagues when you know a big job is open and
- 13:34Speaker 2: there's a coaching change. If it's somebody internal like you're suggesting,
- 13:40Speaker 2: then that ripple effect is usually a lot less pronounced.
- 13:43Speaker 2: But the follow up there would be, you know, if
- 13:46Speaker 2: you're in this mammoth organization, are you worried about you know,
- 13:50Speaker 2: the Vegas coaching change potentially touching what you've got going
- 13:56Speaker 2: on in your staff or your front office or anything else.
- 14:01Speaker 1: Well, I think you always might be a little bit.
- 14:03Speaker 1: And I don't think that that is a bad idea
- 14:08Speaker 1: to think about that, because that is something where you know,
- 14:13Speaker 1: maybe you think to yourself, well, you believe your guys
- 14:16Speaker 1: are good enough? Right? You always want to believe your
- 14:18Speaker 1: assistant coaches are good enough to be head coaches, and
- 14:21Speaker 1: I believe that in most situations, the team wouldn't necessarily
- 14:26Speaker 1: hold a guy back. Now, actually, we're seeing Vegas do
- 14:29Speaker 1: kind of exactly that to Capacity and some other members
- 14:34Speaker 1: of their front office by not letting them talk to
- 14:36Speaker 1: other teams about openings. But I think that that's an exception,
- 14:40Speaker 1: not the rule. I think if Utah if someone said, hey,
- 14:44Speaker 1: we want to talk to so and so, I think
- 14:45Speaker 1: they would open that pathway forward them And that's part
- 14:51Speaker 1: of the game. You want your guys to grow. You
- 14:54Speaker 1: hope that you hire guys who are smart enough to
- 14:57Speaker 1: all be head coaches, and that exactly what you would
- 15:01Speaker 1: love to see. So now, do I think anybody's going
- 15:04Speaker 1: to come in and swoop on Utah staff. Not necessarily,
- 15:07Speaker 1: because I think honestly there's going to be plenty of
- 15:11Speaker 1: other candidates out there that will get hired ahead of that.
- 15:15Speaker 1: But you know, maybe maybe one of these days it
- 15:19Speaker 1: wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility that maybe in
- 15:23Speaker 1: two three years we are talking about, Hey, is Utah
- 15:25Speaker 1: going to lose somebody to a head coaching job somewhere?
- 15:28Speaker 2: All right, Tom, where does your where does your sports
- 15:31Speaker 2: energy go now that the HL season is over? What
- 15:34Speaker 2: I mean, is it attached temporarily to this World Cup?
- 15:38Speaker 2: Or do you just find crazy obscure international stuff? What
- 15:42Speaker 2: do you what do you do with your hockey mind
- 15:45Speaker 2: now that the hockey season has given you a little reprieve?
- 15:48Speaker 1: I absolutely am all in on the World Cup. I
- 15:51Speaker 1: do love soccer. I actually got to call a couple
- 15:53Speaker 1: of seasons of soccer in Nashville and I lived out there.
- 15:57Speaker 1: I enjoy the game a lot, So that's going to
- 16:00Speaker 1: be fun and I can't. I hope the US pulls
- 16:03Speaker 1: it off and they look good in their opener. But
- 16:07Speaker 1: with hockey, it's not quite the twenty four to seven
- 16:10Speaker 1: news cycle of NFL football. But already the attention shifts
- 16:14Speaker 1: now to the draft coming up and then free agency
- 16:19Speaker 1: in early July, and what does the plan look like
- 16:23Speaker 1: for Utah? So my hockey mind immediately goes into looking
- 16:27Speaker 1: as it has been for the last little bit, but
- 16:29Speaker 1: even more so now more intensely looking ahead to that.
- 16:33Speaker 1: I will follow soccer throughout the summer. And I am
- 16:38Speaker 1: a big baseball nut. I know we never really talk
- 16:40Speaker 1: about this. I love the game of baseball, so I
- 16:43Speaker 1: was born and raised the Toronto Blue Jays fan, which
- 16:45Speaker 1: is pretty foreign to everybody there, I know, But man,
- 16:49Speaker 1: I love baseball, so to me, now it's baseball season
- 16:53Speaker 1: and I'm looking forward to tuning in and watching a
- 16:55Speaker 1: bunch of big matchups and I just love the game.
- 16:58Speaker 1: I'll watch almost anybody play.
- 17:00Speaker 2: Do you have a horse in the race in the
- 17:01Speaker 2: World Cup? Besides US men's national team, is there an
- 17:05Speaker 2: obscure legion saleswhere.
- 17:09Speaker 1: Man, you know what, like if a team like Ireland
- 17:13Speaker 1: or Poland, which is you know, my family's heritage, would
- 17:16Speaker 1: sneak in, I would definitely root for them. Japan's fans
- 17:20Speaker 1: are winning hards right now on social media. Yeah, and
- 17:22Speaker 1: them drawing the Netherlands was insane.
- 17:25Speaker 3: It was awesome. It was a great game, a lot
- 17:26Speaker 3: of fun.
- 17:28Speaker 1: Yeah, So I mean, hey, maybe maybe I'll you know,
- 17:30Speaker 1: pull for Japan. And then I always like watching the Powers,
- 17:34Speaker 1: the World Powers, because some years they're not as good
- 17:38Speaker 1: as everybody thinks they should be. And I kind of
- 17:40Speaker 1: think it's funny to watch the melt down around the
- 17:43Speaker 1: national teams if they're not as good as everybody thinks
- 17:45Speaker 1: they are. So and maybe that's because the US has
- 17:49Speaker 1: never been a world soccer power, so I don't know
- 17:52Speaker 1: what that's like. But I do enjoy following the big
- 17:56Speaker 1: name teams just to see how it all goes. But yeah,
- 17:58Speaker 1: maybe Japan. Maybe Japan's going to be my sneaky one
- 18:00Speaker 1: this year, all.
- 18:01Speaker 3: Right, I like it. Tom.
- 18:02Speaker 2: Can't tell you how much we've appreciated all your contribution
- 18:05Speaker 2: throughout this NHL season, and we look to continue that
- 18:09Speaker 2: as we have more hockey to talk about sooner than later,
- 18:11Speaker 2: draft right around the corner, like you said, So thanks
- 18:14Speaker 2: again for your time, sir.
- 18:16Speaker 1: It's been a pleasure, and I just want to say
- 18:18Speaker 1: to all the hockey fans there in Salt Lake, thank
- 18:20Speaker 1: you to those guys for you know, tuning in to
- 18:23Speaker 1: Lockdown Mammoth too. It's been a great season and absolutely
- 18:27Speaker 1: looking forward to getting back at it the fall.
- 18:30Speaker 2: Tom Callahan locked on Mammoth NHL Insider Friend of the
- 18:34Speaker 2: program here on The Sean O'Connell show.