Russo Radio! - Bumper to Bumper 11/13/25 Hour Three

Bumper to Bumper with Dan Barreiro!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Russo Radio kind enough to join us via the Connectico
Water Systems hotline Russo.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Before we talk some hockey.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
The lot of good, wild questions have already come in.
Let's talk a little bit about the sad news regarding
Larry Brooks. I'm looking at a tweet that you retweeted,
reposted from Kenny Albert, who refers to the New York

(00:42):
Post legend and Hall of Fame hockey writer as the
best ever. Every column he wrote was a must read,
not only hockey, but whenever he covered baseball and tennis.
Too hard to believe we will no longer see him
and his notebook in the press box.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Rest in peace, Larry.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Can you add to this this news, this story?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Uh yeah, I mean, a total legend in our business.
You know, he he was one of one. You know,
he's somebody that I've known for thirty one years, was
friends with him mentor uh you know, he years and
years and years ago, like a lot of the old
guard hockey writers, took a lot of us in the

(01:25):
new generation and treated us, treated us with an incredible
amount of respect. And you know the biggest thing that
he had taught me is to essentially be accountable for
what you write. You know, ask the tough question, show
up the next day, and and you garner respect that way.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
He had incredible passion for this sport.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
He was the must read in hockey, which is not
easy for a beat writer. Uh you know beat beat
writers usually are focusing on one team. But the one
thing with him is that you had to go to
him every single Sunday and read his slap Shots column
because you just knew that it was unique, original, and
he had his pulse on so many other things besides

(02:06):
the New York Rangers, everything from the NHLPA to league events,
to all the teams and scuttle but out there so
you know, horrible news. You know, I still remember trying
to recruit him to the athletic. I was in a
Nashville diner a couple of years ago on the phone
with him for in an hour, trying to get him
to come to us. And you know that never worked out.

(02:28):
But he was just he was old school like he
I never saw him with a recorder. He always had
this notebook and he would he was your king hunter
and Pecker. The way that he wrote and then pounded
on his laptop. You know, he just and The other
thing with him is that you'd never know he was
seventy five, like he looked like he was fifty. It

(02:49):
was in perfect shape, and it just shows you, you know,
not unlike Ray Chiro last year was tied with you know,
with the like you know Ray, he got his diagnosis.
Some is gone three four weeks later, and same thing
here with Larry. They this all started a month ago,
and it just was quick and brutal for a lot
of us that knew them.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Texts just come in.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
A lot of good texts have already coming in, including
this one.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Dan.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
I'm wondering if you can ask Russo where he learned
to handle Twitter bullies so effectively he's been putting on
a clinic. I think I know what the latest one
refers to. But fill us in, or fill those listeners
in who might not be following this very closely.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's something that I
should be proud of, you know, the probably the wiser
man would ignore this stuff. But somebody was listening to
me on PA the other day and thought I was
being demeaning and sexist talking about the.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
Rivalry series.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
And I'd defy anybody to go back and listen to
those five minutes with PA and find anything to be
offensive about. People like that just want to be angry
about something, make nothing out of something, or something out
of nothing, I should say. And and it was just,
I mean, just ridiculousness. So uh, you know, I wrote
that person back, and then somebody else came after me

(04:11):
for like you know that just the fact that I
was covering women's hockey was proving this because somehow it
was beneficial for me. I mean people again, like like again,
I'm I'm I'm covering women's hockey at the Olympics.

Speaker 5 (04:24):
So I covered the rivalry series last week.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Uh, That's that's all it was. I had an immense amount.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Of respect for the athletes and and had a blast
covering it. Uh feel like I know a lot more
about the athletes that I'm gonna be covering in Milan
and looking forward to covering uh the uh, the rivalry
series and Edmonton next month for the Athletic and and
so uh.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
There was to me.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
You know again, anybody can go back on the iHeart
app and listen to my interview with PA and find
that that I said absolutely nothing that was demeaning.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Well, it was part of it.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
I got a couple of text from people saying the
suggestion was one of the suggest allegations was that you
can't cover women's hockey unless you cover it full time?
Is that part of Is that another tentacle of this time?

Speaker 3 (05:14):
I mean that was like that was the inference of
somebody's tweet to me, it made no sense, And asked
why I don't cover the Frost, and I said, because
we have a women's hockey writer, an incredible one at
the Athletic who covers the Frost and the league as
a whole. It's the same reason why I don't go
out to Target Center and cover the Twins, and Target
Field to cover the Target Center to cover the Wolves,

(05:38):
and Field to cover the Twins, and US Bank to
cover the Vikings, and Huntington Bank to cover the golfers.
My bead is the Minnesota Wild in the National Hockey League.
But somehow it was somehow offensive to people that I
covered the rivalry series and that I'll be covering women's
hockey at the Olympics. It's just ridiculous foolishness. It's just

(05:58):
typical of today's society of people that.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
Just go on Twitter to just scroll.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
All day to get offended by something and voice outrage
and then move on to the next thing. And it's
just it's it's got to be a sad, sad existence
for those type of people. And I see it every
day in my life on Twitter and and you know, but.

Speaker 5 (06:17):
Like I said, I'd be.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
A more mature and professional person if I just ignored it.
But when somebody is just calling me out for something,
absolutely I take offense to that.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
Yeah, and uh and you know this person, you know,
uh uh, you know, to me, it's just sad people.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
I should say, Yeah, there's a lot.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Of that and yeah, we're we all so it's it's
hard the you know, turning the other cheek is always
the best approach, it's the sanest approach, it's the healthiest probably,
but every once in a while it's hard not to.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Depending on your move, the other thing is.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Like again yeah, and the other thing is absolutely like
I mean, that's that's the one the one issue that
you know, and why I've talked to you before about
how Twitter and social media as a whole is not the
not the greatest way to keep your existence from a
mental health standpoint, But when you're you know, it's it's
easy for somebody out there that has nobody that's uh,

(07:14):
you know following them essentially on on Twitter, right, they
just ignore it.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
You know, why talk back to an idiot.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
But when you're when you're peppered by hundreds of tweets
a day and then somebody comes after you personally like that,
you know, I'd love to turn on the other cheek.
And you know, you would think in my line of work,
especially one that you know is a critic essentially of
of professional athletes, professional teams, that you would say, all right,

(07:41):
if you could dish it out, you know, you got
to take it every and now and then. But when
somebody accuses you of, you know, something that serious, over
something that completely is just manufactured in their own sick mind,
you know, I take great offense to it. And that's
why I stood up to myself. I will say that
I just you know, sometimes you just forget you're writing

(08:02):
that one person back, but you're forgetting that your public
That's true, gains oxygen in a fast way.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
That's yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
And I've done a really good job the last couple
of years of ignoring uh, you know, the the the
trolls out there. But this person just seemed like an actual, mature,
normal person, and I couldn't believe how he somehow misconstrued
anything that I was saying.

Speaker 4 (08:26):
You know, to me, it was needed.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
To be corrected. Let's go that way, and I did it,
And now I'm moving to.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Move on with the rest of your life, exactly it
until the next time. Well, yeah, that's that's that's that's
the reality of it.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
So wild.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Next up is Saturday night, right, Saturday five o'clock game?

Speaker 5 (08:42):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Where is that?

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Our next one's the Ducks? So exactly? So what are
we seeing? I mean, we're seeing Uh, there might have
been some disappointment that we didn't finish off the this
the last game of the victory. It does appear maybe
the defense is playing a little bit better. What do
we are we seeing anything come together? Where we at

(09:05):
compared to the last time you and I spoke.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
I don't know, I mean to me, these next four
or five games are really going to tell a bigger
story going into the Thanksgiving holiday, because you know, they
are playing a real soft schedule right now, which just
makes it even more disappointing that they've had a couple
of losses in there San Jose in overtime, and especially
the last game because they dominated that game really from
start two unfortunately for them to finish, and the one

(09:29):
power play where you know, you're a check to the
penalty and they couldn't.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
Kill it off. So we'll see.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
I mean, Anaheim is a bear right now. They are
just playing really, really well. They're a good young hockey team.
We've seen a lot of these up and coming young
hockey teams walk into Grand Casino Arena, you know, this
season and win games and skate around the Wild. So
I'll be really interested in that. And then you know,
I second back to back against Vegas. It seems like
the Wild always get Vegas and the second back to

(09:55):
back that's a huge game. And then Carolina just worked
the Wild in Carolina last week. They're coming at town
and then the Jets are here, so there's a sorry
the Whild go to the Jets. So there's there's still
a lot to me that that we have to see
to know if everything is corrected, they're playing better.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
One thing that does concern me is that they are
very banged up, more banged up than we've reported, I believe,
when when they had they had yesterday off, they had
Monday off, they had Saturday off, and so yesterday is off,
and then all of a sudden, yesterday late in the day,
we get in, we all get an email that they
canceled practice today. So they have now not practiced, you know,

(10:32):
in a long time, and they just canceled practice essentially
for a second day in a row. That tells me
that this team has got some injuries right now that
they are trying to really repair in hopes of having
a really good practice tomorrow and then playing back to
back games this weekend. So that would be one concern
that I have right now is that you know what
is you know, Capri stuff looks like he hard his

(10:54):
wrist the other day. There's a lot of guys right
now that we've seen, you know, limping around and and
we all know that this team has a tendency to
get injured, and you just hope it's not going to
you know, we're ugly head right now because last year
they had a cushion that they were able to at
least absorb it until they almost missed the playoffs. Now
they've put themselves in position where they can't afford to

(11:16):
throw away points, and so there's no excuses right now.
So they've got to get these bodies healed, and hopefully
for the fans sake, that these guys can come out
there and have a couple of really quality games against
two very tough teams in Anaheim and Vegas this weekend.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
I think your compadre had a story in which he
quoted Felino as saying that we're not really built to
get into a track meet. The moral of the story
was that the last four or five games, there's been
maybe a greater understanding of that's how we have to
play much better defensively, obviously, and we have to play

(11:54):
this way because we're not a team that's going to
be able to routinely explode for seven or eight or
nine goals in a really wide open game. Do you
agree with that that sentiment? And he kind of said,
maybe we'll get a better idea of whether it's really
sticking as we as they as they, you know, start
playing some some better teams. But I thought we always

(12:15):
knew that was our our identity. Why did we need
to be reminded of it?

Speaker 4 (12:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (12:19):
I know, I mean, maybe it's because they're not just
doing it well.

Speaker 5 (12:21):
Now maybe a lot of Yeah, they were.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
Playing a lot of East West hockey and where they've
started to play better with points Now in five of
the last six, they've really started to defend really well
and for check hard, and they're playing just much more
you know, simple and and efficient hockey without really the
the plethora of turnovers that we really saw in the
first month of the season. So but look, I mean

(12:45):
they are in a team. I mean, they just don't
have a lot of skill up and down their line up,
especially right now with the third and fourth lines really
not scoring a lot. I mean, Leno doesn't have a
goal this year. Ryan Hartman only has two goals since
opening night. So there's just a lot of you know
stuff right now going on with team training. Doesn't have
a goal, You're off only has two. So they're not

(13:05):
getting a ton from their bottom six. That puts a
ton of pressure on their top six. The last couple
of games, we've seen the Rossi, Caprice Off and Zukarla
line get carved in a bit. Tarasenko seems to be
somebody that is what we all feared coming in as
somebody that's just not the same player that we even
you know, or close to the same player that we
saw in Saint Louis. So I do believe that, especially

(13:29):
when you're going up against you know, really fast teams
like Utah and Anaheim and San Jose that we've seen
or they're about to see Utah.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
It just excuse me, Anaheim, it.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
Just feels like right now, these teams have sort of
passed the Wild by from a youth and skill standpoint,
especially high end youth and skill, and the Wild really
haven't been able to compete against those type of teams
so far this season, which is concerning from a long
term perspective because there's just not even though they've got
a lot of prospects and trumps quantity, they don't have

(14:01):
a ton of high end prospects beyond Zeve right now.
And so that's what happens when you pick in the
in the sort of mushy middle for a long time,
and so we just don't have those type of players
that we're going to see in the future here. So
I really think that they've got to play a certain
way if they're going to want to compete in a
very tough conference.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
So you mentioned Zeeve.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
I think he's got ten points he's also I think
he's got a minus ten rating. So there's that age
old debate about Okay, what numbers matter the most? How
do you go about evaluating what he's offering come from
you know, from a distance, that seems like you're saying, yeah,
he's given you the offense that you want or you
were hoping to get from him, but you ain't getting
anywhere near enough defense. So how would you calibrate what

(14:43):
we're seeing from him as an offensive defenseman and just
his defense period.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
I'm seeing great strides in him right now. I think
that's been really the one area in the last three
or four games that with him in particular that I've
seen vast improvement is his defense to play, his ability
to recover, you know, fixing positioning issues, you know, maybe
at even strength, being a little smarter in terms of

(15:10):
time and situations on when to go and when not
to go and when to leave his position.

Speaker 4 (15:16):
So, I look, he's nineteen years old.

Speaker 5 (15:17):
The stuff that he was able to get away with.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
At the college level is just stuff that you can't
get away with at the NHL level. And there's also
certain commands, certain musts that you have to do from
a defensive standpoint in any NHL system, that you're not
going to get away with, you know, not doing and
also that.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
The coaches aren't gonna let you get away with.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
So I think that we're gonna we're gonna just you know,
I think he's gonna be an absolute superstar in this league.
He brings it to mention that this organization really hasn't
had since Brent Burns.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
You know.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
The one thing that I'd love to see is and
we maybe saw at the beginning of it last game,
is him back on the number one power play. I
think that I think that's not just going to help
the team, but help him feel more, you know, at
ease and more himself. And I'd love to see them
on leash him in overtime. This team has given away
points in overtime. They've lost four games in extra sessions

(16:12):
against the and and they're against the three of them
are against the Western Conference.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
Those are that's not good.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
And so since they're not winning these games anyway, you
might as well throw a zeve out there and have
the ability to win. The name of the game and
overtime is to win to make a play, and right
now they're not making a play as an overtime they're
just they're you know, they look incredible with the puck possession,
and then they just give the way the puck and
they're not getting a save. And so if they're not scoring,
if they're not successful in overtime, it's time to to

(16:40):
me unshackle them and let him go and make a play.
And if it doesn't work out, well, you know what,
you've lost four games anyway using other personnel. To me,
that's whereas Eve is going to be at his best
in three and three overtime. So I say, give them,
give them the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Are we are we moving closer to a cold goalie
event uality? Or am I overreacting to Wallsteed's most recent
shut up.

Speaker 5 (17:05):
Well, I don't think.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
You're overreacting because also just the nature of this league
this season is that the games are so condensed that
that we're going to have to see both goaltenders play
a lot, and Wally probably play play more, especially as
the Olympics get closer and closer. But look, you know,
obviously in the last recent games, Jasper has outperformed Gus.

(17:26):
I don't blame Gus for anything that happened in the
San Jose game. But Wally is Look, He's started five games,
have gotten points in all five. He hasn't been perfect
by any stretching the imagination, but his last two were really,
really good. The game on Long Island on a second
of a back to back after they got trounced the
night before, and then obviously the shutout against Calgary, who's

(17:48):
not very good. So look, I get why John Hines
and Freddy Schabat decided to start Gusson against San Jose.
One Wally gave up six goals against San Jose two
weeks ago. And the other thing is, with nine days
off between Gustafson's potential starts, I think you had to
give Gus a game or it's going to be, you know,
a real tough position to put himself in this weekend.
And so we'll see who goes first, whether it's Gus

(18:11):
or Wally against Anaheimer or Vegas. But we're going to
see both bullies this weekend. But Jefsper is definitely making
strides without stand in the last couple of games, and
that's definitely a great thing for the wild.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Right now, I want to ask you a broadcasting question.
I started the show saluting what we've seen from the
the the I guess you could say second marriage of
NBC and the NBA in that there's been a concerted
effort sometimes bringing back, you know, old voices like Marv Albert,

(18:44):
sometimes Bob Costas, to sort of meld the present with
the past. That to try to at least occasionally when
it's a good matchup or there's some history between the
two teams, to not be afraid to, you know, sort
of wax nostalgic about the history of that rivalry between

(19:06):
those two teams.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
It's it's very anti ESPN because I don't think they've
ever been particularly good at doing it. But my point
was I would like to see more of it in
every national sports broadcast.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
You can't do it every game. You got to pick
and choose.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
But I think people enjoy, even kids don't mind the
broadcast where you set it up with some good writing
and you try to set up a match up. You
get it eventually to the actual matchup on the ice
or on the court or whatever, but you go back
into the past as well. I think it's something that
all all all networks that are broadcasting various sports should

(19:46):
should try to sort of tap into a little bit
more often.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
What do you think, Yeah, I agree with you.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
And so you're saying, like, have have old announcers kind
of come back into the.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Pray even to the extent of the two minute open,
you know, a narration of you know, here's what the
Sixers Celtics rivalry meant over the years. Now here's the
matchup as it is currently constitutioned. Not necessarily that they
always end up doing play by play. You got your
current play by play guys, but you have somebody just

(20:18):
giving you some context and some richness and texture to
the history that might be involved in whatever the game is,
whatever the rivalry, whatever the rivalry might be.

Speaker 5 (20:29):
Yeah, I hey, I am with you.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
And you know, like I have the one name that
that just popped in my head is Gary Thorne. I
mean that exact way that I think a lot of people,
a lot of people would know. And and all of
a sudden, if you haven't come back, it's really a
shame that he is just not involved in hockey anymore.
You know, he's he's he's unfortunately not with us anymore.
But I was just in Buffalo covering the rivalry series
and I was walking through the carters, and all of

(20:53):
a sudden I heard that old, distinguishable voice of Rick Jennerett,
and it brought me back to all those those Buffalo
Savers Allas Stars games in the ninety nine final that
I covered, and the may Day May Day may Day call,
and and all those Panthers in Buffalo games that I covered.
And so there is just something that wax nostalgia with
the old guard and bring him back. So you know,

(21:15):
I would love to hear Gary Thorn and see him
back in the saddle covering this sport again.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
Well, when I was talking about it, somebody even brought
up Emeric's name. That's it can even be current guys,
but Emeric, I thought, was among those. It was very
goodredible at melding the present, what was happening that night
with some history, with a couple of good history lessons,
and and to me, it just it just enhances any broadcasts,

(21:41):
just classes.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
And and and to that, yeah, to that person's point,
I mean, he is, you know, synonymous with this with
this game. Everybody knows his voice. It's kind of like
when I grew up and hearing Nell Allen and Vince
Scully and all those names. And you know, I remember
watching you know, this Week in Baseball all the time
with Mel Allen and just be loving it, you know,
and and and here and a Madra shot on inside

(22:05):
the NBA and all that stuff growing up, and you know,
like a madrashot would be just incredible to come back
and start doing this more and more often, you know,
like like how would that be?

Speaker 4 (22:15):
Just insane?

Speaker 2 (22:15):
No, no question.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
A couple ask questions here from the Texters Russoll, what
are your this is from Ben and Bloomington. What are
your thoughts on Farmington's own Drew Hellison for the Ducks
up and coming talent that's Ben in Bloomington outstanding.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
I mean, and I'll tell you one thing, like I
watched them the other day and he is just getting
better and better and better. And you know, when I
remember when Jackson Lacombe went out there, I really didn't
expect that he would turn into this type of defenseman
and he looks like a stud right now.

Speaker 5 (22:46):
That team is really really good. Chris Crider's had an
absolute resurrection.

Speaker 4 (22:51):
You know.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
It looks like Quinnville has gone there and really, you know,
help lift that franchise for a team that has expectations
of making the playoffs this year.

Speaker 4 (22:59):
But I love Hellison. I think that he's going to be.

Speaker 5 (23:02):
A really, really good player.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
But the but the one that I'm really sheepish on
right now is is Lacombe. You know, he is somebody
that I think it probably is going to be difficult
for him to make the Olympic team. Let's put it
this way. They brought him to orientation camp for a reason.
He's on their radar. They just scouted him recently USA Hockey,
and so there's a couple of really good Minnesotans on

(23:25):
that team.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Lastly, a six to one two guy asks if you
believe they'll open a Starbucks at Grand Casino Arena anytime soon.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
I've tried to get them either that or a little
poker table, you know, one of the two would be
perfect for me.

Speaker 5 (23:41):
I did find I don't want to like I did,
Like I'm almost hesitant to say it. I know, but
I don't know. Yeah, I know there.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
I did find a Starbucks that's incredible Saint Paul right
across the river that I had no idea existed the
last year or two and it's it's like a you know,
five and a walk from from Grand Casino Arena and
a minute thrive And yeah, so I've been going there
a lot and working in there. And I found the
same thing by my house the other day. I made

(24:10):
a wrong term essentially, and I found a new Starbucks
that had been here since January that I was hanging
out there a lot too.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
So so, yeah, don't give away too many of your secrets, man,
then you're going to be deping.

Speaker 5 (24:20):
I know at my podcast.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
Yeah, I said my podcast the other day, my big
cheat code was now ubering to Intercontinental Hotel and you
carry on and going through security there and then next
thing I know, they closed They closed the checkpoint.

Speaker 5 (24:35):
The other day. See, so maybe I shouldn't have told
that publicly.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
Kept your big mouth shut is what you should have done,
that's for sure. Exactly are you covering Saturday?

Speaker 4 (24:45):
I am Saturday, Sunday.

Speaker 5 (24:46):
Joe's actually out of town.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
I'll be a practice tomorrow and game Saturday and Sunday,
and I'll do my best to stay out of Twitter
battles and from not offending other people.

Speaker 4 (24:56):
That for good. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
We'll chat next week.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Thanks Russo Radio helping us out via the Connectico Water
Systems hotline, a lot of good texts I've been saving
on a number of controversial subjects. We'll get back to
that potential fight involving Jokic and his brothers that there's
a lot of conversation about, even though we assume it's
all kind of make believe, but some of the X

(25:23):
reaction to it. This will be an example where X works,
I think, where you'll actually be entertained by some of
the things that folks have said.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Don't go back, you.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
Editor the Sunday's divisional tilt. We can combine our street
team on the plaza outside US Bank Stadium and ask
how you can enter for your shot at Papa Murphy's
Game day meal deals for a year, Hey fan dot com,
ke your calendar for all details. We'll get back to

(25:54):
an item we have dressed earlier with our three thirty
guest Sean Salisbury related it's getting a lot of attention
of some comments from Justin Jefferson today that I think
kind of ignore the elephant in the room.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
But that's just me. But before we do.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
The there's a sort of a an entertaining we can't
even say a battle going on because Joker and his
brothers I don't think have responded to it, but the
Morris twins are claiming NBA players said it'd be it'll
be a landslide if they had the opportunity to fight

(26:36):
the Jokic brothers. Here's one of the quotes. I got
to clean it up too. I'm six eight two eighty,
these big chested can't move. I'll punch them both in
their chest like it ain't even a question. It's a landslide.

(26:57):
The folks on the Peanut Gallery has had some fun
with this on X one could say and I want
to give you a cop examples for the record. By
the way, jokers, the little guy compared to his brothers,
I think there's been a lot of They've occasionally been
seen elsewhere. He's like slight, it appears, compared to them.

(27:24):
Here's this is maybe one of the best retorts in
recent X DUM history. Jokic brothers are Serbian six six
to seven foot MMA fighters descended from a line of
Barbarian war criminals. This fight is over before it even begins.

(27:51):
That's just a brilliant comeback. And as I said, my
guess is the Morris brothers are just looking to have
some fun with this thing.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Maybe it'll end up being does does pro wrestling matter anymore?
Is enjoy it? You still like it? It's still big yeah?
Or big enough? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (28:11):
I mean, I guess you could see some kind of
deal where the folks who follow it might be interested
in this sort of thing. But I just I just
love that I would just say this. Who knows I
would want to not want to mess with any of
the Yokach's, I I wouldn't. I don't think we even

(28:33):
maybe understand beyond how big they are, beyond whether they
have the ability to fight or not. I just think
that there might be as that tweet notes something unleashed
that you're not going to ever be prepared for. You're
not ever going to be you know, you're not ever
going to be ready for it. I guess it's the
best way to put it. But I enjoyed of all

(28:57):
the rejoinders. I mean, that's just brilliant. MMA fighters descended
from a line of Barbarian war criminals. This fight is
over before it begins. So whether they they meet it
or not, I'm guessing it's you know, they're just looking
for the attention, which I'm of course giving giving to them.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
But it was just too good of a response.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
There was another good one. Jokich is the weakest of
the three brother brothers, and he injured you for a
year when he bumped you with his shoulder. That also
was was very good. You can find it. I found
it via an ex site called NBA Central and you
can find the unexpurgated version of all these things NBA
Central that has it. So I wouldn't want to go

(29:44):
anywhere near him or his horses. You would know anywhere. No, No,
that's that's very true. Well, somebody said, and you know
they play as it's said, Will you double check? I
think Denver is Denver here Saturday or Sunday. We got
the Wolves host Sacramento in the End Cup Friday, Saturday seven.
I think it's Saturday seven. Oh, okay, there you go. Yeah,

(30:06):
So look, I get it. We have We've had good
confidence against Denver. We seem to have matched up well
with them. I said this during the offseason that I
predicted Denver was going to be the most dangerous team
that has the best chance to unseat Okay see, even
more than the Wolves because of the improvements they've made

(30:29):
on that roster. But there's obviously something going on with
Joker that is, I don't know, how do you explain.
He's been the best player in the league for a while,
but even by those standards, he's playing on another level.
And what a couple of people have noted is he
seems to be complaining less about refs.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Now he's never been. He was never Luke alike, but.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
He could get into that occasionally, and that he's just
just playing, you know, he's just not messing with anything
but going out and playing. I think he had was
it was over fifty last night and I don't even
think he played.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Did he play into the fourth quarter?

Speaker 1 (31:01):
I think he played basically three quarters and went eighteen
for twenty three from the floor. You know, we've had
a great had We had a great relationship over the
years with Bill Walton, now gone, but certainly not forgotten.
And you know, Walton's performance in the NCAA Tournament championship

(31:24):
game against I think it was Memphis State is hailed
as one of the greatest individual sports performances of all time,
and that's because he took twenty two shots and made
twenty one of them. Now from the free throw line,
it was twenty one for twenty two from the field.
Now he didn't have you went hitting three pointers. They're
all around the basket, but just astonishing, And it's almost

(31:47):
like this guy Joker routinely is doing those sorts of things.
Eighteen for twenty three last night, sixteen for nineteen the
night before, ten for fourteen, twelve for fifteen. When you're
shooting even though he's a center, close to seventy five
percent your last ten.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Games, I mean, that's that's absurd.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
He's he's an al He's he keeps moving up the
list into all time great status. There's no question, so
I will be I'm looking forward to that Saturday game
because it'll be a better test. The Wolves have played
well against teams they're supposed to beat. I think you
can't savage him for it because just because of competition,

(32:28):
because let's face it, when they've meandered against those teams
and found ways to either make the games competitive or lose,
we've hammered them. So they've they've done a good job,
I think, especially once Edward's got his feet under him
after that first game where he wasn't particularly good. I
think I think that was the next game, by the way,
where we got blown out. They've done a nice job

(32:50):
of not playing down to the level of competition, but
you ain't. You know, you ain't playing down to anything
if you're playing Denver right now.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Denver is.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Very solid, So that'll be. So that's Saturday at seven.
So it's the Wild are at five on Saturday? Correct?
I think the Wild game Saturday is a five o'clocker. Yeah,
and then the Wolves at seven.

Speaker 5 (33:11):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Interesting double header so to speak. And a back to
back for the Wild as well. Saturday and Sunday.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Who do we play Sunday? We got the duck Saturday,
they're good, right, Yeah, there we have. Who do we
have Sunday?

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Just Vegas? Okay? Oh just Vegas?

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Yeah, yeah, no problem. Yeah, also at five, Yeah, there
you go. All right, let's get caught up. We got
one more segment.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
We are out.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
It's Thursday, so we're out at six o'clock. Let's re
examine some comments from JJ today that they're getting some attention,
not just locally but nationally. I have my own thoughts
about them and the degree to which I think they're
being perhaps overrated. But whenever JJ speaks, obviously it's gonna
there's gonna be some news element attached to it, so

(33:51):
we'll get to that and maybe clean up some other
housekeeping issues before we wrap things up at six.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
It's the Bumper to Bumpers Show RAP. It's brought to
you by American Pressure.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
I want to thank our outstanding array of guests today.
If you missed Sean Salisbury at about three point thirty,
he was on fire, as we like to say in
the business. Great stuff on his reaction to the Vikings,
curious unwillingness to run the ball, and other Vikings related matters.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
That was between three thirty and four.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Mike Conley joined at about just after that to talk
NBA Cup, current state of his favorite basketball team. A
couple other things that we get into with the Conley,
including the update regarding the National Basketball Association All Star Game,
and of course Russo Radio, who joined us at the

(34:45):
top of the five o'clock hour of the program. Vikings
programming will take over at six, and then we got Thursday.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Night football in the Fan? Is that correct? Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (34:54):
The no longer winless New York Jets traveling to Foxborough,
mass the Choosetts to take on the suddenly ascending New
England Patriots. Starring the quarterback that I think it's pretty
well confirmed at this point. The Vikings coveted heavily in
last year's draft Drake May, and they allegedly made a

(35:17):
pretty significant offer for him, but not enough to go
up and get him. So May is off to a
very good start this season after some ups and downs
last season. Although I'm gonna check tomorrow, I doubt his
QBR ever was quite as low as JJ McCarthy's, because
that's almost historic at this point. The other JJ made

(35:41):
some news today justin Jefferson met the Jackals, and I
think the context was today is the three year anniversary
of maybe his greatest catch, one of the greatest catches
you'll see in a National Football League game, that one
handed catch on fourth down against the Bills in twenty

(36:02):
twenty two, and apparently he had seen a post that
sort of celebrated that catch, and Jefferson told the Jackals
today he's trying to work back to the level he
reached then, wants to return to what he calls his
quote savage.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Mode, savage mode.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
With and with a bleep it, bleep it mentality just
going out there and just killing it and not worrying
about the plays, not worrying about anything else sounds good.
I don't blame him for wanting to, you know, unleash
that beast. He's obviously frustrated. Numbers, of course, not what

(36:49):
we're he is accustomed to and what we're accustomed to
seeing from him. He's averaging about seventy six yards a game.
That's number nine National Football League. But here's the sticky wicket.
Four starts with McCarthy. Four catches fifty two yards again

(37:10):
and again. I understand his mentality. I understand him saying,
how you know, I want to get back to that.
But the reality of being a wide receiver is that
you are utterly and completely dependent on at least one
other individual, and that's the quarterback. So you can be

(37:30):
as committed and angry and as bleep it as you've
ever been in your whole life. If the ball is
not thrown accurately enough for you to make a circus
catch like he did three years ago, ain't gonna matter.
You got you gotta have the chance to show to

(37:53):
unleash your savage mode. And that means you depend on
the quarterback a to get you know, throw the ball
to you and be to throw the ball to you
where you have a chance to make something happen indeed
with it. And I you know, when people say, well,
receivers are too much like divas, generally speaking, that's largely true.

(38:15):
But I would argue it might not be surprising because
you are so at that position dependent on you know,
running back at least is just hand the ball.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
You got the ball.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
Now you need help from your line obviously, but it's
just in your hands. Receiver is in a very different position.
They're beholden one hundred percent to their quarterback, what the
play call is, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
So it sounds good.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
We all love the competitive jj and getting back to it,
especially after a game where the body language is a
little bit weird. And by the way, Sean Salisbury is
a former NFL player, was a bit bothered by the
body language surrounding the after the interceptions, even though on one
of them it was down by contact. He just doesn't
think it's a very the optics of it, we're particularly good.

(39:06):
But regardless of that, you're you're you gotta get you
gotta have your quarterback give you a chance to make
some place. Maybe this will be the week. I have
actually no idea. But again for people who are gonna
get excited, like, oh, okay, we've now we're going to
see the real JJ. Okay, I mean maybe, but again
he's he does he's not taking the ball from center

(39:27):
at least not very often. So he there's still somebody
that's got to give him a chance to go back
to beast mode or all.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
This is going to be kind of irrelevant.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
And there's so many other issues, not the least of
which was the stupid Cadence stuff, which which also Salisbury
was just said it was embarrassing, said, we're talking about
this is like junior high school. High school stuff shouldn't
be that complicated, that difficult at all.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Eight false start.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
So they got a lot of other things to work
on that are gonna have a lot more to do
with JJ and everybody else looking better than whether he
just says bleep it. You need a lot better execution
across the board. That's the spinners. That means we're just
about wrapped up. You'll be with me tomorrow, Brett Blakemore
a Friday Football Beast. This wraps up a three hour
edition of the Afternoon Ardvark. We will talk to you tomorrow,

(40:15):
beginning at three o'clock right here in the fan.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
We never you need

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Me, I need