Bottle Rocket with Alena Sycheva Episode 42: NHL Playoff Talk with Rod Pedersen.

In Episode 42 of Bottle Rocket, we’re joined by Rod Pedersen, host of the Cats N Bolts Podcast, for a relaxed and insightful hockey conversation.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:10

Hi everyone, welcome back to Bottle Rocket. I'm Elena here with Maven Jerry. Today we're joined by a host of the Cats and Bolts podcast, Rod Patterson.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

So listen, you're in Florida, you cover the Panthers. Uh how have they taken this incredible top to bottom season?

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Oh, not well at all. Well, right now it's been two weeks since they've played a game since the end of the regular season, and they all just vemoosed. They're hockey people and they a lot of them don't live here. So they got out of Florida. Um, they were ready for the break, Stan. They were ready for the break. It's been three straight runs to the Stanley Cup final. They're physically, mentally, emotionally tired and broken down. So they plan to be back, but there was a major sell job within the market to convince the fan base that they will be back next year. Because I don't know how well you know Florida fans, but if you're not winning, they check out. They go follow something else. Yeah. So the Panthers were literally, we'll be back, we'll be good. And I've been part of kind of helping them.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

I'm uh I'm uh fairly close with poor Maurice, and I wrote him a note at the end of the season that this season for them is a sabbatical. Sabbatical because their best player is out at the beginning of the season. I mean, that was just and and then it got worse, it got worse from there. And uh, you know, what the hell? They needed a break. You just as you said they needed so it's a sabbatical. Now uh we're gonna start all over. My theory has always been no team will ever win three cups in a row anymore because of the attrition. It seems that way, and they were a wonderful team, wonderful organization, just uh you know, uh great top to bottom. And uh so I I wouldn't say they don't they didn't deserve uh uh uh another shot at it, but they didn't have another shot because they were killed right at the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Jerry and Alina, can I just interject with something, and then it's the only time I'll do it this whole interview. A month ago, I was at UBS Arena in on Long Island, and I got off the elevator in the press box or this the Stan Fischler media what do they call it, Stan Exhibit, something like that. It's a museum, yeah. And there was like a a po like a huge quote of Stan's. I didn't know Stan was giving me in this interview, so I'm a I'm a little starstruck and uh excited. I've been reading him for years, but it said, you must you have to accentuate the positive, stan Fischler. And I'm like, wow, I would have loved to have had another hour to ask Stan about that because the that's so far gone. I mean, Stan was ahead of his time in a lot of your writings and the way you did things, and that's kind of where it is now. That's what I'm doing. I found when you do stand out and be positive these days, it stands out because everybody's so negative.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

That exhibit sort of uh was a surprise. A very, very good friend who I've known longer than uh Al Greenberg, uh David Kolb, uh did a lot of, first of all, he was an intern of mine. And like many interns, we remained friends and he made it into the hockey world. And I was talking to a girlfriend of mine before, we were talking about this new word, influencer. Uh Cove actually was and isn't an influencer, but he was the guy who gave the islanders the idea of doing this, and I've said to myself many, many times, and not too many people, uh, that this is like one of the nicest things that anything anybody ever did for me. I mean, it's it's got my old typewriter, it's got old books, and they just did such a tremendous job.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

And I was amazed.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

The other thing is, as the other thing, as Rod put it, you can't miss it because when you get off the elevator, you're practically forced into the joint. Um, but I'm I'm I'm so glad that you mentioned it because uh I uh Colb and I uh uh talking all the time now. Um this was just a great thing, great thing. Great, great thing.

SPEAKER_04 4:49

So, Rod, you covering the Panthers, uh, but you are a Tampa Bay fan. What's going on with that jersey?

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Well, uh I I host a podcast called the Cats and Bolts Podcast, and and the in a but I live in South Florida, but the fans here are like, why are you talking about the Bolts? I'm like, because if either team look at Stan, made a career for years covering all New York area teams, it's the same idea. So the Panthers are done, and I wanted to keep talking hockey, and now we're very excited that the Lightning are going to game seven against Montreal. And I busted out some Francais on the on the podcast this week, and now all the Habs fans love our show. Our numbers went through the roof. So uh, yeah, as long as a Florida team's playing, I want to cover it because I like talking hockey. So that's that's the answer. And and and the lightning have been fantastic to us. Yeah, well, I've been they're but they're very clever. Uh Stan mentioned how great the Panthers are top to bottom. The Lightning are the same. We're blessed here with the people that run the that own these teams, the coaches, the players, they treat me so well. Um, it's an honor. And I was now they hate each other. The Panthers and Lightning freaking hate each other from top to bottom. But when I got here six years ago, they were all in it together to grow Florida hockey. It was all fun, and now they brawl every time they play, and I'm caught in the middle. And the fans, there have been fans that are like putting a gun to my head, they're like, pick one. I'm like, no, I'm I feel like Stan, you probably lived that years ago. I'm I'm not picking one, I'm for Florida hockey, you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

You know how lucky you are? You are lucky because you are dealing with two of the best coaches ever in every way. Every I know it every day. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

So tell us a bit about your podcast. What's your focus? Is it all Panthers or do you cover all 32 teams?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Just the two. And uh again, I don't know how much you know about Florida, Alina, but all the media here. When I first got here, I couldn't believe that the Panthers were like six or seventh on the depth chart behind high school sports. And you know, writers get out of university and their first job is to cover the Panthers at the lightning. I'm like, I'm coming from Canada, man. Like that is the pinnacle of the pinnacle of the pinnacle, but here it's was really nothing. So, and I do this show on television in Canada every day. It would all of that would shock Canadians. Uh, but my wife and I at the time we're not together anymore, but she was a sportscaster. And a few years ago, we were driving across Western Canada in the summer, and we said we should start a Florida hockey podcast because there's nothing, there's nothing, and at that time the Panthers weren't very good, so we started it and just it took off, and there was nobody else talking NHL hockey here with any knowledge. I mean, I don't want to say anything ill of any other media, but their focus is elsewhere. The second the dolphins hold a news conference, they're all gone. You know what I mean? And and the fans can sniff that out. The fans aren't stupid, so we all say we're hockey first, and they they they love that. So that would those are just the two teams that we talk about.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Yeah. Yeah, we had a guest on who uh was uh working in the sports department of a newspaper, and he got he he caught hell because he took off out of a uh girls' volleyball game to go cover the Panthers practice or something, and then came back to the volleyball game.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

I assume your viewers are Canadian. This blew my mind when I first got here. The Panthers were playing an exhibition game. This gal and I just started together and it was an exhibition game. And I'm flipping through the TV channels. I'm like, Where's the game? She's like, What do you mean? I said, Well, what channel is it on? She goes, It's not only not on TV, it's not on the radio. I'm like, What? This is the National Hockey League, but that's the way that it was now it's not that way anymore. All the games are on TV, but at that time they weren't.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Well, the the amazing thing about the NHO right now is uh if I asked you to name a weak market, I can't think of a weak market. And the other thing is how the Floridian teams and how teams like Anaheim and you just go all around. Uh it's it's a very healthy league. And it's so hard for me to pick a team to root for when I'm writing writing stuff, because I'm buddies, I'm buddies with John Tortorella, and I'm buddies with uh Maurice and I'm buddies with Cooper. And uh, but I'm rooting very hard for Torts because when uh he was down in uh uh you know first covering uh coaching the lightning, uh they won the cup. But before they won the cup, we had a they had a series with the devils. I was doing devil stuff, and the devils were this was the devil's great, great year. We went down to we were the the uh uh Tampa Bay was in the playoffs and we were playing them. We were playing the lightning, and um I guess the devs were up about uh two games to zip, and now we're in Florida and we're attending uh the practice, and after the practice, we go into the dressing room, right? Interview the players, and all of a sudden we're walking around, all of a sudden this guy is yelling, get the off there! It was torturella, and I made I committed the great sin of walking on the logo. The logo is whoever thinks of leapfrogging over a goddamn logo in a dressing one. You're trying to find uh one of the players to interview, happened to be Marty St. Louis, but um he was the guy, taught as much as anybody, who really helped grow the game because he made uh Marty St. Louis into his a star into a hall of famer and Le Cavalier. That was quite a feat, quite a feat.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Absolutely. So let's go back to the beginning, Rod. Where were you born and raised? And uh talk about uh talk about our connection. You know all these things, Jerry.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

You're asking questions. I'm from a little farming town, Milestone, Saskatchewan, population 640 people, and I grew up on a cattle grain mixed farm ranch operation. And my dad was a scout in the National Hockey League for 26 years with the stars, but he was also a cowboy and a farmer. And I grew up, I'm so young, I grew up watching Jerry T-bag hack playing hockey in the in the senior league with the Asinaboya Southern Rebels. True story, Jerry. And I also read the hockey news and eagerly anticipated every week that that would come in the mail and read Stan's columns and and all the rest. So I didn't I never fit in in that little town at all because I wanted to be a broadcaster, I wanted to be a hockey guy, and I just so the second I could, I took off to Calgary to college, broadcast school, and then spent uh the next 20 seasons in the Western Hockey League calling games, the Canadian Football League calling games, and then once that kind of just tapped out and I'd wrung everything out of that, I came to the States and started doing this. And uh I think that covers it, wouldn't you say Jerry? A little bit.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

I'm gonna say that uh I I'm pretty sure that you're gonna be the only guest in the entire series of of this show that actually saw me play. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

And you sent me my you sent me your book, and I read it, and I really, really enjoyed it. And because well, I knew the names of the players, I knew them personally, the Darren Bobniks and the Jim Meisners and the Scott Rays. I was at those games, so I was like, Oh wow, this guy's not bullshit, and he's telling the truth.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Yeah, I was there from an American viewpoint. Uh to me, Saskatchewan is unique in a very positive way, the way Brooklyn. This is my I'm from Brooklyn, Brooklyn is special in America, and I've always gravitated to Saskatchewan guys, even before uh, well, I wouldn't say before Gordy Howe, but certainly after. And one of my interns, great fellow from Saskatoon, was Ken Juba, J-U-B-A. I don't know whether you know the name, Ken. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Well, Ken, Ken, Ken is one of my guys. And when the Penguins started to come uh get good under Crosby with Crosby, and they'd be playing the devils on the day of the game, everybody would crowd around Sydney because you're supposed to crowd around Sydney, and that's what you're there for, but not me. With all the crowd around Sydney, I am interviewing a Saskatour who played for the Penguins, now became a broadcaster, funny, skinny, tall guy.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Colby Armstrong.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Right. Right. And I uh he he was my guy every time they came in, and we had our little act uh going, you know. I'm interviewing uh I don't know what this crowd is around there, but you're the most important guy in this team. And so we became very, very good friends because he was from Saskatoon.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Well, and I'll yeah, all those guys, I mean per capita, well, Regina, Saskatchewan has produced more NHLs per capita than any other market in the world, Regina, Saskatchewan, but just 40 miles west is the home of Clark Gillies and Chico Resch and all these guys.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Chico's my buddy, Chico and I have worked together for years, but I have to tell you, my first Saskatoon story was in the 54-55 season. And I'm working for the Rangers in publicity. This is my first job at a college, and a great thing for me for $50 a week to be in go on the seven days a week. And one of the guys who uh was on in our farm system, we had a farm team in Saskatoon as well as one in Vancouver, and one of my jobs was to get the Saskatoon paper, newspaper, and the Vancouver paper and clip, you know, clip stories. And this guy comes up from Saskatoon, big husky guy from Guelph, Ontario, named was Lou Fontanato. So uh he and I got to be be buddies, but one day I asked him early on, I said, what's it like in Saskatoon, Louie? And he says, it's very cold there. I said, Well, what how cold is it? He says, Well, we call it a dry cold. I said, Well, what happens when it's a dry cold? He says, Well, your hands can fall off your body, but you'll never know it because it's a dry cold.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

True story. We say it all the time, and Jerry's lived it. So you know what the Jerry, you probably heard it all the time when you're in a centiware. But I just want to say, like we being a Saskatchewan guy, we sit around and talk all the time about who's the greatest Saskatchewan player, and the answer is Gordon Howe, who's the toughest ever. And Tiger Williams will say Gordon Howe, because there's a lot of tough guys out of Saskatchewan, but Tiger's like, I would have never wanted to fight Gordy. But Clark Gillies comes up, and I just want to say, Stan, that I sat in the stands at UBS Arena one month ago, almost to the day, and I looked up at Clark's banner and I actually started crying in the crowd. And um, Jerry wouldn't be surprised, he knows me well enough to know that I'm a bit of a softie that way. But when that place opened, Clark was on my show and he said, Rod, you need to come down here and we'll we'll sit in the alumni suite and they'll treat us the way we deserve, Clark said. And I never made it a year later, he was gone um from pancreatic cancer.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

He was easily in the class of greatest guys in the world, and I had the good fortune to be covering the team uh when he came there, right? Or, you know, after the team was created. Uh but my still favorite Clark Gillies story was the summers after he had established himself with Browning Trotcher and Clark uh Mike Barsey. I did an interview with him during the summer at his home. Uh wonderful, yeah, wonderful wife. Uh I think they were childhood sweethearts. In any event, the interview wound up being done poolside, because they had a swimming pool, and it was a beautiful summer day, and uh I was wearing uh my suit and tie. Clark was in uh his beach outfit and uh finished the interview, and in my head, in my head, I I said, I better get the hell out of here in a hurry because I know what's gonna happen next. He's gonna dump me in the pool. And Clark and but he didn't. And then I think we did uh some sort of event about 20 days later, and I I said, you know something? I was afraid you were going to dump me in the into the pool. And I he says, Well, I was, but when I saw the nice suit you were wearing, I decided wouldn't have done it.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

I don't think he'd have done it.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

He said he would have, he would have, because he's got so much respect for it. He knew Clark was the kind of guy who knew the difference between a good joke in the right place and a badger. What the hell is it gonna be with me after he dumps me in the pool? It's a great, great shot, you know. So I drive off in uh in the in the bathroom, whatever. Anyhow, love the guy. Everybody, everybody loved the guy, of course. Uh that guy in the Bruins who had his head beaten up by him Terry O'Reilly.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

That's hawk, that's hockey, as they say. Are you okay with all these stories, Jerry? Because clearly we're having a blast. I don't know what direction you wanted to go with this show today. Oh well, just because Clark told me that and Stan, you're gonna have to correct my history on this, but he took the C from Dennis Potvan, because Dennis didn't want it. Am I right in that? I I believe that was a story Clark said, but it was over 40 years ago, so I can't remember. He said it was too much pressure for Dennis, and Clark took it. And Clark is, I just had to organize parties, it wasn't a leadership role, really.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

If I'm right, it's been a while since I did uh I ghosted Denny's book. Denny, also one of the greatest guys, complicated, different, but uh as Chico said, he was the best captain the team ever had, uh meaning Denny. Uh but but uh Clark was not built to be the captain, he was built to be the Metre D.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Okay. So it was the other one. I had it backwards. So Dennis took it from Clark. Am I right in that?

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Well, also uh Eddie Westfall, it was a complicated thing and it was a very sensitive thing, and at one point it almost split the team. Um Eddie got the captaincy when the team was born, and he was a uh he was a he was built for that. And but it got to a point uh and he decided uh with some help from the other guys to get out, and that's when Gillies got it, and Gillies didn't have it very long because he knew that uh he, you know, this wasn't for him. This wasn't for him. So then it went to to Denny, and Denny was perfect, perfect. Well, they won uh won four cups. People forget 19, 1-9, 19 straight playoff series wins. Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_01 21:32

You imagine that's the record, right? That's still a record.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Record, nobody's even close, not even Bowman's Canadians. No. So uh the poor fa poor fans in the village of Edmonton have never gotten over that.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Oh no, no, not at all.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

We don't like, as a matter of fact, we like Saskatoon so much that Edmonton is on the bottom of the western. Canadian city list. Winnipeg, right up there. Good one. Love Winnipeg.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love them all. But I like Florida the best.

SPEAKER_04 22:09

Were you surprised the Oilers fell off the cliff and lost to the Ducks?

SPEAKER_01 22:14

No, I'm surprised they got to the cup final the last two years. To be honest, with the goaltending that they've had and all the problems that they've had. It's an interesting fan base because I kind of grew up an Oiler fan until the day they traded Ray Gretzky. Yeah, August.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Pardon me? I think this is one of the most incredible. So you got the richest, one of the richest uh cities in terms of the quality of the fans, the intensity of the fans, and you have this uh new Gretzky, McDavid, and uh uh Dry Sidal, and you can't win a cup? You can't win a cup. I mean, you gotta that the owner of that team must have his head examined, bringing in people who don't understand. Uh Rod, let me ask you a quick question. Has hockey ever been played in the NHL without a gold tender?

SPEAKER_01 23:14

No.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

You don't need to finish your reason. But these dumb, these dumb cops who run the team, they they get second-rate goalies over and over and over again. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

And they think that they can do it. I mean, like here in Florida, we got Sergei Babrowski and Andre Vasilevsky. And you just saw with the big cat last night while the lightning feel he's the best goalie in the world. I feel Bob is, but it's very close. And I think the the um avalanche winning the Stanley Cup with Darcy Kemper was bad for the NHL because it made teams think that they couldn't get away with average goaltending. And it's like you just cannot.

SPEAKER_04 23:54

Were you shocked to see the stars get knocked out by the wild?

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Rewind. Jake Ottinger's got a lot of explaining to do because he let in some softies for Dallas. And I mean that's a team that my dad worked for for 26 years. So I I feel bad for them. That's a tremendous hockey market. And I had them picked to win the series, and for Minnesota to win in six is a pretty convincing um series win, really. I know that there was some double extra time games and that and so forth, but it was that was a Minnesota was dominant in that series, so that surprised me. Glenn Gullett sent a great Hudson-based Saskatchewan product, so is pulling for him their head coach. There's a lot of talent on that Dallas, a lot of talent.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

I love it's tough. It's tough to be a journalist when you're very emotional about hockey, and it's tough when you got friends who are like equal friends. Jim Nill, great, great guy, great guy, and Billy Guerin, a great guy. And and I I was very, very torn about that, but I'm so happy for Billy. Billy's another one of Billy. Father was a Wall Street guy, and his mother was from uh one of the uh South American countries. She was a professor of Spanish. And uh the I guess two days or after or three days after they won the cup, this was the first cup in uh '95, uh they had a Billy Guerin day at a the home in Wilburham, Massachusetts, a small, small town. And then they had a banquet that night in Springfield, which was not too far. So they had asked me to be uh the MC, and uh it was a great, great thrill. And I said at that time, because he was young and he was feisty, and he had all the ingredients in my mind of Rocket Richard, which is what I said uh among other things at the banquet. But he turned out to be a wonderful hockey player. I would never ever have dreamt that he would become a general manager when he had it.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

He had it. And they say Patrick Kane's the next one. I just heard uh Gord Stelek saying on NHL radio the other day that Patrick Kane has the mentality and the intelligence to be the next great GM of the NHL, which I had never really heard before. So I'm looking at it.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Did anybody hire him?

SPEAKER_01 26:47

No, yeah, he's still playing. But one day, one day he will be, they say. We'll see.

SPEAKER_04 26:52

As a Leafs fan, I'm really curious who ends up as GM. They've interviewed Sandine. Do you think he'd be a good fit?

SPEAKER_00 26:59

He'll be a good GM, like Chris Drew is a good GM. He'll never even make the playoffs.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

I didn't want to say it. Thank you, Stan, for saying it.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Who's the GM who's a no? You know who should I tell you, I wrote this today. The guy who I would hire as GM is Neil Smith. And and he has been he has been overlooked. He's a he's he's like uh Neil and Guerin, and these, you know, the guys in Florida. Zito, a genius. Guys a genius. And the guy, the guy in Tampa is another genius. And and you know, uh this guy won the cup. Neil Smith won the cup in '94 for crying out loud. But they'll they'll do stupid, they'll do stupid. And and imagine the richest franchise in America, not in Canada, that's the Leafs. Richest franchise is the Rangers. Now, this guy has struck out the last two straight years. How does he keep his job? Because the owner is too busy with his basketball team.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

That's what I good, I good uh Paul. Listen, I follow your stuff, Stan. Some of the things I've seen you, your coverage on Twitter of the Rangers, things you've said this year. I'm like, wow. So it tells me how passionate you are what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Tell me, Rob, what's the big deal? What are we talking about right now? We're talking about a piece of round rubber, about six ounces, goes crazy, and these guys are batting or are battling around, and we all get crazy about it. But so what? It's only a sport.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Yes, but what's different now is the teams get so upset, and that's a topic for another time when you criticize them, right? And then I like I've learned to go with the flow, and that's why I got a great relationship with these teams. Well, the leafs, Alina, to your original question. I don't think anybody, anyone could be successful as the general manager of the Leafs. And I don't know what all your opinions are of Mike Babcock, but he is a good friend of mine going way back to Moose Jaw 1991. He's a Saskatchewan guy. I I when they hired Mike Babcock, I said, if this and that's coach, not GM, but still, I said, if this guy can't be successful there, nobody can. And they've had their most successful years in the last well, 25 years, post Pat Quinn, with Mike Babcock, and they fired him, and they've just been chasing their tail ever since. And I know there's a lot of players don't like Babs. I don't know, he's been great to me. I don't I don't get into all that stuff. So I don't I don't really I don't know who they're gonna hire. If they and John Chaik is the guy, I had friends that owned the Arizona Coyotes, and he was their general manager that he was gonna revolutionize the GM position in the NHL because of numbers. It didn't work out there. Nobody's heard of hide nor hair of him for 10 years, and all of a sudden he's in the GM search for the leaves. Like, I don't it's not gonna matter. I don't think it's not gonna matter.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

You have to wonder about hockey logic. For example, we use the word retreads, retreads and retreads. Well, look at tortorella, he's got them in the next got them in the next next round. Look at the guy in Anaheim for crying out loud. There's a retrab, and look what the heck they did. So it's hard to figure, very hard, hard to figure. And uh uh Babcock, why isn't Babcock being hired now? This guy's a genius, also.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Yeah, cooked his goose. It's the way you treat people. Like I I'll be perfectly honest with you. I've dug into the torturella thing, and most people you said you like him. I've never met him, and by what I see on TV, I think he looks like a raging jackass. But everybody that I know that knows him loves him, including the guys in Vegas do too. You talk about Zito, what I know about Quenville because he coached here in Florida. They treat their people with respect. I mean, you can be a genius, but you need to treat people well, and Mike Babcock has not treated his players well.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Okay, okay, but Tortorella is away from the bench, is one of the nicest, most sensitive, good. He is so nice that even jackasses love him.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Right. Nobody would say that about Mike Babcock, however. And I don't need to sit here and ask you, Stan, why you've been so successful for over a century almost covering because of relationships. I don't need to ask you because I know you're wrong, wrong.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

Oh, okay. I have been successful because of one thing, oatmeal. That's funny.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

That's funny. But I'm just saying, like because I see I love these polls that they have. The athletic does nobody do them anymore, but but the athletic does. What's the best GMs in the NHL? And Zito's habitually in the top two or three. And one quote was in there from another team's GM that said, Bill runs that team the way we would all run it if we were in charge. And that is he lets people know where they stand, he treats them fairly. That's the secret to success. And that's, I mean, he has a numbers guy or did Sonny Meta just got hired as the GM of the Devils. Like, I don't know that I would have a numbers guy running my team. If I own a team, I would hire a hockey guy.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

I'm gonna I'm going to ask this to Jerry, Elena, and Rod. First of all, my one of my all-time favorite columnists who we had on the show a few months ago, Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. And he had an item, I guess it was two weeks ago. And what he said was he spoke to a number of hockey agents, hockey agents, and they all agreed, the hockey agents all agreed that the Rangers were the worst run team in the league. And what I found interesting is the fact that agents are saying this. Now, why would an agent say something like that to begin with? But I guess agents are always dealing with these.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Right, they have to do business with them, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

So so that makes it more authoritative than ever.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

Yeah, yeah. Well, since we're sharing, can I tell you a story? Ron Dugay and I have become and by the way, Steve Simmons was on my show this week, and I love him. He's so great. Yeah. Uh, but Ron Duguay and I have become friends, and you've obviously seen he's at war with the Rangers for a variety of reasons. I think if he has both sides, neither one can really say, but they're at war. He's been exiled by the team. I'm sure you're aware of that.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Yes, but I mean, who started it?

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Well, I don't think either side can remember.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

I don't know. You tell me. I don't know. I don't know, but I think that the guy that replaced him is not in the same class. But uh Douge, well, Duge and I go back to right at the beginning. Another one of the greatest guys you'll ever meet. The best, the best ever, ever, ever.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

The best. So I when I was there, so I was he feeling. I know he was good. Oh, he's going through aggressive cancer uh treatment. And I said to him, I said, Dukes, I can't believe how good you look. I said, You've been being told that your whole life, but I really mean it. You look really good. My mom went through the same thing and she didn't come out of it like you are. And he goes, I know it's got me and the doctor stumped. We don't know. But they're they're at the stage now of exploratory, uh, what do you call it? Um uh medicine, trial medicines. It's not it's not good, but I said to Ron, I said, I'm sitting here at MSG watching the video, the pregame before the Rangers come onto the ice. You're in the video twice. A hundred years of Rangers, you're in it. And he texted me back and goes, I don't believe it. I said, Well, ask anybody, you're in it. I said, You might want to reconcile this, Ron. And I hope that they do because he's such an iconic.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

He's a he's a he's as much a part of the Rangers as Marc Messier or Brian Leach for crying out loud, yeah, and through that glorious epoch when anything went and they did all kinds of cockamami commercials. But uh, who are we talking about? We're talking about the Rangers, right? So it's do wrong, do wrong, just like the Leafs do wrong.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

100% sad.

SPEAKER_04 35:39

Who do you think is going to win the Stanley Cup?

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Well, I going into the playoffs, I had a Vegas Tampa-based Stanley Cup.

SPEAKER_04 35:47

So going into rounds you want, but who do you think no, no?

SPEAKER_01 35:51

That's why hey don't get don't ask who I thought. Going into the season, I said Winnipeg, Carolina. I'm burying that prediction. I'm we don't bring that up. So now going in Winnipeg, they didn't make the playoffs. So going into the playoffs, I said Vegas, Tampa. So that's what I would like to see. I mean, the longer the lightning go, the longer I go with my show.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

So yeah, Jerry, who's gonna win?

SPEAKER_02 36:14

I'm sticking with Vegas. I picked them at the beginning of the year, and I'm being great. I hate them, but I'm picking them that way. They'll lose. Why do you hate them? Because they haven't paid their dues, they never went through the process, they were good right away. They got a Stanley Cup contender right off the bat, and that's not the way it's supposed to work. You're supposed to struggle for five years minimum, and then you can be a Stanley Cup contender. But and the the hockey gods just seem to smile on that team like like nobody's business, and I can't stand it, and just drives me drives me nuts. I've been 50 years a canoe fan, and I I can't get a cop.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

Perfectly logical, but I wouldn't I wouldn't have rooted for them or said that. But once my guy, once you once you once a buddy is with the team, you gotta root for your buddy. I'm buddies with toss. I was very sad that Travis Green's Ottawa team didn't uh at least win one. But uh I I I'm afraid I'm afraid because I don't want them to win it. I'm afraid of Carolina. They got everything, include including a second goalie who never loses.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

It's gonna be real fun from here on in, but it has been fun. Awesome round one. But just with Vegas, you talk yeah, when you talk about your buddies, Kelly McCrimin, I've known since I was 16 years old when I was in camp with the Brandon Week Kings, he was the assistant coach, Kelly McCrimen. Kelly McCrimin, Bobby Lowe's, former Brandon coach is one of their pro scouts, Jim McKenzie, who you all would know is a pro scout for Vegas, like they're all really good Canadian, sorry to say, guys. Bill Foley, the owner, was raised in Ottawa. And I talked to him as they were building that team. He's like, This is the way we're gonna do it, we're gonna win a Stanley Cup in six years. So, I mean, I totally get Jerry where you're coming from. That if you ever want to, you know that I work as a mental health and addiction recovery counselor. If you ever want to talk about your feelings, Jerry, as being a Canucks fan, you have my number. I'd be more than happy. That's a damaged fan base. But sort of like, don't hate them because don't hate them because they're beautiful. There's like people hating Tom Brady and like I admire excellence. Vegas doesn't make mistakes, don't hate them because they win. You know, that that that would be my thing on that. I admire, I admire it.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

You have no business telling Jerry what to do and who to root for. I found that out. I found that out. One of my interns turned into a terrific hockey writer, Alan Crater. He ghosted Kenny Morrow's book. We had him on last week. And Alan was living in Flatbush, uh, uh Brooklyn, and we were talking about uh rooting, and he told me that uh his older brother just moved to Jersey. And I said to him, Well, will you tell him that now he should be rooting for the devils because you're living, he's living in Jersey. So about a week later I said, Well, did you tell that to your brother? Yeah. He told me where I should should go. These guys, these guys don't give up their allegiances. And the guy who said it best was the owner of the Devils, Dr. John McMullen, one of the other great characters of all time. Uh, when he was being sold a bill of goods to buy the team, they Jersey people who root for the Rangers are gonna root for your team now, and you're gonna have instant sellouts because they all all Ranger fans who can't get the games because the games are sold out, who live in Jersey, they're gonna come and fill your place. Well, they didn't. So somebody once interviewed McMullen and they asked him, of course, the devil started to do very, very well, but they said, How come all these Ranger fans who were supposed to swing to the devils who live in Jersey haven't rooted for your team? And he said, Because it's in the blood. And fathers pass it on to sons, and that's the way it goes. And I can tell I can tell you that, people that I know who live in Jersey, who root for the Rangers, because it was passed on to them.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

Well, if I may, I didn't tell them who to cheer for. I said if you ever want someone to talk to about your pain of being a Canucks fan, you have my number. I didn't tell them to not cheer for them. I just don't like seeing somebody upset. You sitting there wincing, going, it makes me so mad. I don't like seeing people live that way.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

I would be like Jerry if the Americans were still in the league. Because the Americans came into the league before the Rangers. The Americans came in in 1925, Rangers in the next year, and they were a team they never ran. 1938, they had a wonderful team because they were getting uh guys over the hill hall of fame is like Hap Day on defense, Jing Johnson on defense, Busher Jackson up front, and they actually should have won the cup this year because they got to the semifinal against the Blackhawks, and the Blackhawks were a team that was under 500, and somehow the Blackhawks beat the Amhergs, and of course, then they went out of the league in uh 42. But I'd I'd I'd root for them.

SPEAKER_04 42:03

Jerry and I we have a backup plan. Uh, we are cheering for the Sabres, you know, the wagon.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Why not? But it's I love, I think we all love how quick their fans were to jump on this. They were all waiting in the weeds, they were all there.

SPEAKER_04 42:19

14 years, yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

But they didn't go away, they were upset.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

They might win it.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Yeah, they've got talent for sure.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

They certainly looked a step faster than the Bruins, like they they just seemed to be more crisp and more uh, you know, more attack oriented than the Bruins were, and it just it seemed to you know, that's the great thing. Like we talk about retreads. Lindy Rupp has got that team playing to their potential because he's putting them in the best chance to succeed. You know, you you put your strengths against the other team's weakness, and and you know, it's not rocket science. So it's just it just seems that what they're doing is working, you know. The the whole the whole operation has all come together all at once, you know, down from the cosmos and and and and put it all together all at once, and they they just seem uh prime to go far.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

Well, he's finalist for coach of the year, which he should be. And in life, they say you can't go back, you're not supposed to be able to go back. And Lindy Ruppet went back behind that.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

What about Q? Q went back and looked at it.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Different team, though, different team.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

Yeah, so yeah, yeah. Um, I gotta I gotta say, Rod Rod has done more for to promote my book than basically anybody else, you know. And uh, he had me on his show twice. And uh, I still say the great the best interview I've ever done was on your show when we did the did the first one. And uh Rod Rod is one of the greatest. Interviewers of all time. He puts you at ease right away, and I I I had to buy the mug. I love it. Thank you, uh Jerry.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Well, for the uh for prospective young interviewers, what made him and what did he do to make it such a good interview?

SPEAKER_02 44:17

Well, that's what I'm saying. He he put me like I was nervous, like what because it was one of my first big interviews, right? And uh it was on TV and everything, and so you know, and he but he put me at ease right away, like just by I think you commented on my shirt or something, and how much Johnny Book of Red did he give you? Well, that point on, it just became a conversation. It wasn't uh it wasn't uh adversarial interview, it was uh two friends talking, you know.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

And well, yeah, thank you. Sorry to interrupt, but it the other thing is because I do work at you know in the addiction counseling world, mental health, uh, we're not we're not splitting atoms here. You know, we're talking hockey as Jerry said, talking about this little round rubber puck. But also, Jerry, they opened the brand new beautiful arena in a cineboya, and they flew me in to to broadcast the very first game there. And they said, We need a get, we need a guest, we need a guest on the pre-game show. Who would we who would be the best guy to come on? I said, I got a teabag. So that was the third interview that we did. That was on the radio.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Jerry, uh I appreciate what you said about and say about Rod, but since I'm not talking to him anymore, why don't you ask him when he's gonna have me on?

SPEAKER_01 45:38

Yeah, I didn't think I didn't know we met your standards, Stan. I would love to do that.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

I don't have any standards, you know that.

SPEAKER_02 45:46

What uh what's going on with the Rod Peterson show? Is it still on or is it uh oh no, it's it's uh long it's a long story, but yeah, it's on.

SPEAKER_01 45:55

Um the the network that carries us is moving to YouTube, and I they say that it's a good thing. I said I don't understand why you would do that. So we're airing in Nevada on an all sports channel there. We air in Canada on game plus, but they're moving us to the YouTube channel. I don't know, I just show up and talk every day. So no, we're around. The numbers are better than ever. I just I just go where I'm told and do what I do.

SPEAKER_02 46:16

Oh, awesome! That's what we're doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You gotta have Stan on, man. It's uh Stan is one of the best, you just wind them up and let them go, you know.

SPEAKER_00 46:26

You know, if you have me on, you can give me a copy of my book as a gift.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Yeah, which book? Yeah, I was gonna say that listen, I stood there and read the whole bio, the Stan Fischler Media Wing. I think that's what they call it, the Stan Fischer Media Wing. And it said you've written 90 plus books. Okay, you're gonna have to update that. How many books is it, Stan?

SPEAKER_00 46:49

How many books? Yeah, uh, including baseball and subways and stuff. I would say about 98.

SPEAKER_01 47:01

Yeah, okay. It said 90 plus on the bio there.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

So I just got this one, so um nice. I haven't read it yet.

SPEAKER_00 47:08

Um you got a few to you got a few to go through. Hey, uh Jerry, did you read the one about the goalie? I told you.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

I haven't I haven't yet. I haven't had time to dig into it yet, but uh uh this week I'll be uh powering through it.

SPEAKER_04 47:21

Yeah, I'm still uh reading the Tales of Brooklyn's book.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

So yeah, yeah. You want you want to uh have a good laugh, read read Tales of Brooklyn. There's a lot of funny stories in there.

SPEAKER_04 47:35

I mean you can hear Stan when you read the book. It's like I can even hear your Brooklyn accent in my head when I'm reading it.

SPEAKER_00 47:45

Do I have an I have a Brooklyn accent? Why is that funny? I don't get it. What's funny? Brooklyn accent and gets a punchline, gets a laugh. I have a Brooklyn accent. What give me an imitation of me with my Brooklyn accent?

SPEAKER_02 48:02

Uh George Falkowski, he does a pretty good impression.

SPEAKER_03 48:07

George.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

Yeah. So so what's up coming, uh Rod? What do you got uh on the well?

SPEAKER_01 48:20

I go back to uh to Canada for the summertime. I'm broadcasting in the Western Canadian Baseball League, June, July, August. So I'll be back in your area, Jerry. I look I love doing that. It's my third season doing that, and um it's waiting for hockey season to wrap up, and I'll be heading back to Canada and then be back here next year for season six, I guess, of following the Panthers and the Lightning and doing doing these shows. Yeah, that's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 48:44

Rod, how often do you have a female as a guest?

SPEAKER_01 48:50

Not enough, but probably once every couple of weeks. What does not enough mean? I should do it more. It's just the way this show started, and Jerry's been watching it. It's always been we've done almost 1800 shows. It was always just Rod and his buddies, and uh, so now as that circle gets bigger, I need to bring in the female. So we do it, we do it. I mean, I think it's emblematic of most shows. Um trying to get up.

SPEAKER_00 49:16

How are they different in terms of their savvy and uh uh as a guest than uh somebody?

SPEAKER_01 49:25

They're great. I mean, the the most recent is uh well, I had a sports psychologist on by the name of Janice. Jerry's probably seen the clips, and she's working in the emotional health field with athletes, so she's become a recurring guest. I have a lot of the reporters on. Um, some of the my niece is a pro hockey player in Sweden, so I'm just waiting for her to come over and play in the PWHL, which she will. So tell me one of the reporters that you had. Claire Hannah out of Ottawa would be one off the top of my head. Was she good? She was an interviewer, she was okay. She said to me in the interview, she was what have you done for women's sports today? I said, I'm interviewing you.

SPEAKER_00 50:07

So I mean was she belligerent?

SPEAKER_01 50:11

No, I've known Claire a long time. She's been really good to me. No, no, she was good, but um I'm just scanning my mind. Yeah, I have probably as, like I say, as many as any of the other shows. Same quotient.

SPEAKER_04 50:26

We had two ladies, wonderful ladies, Shannon and uh Molly. Uh, they were great to interview, really enjoyed both shows.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

Well, these days the women are so busy. I'm watching AJ Malesco last night on the Tampa Montreal game, going, damn, her analysis is really good. I gotta get her on. I'm like, which probably doesn't have time. Uh, with the condensed schedule this year, I was chasing around uh Katie Engelson, she's the Panthers TV host, and they were near, she was never available. They're always traveling or had a game because they were playing every second day. Um, you know what it's like, Stan. It's not like it used to, man. It's a 24-7 go, go, go machine for all of them, male and female. So getting guess ain't easy.

SPEAKER_02 51:05

Yeah, yeah. We're we're just hoping that finally we would get a female podcast host somewhere along the line, but I don't know. Why not?

SPEAKER_01 51:15

I got that one. Come on, Stan.

SPEAKER_00 51:23

I gotta get an another accent in a Brooklyn accent. Been working on this for 93 94 years, and now I have to change it.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

You just turned 94. I'm embarrassed to say how much I I know these things. Yeah, so yeah, investigate a new accent at the age of 94. That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

Well, you know why I'm 94, huh?

SPEAKER_01 51:46

No idea.

SPEAKER_00 51:47

I just told you, old meal. Oh, old meal, I was just gonna say that. Yeah, sorry. Wow. You know, now that uh now that you remind my mother had a a Brooklyn accent. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we lived in Brooklyn uh right from the get-go, so I guess we had a Brooklyn accent. I don't know what it's I don't know how it. I'll tell you, I'll tell you, from my viewpoint, the two worst accents for me, Philadelphia, three Philadelphia, Boston, and believe it or not, Miami.

SPEAKER_01 52:23

Ah well, I like them all, but I'll tell you what, living in South Florida, I have a lot of New York friends. And uh a friend the other day was saying he was something about Caitlin Clark. I'm like, who? Caitlin Clark, Clark, who the basketball player, Clark! Like, oh Clark. Sorry, I mean, I could not understand for the life of me. You know, hot attack, what hot attack? Heart attack. Yeah, don't tell me you don't hear it, Stan.

SPEAKER_02 52:52

Oh we're gonna uh Elena and I are gonna travel to Florida one of these days, and and you you gotta, you gotta, you gotta introduce me to Roberto Longo. He's around all the time, absolutely. I gotta meet him before my life is over because I'm a huge fan. And uh yeah, I wear his I wear his jersey proudly all the time.

SPEAKER_01 53:18

So I think he's uh the only goalie. Well, he he's the only goalie in NHL history who leads two franchises and wins.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 53:26

Vancouver and Florida, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_02 53:29

When you look at his hockey database page, it is those numbers are absolutely incredible. Like he just, you know, he gets so much you know, bad reviews in Vancouver, especially because we never got got over the hump, but it wasn't his fault. I mean, you look at those numbers, and man, he's just first he's an icon here, he's an icon here.

SPEAKER_01 53:53

I guess that's why it explains why he lives here. He's the only player whose numbers retired by the Panthers. Uh yeah, so listen, uh Jerry, we'll be talking, but you come down, I'll hook you up with the Panthers, we'll get you in the press box, and I see Lou every game. So I'm sure he'd be just as happy to meet you. Yeah, uh and Elena. Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_02 54:11

So yeah, so um, yeah, that would be I would probably die of a heart attack right there. So hot attack is how they say it in Brooklyn. Heart attack.

SPEAKER_04 54:24

In New York accent, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:30

Well that inevitably I I didn't mean it this way because I had another gag, but when we close, I'll tell my I'll tell your gag that you guys inspired by making fun of my Brooklyn accent. So whenever you're ready, cue me.

SPEAKER_01 54:53

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

So this uh guy from Saskatoon, he wins a contest, a radio contest, a trivia contest, and the prize is a two-week free trip to uh New York City. And uh he's with his friend after they tell him that he's winning. And the friend says, uh, Charlie, don't uh accept it. He says, What do you mean, don't accept it? He says, Don't accept it, because New York, they're rude people, they'll mug you, they'll insult you. You just don't tell them forget about it. You'll regret it if you go. But he goes and he gets a uh a suite at the Waldorf Astoria. Never been in New York, but he's thinking of what this what this friend told him. And he's always worried now. He goes out in the street, he's worried something's gonna happen. He finally gets to 34th Street and uh 34th Street with the Empire Estate Building is, you know, it's a big big building, one's the biggest in the world. So he's standing there and he's looking up at the Empire State State Building, but he's not sure about it. And some guy who's obviously a New Yorker is standing there at the red light with him, and the guy is so nervous about what they his friend told. And finally he turns to the guy and he says, Excuse me, sir, is that the building over there? Should I just go to hell?

SPEAKER_03 56:37

All right.

SPEAKER_00 56:38

I should tell that joke next week and get more of it.

SPEAKER_01 56:43

Well, I'll tell you this. We'll end it on this. Jerry, have you been to New York or Alina?

SPEAKER_04 56:48

Yeah, many times.

SPEAKER_01 56:49

Okay, well, I was just there last month, and my life coach, Lisa, she's was raised in Manhattan, but she lives in West Palm, just up the road from me. When I got back, she said, How was it? I said, It was overcrowded, it was loud, and it was cold. And she goes, It hasn't changed. I'm like, No. Yeah. That's why we live here. Yeah, I love New York.

SPEAKER_04 57:11

Next time I'm there, I'm gonna meet Alan Crater as well. And maybe Lydia, Maeve's uh girlfriend.

SPEAKER_00 57:18

Lit you're gonna go to New York? Uh you gotta meet Lydia.

SPEAKER_03 57:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 57:24

Lydia watches this show now when you send her the stuff. I would love to. If you get to 34th and Fifth Avenue, don't ask if that's the Empire State for them.

unknown 57:38

That's true.

SPEAKER_04 57:39

That's true. Rod, we really appreciate you joining us and to everyone watching and listening. Make sure you're following, subscribing, and we'll see you on the next one.

SPEAKER_03 57:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.