Episode 170: Mid-Summer Update

Join the fam LIVE tonight at 7 PM as we catch you up with what's been going on with us lately and a look ahead to the remainder of the summer. The league has been busy and a lot of dollars are being thrown around. The Rangers Ed. Team have their first road trip planned for the season. Lots of fun and excitement even in the off season! Let's Go Rangers and Let's Go Rangers Ed!

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:22

Welcome back, Rangers Ed family. After a quick uh two weeks off, we are back with a live episode this week for episode 170, sponsored by Lucarelli Law. If you're in New York or Florida and need some legal advice, don't hesitate to reach out to Dom Lucarelli and tell him the boys at Rangers Ed sent you. As always, I am joined by my co-host, Coach Papa Ed, this week, as we have some big news to announce in a few seconds. Our producers Nick and Dom and our in-house statistician Isaac and Mark from Blue Line Blue Shirts will be joining us in a little bit. Uh, we have a light one for you guys tonight. Um, not a ton going on in uh Rangerstown. So we're gonna cover some around the league stuff. Isaac's gonna jump on to uh talk about the contracts being thrown around these days. Um, NHL not staying out of the headlines as uh as the whole summer continues. And um, like I just mentioned, Mark's gonna come on to uh make an announcement. We have our first Rangers at Road Trip planned, so we'll talk about that in a few minutes. Um, and then yeah, we want to talk about the upcoming schedule for the podcast for the Rangers. Umnounce some episodes coming up, some maybe some special guests that we have planned, and uh see what you guys have, what we have in store for you guys for the rest of the summer. Um, but coach, before we get into all that, oh, and of course, we're gonna have a blind rankings for you guys. And uh non-hockey related this time, we're gonna keep it kind of a summer thing. We're gonna go with ice cream flavors. Our producer Nick, jumbo Nick, came up with that one today and uh get really excited to see what he comes up with. But I think Coach Ed and I usually do like a team one. We might have to split up for this one because I'm not sure we share the same ice cream flavor palette, if you will. So we'll see what happens. Uh, see what we got in store for you guys with that. And uh yeah, coach, like I mentioned before, Papa Ed, your first granddaughter, has officially been born uh about two weeks ago now, right? A little over two weeks, um, down in Jacksonville. And uh that's where Coach Ed's heading now. For all you guys watching us on YouTube, you can see he's in his work truck or his Jeep right now, heading uh through Orlando back to EA the PA's house in Jacksonville. So, coach, what's going on? Coach can't hear us. We're off to a hot start. Hot start. So I guess I'll make the announcement by myself. I'm uh in a podcast by myself here. Coach, we can't you can't hear me, can't see me, nothing. What's going on? All right, well, coach uh figures that out. Uh Nick, please, if you can give him a call or something, figure this out. Um and I'll make the announcement. I guess I kind of already did. My sister, EA the PA, uh Coach Ed's daughter. Um, congratulations to her and Mikey Produces. If you guys are a longtime listeners, uh Mikey Produces used to help us out um behind the scenes and on our episodes with Mikey's Fight Club. And um he uh yeah, helped us out a lot at the time. And now him and EA the PA, like I said, my sister um have their first baby. So congratulations to them, to my little niece Quinny. She's adorable. Um, not named after Quinn Hughes. Um, pure coincidence uh that he happens to be one of my favorite defensemen right now. Um, but yeah, she's adorable. EA the PA, Aaron, my sister's doing great. Um, maybe she'll come on soon once she's fully recovered and uh into the swing of things to fill us in on what she's been up to and knock on wood. Hopefully we don't have any Rangers injuries this year. But if you're a new listener, my sister EA the PA, she is a PA, hence the name. Um, physician's assistant, one step below, uh medical doctor, I guess. So uh in the past, she's come on to discuss some injuries with us. She analyzes the video. You know how the NHL seems to be or usually is very vague, or teams are very vague with players' injuries, lower body, upper body, whatever, blah blah blah. Don't really give us like a solid time frame for those types of things. So in the past, we've had EA the PA on uh to uh bring a little bit of her expertise into it and uh give us a better idea of what's been going on. Um, if I remember correctly, she nailed Philip Heatle's injury uh right on the head when he was going through like his head or his concussion issues. And um, I think at one point it was his neck, and I think she broke that down pretty well on that episode. So technically, she's not a sports doctor or sports physician, but she knows her stuff. Um, and yeah, like I said, congratulations to her. She's doing amazing, she's an amazing mom, very natural and instinctual, if you will, and Mike as well. Um, I'm not gonna get too much into detail because that's a little private, but we did have a little bit of a scare. Um, but everyone's happy, healthy, and doing very, very well. And uh Coach Ed and I are very grateful and fortunate that uh Erin has a big amazing daughter and loving husband and very supportive husband, and uh they're doing great. I can't say it enough. So, coach is back on screen. Can you hear me, coach? Still nothing, still nothing. Well, maybe we'll get coach's uh thoughts on being a grandpa at some point, but for now he can't hear us. So let's just get into our episode here. Let's bring on Mark from the Blue Line Blue Shirts, hasn't been on the screen in a while. So welcome back to Mark. Uh fam. We're excited to have him back. Mark, how you been doing? If you want, update the fans with you don't have to go into too much detail. I know it's very private as well, but if you want to say hello to everyone and just give us an update on how you've been doing, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

What's up, crew? What's up, Ed? Miss you guys so much. It's been a long couple months. Uh, you know, you guys, my family had some personal issues going on that just had to be handled. But uh it's happy, uh, it's happy now and happy to be back with the family. We're gonna be uh we're gonna be getting some pucks out there, some pictures of pucks, maybe some jerseys out there. We're gonna get back to the full swing of it. Just happy to be with you guys and uh be here with you.

SPEAKER_04 6:38

For sure, man. Yeah, if you guys are, like I said, new listeners or new viewers, um, you could see Mark's amazing Ranger Room or most of it behind him. Uh, we filmed an episode inside the ranger room. It's on our YouTube channel and showed off a lot of his uh memorabilia. And um yeah, he does some social media stuff. Well, actually, all of his social media stuff on his page is memorabilia and and our clips and uh collabing on our posts and stuff. But definitely head on over to check that out. It's at the blue line blue shirts. Um, he's a retired policeman, so that's where the blue line comes from, or whatever you want to play on words, if you will. Um, and yeah, tons of good memorabilia, a lot of cool jerseys, game worns, uh, pucks that he's caught, collected, purchased, you name it. Um, just a lot of cool stuff. So check it out. Uh, definitely looking forward to some more inside the ranger room episodes with memorabilia. So if you have a cool collection, definitely shoot us a message and uh we'll set up an episode with you guys. Um, coaches backstage. Let's give it one more shot. Coach, can you hear us?

SPEAKER_03 7:38

I can hear you and Mark now. Can you hear me?

SPEAKER_04 7:41

Woo!

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Let's go.

SPEAKER_04 7:43

Production jumbo behind the scenes saving the day. Let's go, coach. Real quick, uh, no, Ron, real quick. Take as much time as you want. Congratulations on being a grandpa. I already gave my spiel, my version of uh Nealville piano podcasting by himself. That was a lot harder than it looks, so I don't want to do that ever again. Um but welcome back to the show. Why don't you give us your thoughts on becoming a new grandpa? Officially a grandpa, not just uh whatever, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

Well, anything anybody anything anybody reads or hears about when you have that first grandchild, it's it's not describable the feelings you have, and it's kind of the reason why I came on a little late. I was just racing to get over there to see her again, and I kind of slipped my mind the whole situation, but it is uh it's definitely a special feeling and a special day when your daughter has a baby.

SPEAKER_04 8:36

Without a doubt, and uh you're of course amazing with her, she seems to love you as already. Um, and that was actually something I wanted to bring up. It's like amazing that, yes, I've been like an uncle in the past. My uh cousin has had um children and they call me Uncle Eddie as well. My good college friends, their kids call me Uncle Eddie, so whatever. But actually, like Coach had just said, like having a a child that like you don't even like it's hard to explain. Like, you just have an automatic connection to it because it's your sister's baby. It's just it's just like an instinctual thing, it's just you can't even explain it until you feel it, you know. Like that's the only way to put it, and uh, and you can already tell that like I I when I was visiting, I wasn't there, or I didn't see her 24-7, but you could already tell that she was reacting to my voice, you know. Mike, her dad, and I kind of have a similar voice, maybe that's why, but you know, like she's already like realizing those things, and that's just an amazing part of life and part of uh nature, I guess, whatever you want to call it.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Yeah, very special. I'm looking forward to more visits.

SPEAKER_04 9:42

Yeah, that's it. It's almost just like you she can like smell you, like I could smell her. It's like it's just like a weird, you can't like I said, you just can't really put it into words, but anyway, she didn't pull on my beard yet.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

I rubbed my bristles on her head and she just shook her head around.

SPEAKER_04 9:58

Yeah, I'm sure Erin loves that that you're roughing up her um brand new baby already with your scratchy beard. But um, yeah, actually, she was on her way to your her pictures. I guess it was the morning that you left and that I left that day. She was going to like her uh, I guess they were doing like her baby infant pictures, the professional ones. Yeah, and I guess you kissed her goodbye and scratched her face for her pictures. So the photographer's gonna what?

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Of course it was his fault.

SPEAKER_04 10:28

Well, Coach Ed's known for this. Every time he kisses my cousins' babies and stuff, they have like red cheeks and stuff from his beard. It's just like uh it's a family thing. It's like, oh, Coach Ed was here, he he roughed up my daughter a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

So be careful, be careful, Mark. You better keep that beard on so I don't rough up your face.

SPEAKER_04 10:46

Yeah, there you go. There you go. You can't be looking like the thumb anymore. Um, but retired Mark. I don't think I don't think we have a fear of that with retired mark unless the Rangers piss him off again. But uh you have to be a loyal listener to understand that one. Um, let's get into a little bit of Rangers news. I thought this was a little bit of outside the box. Um in the past, that's why I wanted to bring Mark on here. He's a little bit older than the rest of our boys backstage. Um, in the past, the Rangers stolen the Knicks. I'm not a big Knicks fan, but I know Mark, you're a little bit bigger of a Knicks fan. They've always gone after that like veteran, that high-priced veteran, that shiny new toy to sell jerseys or to sell tickets or whatever. Um, I thought it was very interesting that LeBron James ended up signing in Philly, but he's gonna be living in New York. And then we saw, I heard some rumors or read some things that in his heart he actually wanted to play for the Knicks. He wanted to try to play at MSG, whatever. And the Knicks didn't want LeBron James or didn't want to sign LeBron James even to the veteran minimum deal. I thought that's very shocking, and it might be a wave of something, you know, like a different way of thinking, Dolan. He's going after championships, trusting his management. I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. And uh kind of like I said, I was thinking outside the box a little bit in a positive way, Coach. What do you think about that?

SPEAKER_03 12:08

I mean I mean, obviously the Rangers history in the past is always getting these superstars at the tail end of their career, and that's where LeBron is pretty much. I'm not saying he's not an excellent basketball player, but they just won a championship with the with the mix that they have. They probably don't want to disrupt anything, they want to build on that same teamwork ethic and and stay with it. You know, no matter what, you're bringing a personality like that, the focus goes on them, the press goes to them. It's a whole different world, it's a whole different locker room atmosphere. I mean, I'm gonna guess that's why they wanted to keep it that way, and uh probably figured he's not gonna really be that much of a help in trying to secure uh a good team going forward.

SPEAKER_04 12:52

Yeah, I'm definitely not a big basketball guy, but it's a similar situation when they signed when the Rangers brought in Patrick Kane and Tarasanko, and there's only one puck. There's definitely only one basketball, and that's a whole different uh situation.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

So I don't understand the thing. The thing with Tarasanko and Kane, they're still playing at a high level. To me, they kind of gave up on them. Like they had him for a year, it didn't work. And then Tarasenko is still, I mean, he's not thriving in a superstar, but any team he's on is competing and he's he's a part of the team. And obviously, Kane just signed a pretty good deal with Chicago. He's still contributing, not his not his hundred points or whatever he was known for over the years. But when Patty Kane's on the ice, he's gonna pass the puck, he's gonna make some plays. I don't know. I think the rangers, I don't think they were at quite at the end of their career. They weren't they were in the twilight, but I thought they could have contributed more.

SPEAKER_04 13:50

We'll definitely get into Patrick Kane in a bit when we talk about the Iran League contracts. But Mark, what were you gonna say?

SPEAKER_01 13:54

I feel like Teresenko didn't uh didn't he have like 40 points last year. He he played well last year for Minnesota, didn't he? So he's still playing at a high level.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

He was on the line with Zuccorello, I think.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

In our chat today, I you know, I I know we want to keep saying new guys, new guys, new guys. Uh, you know, I'll I'll segue into the LeBron James thing.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Uh sometimes you need the old dog on the team, but you know, you take a look at the team necessary, but I'm saying that that might be their mindset. I don't know. I'm just speculating.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Take a look at the con Smythe winner this past year. Guy's a dog. He's probably what one of the oldest guys on the team. You know, I'm not saying LeBron James was right for the Knicks, and I'm I'm gonna say I went to the Anthony Mason's basketball camp. Uh, I played basketball in high school. Uh, I wasn't really good at skating, just was really a big Ranger fan growing up. Um, I still think you need that locker room presence, but I don't think maybe LeBron James was uh was good for the locker room that they needed. They have the king in New York already, and that's Jalen Burns. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

I don't think he would have helped with the team team effort, the team uh atmosphere.

SPEAKER_04 15:03

Yeah, I mean, I agree with everything that you guys are saying. I'm not necessarily I wasn't really asking like why the Knicks would say no. I was kind of more just pointing out that like I feel like in the past, Dolan would be like, oh, hell yeah, like I'm gonna the ticket prices are gonna go up even more, jersey prices are gonna go up even more. We just won the championship. Who cares? You know, like let's bring them in. Now I feel like it's a little bit more team.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

I don't think you mess, I don't think you mess with the chemistry that they have now, right? You take look, they brought back just about everybody that they could. Uh, you know, uh Ram didn't come back, unfortunately. You know, he's he signed with uh Boston, but uh, you know, they're bringing back the most of their bench, so you're gonna have the same locker room. You know, you might have one or two new guys there, but uh that's gonna be the same. Uh they're all gonna have the same chemistry and they're gonna run, try to run for a second ship. And that's how these teams have done another thing.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

You agree with me.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

What is that? That they shouldn't have brought James. Uh no, I didn't think they should bring LeBron James in. Oh, okay, because I was just said I was segue, I was segueing from NHL saying you take a look at you know Stalsey, you take a look at the older guys in the league. Sometimes you need you need that in the locker room with a younger team. I just don't think the Knicks needed LeBron James as much as LeBron James wanted the Knicks.

SPEAKER_04 16:17

Yeah, definitely. And I yeah, I agree with the decision that they made. I also saw that he's gonna be filming a last dance type of documentary while he's still playing, which doesn't make it a last dance documentary that like you're still playing. Um, but you know, like that's just a distraction that you don't need. So I I guess lack of a better word, I'm like proud of Dolan for saying no to that, or proud of them for saying no to that. And I can only hope, or we can only hope, that uh his son Quintin, which we've discussed in a uh summer episode, um excuse me, will follow like the same sort of thing, you know, trust your management, trust the process. Uh they bring in enough money as is, you don't have to bring in the shiny new toy whenever it becomes available.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

I think, like we say, uh in Chris Jury, we trust, I think in Leon Rose they trust deeply.

unknown 17:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:09

Well, he didn't he proved himself, so there's no reason not to right now. Um so yeah, keep up, keep it up. I'm not the biggest basketball person, but it was very exciting to watch. I'm not gonna lie. I'm usually very anti-the sport in general, but uh those playoff games in that in the final game, finals games were uh pretty entertaining, I'm not gonna lie. So good stuff. I hope the Knicks continue on. But back to some Rangers news. Um, while we were away there, they announced finally that they're doing the rookie series, which is gonna be September 12th and 13th. Uh, another reason why I wanted to bring Mark on is to announce that to our fans officially that we'll be there. We purchased our tickets last night. Well, Mark purchased our tickets last night and we got a venmo him, but uh that'll happen. And um, yeah, very excited for it. Mark, why don't you give your piece, your experience from last year? And uh, fans, if you guys want to join us, um, shoot us a message on Instagram, we'll tell you where we're sitting. Actually, we'll just tell you right now, who cares? We're sitting in 105, right? For Saturday, no, 104 percent.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Saturday, we're in set Saturday, we're in section for 7 p.m. 104, row 16. Uh, Sunday, 5 p.m. is game 105, row 14.

SPEAKER_04 18:19

Okay, yeah, so come find us. Uh, we had a great time last year. So, Mark, why don't you give your experience from last year?

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Uh, I you let me tell you something. I think it last year was a really great brought bonding experience. It brought uh it brought us together. That's I think uh one of the biggest reasons why I call you guys. Hey, hey fam, what's up? I've you guys, it it was such a good time. We had so many good laughs, and I think it's super important like go into these rookie games, go into the rookie games when they bring these guys up in the middle of the year, you understand who they are. You you watch them play a couple games, they're super interactive, you know, when they warm up. Um, it's it's just a really good time. And it's it's fun hockey, it's fun young hockey, and it's close to home. And it's just we had a really good time last year. So I'm super stoked that they uh I don't like I don't necessarily like the weekend that they put it on, but I'm sure it's tight because they made the season longer. But uh we're gonna have a good time.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

Yeah, last year was a ton of fun. We uh we met Mike Sullivan after the weekend was over on the way out. That was super cool. Um, I almost literally ran into Chris Shurry on the promenade there uh while he was walking by. Um so, like Mark said, it's kind of just like a laid-back atmosphere. If you've ever been to a minor league hockey game like the Wolfpack or uh even the Phantoms, that's who they'll be playing. Um technically they're playing the Flyers, but they're gonna be playing mostly Phantoms players or guys that will be on the Phantoms this season. Um if you've ever been to one of those games, it's just a lot more for a lot more fan-friendly experience, like just walking around. Um, there's no ushers like checking your seats and like kicking you out or whatever. It's kind of just like everyone's there for the same reason to have a good time. And uh we definitely will be. I'm not gonna give out our hotel information over the air, but if you guys are going, you can definitely hit us up and we'll definitely meet up with you guys. Um, we'll go out to dinner or hit up go to a bar or something. Uh, we did a ton of stuff last year, and it was just a great weekend overall. Coach, what was your highlight of uh last year's rookie series?

SPEAKER_03 20:21

I mean the games themselves, just seeing the players and then learning these sold these kids a bill of goods, thank you. And then seeing uh a couple of the players at Starbucks and and and just seeing a couple of the players come up during the season, Lava making the team. It's just interesting to see who be there, you know, and who's gonna make it, and then Author not making the team. It was very cool, very fast game, a lot of size. The goaltending was great. I I it was just it's just fun hockey to watch. I mean, I love seeing the Rangers, don't get me wrong, but those games are fun.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Coach, I'm a little sad. I'm sorry. I'm sad you didn't mention I'm sad you didn't mention eating the wings.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

I thought that was gonna be the first thing. No, nope, I don't think you heard us.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

Did we lose coach again? Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

It's all right. Well, eating the wings was a lot of again.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

He said that he thought your your first thing was gonna be the wings. Nope. Oh god. All right, well, yeah, we we ate and ordered a lot of wings. Like I said, if you guys are gonna be there, we'll meet up with you at the bar. We'll have a few uh beverages and some nice food, good food, and it'll be a good time. Um, our producers Nick and Dom will be there. Unfortunately, Isaac is undecided about Sunday right now, but um hopefully he'll be able to come and we'll be a big happy family, and we'll see you guys all there. Um, am I forgetting anything about the rookie series? I I yeah, I forgot that Lava, that was the first time we saw him. And he like he blew everyone away at that at that point.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

I think that was I think that was that you're like, this guy's gonna make the team. We knew of that in there.

SPEAKER_04 22:09

He was a bull. Whenever he had the puck, no one could get it from him. He was flying around. And that's like the thing. I think I've mentioned it about some players like us, like a Scott Morrow. Like, there's no reason why a player like that, someone who's played games in the NHL, shouldn't dominate those two games. Correct. You know, like the like I said, like these guys are gonna be most likely playing for the Phantoms, most of them. I mean, there might be a few guys. Um, what's his name from the Flyers that we talked to Siobhan about last year? They called him up from uh college last year. Was it Michigan or something? I forget.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Oh uh, what's his face?

SPEAKER_04 22:46

Uh he played in the playoffs a few games.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

He scored a bunch of goals, didn't he? He was awesome.

SPEAKER_04 22:52

Yeah, so he'll probably be there. Um, if there's someone backstage that could help me out with that, not a big deal. It's not a Rangers player, so who cares? Um, but yeah, like players like that'll be there. And there's uh it's like we already what do you got?

SPEAKER_05 23:07

Uh Isaac put it in the group chat, but are y'all talking about Martone?

SPEAKER_04 23:11

Yes, yes, yes, yes, Martone. Yeah, so he'll be he'll most likely be there. Um, I'm sure he also got an invite to their regular camp. Um, but when they're young and they they want to see as much as they can with of them um and let them play with their peers and stuff a little bit too. And like I said, like you want to see those types of players dominate, you know, like you want to see what they can really do when they're like the best players on the ice. Um, and then you take it to the next step and see how they do in the regular training camp with the big boys.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Um agreed.

SPEAKER_04 23:40

But uh, but yeah, we'll talk a little bit more about our upcoming schedule later on in the episode, about what episodes we have planned for um training camp and stuff like that. But for now, um, I think that's it. You have guys have any other anything else to add about the rookie series?

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Coach, I uh before you couldn't hear us, I was a little upset that you said the wings weren't the first thing that you really enjoyed about going to the rookie camp and the pierogies.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

No, that was definitely a bonus. We hit up a couple of good restaurants right there. It's a good little town, nice little atmosphere. We had a lot of fun, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

Definitely, yeah. Coach mentioned that we ran into a few players. Um, who was that Hugo Olosh?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

The gold bucks in the morning.

SPEAKER_04 24:23

Yep, yeah, he was enormous. Coach was staring at his butt. He's like, That's gotta be a hockey player. And uh, it turned out he was. Um, and uh yeah, so um, yeah, they're just walking around. We saw a bunch of guys um that we actually had to like Google, like I think that's this kid, like, because you don't you don't recognize them yet, and that's another reason, like Mark said, is to go so you can uh I guess recognize them when they do get called up and you already know a little bit about them.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Um I agree.

SPEAKER_04 24:52

So, yeah, with that, guys. Uh thanks so much, Mark. It's great to have you back on. Wet the beak a little bit back on back on the airwaves. And um, I think I saw Mr. Hatman in the comments before on the I was gonna give him a shout out. Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Mr. Hatman. We spoke today, we were chatting a little bit. Hopefully, I don't want to go too far into the schedule, but hopefully, uh, Mr. Hatman and we'll be doing an inside the ranger room. Uh, you've seen him at the MSG commercial, uh working on 1000 hats. He happens to be a good friend of the show, a good friend of mine, and uh looking forward to working with him. So I love you guys. I miss you. I'm happy to be back, and uh as you know, let's go, Rangers. Let's go, Rangers ahead.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

Sorrento's coming up, Mark. Sorrento's coming up.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Let's go.

SPEAKER_04 25:38

Yeah, whenever Coach A gets sick of Florida, maybe he'll come back and be a peasant with us up in New York again.

SPEAKER_03 25:43

So it's still warm up here. That's gonna be well right now.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

I'm up in like Vermont. I don't even know where I am right now, actually.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

It's gonna be my driving force on the drive home, is just thinking about that Sorrentos dinner.

SPEAKER_04 25:54

I can't wait. It's been a long time, it's been a long time. We gotta hit up Sorrentos for sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

January was my birthday.

SPEAKER_04 26:02

That might have that might have been a lesson. No, I was no, we probably had to. No, we I mean we order from there too a lot, but it we don't go there very often. We definitely got to go see Steve and uh and hit up Sorrentos, no doubt. All right, Mark, thanks again. Um, guys, if you're listening at the Blue Line Blue Shirts, uh reach out to him or us, uh, the main account if you want to join us, or I guess my personal account as well, whoever, reach out to any of us and let us know you'll be there. And uh we'll definitely meet up and I'll have some merch with us and some giveaways. And hell yeah, looking forward to it. It's gonna be a good time.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Look forward, guys.

SPEAKER_04 26:38

All right, later, Mark. Let's bring on our in-house statistician analytics contracts guy, Isaac, and let's discuss these crazy contracts that have been throwing around. Um, Isaac, before we get into it though, what's been up with you? How's everything going?

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Uh, everything's going good. Um, I'm upstate with my family right now, so that's kind of nice. I just saw Spider-Man last week, it was really good. And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:06

Awesome. Yeah, Spider-Man is Spider-Man's definitely on my list, but I want to get a try to get an Odyssey ticket first, which is nearly impossible. Um, but yeah, I'd like to see Spider-Man as well. Um, so coach had uh mentioned already Patrick Kane. Uh he signed, I guess, a pretty big deal um for someone at his age and point of his career. Um, he was two two by four point four, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:29

No, it was two years eight mil per oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

Yeah, what did I am I thinking of somebody else? I don't know, whatever. Yeah, okay. So, yeah, because it was eight eight, right? That was like the big thing. Um, so what are your thoughts on that? I mean, Mark and coach already said that uh Patrick Kane's got a little bit left in the tank. He's one of my favorite players of all time, so I think I'd have to agree. Um, what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_02 27:53

I think he has a lot, or he has definitely something left in the tank, too. My question is though, is he worth the eight mil? He was making, I think it was three last year. Yeah, did he play well enough to more than double his salary? He had 57 points in 67 games. Uh, I think his analytics were pretty good, at least offensively. Defensively, I don't think they were that great, but he's never been known to defend well. But um think that's his job. Yeah, exactly. And the real the real thing is it's finally, though, somebody to put next to Bedar because he's had nobody. The the passing's still there, the skill's still there, the vision's still there. He's not necessarily the fastest skater anymore, but he should be a good player for them. I just don't wouldn't have given him eight, but Chicago decided to. I don't know if it's only two years. Yeah, exactly. It doesn't hurt them too too long term.

SPEAKER_04 28:46

So unless they and what's the what's the rest of their cap situation? I mean, we'll get into the Bedar contract in a few minutes after right after this. Um, so what's the rest of their cap situation?

SPEAKER_02 28:56

Right now they've got 2.8 mil left in cap space. Oh wow, a lot less than I thought. Yeah, um, but they do have they have 14 forwards and six defensemen signed right now. Um Kevin Korczynski's in RFA, they got both their goalies signed, so they're pretty much set in terms of contracts. Um, it's just like who's up soon that they would want to re-sign.

SPEAKER_04 29:21

Who else do they have at like a big contract that they're pushing the limit that close?

SPEAKER_02 29:26

Well, why not? The guard signed the big deal. Oh, they just signed Bow and Byrum. Yeah, Bo and yeah, Bowen Byram, too. That that was the monster deal they signed, but that's for next season. That's not even this season. Oh, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so uh Spencer Knights at 6.83. Uh in terms of other big guys, it's really like Frank Nazar is at 6.6, Bertuzzi's at 5.5, Terra Vinan's at 5.4.

SPEAKER_04 29:53

So no one higher than eight, other than Kane.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

Kane and Bedard, yeah. At least right now. I think it's just that oh Ryan Ellis is at 6.25, but he's on IR also. So um I think it's just because they have a lot of contracts, probably in like the five, six million dollar range. That's probably starting to eat at them.

SPEAKER_04 30:14

Yeah, that's what I was about to say. It's like kind of like they have too many of like the middle of the pack contracts. Yeah, you gotta turn like two of those into like a bigger contract and then get some cheaper guys, probably.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Yeah. The the big the big thing though is getting Bedarta winger, which they did in Kane, because what was his best winger before? Bertuzzi? Like, yeah, your your guy who's supposed to be your franchise center has no help. And listen, while Kane is good help for sure, is the guy that you want to pair with your franchise centerman. Do you want him to be a 37-year-old player who in two years isn't going to be here anymore? Because then they're going to be right back in the situation. If they had someone else and then Kane on top of that, that would that would be, I think, much better.

SPEAKER_04 30:59

But well, what do what did I say about Ovechkin? You could pay Kane to be like a power play DH for like until he's like 60. He could just sit there on the right wing and feed Bedard Pucks and be the power play DH in Chicago.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

But then most of the game is played five on five, though. So what are you doing the other uh 50 minutes a night or whatever it is? Yeah.

unknown 31:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:18

Speaking of Ovechkin, he just had a uh I just listened to a great interview on Empty Netters with him. He was at Fanatics Fest. He doesn't do a lot of interviews like that, so I thought it was pretty, he was a pretty funny guy. Um, but coach, what were your thoughts on when you saw that Patrick Kane's back in Chicago?

SPEAKER_03 31:34

I mean, I understand what you guys are saying, and I don't disagree a hundred percent, but if Kane has the puck on his stick, which he usually does like a magnet on the wall, Badard knows how to get open, and it could be a nice little one-two punch where Badard could almost learn the game a little more and learn some things from him in that way. And that I don't think Kane, I think Kane can handle it for two more years. He's been doing good after that surgery, so I think it could help Badard a little bit. My question is though, when they drafted Bedard, I thought that GM was like loading up on draft picks and stuff. What did they have any big prospects coming in or anything? I haven't really followed it, but I kind of remember like them getting all these draft picks.

SPEAKER_04 32:18

Well, we only hear about the Rangers draft picks becoming becoming bust, you know. You never hear about any other GMs.

SPEAKER_03 32:25

But I'm wondering what I'm wondering what the holdup is as far as them getting some more kids coming up.

SPEAKER_04 32:30

Well, yeah, because that's that's kind of like the point that Isaac's making is like, yeah, it's great for right now that Patrick Kane's with Bedar, but then what?

SPEAKER_03 32:38

Well, maybe they have guys cooking in the AHL that they wanted to give another year.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

Yeah, that's right. I know was their big defensive prospect. Uh he played 68 games last year, 24 points. Um, so I think this is gonna be his second full season in the league, so it's a big one for him. Um, the thing with him though is clearly they got Byron and signed him to that massive extent extension. Do they view Levchinov now as a number one? Probably not. They're not paying him 12 and a half mil.

SPEAKER_04 33:12

Yeah, I think Chicago, yeah, Chicago situation is definitely very interesting. I mean, like I said, as a big Patrick Kane fan, it's cool to see him probably or most likely end his career back in Chicago. It's a cool story, and uh it is exciting to see him and Bedard, see what they could do together. But I was kind of pulling for Buffalo. I thought that would have been cool, um, him going back to his hometown to finish his career. And I think Buffalo is in a much better situation. And um, as much as he could help Chicago, I think he can help Buffalo maybe even more because they're gonna be a playoff team.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

Yeah, maybe part of the reason why Chicago threw as much money as they did at him was because uh like teams that were contending were probably offering him a little bit less, and what was probably more like reasonable for who he is at this age, but they were like, you know what, we need to get Bedard someone, let's just give him like as much as we can right now. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_04 34:04

Yeah, that that's a good point for sure. Um all right, so yeah, sticking with the Blackhawks, uh but Bedard signed what 15 by 5?

SPEAKER_02 34:13

I believe so. I'm pulling it up.

SPEAKER_04 34:15

15 even or was it like 15 and a half?

SPEAKER_02 34:17

15 exactly for five years. Um, I mean, listen, Danny Briere did what he did with Leo Carlson, and that I guess for these young guys that set the uh that set this the contract scene now. Um he had 75 points in 69 games, so above a point a game. Analytically, offensively, he's been really good. Defensively, he hasn't, but he's on Chicago. That's a huge caveat. Chicago has like no one there. If you want to go with the expected goals, it's 52.1%, so he's above that 50%. But then when he's not on the ice, the rest of the team has a 37.6 percent uh total expected goal. So basically, insanely, insanely bad drop-off without Bedard on the ice. So it just shows you how big he is for that franchise. Um but yeah, so 15 mil, five years, it's not the max term. So I think he's oh no, it he's a UFA at the end of it, so that's very interesting. Um this is already his third contract. No, this is his second contract, but the way that it works is I believe it's um either you turn 27 years old or you have seven years of service in the NHL, whichever comes first. So he's had his third three years on his ELC. Uh, this is gonna be five years now at 15. So he's gonna be a UFA at age 25.

SPEAKER_03 35:42

Wow. He's gonna he's gonna make bank, bro. Oh god.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Uh whether it's Chicago or L. I forget what I was gonna say. If it's if it's not Chicago, that's really bad.

SPEAKER_03 35:58

26 years old, he's gonna be probably making about 25 million a year by then.

SPEAKER_04 36:02

Yeah, I was that's what I was gonna say. Chicago better uh get their their stuff in gear because that's a quitty, a pretty quick uh timeline, I guess, to to put together a team and get back in the playoffs. Um, but interesting, kind of to counter your point about Kane signing in Chicago. Do you think Bedard took less than Carlson to leave room for Kane? Maybe they were trying to get them because other no, what are the reasons with him to be signing three million less than Leo Carlson?

SPEAKER_02 36:34

Other than maybe just being a team-friendly guy, he could he could definitely that could be part of the negotiations. I mean, obviously, I don't know how much weight the whole you have to overpay to get a team to think about an offer sheet polls amongst like players and GMs, but if Bedard is telling Chicago, like Carlson signed for 18, like I just had a he wasn't even point of game this last season, I don't think, right? And I just was, and quite frankly, Bedard could tell them, like, you need me more than I need you. So the fact that he's taking less than Carlson is probably definitely a good thing for them. Um but yeah, I mean I don't I don't I don't know when you when you see Bedard making 15 mil, I'm wondering how much of a discount did you really take? But he could have, you know, like it definitely had he taken 18, then they can't give Kane the eight.

SPEAKER_04 37:29

So right. That's five minutes. That's what I'm thinking. Like, hey, we can we have a chance to get Patrick Kane if uh you leave us three million to work with. Yeah. Um interesting, very interesting. Uh Chicago's in a tough spot, and I mean we think we have it bad with the Rangers, but they've been a they've been a pretty bad team for a long time, uh, waiting for that rebuild to um turn around, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

Yeah, it really hasn't happened. It just hasn't been happening.

SPEAKER_04 38:00

Yeah, yeah, they signed Nick Felino to try to bring in some leadership. They uh had Seth Jones that obviously didn't go well, and there's a lot of bad things that you know sometimes the grass isn't always greener with uh other GMs and things like that. So good stuff with the or not good stuff, good stuff. Good job by you with Chicago. But let's move on to another guy that um uh Danny Briere kind of set the tone with, and that's Macklin Cellebrini signing that big ticket. Um, what was that, 8.8 or 8.7?

SPEAKER_02 38:34

Something like yeah, eight eighteen point eight. 18.8 by five years as well. Yeah, and he's he's gonna be a UFA in 2032. The big thing with this is that contract doesn't kick in for another year. So he's got six years till he's got till he hits the market versus Bedard's five. Um Sol Brini's like already this young, he's a world cap class player. Like, I mean, I think it was I think Grier, uh Grier said, um I'm pretty sure he said like if he wanted the max money contract, because there's like a the most amount of money that you could pay, is I forget what percentage of the cap, but I think it's like 20 point something. And I I'm pretty sure he said we were prepared to give it to him. If he wanted it, we would have given it to him because he was that important of a player to them. And listen, Carlson deal did what it did to get a guy like Celebrini at only $800,000 more. As good as Carlson is Celebrini's on that next tier, definitely, right now. And so, like it's it's worth it. In this market, it's worth it.

SPEAKER_04 39:45

Yeah, I just think back I think back to the Olympics, and he was on the ice with Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Nathan McKinnon, Kale McCarr. It goes on, and he was the best player on the ice. Yeah, what is he, 19 years old? And he's 19 years old signing an 18 million Olympics. Yeah, and he dominated the um what's the tournament in the summer? The world not the world cup of hockey, uh, world championships. World championships, he dominated there as well, and you know, like he pretty much single-handedly almost carried the sharks into a playoff spot. Um he's very entertaining to watch. He's that style of player that you just wish you had the whole team of, obviously. But he's that Sidney Crosby type player. Um, we can have the conversation of Celebrini versus Bedard all day, but I would take Celebrini 10 times out of 10.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Yeah. And I know obviously the Sharks and he's worth every penny. Yeah, I know that they're in different spots, but obviously you pay you pay your forward for the offense. Like that's what they're there to do, obviously, for the most part. But defensively, his analytics took a huge step this year. Last year they were like below 25th percentile. This year they're like 65th-ish, which is huge for a forward. And then only a second season, like they're getting a he had 115 points this year, so they're getting an 100-point player who plays both ends of the ice really, really well. Like, that's their it's their franchise centerman. Like, the only way that they can mess this up is by handing out other contracts that they shouldn't, but this is definitely one that they should hand out.

SPEAKER_04 41:24

Yeah, I mean, that's a a topic of conversation because now you got Will Smith, you know, that needs to be signed, right? Um, they got a few guys, and they they just brought over Darnell Nurse and Truba at decent size deals um in terms of their age and and uh career.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

That's um it's a bit of a concern for me, not necessarily that they brought them over, but at the price they did and at the length they did.

SPEAKER_04 41:51

Yeah, the length is weird because it doesn't line up with that the contract that yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:56

Um let's see who's yeah, Will Smith is in the RFA after this upcoming season. Uh uh Logan Couture's career is done, but he's his contract comes off the books. Uh Goodrow comes off the books. So it's really just Will Smith on forward that they need to resign, and then Dmitri Orlov, who they probably just let walk if I had to guess, because he's 35 years old.

SPEAKER_04 42:18

But but they just drafted Stenberg. You got to assume he's gonna turn into something decent, or if not a superstar, uh Misa as well. I mean, they got all these the good thing, the good thing with Stenberg, though, is he's three years away from uh yeah, you know, a con any kind of a contract. Yeah. Um, coach, what were your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_03 42:38

You gotta tip your hat to Greer because he was like the doormat of the league. You teams are just dumping contracts his way, you don't remember? And uh he turned it around quicker than Chicago did.

SPEAKER_02 42:50

Definitely. I'm just wondering, uh he did take the Darnell nurse dump, which is 9.25 for the next four years or five years. One, two, three I think it's four. Yeah, it's four years. But listen, if they think that they can revitalize him, I don't think he was ever a nine and a quarter million dollar defenseman. But if they can turn him into something decent, then like they're looking pretty good. But I just like if I'm Griere, I would you have to be very cautious about any other contract that you give out, just with all the young guys that are gonna be expiring soon. But they're definitely in a better spot than Chicago.

SPEAKER_04 43:35

Yeah, I I think the Sharks, I think I've mentioned it on a f on a recent episode, I think they're a big threat of uh landing McDavid. I mean, obviously, I'm not a capologist or how that's gonna work or timing wise and stuff, but um, I think he said had high praise of uh playing with Celebrini at the Olympics. So I think if it continues on this path, yeah. But now with these. Contracts though, that's that's gonna be tough to fit him, Celebrini, Smith. You know, by the time McDavid's available, it's gonna be a weird situation. Yeah, we might not be ready for a player like him in terms of making a push.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

Yeah, with guys making as much money as they are right now. Like, I don't know how much the player maximum salary is gonna go up in the next two years, but it wouldn't surprise me if it if McDavid gets the max. It really wouldn't.

SPEAKER_04 44:25

Yeah, I mean, if he wins the cup, there's no way he's not gonna get the max. Um, but then it obviously comes down to how much room he wants to leave for other other players.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Um, if he if he wins a cup though, I can't see him leaving Edmonton just for now. There's no reason for him to do it at that point. Exactly. But if he if he doesn't win, he's gone.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

Yeah. Well, shout out to Mikey150. He's convinced that he's staying in Canada until he wins a cup. I don't think that's the case. Um, but we'll see. It would suck to see him go to like Toronto or something, but uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

Who do we have next?

SPEAKER_04 44:57

Uh I think Robertson was the next guy up. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:01

Uh one year 12 mil. I think was that signed before no, it was signed after the offer sheet, too. So he could have got more, but he did Dallas a favor here because Dallas, I think, even now they have negative cap space, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, they need a clear 1.3. So even so they did him a favor. They have to move a smaller-ish contract out in order to make it work. But um listen, he wanted more, but also at the same time, he knew Dallas couldn't give it to him, at least not right now, from what it seems like, just because he was denying trades everywhere. I think he wants to stay in Dallas, he just wasn't happy with the number they were offering him. So the good thing from Dallas's side of things is Sagan's coming off the books this year. That's almost 10 mil coming off. So they have a couple more smaller contracts coming off. So I don't think they should have an issue if both sides want to extend long term. I think that they'll get it done probably mid-season because when he's eligible for an extension, January, if I'm if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_04 46:05

Yeah, what was what's Jamie Ben making at this at Jamie Ben?

SPEAKER_02 46:10

He just signed one year, yeah. One year 850k.

SPEAKER_04 46:14

Oh, the minimum, okay. Yeah, I was gonna say if he uh if he tied them up a little bit, that would have been pretty bad, but that's like nothing for a player like him. Um coach, what was your thoughts on Robertson? I thought it was strange that he turned down the offer sheet or turned down whatever they were discussing before. I know that was a lot of information, but what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_03 46:35

I can't believe he had it settled for 12 million with his stats over the last we discussed this last time, but his stats over the last five years. I feel I mean, I feel I mean I don't feel bad for him. 12 million is a lot of money to me for sure.

SPEAKER_04 46:50

But in Texas, too.

SPEAKER_03 46:51

In the market, I just don't get how he's not commanding more and getting it, why he's gotta battle for it. I I don't get it.

SPEAKER_04 46:59

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

He commanded, I think he, I mean, apparently Seattle offered him 15 million dollars. I don't think he would just want to eat, I don't think he wanted to go to Seattle and then he's gonna be. Yeah, I think that's the thing.

SPEAKER_04 47:09

Like he's trying to he's trying to have his cake and eat it too. Like he wants to win a cup, but also sign a max deal. Like, you gotta figure out what you want to do here. If you're gonna sign the max deal, go play in Seattle and collect your paycheck, you know. But if you want to win a cup, stay in Dallas and and try to win a cup, you know.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

So the one the one-year contract gives him a little bit better of a chance of getting both. Yeah, but like it's just like what's the same thing we just talked about. It's like also now Robertson has all the leverage. He's gonna say, if you don't give me what I want, I'm just gonna go wherever I want because he's a UFA now.

SPEAKER_04 47:45

So and he's most likely gonna put up like 40 goals, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

40 goals, 100 points.

SPEAKER_04 47:50

It's a big, it's a big gamble for Dallas, too. I mean, they could have they could have completely screwed themselves just now, and like like he just said, uh, could demand a lot more after this this season. But uh that's another interesting one. Yep, without a doubt. Um, and then of course, Dallas is always another rumor for McDavid destination or another top guy. So we'll see how that goes. Um, all right, whatever what else you get was that the last big money signing as of now?

SPEAKER_02 48:20

I'm sure the last, I think that was the last one. Like the the only other guys that are out there are what like Line and Terasenko, but like they're not gonna get big money, they're not gonna get big money.

SPEAKER_04 48:30

So yeah, if Line, if someone takes a risk on that guy, I don't know. I was in the I was getting a little fired up in the group chat today, but it's just injuries with him. It's like he doesn't put in the effort. It's like who how many chances is he gonna get, in my opinion?

SPEAKER_02 48:45

Um yeah, he's also like like uh he doesn't take it seriously, you know, like it doesn't seem like but he puts nothing else in. Yeah, like he's he's he's he has a good shot. That's about it. He's the Ovechkin power play uh DH, as you would say, but he's like what 28 years old, right? 40.

SPEAKER_04 49:07

Yeah, yeah. My buddy uh Kevin from high school, Kevin Kelly used to love him. I was like, dude, this guy sucks.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

Like it's just listen, he had the good what was it, his rookie year, his sophomore year?

SPEAKER_04 49:19

I think it was his rookie or sophomore year, yeah, where everyone's like, Oh, he should have gone number one instead of who do you get picked behind? Was it Matthews? No, Matthews, it was Matthew.

SPEAKER_03 49:26

Yeah, but every team he goes to, he gets injured almost immediately, like the last four seasons, right?

SPEAKER_04 49:32

And I feel like it's because he doesn't put in the offseason work, he's not getting stronger, he's not staying uh pliable, whatever you want to call it. It's just it's the same thing year after year with him, and it always takes him like forever to come back. You always hear about these guys like rushing to get back.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

You never hear that from him, like it's always like if you if you if the rumors are true based on like what people were saying during Winnipeg, apparently he got like addicted to Fortnite and like listen, yeah, yeah, like random stuff.

SPEAKER_04 49:59

Like he'll be tweeting about Fortnite or something. It's like, dude, you're injured.

SPEAKER_02 50:02

Like I'll play, I'll I'll play, I'll play a game of Fortnite. You know, it's a fun game, but like, dude, you can't read the room. You're an NHL player.

SPEAKER_04 50:10

Yeah, read the room. You you could play, don't get me wrong, but let's not tweet about it and make it an unknown thing. Um, all right, Isaac, I'm glad we're on the same page about Lionight because I was expecting you to come in and be like, no, but he can score 50 power play goals and blah blah blah. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 50:25

You had said earlier, like, oh um, I would like quit the pod if they if they uh if they draft if they uh signed him. Would I be hella pissed off if they signed him? No, but I wouldn't be a fan of it at all. Like I would just be like, you're you're signing a guy who's gonna put in no effort, and then you're trying to like mold this team around, like set a bad example. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, like bring bring Terasenko back on a on a one-year, like super cheap deal if you're gonna sign another veteran guy, you know.

SPEAKER_04 50:53

Do something like that, yeah. Yeah, well, good stuff, Ben. Thanks for coming prepared. Thanks for uh having the answers to our questions and stuff and uh good insight. We really appreciate it. Um, of course. So, yeah, we'll see you uh, I guess next episode. Good stuff, buddy. Thank you. Of course. All right, let's get up into the upcoming schedule. Let's bring in uh jumbo and dom to discuss what we got in store for you guys. Um, shout out to Isaac again for bringing that stuff to us. He's doing a great job. And uh, if you're not following us on X, definitely head on over there. And we look forward to a good season of bringing you guys some more content over there um with stats, analytics, in-game tweets, whatever we feel like doing. So, yep, there you go. Jumbo put the the ticker up there if you're watching. All of our handles are up there. Um, if you're not, you could just search Rangers Ed Podcast, and I'm sure you'll be able to find it. Um, so our big news or a big upcoming episode we we're doing this year, thanks to Dom and uh the rest of the team for finding some key moments from our episodes this summer. So, Dom, why don't you share what you've been working on?

SPEAKER_06 52:01

Yeah, so I'm in the process of editing a bunch of our clips uh from basically this year from episode 160 up to 169, and it's coming out really nice. Uh, what I was wanted to say to everybody watching, if you want, send us your favorite clips in our Instagram or Twitter or X. Uh whatever you can find us on, even in the chat here, I'll save it and I'll put it in, and maybe I'll put your username under that clip. So we want to get a bunch of you know your favorite moments, and we'll include them and give you a little bit of a shout out as well. I think that's pretty cool for us. Yeah, for us to talk to you guys about it and uh see what you guys thought was the funniest. I think I might have to go in and change something now because I think coach saying he's gonna make bank pro is probably the funniest thing I've heard all week. And it simply made my day after having a little bit of a rough day. So, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_04 53:06

Oh, I'm glad Coach can make you smile. Uh, sorry you had a rough day, bud, but um, yeah, good stuff. We're definitely something we've never done, and I've been not jealous, but something I've always uh envied of other podcasts being able to do and uh taking some good clips of uh recent episodes or doing like a best of the year or best of the season, so we're doing a best of the summer. Um I don't know, there's a lot of people need some time off from hockey. If you needed some time off away from us, fully understand it. Um, so if you missed the summer episodes and don't want to go back and listen to all of them, some of them were a little long. Dom's uh putting together the best of summer episodes. So we're really looking forward to that. And that's gonna be dropping when did we say next week?

SPEAKER_06 53:48

Yeah, that that's gonna be in place for our episode next Wednesday, so around seven o'clock Wednesday night next week, or maybe even early that morning, uh it'll be dropping.

SPEAKER_04 53:57

Yeah, we've uh we've loved giving you guys pretty much weekly episodes throughout the summer. Um, but it's also been nice to take a little bit of a break, um, not think about hockey for a week and kind of brainstorm about future episodes, and that's what we've been doing. Um, so yeah, next week we're gonna be taking the week off and releasing the best of summer. And then uh the week after that is the week I'm gonna be away, I believe. So the boys might jump on if some big news happens with the Rangers. Uh, the boys might jump on without me. Um, but then Nick, what do we got scheduled after that?

SPEAKER_05 54:31

Uh we let me pull up our that'll bring us uh that'll bring us to sub no, that'll bring us to August 26th, which is when and that will hopefully be the start of our rivalry tour as the regular season starts up. We'll be having guests across the entire Metro Division on here with us to discuss their teams, discuss the Rangers, bring everybody on and get an idea of kind of the competition that the Rangers are gonna be facing. I mean, we've talked about some of the changes that some of the teams have made in division, but we don't know the full ins and outs of where they're gonna fit. So it's gonna be nice to see the uh the full breakdown of these teams and everything that the Rangers are gonna be playing in division and just seeing where everybody's thoughts are heading into the regular season.

SPEAKER_04 55:21

Hell yeah, man. Great job. And that's yeah, pretty much covered it. Um, our usual guests, if you guys are new listeners, um, like Nick said, we we take our some of our around the league guests, Neil Villa Piano from Devil's State of Mind. We got Siobhan Nolan uh with the Flyers. That's been a little bit of a recurring guest this summer. She's helped us out a lot and graced us with her presence. Um, Sean Cuthbert over at Hockey Night New York covers the Islanders. Uh, he's a big friend of the show as well. If you're a listener, you've seen him plenty of times. Um, we're gonna get Nick Belski over from Tip of the Iceberg Podcast. We had him on not last summer, the summer before that. Uh, he's unbelievably insightful with the penguins. I think he does a daily show on the penguins during the regular season. So that's quite a bit. He knows his stuff, so he's a great guest. He'll be coming on again this year. And then um, last but not least, who am I forgetting? We have Devils, Flyers, Islanders.

SPEAKER_06 56:17

Who do we get for her? Did we get Hurricanes?

SPEAKER_04 56:20

I have I reached out to Hurricanes from the Kaniac report, and then yes, Pittsburgh. I already said Nick Belski. So that's five. Um, kind of like Dom said, if you guys want to hear about another fan base or another team, we could try to find another podcast or some reporters or someone that covers them. Um, but for right now, those are the five we're gonna cover. Um, I believe Siobhan Nolan is not gonna join us for the 26th. So we're gonna have the first episode of the rivalry tour on the 26th. We're gonna have the second episode of the tour on the 2nd of September. Um, but then Siobhan's probably gonna join us either before or after the rookie series or both. See how generous she feels. No pressure on Siobhan, but I reached out to her today. Um, but we really want to discuss, like we already talked about, that rookie series and see how she feels about the Flyers prospects and who she thinks will uh end up making the team or making some noise in training camp at least. Um, so yeah, if you guys are recurring listeners, you've been with us for a long time. We always have a good time with the rivalry tour and get great insight on who the Rangers are facing this year and uh what what the Metro Division might look like. Um so yeah, very excited for the rivalry tour. Always a good time. What about Mikey?

SPEAKER_03 57:31

What about Mike? Excuse me, and what about Mikey P with Boston?

SPEAKER_04 57:34

I know that Mikey 150, of course. We can always bring on Mikey 150. Maybe we'll bring him on to help us out with some of these episodes. And and I think that's what we did last year, actually. Yeah, I think he joined, I think he joined us to interview our guest and then kind of mixed in the Boston and every episode from his perspective as well. So it was a nice little twist. So yeah, maybe Mikey 150 will come on for up come on with us for those episodes again, and that'll be a good time. Um, after that, it's just gonna be uh gear enough for training camp, guys. Um, I think the ninth, we're uh that'll be the one leading up to the rookie series. So, like I said, um maybe Siobhan will come on for that one and give us a heads up on who to look out for. Um, and then we'll have the rookie series that weekend, and then we'll come back on the 16th and tell you guys all about it. We'll have hopefully some funny stories, a lot of a lot of good moments, um, hopefully some good prospects to report back on. And uh yeah, maybe Siobhan will join us again. I don't know, we'll see. Um, then after that, we'll we're getting into the big boy training camp, right? Which will be the 23rd, uh, the week of the 23rd. So I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about. Um, and if I'm not mistaken, that was gonna be our season preview episode, right? Correct. I already forget about what an opening night is. It's it's bumped up to the end of September this year with the two extra regular season games. Um, I reached out to Johnny Laz. He's definitely gonna join us for that episode to preview the season. So that's really exciting. Uh, Johnny, uh, another friend of the show, big Rangers guy. Obviously, you've seen him on Daily Face Off, Warning Cup of Hockey, and um Tri-State Hockey Podcast. He'll definitely come on again and uh preview the season. And hopefully, we have some good predictions, some positive predictions. Um, so yeah, I know that was a lot of info, a lot of dates, a lot of uh ideas and episodes and whatever, but we will be releasing a I guess a rest of the summer schedule, if you want to call it, whatever you want to call, we'll release a graphic on Instagram. So definitely follow our socials. Nick, I can help you out with that one, of course, or if you want to tackle it, you're more than welcome, as always. Um, but uh yeah, definitely keep an eye out for that. Best place to find us is all of our socials to keep up to date on our episodes and that kind of thing. Um, coach, how are your thoughts? Are you excited about the rivalry tour?

SPEAKER_03 59:59

Yeah, it's always a lot of fun. We uh throw little digs back and forth, and we, you know, it's a lot of fun with all our friends.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:06

Well, the best thing about it is what we always say, like they're always reasonable, you know. Like no one's uh what Mick Kern always says on our NHL Network rate NHL radio show. They don't have the pom-poms, you know, they don't they're not they're real, yeah, they're all real, they're all they all have hockey knowledge, they're not just uh my team is the best no matter what. They're all very real. They give their honest predictions on who's gonna win the metro and where their team's gonna finish, and all that good stuff. So I think that's the best part about it is uh we don't have any bad guests where they're just um I don't know, blind to reality, if you will. Yeah, it's good it's good stuff talking to them, you know. Some growing up on Long Island, it it gets a little brutal talking to Islanders fans, but you know, Sean's Sean's not that type of guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:58

Sean's a good skate.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:59

Yeah, Sean's a good guy. Shout out to Sean, he keeps asking me to fill in for his men's league team, and uh, I'm just never around, unfortunately. But hopefully one day I'll get back on the ice soon. Um, all right, guys, good stuff. Um looking forward to a lot of content, um, a little bit more time off before we really gear up and get into uh the regular season. I can't, I was I kept saying it last night in our meeting, but I can't believe the summer's almost over already. Um, but I'm excited for it. Things are looking up for the Rangers, things are definitely looking up for the podcast. I've been having a ton of fun with you guys, Isaac backstage as well. Mark, welcome back. We're definitely gonna have a ton of fun this season. I've been having a lot of fun doing these episodes. It's not a chore coming on every week with you guys. It's been good stuff, so I really appreciate it, and uh I look forward to keeping it going. With that being said, let's get into a fun segment of line rankings. Let's do it line rankings that we've been doing here and there over the summer, which I think we'll have some good clips.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:58

I have the whole list here. Um, I will dom let me share this with you real quick. I forgot to. Uh, we can run this together.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:07

But yes, like I said before, I think Coach and I are gonna have to have separate lists. Let's see how it goes on the first one. If we really disagree on the first one, we'll we'll go our separate ways. We'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:18

All right, I will kick it off for you guys. First flavor on the list, we'll start off with the classic vanilla.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:26

Classic vanilla. See, my argument with this, I don't know if this is valid or not, but if you're getting a twist, or if you're getting like multiple flavors, you always gotta toss the vanilla in there.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:40

You know, it's like kind of what do you mean? I get the strawberry.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:49

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:50

Like, oh yeah, it's a base flavor for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:52

The base, yeah. So I I think that's because of that reason, it's kind of gotta be pretty high. Not high. I'm not gonna go one.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:01

I say two or three. Vanilla's vanilla is like the original six of ice creams.

unknown 1:03:09

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:11

There you go, Dom. Another clip for you.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:14

It's a classic, it's a classic. I mean, when you have a good vanilla ice cream, it you know. And shout out to Sorrentos, you get the vanilla gelato, which is like a nice ice cream with the with the espresso coffee dumped over it, alfogato. And you and it settles, it settles your stomach real nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:34

After a big meal at Sorrentos, there is nothing better than a nice alfogato. See, that's another reason we might have to put it higher or high. I'm good with two, I think.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:46

I I'll go with two. I'm I'm comfortable with two.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:49

All right, me and Coach will stick together. I'm rolling the dice as well. We'll go with two. Tom, what do you got for the next one?

SPEAKER_06 1:03:58

So the next one is salted caramel.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:04

That's a good flavor. It's a good flavor. You don't like that flavor?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:09

I'm not a fan of like the salted caramel. Why does it gotta be salted? Just give me the caramel.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:14

I like the salt flavor. See, this is why we should have separated.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:17

Well, I'm not gonna put that. You're gonna put that number one?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:20

No, that's a three.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:22

I'll give it a three or a four.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:24

I don't know. A good like salted caramel with like pretzel bits in the ice cream is pretty damn good. This guy got that. Oh you want to give it one? No, if no, this is all right. Let's let's go our separate ways. You give it what you want, I'll give it what I want.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:46

I was willing to give it three. What do you we gave two away already?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:49

All right, fine, three, fine, three. What else do you want to give me? I I'm worried that you what we're leaving one open for what? Like what I don't even know what my favorite flavor even is. Rocky Road.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:01

Okay, well now you call it.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:06

All right, three, salted caramel. All right. Next up is mint chocolate chip.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:13

See, I don't like this at all. Five. Yeah, five. I'm with that. I'm not a big fan of mint chocolate chip.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:18

You guys are mint guy. Not a mint guy. I mean, listen, I'll eat it, but it's not like I'm not trying to have like that flavor while I'm eating ice cream. You guys are crazy. I don't like the chips. I don't like the like the shave chips that they put in it usually. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 1:05:36

Like that, like that fancy, like curled chocolate, like the chocolate chip.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:41

That's different. I'm talking about like those like little square like chips. Oh, okay. Got what you mean here, yeah. It's not like a chocolate, like a a a chocolate, like Hershey Kiss style chocolate chip. It's like that like just flat square. Yeah. It gets like stuck in your teeth, and that's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Yeah. I don't like when they make like a cookie dough with that either. It's just no good.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:04

All right. So number four is a birthday cake. I think that's gotta be four.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:12

I mean, we're not gonna put that one. No. But now we might be.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:21

What do you guys have left? Your number one spot?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:24

Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:24

We're screwing it. All right. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:28

Hell yeah. Not horrible.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:29

I'm a big Oreo guy. Me and Lindsay are big Oreo people, so cookies and cream. I'm with I'm with it.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:37

We should have put mint at the bottom for them.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:39

Yeah, but you didn't know we didn't like it.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:42

Yeah, that was a gamble. I wasn't mint mint is like you either love it or hate it. Yeah, that's a ball. Yeah, I can put that three, you know, like it's either one or five.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:51

You know, I mean, I don't hate it. If it's in the freezer and there's nothing else in the freezer, I'm going to eat it.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:56

Well, yeah. At the rookie series, I'm gonna get you a whole tub of mint ice cream, coach.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:03

You gotta make sure the chocolate chips aren't too much. I will be in the frame of mind to eat it, uh Dom. Don't worry.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:12

Oh shit, that was a good one. Oh man. All right, so we had cookies and cream, vanilla, salted caramel, birthday cake, and then chocolate chip. I think it's a pretty solid list. I mean, I I would take that as my personal list. Coach I might have one or two. Coach I might have one or two.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:31

I'm good with that. Oh, you mean your personal list? I'd I'd like to have uh wait, wait, we're talking about soft serve as well. If we want.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:40

Well, let's do a separate one.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:42

All right, five more right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:44

Tune in next week.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:45

Soft serve, pistachio, and strawberry is one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:53

Next time Dom's in Island Park, we gotta do Sorrentos and Marvell.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:57

Yes, all right. Sounds good, sounds like a plan.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:01

And uh, of course, Nick, you're invited as well. If you want to take a ride, I'm not excluding you and Isaac, but Dom has relatives, so if we want to make it a day, I have no problem doing that. That's that's yeah, we definitely gotta do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:13

But we also just talked about uh we also just talked about Sorrento's Avogado. So are we gonna get that and then also go to Marvell and get more ice cream? That's a yeah, I'm gonna explode by the end of that day. Well, that's usually what happens when you hang out with us, so it's okay. Um, but Nick, that was uh that was a home run. I'm glad you thought of that uh that blind rankings today at the last minute. Yeah, that was that was great. We got yeah, we got some good moments out of that one. So maybe at the last minute, dom's gonna have to sneak in some of those clips into uh our best of summer episodes. But good stuff. Why don't we bring the the whole fan back on to say our goodbyes? Welcome to the big leagues, Tom. We'll say it in person now, Marv. You don't have to type it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:55

Cookie dough, come on!

SPEAKER_04 1:08:57

What now cookies and cream? Different.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:01

Oh man, I I was so hoping that you were gonna say mint chuckle chip and you had to put it first.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:08

I was trying to that would have been rough. That would have been a complete fail of the list. Um, Isaac, I saw you laughing a bunch backstage. What were you uh what what got you good?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:17

No, it was just just just funny all around. Just great segment.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:22

Good stuff. Well, that's we definitely gotta do more of that. Keep it light, non-hockey related. I think that's a good definitely uh a good good time without a doubt. So good stuff, guys. Uh great episode, nice quick one for you guys, fans. Thank you so much for your support. Got the whole fam on the screen right now if you're watching. Uh love all you guys. Like I said before, I'm having a ton of fun with the show this summer. I look forward to more and more content and this show getting uh bigger or whatever, however you want to call it the community we're building. I uh really look forward to another season with you or our first season with you guys, and uh continuing on what we got going on this summer. It's been a really good time. So thank you so much. Let's go, Rangers. Let's go, Rangers Ed. Let's go, Rangers Ed. Great job, fellas, you know.