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Speaker 1: Michaelsa from the Athletic back here from the fan. I'm

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Speaker 1: coming to you from Kevin Falmas's lair where the blueberry

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Speaker 1: something candle's going blueberry sugar, I believe is what it is, right,

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Speaker 1: And your wife, Missy will call her called, and we

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Speaker 1: were making fun of her candle selection.

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Speaker 2: She didn't appreciate it, and you mostly led the attack

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Speaker 2: and she didn't care much for that at all, but

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Speaker 2: she said it was nice to be ripped by you instead.

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Speaker 3: Of burreal for a change. Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: And we're gonna be joined by Matt Sells here in

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Speaker 1: a few minutes, the Wild assistant Chaneral manager.

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Speaker 3: We're also going to turn our attention.

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Speaker 1: To the UH to the let's see Alec Lewis. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna be talking to him about the Vikings. We got

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Speaker 1: Nico Sturham coming on. We got Joe o'donald and Joe

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Speaker 1: Smith in studio, but also Dave Jackson, the ESPN rules analyst,

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Speaker 1: former referee book coming on. But first up straight from

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Speaker 1: the Wild headquarters over there on Washington, Matt Sells, the

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Speaker 1: Wild assistant Cheryl manager.

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Speaker 3: Matt, how you doing, Hey, I'm doing all right?

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Speaker 4: You got me?

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Speaker 3: Yes, I got you, how are you? How's everything going?

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Speaker 1: Now that you guys are gonna be healthy tonight for

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Speaker 1: the first time this season, you're not sitting there counting

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Speaker 1: cap space and trying to, you know, dance around with

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Speaker 1: the UH with Central Registry and walking around with your

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Speaker 1: handy calculator.

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Speaker 4: It was it was. It was different because you know what,

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Speaker 4: coming into this season, after the last two seasons where

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Speaker 4: I'm literally counting every dollar every day, coming into this season,

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Speaker 4: I thought, oh, we're ponk swimming in cap space and

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Speaker 4: we'd lose a guy and I'd just call one up,

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Speaker 4: and I knew I didn't even have to look at

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Speaker 4: how much cap space we had, and and h it

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Speaker 4: probably got to about the fifth injury and call up

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Speaker 4: that I started to think, see, at some point, I

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Speaker 4: might run out of money here, so I better start

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Speaker 4: checking in with with the fine folks at Central Registerry

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Speaker 4: the league office, and UH. Sure enough, I was still

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Speaker 4: able to do it. But we needed to to be

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Speaker 4: aware of that because obviously we made we made a

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Speaker 4: fairly substantial ad and then and then eventually we did

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Speaker 4: run out of money, but arrived on the weekend, which was.

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Speaker 1: It is crazy because I remember in Columbus when you

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Speaker 1: called David Spatchik, I started doing the math, and I

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Speaker 1: realized that, Wow, if you lost another player and nobody

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Speaker 1: was coming back, you couldn't even afford a call up.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's really were it was started to feel

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Speaker 1: like last season.

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Speaker 4: Don't don't, don't say that, but you're right. Yeah, it was.

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Speaker 4: This spot tat that night was officially the last, the

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Speaker 4: last bit of cap space we had at the moment. Thankfully,

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Speaker 4: Thankfully I knew at that point John Worley has been

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Speaker 4: communicating with us who's had athletic therapists, that that there

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Speaker 4: was a light at the end of the tunnel and

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Speaker 4: a lot of these guys were starting to feel better

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Speaker 4: and and uh and really a team. That's that's a

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Speaker 4: great thing about about hockey players. Well, they all want

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Speaker 4: to play. Sometimes sometimes the therapists have to have to

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Speaker 4: step in and do what's best for them because they'll

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Speaker 4: they just instinctively put the team ahead of themselves. They

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Speaker 4: see it. They see us get into a situation like

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Speaker 4: this with with a lot of injuries and guys guys

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Speaker 4: want to be there for their teammates, right. It's it's

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Speaker 4: it's commendable, but they we've got to be smart long

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Speaker 4: season want we want to keep guys in the lineup

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Speaker 4: as as much as we can. And coming coming down.

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Speaker 1: The stretch, Well, we are talking with Matt Sell's the

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Speaker 1: Wild assistant channel manager, one of a couple assistant channel

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Speaker 1: managers three in the organization. And your role has always

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Speaker 1: been You started uh with this organization seven years ago

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Speaker 1: in analytics and and then all of a sudden your

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Speaker 1: role just kept on getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

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Speaker 1: Where you are you know now one of Billy Garran's

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Speaker 1: right hand man. As we just talked about capologists. But

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Speaker 1: last week Bill Garon was extremely vocal in giving you

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Speaker 1: credit all over every interview that he did that you

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Speaker 1: were the first one that put it in his head

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Speaker 1: that Quinn Hughes might be somebody that the Wild should

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Speaker 1: think about and swing for the fences for.

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Speaker 3: So how did that all come about? And and uh,

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Speaker 3: is it as quick as as Billy said, it's as quick.

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Speaker 4: As players become available. You need to you need to

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Speaker 4: be ready for for those moments. And there's you know

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Speaker 4: before I have a lot of crazy ideas too. This one,

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Speaker 4: this one works, but usually Billy's not the starting points

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Speaker 4: for that we've got. We've got so many great people

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Speaker 4: in our organization, Chris Kelliher, Mike Murray, Matt Hendricks, a

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Speaker 4: bracket and then all those guys have people working underneath them.

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Speaker 4: So Quinn Hughes. I mean, I've talked to Doud Brackett

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Speaker 4: fifty times about Quinn Hughes over the years, never never

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Speaker 4: expecting him to be available, but just he's one of

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Speaker 4: the world's best players. So I always wanted I was

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Speaker 4: always curious about him the person, and Judd was just

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Speaker 4: brave about how serious this guy was. And then you

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Speaker 4: see he gets a cap and see in Vancouver, which

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Speaker 4: tells you what is what his teammates and the people

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Speaker 4: are not organizations thought of him. So the trade came

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Speaker 4: together quickly. But the concept of bringing Quinn Hughes in

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Speaker 4: here again, we can we can look through Chris Kellaher

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Speaker 4: and his cruise scouting parts and I don't think you

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Speaker 4: could find a negative a negative thing said about about

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Speaker 4: the players. So so right there, you know the scouts

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Speaker 4: are on board. Uh Abby IDs new analysts for US,

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Speaker 4: Danny Kaplan the baby working statistical analysis for US. Obviously,

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Speaker 4: h if anybody knows anything about about advanced stats. Quinn

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Speaker 4: Hughes is highly rated in that world. So the fact

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Speaker 4: that that we start to hear with for through through

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Speaker 4: the media kind of it leaks out that, you know,

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Speaker 4: maybe they're not going to be able to to sign

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Speaker 4: this player and that he would be open to a move.

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Speaker 4: It doesn't you don't have to be uh, you don't

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Speaker 4: have to be super sharp to say one of the

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Speaker 4: best players in the world available, we should trade for

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Speaker 4: this guy. Yeah, And then it's Billy that Billy that

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Speaker 4: that gets the job done right. And and a big

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Speaker 4: part of it is Billy worked with with Patrick and Jim,

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Speaker 4: so he had uh, He's got a good relationship with them,

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Speaker 4: but he knows how they operate, and he knows that

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Speaker 4: while there's some teams that like to kick tires or

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Speaker 4: low ball other teams, Billy knew that Jim Rutherford was

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Speaker 4: going to set a price. It was going to be

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Speaker 4: a high price, but it was going to be a

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Speaker 4: fair price. He was going to set a price and

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Speaker 4: when a team that Quinn was comfortable with at this

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Speaker 4: he was going to pull the trigger. And so that

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Speaker 4: was why Billy knew, Okay, if we're doing this, if

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Speaker 4: this is if this is a mark he had that

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Speaker 4: we want to make. Uh, there's no time to mess around.

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Speaker 4: Let's let's go in and let's let's make them an

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Speaker 4: offer that that that they'll accept. And and you know,

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Speaker 4: I guess you could have tried to lowball them, but

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Speaker 4: now you're just running the risk of being with the

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Speaker 4: other teams that are trying to get a great player

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Speaker 4: at a at a deep discount. And if you're comfortable

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Speaker 4: not having them, then then I guess that's the right approach.

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Speaker 4: We we weren't. The more the more we started to

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Speaker 4: dive in on this player, the more we we we

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Speaker 4: had to have them amazing.

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Speaker 1: You know, obviously, I think I think we've all expected

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Speaker 1: at some point maybe Rossie would be going and Oger

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Speaker 1: and probably as well when it came to Ze. How

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Speaker 1: difficult of a decision was that internally to include him,

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Speaker 1: because I think a lot of us just figured he

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Speaker 1: had to be untouchable. But the reality is is that

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Speaker 1: you're hoping that one day he could turn into Quinn Hughes.

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Speaker 1: But Quinn Hughes is Quinn Hughes. So was it never

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Speaker 1: a debate on whether or not to include zev or

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Speaker 1: you just knew that it had to be included in

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Speaker 1: the package or there's no way you would have gotten Quinn.

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Speaker 4: Well, we didn't want to create any of them. Marco,

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Speaker 4: we've we had to play. We had to play thirteen

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Speaker 4: games without Marco and if and if anybody in our

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Speaker 4: organization would have said that we would have done well

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Speaker 4: in those thirteen games before it happened, they would have

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Speaker 4: been lying to you. But some other guys stepped up. Nico.

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Speaker 4: Nico came back and Danilla's really grown quickly in his

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Speaker 4: time over here. Leam Olgrin's twenty one years old. He

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Speaker 4: comes in every year, is one of our fittest players.

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Speaker 4: He's he's been a leader at every level he's ever

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Speaker 4: played at internationally in Sweden, and he can score goals,

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Speaker 4: and when he's not scoring goals, you can you can

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Speaker 4: trust him in every situation. And then there's a first

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Speaker 4: round pick we threw in there and then Ze there there.

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Speaker 4: There isn't a ceiling for Ze yet, so we gave

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Speaker 4: up a lot. I think that that Vancouver did well,

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Speaker 4: but to me, it's a it's a it's a win

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Speaker 4: win move because for a few years it's been my opinion,

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Speaker 4: it's it's the ability's opinion that that we've been ready

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Speaker 4: to take the next step, the financial circumstances haven't haven't

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Speaker 4: really matched up. And we've got guys like Carill and

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Speaker 4: Eric Sinatkin, Faber and Brodine and Spurgeon, and like, we

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Speaker 4: have a core here who plays the game the right

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Speaker 4: way that has the ability to lead us to great things.

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Speaker 4: We just needed to support them better. So it just

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Speaker 4: gets to be it gets to be tricky to develop

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Speaker 4: players in the NHL at the same time as as

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Speaker 4: these these you know, core members of our team for

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Speaker 4: for years are ready to take another step. And so

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Speaker 4: that's where it was just kind of more of a

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Speaker 4: timing issue than than anything else. Like Quinn Hughes is

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Speaker 4: one of the best players in the in the world

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Speaker 4: and and everyone's going to see he was unfortunately not

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Speaker 4: available with four nations. We're about to see an Olympic

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Speaker 4: tournament where if you didn't know that Quinn Hughes was

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Speaker 4: one of those players, you're going to find out pretty

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Speaker 4: quickly in February when a player like that's available. If

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Speaker 4: you go to another team and say, hey, you're Norris

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Speaker 4: Trophy generational talent, uh, we won't trade you certain players

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Speaker 4: then just get just get.

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Speaker 3: Off the phone exactly we're talking with.

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Speaker 4: What's that You just can't you just can't restrict it

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Speaker 4: like you're you're asking them to the best player maybe

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Speaker 4: the franchise has ever had, and you're going to tell

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Speaker 4: them that the guys that haven't hit yet aren't aren't

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Speaker 4: available either. You're not going to get it done.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. We're talking with Matt Cell's wild

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Speaker 1: assistant chair manager. And by the way, one of the

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Speaker 1: players that met mentioned Nico Sturm. He's joining us right

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Speaker 1: around the break plays the Nashville Predators tonight at seven o'clock.

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Speaker 1: You can listen to that right here on the fan. Matt,

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Speaker 1: So take me on December twelfth. It's the day of

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Speaker 1: the morning of the trade, and I want to get

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Speaker 1: to the bottom of one thing.

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Speaker 3: Okay.

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Speaker 1: I talked to Bill Garan twice that day, which is embarrassing,

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Speaker 1: and he told me that morning that nothing was going on,

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Speaker 1: and not that he would ever tell me. Hey, by

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Speaker 1: the way, we get ready, we're about to trade for

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Speaker 1: Quinn Hughes. But did he know that something was about

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Speaker 1: to happen or how did how did you find out

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Speaker 1: that we are at that point the Minnesota wild of

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Speaker 1: getting Quinn Hughes.

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Speaker 4: Well, first of all, you you were able to help

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Speaker 4: me there by saying it was the day we traded

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Speaker 4: for Hughes. Once you get into a hockey season, the

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Speaker 4: days of the week and days of the month are

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Speaker 4: completely meaningless. If you said December twelfth, I had no

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Speaker 4: idea that that was what it was. But okay, so

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Speaker 4: if you talk to him in the morning, I can

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Speaker 4: I can vouch for Billy that he won. Was telling

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Speaker 4: the truth that in that moment, there wasn't something imminent.

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Speaker 4: Obviously we had Yeah, I talked to Vancouver at that point,

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Speaker 4: but we didn't and we knew we made our offer

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Speaker 4: at that point, and we knew that other teams were

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Speaker 4: going to have a difficult time matching it because it

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Speaker 4: was exactly what Vancouver was looking for, But we didn't

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Speaker 4: know that they were ready to uh to take that

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Speaker 4: step to to turn that page. And it was more

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Speaker 4: of a more of a lunchtime early afternoon UH time

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Speaker 4: timeline when when Jim Rutherford got back to Billy and said,

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Speaker 4: I think we're I think we're ready to make a deal.

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Speaker 4: There was some there was some logistics around travel because

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Speaker 4: I think Vancouver was maybe boarding a flight or on

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Speaker 4: a flight that maybe pushed the timing back into the

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Speaker 4: early evening on on Friday. But Friday morning he was

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Speaker 4: I would I would I would if I was his Uh,

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Speaker 4: if I was his attorney, I would have. I would

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Speaker 4: have no issues with him saying that there was nothing

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Speaker 4: going on Friday makes sense.

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Speaker 1: And so when you found out it was afternoon that

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Speaker 1: this thing might happen, what was your reaction when Billy

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Speaker 1: called you in the middle of his meatball preparation at

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Speaker 1: a We're about to do this.

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Speaker 4: I had to regain a little composure and and uh

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Speaker 4: and jump on a trade call with the league. So uh, yeah,

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Speaker 4: it was it was pretty I don't know, I don't

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Speaker 4: know what it was. Let me like, when you're my

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Speaker 4: heart rates increasing just just remembering back to that to

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Speaker 4: that night and how how exciting it was. It looked

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Speaker 4: the big swings. Yeah, let me.

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Speaker 1: Ask you for somebody that have never has never been

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Speaker 1: on a trade call with Central Registry, they get they

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Speaker 1: get a ton of them. Yeah, when you're on that call,

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Speaker 1: you and and whoever is the representative from Vancouver and

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Speaker 1: whoever's answering the following at Central Registry, are they even

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Speaker 1: like what you know, Like, did they have a reaction

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Speaker 1: a little more abnormal than a normal Hey, by the way,

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Speaker 1: we're training for a fourth liner for a fifth round pick.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that was so. So what you end up

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Speaker 4: doing first is one of the one of the team's emails. Uh,

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Speaker 4: the lead guys over at Central ed Street email email

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Speaker 4: on the cloud and say here's here's the transaction, and

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Speaker 4: then the other party will confirm that, and then the

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Speaker 4: league starts to do some background work to make sure

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Speaker 4: that everybody's cap compliance. Uh, there's there's no issues with

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Speaker 4: trade protections or number of contracts and all sorts of

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Speaker 4: things that they do their checks and then they say, okay,

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Speaker 4: we'll call you when we're ready to go through the details.

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Speaker 4: So I would assume that at that point there was

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Speaker 4: some some jodder amongst the folks over at the league

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Speaker 4: that wow, look at did get a load of this trade.

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Speaker 4: And then when they call you, they're like, that's unexpected,

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Speaker 4: that's big, And then you get down to the details.

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Speaker 1: That's awesome. We're talking in That'sulls Wild assistant general manager.

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Speaker 1: I met before we go. I wanted to talk to

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Speaker 1: you about your Roles. Back in the day with Hockey

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Speaker 1: Canada you were part of. First of all, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: see that you coached Penticton, did you? Was that back

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Speaker 1: in the day when Mikey Riley was there?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that was that was I was in Penticton

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Speaker 4: for two years and Mikey Connor and Ryan Riley came

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Speaker 4: my second year with Mario Lucia and Stephen Fogerty. We

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Speaker 4: brought they all five of those guys showed up at

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Speaker 4: once and we went. Fred Harbinson was the head coach.

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Speaker 4: He's he's still the head coach out there now that

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Speaker 4: they're in the Western Hockey League. But we finished out,

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Speaker 4: We finished out regular season. I think we had a

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Speaker 4: forty two game winning streak and then we won We

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Speaker 4: won the national championship that year. So a lot of

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Speaker 4: fond memories from my time in Penticton.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing And looking at your career with Hockey Canada,

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Speaker 1: A bunch of gold medals, a bunch of silver medals,

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Speaker 1: part of two Olympics was actually in South Korea, right

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Speaker 1: with Hockey Canada. You know, what was that whole experience like?

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Speaker 1: And you know, at this point with the Olympics coming

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Speaker 1: and the World Juniors here in town. It's got to

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Speaker 1: be a lot of fond memories looking back at your

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Speaker 1: career with Hockey Canada.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that year, so twenty eighteen, when I was actually

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Speaker 4: boots on the ground at the Olympics, that was that

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Speaker 4: was a non NHL year and or a non NHL Games.

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Speaker 4: And we actually didn't know that it was that there

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Speaker 4: would be no NHL participation until probably twelve to fourteen

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Speaker 4: months before it actually happened. So we had had a

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Speaker 4: system that had worked for the twenty ten and twenty

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Speaker 4: fourteen Olympics when when Canada won golden both of those,

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Speaker 4: so we would have just run that playbook again, but

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Speaker 4: it was it was something completely different. So we ended

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Speaker 4: up being in a lot of different tournaments over in

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Speaker 4: Europe throughout that year. Uh, some scouting trips over there,

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Speaker 4: and yeah, it was. It was very unique. A lot

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Speaker 4: of fond memories, a lot of great a lot of

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Speaker 4: great people that I spent time with on on the

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Speaker 4: national team there, and uh, the Olympic Games is just

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Speaker 4: it's so I just whenever, whenever it becomes an important

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Speaker 4: piece of players in CBA negotiations. Having been to an Olympics,

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Speaker 4: I get it.

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Speaker 3: It's Yeah, it's.

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Speaker 4: Just so unique. You're in you're in a village. Uh

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Speaker 4: you know, apartment building we had, we had big, big

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Speaker 4: high rise apartment buildings that that you're in. You're in

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Speaker 4: with a bunch of other athletes and trains and support

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Speaker 4: staff from from other sports. And and there's there's a

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Speaker 4: massive cafeteria that you're just you can kind of sit down.

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Speaker 4: You don't have to sit with with just your your

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Speaker 4: people from your sport. You could pull up a chair

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Speaker 4: next to the curling team from the US or I

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Speaker 4: remember seeing, uh seeing Krill a lot. I didn't didn't

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Speaker 4: know at that time. I knew him. Every everybody in

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Speaker 4: hockey knew that this was was a future star. But

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Speaker 4: it was just funny seeing him in the in the

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Speaker 4: in the village and and in the cafeteria. Uh. Unfortunately

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Speaker 4: we didn't make it the gold medal game, but he

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Speaker 4: did and uh the.

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Speaker 1: Bank YEP scored the golden goal against Germany. Right, So, uh,

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Speaker 1: let me ask you last question, Matt. We know that

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Speaker 1: you got that maple leaf tattoo right on your Uh

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Speaker 1: I assume uh you know, uh forearm or whatever. Uh

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Speaker 1: when when Billy Garrett and Chris Keller. Have those moments

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Speaker 1: where they're talking USA Hockey Olympic team.

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Speaker 3: Do they say, Matt, time for you to leave.

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Speaker 4: There's a lot of a lot of conversations stop when

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Speaker 4: I when I enter room, the lattops get folded down

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Speaker 4: and uh yeah, this topic change is in a hurry day.

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Speaker 4: They're keeping they're keeping all it on things. And no

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Speaker 4: they know they know whether my allegiances is to the

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Speaker 4: Minnesota Wild and uh yeah, a lot of fond memories

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Speaker 4: with the with the team Canada, the crew, but haven't

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Speaker 4: haven't had too many discussions with them. They're coming into

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Speaker 4: the World Junior Tournament right away. The only only thing

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Speaker 4: Hockey Canada's hit me up for recently is uh recommendations.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I thought you were gonna say Wild tickets right now.

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Speaker 1: It's a hard ticket to get with Quinn Hughes here,

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Speaker 1: much to your input and and help and making that happen.

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Speaker 3: Uh hey, Matt, I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: Uh hopefully fans really enjoyed this conversation and getting the

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Speaker 1: background on how such a blockbuster can come about.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much, happy to be here, yeap.

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Speaker 1: That is on met Cell's Wild. Assistant general manager A huge,

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Speaker 1: huge piece in in in in reason why Quinn Hughes

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Speaker 1: landed in Minnesota, and in helping Bill Gear and Chris

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Speaker 1: Kellher and Mike Murray and the entire crew get that done.

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Speaker 1: When we come back, Nico Sterm will be joining here

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Speaker 1: on the fan. Welcome back to the fans. Michael Russo

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Speaker 1: filling in for Burrow. Really happy to be joined on

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Speaker 1: a game day by Nico Sturm and Nico first of all,

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Speaker 1: welcome back.

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Speaker 3: How was the holiday party? It was great.

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Speaker 5: I think they you know, credit to Taylor and Dom

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Speaker 5: and whoever organizes all this stuff or I mean, I

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Speaker 5: don't have kids yet, so but I could tell that

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Speaker 5: they had all the guys that had kids. They had

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Speaker 5: a blast, and they put a lot of work and

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Speaker 5: had a lot of effort, and you know, goes to

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Speaker 5: show that the stuff that we do here.

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Speaker 6: Obviously the hockey.

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Speaker 5: Part is is the most important part, but there's there's

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Speaker 5: more of it than that, and you want to be

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Speaker 5: able to connect with the people in the organization outside

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Speaker 5: of the occupied itself, and that's been been really nice.

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Speaker 1: So last night was great and could you guys played

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Speaker 1: Nashville tonight ninth game in thirteen days. You just finished

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Speaker 1: seven and eleven, six and nine. Have you ever been

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Speaker 1: through a stretch like this?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I can't quite remember because we obviously I don't

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Speaker 5: think we had asking DNS to schedule as it is

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Speaker 5: this year, so it's been I mean, I'm trying to

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Speaker 5: think back right now, since I came back, I might

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Speaker 5: have only had, like obviously, besides all the morning skates,

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Speaker 5: one actual practice or maybe two. So that kind of

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Speaker 5: just goes to show that, hey, it's all just playing

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Speaker 5: games and try to recover as much as you can

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Speaker 5: it between.

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Speaker 3: Yep, and actually it's the eighth and thirteenth. But this

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Speaker 3: is why.

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Speaker 1: I mean, like we saw your big block shot the

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Speaker 1: other night on Bouchard. I mean, this is this is

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Speaker 1: why injuries are rampant around the league. I mean it

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Speaker 1: feels like every team's got five, six, seven injuries.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: Usually when at least you get a day in between,

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Speaker 5: and let's say you play three or four a.

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Speaker 6: Week without a back to back, guys can usually.

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Speaker 5: Handle the game day off, game day off, game day

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Speaker 5: off schedule. That's usually pretty solid because then you can

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Speaker 5: manage for guys.

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Speaker 6: You can say, Okay, this guy had a lot like a.

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Speaker 5: Big load yesterday, or he blocked a shot, or he's

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Speaker 5: kind of heard he's going to skip practice today. The

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Speaker 5: guys that hit lower minutes, they're going to practice and

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Speaker 5: go out and do stuff, and then you can have

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Speaker 5: everybody you know and determine who's going to pregam skate.

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Speaker 6: So but now it's just kind of you kind of honestly,

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Speaker 6: you kind of just go on a day by day basis.

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Speaker 5: I think the you know, the athletic trainers, they're probably

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Speaker 5: in constant contact with with Heinsey and the coaching staff

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Speaker 5: and telling them, hey, this guy probably you're not going

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Speaker 5: to get any benefit of this guy pregam skating today

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Speaker 5: or having a practice or an optional skate.

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Speaker 6: So it's it's really it just been.

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Speaker 3: Day by day.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is tremendous. The schedule right now, Nico.

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Speaker 1: I mean even just I know you're looking forward to

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Speaker 1: this three day break and then you come back. You

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Speaker 1: have a six am flight to Winnipeg that ends that

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Speaker 1: night with you guys landing in Vegas at two am,

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Speaker 1: which is why again on December twenty eighth, you're not

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Speaker 1: even going to be able to practice even after a

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Speaker 1: three day break. You're not it just gets more hectic

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Speaker 1: and more hectic.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I'm going to try to enjoy these,

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Speaker 5: you know, seventy two hours without hockey as much as

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Speaker 5: I can. And then it's I mean, it's pretty much

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00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:13,880
Speaker 5: a sprint all the way to the break, and even

436
00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:15,840
Speaker 5: after you come back. I think after you come back

437
00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:19,320
Speaker 5: from the break, the schedule looks a little bit better,

438
00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:22,360
Speaker 5: but the hockey is going to be more intense.

439
00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:24,760
Speaker 6: So it's kind of like, Okay.

440
00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:27,560
Speaker 5: This I don't expect at any point in this season

441
00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:30,240
Speaker 5: for things to get lighter on the body.

442
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:33,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, seven day or seven game road trip coming up

443
00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:35,200
Speaker 1: after the break because of the World Juniors, and then

444
00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:37,399
Speaker 1: you're going to the Olympics. We'll talk about that in

445
00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:40,280
Speaker 1: a second. This this is your second stint with the

446
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,800
Speaker 1: Minnesota Wild. You left here, just won a couple cups,

447
00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:44,919
Speaker 1: no big deal, then come back on the on the

448
00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:47,679
Speaker 1: two year deal, and then you hurt you back in

449
00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:50,199
Speaker 1: training camp. How disappointing was that it happened on the

450
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:52,960
Speaker 1: first practice and you missed the first six weeks of

451
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:53,399
Speaker 1: the season.

452
00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:56,600
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was about timing, you know, it happened to

453
00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 5: be on the first day of training camp, But honestly,

454
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,240
Speaker 5: it could have happened a week before for in captain skater,

455
00:25:01,359 --> 00:25:03,879
Speaker 5: or two weeks into the season. It was just I

456
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:08,000
Speaker 5: think it was just the abuse from you know, using

457
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 5: the especially for me as I'm a bigger, taller guy

458
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 5: and I get quite low on face offs and stuff,

459
00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 5: so it's not not ideal for the back. I don't

460
00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:19,359
Speaker 5: think the human bodies made to do that repetitively over

461
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:22,679
Speaker 5: the years, and so it was just the addition of

462
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:24,560
Speaker 5: abuse over the years on the back and it just

463
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 5: happened to be on that first day of training camp.

464
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:29,720
Speaker 6: So yeah, the timing was bad. But after we did the.

465
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:32,480
Speaker 5: Surgery and and and what the surgeon said, he said

466
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:34,399
Speaker 5: it would have had no chance of getting better without it,

467
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:36,639
Speaker 5: So there wasn't really an option. And I knew at

468
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:39,440
Speaker 5: the time, being honest with myself, there was no chance

469
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 5: at all to get through the season.

470
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 6: Yeah, so I had to get it done.

471
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:45,919
Speaker 5: And I'm glad I'm without nerve pain right now and

472
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:47,600
Speaker 5: it's it's been great and I've been getting better.

473
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,639
Speaker 1: How you know, you, as I mentioned, you win the

474
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,359
Speaker 1: Cup with with Colorado. I remember covering that series. You

475
00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:56,479
Speaker 1: win the Cup with Florida. When you look at the

476
00:25:56,520 --> 00:25:59,159
Speaker 1: makeups of those teams. Obviously we know the superstars they

477
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:01,560
Speaker 1: have on those teams, but we look now at this

478
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:04,919
Speaker 1: group here, what are the similarities, what are the contrasts

479
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:07,480
Speaker 1: that that that lead to a championship.

480
00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 3: You can kind of.

481
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 5: Look at all three positions goaltending. I think in Colorado

482
00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:17,359
Speaker 5: maybe we didn't have like a like a star goalie

483
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,400
Speaker 5: like we had in Florida with Bob, But Darcy played

484
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:22,240
Speaker 5: kind of like Camp's just played great.

485
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:24,440
Speaker 6: He had just a great playoff run.

486
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:27,639
Speaker 5: And that's what you need throughout the you know, a

487
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:30,639
Speaker 5: ten week playoff stretch. You just need a goalie that

488
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:32,920
Speaker 5: gets hot, feels good at the right time.

489
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:33,760
Speaker 6: So that's one thing.

490
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:37,359
Speaker 5: And then you need difference makers on the team that

491
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 5: can that can win you a game when maybe you

492
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:41,920
Speaker 5: didn't have any business winning a game.

493
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:43,960
Speaker 6: We had that in Colorado.

494
00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:47,640
Speaker 5: Obviously with Kale, or with uh with Nate, and in

495
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,680
Speaker 5: Florida we had, you know, guys like Ryano or Sasha

496
00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:53,640
Speaker 5: Barkoff that can, you know, kind of take the game

497
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:55,920
Speaker 5: into their hands and take the responsibility at the right time.

498
00:26:56,400 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 5: Special teams are important, both PK and p P. You

499
00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 5: have to win your game at some point in a series.

500
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:06,240
Speaker 5: So I've been glad that we've been able to you know,

501
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:08,080
Speaker 5: write the ship on the p K and we can

502
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 5: still get better.

503
00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 6: There still things we can do better.

504
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:13,239
Speaker 5: Pp has been kind of off and on a little bit,

505
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 5: but really solid. Now obviously with with with QB in

506
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:20,160
Speaker 5: here we have that guy that quarterbacks, the power play,

507
00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:22,040
Speaker 5: and then the biggest thing on the team is depth.

508
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 6: Guys are going to get hurt, especially this year.

509
00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:28,480
Speaker 5: We just talked about it, and anytime, both in Colorado

510
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:31,160
Speaker 5: and Florida, whenever guy would would go out or would

511
00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:34,000
Speaker 5: you know, with an injury, it was never a sense

512
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 5: of panic, even if it was an important guy in Colorado,

513
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 5: and you know, and asam Cador got hurt, he had

514
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:40,359
Speaker 5: the surgery kind of on his finger.

515
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 6: I think mid mid.

516
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:46,399
Speaker 5: Playerffront in Florida. I think Sam Ryder got hurt in

517
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:49,800
Speaker 5: the in the Carolina series. So there's never there's never

518
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:53,400
Speaker 5: a panic or or doubt about who's gonna fill whose role.

519
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 5: Whenever somebody's got injured, you know, we know that there's

520
00:27:57,560 --> 00:27:58,080
Speaker 5: a guy.

521
00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:02,120
Speaker 6: Who can fill that role. One D and and yeah,

522
00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:05,639
Speaker 6: that's also kind of the main aspects.

523
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:06,119
Speaker 3: You just mentioned. Q.

524
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:10,440
Speaker 1: You've played with Cal mccarr in in uh in Colorado.

525
00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:13,959
Speaker 1: What are the differences in in their games and and uh,

526
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 1: you know the same thing.

527
00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 5: Similarities, Yeah, I think very very similar players.

528
00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:22,760
Speaker 6: Just the the way they skate. It looks very easy.

529
00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 5: They make it look very natural, like effortless, almost elusive.

530
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:30,840
Speaker 5: As a forward, when they have the puck on the point,

531
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 5: on on the bull line, you you're a little more

532
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:34,960
Speaker 5: hesitant to come out because you don't want them to

533
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:37,320
Speaker 5: embarrass you because they're so good on their edges and

534
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,840
Speaker 5: their their head fakes and their deceptiveness that you're a

535
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:43,440
Speaker 5: little more careful than any other defenseman.

536
00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:46,959
Speaker 6: You can say, you can already tell how much you know,

537
00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:48,240
Speaker 6: how much Q helps us.

538
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 5: With breakouts because he's able to lose that first four

539
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 5: checker and do a cutback.

540
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:54,400
Speaker 6: And then they joined the rush too.

541
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:56,120
Speaker 5: A lot of demons, you know, they make the first

542
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,520
Speaker 5: play and then it's kind of like the forwards going attack.

543
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:00,600
Speaker 5: But they they want to have the howking, the stick,

544
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,520
Speaker 5: they want to join the roster. They're very very similar.

545
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:04,840
Speaker 3: What was your reaction when the trade came across here

546
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 3: Twitter feed?

547
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 5: That was actually one of the first trades in my

548
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,040
Speaker 5: career where I was kind of like Taylor told me,

549
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:12,320
Speaker 5: I was just cooking dinner and she was like, you

550
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:14,360
Speaker 5: guys got huges and I was like, yeah, I was

551
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 5: like that was at the first trade I think that

552
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:19,360
Speaker 5: I've been, you know, a part of that team where

553
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 5: I was like, yeah, this burner account or a joke

554
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 5: or something.

555
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:27,160
Speaker 6: So I that was the one that really really surprised me.

556
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 1: Taylor, your fiance, your college sweetheart, best athlete in the

557
00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:34,000
Speaker 1: family too, right, Yeah, Yeah, we're talking with decosterm final

558
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:35,000
Speaker 1: couple ones for your Nico.

559
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 3: We just talked about the Olympics.

560
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: I'll be in there there with you in Milan to

561
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:43,560
Speaker 1: cover you. We see Germany all the time, play unbelievable

562
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 1: in these Internet national tournaments. Be sort of a one

563
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:49,720
Speaker 1: of those teams that could upset anybody on every any

564
00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 1: single day. Just how how much are you looking forward

565
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 1: to this opportunity and and also the fact that you

566
00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: had the honor of already being one of the six

567
00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 1: players from Germany already named to the roster.

568
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 5: Yeah, very exciting obviously, Knoo's a lot of hockey to

569
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:06,040
Speaker 5: play till then, and want to stay healthy. It's kind

570
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:08,080
Speaker 5: of one of the you know, last big things on

571
00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:11,160
Speaker 5: my bucket list that I everybody wants to achieve in there,

572
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:13,479
Speaker 5: regardless of what sport you're in, you know, being an

573
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:17,800
Speaker 5: olympianist probably the non plus ultra that you can achieve.

574
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 6: In your career.

575
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 5: And then playing against the best players in the world,

576
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:24,440
Speaker 5: best and best hockey, Like we haven't seen it in

577
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:27,280
Speaker 5: a long time, so I think it comes at the

578
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:29,480
Speaker 5: right point in my career. You know, I'm gonna turn

579
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:32,600
Speaker 5: thirty one in May, so it's kind of this is

580
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:35,520
Speaker 5: kind of feeling like, okay, that's probably the peak for

581
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:36,960
Speaker 5: me age wise.

582
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:39,320
Speaker 6: Two and being.

583
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 5: Able to play with with great players too, like I

584
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 5: haven't played with with Leon, Timmy and.

585
00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:45,800
Speaker 6: In a while.

586
00:30:46,280 --> 00:30:48,840
Speaker 5: So, and we always have a great like you mentioned,

587
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:52,280
Speaker 5: great identity that we form. We've always been a good

588
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 5: tournament team because we have a good core of guys

589
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 5: that obviously we don't have only NHLs there. You have

590
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 5: a lot of guys to play in our domestic league Germany,

591
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:02,720
Speaker 5: and those guys form the core of our team. So

592
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:06,239
Speaker 5: we have an identity that's kind of consistent. They have,

593
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:08,720
Speaker 5: you know, their meetings throughout the year, the tournaments throughout

594
00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 5: the year, and so they have their guys we know

595
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:13,360
Speaker 5: how we want to play in those tournaments, especially against

596
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 5: the bigger name teams, and that never changes regardless of

597
00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 5: whether it's the Olympics or the World Championship.

598
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 1: I still remember doing that story on you when we

599
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 1: were in Arizona once about you and your in Taylor

600
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: and your Billet family.

601
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:27,760
Speaker 3: Which are the turnquists.

602
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,800
Speaker 1: What are some of the traditions in Christmas for the

603
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 1: for your family? And do you have family here from

604
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:36,200
Speaker 1: Germany for I have the holiday.

605
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 5: Yeah, you have my younger brother Timo and his girlfriend

606
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:43,960
Speaker 5: here and we usually do church and then gifts on

607
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:46,920
Speaker 5: the twenty fourth. That's probably the biggest difference is where

608
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:49,600
Speaker 5: you know most films, I think he'll do it Christmas

609
00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:52,360
Speaker 5: morning to twenty fifth, right, So I think this year

610
00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:54,840
Speaker 5: we're going to do kind of the German tradition on

611
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 5: the twenty fourth, and then on the twenty fifth, we're

612
00:31:57,440 --> 00:31:59,680
Speaker 5: gonna go and celebrate with Taylor family.

613
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,160
Speaker 1: Awesome, Sid, my best to both Taylor and Timu. I

614
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:05,640
Speaker 1: still remember Timo as a young pup being so proud

615
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:07,400
Speaker 1: of you and you had your NHL debut against the

616
00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 1: Boston Bruins and your parents as well, so really happy

617
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:13,840
Speaker 1: that you joined. Good luck tonight against Nashville Predators. Have

618
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 1: a happy and merry Christmas.

619
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:17,040
Speaker 6: Thank you thanks for having me out.

620
00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:19,400
Speaker 3: That is Nico Sturm. We will be right back here

621
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 3: on the fan.

622
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:26,040
Speaker 7: Make your season bright with today's talk back Tuesday on

623
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:29,040
Speaker 7: the Fan, open KFA on the iHeart radio app, hit

624
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:31,360
Speaker 7: the microphone icon and in thirty seconds.

625
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:33,360
Speaker 3: Or last tell ups which.

626
00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:35,840
Speaker 7: Viking say that five times fast has been the biggest

627
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 7: gift to the team this year. Winners will be selected

628
00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:40,800
Speaker 7: all day. There's Vikings tickets on the line. Kill details

629
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,200
Speaker 7: kfan dot com. He we're contesting.

630
00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:52,000
Speaker 1: Mike Russo from the Athletic Back here on the fan, Bright.

631
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 1: I don't know how you didn't lose your concentration there

632
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 1: with Kevin Ellison your eye.

633
00:32:56,600 --> 00:32:57,840
Speaker 7: I don't know why he does that to me in

634
00:32:57,840 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 7: the middle of my reads, but it's just crazy.

635
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 1: When I was doing a FanDuel one s I guess

636
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:04,680
Speaker 1: back when it was Fox Sports, Norah Chounstrow, the producer

637
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:06,440
Speaker 1: would do that in my ear. I'm like, I am

638
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:10,400
Speaker 1: not a pro, don't you don't just randomly start yelling

639
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 1: in my ear as I'm.

640
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:12,720
Speaker 3: Talking And he knows it throws me off, But he

641
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:14,480
Speaker 3: still does it. Yeah, exactly.

642
00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:17,920
Speaker 1: Speaking of pros, one of our great great writers at

643
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:20,840
Speaker 1: the Athletic. I was just actually watching the Alec Lewis

644
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:23,040
Speaker 1: Show on YouTube and this guy is a pro.

645
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 4: You know.

646
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,880
Speaker 1: First of all, Alec from the Athletic, how are you doing?

647
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 1: Because I am shocked that you just did a fifty

648
00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:34,040
Speaker 1: minute video podcast without any guess nothing.

649
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 3: You're just a total natural.

650
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:39,520
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, Michael, thank you for having me.

651
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:42,480
Speaker 2: And I've said it plenty of times, but when you

652
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:46,320
Speaker 2: work alongside someone like you, there is a standard that

653
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 2: you must reach every day and that is a part

654
00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 2: of it. But no, I hosted PA show like last year,

655
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 2: I was like, Man, I'm green at this, so how

656
00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 2: can I improve? So I'm gonna talk into a camera

657
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:00,880
Speaker 2: twice a week for way too long than anybody wants

658
00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:02,040
Speaker 2: to listen to me. And that's part of it.

659
00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:02,520
Speaker 4: I'm doing.

660
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:06,320
Speaker 2: Okay, it's as happy Holidays to everybody.

661
00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:09,279
Speaker 4: But the season has been a long one, you know that. Yeah?

662
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:12,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I was honored to join the Aleca Lewis

663
00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:14,600
Speaker 1: Show the other day when I was in Columbus and

664
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:16,360
Speaker 1: we got to talk not just about the while, but

665
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 1: about the vikings and As you mentioned, it's been a tough,

666
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:24,200
Speaker 1: tough year in many regards, But the big news today

667
00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:26,160
Speaker 1: is obviously JJ's hand injury.

668
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 3: What's the latest.

669
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Kevin O'Connell met with reporters this afternoon and

670
00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 2: explained that after some further imaging, I believe there was

671
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:40,440
Speaker 2: there actually done after the game that were initially negative

672
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:42,680
Speaker 2: and then there was an MRI taken and that didn't

673
00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:46,719
Speaker 2: show much, and there was some further imaging that did

674
00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:50,640
Speaker 2: in fact show that JAJ McCarthy had what Kevin O'Connell

675
00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:56,520
Speaker 2: described as quote a very very small hairline fracture and

676
00:34:56,760 --> 00:34:59,560
Speaker 2: in his right hand is throwing hands. So JAJ McCarty

677
00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:03,840
Speaker 2: will miss thursday's game. MaTx Brosmer, the undrafted free agent,

678
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:07,200
Speaker 2: will start the game and then JJ McCarthy for Week

679
00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 2: eighteen against the Packers at home is up in the air,

680
00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:14,160
Speaker 2: so we'll see about that. I did see Jay McCarty

681
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:17,960
Speaker 2: have practice today, obviously wasn't doing much. Was over on

682
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 2: the side. But you said it, it's it's tough. It's brutal,

683
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 2: especially because the last two and a half games he

684
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:29,120
Speaker 2: started to show the growth and the promise that you know,

685
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,240
Speaker 2: everyone in this town has hoped that he would show

686
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:34,759
Speaker 2: since they drafted him with the number ten pick in

687
00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:36,680
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. So it's just tough for that to

688
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:40,200
Speaker 2: happen this late in the season, coming off you know,

689
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:44,080
Speaker 2: those two games against the Commanders and the Cowboys. And

690
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:47,319
Speaker 2: so we'll see if this does indeed mean that he

691
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:49,680
Speaker 2: has done for the season, and that would obviously lead

692
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:53,240
Speaker 2: to some really interesting questions this offseason that are probably

693
00:35:53,239 --> 00:35:54,440
Speaker 2: going to exist regardless.

694
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:57,279
Speaker 1: And let's yeah, exactly, and let's let's talk a little

695
00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,400
Speaker 1: bit about that. I mean, you know, obviously this is

696
00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:03,160
Speaker 1: somebody that that everybody expected would be the franchise quarterback.

697
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:05,319
Speaker 1: And look, well, you know we've seen it with the

698
00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:08,240
Speaker 1: Minnesota Wild. You know, they could, you could sustain injuries,

699
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:09,560
Speaker 1: but when all of a sudden you lose a Coroll

700
00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:12,799
Speaker 1: Caprisa or a jewel Erik Sinak, it changes everything. And

701
00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:15,200
Speaker 1: so all of a sudden, you have a quarterback that's had,

702
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:18,400
Speaker 1: you know, the knee injury last year and three injuries

703
00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:20,400
Speaker 1: that have caused him to miss time this year. People

704
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:22,440
Speaker 1: start to wonder, are you just injury prone?

705
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:22,920
Speaker 4: What?

706
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:27,360
Speaker 1: You know, what's your sense on I feel for JJ,

707
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:29,120
Speaker 1: I mean, his mind's got to be just going and

708
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 1: doing gymnastics. What's your sense on how they're going to

709
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 1: handle that going into the offseason, because even just because

710
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:36,879
Speaker 1: of performance, it feels like you've got to go into

711
00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:40,000
Speaker 1: next season with a better plan, whether it's Jj and

712
00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:42,799
Speaker 1: somebody else with an incredible experience, or you've got to

713
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:45,399
Speaker 1: figure out what you're going to do to not hold

714
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:47,720
Speaker 1: the entire organization back based on one player.

715
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:52,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean it's it's really fascinating because you

716
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:56,040
Speaker 2: really you have two dynamics at play. One. It's just

717
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:58,680
Speaker 2: JJ McCarthy and he's twenty two years old, and he

718
00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:03,080
Speaker 2: hasn't obviously ton because of these injuries, and he was

719
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:06,120
Speaker 2: always going to need a certain amount of developmental time

720
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:08,520
Speaker 2: given his lack of experience in college. So you have

721
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:12,480
Speaker 2: like his situation, and you're balancing that with a team

722
00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 2: that has not won a playoff game in six years

723
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:18,000
Speaker 2: and a current regime GM and head coach that haven't

724
00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:20,720
Speaker 2: won a playoff game and this is their fourth season

725
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 2: at the Helm. So how do you like marry those

726
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,960
Speaker 2: two worlds up. From a timing perspective, it does lead

727
00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:30,400
Speaker 2: you down the road of expecting, at the bare minimum

728
00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:34,239
Speaker 2: the vikings to bring somebody who is reliable in who

729
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:38,200
Speaker 2: in you know, in a shorter sample size, could start

730
00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 2: for them and could definitely you'd have confidence that they'd

731
00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:44,200
Speaker 2: win games Like that would be the baseline level of

732
00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:46,959
Speaker 2: quarterback insurance that they'd be looking at. And then there,

733
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:50,399
Speaker 2: you know, you could increase from theyre of seeking a

734
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:54,840
Speaker 2: young talented player potentially with upside kind of the Sam

735
00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:57,560
Speaker 2: darnoldil from a year ago. But part of the like

736
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:01,879
Speaker 2: the complexity of it as well, is you're dealing with

737
00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:04,680
Speaker 2: you said, like you know that you have the injury

738
00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:08,640
Speaker 2: prone conversation, and that's definitely there. The part, the difficult

739
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:12,160
Speaker 2: part to parce is all of the injuries have been

740
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:16,160
Speaker 2: very different and they've all surfaced in very kind of

741
00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:20,440
Speaker 2: confounding ways. I mean, the tormaniscus didn't show up until

742
00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:23,120
Speaker 2: the day after the preseason game, The high ankle sprain

743
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:25,719
Speaker 2: didn't show up until the day after the Week two

744
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:29,160
Speaker 2: Falcons game, the concussion didn't show up until after the

745
00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:30,879
Speaker 2: Week twelve Packers game.

746
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:31,719
Speaker 4: And then this one.

747
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:36,360
Speaker 2: Obviously, you know, the Vikings didn't know about the pain

748
00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 2: within the hand until you know, after the fumble at

749
00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:43,480
Speaker 2: the end of the first half. So there's just so

750
00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:47,040
Speaker 2: so many different dynamics at play that the Vikings are

751
00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:50,000
Speaker 2: gonna have to sift through, and it is you do

752
00:38:50,040 --> 00:38:54,080
Speaker 2: feel for Jaj McCarthy because of what he had started

753
00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:57,080
Speaker 2: to show. And again he's just a young twenty two

754
00:38:57,120 --> 00:39:00,799
Speaker 2: year old kid who's competitiveness obviously is all display every

755
00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:04,480
Speaker 2: time he's out there. So yeah, it's gonna make for

756
00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:08,960
Speaker 2: really interesting discussions and evaluations of quarterbacks that will start

757
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 2: to probably surface as this spring kind of unfolds.

758
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:16,919
Speaker 1: Yeah, like, I mean, what's your Obviously, as you said,

759
00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:18,640
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a ton of reporting in the off

760
00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:21,279
Speaker 1: season on what their choices that they've got to make

761
00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:23,239
Speaker 1: and the off season are. But if you had a guess,

762
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:25,760
Speaker 1: you know, as I mentioned, it's not fair to anybody

763
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:28,399
Speaker 1: in the organization to just sort of go into next

764
00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:30,319
Speaker 1: season and with just a wing and a prairie and

765
00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 1: hoping that JJ just becomes the franchise quarterback. So how

766
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:35,880
Speaker 1: do you think that they handle this to not you know,

767
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 1: maybe have another last season?

768
00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:40,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think there's going to be a

769
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:45,040
Speaker 2: very very detailed evaluation of the quarterbacks on the market,

770
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 2: and they're going to you know, try to find somebody

771
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:55,759
Speaker 2: who if they were to, you know, win a camp competition,

772
00:39:56,520 --> 00:39:59,319
Speaker 2: this team would be able to rely upon to win

773
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 2: them enough games to make them playoffs, you know, caliber

774
00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:06,799
Speaker 2: and viable in the playoffs. And so whether that is

775
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:09,839
Speaker 2: I mean you wait into certain conversation. I mean, this

776
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:13,520
Speaker 2: is not a spectacular free agent class. I'd be really

777
00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:16,560
Speaker 2: hard pressed to imagine the Vikings trying to draft someone

778
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:20,359
Speaker 2: up high this quickly and go that route because of

779
00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,960
Speaker 2: the risk that you're taking within that route. So you're

780
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:25,680
Speaker 2: really looking at a free agent class that will have

781
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:29,400
Speaker 2: a bunch of older veterans like you'r Aaron Rodgers of

782
00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:32,560
Speaker 2: the world, you're Kirk Cousins of the world, or you're

783
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:36,880
Speaker 2: lesser experienced type of options like a Malik Willis who's

784
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,680
Speaker 2: younger and as stepped in for Jordan Love in Green

785
00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:43,279
Speaker 2: Bay and done a pretty admirable job. Like those are

786
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 2: the two worlds you're probably living in. And then it's

787
00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:49,880
Speaker 2: just going to be incumbent upon Kevin O'Connell and the

788
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:54,480
Speaker 2: personnel staff in place to evaluate the type of player

789
00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 2: that they feel like Fit's their offense, which wants to

790
00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 2: target the middle of the field, which wants to push

791
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:03,040
Speaker 2: the ball vertically, and finding guys that you can trust,

792
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:05,319
Speaker 2: you know, to be willing to do that. There's just

793
00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:11,920
Speaker 2: gonna be probably you're talking about select candidate group this offseason.

794
00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:16,200
Speaker 1: We're talking with Alec Lewis, the athletic Alec Underscore Lewis

795
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:19,319
Speaker 1: on X by the Way and a singular host of

796
00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:20,359
Speaker 1: the Alec Lewis Show.

797
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:21,960
Speaker 3: You can watch that on YouTube as well.

798
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:25,239
Speaker 1: Very much unlike me that cheats and has a part

799
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,000
Speaker 1: podcast partner in Lapanton just lets him talk and talk

800
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 1: and talk. So Alec much appreciated there. Let's talk about

801
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:34,080
Speaker 1: the other side of the football. The defense has been

802
00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:37,080
Speaker 1: great of late, and what do you think are the

803
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:38,040
Speaker 1: biggest reasons for that.

804
00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:42,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been I mean spectacular. Really. They haven't given

805
00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:45,600
Speaker 2: up a passing touchdown in six games. And it's not

806
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:50,040
Speaker 2: like they haven't faced offenses that have been successful. I mean,

807
00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:53,160
Speaker 2: the Cowboys offense has been one of the most dynamic

808
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:58,279
Speaker 2: in the league. You know, whether you're talking about Philadelphia

809
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,800
Speaker 2: or you're talking about Seattle, Chicago and what they've shown

810
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:06,040
Speaker 2: that they can do offensively, it's been really impressive. You ask,

811
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 2: you know, how they've been able to do it. Part

812
00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:11,680
Speaker 2: of it is just Brian Flores and his ability to

813
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:16,560
Speaker 2: continue to get this defensive these defensive players and this

814
00:42:16,719 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 2: staff growing in the same direction and really hungry enough

815
00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:23,040
Speaker 2: to go out and perform on a weekly basis, that

816
00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 2: the hat tip goes to both him and that staff.

817
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:29,839
Speaker 2: But then I just also feel like these players of jail.

818
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:34,120
Speaker 2: You've had Blake Cashman at linebacker healthy, You've had Eric

819
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:38,400
Speaker 2: Wilson who's been one of the revelations this season, Jalen

820
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:41,520
Speaker 2: Redman on the defensive line, and then I really feel

821
00:42:41,560 --> 00:42:45,600
Speaker 2: like Harrison Smith has been as healthy these last couple

822
00:42:45,640 --> 00:42:48,880
Speaker 2: of weeks as at any point in the season, and

823
00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:52,919
Speaker 2: he started to look like the you know, electrifying line

824
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:56,520
Speaker 2: of scrimmage kind of operator self that we've all you know,

825
00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,480
Speaker 2: people listening to this and me covering him and you

826
00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:02,239
Speaker 2: guys want watch that we've all come to expect him

827
00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:05,520
Speaker 2: to be. You know, obviously he had the slow start

828
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:09,120
Speaker 2: to the season with the personal health issue, came back

829
00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:11,680
Speaker 2: pretty quickly in Week three against Cincy, but it really

830
00:43:11,719 --> 00:43:14,800
Speaker 2: feels like he's now orchestrating things at the line of scrimmage.

831
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:17,879
Speaker 2: And I would be remiss if I didn't say that

832
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:20,319
Speaker 2: that has played a major role in what they've been.

833
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:20,759
Speaker 3: Able to do.

834
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, they seem so well coached back there. I've had

835
00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:26,080
Speaker 1: a chance to meet guys like Deante Jones and Brian

836
00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:29,960
Speaker 1: Flores in the past, and two very impressive individuals. And Brian,

837
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:33,160
Speaker 1: as we know, has been you know, trying to get

838
00:43:33,160 --> 00:43:35,080
Speaker 1: back in the helm of a head coaching job for

839
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:36,520
Speaker 1: the last number of years.

840
00:43:36,520 --> 00:43:38,120
Speaker 3: What do you think his future is right now?

841
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:44,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really interesting question because the job he's

842
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:48,440
Speaker 2: done as a defensive coordinator through three years, it's been

843
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:51,920
Speaker 2: pretty astounding because, like you know, this RUSSA, but their

844
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:57,080
Speaker 2: draft success or lack thereof, has played a major role

845
00:43:57,080 --> 00:43:59,560
Speaker 2: in what they've had to do from a personel perspective,

846
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:02,399
Speaker 2: and a lot of the free agent signings that they've

847
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:04,320
Speaker 2: made over the last couple of years who have really

848
00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:07,400
Speaker 2: helped this defense get to this place. A lot of

849
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:10,120
Speaker 2: the evaluation has come from Brian Flores, and so the

850
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:14,800
Speaker 2: fact that he wasn't extended last offseason and that his

851
00:44:13,680 --> 00:44:17,840
Speaker 2: contract runs out at the end of the season creates

852
00:44:17,880 --> 00:44:22,400
Speaker 2: a very interesting conversation amid an off season that is

853
00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:26,120
Speaker 2: going to have plenty of them. So what I expect is,

854
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:29,480
Speaker 2: you know, the Vikings will finish this season, Brian Flores

855
00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:32,920
Speaker 2: will seek head coaching opportunities. Whether that's going to be

856
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:37,400
Speaker 2: possible given his legal situation within the NFL or not,

857
00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:38,480
Speaker 2: we will see.

858
00:44:38,520 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 4: And then I.

859
00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:42,040
Speaker 2: Wouldn't be surprised if there are plenty of other teams

860
00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:48,000
Speaker 2: across the league seeking coordinator help on defense that potentially

861
00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:51,320
Speaker 2: pony up for Brian Flores. So what from a monetary standpoint,

862
00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:53,359
Speaker 2: how far the Viking is going to be willing to go,

863
00:44:53,640 --> 00:44:56,439
Speaker 2: It's going to be pretty interesting to watch. And again,

864
00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:59,560
Speaker 2: just to reiterate, like if you throw needing a new

865
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:04,840
Speaker 2: defensive coordinator into the concoction of questions that already exist

866
00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:09,680
Speaker 2: for this Vikings off season, you know it's it's it's

867
00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:11,880
Speaker 2: a head spinning kind of situation.

868
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:14,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, covering the NFL, you don't get any off season.

869
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:16,720
Speaker 1: It sends like you're definitely not getting any off season

870
00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:17,800
Speaker 1: final questions.

871
00:45:19,440 --> 00:45:22,000
Speaker 2: No, not to cut you off like I don't complain

872
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:23,799
Speaker 2: about it. I mean this is you're grateful to have

873
00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:27,080
Speaker 2: this job, especially in a place where the fans care

874
00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 2: as much as they do. It's like I said this

875
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:30,040
Speaker 2: on the podcast.

876
00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:31,840
Speaker 4: Someone asked me about the job and I.

877
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:34,280
Speaker 2: Was just like, you don't take for granted when people

878
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:36,600
Speaker 2: care as much as they do getting to work on.

879
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:39,560
Speaker 4: It on a daily basis, so without explain about.

880
00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:42,279
Speaker 1: It, Yeah, well, well said final question for you. You

881
00:45:42,320 --> 00:45:46,040
Speaker 1: know how much respect I have for Harrison Smith as well?

882
00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:49,400
Speaker 1: You know, next stop will be the Hall of Fame.

883
00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:51,759
Speaker 1: What do you think his future is? It was it

884
00:45:51,840 --> 00:45:54,600
Speaker 1: was pretty telling obviously that that when he, you know,

885
00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:57,520
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago after a game, uh, you know,

886
00:45:57,600 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 1: started well up talking about just the privilege of it

887
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:02,880
Speaker 1: is to to play as long as he has and

888
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:04,160
Speaker 1: in this great organization.

889
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:07,160
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, if you'd asked me about it five

890
00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:09,600
Speaker 2: weeks ago, I would have probably said, I don't think

891
00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:13,200
Speaker 2: there's any chance that this is not it for Harrison Smith.

892
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:15,319
Speaker 2: But seeing what he's done the last couple of weeks,

893
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:20,400
Speaker 2: and there has to be for him internally, like some conversations

894
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:22,520
Speaker 2: lay in his own mind of if I can still

895
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:25,360
Speaker 2: play it like this on Sundays, you know, if the

896
00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:29,040
Speaker 2: team were to be playoff super Bowl caliber, could I

897
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:34,040
Speaker 2: convince myself? I guarantee those conversations are going and that

898
00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:36,480
Speaker 2: discussion in his own mind is going to exist. But

899
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:40,120
Speaker 2: the nature of the practice, daily practices, the grind that

900
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:43,279
Speaker 2: it is to keep your body right. It's hard for

901
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:46,600
Speaker 2: me to fathom that this probably isn't getting to the

902
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 2: end of the road. I'll never say never, because I

903
00:46:49,040 --> 00:46:51,319
Speaker 2: know how much he does love what it's like to

904
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:54,239
Speaker 2: be in the fight on Sundays, and if this is

905
00:46:54,280 --> 00:46:57,680
Speaker 2: in fact it for him, Like I can't say enough

906
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:01,680
Speaker 2: about just what he been as a guy to cover

907
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:05,520
Speaker 2: and just how special of a player in person he

908
00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:07,839
Speaker 2: is behind the scenes, like you almost forget, he's never

909
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:11,440
Speaker 2: on the injure report, and from a guy who navigated

910
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:14,080
Speaker 2: the personal health situation he did at the beginning this year,

911
00:47:14,320 --> 00:47:16,920
Speaker 2: to not be at the injury report at his age

912
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:21,600
Speaker 2: this late in the season is wildly impressive. And yeah,

913
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:24,000
Speaker 2: he's been a joy to cover and a joy to watch.

914
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 2: So we shall see how it plays out, and replacing

915
00:47:28,719 --> 00:47:34,360
Speaker 2: him will be impossible given the type of just cognitively

916
00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:37,760
Speaker 2: advanced player he is on the field. Special special player,

917
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:38,480
Speaker 2: special dude.

918
00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:42,360
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, absolutely well said, and hopefully, you know, hopefully

919
00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:44,000
Speaker 1: this isn't it, because this shouldn't be the way that

920
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:44,840
Speaker 1: his career ends.

921
00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:47,320
Speaker 3: That is for sure. Alec really appreciate it.

922
00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:50,160
Speaker 1: You can read Alex's work in the Athletic and you

923
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:53,560
Speaker 1: can follow him on ex at Alec Underscore Lewis and

924
00:47:54,040 --> 00:47:56,960
Speaker 1: you could watch the Alex Lewis Show.

925
00:47:57,400 --> 00:47:59,680
Speaker 3: Really appreciate Alec. Take care of yourself.

926
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:05,080
Speaker 2: Anytime, Michael enjoy the Wild against Nick Saban's new hockey team,

927
00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:06,799
Speaker 2: the National Predators. I'll be tuned in.

928
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:07,280
Speaker 3: Yeah.

929
00:48:07,320 --> 00:48:12,360
Speaker 1: Absolutely, happy holidays, buddy. That is Alex Lewis from The Athletic.

930
00:48:12,560 --> 00:48:15,360
Speaker 1: When we come back open for him here in the

931
00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:18,080
Speaker 1: final hour, hour and fifteen minutes of the show. Joe

932
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:20,520
Speaker 1: Smith from The Athletic has just walked in the studio.

933
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:24,200
Speaker 1: Joe O'Donnell from Wild Radio has just walked in the studio,

934
00:48:24,280 --> 00:48:25,319
Speaker 1: already busy at work.

935
00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:26,760
Speaker 3: You know how hard he preps.

936
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:28,880
Speaker 1: If you listen to any of his games that he

937
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:31,840
Speaker 1: calls on the fan makes up for fallness in the

938
00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:35,759
Speaker 1: other end. And then and then oh sorry, I didn't

939
00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:37,640
Speaker 1: mean that. I didn't realize that we were still here,

940
00:48:37,840 --> 00:48:42,680
Speaker 1: and the and then lastly, Dave Jackson from ESPN the

941
00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:46,440
Speaker 1: Rules Analysts, former longtime NHL rough great, great guy, great

942
00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:48,920
Speaker 1: analysts that will be joining in studio at some point

943
00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:52,600
Speaker 1: after he's done talking with John Hines and Andrew Brunette.

944
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:54,239
Speaker 3: We will be right back here on the fan