Latest / Inside Cyclones Hockey / Stanley Cup Final Predictions, Internships for the Upcoming Season, and Ways That YOU Can Get Involved with Cyclones Hockey!

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Stanley Cup Final Predictions, Internships for the Upcoming Season, and Ways That YOU Can Get Involved with Cyclones Hockey! · Inside Cyclones Hockey

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• 1:22
  Welcome to season six, episode three of the Inside Cyclones Hockey Podcast.
• 1:29
  We're joined by Director of Business Operations Zach Stirway on this week's episode, talking about a ton of different ways to get involved with the WASA Cyclones organization.
• 1:39
  Whether it's from a partnership standpoint, a job standpoint, or an internship standpoint, there are ample opportunities to get involved with this awesome organization ahead of the 2026-27 season.
• 1:52
  We've also got some huge news regarding our website, a new section that we've added to the website that makes it extremely easy and user-friendly to view a pretty significant stat about the Wasp Cyclones organization.
• 2:07
  And finally, some Stanley Cup final talk with myself and Zach Surwee, giving predictions and just talking about how we're feeling about the Golden Knights and the Hurricanes clashing in the 2026 Stanley Cup Final.
• 2:21
  So it's a phenomenal episode as usual, and it's been a while since we've chatted with you guys.
• 2:26
  So get ready because it's time to enter the storm.
• 2:48
  Cannot believe I'm even saying that.
• 3:07
  Speaking of off-season stuff, we've got another great off-season episode of the Inside Cyclones Hockey Podcast for you this week.
• 3:17
  As always, with you on the pod, hosting every single time we release an episode.
• 3:21
  My name is Mark Robinson, and I'm very pleased to be joined by our director of business operations, Zach Surway.
• 3:28
  Everything going on behind the scenes for Wassa Cyclones Hockey.
• 3:32
  It's all being run by him.
• 3:33
  And I'm super pleased to get to chat with him about some other off-season stuff that we've got going on right now.
• 3:38
  Zach, how are things?
• 3:39
  How's Wisconsin?
• 3:41
  I'm excited to get to chat with you about all sorts of Wassa Cyclone stuff today.
• 3:45
  Yeah, things are good.
• 3:46
  It's a busy time of year, uh, getting different things planned for the upcoming upcoming year with uh promotions and uh all those type of things and working on our different corporate partnerships.
• 3:59
  But uh been busy and uh I think fans are gonna enjoy the things that we have planned for the upcoming season, and in about a month from now we'll have that schedule for uh for next season as well.
• 4:12
  So looking forward to getting that out and things that we have uh come uh to come, I should say, for the 20 26, 27 season.
• 4:23
  Yep, very exciting.
• 4:25
  Uh you've you've said this to me both on and off the pod a few times.
• 4:29
  Uh people might not expect it, but the busiest time of the year for you is essentially as soon as the season ends, because putting on the production that is a full season of tier three junior hockey, not just the hockey aspect of it, obviously, but the promotions, the fan experience, the partnerships, the giveaways, takes a lot of work.
• 4:52
  So it's obviously a busy time for you, but I'm excited to see what things are going to look like as the schedule rolls out and as we start to gear up for another season of Cyclones hockey.
• 5:02
  Uh, but speaking of the off-season, one of the biggest things that I like to keep an eye on during the off-season, especially after you know, doing a full season of the broadcasting, being close with the team, we watch a lot of these age out guys move on to the next chapter of hockey, whether that be playing at the Division III level, the ACHA, Division I or II level.
• 5:23
  Maybe they don't continue to play hockey, but they move on and do other awesome things, attend college without playing hockey.
• 5:30
  Regardless, whatever it is, I like to be able to try to keep track as much as I can.
• 5:35
  And I think we have a handful of college commits from the age out players from this last season.
• 5:41
  I believe it's a three as of right now.
• 5:44
  But Zach, we've got something pretty new to the Wassa Cyclones website that makes it a heck of a lot easier to keep track of not just this last season, where these college commits are going, but pretty much all the Cyclones college commits over the last good handful of Wassa Cyclones seasons.
• 6:05
  So you want to talk to us a little bit about what we've added to the website recently and how fans can much easily keep track of where Cyclones players are taking their hockey career to the next level.
• 6:18
  Yeah, exactly.
• 6:19
  So this past season wrapped up five seasons of Cyclones hockey uh here in Wausaw.
• 6:29
  And with that, I wanted to do a refresh on our college commitments page to uh just organize it and make it a little bit easier and fan-friendly for people to look through and see where players have gone on to uh post-Cyclones uh hockey, junior hockey career.
• 6:48
  So fans are listening.
• 6:50
  If you just go to our website under the get involved page, you click on prospects, um, and then go down to the next tab of college commitments.
• 6:59
  That's where you'll find uh all those college commitments.
• 7:03
  Otherwise, if you just go to walsacyclones.com backslash college uh dash commitments, you'll find it there as well.
• 7:14
  So um it's a pretty impressive list looking at it.
• 7:18
  Uh you have over 35 commitments uh from past cyclones players, and obviously that's not um including some more that I'm sure will be coming up here in the next uh month or so uh as well.
• 7:33
  So with that said, the most impressive thing that I see is just uh the sheer volume of commitments across really evenly across each year, which just goes to show the amount of success that uh the coaches have had um in in getting quality players.
• 7:54
  There's no real drought of a year where you see a cookie coach commitment and there's not much going on there.
• 8:02
  So uh it's really impressive to to see that.
• 8:05
  Um and two, the thing that I'll highlight is the number of uh D3 SEA commitments, a total of seven.
• 8:13
  Uh that's really impressive for you know, basically just over one per year.
• 8:20
  Um, and at the end of the day, that's something that's that's really cool to highlight.
• 8:24
  And of course, I would say arguably uh one of the the biggest success stories, not only with the cyclones, but in NA3 as a whole, is the story of former forward Gabe Randle, who uh made his way up the development path in the NA3, went up to the NAHL, and then to D3 hockey at UV Stevens Point, just 30 minutes uh down the road from us here in Wausau.
• 8:52
  So that's pretty dang cool.
• 8:53
  And uh I think people will enjoy looking at uh all those names and having some you know memories of some of these guys and and a lot of the good things that they did here when when they were in Wassa in Cyclones uniform as well.
• 9:06
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:08
  I believe as of right now, it's uh three official college commits from this last 2024-25 uh or excuse me, 2025-26 season.
• 9:20
  Owen Gome going to Akenis College, which is an ACHA Division I program.
• 9:26
  Mario Savino, former Wassa Cyclones captain, going to Lake State University for ACHA D2 hockey, and then Brady Fail, uh one of the veteran cyclones goaltenders, going to Niagara University to play ACHA Division I hockey.
• 9:45
  But with a lot more offseason to go and a lot of very talented age out players from this last roster, I would suspect this list to just get longer and longer, Zach, along with our traditional news releases that we usually do, where we, you know, write a little blurb, give an update on a player committing to a respective college, respective program.
• 10:08
  We're gonna be adding it to this list.
• 10:09
  And you mentioned it, Zach.
• 10:11
  I mean, it's pretty lengthy already, but we're only gonna see it grow not only throughout the remainder of this offseason, but in years to come as we continue to bring in talented players and develop them into hockey players that can take their career to the next level.
• 10:25
  Yeah, exactly.
• 10:26
  I mean, looking at some of the age outs from uh this past year, a couple players to keep an eye of for fans that I think we'll will have some college commitment news down the line would be uh goalie Tanner Bonjanor.
• 10:39
  Um he'll be a guy that will likely uh be playing some college hockey.
• 10:45
  Another name for fans to keep an eye on would also be Brady Knutson and then also E.
• 10:50
  G.
• 10:51
  Hoffman uh as well.
• 10:53
  So uh stay tuned again to all of our social media codes and our website for details as uh as those commitments come in.
• 11:03
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 11:04
  And I'm sure you've heard me say this a thousand times for those that listen to the pod, but all our social media handles at Wassa Cyclones, our website, wasacyclones.com, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, former or ex formerly Twitter, all that good stuff.
• 11:21
  You can find all the news updates and all the relevant information that you need on the Wassa Cyclones in those locations.
• 11:29
  All right, Jackson sent over an agenda for this week's episode of the podcast, and the second item on the agenda, I'm really excited to ask you about it because it hit it hits close to home for me.
• 11:41
  Because working in this industry, working in sports, you know it as good as I do.
• 11:46
  It's a grind, it's a struggle to find some of these jobs.
• 11:49
  You have to maybe go to places that you've never been in your entire life, like me.
• 11:54
  Maybe you have to go to Wassa, Wisconsin for the first time ever to work a job as a young, aspiring sports media person or someone that wants to work in sports marketing or any any sort of thing like that.
• 12:07
  And it's these types of it's these types of teams, junior hockey or summer baseball or anything like that.
• 12:14
  It's where you, it's where you kind of get your start.
• 12:16
  It's where you you learn the ins and outs and you learn the positives and the negatives and you gain the extremely valuable experience in order to move on to the next level, which to me, looking back on some of the opportunities I've had, it's it's a priceless experience.
• 12:33
  And it sounds like we've got some internships available and coming up for the 2026-27 season.
• 12:40
  So I am very excited to hear about what the Cyclones is going to have to offer, what kind of opportunities are gonna be available.
• 12:47
  So curious to hear what's to come as far as internships go for this next season.
• 12:54
  Yeah, so our internship program is something that I take a lot of pride in, and really it goes back to what you just kind of spoke about is um pretty much anyone that is is working specifically in sports, they likely started somewhere uh with an internship.
• 13:14
  Um myself, I started with an internship.
• 13:18
  My first internship uh was all the way over in the uh southern uh hills or shouldn't say hills, those are mountains over there if you're familiar with Colorado um of uh of West Southern West Virginia.
• 13:33
  Uh I went to Princeton, West Virginia West Virginia in the summer of twenty eleven and spent my whole summer out there uh really getting an opportunity to do pretty much anything um that I wanted to do and um it was is a really cool opportunity with the Princeton Rays.
• 13:54
  They were the rookie affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays down there.
• 13:59
  And actually it's funny that we're talking about this today, because last night I was thinking uh actually something came across because I was watching some uh college baseball over the week over the weekend here and uh was just thinking about some of those athletes and how what they go through and uh it's a it's a pretty cool um opportunity for kids to get their start in in sports and uh internships with us here with the Cyclones.
• 14:26
  There's a number of different options for um students looking to further their career path.
• 14:34
  Uh the one thing I always tell when I have conversations with interns interns too is it's a great opportunity really to confirm like what you're you're wanting to do.
• 14:44
  Um and a lot of times it it's pretty easy for me in the supervisor role of finding like interns that are gonna be successful, they really have.
• 14:55
  Um it's pretty easy to spot right away when you know that they're really passionate about working in sports.
• 15:02
  Um, because um honestly, as as you know, there are some things that just need to be done that you maybe don't want to do.
• 15:12
  Um and that go well, that with that being said, that goes with pretty much any job, but um certainly in sports, the long hours um they they can grind on you and you really find out what the type of person you are and the things that you want to do eventually in your career um through an internship.
• 15:32
  So um with that said though, uh with us here with the cycles, uh like I said, I take pride in making sure that it's a good experience for them and that it's not something that is uh is all dragging out.
• 15:48
  I know we talked a little bit um some of your past experience too, and it's something that I want to make sure that it's a it's a good experience at the end of the day for them.
• 15:57
  And they look back on their journey and their career that they look at it uh fondly.
• 16:03
  That's really one of my main focuses.
• 16:05
  So if you are currently a college student and looking to get experience in gear foot in the door in sports, I definitely would encourage you to uh again head to our website under the get involved tab, you can uh or just do a simple Google search and search Wallace Cyclones internships and find all the details and what we have going on with those.
• 16:27
  Or you can frankly just uh send me an email.
• 16:30
  Um maybe it's something you want to talk about, some of the different things with our team and and whatnot, or get some experience or do some type of um maybe it's more of a just a job shadow type thing too for you uh as well.
• 16:42
  So um again, head to our websites under the get involved tab and scroll down to internships and find out all those inform all those details um on our page there.
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• 17:49
  Yeah, it looks like there's lots of awesome opportunities as far as the next coming season.
• 17:56
  Uh a ticket sales internship, a marketing internship, uh, another type of marketing internship for game nights only, and then a graphic design internship uh with some options as well, doing it for the summer or for a full season.
• 18:12
  So just want to echo what Zach is saying here.
• 18:15
  If you're a college student, you know, whether you're in the Wisconsin area to an extent, going to school somewhere near WASA, or if you're a little farther away, like somebody like me, like I think my experience is a perfect example.
• 18:29
  I went to college in California, lived in Colorado, never had stepped foot in the Midwest prior to even finding this opportunity.
• 18:37
  When I, you know, found the opportunity and got in touch with Zach.
• 18:41
  But when I got the job offer, that was the first time that I like typed in Wassa into like Google Maps on my phone and looked where it was.
• 18:48
  And I ended up coming out here for the full season and having a wonderful, amazing experience.
• 18:54
  So if I can come all the way from Colorado slash California, I think anybody can come and do an awesome internship with the Wassa Cyclones.
• 19:02
  So go check it out on WasaCyclones.com, our website under the Get Involved tab.
• 19:07
  If you click internships, there's tons of opportunities with a lot of detail-oriented descriptions and Zach's information, his email, and all that good stuff is laid out for you to go and figure out how you can get involved in these opportunities.
• 19:22
  Uh, Zach, I'll keep this really brief.
• 19:24
  I've told you this story too, but um, in terms of going through, you know, kind of the thick of it to get good experience and get to get to the opportunities that are a little more traditional.
• 19:36
  I'll never forget one of my first internships in sports.
• 19:39
  I worked for a summer baseball team doing play-by-play for them.
• 19:42
  And the play-by-play was kind of the reward for having to do a bunch of other just complete BS.
• 19:49
  They they provided me with an apartment to live in for the summer.
• 19:52
  I I guess I should say provided with air quotes.
• 19:55
  I did have to pay for it, but they saved me the hassle of going through, looking for my own place and you know, going through a leasing agent, all that stuff.
• 20:05
  And at first I was like, wow, well, that's so great.
• 20:07
  This place was left dirty, uncleaned, and the entire baseball team's equipment was stored in my apartment, just storage bins stacked to the ceiling full of the most bizarre things that a baseball team needs, taking up a ton of space in this apartment that I was paying for.
• 20:29
  And the best part about it was anytime we took a road trip, anytime that we were going anywhere besides our home field, which was pretty frequent.
• 20:38
  If you know baseball, you're traveling pretty much just as much as you're at home.
• 20:42
  I would have to carry all these bins like a block and a half in the blazing Los Angeles heat to the bus.
• 20:50
  So it's stuff like that that you got to go through.
• 20:53
  But lucky for Cyclones interns, I think it's a little bit more, a little bit more ironed out.
• 20:58
  You you you're gonna have you're gonna have to you're gonna have to work a little bit for sure, but I don't think you're gonna I don't think you're gonna have to be doing too much, too much labor-intensive type of stuff.
• 21:07
  Yeah, exactly.
• 21:08
  Um, I mean, some of those things just bring when you're talking about that, it just brings me back some of the memories that I did in some of my internships too.
• 21:17
  And uh I will say, um, even with some of those experiences, yeah, you look back at it and you're like, how that really sucked or whatever.
• 21:25
  But I think the thing that um if you have some perspective about some of those things and um and be just being realistic when you're getting s started in sports, um you're gonna be starting at the bottom and that's just how um sports really is is because I mean, as we all know, people um people really are very passionate about sports.
• 21:53
  A lot of people want to work in sports because of that.
• 21:57
  And uh frankly In my opinion, there's some teams that that take advantage of of that uh scenario.
• 22:05
  Um I will say that and I can uh testify from you know some of our past interns that we don't and it goes back to like I said earlier, my experience in internships.
• 22:19
  I wanted to make sure that we're treating people right and that the experience that they're having.
• 22:24
  Frankly, uh it's pretty cushy to some of the things I know I did when I was an intern where you're getting to the ballpark.
• 22:31
  I'm sure you're familiar with um pulling tarp all the time, and you gotta be at the ballpark at a certain time to pull the tarp, and even maybe you got something else going on at the ballpark.
• 22:43
  So uh there's all kinds of things, and um if like I said, if you want to get into sports and that you show your passion for it, you go see through some hard things, and um but at the same time, I think internships are one of the most rewarding things too, just because you get an opportunity you've learned all these different things at your uh college of choice in the classroom, and then finally you get an opportunity to actually put it into uh a workplace environment, which is really rewarding seeing all that hard work that you did in the classroom come into the real world of where um things rely and businesses um get moving from the good work that you can do.
• 23:32
  So uh again, just head to our website uh under the get involved tab, and you can find out all the information there on the internships.
• 23:40
  Amazing, very exciting to think about some new faces coming into the Wassa Cyclones organization on the business, marketing, production side of things or the media side of things.
• 23:52
  You know, it's the team is expanding every year, and it's not just hockey players, which is super exciting to think about.
• 23:58
  All right, a few more things to touch on, Zach.
• 24:00
  Uh, don't have to spend time on this next one, and then we've got an exciting little segment to wrap things up about something else going on in the world of hockey, maybe to a little bit larger of a degree.
• 24:11
  But Zach, let's talk about corporate partnerships and what we've got going on there this offseason.
• 24:18
  Yeah, so one of the things, of course, every single year really um corporate partnerships for us and really for any business, um, sports business specifically, is a is a really big deal.
• 24:30
  Um, and currently, as I just mentioned earlier in the podcast, that's one of the things that uh takes up a lot of my time here during the off-season.
• 24:40
  And we do have um for this upcoming season some opportunities for fans to get involved, mainly focused on different game night partnerships, so different promotions and uh and giveaways um for our fans to create a uh fun experience for when they're coming out to the games.
• 25:01
  Uh, we do have um other options, of course, and uh you know signage and and stuff like that, but those are are pretty limited um based on what we have for inventory.
• 25:12
  So just wanted to put the message out to folks if they maybe know someone that owns a business or they personally do own a business and uh they're looking to um get their name out more throughout the community.
• 25:27
  Um one of the most exciting things that businesses can do is tie themselves to some type of a sports property where, as uh as we all know, they tie their business to something that's fun and exciting.
• 25:41
  Um you can always go and buy, you know, radio ads and TB ads, which don't get me wrong, those are good are good, and certainly uh we take advantage of those too.
• 25:50
  But um, this is an opportunity to really affect something that is tangible in terms of people are coming out to our games to enjoy um their Friday or Saturday night from late September through March.
• 26:05
  So it's a it's a cool way to bond with people, more of a hands-on approach um in in your marketing.
• 26:12
  So uh again, for this, you can head to our website and just go to wallsawcyclones uh comb slash sponsors.
• 26:21
  You can you can fill out a form right there on that webpage to set up a meeting with uh myself and we can see what we uh can potentially do for you to to help your business grow and uh reach more people here in our community.
• 26:37
  As you're listening to this episode, yeah, you know, as we wrap up this segment here, you're you're gonna hear a top-tier example of what we're talking about here.
• 26:47
  Like it's things like podcast reads, physical ads on our website, involvement in our you know, game day giveaways.
• 26:56
  Like I'm uh I may be a little biased because I worked closely with the team this last year and I was involved in a lot of it, but I mean these businesses in the best way possible are ingrained into my brain.
• 27:07
  And anytime that I would need anything remotely related to any of their services, like the ones that are working with this team, is the first thing that would come to mind for me.
• 27:20
  And I would say anybody that is you know thinking about doing this, just think about the reach that we have as an organization, not just in the Wassa area, but you know, expanding even a little bit out of that as well, considering we have players that are from all over the state of Wisconsin, outside of the state of Wisconsin.
• 27:39
  You're gonna get a lot of impressions on your business, and I I think it's only gonna work out in your favor.
• 27:46
  So, you know, get it.
• 27:47
  Yeah, and the other thing I'll say too is you know, Mark, is one of the things that I've seen over the years, I've worked in, like I said, baseball too, but the hockey community specifically is one that is extremely loyal.
• 27:59
  And I I know our I in talking with um partners of ours is that they see that really, really well.
• 28:08
  Where when, you know, say for example, um, just bringing up a partner here that I'm seeing on our website with uh with cousin subs, um, you know, that's something that people look at and they see that they support hockey um in general things going on at the ice arena.
• 28:26
  It's something that they want to support in turn.
• 28:28
  Um, I think people in the hockey world, um, they're very loyal to people that support hockey and and give back to them, obviously, returning and um doing business with them.
• 28:42
  So again, just head to our website and uh final information.
• 28:45
  I'd be happy to uh sit down with you and schedule uh a time to uh discuss these things.
• 28:51
  The thing too that yeah, you mentioned Mark, um that's I think is unique to sports is there's a lot of things that you can do too, like you just mentioned.
• 29:02
  If you want to do a podcast set, you can do a program.
• 29:05
  Um, you know, you can do a game night partnership where you're getting exposure on on TV, radio, you know, print, uh digital.
• 29:15
  There's all kinds of different things that can be done um with us, and there's a lot of unique things as well, whether you're you know looking at different signage items, you know.
• 29:26
  Um obviously you can't do it in isologo um at many places as well.
• 29:31
  So a lot of cool stuff.
• 29:33
  And uh we always have obviously a lot of returning partners, but um new partners every year is what makes it go to.
• 29:42
  So um if you're maybe on the fence and you know want to try something different with your business, um, give us a call and we'll be happy to uh to set up a meme with you here here real soon.
• 29:54
  Yep, definitely a really cool opportunity for local businesses.
• 29:57
  Head to wassacyclones.com and on our website under the get involved tab, you can figure out how it would make sense for your business to partner with the Wassa Cyclones.
• 30:09
  All right, Zach, let's start to wind things down here.
• 30:11
  We've got one more thing to talk about, and it's by far probably the most exciting thing that I want to talk to you about.
• 30:17
  We're gonna give our Stanley Cup Finals prediction.
• 30:21
  So for the 2026 Stanley Cup Championship, the stage is set, and although it is quite a hard pill to swallow for me because my avalanche got embarrassed in the Western Conference Final, it's gonna be the Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes in this year's Staley Cup final.
• 30:41
  Set to start on Tuesday, June 2nd at 6 o'clock, or excuse me, 7 o'clock Central Time, 8 o'clock Eastern Time.
• 30:50
  And I mean, as hard as it is for me to talk about, since the Aves should be in that Stanley Cup final position from the Western Conference side, they're not, but we're gonna give our prediction.
• 31:02
  So I guess Zach, I'll I'll start with you.
• 31:05
  I'm not sure how closely you've been following the playoffs.
• 31:08
  I'm not sure if you maybe watched a little bit of that second round between the Minnesota Wild and the Aves because of the close ties between Minnesota and Wisconsin.
• 31:16
  But what what have your thoughts been on the postseason and who do you think is gonna lift Lord Stanley in the next few weeks here?
• 31:23
  Yeah, I would say that series that you just mentioned between Minnesota and Colorado, that was has been the one um that I did follow the most here in the postseason.
• 31:33
  And um I was probably surprised as as I'm sure you are with Colorado, how they did the next series, because they seemed like they uh they had everything going that previous series, but um not to put more assault in in your wound of a playoff loss, but um this will probably redeem you a little bit here, Mark.
• 31:55
  I'm gonna go against Vegas in the in this pick, and I'm gonna go with Carolina.
• 32:00
  Everyone is I know um the odds in terms of the the bookmakers, it looks like uh Carolina is the current series favorite at uh minus 155 to Vegas plus 130.
• 32:16
  Um obviously Carolina has the home ice advantage, which in hockey unfortunately isn't much of a more of an advantage of some of the other sports necessarily.
• 32:28
  Um but I will I will go with Carolina and I'm gonna go with Carolina in a total of six games um in this series.
• 32:40
  Um one of the things I I know I'll have to get a little dig into some Vegas Golden Knights fans because I mean they've been fans for what, ten years now.
• 32:49
  Um the thing that I find funny about Golden Knights fans is there's so many people across the country that are Golden Knights fans that just popped out out of nowhere.
• 32:58
  I don't know if it's just because they liked the logo or what it was, but um they seem like bandwagon fans to me, Mark.
• 33:05
  I don't know.
• 33:06
  So I'm gonna go against that.
• 33:07
  I'm gonna go with Carolina.
• 33:09
  Franchise that's been around for a good amount of time.
• 33:13
  They've had some really good history in the in the playoffs.
• 33:17
  I know they've struggled in the in the um conference finals um up until this year a lot.
• 33:24
  So their fans have gone through it.
• 33:25
  So I'm gonna pick them to win it.
• 33:28
  Um not a huge fan of the Vegas Golden Knights head coach either.
• 33:31
  I think he's kind of arrogant.
• 33:33
  So um with that all being said, I'm going with Carolina in six, Mark.
• 33:39
  I like it, Zach.
• 33:40
  That's a good pick.
• 33:40
  I think I think there's lots of lots of good stuff to back that up.
• 33:44
  And I, for one, am right in line with you.
• 33:48
  I'm gonna go Carolina in seven to win the 2026 Stanley Cup Championship.
• 33:56
  I I don't see much that can stop this Carolina Hurricanes team.
• 34:01
  They have one, they have one loss in the playoffs.
• 34:04
  They have one loss, and it came in the Eastern Conference Final.
• 34:07
  They have absolutely rolled through this postseason.
• 34:11
  Two sweeps in a row and a five-game series win in the Eastern Conference Final.
• 34:15
  And to your point as well, Zach, they've struggled immensely in the Eastern Conference Final.
• 34:19
  I think before this series, they were either 0-16 or 1-16 in conference final games.
• 34:25
  They finally got over that hump.
• 34:26
  I think there's so much motivation, so much depth, so much culture around this team.
• 34:32
  They've got a lot of experience.
• 34:33
  They've got a lot of different role players and playmakers.
• 34:36
  And most importantly, out of everybody on the ice that's able to score a goal at the right time, make a play, make a save, I think it all comes back to their head coach, Rod Brindamore.
• 34:48
  He won a Stanley Cup as a player with the Carolina Hurricanes.
• 34:51
  He's been around coaching for a while.
• 34:54
  He's gone through a ton of adversity with all the Eastern Conference final struggles.
• 34:58
  I really think this is finally the year where they're gonna be able to get past this hump of not being able to finish these deep playoff runs.
• 35:06
  And I think we're gonna see history because I don't think a coach has won a Stanley Cup with a team that he also played for in quite some time.
• 35:15
  So I've got a lot of faith in the Carolina Hurricanes to win this series.
• 35:20
  I think it's gonna be in seven, and I feel that way because I watched this Western Conference final very closely.
• 35:27
  And to your point as well, Zach, after that Minnesota series, I I did not see much that could stop this Aves team.
• 35:36
  I'm and I'm a man of my word.
• 35:38
  I'm not gonna I'm not gonna pretend like I didn't say one or one thing about a series.
• 35:43
  My pick was Aves and five for the Western Conference final.
• 35:47
  So I I literally thought we were gonna steamroll Vegas.
• 35:50
  And quite literally, it was the other way around.
• 35:52
  We got swept, we got embarrassed, injuries played a small part of it, but you have to give Vegas a lot of credit because they play a style of hockey that is very difficult to compete against.
• 36:02
  We could not get anybody through the neutral zone into the offensive zone.
• 36:06
  It was a very, very tough team to play against.
• 36:08
  And I think we're only gonna see that improve in the Stanley Cup final.
• 36:13
  So I think Vegas is gonna put up a big fight.
• 36:15
  I think they're gonna take it all the way to a game seven, but I just don't see much getting in the way of this Carolina Hurricanes teams.
• 36:22
  So that is my final pick.
• 36:24
  Canes in seven.
• 36:25
  They're finally gonna win the Stanley Cup that they've been chasing for a good handful of years.
• 36:31
  I'm excited to see how it pans out.
• 36:33
  Yeah, the other thing I'll say too, just with um people in the South are are especially um North Carolina, they're pretty passionate about hockey.
• 36:42
  So that will be obviously both uh arenas are gonna be up for grabs, but uh don't under um estimate the people of Raleigh in North Carolina.
• 36:53
  That's gonna be a heck of a place for the Golden Knights to go in and try to s to steal a game to uh win the series.
• 37:01
  So it should be a lot of fun.
• 37:03
  And uh obviously that gets kicked off on uh Tuesday, June 2nd.
• 37:08
  One other thing I want to note uh with the Stanley Cup final is we'll have a as we do annually, we'll have a um contest on our Facebook page where um you can like um two different um opportunities uh on there to pick your selection who you think is gonna win the Stanley Cup final.
• 37:30
  So stay tuned for that.
• 37:31
  That'll be posted on Tuesday of this week um as well.
• 37:36
  So it should be a lot of fun.
• 37:37
  It's always sad to see you when the hockey season comes to an end, but it will not we know it'll be back here um soon enough uh in September with the Cyclones kicking it off um here in Wausau.
• 37:50
  Absolutely.
• 37:51
  All right, that's everything that I've got for you, Zach.
• 37:54
  Anything else you want to say before we wrap things up here on this segment of the pod?
• 38:00
  No, that's all I got.
• 38:01
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• 39:12
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