Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Tom Callahan on the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Conference Finals beginning tomorrow, Mammoth prospects in the Memorial Cup + more

Transcript

Tom Callahan on the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Conference Finals beginning tomorrow, Mammoth prospects in the Memorial Cup + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:10
Speaker 1: You're tuned to the Shan O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
0:13
Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two to one.
0:17
Speaker 2: Af M all the damn.
0:26
Speaker 3: Welcome excuse me, Bally Shan O'Connell show coming back here
0:30
Speaker 3: on ESPN seven hundred, ninety two one FM. The Festival
0:33
Speaker 3: of Teas is still on at ESPN seven hundred, howered
0:37
Speaker 3: by the Utah Golf Association, brought to you by Mountain
0:39
Speaker 3: Home Services. We're giving away a free round of golf
0:42
Speaker 3: every day on my show and on the driver Spence check.
0:44
Speaker 3: Its be tuned in at topical trivia time. That's in
0:50
Speaker 3: about thirty ish minutes. Make it forty minutes a free
0:56
Speaker 3: round to El Monte today. I'm a little lot clock.
1:00
Speaker 3: But we're getting to Tom Callahan about ten minutes.
1:02
Speaker 4: Ladies kind enough to join us now NHL and you
1:05
Speaker 4: tell Mammoth Insider Tom Callahan, welcome back to the show.
1:08
Speaker 2: How are you, sir?
1:09
Speaker 1: Well, I'm doing well. It's a fun time a year
1:12
Speaker 1: to be following hockey and hey, you talk about golf.
1:14
Speaker 1: Unfortunately another team is golfing, but and then there were four.
1:20
Speaker 4: So uh before we before we get to any of
1:23
Speaker 4: the x's and oh's of these these series in the
1:26
Speaker 4: Western Eastern Conference Finals. Uh, can you give me and
1:31
Speaker 4: our listeners some context on Torts and his beef with
1:35
Speaker 4: the NHL media?
1:38
Speaker 2: Why did it?
1:39
Speaker 4: Why did the Vegas Knights take the fine lose a
1:43
Speaker 4: draft pick when they were winning and advancing, they didn't
1:47
Speaker 4: want to talk.
1:48
Speaker 2: To the media.
1:50
Speaker 1: You know what, it's it's kind of crazy. Uh. I
1:54
Speaker 1: mean this dates all the way back to and I
1:57
Speaker 1: have a bunch of John Tortorella stories and I was
2:00
Speaker 1: doing play by play in Nashville for the Prads. I mean,
2:02
Speaker 1: even talking to him then could be an adventure. And
2:06
Speaker 1: you know, you really you learned, and one of the
2:09
Speaker 1: things dealing with towards taught you was you better have
2:13
Speaker 1: put some thought behind the question you're about to ask.
2:16
Speaker 1: And even if you had, he might still think it
2:19
Speaker 1: was a dumb question and not want to answer it,
2:22
Speaker 1: and he would tie you for it. But you know,
2:25
Speaker 1: he he's just that way. It's his personality. He is
2:30
Speaker 1: actually a really really good human being, but there's aspects
2:35
Speaker 1: of his job he absolutely hates, and he kind of
2:38
Speaker 1: hates the media having their nose in his team's business.
2:41
Speaker 1: In any former fashion. And I mean that includes the
2:44
Speaker 1: guys that he works with, his own broadcast team, his
2:47
Speaker 1: own reporters can have a foreigny relationship with him. It's
2:53
Speaker 1: just kind of how he's always been. He protects his players,
2:58
Speaker 1: and you know it's not he will shoot you straight
3:04
Speaker 1: when he needs to. And that's the very interesting thing
3:06
Speaker 1: is he doesn't give you much. But when he does, boy,
3:09
Speaker 1: there's always a reason. He has a message to get out.
3:12
Speaker 1: He's very calculated with it. And I think in a
3:15
Speaker 1: lot of ways, what that does is it puts the
3:18
Speaker 1: focus on John Tortorella. The focus is not on Mitch Marner.
3:22
Speaker 1: It's not on Carter Hart, who could be a distraction
3:25
Speaker 1: all by himself. It's not on hey, what about your
3:28
Speaker 1: injury situation with your team? You know, is Mark Stone
3:32
Speaker 1: even fifty percent at this point. It takes a lot
3:34
Speaker 1: of that away, and everybody's looking at him going, oh,
3:37
Speaker 1: they just lost a draft pick. Oh they took a fine.
3:41
Speaker 1: That's torts and now that's what we're talking about. And
3:44
Speaker 1: so there's there's a lot of I just you know,
3:49
Speaker 1: like the mad professor, I think there's a lot of
3:51
Speaker 1: thought and a lot of reason behind what he does,
3:54
Speaker 1: but does it make our job as media members a
3:57
Speaker 1: little more difficult? Yet, even though some times the story
4:00
Speaker 1: writes itself, it's not the story you want to write.
4:04
Speaker 4: Because you mentioned Carter Hart, I got to ask you
4:06
Speaker 4: this as well. How many times have you seen a
4:09
Speaker 4: goalie rip off their own mask when the other team
4:12
Speaker 4: is possessing the puck in the ozone?
4:15
Speaker 1: Well, they do it a lot on purpose, obviously, because
4:19
Speaker 1: it gets a whistle, so the play will stop immediately.
4:25
Speaker 1: What I would love to see if a strap breaks
4:28
Speaker 1: on a helmet, and I'm convinced the reason these guys
4:31
Speaker 1: don't go to metal buckles on their helmet is because
4:33
Speaker 1: the plastic ones do break and afford them the chance
4:35
Speaker 1: to get whistles when they need them. I would actually
4:39
Speaker 1: like the international rule on this is when a goaltender
4:42
Speaker 1: gets hit in the head by any shot, the play
4:44
Speaker 1: just stops. I actually really like that rule. As a
4:47
Speaker 1: goaltender myself, I think that that's good because sometimes you're fine,
4:51
Speaker 1: sometimes you're not, and if the mask stays on your head,
4:54
Speaker 1: there's no way for people to know. But that said,
4:58
Speaker 1: if you want to take that woman out of the game,
5:00
Speaker 1: because guys will shake their helmets off. They'll pull their
5:03
Speaker 1: helmets off to get the whistle. If you feel a
5:06
Speaker 1: goalie did it intentionally without reason or needing to, I
5:10
Speaker 1: want to see a delay game penalty, and that would
5:14
Speaker 1: really put some pause. And believe me, if you call
5:17
Speaker 1: that against John Tortorella, he is going to crucify you.
5:21
Speaker 1: But if you do it and you you know you
5:25
Speaker 1: can somehow process the intent of the goaltender. In this case,
5:28
Speaker 1: Carter Heart to be he just wanted a whistle, then
5:33
Speaker 1: you know you can you can levy a delay game
5:35
Speaker 1: penalty for that because it's it's stopping the game. And
5:38
Speaker 1: until they do that, he's going to keep doing it.
5:40
Speaker 1: And absolutely, I see goaltenders do stuff like that all
5:43
Speaker 1: the time. Taking off your mask ocie is the new
5:47
Speaker 1: knocking the net off, because they used to not give
5:50
Speaker 1: penalties for knocking the net off as much as they
5:52
Speaker 1: do now. Now it's pretty much an automatic call, or
5:54
Speaker 1: at least it should be so now police flip the
5:58
Speaker 1: mask off.
6:00
Speaker 4: I guess when you're up four one or five to one,
6:02
Speaker 4: you can afford the delay of game penalty and there's
6:04
Speaker 4: no disincentive to do it.
6:06
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was I.
6:08
Speaker 4: Saw so much of Carter Hart's face in that game
6:11
Speaker 4: because he got Hannifin knocked his mask off, and then
6:14
Speaker 4: he ripped his own mask off, and I was like,
6:16
Speaker 4: this is weird. I'm not supposed to see your face
6:18
Speaker 4: while you're playing in net.
6:20
Speaker 1: Mayby's trying to market himself better.
6:22
Speaker 4: I don't know, it could be, could be, all right,
6:25
Speaker 4: let's talk. Let's talk about the series now. The Golden
6:29
Speaker 4: Knights Avalanche handicap this one for me. You've got a
6:33
Speaker 4: Knight's team that has played some really good hockey through
6:37
Speaker 4: these playoffs, and then you've got the Avalanche, who've been
6:40
Speaker 4: as dominant as anyone I can remember in recent memory.
6:42
Speaker 4: They were great in the regular season, they've been great
6:45
Speaker 4: in these playoffs.
6:46
Speaker 2: What do the Knights have to do in order to
6:48
Speaker 2: try to steal this?
6:50
Speaker 1: On paper, there's no reason Vegas should win this series.
6:55
Speaker 1: And I think that that's our starting point. Is you
6:58
Speaker 1: look at coming in to this final on the western side,
7:05
Speaker 1: the Avalanche of enrolling. They've won eight out of nine,
7:10
Speaker 1: and even during the regular season, Colorado didn't lose in
7:14
Speaker 1: regulation to Vegas. There's a lot of things to say. Okay,
7:19
Speaker 1: here's why you really like Colorado and it's a lot
7:24
Speaker 1: of the same old, same old with Colorado. They're getting
7:27
Speaker 1: pretty good goaltending. They've got pretty good special teams, although
7:30
Speaker 1: sometimes you know they're powerfully it's not always the best,
7:33
Speaker 1: which is weird if you think of how much talent
7:34
Speaker 1: they have. But what they do is they hang on
7:37
Speaker 1: to the puck, and they are a very good puck
7:40
Speaker 1: possession team, and it makes the other team chase them
7:44
Speaker 1: and they can score in transition. They can score off
7:46
Speaker 1: of zone time. They can roll a very deep lineup,
7:51
Speaker 1: even you know, whenever they do go through bumps and
7:54
Speaker 1: bruises and injuries. Honestly, the Golden Knights have been streaky
7:59
Speaker 1: and inconsistent, but they have to beat Colorado at their
8:04
Speaker 1: own game. They have to figure out a way to
8:06
Speaker 1: hang on to the puck. The Ducks were a little
8:08
Speaker 1: bit more fly by the seat of the pants opponent.
8:11
Speaker 1: They could score, but they just didn't defend as well.
8:14
Speaker 1: Colorado is a really, really good defending team. They take
8:19
Speaker 1: care of their own zone really really well. Vegas just
8:22
Speaker 1: has to find ways to win battles. They've got to
8:26
Speaker 1: win the puck battle on the wall. They've got to
8:29
Speaker 1: be able to get to the loose pucks. First, they've
8:31
Speaker 1: got to try to turn the Colorado defense, which is
8:33
Speaker 1: really hard to do. They have to find ways to
8:36
Speaker 1: do these things and then spend some time in the
8:39
Speaker 1: zone and beat not one but two goaltenders who have
8:43
Speaker 1: been very good, and I mean, you really don't know
8:48
Speaker 1: what the secret is. Scott Wedgwood's been awesome. Mackenzie Blackwood
8:53
Speaker 1: it has also been pretty good, But Wedgwood's the guy
8:57
Speaker 1: the Golden Knights. Their talent has to be their talent,
9:01
Speaker 1: and they Carter Hart's got to stand on his head
9:04
Speaker 1: more than he already has in the playoffs, and you know,
9:08
Speaker 1: Vegas just has to find a way. Their best players
9:11
Speaker 1: really need to score a ton of goals because Colorado
9:14
Speaker 1: is capable of putting up the numbers. They're capable of
9:17
Speaker 1: hanging on to the pluck. They're going to limit your opportunities.
9:19
Speaker 1: It's a really tough ask.
9:22
Speaker 2: You and I have talked about Mitch Marner a lot
9:24
Speaker 2: on the show.
9:24
Speaker 4: Obviously, in the in the first round playoff series against
9:27
Speaker 4: the Mammoth there was good reason too, but he was
9:30
Speaker 4: good against the Wild as well. What is his role
9:34
Speaker 4: going to be in this second or in this Western
9:36
Speaker 4: Conference series, So, I mean.
9:40
Speaker 1: You look at it's kind of crazy the two ends, right,
9:43
Speaker 1: Marner and McKennon are the storylines for both these teams.
9:47
Speaker 1: I think Mitch Marner five goals in that series against
9:51
Speaker 1: the Ducks. He's scoring right now. He also, I mean,
9:55
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of folks kind of remember Marner
9:57
Speaker 1: from you know, scoring two against the Mammoth in games.
10:01
Speaker 1: He's a guy that this is what Toronto fans are
10:06
Speaker 1: kind of angsty about this right now. That's what they wanted.
10:09
Speaker 1: They wanted to see him. They wanted to see him
10:11
Speaker 1: explode and dominate and be a force in the playoffs,
10:15
Speaker 1: and it's happening right now, and that is exactly what's
10:18
Speaker 1: going on for the Vegas Golden Knights. And then you know,
10:20
Speaker 1: the flip side of that is Nate McKinnon, who's scoring
10:24
Speaker 1: a high clip. He's got seven goals so far in
10:26
Speaker 1: the playoffs. He's got a six game goal scoring streak going,
10:30
Speaker 1: so he is on fire right now. I mean, he's
10:35
Speaker 1: playing so well. And both of those guys are the
10:39
Speaker 1: leaders offensively, I think on their team, even though we
10:42
Speaker 1: can talk about Jack Eichele for Vegas, and I think
10:46
Speaker 1: the best thing Ichael can do is support Marner as
10:49
Speaker 1: much as he can and try to keep Marner stick
10:52
Speaker 1: hot and let Marner continue to do Mitch Marner things, which, honestly,
10:57
Speaker 1: I think it took a while for Martin to get
10:58
Speaker 1: comfortable in Vegas. So that's all part of it too,
11:02
Speaker 1: you know. Whether I'm not saying that it took a
11:04
Speaker 1: while to move in and enjoy his new home, I'm
11:07
Speaker 1: saying on the ice, it takes a while to find
11:08
Speaker 1: chemistry with guys, to learn their tendencies over the course
11:11
Speaker 1: of the season. I think that's not bearing fruit for Vegas.
11:15
Speaker 1: And McKinnon doesn't have that problem. You know, he's been
11:18
Speaker 1: there forever. This team knows itself really well. There's been
11:21
Speaker 1: very little turnover with the Avalanche, a lot of familiarity.
11:24
Speaker 1: But these two guys, I mean, as they go, so
11:27
Speaker 1: go their teams, and it is going to be a
11:30
Speaker 1: series of the Superstars.
11:33
Speaker 4: Any chance that we see an excessive rest a little
11:39
Speaker 4: rusted from Colorado because they've been sitting for a little
11:43
Speaker 4: longer than Vegas, has.
11:45
Speaker 1: Always a chance, always a chance. I actually I'm worried
11:49
Speaker 1: about it for Carolina, like coming in against Montreal and
11:52
Speaker 1: Montreal has now played the max so far fourteen games
11:56
Speaker 1: best to sevens and they've won both of them. And
12:00
Speaker 1: when you sit, yeah, russ becomes a thing. I really
12:03
Speaker 1: feel like the best time to rest is probably three
12:06
Speaker 1: maybe four days max. When you're sitting at any longer
12:09
Speaker 1: than that, you can get a little rusty. And whether
12:11
Speaker 1: it's a slow first period or a slow game one,
12:14
Speaker 1: that is a trap the Avalanche can fall into. Now
12:17
Speaker 1: they are playing at home and there are you know,
12:19
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things I'm sure Jared Bednar is
12:22
Speaker 1: trying to prepare his team for against the Golden Knights.
12:28
Speaker 1: Don't get caught standing around, keep moving your feet, don't
12:30
Speaker 1: take lazy penalties, you know, get out there and really
12:34
Speaker 1: try to make as much as you can, like miserable
12:38
Speaker 1: on the Golden Knight. I expect the first ten minutes
12:40
Speaker 1: of this game one for the Golden Ice to be spectacular.
12:43
Speaker 1: I think they're going to come out flying and they
12:45
Speaker 1: need to. They really need to push the advantage against
12:47
Speaker 1: the Avalanche and they should feel pretty good. So yeah,
12:51
Speaker 1: it could be a very slow game one for the Apps.
12:53
Speaker 1: I really think it could be. And that's something you
12:55
Speaker 1: absolutely have to be vigilant about.
12:58
Speaker 4: You already mentioned Montreal it out in Game seven overtime.
13:02
Speaker 4: New Hook with two Game seven winners in this series,
13:06
Speaker 4: and you know he was gone about half the season
13:09
Speaker 4: this year for Montreal. I didn't know this, that he
13:12
Speaker 4: had this in him. Are you surprised that it's been
13:14
Speaker 4: him with the Game seven heroics in the first two series.
13:19
Speaker 1: Yes. And that's the fun thing about the Stanley Cup
13:21
Speaker 1: final is or Stanta Cup playoffs in general. You never know.
13:25
Speaker 1: You never know who the new hero is going to be,
13:27
Speaker 1: the guy who steps up. It can be exactly how
13:30
Speaker 1: it's scripted, which is what we're seeing right now in
13:32
Speaker 1: the West, or it can be a guy who you're
13:36
Speaker 1: scratching your head about going really him. But that's the
13:39
Speaker 1: fun of it is players. I love when guys reveal
13:42
Speaker 1: themselves to be real postseason gamers. I don't care what
13:46
Speaker 1: sport it is, but you take a player who flies
13:50
Speaker 1: under the radar or maybe just puts up average numbers,
13:53
Speaker 1: but all of a sudden, that player gets in the
13:54
Speaker 1: postseason and for whatever reason, they just amp it up.
13:59
Speaker 1: And I think it's a lot of fun to see
14:01
Speaker 1: guys who do things like that, were able to score
14:03
Speaker 1: big goals in big situations. Montreal is a scrappy team there.
14:08
Speaker 1: I think the second youngest team in the NHL. They're
14:12
Speaker 1: almost running on the adrenaline and the ignorance of youth
14:15
Speaker 1: at this point. And there were a lot of times
14:18
Speaker 1: in that game sevening against the Savers, I just thought
14:20
Speaker 1: Montreal they looked like they were against the Ropes. They
14:23
Speaker 1: look tired, they'd like beaten, but they found a way.
14:26
Speaker 1: And that's been the story of their postseason because I
14:28
Speaker 1: felt the same thing with them playing the Lightning. Now
14:30
Speaker 1: here we are with them getting through to play Carolina,
14:32
Speaker 1: who've gone through the East like a hot knife through
14:34
Speaker 1: butter to their detriment. I think that it'll be twelve
14:38
Speaker 1: days between games for them by the time they see
14:40
Speaker 1: it off on Thursday. So here's a chance for Montreal
14:45
Speaker 1: to come in and really punch Carolina right in the
14:47
Speaker 1: nose on home ice and steal a game. So I
14:51
Speaker 1: just I love the big stories. Though your original question,
14:54
Speaker 1: I just love it when you see the guys step
14:56
Speaker 1: up like this because everybody who's looking at cool Coffield
14:59
Speaker 1: and fifty goals in reggae season, So I think Newark
15:02
Speaker 1: is a tremendous story.
15:04
Speaker 4: I don't know how many people in this Salt Lake
15:07
Speaker 4: City radio market ever thought they would need to pay
15:10
Speaker 4: attention to Monked and Wildcats hockey. But here we are,
15:15
Speaker 4: Gabe Smith, the Mammoth prospect playoff MVP with absurd numbers.
15:22
Speaker 4: As I know you're well aware, nineteen goals, thirty three
15:26
Speaker 4: points in the playoffs.
15:28
Speaker 2: What is going on with Gabe Smith?
15:31
Speaker 1: He was almost a goal of a game. It was
15:33
Speaker 1: only twenty one games and he scored nineteen goals. I mean,
15:36
Speaker 1: that is the definition of on fire. It's just wow,
15:40
Speaker 1: what a great showing from a prospect to quite frankly,
15:46
Speaker 1: we haven't given a whole lot of airtime too now. Unfortunately,
15:49
Speaker 1: Moncton came up short in the QMJHL final, Shakudame beats
15:53
Speaker 1: them and they go to the Memorial Cup. But wow,
15:57
Speaker 1: that's just right now. Things look so rosy with the
16:00
Speaker 1: prospects and with the pipeline for the Utah Mammoth. It's incredible.
16:04
Speaker 1: And Gabe Smith is that was his coming out party
16:07
Speaker 1: or so we hope, right, I don't want to see
16:10
Speaker 1: that be a flash in the pants. Speaking of guys
16:12
Speaker 1: who elevate their game during the playoffs, Smith absolutely exploded
16:18
Speaker 1: this spring and wow, what a performance. Now Smith is
16:23
Speaker 1: going to for sure be on the radar at summer
16:26
Speaker 1: rookie camp, at development camp, and then into training camp
16:29
Speaker 1: in the fall. Along with Now we're always talking about
16:32
Speaker 1: the top picks. The Danoye is the gain list of
16:34
Speaker 1: both lends. Now he's another name that's got to be
16:37
Speaker 1: mentioned there. And boyle boy it. It's exciting if you're
16:40
Speaker 1: a Mammoth fan. But yeah, you might want to invest
16:42
Speaker 1: in some knowledge about the monk and Wildcats. They seem
16:46
Speaker 1: to be playing a big role for this Utah Mammoth team.
16:49
Speaker 4: Well, when you look at the playoff points records for Monkton,
16:53
Speaker 4: it's Gabe Smith at the top now and then a
16:55
Speaker 4: couple names down the aforementioned Caleb Danoye. So, uh, your
17:02
Speaker 4: your pipeline is looking pretty healthy with these young guys.
17:05
Speaker 4: With respect to Smith, and you talk about the attention
17:07
Speaker 4: that he's now going to garner as the Mammoth are
17:10
Speaker 4: taking a look at the young rising prospects. How much
17:13
Speaker 4: does his size help him into to maybe give him
17:17
Speaker 4: a leg up because he's a big, big boy, He's
17:19
Speaker 4: still young. He's probably gonna put on before it's all
17:22
Speaker 4: said and done, another ten pounds a good of good weight,
17:25
Speaker 4: I would imagine, because he's got that big frame. But
17:28
Speaker 4: that's something that Bill Armstrong and this Mammoth team have
17:30
Speaker 4: been pretty transparent about. They want to be big, they
17:34
Speaker 4: want to be bullies, they want to be a physical team.
17:37
Speaker 4: He's six four two twenty five at nineteen years of age.
17:42
Speaker 1: If you can take a guy who has not only
17:46
Speaker 1: hands but skating and a good hockey mind, and you
17:51
Speaker 1: can put it into a five nine one sixty five
17:54
Speaker 1: or a six three two thirty, you know you're always
17:58
Speaker 1: gonna pick putting it in the sixty three because that
18:01
Speaker 1: hot nine guy, yes he's got he could make the NHL,
18:05
Speaker 1: and he can do do it by skill and by
18:08
Speaker 1: cunning and by hockey sense. But it is much harder
18:12
Speaker 1: and they have to work a lot harder. They have
18:14
Speaker 1: to be that much better. But when you also have
18:16
Speaker 1: the size, and that's one thing I know the Mammoth
18:20
Speaker 1: want to get better on is winning those puck battles,
18:22
Speaker 1: being a better team, being so much harder to play against.
18:26
Speaker 1: It's exciting to see the breakout because now you think, boy,
18:30
Speaker 1: not only can he be a big guy who can
18:32
Speaker 1: use that strength and that size to separate guys from
18:35
Speaker 1: pucks and to make things happen. He can also use
18:38
Speaker 1: it on the offensive side, where he's able to complete
18:41
Speaker 1: a rush, he might not be as easy to move
18:44
Speaker 1: off the puck or move from ounta in front of
18:46
Speaker 1: the net. Smith, with the prospect of him maybe becoming
18:50
Speaker 1: a true NHL power forward is super exciting. And I
18:55
Speaker 1: don't think you can never have too many of those guys.
18:57
Speaker 1: Believe me, the Mammoth have skill. They've got plenty of skills.
19:00
Speaker 1: But you look at a player like a loss In Kraus,
19:02
Speaker 1: and when Krause is on, he is awesome. He can shoot,
19:06
Speaker 1: but he checks, he will throw hits. He can also
19:09
Speaker 1: get to the front of the net. He plays a
19:11
Speaker 1: tough game. He can be a miserable cuss to play against.
19:14
Speaker 1: And I like having that guy on my team. So
19:17
Speaker 1: I gave Smith turns into it another one of those guys.
19:20
Speaker 1: I welcome that with open arms. I love it.
19:22
Speaker 4: So if you're putting a percentage on how likely it
19:25
Speaker 4: is he's in a Mammoth sweater at all next season,
19:29
Speaker 4: what would you say for Gabe Smith?
19:32
Speaker 1: It really so? This is here watching me hitch my
19:35
Speaker 1: bet Sosie It really depends on who's coming back in
19:38
Speaker 1: the summer. We actually just got done talking about it
19:41
Speaker 1: on the show about there's ten guys now and it'll
19:43
Speaker 1: be eleven by the time the season hits. That a
19:45
Speaker 1: thirty plus, and I expect some of those guys will
19:48
Speaker 1: be out on the Mammoth team. But we talked about, oh,
19:50
Speaker 1: it's a young team. It's the young team. It's actually not.
19:52
Speaker 1: There's a lot of older guys there. I think they're
19:55
Speaker 1: going to have to make some hard decisions on whether
19:57
Speaker 1: or not to re sign some guys, maybe ask some
20:00
Speaker 1: guys to take a pay cut or a two way
20:03
Speaker 1: to make room. But here's really if I'm predicting for
20:06
Speaker 1: Gabe Smith, I think there's a few players in front
20:10
Speaker 1: of him in the line, but when it might be
20:12
Speaker 1: one of them again, Less certainly going to get his shot,
20:16
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm interested to see what he does
20:18
Speaker 1: in the Memorial Cup coming up. But also daneil Boot
20:21
Speaker 1: is going to get his shot. I think the realistic
20:25
Speaker 1: idea is that he ends up in Tucson in the
20:29
Speaker 1: American Hockey League. What I would love to see. I
20:31
Speaker 1: would love to see all those guys we just talked
20:33
Speaker 1: about in Tucson and put together a really, really good
20:37
Speaker 1: American Hockey League season with a big run, with a
20:40
Speaker 1: long run through the playoffs, maybe even a Calder Cup championship,
20:45
Speaker 1: and have them learn and grow together as the next
20:49
Speaker 1: up and coming core. And then as these older players,
20:52
Speaker 1: these thirty plus guys begin to graduate out of the lineup,
20:55
Speaker 1: they here's a big word to matriculate from the AHL
20:59
Speaker 1: into the NHL out and that's where their impact comes.
21:01
Speaker 1: And they're already battle tested. So I'm not in the
21:04
Speaker 1: rush to put them in an NHL uniform. Maybe I'll
21:08
Speaker 1: always give a guy a chance, though, I mean, if
21:09
Speaker 1: he comes in and dominates, yeah, fantastic. But we're talking five.
21:15
Speaker 4: How many people hit you up for Winter Classic tickets
21:18
Speaker 4: or some connection or hook up to Winter Classic tickets
21:21
Speaker 4: when they went on pre sale last week?
21:24
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. It's everybody. Everybody I know is like, hey,
21:28
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's asking me if I'm you know, no,
21:32
Speaker 1: for press passes or for tickets or for just the
21:36
Speaker 1: buzz around the Winter Classic is insane. And it's it's
21:39
Speaker 1: still pretty cool to see because this is something that
21:42
Speaker 1: maybe five or six years ago people were wondering has
21:44
Speaker 1: a run. Its course, are there too many outdoor games?
21:48
Speaker 1: I think the buzz right now in Mammoth Land around
21:50
Speaker 1: this is so high and so awesome. I cannot imagine
21:55
Speaker 1: that you'd want to not have these anymore, especially in
21:59
Speaker 1: markets like this that are that are excited about it,
22:02
Speaker 1: that have never had this type of experience. Yeah, people
22:05
Speaker 1: are coming onto the woodwork. And even when they announced
22:08
Speaker 1: the game, my phone was blown up with people already,
22:12
Speaker 1: you know, sniffing around trying to see, you know, what
22:14
Speaker 1: they could come up with. And some people are like, hey,
22:16
Speaker 1: I know I'm not going to make it, but they're
22:18
Speaker 1: gonna have merch and all this stuff. And I'm like, well,
22:20
Speaker 1: you know, you can chop online just like everybody else,
22:22
Speaker 1: but knock it. But it's just it's I can't imagine
22:26
Speaker 1: for the players what that's going to be like, because
22:29
Speaker 1: everybody's friends and family are going to want to be there,
22:31
Speaker 1: and it's it's awesome. I love it.
22:36
Speaker 2: Tom.
22:36
Speaker 4: Always appreciate your time and your perspective, sir. Thanks for
22:39
Speaker 4: hopping on again today.
22:41
Speaker 1: Absolutely look forward to chatting with you here in the
22:43
Speaker 1: very near future.
22:44
Speaker 4: It's Tom Callahan, host of the Lockdown Mammoth podcast.
22:49
Speaker 2: NHL insider.
22:50
Speaker 4: He's a mammoth insider, of course, but right now he's
22:53
Speaker 4: an NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs insider because that's all we got.
22:58
Speaker 2: We don't get to watch mammoth hockey.