Radio voice of The Columbus Blue Jackets Bob McElligott

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Columbus Blue Jackets are back on home ice tonight
at Nationwide Arena. He is the radio voice for the
Columbus Blue Jackets. Bob mcgelligate joining us now, And Bob,
do you get jet lags flying all over the I mean,
you were in Canada, then you're out in Seattle, and
how are you feeling?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
You all right?

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Like dog? I won't say the other thing? Pretty bad
right now. It wasn't about being to Canada. And you
know a lot of times it's a long trip, and yeah,
you're flying coast to coast, but I mean the trip
that we took was just like stupid. It might have
been the dumbest trip I've ever been on. The uh

(00:45):
we fly to Calvary and we're playing in the Mountain
times zone. You play one game there, You fly to
Vancouver the Pacific time zone, play one game there, You
fly back to Edmonton in the Mountain times don't play
a game there, then fly back to Seattle obviously Pacific,
and didn't fly all the way home yesterday, all the
way across the country. So it made zero sense from

(01:05):
a you know, logistics standpoint, But that's what we did.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Do you like traveling because some people they love staying
in hotels, and are you want those people? Like? No, no, no,
At this point in my career, I want my bed.
I love being in my bed on my home bed.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Now that doesn't bother me. I mean, look, we're not
staying at the day's in you know what I'm saying, right, Oh,
I mean it's like you in Vegas. It's not the
top shelf. So I don't mind it.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
That's good. That's good to hear.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
I wondered how that you know that kind of stuff
affects you, because look, I do it several hours every day,
not to the intensity that you. No, you hit these
high intensity areas of when you're doing the broadcast and
so on. But I I can't imagine having to keep
that energy up and do what you do and you're
like kind of jet lagging. Now at least you've had

(01:54):
what a day and a half, if you will, roughly
to you know, from coming back from Seattle kind of thing.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
So that's not really we got back twenty five hours ago.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Okay, so not even quite a day and a half.
There you go, hey real quick.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
But you know what I mean to complain about it
is ridiculous. I mean, and for me, all I have
to do is talk. And I know the players are
half my age, but I still I wonder how they
do it to this day because it is, it's gruely,
and they'll all play it off and say, I now
it's not a big deal, but they're.

Speaker 4 (02:26):
Lying Addlin Bob, it's adrenaline.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well that's the thing too.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
I think it's adrenaline, right, Well, yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Well that's the thing too.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
When I watched them, for instance, you know the Edmonton
game that was like, holy cow, it was like just
everybody it was floored. Everybody was floored, like just as
hard as you can. And I'm watching this going I
don't and I'm right with you on that. I'm like,
I don't know how these guys do this. And then
it's like they turn around, they do it the next
night or whatever, and I get it. They're paid all

(02:58):
this money and all of that, but they're human and
before there's anything else, and it's I guess it comes
down to conditioning. And everybody else has to do it too,
you know, the other players.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
So yeah, I mean that's that's like you know today,
it's it's unusual because usually the first game back from
the long road trip is the one that gives you problems.
And many times you have a team that's been sitting
and waiting for you while you're traveling all the way
across the country. But you know, tonight we're playing Edmonton
and just played them on Wednesday. They flew on what days?

(03:32):
What did we play Wednesday? I think? Yeah? Anyway, we
played them, and they flew across the country the next
day and they went to Philly and they played in
Philly last night, and now they've got to play here tonight.
So this is one of the I think rare occasions
where you're not quite on even footing, but you're as
close as you're going to get making that trip from
the West coast.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, you bring up Edmonton the game on Monday night,
and I you know what a heartbreaker for the Jackets,
A game that everybody's saying, there's no way that they
should have, you know, walked away from that game in
a loss, let alone overtime kind of a thing. But look, man,
I you know, I know you're a Blue Jackets fan.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
I know that you are.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
You know, you love the guys and so on, But
when you see something like that, it's a real head scratcher.
And there are a lot of fans that are like,
come on, man, these those are the kinds of games
that at the end of the year, if you're down,
you know, you need an extra game or two or three,
which we just came off of last year needing at
the end of the season. Those are the games you
point to and go, oh, man, it's biting us in

(04:34):
the ass now you know.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah, that's true. But there was the reason that
game didn't go in their favor was really because of
one guy, quite frankly, and that was Connor McDavid. And
he's the best player in the world. And he made
two plays and got two goals, and he got them
back in at the third period. And that's what he's
supposed to do with that kind of talent and with

(04:59):
that kind of expectation on him. I mean, their team
had gotten beaten nine to one in the previous game,
and they were very frustrated during that game, and the
Blue Jackets had them where they wanted them, and then
he brought them back to life. And then you know,
the Blue Jackets will say that they got some bad breaks,
but they also made some very questionable decisions I think
with their lineup and who they had on the ice
in certain periods of time, and it bit them. So anyway,

(05:22):
I mean they had to settle for one point in
that one. At least they got the one. I'll say
that at the time. I said later, we'll look on
this and say, at least they got one. But at
that moment, it didn't feel like any kind of a
victory whatsoever. But you know what, they were able to
come back and that Seattle game that was that was
not a pretty hockey game, but they ground their way

(05:43):
through it and they got they got the win in
the shootouts, so you know, at least you finished the
trip with three out of four points.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
What about that kid? It was?

Speaker 1 (05:50):
I think it was the kid from Edmonton that was,
you know, trying to make a statement or and Olivia
ended up whooping his ass.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
That was Edmonton, right, They're all right? Yeah? That was?

Speaker 3 (06:01):
That was?

Speaker 4 (06:02):
That was?

Speaker 3 (06:02):
That was Trent Frederick heat. You know, in the in
the off season, he signed a big contract there for
a lot of money, and he had all of one
goal and that's it going into that game. He had
one goal in sixteen games. He was being called out
for not h kind of trying to stop bleeding in
the game the previous game when they got hammered by Colorado.

(06:23):
You know, why wasn't he tougher? Why didn't he do something?
He had tried to start a fight and stop all that,
and so he had no choice and he wound up
on the ice of Bathe Olivia. If I was him,
I might have looked around and grabbed somebody else.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
Maybe a little old lady in the third row.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Yeah, I mean, he really had he had no choice.
I mean, he he had to fight in that situation,
and he just happened to be out there against the
toughest guy in the league. So it didn't farewell for him.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
Hey, but I had asked Mark when you I was
listening to you a couple of weeks ago you were
calling the game in Buffalo, And I know everybody's configuration
fors boxes and all that are different, but I'm just curious,
because I always listened to sound when you were up there.
Do you have like a window overlooking the ice where
you open it up during the game and then rest
periods close. I just noticed the crowd sound disappeared during

(07:15):
the break periods while you were talking, and I just
thought that was really unusual because it was so silent
compared to in game call.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
No, there's it's not a window. There's you turn on
the mics that are over the ice and pick up
the sound on the ice, and then you turn them
off during the intermissions when there's you know, the music
blast and then there's other things going on on the ice.
So it's just the the effect mics that we call
it picked up the you know, where you can hear
the skating and you can hear the puck hitting the

(07:42):
sticks and all that. Those microphones are on during play,
but they're not on during the intermission. Funny you say, Buffalo,
because in the first period something was screwed up there
and they had they had no effects mics. We were
using a crowd mic, which they sounded like they bought
nineteen seventy three, and so in the first period garbage,
but they got it fixed by the second period.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
I just I thought it was really cool just the
way it because it kind of, you know, made you
a feature during you know exactly. I think that the
NHL should probably just adopt that his policy, right, but
you know, during the break times or whatever. It made
sense for you not to have all that distracting noise
behind you because you were doing your thing. And I
just thought it would be really cool if he could

(08:23):
stand up there and just kind of open the window,
go hello, I'm here, Goodbye, I'm gone.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
No windows, no windows. Uh.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Take me through your feelings about Boone Jenner and the
upper body injury. And I know that out in definitely,
I believe, is what Coach Everson was saying. And it's
like it just feels like it's just bad break after
bad break for Boone recently.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
I mean, he's he's.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Got a lot going for I mean, he's got a
new kid, a new baby. I mean, there's some good
stuff personally going for him. But to see you hate
to see something.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Like this, well yeah, I mean it's it's disappointing because
it's like for Boone, it's probably deja vous all over again.
As Joe Givara said, right, you know, here you go
another year where you have an injury that's going to
cost you, to cause you to miss time and again
I don't know how much time. All Dean said this
morning was it's not short term, which is not a

(09:16):
good description, but that being said. From the team standpoint,
they played almost last all of last year without him.
I mean he didn't play until March last year. They've
been without him, they've been without Eric Debrands, and both
those guys are hurt again. They've done it so they
know how to do it. And there are guys, you know,

(09:37):
there are guys that are going to get opportunities now
that Boone gener is. Ken Johnson was a healthy scratch
last game and now he gets a chance to get
back into the lineup, and he knows he's going to
play a prominent role because Boone is out of there
right now. So that's that's the only positive. But it
stinks for him, and it really stinks for him, to
be honest with you, because he's in a contract year.
You know, he wants to get a new deal. And

(09:58):
when you get a new deal, you like to get
a raise, and you'd like to have a significant race.
And if you're not playing games and you didn't play
that many last year, and you didn't play the full
schedule the year before, well, you know, business is business
where it wouldn't be unreasonable if you were to say, well,
you know, you've suffered a lot of injuries, you haven't
been able to play a full season, so you know,
I'll give you a raise, but it's probably not the

(10:19):
percentage that you're looking for. And you know, and I'm
not saying he's gonna leave or anything like that. I'm
just saying it stinks because there's probably money that will
get left on the table because he hasn't been able
to play a full season.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
You bring up Kent Johnson, a healthy scratch kJ all day,
as you say in Seattle. Is it a situation where
he's a healthy scratch, he gets sat and it's a
motivation thing or is it something where he's just like
he just needs to reset or whatever, because look, you
can't be.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
A badass every game.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
I mean, it's impossible to do that if in fact
that's what you are, a badass in the league.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
You can't do that every game.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
And then on top of that, now is like you
just point out now he's going to have a little
more prominent role and it's like a little extra effort there.
Maybe now you'd think that you want to hope that
it's not. It takes something to get extra effort, if
you will, especially at this league. The type of money
that they make and so on. But what are your
thoughts with that? Do you think it's something that the

(11:18):
way that happened a little bit of both of those things.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah, And I think he I think he needs to
get it together. I mean, you know, you'd already been
dropped down to the fourth line, and that is the
that's a message that you're not playing well enough. And
he knows it. I mean, he knows he's not scoring.
But it's it's not the scoring, it's the competing. It's
the it's the battling to get loose pucks, and it's

(11:43):
the you know, trying to he's a great stick handler
and he can really move the fuck around and he
can you know, he can dance around guys and all
that stuff. But they're after a certain extent. You've got
to go toward the net. You just can't be going
from side to side the entire game. And and they
this isn't the first coach that has hammered him on this. Right,

(12:04):
So he's got great potential. We sawt he had a
great year last year, and he just has to stop
being choot. Just just play right and when you get
a chance to shoot the buck. That's the other thing.
I feel like there's a lot of times this year
where he's had an opportunity to shoot. I know, in
the press box, it's easy for me to see and
all that stuff. I get it, But there have been
shooting opportunities that he hasn't taken. He's tried to pass

(12:26):
the puck to somebody else and there's no need for that.
I mean, shoot it and if there's a rebound, then
somebody else can get it. So he's he's gotta be
I don't know, he's got to be more selfish in
some ways when it comes to shooting the puck, and
he's he's gotta play harder. He's not a big guy.
He's not gonna win a lot of physical battles, but

(12:46):
by god, he's at least going to stick his nose
in there and try to be a part of it.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, especially you hear people yelling at all the time,
it's easy for us fans in the stands going.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Shoot it, shoot it. Everybody's yelling at every time.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Anybody gets it's you know, in our ice, they're like
shoot it, shoot it, like telling everything, and it's always
easy to do it because we're thinking, like, okay, it'll
bounce off, we'll get a rebound, you know, or somebody's
always set up there, it seems like or what have you. Yeah,
a terrible road trip for the Jacket's, no question about that.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Starkly different from last year, which they.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Did really well on the road, and at least they
ended it with the shootout. It seems like, man, shootout
is like, are we're settling into that again? And it
feels really, you know, you hate to get to that.
You want to win in regulation, no question about that.
But if we get to a situation like shootout, boy,
I'll tell you. And it looked like too. Did they

(13:42):
not realize that they had won at the end? Was
that true? Like did you see that?

Speaker 3 (13:48):
I don't think they know. I did see it. I
absolutely saw it because they called the goal and I
looked toward the bench and expected to see the guys
filling off the bench and they weren't moving.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
They're all not gear been dragged like you guys because well,
you know, Charlie.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Charlie took the shot and it hit off the inside
of the post and it almost it almost to me,
didn't ping like when it hits the post. It almost
sounded like when it hits the glass, and I don't
know if they thought that he missed or what the
deal was there, but or I don't know if they
thought he missed or if I don't, I don't know
if they realized that Seattle had shot first and now

(14:27):
all you had to do was get that one and
it's over and you win it. It's whatever it was.
Everybody was very petitive and it was like, oh is
this over? Did we win?

Speaker 2 (14:38):
It's like, I know, I haven't.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
I know, you haven't wonted a couple of games.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
But I mean, they weren't shocked. They're like, hey, hey
we won one. Oh my gosh, I equate that too.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
You're standing at the plate like and you're taking balls
and strikes and you actually got a fourth ball and
you're still you like, you're still standing there waiting for
the next pitch, and they're like, yeah, you got it.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
That's that's a walk ahead. You take your first base.
You know.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
Charlie Coyle was kind. It was it was funny. He
actually had a good laugh about it in the in
the room after the game because he goes, well, maybe
maybe it was my fault for not celebrating it enough.
I'm not sure, and they didn't know that they put
it in.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
That's great, man, fantastic. Well, Jackets are back on whole nice.
I think we've got three uh to that x three?

Speaker 2 (15:20):
Correct? Our home correct? Yeahington.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
The Rangers will be here on Saturday at another fifth
anniversary night. We have some some ex players that haven't
been in the building in a long time back in
the building this weekend and then Monday Montreal comes in.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, very good.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Uh well, you get to sleep in your own bed
for a little while and probably get a honeydo list
here and there.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
So yeah, hopefully hopefully now.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
Get to for a couple of days and then back
out the freaking Winnipeg and Toronto and Detroit and Washington.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Yeah, I don't know my sell again, I don't know
if I could sell a spot my spot on that trip, Like,
who wants to go to Winnipeg? And what would you
offer me for that? I'd have to pay you exactly.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Bob mcgalligate, radio voice for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Thanks
for catching up with us, man, have a great call
tonight and h and go Jackets.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
Thanks brother, all right, thanks, We'll see u.