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KRAKEN WEEKLY: Next steps with CEO Tod Leiweke, and saluting Scott Oake (4/14) · Seattle Kraken Audio Network

0:00
Speaker 1: Now back to Montors has shot fand on with two
0:03
Speaker 1: and a half to play in the period. How manybody
0:05
Speaker 1: here's considering a fast and front man.
0:10
Speaker 2: All right?
0:10
Speaker 3: Two games left? That was the last home goal of
0:12
Speaker 3: the regular season. How appropriate. Bobby McMahon and pushing a milestone.
0:17
Speaker 3: Welcome to Crackinweekly. Mike Benton Everett fits you who will
0:22
Speaker 3: be joining us here middle segment with a special guest.
0:25
Speaker 3: We'll talk about more in just a bit. Al's with
0:27
Speaker 3: us as well. Anders Hirsch will be taking over of
0:29
Speaker 3: course Network Central for tomorrow night for the Cracking and
0:32
Speaker 3: Vegas and then this season wrapping up for Game eighty
0:36
Speaker 3: two in Colorado. Once again, find this podcast extended conversation
0:41
Speaker 3: via the iHeartRadio app as well sign for free to
0:44
Speaker 3: get it at sports radio kjar dot com. Pac show.
0:48
Speaker 3: Here for today we have Todd Leiwiki Cracking CEO and
0:53
Speaker 3: our conversation as well from the set after major news
0:56
Speaker 3: breaking last week. Additionally, Scott Oak, legendary broadcast CBC Hockey
1:02
Speaker 3: Night in Canada after Hours. He is retiring at the
1:04
Speaker 3: end of this season after four decades on Hockey Night
1:07
Speaker 3: in Canada. We can't wait for this conversation a very
1:11
Speaker 3: special one. His final after hours show was this last
1:14
Speaker 3: weekend plus also your Mailbak questions and our three Stars
1:18
Speaker 3: as well after the Krack and last night wrapping up
1:21
Speaker 3: their regular season portion of the home schedule that also
1:24
Speaker 3: included the team awards three Stars of the Year to
1:27
Speaker 3: Matty Benier's fan favorite to Philip Grubauer, Jordan Neberley taken
1:32
Speaker 3: home the Guile Fielder Award for perseverance, hustle dedication, and
1:35
Speaker 3: Jordan Neberley also is your MVP that named a course
1:39
Speaker 3: for the Pete Muldoon Award. On top of that, well,
1:43
Speaker 3: the Krack and know they have two games left here
1:45
Speaker 3: until the finish line. Last Wednesday, massive news breaking Ron
1:49
Speaker 3: Francis on the Move, then the Kraken coming out against
1:52
Speaker 3: Vegas shootout win. After that officially mathematically eliminated, still beat Calgary,
1:59
Speaker 3: and then last night to close the home schedule five
2:02
Speaker 3: to three loss to the Los Angeles Kings. And the
2:05
Speaker 3: current odds right now from what we have seen this
2:07
Speaker 3: according to tankathon, seven point five percent of the Kraken
2:11
Speaker 3: first overall picked that pretty much as the Gavin McKenna
2:14
Speaker 3: sweepstakes seven point seven chance for pick number two greatest
2:17
Speaker 3: odds by the way, for the Kraken picked number seven
2:21
Speaker 3: at forty one point four. Without further ado, let's get
2:25
Speaker 3: into this. Alan Andrews joining us right now, and my
2:29
Speaker 3: opening thoughts are here for this, which I'll of course
2:31
Speaker 3: then lead in here for you guys to take it
2:34
Speaker 3: away for your own thoughts. This is our first show
2:37
Speaker 3: since the move went down for Ron Francis, two step
2:40
Speaker 3: away from the organization, and we had brief reaction last week,
2:45
Speaker 3: but we peel back the curtain as much of this
2:47
Speaker 3: show was hammered out right before the news dropped. Now
2:51
Speaker 3: we can sync our teeth a little more into this.
2:55
Speaker 3: And after the news broke, Todd Lewicki addressed the media
2:58
Speaker 3: and we learned about a plan for what he called
3:00
Speaker 3: a prolific offseason. He deserves credit first off here he
3:04
Speaker 3: got up there and admitted that this isn't working, and
3:07
Speaker 3: not many team leaders do that, and to me, after
3:10
Speaker 3: five years, I keep wrapping my head around it this way.
3:14
Speaker 3: I think parts of this were within control of Ron Francis,
3:17
Speaker 3: and other parts of this here were not. But missing
3:20
Speaker 3: the postseason for three straight years was enough of a sting.
3:23
Speaker 3: And they're playing in a different sports climate than the
3:26
Speaker 3: usual expansion team. I don't think the Vegas comparisons helped
3:30
Speaker 3: fair or unfair. I think there's a dynamic growing in
3:34
Speaker 3: the Seattle sports landscape to win. It's a major market.
3:37
Speaker 3: The Mariners nearly got to the World Series, the Seahawks
3:40
Speaker 3: won the Super Bowl. The NBA might be back in
3:43
Speaker 3: two years. So there's two courses of action to take
3:46
Speaker 3: in logical terms, Either find a new way to maximize
3:49
Speaker 3: cap space and picks. You've got to aggressively overturn this
3:53
Speaker 3: roster for the better immediately, or start all all over
3:56
Speaker 3: with the prospect pool you've got and goal full course
3:59
Speaker 3: that way. I think the former is where I read
4:02
Speaker 3: the tea leaves on this one. Oftentimes the veteran coach
4:06
Speaker 3: comes in and says, this is not what I signed
4:08
Speaker 3: up for, and Lane Lambert took over within full knowledge
4:12
Speaker 3: that this is going to be in the direction of
4:14
Speaker 3: a retool and not a rebuild from this last season.
4:17
Speaker 3: So when we hear of this offseason, very many changes
4:21
Speaker 3: depending on what not it says which is coming. I'm
4:24
Speaker 3: curious about the change in the roster, potentially a change
4:28
Speaker 3: in the culture and in shames where potentially young players
4:32
Speaker 3: get a longer leash. Case in point exhibit A, Berkeley Catton.
4:36
Speaker 3: Just look at what he did, what Jacob Allanson has done,
4:39
Speaker 3: what Oscar Fisker Mulgard has done as well in limited
4:42
Speaker 3: ice time. They're young, but the weight of meaningful moments
4:46
Speaker 3: I thought were right up there with players who carry
4:49
Speaker 3: longer track records and the ice time that will be
4:53
Speaker 3: a huge part as well as this conversation. I want
4:56
Speaker 3: to make sure Ron also gets his due. He was
4:58
Speaker 3: nothing but a gentleman and he need needs credit for
5:00
Speaker 3: many things that exist today which give this team an
5:03
Speaker 3: advantage over a lot of others. And you can ask
5:05
Speaker 3: the Canucks how they feel about lack of a practice
5:07
Speaker 3: rink that exists here. Under his watch, he had a
5:11
Speaker 3: hand in that. It's known as one of the best
5:13
Speaker 3: of the entire league. He's set up the AHL team
5:16
Speaker 3: and coachelle a value this thought of now as a
5:18
Speaker 3: crown jewel for prospect development. That stuff matters. It shouldn't
5:22
Speaker 3: go unnoticed. But we're at a time now where the
5:25
Speaker 3: page is turning and the crack and had to seek
5:28
Speaker 3: Andrews quick on who's going to write this new chapter.
5:31
Speaker 3: And we're seeing now with two games left. Finally, the
5:34
Speaker 3: tremors of a massive roster change are coming, and that
5:38
Speaker 3: could potentially mean a shift in leadership within the room
5:41
Speaker 3: because change is inevitable and ultimate change is the task
5:46
Speaker 3: at hand for a team who wants to get better. Guys,
5:50
Speaker 3: your thoughts taken away?
5:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, Mike, A lot there to unpack. I think starting
5:58
Speaker 4: with Ron Francis. You know, I I was a part
6:01
Speaker 4: of his last three years of this organization, not part
6:06
Speaker 4: of the first two, but I was close enough to
6:10
Speaker 4: the organization to see the impact he had on not
6:14
Speaker 4: just bringing this team here, but everything you just described
6:18
Speaker 4: and the touches he has on everything on the ice,
6:22
Speaker 4: on the ice, off the ice that will remain in
6:26
Speaker 4: place for a long time. He will always be the
6:30
Speaker 4: first GM this this franchise has ever had. I think
6:34
Speaker 4: that that you know, his background, his his style, the
6:40
Speaker 4: culture of this organization, it's all a reflection of him.
6:43
Speaker 5: Now going forward, I think you'll see some changes in that.
6:47
Speaker 4: But the first five years, that making the playoffs in
6:50
Speaker 4: the second year, a lot of that has to do
6:52
Speaker 4: with with Ron Francis, and and he will be always
6:55
Speaker 4: be recognized for that. Secondly, moving forward, they're going to
7:02
Speaker 4: do this audit, this this audit, and the off season.
7:06
Speaker 4: I I hope they're very transparent about what the audit reveals.
7:11
Speaker 4: I think that anytime you get somebody looking at your
7:14
Speaker 4: organization too with the intent of making it better, that's
7:19
Speaker 4: money well invested. So I look forward to seeing what
7:22
Speaker 4: that uncovers, what it reveals, what the recommendations are, and
7:25
Speaker 4: I hope the crack can take it very seriously and
7:28
Speaker 4: implement as many of those recommendations as possible. So I'm
7:31
Speaker 4: looking forward to that process as well. The that that's
7:35
Speaker 4: that that's the bigger picture of the off season. I
7:38
Speaker 4: think the more tactical picture of the off season is,
7:41
Speaker 4: you know, where do the Cracking end up in the draft?
7:44
Speaker 4: Who do they pick? What does free agency look like?
7:47
Speaker 4: You know what? What do what?
7:49
Speaker 6: You know?
7:50
Speaker 4: What does camp look like? As far as who's in
7:52
Speaker 4: camp and who's not, you know, coming into the into
7:54
Speaker 4: the fall. These are lots of things that I think
7:58
Speaker 4: between now and and one of training camp, we're all
8:01
Speaker 4: going to be watching very closely to see is this
8:05
Speaker 4: team going to make a big step forward in the
8:08
Speaker 4: next four months, because I think we feel like in
8:11
Speaker 4: the last two years it's made a step forward in
8:14
Speaker 4: the offseason, but not as big as we'd always hoped.
8:17
Speaker 5: Anders.
8:18
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think I think that's a good assumption. And
8:21
Speaker 7: the biggest question to me is is this kind of
8:25
Speaker 7: a long term plan to get into a quote unquote
8:28
Speaker 7: contending window where you can play with the big boys,
8:31
Speaker 7: or are you desperate to just be a part of
8:34
Speaker 7: the dance, you know what I mean?
8:35
Speaker 2: And we heard Todd.
8:36
Speaker 7: LOWICKI say that he didn't want to just sneak into
8:40
Speaker 7: the playoffs this year because they most likely would to
8:42
Speaker 7: face Colorado and if they want a bigger, long term
8:45
Speaker 7: plan here, and it's to be seen whether they think
8:50
Speaker 7: they can do that while also competing for a playoff
8:55
Speaker 7: spot next season, or if they think they need to
8:57
Speaker 7: take an entire full step back, reassess everything, play a
9:01
Speaker 7: lot of the young guys. You know, I don't everyone
9:06
Speaker 7: says the word tank.
9:07
Speaker 2: I don't.
9:07
Speaker 7: I don't necessarily like, that's not in my vocabulary. It's
9:12
Speaker 7: you know, you don't try and lose, especially if you're
9:15
Speaker 7: trying to build a culture that we just talked about.
9:18
Speaker 7: It's it's not something that I think is in the
9:20
Speaker 7: Krakens vocabulary either, especially you know, with how aggressive they
9:25
Speaker 7: have seemed to been in becoming a playoff contender. But
9:30
Speaker 7: there are ways you can shift your priorities, so to speak,
9:34
Speaker 7: where it becomes not the number one thing, like by
9:41
Speaker 7: all stretches of the imagination that you are trying to
9:44
Speaker 7: win every single game to get into the playoffs this year,
9:46
Speaker 7: to go win a Stanley Cup this year. You can
9:50
Speaker 7: shift your your scope a little bit into more of
9:52
Speaker 7: a you know, bigger picture sort of situation and that
9:55
Speaker 7: and that's playing maybe some younger guys in bigger roles.
10:00
Speaker 7: That's you know, bringing some guys up from Coachella Valley
10:04
Speaker 7: to see what.
10:04
Speaker 2: They are in the NHL. And I wonder what.
10:07
Speaker 7: Kind of timeline because I honestly don't know, because it's
10:09
Speaker 7: not just one or the other. It's not your tanking
10:12
Speaker 7: or competing. There's a sliding scale to this thing. Right,
10:15
Speaker 7: you can still try and make the playoffs, right, you
10:19
Speaker 7: can still make the playoffs, but also kind of not
10:22
Speaker 7: see yourself in that contending window just yet and start
10:24
Speaker 7: to build some stuff. And I think that's kind of
10:27
Speaker 7: where the krack and want to lie. I just don't
10:29
Speaker 7: know the exact route that they want to take to
10:31
Speaker 7: do that. If they want to go and you know,
10:33
Speaker 7: trade or sign a veteran in free agency to kind
10:37
Speaker 7: of make this team instantly better, or if they want
10:39
Speaker 7: to kind of try and okay, we'll focus on our
10:42
Speaker 7: youth and development because that's been kind of the big
10:44
Speaker 7: thing that I think is the big determining factor whether
10:48
Speaker 7: this team's going to make a huge step. Meant it
10:50
Speaker 7: last night on the post game show. I think Berkeley
10:53
Speaker 7: Katton and obviously like he's one of your most talented players,
10:57
Speaker 7: his outlook as a player, if he can develop into
11:00
Speaker 7: that you know, first line center sort of situation and
11:04
Speaker 7: carry it kind of a team offensively or a line offensively,
11:07
Speaker 7: that's a big determining factor on whether this team is
11:10
Speaker 7: going to take that next step forward. So that's why
11:12
Speaker 7: maybe putting that priority in that spot versus bringing in
11:16
Speaker 7: veterans just to maximize your point total for next season,
11:20
Speaker 7: it may be in their best interest, but I don't know.
11:22
Speaker 7: I don't know exactly what route they're going to take.
11:24
Speaker 3: Here's also a question I have when it comes to
11:27
Speaker 3: the roster building process. It's one thing to say that
11:30
Speaker 3: you're going to look for a top line guy, and
11:31
Speaker 3: I think that's going to be the priority, and I
11:33
Speaker 3: think the trade market is where they're going to be
11:35
Speaker 3: looking at this thing. But secondly, where do culture guys
11:40
Speaker 3: also fit into the equation?
11:42
Speaker 2: We could be.
11:42
Speaker 3: Seeing a lot of turnover coming up for this roster,
11:46
Speaker 3: depending upon where you go at the UFA's Jamie Alexiak
11:50
Speaker 3: he's been here since the beginning. Jaden Schwartz, he's been
11:52
Speaker 3: here since the beginning. They were under Dave Hastall, and
11:56
Speaker 3: they've evolved, you know, from coach to coach here. But
11:59
Speaker 3: let's say they move on, you're looking for guys who
12:02
Speaker 3: are going to fulfill the Lane Lambert type of culture.
12:05
Speaker 3: How much is that gonna also be a big part
12:07
Speaker 3: of this?
12:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's that's gonna be a huge part.
12:13
Speaker 5: Mike.
12:14
Speaker 4: The culture that Lane Lambert has brought in is is
12:17
Speaker 4: not the problem here. I think the the culture that
12:19
Speaker 4: he's brought in, you know, in a in a macro sense,
12:23
Speaker 4: I describe it as a middle part between UH, maybe
12:28
Speaker 4: Dave Hackstall and and.
12:30
Speaker 5: UH and Disco Dan.
12:32
Speaker 4: I think that it's a it's a structure that demands responsibility,
12:37
Speaker 4: that demands accountability, but at the same time there's also
12:42
Speaker 4: some flexibility in there as well. It's not very rigid.
12:45
Speaker 4: There's not as rigid as I think this team has
12:47
Speaker 4: had to play in the past. So I will say
12:50
Speaker 4: that that, you know, whether you want to call it
12:53
Speaker 4: culture or systems, sometimes they go hand in hand. Lane
12:57
Speaker 4: Lamberts systems are difficult to play. They require an intense focus,
13:01
Speaker 4: they require discipline, they acquire no shifts off, and if
13:06
Speaker 4: you take those shifts off, that's when you start to
13:08
Speaker 4: see the goals against go up. And we've we've found
13:11
Speaker 4: this season that this team does not have success, cannot
13:14
Speaker 4: find success when they give up four more goals. So
13:18
Speaker 4: keeping goals against lope is a big part of this
13:21
Speaker 4: Lane Lambert style, which then feeds ready to that culture.
13:25
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think you said it perfectly there. I think
13:28
Speaker 7: a lot of people think, you know, when you have
13:31
Speaker 7: sort of a more of a hard nosed guy that's gonna,
13:34
Speaker 7: you know, demand a lot of his teams, he immediately
13:38
Speaker 7: gets the reputation of out. Okay, then he's not good
13:40
Speaker 7: for young players. I actually disagree with that. I think
13:42
Speaker 7: I think you can both be very you know, demanding
13:48
Speaker 7: and ask a lot of your players and be good
13:52
Speaker 7: for the developed developmental side of some of these younger players.
13:56
Speaker 7: I think Berkeley Catton. While the point total maybe not
13:58
Speaker 7: necessarily ups off the page or anything like that, He's
14:01
Speaker 7: taken massive steps forward as a player this year. It's
14:05
Speaker 7: a good example of, you know, a guy that I
14:07
Speaker 7: wouldn't have expected that fit to fit as kind of
14:10
Speaker 7: well as it has. Right You see a high skilled,
14:13
Speaker 7: kind of smaller guy, maybe has some work to do
14:16
Speaker 7: on the defensive side of the ice, but he has
14:18
Speaker 7: so much potential on the offensive side. Maybe Lane Lambert,
14:22
Speaker 7: you would in my head the reputation of those types
14:26
Speaker 7: of coaches would be like, I don't have the patience
14:28
Speaker 7: for that. Any guys that are going to do exactly
14:30
Speaker 7: what I need them to do. I don't see that
14:31
Speaker 7: at all with Lane Lambert. I think he's done a
14:34
Speaker 7: really good job in developing that. And the other side
14:37
Speaker 7: of that is the players, and I think that's kind
14:40
Speaker 7: of the bigger thing that is needed for this team,
14:42
Speaker 7: is a little shake up in the locker room, so
14:45
Speaker 7: to speak, to kind of help those younger players, because
14:48
Speaker 7: I feel like this is kind of the area of
14:51
Speaker 7: the crack and are in right now. It's a little
14:52
Speaker 7: bit of a trap situation where you got veterans that
14:55
Speaker 7: want to win now. But you've got young players that
14:56
Speaker 7: maybe don't aren't ready yet and they're kind of going
14:59
Speaker 7: in two different direction, right, so you got to find
15:01
Speaker 7: a way to mix that. I don't know what that
15:03
Speaker 7: looks like, whether that's you know, bringing in a couple
15:08
Speaker 7: more younger players that are maybe more close to their prime,
15:11
Speaker 7: or maybe some older veterans that are, you know, past
15:15
Speaker 7: that point, have won a Cup already.
15:16
Speaker 2: Someone like a.
15:17
Speaker 7: Brandon Montour I think is perfect where he can bring
15:20
Speaker 7: that in and exactly kind of show these guys you know,
15:22
Speaker 7: what it looks like from the inside.
15:24
Speaker 3: And this will also be part of the conversation we'll
15:26
Speaker 3: have and we'll share more with Todd Leiwiki, who joined
15:28
Speaker 3: us from the set again last week after news breaking
15:31
Speaker 3: that Ron Francis would be moving on ever since he
15:34
Speaker 3: was here from the beginning, And also we'll get to
15:37
Speaker 3: more of this in your mailbag questions. But again I
15:39
Speaker 3: want to ask, by the end of the year, we're
15:41
Speaker 3: going to be looking here for big impressions. So our
15:43
Speaker 3: pole question of the week you can vote for that,
15:45
Speaker 3: by the way, right now at crack an Audio net,
15:48
Speaker 3: at Twitter and x and our pole question is what's
15:52
Speaker 3: the likeliest to happen by the end of game eighty two.
15:54
Speaker 3: Vote on that right now at Cracking Audio Net before
15:58
Speaker 3: we get out of here once again. Scu is our guest,
16:01
Speaker 3: our special guest here for today and then some also
16:03
Speaker 3: in addition, just as Big Todd Lewicki joining us here
16:06
Speaker 3: from the set those conversations around the corner nick A
16:09
Speaker 3: Koco though, it's got to be a big part of
16:10
Speaker 3: this conversation. Also, what'd you make out of his first
16:13
Speaker 3: career NHL start and win?
16:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought that, you know, he had an opportunity
16:18
Speaker 4: in that Calgary game to not only get the start,
16:21
Speaker 4: which he hadn't had yet, but go up against a
16:24
Speaker 4: team that is not going to be in the playoffs
16:26
Speaker 4: this year, so they've got some some youngsters that they're
16:30
Speaker 4: trying out as well. So, yes, it's an NHL game,
16:33
Speaker 4: so it's a good way to ease into his first start.
16:36
Speaker 4: I thought that the LA game was a little different,
16:39
Speaker 4: and you're playing a team that is trying to get
16:42
Speaker 4: into the playoffs. It's playing real hockey, if you will,
16:45
Speaker 4: late in the season, and he was tested a little
16:48
Speaker 4: more frequently often and by higher skilled players. I think
16:52
Speaker 4: it showed that He's still got some development, but he
16:55
Speaker 4: certain had certainly hidden in the right direction.
16:58
Speaker 5: I love his swagger.
16:59
Speaker 4: I love the fact that he tried to score a
17:00
Speaker 4: goal in the in the Calgary game. He wants to
17:03
Speaker 4: score one before Joey de Cord, but I love that.
17:06
Speaker 4: I love that competitiveness of him. But you could also
17:09
Speaker 4: see that he's an HL goaltender.
17:12
Speaker 5: That has the makings to be an NHL goaltender, but
17:16
Speaker 5: there's still some development that needs to happen there.
17:19
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think I can't speak for you guys, but
17:22
Speaker 7: to my in my opinion, the slowest kind of developing
17:25
Speaker 7: position in hockey seems to be bulltender. You absolutely have
17:30
Speaker 7: to kind of take your punches, both at the h
17:33
Speaker 7: L and NHL level as I was saying there, But
17:35
Speaker 7: I think the LA game was something that he needed
17:38
Speaker 7: kind of to kind of recognize, Hey, I don't have
17:40
Speaker 7: it all figured out right. I'm playing against the RTEMI Panerens,
17:43
Speaker 7: aging Kempees, you know, Aj Copatar, Quintin Byfield on the
17:47
Speaker 7: rush and all that stuff. That's what you're going to
17:49
Speaker 7: have to be able to go up against if you
17:52
Speaker 7: want to become to that NHL level.
17:54
Speaker 2: And I see the makings of it, for sure.
17:56
Speaker 7: I totally agree with you out but I think that
17:58
Speaker 7: that game against l a kind of show them, Okay,
18:00
Speaker 7: you know what, I see both on the Calgary side
18:04
Speaker 7: that I can do this and I can be successful
18:06
Speaker 7: and I have the tools. But I also stee on
18:08
Speaker 7: the LA side that I have some work to do.
18:10
Speaker 7: So I think that, honestly, it was a perfect two games.
18:13
Speaker 7: I still would personally would like to see him at
18:14
Speaker 7: least one more time in the last couple of games
18:17
Speaker 7: of the season. Kind of what we were talking about.
18:18
Speaker 7: The crack and are already eliminated. So it's not like
18:21
Speaker 7: you're trying to lose, so to speak. You're not tanking,
18:23
Speaker 7: but you have different priorities right now. You're not trying
18:25
Speaker 7: to make the playoffs if you can't, so you want
18:27
Speaker 7: to try to give give a couple of guys a
18:29
Speaker 7: run in a bigger role so to speak. You're still
18:32
Speaker 7: competing your ass off, for sure, but you're you're putting
18:36
Speaker 7: nickue Coco in there to see what he can do.
18:38
Speaker 7: You're you're moving Berkeley Catton up up to power play whatever.
18:41
Speaker 7: You know, however, you want to kind of look in
18:43
Speaker 7: that way, I think these next couple of games is
18:45
Speaker 7: a good opportunity to do that once again.
18:47
Speaker 3: Ceo todd Lyiwiki and Scott Oak legendary broadcast Hockey Night
18:52
Speaker 3: in Canada After Hours as well. They're joining us after
18:55
Speaker 3: this here on Cracking Weekly on ninety three to three KJRFM,
18:59
Speaker 3: The Future Ones, and they're making a hard charge for
19:01
Speaker 3: the playoffs. The Firebirds right now fourth in the Pacific Division,
19:05
Speaker 3: all playoff spots in the AHL's Pacific Division spoken for
19:10
Speaker 3: and Coachella Valley. Three games left. Tonight, they're in San Jose,
19:15
Speaker 3: then at San Diego. Then they will wrap up the
19:18
Speaker 3: regular season at Abbotsford done by this Sunday. Speaking of
19:22
Speaker 3: San Diego, that's their matchup right now. At the playoffs
19:25
Speaker 3: began today. That would be a best of three series. Ontario,
19:29
Speaker 3: who has already cleansed the division title, getting a first
19:32
Speaker 3: round by Logan Morrison's your Firebirds leading score right now
19:36
Speaker 3: fifty eight points in sixty five games. Jagger Furkus not
19:40
Speaker 3: too far behind him, fifty five points in sixty one games. Again.
19:44
Speaker 3: The Fireburs tonight taking on San Jose with three games
19:47
Speaker 3: left in the regular season before the Colder Cup playoffs.
19:50
Speaker 3: More info by the way at cvfirebirds dot com. Well
19:54
Speaker 3: last week CEO Todd Liwikie stopping by our set back
19:58
Speaker 3: by the Corps light landing in section twelve on a
20:00
Speaker 3: day word change was announced, Ron Francis stepping down the team,
20:05
Speaker 3: officially announcing it was a mutual parting of ways, with
20:08
Speaker 3: more changes potentially on the horizon coming up this summer.
20:11
Speaker 3: The only question what direction do the Kraken go for
20:15
Speaker 3: the long term future. Here's CEO Todd leiwiki joining us
20:19
Speaker 3: here from the set. First off on the legacy of
20:22
Speaker 3: Ron Francis in Seattle stepping down as president of Hockey
20:26
Speaker 3: Operations and for the Kraken, I'll look into the future,
20:29
Speaker 3: all right, Join now by cracking CEO todd lywiki after
20:33
Speaker 3: a crazy day about twenty four hours after it was
20:35
Speaker 3: announced Ron Francis moving on here a big part of
20:37
Speaker 3: the organization since twenty nineteen. Todd first off, thank you
20:41
Speaker 3: very much here for doing this. And I begin with
20:43
Speaker 3: the concept of leadership. I think to me, it's a
20:45
Speaker 3: very fascinating element no matter what kind of walk of
20:48
Speaker 3: life that we're talking about. So I think for you
20:51
Speaker 3: in these years, for these kind of situations, what does
20:53
Speaker 3: it mean to be able to find solutions no matter
20:56
Speaker 3: where you work.
20:57
Speaker 6: Well, it's you know, today was not a fun day
21:00
Speaker 6: because ron Is he came here and he was one
21:03
Speaker 6: of the founders of this team. Effectively, he was our
21:05
Speaker 6: first general manager. And as I have said more than once,
21:09
Speaker 6: back then, we were kind of sculpting fog. This building
21:13
Speaker 6: doesn't exist, our training center didn't exist, we didn't have
21:15
Speaker 6: a team name, and so you're forever indebted to someone
21:19
Speaker 6: who helps you put that together. And so you know,
21:24
Speaker 6: we're super grateful. And you know, I worked with a
21:29
Speaker 6: Hockey Hall of Famer. He played over seventeen hundred games.
21:31
Speaker 6: He's member of the Hockey Hall of Famer's chairman of
21:33
Speaker 6: the Hockey Hall of Fame Board. Pretty amazing guy. But
21:36
Speaker 6: time does march on, and he just I think there
21:40
Speaker 6: was a mutual agreement the time was right. And you know,
21:43
Speaker 6: we think we got pieces. We've been ranked top third
21:48
Speaker 6: with our prospects. We believe in our kids. It's coming
21:52
Speaker 6: the Firebirds, our American Hockey League team, which is an
21:55
Speaker 6: excellent predictor of the future. Again in the playoffs, and
21:58
Speaker 6: you know, this roster has talent. We went into the
22:02
Speaker 6: Olympic break in.
22:03
Speaker 5: A playoff spot.
22:05
Speaker 6: But we've had a rough few weeks here, and it
22:09
Speaker 6: does give us a chance to kind of rethink and say,
22:12
Speaker 6: how are we going to get better? And I think
22:14
Speaker 6: sometimes when you hit rough patches and a little bit
22:16
Speaker 6: of adversity, it does give you a chance to rethink
22:18
Speaker 6: things and say, let's how do we find another deal.
22:20
Speaker 3: I think you made a great point there because I think,
22:23
Speaker 3: as far as what I've learned, regimes sometimes comes with
22:26
Speaker 3: shelf lives, legacies though never die, and I think in
22:29
Speaker 3: this case, the first ever Stanley Cup playoff team will
22:32
Speaker 3: be attached here to his name. That's something that you
22:34
Speaker 3: brought that that was very, very important. So as time
22:37
Speaker 3: marshed on what kind of became the collective thought as
22:40
Speaker 3: far as the time was right to make this.
22:42
Speaker 6: Transition, well, I think that you know, there was a
22:45
Speaker 6: flip and so Jason, Jason bottle Roll stepped into the
22:50
Speaker 6: general manager role. Ron stepped into a different role, and
22:53
Speaker 6: I think in some ways it was about giving Jason
22:56
Speaker 6: more space and more room. So we end up going
22:59
Speaker 6: back to the model that we originally had, and boy,
23:02
Speaker 6: that playoff run was incredible. This building, the roof Almos
23:05
Speaker 6: came off. But you know, we've now gone three years.
23:08
Speaker 6: Assuming we don't went out and everybody loses out, it's
23:11
Speaker 6: we're probably not going to make the playoffs here. And
23:14
Speaker 6: you know, we owe the fans. I talked about that today,
23:17
Speaker 6: the fans. I've worked for these fans now in two
23:21
Speaker 6: different organizations. We started the Sounders, I was privileged to
23:25
Speaker 6: be with the Seahawks, and there were some great times there,
23:28
Speaker 6: and we've had great times here. But I really feel
23:31
Speaker 6: a strong obligation that we've got to provide our fans
23:34
Speaker 6: always hope and a belief that those organizations doing everything
23:37
Speaker 6: it can to win. And there are pieces here that
23:40
Speaker 6: we think we can build up.
23:41
Speaker 3: And it also seems as if a lot of fans
23:43
Speaker 3: speak the language of what they from what they've seen
23:46
Speaker 3: in previous teams, even teams now here for today, and
23:48
Speaker 3: you mentioned your time in Tampa Bay is a part
23:50
Speaker 3: of that. You had a little bit of a shout
23:52
Speaker 3: out here to George McFee in Vegas, who this team
23:54
Speaker 3: is playing of course here for tonight. So with this
23:57
Speaker 3: audit incoming here for the off season, where do you
24:00
Speaker 3: see conversations going with Jason with the idea is to
24:03
Speaker 3: move the team board.
24:04
Speaker 6: Well, he's a super smart, capable guy and he's classically trained.
24:08
Speaker 6: He was a first round draft pick. He played in
24:12
Speaker 6: the World Juniors and won three gold medals and it's
24:15
Speaker 6: unheard of. I think he's the first hockey player to
24:17
Speaker 6: ever have done that. His family is hockey royalty, so
24:20
Speaker 6: he is, and he's been well trained. Before he came here.
24:24
Speaker 6: He was in Buffalo, he learned a lot there. Before that,
24:26
Speaker 6: he was in an epic run in Pittsburgh, and before
24:29
Speaker 6: that he won got his master's degree and then served
24:32
Speaker 6: at the league office doing hockey work. So he is.
24:35
Speaker 6: He's very very well prepared, and he has a clear
24:38
Speaker 6: vision of what we need to do. We are going
24:40
Speaker 6: to do some checking. We're going to do a bit
24:42
Speaker 6: of a stand back and look at the organization and
24:44
Speaker 6: see and you know, we're time is of the essence,
24:48
Speaker 6: we think, because the offseason is not off, it's actually
24:52
Speaker 6: the on season and we're ready to get on it.
24:55
Speaker 3: What have you lured as far as the kind of
24:57
Speaker 3: culture that players crave in the nh and the deliverables
25:01
Speaker 3: as you mentioned that really helped make a top nots
25:04
Speaker 3: team to take them even more to an elite kind
25:06
Speaker 3: of tier.
25:07
Speaker 6: Well, you know, as we began this, it was an
25:09
Speaker 6: incredibly rough time. We were recruiting players in the midst
25:12
Speaker 6: of COVID and you know, players who were brought here
25:16
Speaker 6: on expansion were you know, exposed and came here and
25:20
Speaker 6: left their homes, and it was a crazy, crazy time.
25:23
Speaker 6: We also add, you know, some interesting dynamics here at
25:27
Speaker 6: the city at this point in time, and so, you know,
25:30
Speaker 6: similar to when I got to the Seahawks, there were
25:33
Speaker 6: some challenges in recruiting and we didn't always get players
25:37
Speaker 6: to come out and pay visits. But that culture turned
25:40
Speaker 6: and we got it to the point where players are
25:42
Speaker 6: so you know, they it's renowned what it's like to
25:45
Speaker 6: play here. We think we have the best training facility.
25:48
Speaker 6: We think we have the best arena. This arena is
25:51
Speaker 6: one of the most beautiful places in the whole world.
25:54
Speaker 6: We think we have the greatest fans, and I love
25:57
Speaker 6: these fans. I'll put them up against any fans, and
26:00
Speaker 6: if we give these fans what they deserve, winning this
26:04
Speaker 6: historic roof might get knocked off just one more time.
26:07
Speaker 6: I mean, it's just the power of these fans is immense.
26:10
Speaker 3: I remember twenty twenty three when the playoffs happened. Just
26:14
Speaker 3: how many times I thought the roof was going to
26:15
Speaker 3: be blowing off this place first round, second round as well.
26:18
Speaker 6: But it's you know, some of this goes back to
26:20
Speaker 6: having great ownership. And I'm gonna give Samantha Holloway a
26:22
Speaker 6: shout out. She's been an incredible owner and incredibly supportive
26:27
Speaker 6: from everything we've done to create this building, to create
26:30
Speaker 6: our training center, to create an environment for winning, and
26:33
Speaker 6: then the community work she's allowed us to do with
26:35
Speaker 6: Wilmore's Stadium. I just toured it as I walked into
26:38
Speaker 6: the building here, and in about sixteen months, the most
26:41
Speaker 6: beautiful community stadium in the land will open. So there's
26:45
Speaker 6: a lot to look forward here and we're going to
26:47
Speaker 6: have a prolific offseason.
26:48
Speaker 3: You have seen the success up close of the Mariners.
26:51
Speaker 3: You've been a part of the Seahawks and know what
26:53
Speaker 3: their culture is all about. They want another Vince Lombardi
26:55
Speaker 3: trophy as well. So I think as time marches on,
26:58
Speaker 3: it seems as if there's a really really tight knit
27:00
Speaker 3: feel for the sports landscape here. So when one team's well,
27:03
Speaker 3: the team the next one over says, let's carry the tours.
27:06
Speaker 3: So how much does that kind of come to mind
27:08
Speaker 3: with the goals that you want to set here moving forward?
27:10
Speaker 6: Well, we have great organizations in this town, but they
27:13
Speaker 6: all share the same oxygen, which is amazing fans. And
27:16
Speaker 6: I know sometimes I sound over the top, but I
27:19
Speaker 6: think that's what differentiates us from other places. The fans
27:22
Speaker 6: are incredible, They're loyal, they're supportive. You look around the
27:25
Speaker 6: jerseys here. These fans have been incredible and all the
27:29
Speaker 6: teams enjoy that. The Storm, the Torrent who play here
27:33
Speaker 6: and so onward on behalf of the fans. Let's do
27:36
Speaker 6: it here.
27:36
Speaker 3: Appreciate this and much more track to go, especially the summer.
27:40
Speaker 3: US could tell an amazing story looking forward to this. Todd,
27:42
Speaker 3: thank you very.
27:43
Speaker 6: Much, appreciate you, take care. Thanks to everybody who's been
27:46
Speaker 6: supporting us.
27:47
Speaker 3: All right, big thank you once again to Todd Liwiki
27:49
Speaker 3: for joining us at the set moving on. We've been
27:51
Speaker 3: looking forward to this right here, without further ado. He
27:55
Speaker 3: is a Gemini Award winning broadcaster for CBC Sports Sportsnet
28:00
Speaker 3: Hockey Night in Canada that only begins to scratch the surface.
28:03
Speaker 3: The one and only Scott Oak joining us now on
28:06
Speaker 3: the Beacon Plumbing Hotline for this on Crack and Weekly. Scott,
28:11
Speaker 3: thank you very much here for doing this myself. Everett
28:15
Speaker 3: Al we were goddy here to learn that you had
28:17
Speaker 3: a few moments of your time here for doing this
28:18
Speaker 3: with us. But first off, thank you for the work
28:21
Speaker 3: that you've done to inspire a lot of people, me included,
28:24
Speaker 3: us included. And thank you for taking care of our
28:27
Speaker 3: good friend Dave tom Winson as well in Vancouver. He says, Hi,
28:30
Speaker 3: how how deep would you guess by now your phone
28:33
Speaker 3: contact list is over the years?
28:35
Speaker 8: I know, I guess I could find out how many
28:37
Speaker 8: I have, but I do remember one day I was
28:39
Speaker 8: been my phone fixed and the guy scrolled through the
28:43
Speaker 8: contacts and he said, you have Wayne Gretzky's phone.
28:47
Speaker 3: And that's only scratching the surface. That's only I don't know.
28:51
Speaker 8: There's a lot of numbers in there, and you know,
28:53
Speaker 8: I couldn't hazard a guess, But let's just say over
28:57
Speaker 8: the years, I've developed a lot of contacts. But Mike,
29:00
Speaker 8: I just want to ask the intro that you just
29:02
Speaker 8: did there, did you get that off Wikipedia?
29:04
Speaker 3: Well, in the name of homework, our eyes may have
29:07
Speaker 3: scanned the page a little bit here, but the reason
29:10
Speaker 3: I mentioned that is.
29:11
Speaker 8: It wasn't that long ago. A couple of years ago,
29:13
Speaker 8: my brother phoned me from Ottawa, that's where he lives,
29:15
Speaker 8: and he said, have you seen your Wikipedia page? And
29:19
Speaker 8: I didn't even know I had one, so of course
29:20
Speaker 8: I googled it right away, and they're in all at slender,
29:23
Speaker 8: it said, after listing my accomplishment's Olympics hockey nen in
29:28
Speaker 8: Canada CFL on CBC ETCA.
29:30
Speaker 2: That was all right, but.
29:31
Speaker 3: Then it said.
29:33
Speaker 8: In June, the Toronto Star reported that Oak married his
29:36
Speaker 8: mistress in the pocon host.
29:37
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, Oh no.
29:42
Speaker 2: It turns out as.
29:43
Speaker 8: The user friendly site where people are actually couraged to
29:46
Speaker 8: go on to add information. So one of the great pranksters.
29:49
Speaker 8: I don't even know who was, but I thought that
29:51
Speaker 8: was very creative. Fortunately, my wife at the time thought
29:54
Speaker 8: it was hysterically funny. But it took about two months
29:57
Speaker 8: to get it off there with a legal action and
30:00
Speaker 8: finally it disappeared.
30:02
Speaker 3: Oh goodness, that's great, well, great, great, great to have you.
30:04
Speaker 3: I know a lot of people are looking at your
30:06
Speaker 3: work and you know, they say, it's the gold standards.
30:09
Speaker 3: So let's just get after this here. I mean, when
30:11
Speaker 3: you're done after the Stanley Cup playoffs. You've done everything
30:15
Speaker 3: from hosting an iconic show after Hockey Night in Canada.
30:18
Speaker 3: You've done Stanley Cup postgame interviews on the ice. You've
30:21
Speaker 3: taken a ride we've seen before on a TV hit
30:25
Speaker 3: in a DeLorean. I'm insanely jealous. You've interviewed Snoop Dogg
30:28
Speaker 3: at one point. This is the stuff of legends. What
30:32
Speaker 3: do you sum up as the best kind of day
30:35
Speaker 3: on the job for you, Well.
30:37
Speaker 8: I would point out the two things in my career
30:39
Speaker 8: that I've received the most reaction or publicity for our
30:42
Speaker 8: number one the interview with Snoop Dogg back in the
30:45
Speaker 8: O seven Stanley Cup Final Autowa and Anaheim, and number
30:48
Speaker 8: two retirement. So people may be happy to see me go,
30:56
Speaker 8: I don't know. Look, a typical day for me is
30:59
Speaker 8: as I'm always said, my goal in broadcasting has been
31:02
Speaker 8: to do a good enough show one week that they'll
31:05
Speaker 8: have me back the next week. So there's a lot
31:07
Speaker 8: of preparation, for example, for shows like After Hours, and
31:11
Speaker 8: then if you wanted to include those postgame celebrations to
31:14
Speaker 8: Stanley Cup championship, and you know, players on the ice
31:17
Speaker 8: with their families, A lot of research for that. So
31:20
Speaker 8: I spend a lot of time researching stuff to be prepared.
31:24
Speaker 8: And I guess I fooled them to this point, and
31:27
Speaker 8: I'm getting them before they figure out I'm.
31:28
Speaker 3: No good.
31:31
Speaker 5: Scott.
31:32
Speaker 1: I got to ask you know, you, like Mike said,
31:35
Speaker 1: you have been the voice for Canadians. You have been
31:39
Speaker 1: the voice for US American hockey fans who live close
31:43
Speaker 1: enough to the border where we can get CBC. When
31:46
Speaker 1: you look back at your career and the opportunity that
31:50
Speaker 1: you've had to lend your voice and your opinion and
31:54
Speaker 1: your talent to so many great moments in history, sports history,
32:00
Speaker 1: how does that make you feel to know that we're
32:03
Speaker 1: going to open that time capsule in fifty years, one
32:06
Speaker 1: hundred years, and Scott Oakes's voice is going to still
32:10
Speaker 1: be the soundtrack to a lot of our memories as
32:15
Speaker 1: sports fans.
32:16
Speaker 8: Well, I would say good and bad effort. You know,
32:19
Speaker 8: good in that it is the ultimate complement, I suppose,
32:22
Speaker 8: and you know, in the technology era that we're in now,
32:25
Speaker 8: nothing disappears. It's there forever bad though in that One
32:30
Speaker 8: of the great moments in my career I thought was
32:33
Speaker 8: calling the gold medal downhill in albert nineteen ninety two.
32:37
Speaker 8: It was won by Karen Lee Gardner and it was
32:38
Speaker 8: a magnificent race.
32:40
Speaker 5: Pardon me.
32:40
Speaker 8: It was the toughest course women at ever ski. Many
32:44
Speaker 8: of the European gunners, the people who were expected to
32:47
Speaker 8: dominate the race, were reduced to tears after the first
32:50
Speaker 8: training run. That race was won by a little waif.
32:53
Speaker 8: Well she wasn't a little waife, but comparatively she might
32:55
Speaker 8: have been from Rosslyn, BC. Karen Lee Gartner and I
32:59
Speaker 8: had got to know over the years and her husband Max,
33:01
Speaker 8: lovely people. Anyway, Karen tore down the final section of
33:05
Speaker 8: the rock to fair and won the race.
33:08
Speaker 5: And I had a cold at.
33:10
Speaker 8: The time, much like I'm battling right now, and I
33:12
Speaker 8: dodled her across the finish line. And every time I
33:16
Speaker 8: hear that call, I cringe.
33:18
Speaker 5: It's one of those things.
33:19
Speaker 8: And I don't know if you do this, but you
33:20
Speaker 8: hear something bad, or you know you've done something that
33:23
Speaker 8: you don't want to hear again, you do this. I
33:26
Speaker 8: plugged my ears and just hope that it's over, you know,
33:30
Speaker 8: before I actually hear it. So but to answer your question,
33:35
Speaker 8: I'm honored that anyone would think that my voice would
33:38
Speaker 8: be the one attached to some magnificent moments in sport.
33:42
Speaker 8: I think this retirement thing, though, ever Alan Mike, has
33:46
Speaker 8: been highly overdone. There are many people who have had
33:49
Speaker 8: more prolific careers than me who never had a chance
33:53
Speaker 8: to go out on their own terms. And I guess
33:55
Speaker 8: that's the difference here. I'm going out on my own terms,
33:57
Speaker 8: and Sportsnet convinced me, persuaded me, Orderline told me to
34:01
Speaker 8: make the announcement a couple of weeks ago, and here
34:05
Speaker 8: we are with all this hooplaw, which is making me
34:07
Speaker 8: very very uncomfortable.
34:10
Speaker 1: Well, that just proves that you're one of the greats
34:12
Speaker 1: in that. I mean, you know obviously Hockey Night in Canada,
34:17
Speaker 1: that that is what a lot of folks know you for.
34:19
Speaker 1: But you just mentioned your Olympic work, your other CFL
34:23
Speaker 1: work that you've done outside of the NHL. What are
34:27
Speaker 1: some of your most memorable moments, What are your favorite things?
34:31
Speaker 5: Your favorite sports.
34:32
Speaker 1: To cover when you're not cruising around the rinks on
34:35
Speaker 1: Saturdays of the winter.
34:37
Speaker 8: You know, when I started in this business, there was
34:39
Speaker 8: a sports anthology show on CBC called Sports Weekend, and
34:43
Speaker 8: that was before the days of TSN, Sports net, so
34:45
Speaker 8: the CBC was responsible for covering the Canadian championships in
34:50
Speaker 8: all manner of sports. Just the other day, the head
34:54
Speaker 8: of CBC Sports sent me a congratulatory email on my retirement.
34:57
Speaker 8: I wrote him back and I said, I'm available now
34:59
Speaker 8: for voiceovers on everything from darts to trampoline. It or not,
35:03
Speaker 8: I actually covered both sports. That sports anthology show was
35:09
Speaker 8: such that on a given weekend, because I was one
35:11
Speaker 8: of the guys who worked on it extensively, I could be,
35:15
Speaker 8: you know, outside Quebec City covering speed skating, or I
35:18
Speaker 8: could be in Regina covering the Canadian Darts championships. So
35:22
Speaker 8: the sports ran the gamut as for you know, one
35:25
Speaker 8: favorite one. It would be the one I guess that
35:27
Speaker 8: I referred to a moment ago, and that would be
35:29
Speaker 8: downhill skiing, well, all skiing disciplines, downhill GS and slalom,
35:35
Speaker 8: So I guess, yeah, if I had to pick one,
35:38
Speaker 8: that would be it largely because of the thrill of it.
35:42
Speaker 8: You know, women are men hurtling themselves down a mountain
35:46
Speaker 8: at one hundred kilometers or a hundred miles an hour,
35:48
Speaker 8: whatever the math is is quite something. I also enjoyed
35:52
Speaker 8: it because there was only one person on the course
35:54
Speaker 8: at a time, so that was play by play that
35:56
Speaker 8: I couldn't although I managed from time to time to
35:59
Speaker 8: do that.
36:01
Speaker 4: Well, it's got a comment first and then a question
36:04
Speaker 4: for me. The comment is I think of Everett in
36:06
Speaker 4: his career so far, and he hates his calls as
36:09
Speaker 4: well when his voice breaks, and I think it's it
36:11
Speaker 4: becomes very iconic in those situations. I always give him
36:16
Speaker 4: the analogy of Mary Clayton and the song Gimme Shelter
36:19
Speaker 4: from the Rolling Stones when her voice breaks into the
36:21
Speaker 4: song and she wanted to redo it and they said no, nope,
36:25
Speaker 4: this is the way it stayed, and it's it's become
36:27
Speaker 4: an iconic part of the song. And so I always
36:30
Speaker 4: think that that really shows the human side of.
36:34
Speaker 5: What you guys do as broadcasters. And so my question is.
36:40
Speaker 4: You had to have had all kinds of advice over
36:43
Speaker 4: the years, suggestions, give us, give us a couple of
36:46
Speaker 4: pieces that you got maybe earlier in your career that
36:49
Speaker 4: then you applied that you think improved your career.
36:53
Speaker 8: We had a regional director at the CBC many years ago.
36:57
Speaker 3: We said to me, kid, so.
36:59
Speaker 8: You know how many years that one. Here's the key
37:02
Speaker 8: to being a good broadcaster. Key to being a good
37:04
Speaker 8: broadcaster is being able to speak for thirty seconds on
37:06
Speaker 8: a topic you know nothing about without repeating yourself once,
37:10
Speaker 8: and if you know something about it, feel free to
37:12
Speaker 8: speak even so, there's a certain amount of that in
37:15
Speaker 8: a Ron mcclan and I always joke that the key
37:17
Speaker 8: to TV is sincerity, and once you can fake that,
37:21
Speaker 8: you can do anything.
37:23
Speaker 3: Again.
37:23
Speaker 8: I've applied that in my career. I suppose the best
37:26
Speaker 8: advice I've ever received from anybody was from the late
37:28
Speaker 8: great Don Whitman. I came to Winnipeg in nineteen seventy
37:31
Speaker 8: five Christmas is seventy five to replaced on on the
37:34
Speaker 8: local sports system, was going to work full time for
37:37
Speaker 8: the network. And he never said this to me, but
37:40
Speaker 8: I watched him in the years that we worked together,
37:44
Speaker 8: and he got through to me the message that you
37:47
Speaker 8: need to be prepared. You might head into a broadcast
37:52
Speaker 8: with twenty ideas and two might get on the air,
37:57
Speaker 8: but it's far better to have more information. I guess
38:00
Speaker 8: that would be the most enduring memory and the best
38:03
Speaker 8: lesson that I got.
38:05
Speaker 3: Scott, what's the biggest key to interviewing?
38:08
Speaker 8: Say again?
38:09
Speaker 3: What's the biggest key to interviewing?
38:11
Speaker 8: Well, just what I didn't do there, and that's listen.
38:16
Speaker 3: I'll speak more and clarity. I'll speak more clear. Next
38:19
Speaker 3: time I'll try you. I'll get that down one of
38:22
Speaker 3: these days.
38:24
Speaker 8: The key to a good interview is to be able
38:29
Speaker 8: to listen, to be able to follow up. One thing
38:33
Speaker 8: I've always said to young broadcasters, and I've been a
38:35
Speaker 8: victim of this by myself. I've done it to myself,
38:38
Speaker 8: is what I'm trying to say. Sometimes you feel like
38:40
Speaker 8: you have to get so much information into the question
38:43
Speaker 8: that there's nowhere for the guy you're interviewing to go
38:45
Speaker 8: other than to say yes or no. Right, So give
38:49
Speaker 8: the guest you're talking to an opportunity to explain himself
38:53
Speaker 8: and maybe tell a story. But you can only do
38:56
Speaker 8: that if you listen and ask the appropriate question and
38:59
Speaker 8: not on that's you know, three minutes long.
39:03
Speaker 3: Scott Ogg joining us here again, longtime host of After Hours.
39:06
Speaker 3: The resume is absolutely positively thick, decades upon decades of
39:12
Speaker 3: experiences with this here on Cracking Weekly. I can go
39:16
Speaker 3: down this road here, there, everywhere, but I'll just see
39:19
Speaker 3: it up for you. Scott most unforgettable interview of all time?
39:22
Speaker 3: Who was it?
39:25
Speaker 8: Oh my gosh, I would say that we finished after
39:29
Speaker 8: hours this year on an ice run, we had.
39:35
Speaker 5: John Cooper.
39:37
Speaker 8: Brandon monteur yea from Seattle. He was compelling as he
39:41
Speaker 8: talked about his life, his indigenous heritage, and is the
39:44
Speaker 8: passing of his brother Seth. Jones had Connor McDavid earlier
39:49
Speaker 8: in the year, and it was kind of like Connor
39:51
Speaker 8: McDavid unplugged. You know, he was as unguarded as he'd
39:55
Speaker 8: ever been in any of any interview that I had
39:58
Speaker 8: ever done with him. So I've enjoyed this year. I
40:00
Speaker 8: mean I headed into it thinking who's left to talk to?
40:03
Speaker 8: And this is going to be highly repetitive, But it
40:05
Speaker 8: turned out to be a pretty good year. So I've
40:07
Speaker 8: liked my last year. But you'll be surprised at this,
40:11
Speaker 8: I suppose. I'm not going to tell you that the
40:15
Speaker 8: greatest interview I ever did was with a superstar player.
40:18
Speaker 8: It was with Brian mcgratton. That's the one I remember
40:21
Speaker 8: the most. Because of the path taken by our family
40:23
Speaker 8: because of addiction and substance abuse. You may know that
40:26
Speaker 8: we've lost our son Bruce in twenty eleven to an
40:29
Speaker 8: accidental drug overdose, and so our life's work has become
40:32
Speaker 8: to establish recovery centers where men and women can go
40:36
Speaker 8: to reclaim their lives. The Bruce Ope Recovery Center has
40:39
Speaker 8: been open for five years, has achieved wonderful things, sent
40:42
Speaker 8: men back to their families, their loved ones, their jobs,
40:45
Speaker 8: society in general. And construction on the Annok Family Recovery
40:49
Speaker 8: Center for women and children will begin at the end
40:52
Speaker 8: of this month. So when I talked to Brian mcgratton
40:55
Speaker 8: on After Hours, much of the interview was about his
40:58
Speaker 8: recovery he's in. He was actually working for the Calgary
41:01
Speaker 8: Flames at the time as a development coach, but his
41:05
Speaker 8: principal responsibility was to be there as an advisor to
41:08
Speaker 8: younger players who might have got off the straight and narrow.
41:11
Speaker 8: He had a very powerful message about getting sober, and
41:14
Speaker 8: I remember in the days after the two occasions in
41:16
Speaker 8: which we talked to him in After Hours, there were
41:18
Speaker 8: tons of When I say tons, I mean probably fifty
41:22
Speaker 8: to one hundred messages phone calls from people wanting to
41:26
Speaker 8: know how they could get a hold of him because
41:28
Speaker 8: he was so inspiring. So, you know, I suppose it's
41:32
Speaker 8: exclusive to me and to our family. That's probably the
41:36
Speaker 8: after hours that I remember the most.
41:39
Speaker 5: I guess on that Van Scott.
41:41
Speaker 1: You know, it's never easy dealing with loss and pain
41:45
Speaker 1: and family trauma and things of that nature, and a
41:48
Speaker 1: lot of times we kind of lose ourself in our work.
41:51
Speaker 1: And when you were having to go through all of this,
41:54
Speaker 1: who were the figures, who were your coworkers, Who are
41:56
Speaker 1: the people that were your support system that helped you
42:00
Speaker 1: out of it. What were some of the events that
42:02
Speaker 1: you remember calling that you know, not to trivialize it,
42:06
Speaker 1: but also but maybe brought some normalcy back to the
42:11
Speaker 1: world for you.
42:13
Speaker 8: A good question, Evert, and I would say pretty much
42:16
Speaker 8: all of my co workers in broadcasting we are a
42:20
Speaker 8: pretty tight unit and occupy in Canada. When Bruce died,
42:25
Speaker 8: it was you know, your world collapses for any parent
42:28
Speaker 8: who loses a child. But I wouldn't have got through
42:30
Speaker 8: it were it not for my wife, of course was
42:33
Speaker 8: alive at the time. She later passed ten years after
42:35
Speaker 8: Bruce's death, But at the time I wouldn't.
42:39
Speaker 5: Have got through it.
42:40
Speaker 8: We wouldn't have gone through it without the support of
42:42
Speaker 8: all the guys I work with. And I won't name
42:44
Speaker 8: names because I'm sure i'll leave somebody out, but you know,
42:48
Speaker 8: such good friends that I have, you know, established over
42:54
Speaker 8: the years. It's really the part of the business that
42:59
Speaker 8: I will miss the most. I think I said in
43:02
Speaker 8: my closing the other night in San Jose as we
43:06
Speaker 8: were signing off after hours, that you know, Michael Farber,
43:11
Speaker 8: the great writer, and I had encountered each other into
43:15
Speaker 8: each other the King's Game in Los Angeles years ago,
43:17
Speaker 8: and the industry was already shrinking. In the topic we
43:19
Speaker 8: were both late in our careers, and pardon med the
43:23
Speaker 8: topic turned to what would you do if it all
43:25
Speaker 8: ended today? And Michael said, I'd say it was wonderful,
43:29
Speaker 8: traveled the world and somebody else's dying made great lifelong friends,
43:33
Speaker 8: had a blast. And so I repeated that story because
43:36
Speaker 8: I can't say it any better than that, And those
43:38
Speaker 8: lifelong friends are principal in me, you know, getting through
43:43
Speaker 8: the passing of my wife and my son and being
43:46
Speaker 8: able to carry on to this point.
43:49
Speaker 4: Scott, when you were first starting this journey, what was
43:55
Speaker 4: it that made you want to be a broadcaster? Was
43:59
Speaker 4: it somebody you listen listened to? Was it somebody in
44:01
Speaker 4: your life was at school? What made you want to
44:04
Speaker 4: be a broadcaster?
44:05
Speaker 8: I followed my brother. My late brother, Bruce was a
44:08
Speaker 8: year older than me. He was born with spina. Bit
44:10
Speaker 8: that I lived for thirty three years. But he was
44:13
Speaker 8: a wonderful man, a great influence in my life. And
44:16
Speaker 8: I followed him to the university radio station. We're going
44:19
Speaker 8: to Memorial University in Saint John's, Newfoundland. And he he
44:24
Speaker 8: loved broadcasting, and I, usually, you know, took up whatever
44:28
Speaker 8: hobbies that he did. And at Memorial Radio mun Radio,
44:33
Speaker 8: it was called I like to joke, but there's a
44:36
Speaker 8: degree of truth to it that I fell in love
44:37
Speaker 8: there with some of my own voice.
44:39
Speaker 5: So that's rare. Usually people don't like to listen to
44:43
Speaker 5: their own voice. I don't like.
44:44
Speaker 8: It either, but that's just the catchphrase I use.
44:47
Speaker 3: And some millions upon million millions would disagree.
44:51
Speaker 2: Yes.
44:54
Speaker 8: After a couple of years volunteering there, somebody said to me,
44:58
Speaker 8: you should apply for that summer relief job over at
45:00
Speaker 8: CBC Newfoundland. And I did summer relief sportscaster's job. I
45:05
Speaker 8: didn't hear anything for a while, so I called over
45:07
Speaker 8: and the guy who answered the phone was one of
45:09
Speaker 8: the legendary figures in sportscasting in New Atlanta's name was
45:12
Speaker 8: Ted Withers, and he said to me, as a matter
45:14
Speaker 8: of factor, the only guy to apply so a commitment
45:17
Speaker 8: start on Monday, thereby approving the only way for me
45:20
Speaker 8: to get a job was if no one else applied.
45:22
Speaker 8: So I did that summer relief job for two years.
45:25
Speaker 8: At the end of the second year, one of the
45:27
Speaker 8: full time sportscasters quit to go to law school, and
45:31
Speaker 8: I applied for the full time job. And don't ask
45:34
Speaker 8: me how I got it, because I spoke faster than
45:37
Speaker 8: the speed of light, and I thought I knew everything
45:39
Speaker 8: and if I had to, I could get it all
45:42
Speaker 8: out in one long answer. Anyway, I got the job.
45:46
Speaker 8: My father was upset because he had come from that
45:49
Speaker 8: generation where all parents wanted their kids to do was
45:52
Speaker 8: a little bit better than they had done, and that
45:55
Speaker 8: for him entailed a university education. And I told him
45:57
Speaker 8: at the time, don't worry, I'm going to go back
46:00
Speaker 8: university full time after a couple of years of doing this.
46:03
Speaker 8: And then I got to go to the Olympics in
46:04
Speaker 8: Montreal in nineteen seventy six, Before any of you guys
46:07
Speaker 8: were born probably, and I decided then that I had
46:15
Speaker 8: made it. My career had peaked, and I did not
46:18
Speaker 8: go back to university. But my father would ask me
46:21
Speaker 8: on many occasions right up until he died, actually about
46:25
Speaker 8: ten years ago, when I was going to go back
46:27
Speaker 8: to university and finish my degree so i'd have something
46:29
Speaker 8: to fall back on when the CBC and Sportsnet and
46:32
Speaker 8: Hockey Night in Canada figured out I was no good.
46:35
Speaker 8: But I haven't figured it out yet and I'm getting
46:37
Speaker 8: up before they do.
46:40
Speaker 4: Answer.
46:40
Speaker 1: So Scott again, you're not going to want to hear this,
46:43
Speaker 1: so cover your ears. Me, growing up in a border
46:47
Speaker 1: town of Detroit, I Hockey Night in Canada. I watched
46:51
Speaker 1: that broadcast religiously, and for me, you are as synonymous
46:55
Speaker 1: with Hockey Night in Canada as Bob Cole and Jim
46:58
Speaker 1: Houston and Ron McLean and Don Jerry. Those who don't
47:01
Speaker 1: know how important and how big Hockey Night in Canada is,
47:04
Speaker 1: I employ you to do some research. But also as
47:07
Speaker 1: big is the towel, and every player when they're interviewed,
47:12
Speaker 1: they get the Hockey Night in Canada towel. I read
47:15
Speaker 1: Julian Mackenzie's story earlier this week.
47:18
Speaker 5: About just how it came.
47:20
Speaker 1: And I want to hear from your from your voice.
47:23
Speaker 1: Why how this seemingly white cotton towel with a embossed
47:30
Speaker 1: Hockey Night in Canada logo that is clamored for around
47:33
Speaker 1: the entire hockey world has become this massive symbol of
47:39
Speaker 1: Hey mom, I've made it in hockey.
47:42
Speaker 8: It's just because of how you described your connection to
47:46
Speaker 8: the Hockey Knight in Canada. Ever, growing up in Detroit,
47:48
Speaker 8: you watched it all the time. And most guys, is
47:50
Speaker 8: what sixty percent of the players in the NHL are Canadians. Yeah,
47:54
Speaker 8: so at one time they probably watched Hockey Knight in Canada.
47:56
Speaker 8: In fact, probably most of them did, and that Hockey
48:00
Speaker 8: Night in Canada crest the logo is big in people's lives,
48:04
Speaker 8: and especially if you're a Canadian player or you know,
48:07
Speaker 8: an American player from a border town. I've had players
48:11
Speaker 8: ask me if they can be the first intermission interview
48:15
Speaker 8: so they can get a towel for their father. We
48:20
Speaker 8: don't do those intermission interviews as much anymore. That's fine
48:23
Speaker 8: because you know, they didn't really produce much reaction other
48:26
Speaker 8: than we've got to play our game, get pucks. In
48:28
Speaker 8: d pucks on net with traffic mixed in, you name it.
48:32
Speaker 5: That's the nature.
48:33
Speaker 8: That's the nature of those interviews because they're only a
48:35
Speaker 8: minute and guys are in the moment they want to
48:37
Speaker 8: get back into the room. The payoff for us, of course,
48:40
Speaker 8: is after hours, at the end of the night, when
48:42
Speaker 8: you get a chance to sit down and talk to
48:43
Speaker 8: somebody at length. But the towels are they are iconic
48:48
Speaker 8: in themselves. I've often been asked by players if I
48:52
Speaker 8: would sign the towel. Trying to sign a terry cloth
48:56
Speaker 8: thing with the sharby doesn't work. But I've done it,
48:57
Speaker 8: and I don't like it because I think it just
49:00
Speaker 8: raised the holy Grail, as I told Julian in that
49:03
Speaker 8: story that he did on that for Sports Sports networ
49:07
Speaker 8: Athletic West Part. So yeah, they're they're They're huge, and
49:13
Speaker 8: they remain huge. It's just part of the heritage of
49:18
Speaker 8: the game and the lives of a lot of players.
49:20
Speaker 3: We talking about signing towals, ever, go ahead, Sorry.
49:22
Speaker 5: I was a one quick follow up.
49:24
Speaker 1: Now that you're retiring after a you're getting a much
49:27
Speaker 1: deserved break at vacation, are we keeping the towels? Are
49:32
Speaker 1: the towels going with Scott Oak Are we going to
49:36
Speaker 1: be handing out these towels every Saturday?
49:39
Speaker 8: Hey Everett, Man, I really appreciate that you think I'm
49:41
Speaker 8: that big that they would you know, what they should do.
49:45
Speaker 8: They should cancel all of hockeynting camp.
49:48
Speaker 1: Hey Scott, Scott, he's done, So we're done.
49:51
Speaker 3: We're going out on top.
49:52
Speaker 2: We'll see you later on that.
49:54
Speaker 8: Along those lines. The best text I got message that
49:58
Speaker 8: I got when the announcement that I had to make
50:00
Speaker 8: that night was from Brad for Living, who the week
50:05
Speaker 8: before had been fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and
50:07
Speaker 8: he said, basically, just because I've got fired.
50:09
Speaker 5: Doesn't mean you have to pack it.
50:15
Speaker 4: Wrote.
50:15
Speaker 8: I wrote him back and I said, Brad, thank you
50:17
Speaker 8: very much. I knew you'd figure it out that with
50:20
Speaker 8: you gone, there was no point in continuing. So I
50:22
Speaker 8: would say the same thing about Hockey Neck in Canada. Yeah,
50:25
Speaker 8: I guess the show if I'm leaving. But look, you
50:27
Speaker 8: know people say it'll never be the same, and look
50:30
Speaker 8: in this is how it works in broadcasting. And you
50:33
Speaker 8: probably know this that you know two weeks after you're gone,
50:37
Speaker 8: there'll be a reaction for a week as there has
50:39
Speaker 8: been this week and maybe a little bit more, but
50:42
Speaker 8: eventually it dissipates and in a matter of time, and
50:45
Speaker 8: it could be two weeks, three weeks, a month at
50:48
Speaker 8: the longest. Who was that guy? I remember that guy
50:51
Speaker 8: that used to ask all the stupid questions And I'm fine,
50:55
Speaker 8: I'm fine to get into the work with our foundation
50:58
Speaker 8: and move on.
50:59
Speaker 3: Well, you have gone on from signing towels now to authoring,
51:04
Speaker 3: and you're putting your own signature on a remarkable career.
51:08
Speaker 3: And you know, Scott, I think you kind of shed
51:10
Speaker 3: some light on this. I mean, your love for humanity
51:12
Speaker 3: is great. Your passion here for the Bruce Oak Recovery
51:15
Speaker 3: Center is extremely admirable. So with that all in mind, here,
51:19
Speaker 3: what's next for you for a life off the air Well.
51:22
Speaker 2: I will step.
51:23
Speaker 8: Into work with our foundation and I'm looking forward to that.
51:26
Speaker 8: I'll have a lot more time to devote to the
51:28
Speaker 8: Bruce Oak Recovery Center and the construction of the Family
51:32
Speaker 8: Recovery Center, and I will spend a lot more time
51:35
Speaker 8: with my two grandchildren, August and Herlin. They're four and two,
51:39
Speaker 8: and I want to be more present for them. Weekends
51:42
Speaker 8: are very valuable with kids, that's from families or families
51:45
Speaker 8: and hope too. Well, I don't hope too. I will
51:48
Speaker 8: be around a lot more for them, so I will
51:51
Speaker 8: not have any difficulty filling my daytime or whatsoever.
51:55
Speaker 3: You filled in the daytime. Are well here for this career.
51:58
Speaker 3: You have made an impression for so many in this
52:01
Speaker 3: hockey role across this globe, all of us here on
52:04
Speaker 3: this conversation with class, humility, humor, and Scott. Yes, we
52:07
Speaker 3: will guard that Wikipedia page with all our might. You
52:10
Speaker 3: are a treasure to be protected at all costs. Certainly,
52:12
Speaker 3: my wikipediat Scott, appreciate you for doing this. Thank you.
52:21
Speaker 8: Hey, listen, are you guys are you gonna run this
52:23
Speaker 8: whole thing? Or if you're not, I would appreciate it
52:25
Speaker 8: if you could edit it so it sounds like I
52:27
Speaker 8: actually speak English.
52:32
Speaker 3: All right, Appreciate you very much. That is Scott Oak
52:35
Speaker 3: again announcing his retirement at the end of this season,
52:39
Speaker 3: once again a renowned and historic and legendary broadcaster for
52:43
Speaker 3: CBC Sports, Sports Net and Hockey Night in Canada. Back
52:47
Speaker 3: after this with Moron cracking weekly on ninety three to
52:49
Speaker 3: three KJRFM. Votes are still coming in right now for
52:53
Speaker 3: our Crack and weekly poll question likely is to happen
52:56
Speaker 3: by the end of the weekend. Looks like right now
53:00
Speaker 3: it is a dead heat right now between Bobby McMahon
53:04
Speaker 3: scoring thirty goals and Jordan every reaching sixty points. Again,
53:09
Speaker 3: if you want to pitch in for this, vote for
53:11
Speaker 3: that right now at Crank and audio Net, at Twitter
53:14
Speaker 3: and X Everett fits you glad to have him join
53:17
Speaker 3: us here for the conversation with Scott Oak. My goodness,
53:20
Speaker 3: what a gem, what a legend. Big thanks and for
53:22
Speaker 3: joining us, and also definitely for CEO Todd Laiwiki and
53:25
Speaker 3: his time for joining us at the set. A lot
53:28
Speaker 3: more clarity that we're getting here in direction coming up
53:30
Speaker 3: here for this summer and it leads us here to
53:32
Speaker 3: our mail bag segment here for this before we finally
53:35
Speaker 3: get out of here once again, find me at Twitter
53:37
Speaker 3: and x at Benton Underscore. Mike Everett is also at
53:41
Speaker 3: the Voice fits al Kiniski at al Kiniski and anders
53:44
Speaker 3: Hurst also go ahead find him, reach him, go ahead
53:48
Speaker 3: and give him his flowers and his props over at
53:50
Speaker 3: andrews Hurst as well. We get one here first off
53:53
Speaker 3: from Kevin saying the crack you need to make the
53:55
Speaker 3: big move and get the right top line player like
53:58
Speaker 3: many other teams. But who do you see as a
54:00
Speaker 3: realistic option to fit that role, and he gives the
54:04
Speaker 3: options here Jason Robertson, Matthew Nyes, Alexi Lafrenier, Mattias Michelli,
54:11
Speaker 3: Cole Profetti, or Kevin Fila. I can't help but think
54:16
Speaker 3: that Jason Robertson would do so much on the wing
54:19
Speaker 3: given that there's a lack of maybe availability at the
54:22
Speaker 3: center position. I think more reports are coming out and
54:24
Speaker 3: I would have loved the Robert Thomas trade, but this
54:27
Speaker 3: was maybe something to just light a fire under him
54:30
Speaker 3: and Robert Thomas responded, And depending upon who else is
54:33
Speaker 3: out there, it might be a slim choice for candidates
54:36
Speaker 3: over at center, depending upon who might shake loose here
54:39
Speaker 3: the very last second. But I like his fit Toronto,
54:42
Speaker 3: We'll see they could be open for business based on
54:44
Speaker 3: what's happening right now. Matthew Nyes, my goodness, what a player.
54:49
Speaker 3: He's got an instant Lane Lambert connection. But at the
54:52
Speaker 3: top for those choices, those are two that I'm thinking of, guys,
54:55
Speaker 3: take it away.
54:57
Speaker 4: I think that it's funny you mentioned that my because
55:00
Speaker 4: Everett and I were talking about on the broadcast, maybe
55:02
Speaker 4: off the broadcast, I can't remember. Sometimes between on air
55:05
Speaker 4: and off air, but we were talking about the benefits
55:08
Speaker 4: you get when you bring a player in that has
55:10
Speaker 4: an existing relationship with the coach, because they're not going
55:14
Speaker 4: to come if they don't like the coach.
55:16
Speaker 5: If they like the coach, are going to come.
55:17
Speaker 4: I think that that, you know, we've seen that with
55:19
Speaker 4: Bobby McMahon, you automatically have a step up. You know
55:24
Speaker 4: what they're going to expect of you, you know their systems.
55:26
Speaker 4: I think it can be the same as well if
55:28
Speaker 4: you know the GM, but I think it's even bigger
55:30
Speaker 4: if you know the coach. So the Matthew Nis one
55:33
Speaker 4: is an interesting observation from that standpoint. I love Jason
55:38
Speaker 4: Robertson's game. I think that this team is deep down
55:41
Speaker 4: the middle. I think that they need to be deeper
55:44
Speaker 4: down the wings as well, that that top six grouping
55:49
Speaker 4: needs to get stronger here in the offseason, whatever whatever
55:52
Speaker 4: that that that takes, I would look to improve that.
55:55
Speaker 5: But at the end of the day, you.
55:57
Speaker 4: Can't call teams up and say, hey, what would you
56:00
Speaker 4: like for Jason Robertson because you're in a terrible negotiating position.
56:03
Speaker 4: What you have to do is you have to call
56:05
Speaker 4: teams up and say what are you looking for? And
56:08
Speaker 4: when that team has somebody on it Jason Robertson and
56:11
Speaker 4: Matthew and Ies whoever, then you can say, well, i'd
56:15
Speaker 4: be interested in moving.
56:17
Speaker 5: That player those players if you're.
56:18
Speaker 4: Interested in giving me blank Jason Robertson, Matthew and Is back.
56:23
Speaker 4: That's the way you approach these conversations. Obviously, there's a
56:27
Speaker 4: benefit if the player knows the coach, there's a benefit,
56:29
Speaker 4: if the player has connections to Seattle. There's lots of
56:32
Speaker 4: other underlying benefits that you'd like to tie together. But
56:35
Speaker 4: ultimately that's how those conversations go.
56:38
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think if for me, it's if I'm going
56:41
Speaker 7: down my shopping list and listing them out. Robertson's an
56:45
Speaker 7: easy number one for me, at least for the ones
56:47
Speaker 7: that have been kind of floated out there who might
56:49
Speaker 7: be available.
56:49
Speaker 2: I think this team needs a pure finisher.
56:53
Speaker 7: It's one of those situations where I feel like the
56:55
Speaker 7: crack I have a lot of talented even on the
56:57
Speaker 7: offensive end, talented players, but they may may not have
57:01
Speaker 7: what ends up happening is when you have that like
57:04
Speaker 7: top level goal scorer, specifically, everyone else's point totals go
57:09
Speaker 7: up because you end up finishing more chances. Maybe a
57:12
Speaker 7: full season of Bobby McMahon can do that as well.
57:14
Speaker 7: So it's not like they need to revamp the entire roster.
57:17
Speaker 7: They need to plug a couple holes, and I believe
57:22
Speaker 7: obviously the one C situation is the biggest one. But
57:26
Speaker 7: I think also I agree with that, I think they
57:30
Speaker 7: are pretty deep at center just overall that the wing
57:33
Speaker 7: is where I want to see a little bit more
57:35
Speaker 7: higher end talent, and that's where I think Jason Robertson
57:37
Speaker 7: fits so well. He just shoots the puck like that's
57:39
Speaker 7: just what he does, and I think this team needs
57:41
Speaker 7: a little bit more of that. If you're looking at center,
57:44
Speaker 7: someone that I haven't really seen floated out a ton
57:47
Speaker 7: or at least linked to the Kraken. But I wonder
57:49
Speaker 7: about the availability for is a Ncohesher from New Jersey
57:53
Speaker 7: because they just got rid of their GM, there's a
57:55
Speaker 7: lot of you know, talk about what's going on there.
57:58
Speaker 2: I think he'd be a great fit here, good.
58:00
Speaker 7: Two way guy, has a little bit more of that
58:03
Speaker 7: skill offensively that you can kind of add to so
58:06
Speaker 7: that he's still pretty young. That kind of seems like
58:09
Speaker 7: the move of the Krack and want to make where
58:11
Speaker 7: you could still like be in a developmental ish phase,
58:14
Speaker 7: but also be like, hey, this guy makes us better
58:16
Speaker 7: right now and we can you know, push for playoffs
58:18
Speaker 7: and stuff like that. So and then with the Matthew
58:21
Speaker 7: and I's conversation, I think he's a fantastic player, don't
58:24
Speaker 7: get me wrong. I just wonder, similar to the discussion
58:27
Speaker 7: with the Kraken, but on the flip side, how much
58:29
Speaker 7: of what he has done has been playing with a
58:33
Speaker 7: William Knelander has been playing with a John Tavares has
58:36
Speaker 7: question with an Austin Matthews, and I wonder, coming here
58:39
Speaker 7: where you don't have that, you know, firepower, if that's
58:43
Speaker 7: going to have the same impact, right And so I'm
58:47
Speaker 7: not saying it won't, but that's just my in my head.
58:50
Speaker 7: A player like him, he could be one that brings
58:52
Speaker 7: it with him. You never know, but it makes Austin
58:55
Speaker 7: Matthews better exactly. Maybe that's maybe that's how it is,
58:59
Speaker 7: al You never knows, so no, it's it's it's one
59:02
Speaker 7: of those questions you always have to ask with NHL
59:04
Speaker 7: because you can. You can just look at their stat
59:06
Speaker 7: line and be like, oh, put that on the crack
59:08
Speaker 7: and we'd love to have that.
59:09
Speaker 2: And it's it's not just a one for one sort
59:11
Speaker 2: of situation.
59:12
Speaker 3: I'm also curious about William Niland or two if he
59:14
Speaker 3: would ever shake loose, But reports have already basically said
59:17
Speaker 3: that he won't be interested in leaving unless there's a
59:20
Speaker 3: full blown teardown of the least. But certainly things can change,
59:24
Speaker 3: maybe in a heartbeat. But to your point also on Nicohesher,
59:27
Speaker 3: you have captain material right there. I mean, course Jordan
59:30
Speaker 3: never leaves you already, but you've got leadership already that
59:33
Speaker 3: you can install in this dressing room and then last
59:35
Speaker 3: four years point totals eighty sixty seven, sixty nine, sixty
59:40
Speaker 3: six as well. Not too shabby from Curtis saying this
59:45
Speaker 3: team needs more scoring talent is twenty twenty six, twenty
59:48
Speaker 3: seven finally the year the team commits giving their young
59:51
Speaker 3: talent like Berkeley, Catton, Shane Wright, Yonnie Newman, Coppo, Coco Jagger,
59:55
Speaker 3: Fercus Logan, Morrison, et cetera. Real quantities of ice time
1:00:00
Speaker 3: over veterans who are over thirty years of age, and
1:00:03
Speaker 3: I think maybe there is some merit to this if
1:00:05
Speaker 3: you look on depending upon the player that you want
1:00:07
Speaker 3: to give this to. I think Berkeley Catton has shown enough.
1:00:11
Speaker 3: I'm curious where this goes with Shane Wright. Of course
1:00:13
Speaker 3: there have been reports about him moving or not, but
1:00:16
Speaker 3: ken Yannie Newman, if he demonstrates a little more wheels
1:00:19
Speaker 3: in this game and defensive upgrades, that's a solid prime candidate. Copocaco,
1:00:25
Speaker 3: again we mentioned this is part of our poll question.
1:00:27
Speaker 3: He has played head and shoulders above many ever since
1:00:29
Speaker 3: the Olympic trade deadlines. So this is all a very
1:00:32
Speaker 3: very important part of the conversation, and they're showing that
1:00:35
Speaker 3: the time is getting closer to where they can be
1:00:38
Speaker 3: trusted with a longer leash.
1:00:40
Speaker 5: Yeah.
1:00:40
Speaker 4: I think all those names you mentioned are are interesting
1:00:44
Speaker 4: ads to this roster. I think some of them could
1:00:48
Speaker 4: have more impact than others. I think some need more
1:00:51
Speaker 4: development and some may just be perennial Ahl stars. I
1:00:56
Speaker 4: think that's what you're always trying to figure out, because
1:00:59
Speaker 4: the ones that are the latter, the pereny Ahl stars,
1:01:03
Speaker 4: you're probably not looking to add to your roster for
1:01:06
Speaker 4: whatever reason. They're not able to play at the NHL level.
1:01:10
Speaker 4: You've got to focus on those young stars, those guys
1:01:14
Speaker 4: that have you know, met the level of the AHL,
1:01:17
Speaker 4: but still have more in their tank to develop, and
1:01:20
Speaker 4: they can only do it by spending some time at
1:01:22
Speaker 4: the NHL level.
1:01:23
Speaker 5: And you know you can do it all at once.
1:01:25
Speaker 4: But I think that those are some of the names
1:01:28
Speaker 4: that I like coming into next season. Tyson Jugnaf is
1:01:33
Speaker 4: one that wasn't mentioned there. I'm looking forward to seeing
1:01:36
Speaker 4: how he looks at this roster coming into next season,
1:01:39
Speaker 4: coming into camp as well. So, yes, you want the
1:01:43
Speaker 4: young kids to developed and to be to be given
1:01:45
Speaker 4: the opportunity at this level, and you know you'd like
1:01:49
Speaker 4: to see them in top pairings and in top six,
1:01:51
Speaker 4: but you rarely get brought in at that level. You've
1:01:54
Speaker 4: got to earn your way there, and it doesn't take
1:01:56
Speaker 4: long to do it because you can look at the
1:01:58
Speaker 4: roster over the last ten to fifteen games, these vets,
1:02:01
Speaker 4: these guys that were just mentioned that are thirty years
1:02:03
Speaker 4: old and older, they've moved around on the roster as well.
1:02:06
Speaker 4: So you can move yourself up and you can move
1:02:08
Speaker 4: yourself down.
1:02:09
Speaker 7: Yeah, and that's where the question about the summer comes
1:02:12
Speaker 7: into play because if you're really.
1:02:14
Speaker 2: Playing the long game here and you may not.
1:02:18
Speaker 7: Be, as you know, focused on next year specifically, then
1:02:23
Speaker 7: the Vets you move on from Jayden Schwartz, Jamie Alexiak
1:02:28
Speaker 7: and possibly more, there's gonna be spots available. So if
1:02:33
Speaker 7: if you choose to fill those with other people that
1:02:35
Speaker 7: are already in the NHL via trade free agency, however,
1:02:38
Speaker 7: then it's gonna you know, not necessarily give those guys
1:02:42
Speaker 7: that you just mentioned Mike a space to move up
1:02:45
Speaker 7: and you know bring into the team. Obviously injuries will
1:02:48
Speaker 7: add to that as well, but you can't just bring
1:02:50
Speaker 7: them up whenever you want. It's not like baseball you
1:02:52
Speaker 7: can call up and say like there's a different kind
1:02:54
Speaker 7: of rule here where it's you only have a certain
1:02:58
Speaker 7: amount of roster spots, right and if guys are injured
1:03:00
Speaker 7: and all that stuff. So it's not one of those
1:03:02
Speaker 7: like free range just bring him up whenever you can
1:03:04
Speaker 7: and try and see.
1:03:05
Speaker 2: How they work and stuff like that.
1:03:06
Speaker 7: But that's where the big question for me for this
1:03:09
Speaker 7: summer comes into play. Do you do you fill those
1:03:13
Speaker 7: spots that are going to be exiting the team on
1:03:15
Speaker 7: the roster with more veterans or maybe even younger guys
1:03:19
Speaker 7: that are already in the NHL to try and kind
1:03:22
Speaker 7: of up your talent pool, or do you trust the
1:03:24
Speaker 7: system that you have right now to fill that gap.
1:03:27
Speaker 7: I'm not saying one hundred percent you just don't sign
1:03:29
Speaker 7: anyone this year. Obviously, Bobby mcmanth's another UFA if you
1:03:32
Speaker 7: don't resign him too. So hopefully, yeah, I'm not even
1:03:34
Speaker 7: thinking in my head that that's an option, but it
1:03:35
Speaker 7: is because I want Tom back.
1:03:38
Speaker 2: But that's a big question.
1:03:40
Speaker 7: And you know, if they see this as kind of
1:03:42
Speaker 7: a read, like you said, a retool instead of like
1:03:45
Speaker 7: a full on rebuild, they're gonna kind.
1:03:47
Speaker 2: Of refill those spots with NHL players.
1:03:49
Speaker 7: But if they see this as kind of a longer term, hey,
1:03:52
Speaker 7: we need to kind of do some you know, player development,
1:03:55
Speaker 7: you know, really think about the next couple of years
1:03:58
Speaker 7: after that, then maybe you don't. Maybe you play you're
1:04:01
Speaker 7: a couple of guys that are on that fringe NHL
1:04:04
Speaker 7: level to kind of, you know, see if they can
1:04:06
Speaker 7: develop and take that next step.
1:04:08
Speaker 2: So you never know. That's why this summer is so
1:04:10
Speaker 2: intriguing to me.
1:04:10
Speaker 3: To be honest, let's get to our three stars before
1:04:13
Speaker 3: we get out of here. And first off, I'm gonna
1:04:15
Speaker 3: give my third star to Copocaco passing two hundred NHL points.
1:04:20
Speaker 3: That pass to Freddie Gudreau last night was silky smooth
1:04:24
Speaker 3: to make it a three to two game. And the
1:04:26
Speaker 3: pois is playing as well with the puck shows me
1:04:29
Speaker 3: an upgrade in his game. You play them with the
1:04:32
Speaker 3: right line mates. I really think you've got a great player, Andrews.
1:04:36
Speaker 3: You and I talked about this, a Laine Lambert kind
1:04:38
Speaker 3: of player who can produce with strength, and he is
1:04:41
Speaker 3: right now knocking on the door for a new career high.
1:04:44
Speaker 3: Copocaco was my third star, madd even here's guess my
1:04:47
Speaker 3: second start hitting twenty goals for the third time in
1:04:50
Speaker 3: four seasons. He's once again giving us moments demonstrating that
1:04:54
Speaker 3: his game has taken an offensive upgrade. I think where
1:04:57
Speaker 3: the summer goes, ultimately it shows where he is maybe
1:05:01
Speaker 3: fit on a longer term scale elsewhere. And I think
1:05:04
Speaker 3: potentially some help for him with the top line guy
1:05:07
Speaker 3: to shuffle this lineup is going to be good for him.
1:05:09
Speaker 3: But we're seeing again the competitiveness, attention to detailed defensively
1:05:14
Speaker 3: better at the faceoff circle for much of this season.
1:05:17
Speaker 3: But Matty Banier is hitting twenty goals, a nice feather
1:05:19
Speaker 3: in the cap, third time in four seasons. He's my
1:05:22
Speaker 3: second star, first start, sentimental pick, but it goes nick
1:05:25
Speaker 3: A Koco, first career NHL win. And granted you're playing
1:05:29
Speaker 3: a team in Calgary who is well out of the
1:05:30
Speaker 3: playoff mix, a team that he beat, but he had
1:05:33
Speaker 3: to get his feet wet against somebody, and he didn't
1:05:36
Speaker 3: get any time off back in period one, made a
1:05:38
Speaker 3: great save to get dialed in. He admitted that there
1:05:40
Speaker 3: were some nerves. He got past that. Andrews. You said
1:05:43
Speaker 3: this earlier the LA game. I thought was good for
1:05:46
Speaker 3: him to kind of give him a look as far
1:05:48
Speaker 3: as some balance, and that not every team is going
1:05:50
Speaker 3: to be the same, and it shows that some teams
1:05:53
Speaker 3: can pounce on you if there are mistakes. But I
1:05:56
Speaker 3: think certainly there is a long track ahead here for
1:05:59
Speaker 3: a goal under like nick A Coco, who has shown
1:06:02
Speaker 3: us a lot inspas some pretty unfortunate circumstances with this
1:06:05
Speaker 3: roster and with Joey Decord, Philip Grubauer, and Matt Murray
1:06:09
Speaker 3: all out or unavailable, nick A Coco my first star
1:06:14
Speaker 3: for a win in his first career nhell star plus
1:06:17
Speaker 3: also nearly bringing the house down with an empty netter
1:06:21
Speaker 3: and then putting a bow on it with some swagger, insaying,
1:06:26
Speaker 3: to paraphrase this Joey decord, Uh, you want an empty netter?
1:06:30
Speaker 3: I got some competition here for you. Take it away, yeah, Mikey.
1:06:35
Speaker 3: My third star goes to Freddy Gudreau. He's got goals
1:06:39
Speaker 3: in the last two games plus one over the last five.
1:06:41
Speaker 3: He was the recipient of that sweet pass that you
1:06:44
Speaker 3: talked about from Coppo Coco. I think he's enjoying playing
1:06:48
Speaker 3: on that line with Berkeley Catton the youngster and Coppolo Coco,
1:06:53
Speaker 3: you know, the the the older player. The skills that
1:06:56
Speaker 3: Coco brings I think fit very well into Freddie good
1:07:00
Speaker 3: Rose game, and it's starting to show over that those
1:07:02
Speaker 3: last five games with goals and two of them. My
1:07:05
Speaker 3: second star goes to the Cat Adam Larson also two
1:07:09
Speaker 3: goals in the last five plus five over that five
1:07:12
Speaker 3: game span. But what continues to stand out to me
1:07:15
Speaker 3: for Adam Larson is his willingness to block shots. One
1:07:19
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty on the team right now. First on
1:07:22
Speaker 3: the team tenth in the league, so he's hit broken
1:07:25
Speaker 3: the top ten for block shots. But this isn't necessarily
1:07:29
Speaker 3: something he's just done over the last week or over
1:07:31
Speaker 3: the last five games. It's something he does every single game,
1:07:35
Speaker 3: in addition to grabbing a couple of goals in that
1:07:37
Speaker 3: span as well. So he's my second star and then
1:07:40
Speaker 3: first star. Copying from your homework, Mike.
1:07:43
Speaker 4: Mattymanier's four points in the last five including that goal
1:07:50
Speaker 4: in Vegas which in the shootout, which was you know,
1:07:53
Speaker 4: we've seen that move before, he did it against Dempco
1:07:56
Speaker 4: earlier in the season in a shootout. He executed it
1:07:59
Speaker 4: perfectly once again.
1:08:00
Speaker 5: And then Sup.
1:08:01
Speaker 4: Berkeley Catton go down and do a very similar move. Yeah,
1:08:05
Speaker 4: it was exciting hockey Listen. This team has not won
1:08:08
Speaker 4: a lot of shootouts this year, but to see them
1:08:10
Speaker 4: kind of turn a corner a little bit where maybe
1:08:13
Speaker 4: you're starting to see something from Maddy Beniers as well
1:08:16
Speaker 4: as Berkeley Catten that could help you in the shootout.
1:08:19
Speaker 5: That was exciting to see.
1:08:20
Speaker 4: So congratulations Matty Beniers on hitting fifty points as well.
1:08:24
Speaker 5: He's my first star.
1:08:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, you cain't Cat.
1:08:27
Speaker 7: I didn't think Big Cat would have got a shout there,
1:08:29
Speaker 7: but I guess big Al was the one to give
1:08:30
Speaker 7: it to him.
1:08:31
Speaker 5: But I like the Big Cat.
1:08:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you're good, But I.
1:08:35
Speaker 2: Have a similar ones for the first two I got.
1:08:37
Speaker 2: Third star Coppocaco.
1:08:38
Speaker 7: I just like what his game's done in the last
1:08:40
Speaker 7: couple of weeks specifically, and even though he only has
1:08:42
Speaker 7: three points in the last four games, I guess only
1:08:45
Speaker 7: but it's just three sists. He still I think does
1:08:50
Speaker 7: a lot of little things really really well. Him and
1:08:52
Speaker 7: Berkeley Catton on the same line, I think has looked
1:08:54
Speaker 7: really good. I want to see a little bit more
1:08:56
Speaker 7: of that moving forward. Second star, I'll say Adam Larson,
1:09:00
Speaker 7: same kind of thing. Two goals, one assist for the
1:09:02
Speaker 7: for the Big Cat. You know, there's a lot of
1:09:04
Speaker 7: speculation on his future too, if the Kraken might entertain
1:09:07
Speaker 7: a trade for him, you know, thinking about moving on
1:09:10
Speaker 7: from a veteran, a guy who's been here from the beginning.
1:09:12
Speaker 7: We'll see what ends up happening. But if that is
1:09:15
Speaker 7: the case, good for him to get a goal in
1:09:16
Speaker 7: his last game at Climate Pledge Arena, so that that
1:09:19
Speaker 7: was awesome. And then my first starting to go Bobby
1:09:21
Speaker 7: McMahon mainly just what we were talking about to just
1:09:25
Speaker 7: two goals in the last four games. But how about
1:09:28
Speaker 7: this one, guys, sixteen shots on goal for Bobby McMahon
1:09:34
Speaker 7: in the last four games. So the next closest Cracking
1:09:38
Speaker 7: would be eleven with Brandon Montor.
1:09:39
Speaker 2: So it's good to see that.
1:09:42
Speaker 7: You know, you have someone that's willing to put the
1:09:44
Speaker 7: puck on net and canst score goals with that as well.
1:09:47
Speaker 7: The more you shoot, the more you score, right, So
1:09:50
Speaker 7: I just want to see a little bit more of that.
1:09:51
Speaker 7: I love his game right now. So I'm going Bobby
1:09:54
Speaker 7: McMahon for my number one Star of the week.
1:09:56
Speaker 3: By the way, also we should recognize a great salute
1:09:59
Speaker 3: by the backing a classy one as well to shake
1:10:01
Speaker 3: the hand of a Jha Copepatar, who will be ending
1:10:04
Speaker 3: his NHL career after twenty years end of this season.
1:10:07
Speaker 3: A handshake for him right back at center ice for
1:10:10
Speaker 3: his final trip into Seattle. That was a terrific to see.
1:10:13
Speaker 3: It's all the time we got though, folks. Big thanks
1:10:15
Speaker 3: again to Todd Lightwiki and to Scott ok. I'll be
1:10:18
Speaker 3: on the call with al tomorrow night for the Kracking
1:10:20
Speaker 3: and Vegas Golden Knights. Anders has a desk at Network Central.
1:10:24
Speaker 3: Once again, we're on air six thirty. Face off set seven.
1:10:27
Speaker 3: Then the cracking for Game eighty two in Colorado will
1:10:31
Speaker 3: be with you seven o'clock Pacific time. Faceoff on air
1:10:34
Speaker 3: six thirty. Can't wait to have you with us here
1:10:36
Speaker 3: to end the regular season. Hey, thanks again and also
1:10:40
Speaker 3: to Al and to Anders. I'm Mike Betting for Cracking Weekly.
1:10:43
Speaker 3: See you