December 17, 2025 • 50 mins
Nordo in for PA! Nordo talks Wolves players stepping up, Wild with Russo, and Vikings and extended NFL talk with Mike Florio.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Human things.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
What up on a Wednesday?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
It's Nordo in for Paul Allen, Vocal Maintenance Day always
in play for the host. It's a big Sunday Night victory.
I gotta calm it all down. He charged the batteries
and get ready for the New York Football Giants and
Nooner have met life on Sunday, one of three to
(02:09):
go in a weird game potentially by the way, you
think about two in a row, four ko and you
love that on the backside of it. Now, after the
thrilling Sunday Night victory at Jerry World, you have two
divisional matchups in which throw the records out. This is
spoiler season with the Kiddies on Christmas and then the
(02:30):
Packers to end it. He's got these two win giants
in the middle. It's two win giants. So we're looking
forward to digging back into that tomorrow with the host
of nine to Noon PA. But for now, really on
a Wednesday, it feels like this is the perfect time
Vocal Maintenance Day in play that we pay homage to
(02:54):
a couple other local teams in the mix.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So it's going to.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Be we have Mike Florio at nine p forty hardcore
football opinions from p f T around nine to forty
this morning. But really it's gonna be a two topic Wednesday,
and it starts with these guys.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
See five seconds of going to power Place, you use
let one fly the.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Scyrio Caprisot on the rebound, hits a power play in
the wild.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Have a two nothing late two in a row for Ko.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
How about five in a row for Heinz though, and
we will dig into the timber Tech setlist momentarily. But
the head coach, John Hines will be joining me around
ten oh five this morning and we'll be talking about Carell,
but maybe we'll be talking about Vladimir.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Tarasenko as well. You're off wins the draw Tarasenkosky.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Right on.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Ladimir Tarasenko second of the night, hits his first two
goal game.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
With Minnesota and it's three nothing in favor of the Wild.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, Tarasenko last night with with two goals. It was
kind of his night in some ways or was it
his lines night? Risana with two on the night, prowd rises,
he charges in went between the legs Saturdays.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Guy, Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, throughout the show today because it is going to
be very wild heavy, whether it's texts or talkbacks. How
good it is getting in Saint Paul at Grand Casino
Arena with the Minnesota Wild. You had Matt Boldi with
the shorty really to put just the cherry on top
of a five nothing rip uh when you get the
(04:45):
nothing part of it, well, Gus buss in net perfect
a shutout for mister Guphsterson last evening.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Now it's part of that five zero victory. It is
five in a row for Hinz though.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Five goals though, and the Minnesota Wild improved a twenty
nine and five on the season, still in third in
the Central. You know, that's part of this conversation, just
the juggernaut that the Central is. But twelve three and
four at home.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And when when heines? When when heinse joins at ten
oh five.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I may bring this up throughout the conversation, but you
know the X and now Grand Casino Arena has been
the comfy confines of the Minnesota Wild for a large
part of their existence as a franchise in the NHL.
But the last couple of years we've watched it where
it's sabers in town. It's a little tougher than it
should be You're you're in you're you're finding your way
(05:39):
to losses or you're dragging your way to a point
in overtime or a shootout in front of the home fans.
How do we pay the fans off with a win?
And just kind of watching as this season is continuing
to unfold. I mean, you're you're less than halfway into
this thing thirty four games, but they're making the home
(06:00):
ice truly in advantage and truly just an awful place
to play for the visitors.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And we saw last night. Caps are no joke.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
They're third in their division out East and one of
the better defensive teams thus far in the twenty twenty
five twenty six campaign.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And then Wild just made a mess of them. They
were nothing. They were a speed bump.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
As part of that five nothing win, Quinn Hughes didn't
find his way into the net. He did find his
twenty second assist of the season last night. That was
on Carill's goal. You heard it there, Carrill's twenty first
tally of the season. You get Vladimir Tarasenko. I'm kind
of wondering, you know, just at this stage in his career,
(06:41):
so many awesome seasons, so many great moments for Tarasenko
in the NHL. What's it like trying to bring him
along and maybe help him recapture some of that? But
he gets the two goals last night. We're loving it.
Excuse me, but I had to play the year off highlight.
How about that line last night? Now, I don't know
(07:02):
what we call them. I'm not in the I'm not
in the nickname making business, so I'm just going to
roll with the krem line generated four goals and three
dimes last night as part of that shutout victory.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's hard to shut out teams in the NHL. We
get that.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
We know that.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
One impressive statistic, not just that they're climbing up the charts.
They may be second or third in the NHL right
now overall and goals allowed. The shutouts certainly assist in that.
It's two point five two, we'll call it. It's their
seventh shutout of the season in twenty twenty five, and
(07:47):
that's by far the most in the NHL. I think
the next team and I didn't see what the final
score was there for the Islanders, but the Islanders are
next in shutouts with four now still early stages of
the season. But just think about where this team has
been in terms of the injuries and just the malaise
(08:08):
really over that first ten game stretch of the season.
They have been red freaking hot ever since, starting with
the netminders, the tandem there, and then how about our
new fresh hot defensive pairing with Hughes and Faber and
what they were able to do, not just last night,
but just what that looks like small sample size two
(08:31):
game stretch. I don't feel like there's going to be
a buyer's remorse in this Quinn Hughes conversation.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
How good has he looked? And now we're getting to
watch him up close.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I think he had played we'll call it fifteen sixteen
games against the Wild without digging deeply into his game logs,
and you.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Know he's good. You know these players are good.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You watch the highlights and now you see him wearing
your favorite teams sweater. Now you get to see him
playing for your team every single night, and it is
It is a beauty, a beauty to watch. So whether
it is russo in the mix today we have Pat mcalletty.
We haven't had Pat mcletty on the show in a
long time. He's actually going to be in studio hockey heavy.
(09:13):
It shall be nine to noon, but then also tonight,
I mean we're you're home for wild hockey and while
get a data chill, I think they're headed to Columbus
next Well, we get to see this guy tonight.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Goodwin looking to attack con Lay right inside this the
layout Edwards surveys the scene put sad overdrive, fucks it
up down in the found.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Great recognition by Evers Anthony in this foot a guy
that never misses games has missed six or seven thus
far early on in the season, and it's it's foot related, Sorenus.
So we need him to feel good, We need him
to get back to one hundred percent. You have the
fighting Memphis Grizzlies in town this evening seven pm ish
(09:58):
tip and you're gonna get to hear that Alan Horton
on the call free iHeartRadio app. They won the last
two without him, and it's just interesting when we get
to see the game tonight.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Now the Grizzlies coming in.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
They started four and eleven new head coach related bit,
John Morant, He's hurt, can't play missus ten games comes
back retweaks his ankle. I remember those Sam's producing Sam
good morning. Sorry to clomp one, Sorry to clomp on
you here, but I know you follow the Wolves, but
you remember hearing trade rumors like, oh you know John Morant.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Course that would look like with Ant, of course.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Well we would never get to see it because Jah
Morant can't take the court, he can't stay healthy. And
just so you know, all jokes and trade rumors and
everything aside, John Morant talented when he's able to play.
But there's just kind of a just a dark cloud
over Memphis right now in terms of what they thought
they had. Now there's no more Desmond Bain jaring. Jack
(11:00):
has struggled with injury and such and and and the
days of those Grizzlies being kind of the bugaboo of
the of the Minnesota Timberwolves is probably far in the
rear view mirror, don't you.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Think absolutely there. I'm just looking at the standings right now.
They're ninth in the West. Yeah, they be playing for
that last playing spot. It's and that's the I mean.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
And by the way that the Grizzlies, I mean they
started four and eleven, they've won eight of their last eleven.
So they're finding their way down the road here and
adjusting on the fly. But just the inconsistency of their
ability to put John on the court and then on
our side of things, what I'm interested to see if Aunt.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Is back, what do they do with Bones? How about
Bones right eighteen points? The other night?
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I think I think he was six or seven out
of ten shooting and now Bones Hiland.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Interesting. He he lit the NBA world on fire.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
This is like three four years ago when he just
could not miss for the nuggets in the Postsey and
then he just disappeared into the mist, and I think
he ended up with the Clippers, and now we're seeing
him here and clearly dilling Ham just is not an
option at this particular point in time. So it's Bones,
(12:14):
Bones Highland and what that mean if Aunt is back, what.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Happens to Bones?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Steve Ncenzo's looking the part and and just again weird
year when you don't have this stable spot there when
Aunt goes for forty, Jade McDaniels is one of eight.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
When Aunt has.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Seven eight assists and naz Reid suddenly has twenty and
Jayden has twenty, like how that mix is or sadly
in some cases is not working and the team winners
seven of eight still kind of finding w's while finding
their way through the mess at that spot.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Maybe it's bones. What happens to bones tonight?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
If if Anthony Edwards returns now, if he doesn't return tonight,
well okay, see's around the corner.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
We got to avant we're back for that. I think,
I hope, I believe that we should. So it's a
two topic Wednesday with Sam filling in. You heard him.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I'm Nordowin for PA Vocal Maintenance Days and play and
as part of that timber Tech setlist, Thank you TimberTech
TimberTech dot com. Michael Russo is going to be around
the corner. He's going to be our first guest and
we're gonna check in with him. I know he's covering
the upcoming Olympics, but also the Minnesota Wild just knee
deep in what's going good in Saint Paul. And then
we will check in with with Pro Football talking Mike
(13:30):
Florio at nine to forty, and then it will be
Wild head coach John Hines just after ten am, talk
about the victory, talk about this new look that we've
seen over the last couple of days, how hot everything
is running right now?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And get the coaches vibe on what's going on with
the hockey team. And then Pat.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Mcalletty again Hockey Heavy Today, Mikeletti's going to be in
studio on uh Pope Marie of Topics really with with
Pat Mick two six two six Voice in the Wild,
Alan Horton.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
He'll be joining me at eleven and we'll dig.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Back into what about bones and how this team looks
and what's going on with Aunt and facing those Grizzlies
tonight at Target Center. Texts and talkbacks in play six
four six eight six Brad Shawn Bryant, KFA and text
line and of course the talkback machine. It's the free
iHeartRadio app. You just hit that microphone, give us up
(14:22):
to your best thirty seconds and let's have some fun
on a Wednesday, a beautiful Wednesday morning, nine to noon.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Thanks for hanging out. We'll be back with Russo next
on the fan. Welcome back. Joining me now it's Nordowen
(15:07):
for PA nine to noon.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
At Russo Hockey via X covering the Wild the NHL
and I want to ask him about the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Too for the Athletic Theathletic dot Com. How are you
doing this morning, Michael, I'm good.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I'm doing really well.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Actually pumped up about this hockey team and I do
I will dig into the wild here just in a moment.
But you had some Olympic related duties, I believe yesterday
or maybe it was Monday, and in the end, just
with the twenty twenty six Olympics around the corner, really
cool part of your job getting to be close to that,
(15:42):
and now especially with NHL players being part of that festival.
What's been cool about digging into the Olympics as they
approach us.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Yeah, no, it's been awesome. I mean it's I'm gonna
be covering my third Olympics.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
And I was supposed to go to Beijing in twenty
twenty two, but with the NHLers backed out due to
the pandemic pier and I did not go.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
But no, it's it's just gonna be awesome.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
I mean, you know, I just was around the women's
team for a week up in Edmonton and the United States.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
They are a wagon.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Just dominated Canada for four games in a row back
in November, and then the two Games in Edmonton, and obviously,
you know, in a single elimination, you know, metal round,
anything could happen, So they're not gonna be too over confident,
but they certainly look like the gold could be could
be theirs. And in terms of the men, I mean,
as we all know, the United States men have not
(16:37):
won a gold medal since nineteen eighty and Bill Garren
is the man putting together this roster against a really
formidable Canada team in Sweden and Finland and a lot
of other great countries. You know, it'd be really interesting
if if Russia was involved, how good they could potentially
be with Caprice soft and and I mean just you
know their myriad of superstars around the NHL. So it's
(16:59):
gonna be an awesome ornament. I can't wait to see
the roster that Bill Garran puts together. I covered the
Four Nations. They look like a tremendous team. I don't
foresee a ton of huge changes on that team, but
there will be a handful like Tage Thompson I think
will be there. He was not at the Four Nations.
And we'll see if guys like Clayton Keller or Matthew
Knives or any of those type of players could get there.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
But it's going to be an awesome, awesome tournament in Italy.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, it certainly will.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Is it Is it easy for an outsider or just
somebody that just loves watching, whether it's it's it's the Olympics.
I mean, people are wearing the flag on the shoulder
or on the chest, they dig that rooting for the homeland,
et cetera. Just look back at that Four Nations Cup
and just kind of project that forward into this is
what it's going to look like now that the world's
(17:45):
best are allowed and back into the turning.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Yeah, I think it's going to be incredible. You know.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Obviously, again the four Nations were only four nations, but
as we've seen many times, you know, teams like Germany
and and Chechi and Slovakia in Switzerland, they could beat
you on any given night, and so and we've also
seen NHL players like Matt Zuw Grello has had a
long NHL career and he was really discovered at the
Olympics in Vancouver. So you know, there's just there's something
(18:14):
special about this tournament and going up for the stakes
that are going to be there in terms of a
gold medal. When I look at the United States and
the way they played against Canada, they very easily could
have won that tournament. They were one goal short, losing
in overtime with McDavid scoring the goal off the pass
from Mitch Marner. But that was a game in overtime
where Bennington made a couple of unbelievable saves against Austin
(18:37):
Matthews that could have easily have.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Given the championship to the United States.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
So I think that when Bill looks at that tournament,
he loves the way that the team played, and now
it's just figuring out a way to get that one
more goal than Canada or some of the other nations.
So I think everybody's expecting the Canada and US will
meet up in the gold medal game. But it really
you know, as we've seen, I mean, Sweden's got an
incredible team, and some of these other nations as well
(19:01):
are going to have.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
A chance and a similar elimination in the metal round.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Anything can happen, is there is This is probably a
dumb question, but the fact that they haven't been in
the last couple of Olympics, is this a marketing opportunity
that the NHL has missed in terms of getting their
players on that stage, and is that part of kind
of the conversation and the excitement around having them back
in twenty twenty six, whether it's injury issues and other things,
(19:26):
just put that aside, like this is this is a
good opportunity for the NHL.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
Yeah, I mean, I think if you ask the NHL
and its owners, they're probably less excited than the players.
I mean, the players in this past collective bargaining agreement
that was one of their biggest gets was to go
back to the Olympics, and it's something that the players
want to play best on best against the country. The
international tournament is going to be going on the NHL's
calendar now every two years for indefinitely, where they're going
(19:55):
to have a World Cup every February every two years,
then two years later the Olympics, and so this is
going to me a common thing that we see for
a long long time.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And so, you know, from a marketing standpoint is you're
you're right.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
I mean, they haven't been there since SOCI that was
twelve years ago, and I think that that the league
could benefit greatly from that. But you know, the one
awkward thing about the Olympics with the NHL is they
really get nothing for it. They don't benefit financially there
it's their players that they're putting at risk. They they
the i the IOC gives them no ability to even
(20:28):
you know, you know, they've got to fight for everything
from using video to I mean everything, and yet it's
their players that are putting on the show.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
So that's always an awkward.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Thing when when you talk to the league about the
Olympics that I guarantee if Gary Edmands on your show
right now, you would tell you that he probably wouldn't
want to be there. But but the reality is is
that this is going to be an exciting thing for
the game and and uh and I think that a
lot of not just hockey fans, but but you know,
people that just love the Olympics are going to tune
in and enjoy the show because.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
The games and at the four Nation were incredible. There
was no room out there.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
It was fast, it was skilled, it was physical, and
and if you're a Wild fan, you're gonna love it
because the Wild they're gonna have twelve players there now
that Quinn Hughes is on the team, I mean that
that's pretty nuts if you think about it, that the
Wild are going to have between their three minor leaders
that are going to make it and and nine guys
on the NHL team, it's pretty crazy. Up to nine
(21:24):
guys that they could have there, it's pretty sweet.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Well, you know, and somebody just texted this in, but
but it did pop in my head. They both played
twenty seven minutes last night. I mean, could Faber and
Hughes be the top pairing for Team USA?
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Yeah? I wrote about that the other day.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
You know, I think there's a lot of people that
just believe that it's a for you know, you know,
given that that Slaven in favor, Jacob Slaven for the
Carolina Hurricanes are going to be a shutdown pair because
they were so incredibly good at the Four Nations. But
remember Quinn Hughes had to back out of the Four
Nations because he was injured at the time. Well, now
that Hughes is going to go there and be the
United States number one defenseman, they're going to have to
(21:59):
just recalibrate the defense.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Pairs based just solely on that.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
And I think that if Quinn and Faber in the
next month developed the type of chemistry that we have
seen the last two games from them.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
I think they absolutely could be the number one pair
in the Olympics.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
And you know, Favor has been playing incredible hockey now
for six weeks in a row. But the last two games,
I mean, just the way that he defended last night
was just magnificent. I mean, Ovechkin could do nothing against him.
It was crazy to watch. How well Now, I know
we're at a point in Ovi's career where it's like
he can't skate, especially by the way, when he's in
(22:37):
town for three days like he's so he didn't exactly
play his best game yesterday, but Favor made his life miserable.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
And we know how good of a player Quinn is.
Nobody could skate like him.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
In fact, it's funny if somebody asked me the other day,
why does Quinn fall so much? And I asked around
in the locker room yesterday, and it's because he goes
down so tight on his edges and makes these sharp
turns that he's actually hitting plastic.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
On the ice.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Uh and and and he says, it's like, you know,
he told the wild equipment trainers, and this is nothing
you're doing wrong.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
This is just the way that I skate.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
You're gonna see that I fall a lot because he
takes these unbelievably sharp turns on his edges.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
But yet he's still one of the most.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
Elite skaters that I've ever seen from the back end.
And you put him with Faber, who we all know
is one of the elite skaters in the NHL. It's
it could be a special pair in Milan. If Mike
Sullivan wants to go that way.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Now, that's it.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
And you know now that getting to watch Quinn Hughes
and and maybe it's just dumb because I don't watch
every single game in the NHL. I follow my local teams,
the teams I love, like I knew, I knew who
Quinn Hughes was and and but but the seeing him
in our sweater and watching him play, it's it's it's
just been. It's been otherworldly. On top of just some highlights,
(23:53):
and and then other games, specifically when he was in
Vancouver against the Wild, I mean, what an unbelievable home
run get And now just through two games, small sample size,
but you can tell that that is lifted.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
It feels like the entire operation.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Absolutely I mean, you know, I know that when you
look at this roster now and you see no Marco Rossi,
you start to feel like, especially with their injuries, that
they lack depth up front, and especially you're taking sixty
points out of the lineup. But what Quinn brings you
is those you know, not just the seventy or eighty
points that he could get, but it's the constant getting
(24:32):
the puck out of the o's own that makes everything
else click. And then you go wave after wave because
of that, and because he plays half the game essentially,
it's it's the perfect way to defend. And you just
see him get up and at him all the time
of that puck up the ice and into the hands
of the forwards. And then you add his dimension on
the power play, which is just incredible. It's special to watch.
(24:55):
And you know, he has the ability to find seams
on shooting lands, He has the ability to to walk
the blue line left to right to create those shooting
lanes and passing lanes.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
He is a true quarterback from from up top there.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
And then last night we even saw him play a
penalty kill shift at the end of the game and
unfortunately kirsted he gets the first his first point with
the wild and Kirsted and Quinn were out there together
because your check was in the box, and then they
went to the bench and so Spurgeon in favor came
on for the plus when Goldie scored shorthanded, But that
was all Hughes and Kirstad, so it was pretty It
(25:28):
was pretty neat to see Huit out there because Quinn
didn't expect that to be part of his role here.
But last night they had no trope, no proubt, no uh.
They couldn't get around it just because Damon Hunt got
hurt and then your check was in the box, so
you only have four.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
D left to the pik and the next thing you know,
Quinn Hughes is out there.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, this is the injury thing, and I might I
might end with that.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
But this is Michael Russo the Athletic Theathletic dot Com.
I did want to ask you before we talk about
the negative because his team is just running red hot
right now. How about this kremline man with with year
Off getting the goal. We're talking about a team that
needs the center and you're off showing up. Tarasenko gets
a couple of goals last night capriz Off assisted by Hughes.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
On his twenty first of the year. The Krem line
is awesome.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Yeah, a bunch of Ruski's out there, and you know,
and really Matt Boldie, you know, it was it was
like the easiest gamer until Boldi scored, because the only
offense came from Tarasenko, E'rerov and caprisof last night, and
then Boldi kind of messed that up. But yeah, that
line with Trenyon, who's been outstanding here for the for
about a month, physical adding a lot to their for
(26:34):
check and then you just see Eurov and Tarasenko and
it felt like, you know, Tarasenko has been playing better
the last three or four games, but it really felt
like you helped unlock him. Yesterday he saw in the
one goal, his second goal, Tarasenko Europe essentially told him
where to stand and he wins to draw cleanly to
him and he scores. And then he assisted on on
Euros on Tarasenko's first goal. And then Tarasenko turned back
(26:59):
the clock coming up the ice, hustling he was skating
well all night, goes between his legs when he cuts
to the middle backhand right to open space for crashing Europe.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
For that goal.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
So you know, it's been really cool to see Europe
get better and better now. I think that europ and
his vast improvement and what the wild really see from
him in the future is one big reason why Bill
Noran felt comfortable putting Marco Rossi in this trade. And
you know, I give the amateur scouting staff and jud
Brackett a lot of credit for really going out and
(27:30):
just think of how this trade to get it, Quinn
Hughes happens.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
It's because they draft Marco Rossi. It's because they in
a very tight three.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Minute window make a trade with Philadelphia to get ze
Boyem and then obviously the strategy in the Liam Ogren
draft with Danilla Europe to take Ogren first, even though
they wanted Europe first, trusting the fact that because he
was a Russian that teams wouldn't take him. It was
a really incredibly gutsy strategy by jud Brackett to do
(27:59):
that because again, you know, they had what two picks
or parts of you know, I think four slots apart,
and they took the players second on their list first,
hoping that Europe would still be there when they were
drafting the second one and then so Ogrin winds up
going in there is pretty pretty neat strategy. And all
three of those guys are the reason why they got
why you can get a player like Quinn Hughes. If
(28:20):
one of those guys is not on the team, they
probably don't get this trade done.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
And then Billy g Man, I mean, good times, bad times,
but he he jumped headfirst into this thing and I'm
loving every second of it.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Thanks for all you do. Thanks, thanks for hanging out
nine to new Man. We'll catch up again soon anytime.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Nordo.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Yeah, so yeah, that's Michael Russo the Athleticviathletic dot Com.
And when we returned, we'll flip over to football for
an extended segment with Mike Florio, weekly guest to ProFootball
Talk dot com. What do you think of the Sunday
Night affair, How things are shaping up in the NFL
as we approached the playoffs, myriad topics with Pro Football
Talk PFT mister Florio.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Next on the fan, Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Nine forty one am here in Minneapolis, Norden for PA
Vocal Maintenance Day is always important this time of the year.
Six and a radio continues on with a boost from
Mike Florio Pro footballtalkprofootballtalk dot com at pro Football Talk
via X mister Florio, good morning.
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Thanks for the time, Hey man, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Oh? I'm fantastic, absolutely And with the gift giving season
and play, one of the reasons I wanted to bring
you on is I know that you have written multiple
books and I was just curious maybe if you had
any gift ideas potentially for those wanting to stuff some
stockings this time of year.
Speaker 6 (30:08):
All the easiest way to stuff the stocking is to
order a copy of On Our Way Home, It's My
Christmas slash ghost story that lands at the intersection of
a Christmas Carolyn. It's a wonderful life. It can be
had for nine to ninety nine. It is a quick
and easy way to check off names on the gift list,
and it is small enough that you can kind of
curve it like an old newspaper and slide it down.
(30:30):
Depending upon the size of the stocking, maybe slide it inside.
I think it's possible, or you can just wrap it
like a normal gift. But either way, nine to ninety
nine things don't get much cheaper than that, and if
you're inclined to sample the ebook for yourself, it is
a mere ninety nine cents. And tomorrow, the eighteenth of
December is day four of a season long five day
free ebook giveaway. Not the print book, but the e
(30:53):
book will be free tomorrow the eighteenth, And I think
one more day. I'm going to do the twenty second,
because that's the day on the calendar when the action
begins in on our way home. It covers just a
handful of days in late December, starting on the twenty second,
three days before Christmas, So the twenty second is a
good day to also make it free. But the print
book nine ninety nine, come on, that's nothing. And hey,
(31:16):
I know, it's the thought that counts. But if you've
got a lot of people to buy for, the less
thought you have to put into it, the easier it is.
So boom boom boom, Order five sixty seven. Give them
the folks that you think would benefit from an entertaining
Christmas story that has a good message in it that
really wasn't intended.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
But when I.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
Finished, it's like, you know, there's a decent message here,
so all the more reason to give it a look.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
No, absolutely, please do that.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
And are you a physical copy book guy or an
ebook guy?
Speaker 6 (31:42):
Because I have become in my advancing age with the
squinting that inevitably comes into play, and I resisted glasses
as long as I can because it makes me look
like Jerry Lewis. I like to have a book on
my phone. It's easy to read, you can read it anywhere,
you can make the text as big as you want
(32:04):
it to be. And I've just morphed into that you
don't have to carry like do you have your phone everywhere?
You don't have to carry the book around any downtime,
waiting for a plane, waiting to take off, doing whatever.
You pop open the book and you read a few
pages and you move on. So I have become even
though I like having a library full of books, I've
(32:25):
become a guy that reads the book on my phone
and if I really like it, then I'll buy the
hard copy and put it on my shelf and I
can say I read that book, even if I didn't
literally read that book.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
P FT Sunday Night TV duties everything included. You got
the chance to see Cowboys and Vikings on Sunday Night.
What do you make of the entire affair as the
Cowboys playoff chances effectively, Well, they're done as soon as
the Eagles win one more game. And for the Vikings
and JJ McCarthy, first time they've won two in a
row all year.
Speaker 6 (32:57):
Well, yeah, it's funny. We're in the viewing room on
Sunday afternoon, and I knew the Vikings had a wafer
thin chance of making it to the postseason, but it's
kind of fun to hold on to the hope and
the possibility that all the dominoes fall the right way.
And I don't like going down the rabbit hole of
all the different things that have to happen. I just
hold out hope. And I didn't know until someone said
(33:20):
the Vikings are now eliminated and the balloon was popped. Aside,
I didn't given a chance to see if they could
beat the Cowboys before they were eliminated. Come on, let
me enjoy that possibility. But when the Bears won, that
was it for the Vikings, So I kind of took
some of the fun out of Sunday night. I didn't
expect it. I thought the Cowboys, who still had something
to play for at that point, at home. They're a
(33:42):
very dangerous team, get out to a lead, build the lead,
unleash the pass rush on a young quarterback who had
shown plenty of growing pains. So the fact that the
Vikings were able to get it together and win that
game and gut it out, this is all progress toward
deciding whatever's going to happen next year back and I
still think it would be malpracticed to not have a
(34:02):
viable veteran alternative who competes with JJ McCarthy, even if
to get the most out of him. But yeah, it
was encouraging on a discouraging day to see the Vikings
go down and give the Cowboys a little measure of
something after forty to three from three years ago.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Do you buy into any element of not just I
mean the development of JJ McCarthy is certainly the a
topic with this team, but in terms of, you know,
Kevin O'Connell keeping his team aligned, keeping them motivated in
these sorts of games, in some ways playing spoiler, nobody's
worried about draft pick status, just going out and finding
(34:43):
their way to a cohesion that they've lacked all year.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Do you believe that as a momentum piece into the future.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Are you impressed by Kevin O'Connell and how he's kept
this train on the tracks?
Speaker 2 (34:53):
What do you think of all that?
Speaker 6 (34:55):
Teams changed so much from year to year that it
can be a little misleading to say, well, this team
finished the season with five straight wins even though they
were done. Maybe that means next year they'll pick up
where they left off, because there's always going to be
changes from one year to the next. But as it
relates to the concept of being eliminated and the business proposition,
(35:21):
it's good for long term business to draft as high
as possible. We see how much teams give up to
move up in the draft from a spot that they
quote unquote earned with meaningless wins in late season games.
They want to be higher when it comes time to
make those picks. But I know that there are folks
who will say, you never want to allow that mindset
(35:45):
to creep into your building. Not that the players are
ever going to try to lose, that the coaches are
going to try to lose. The easy way to tank
is to say, at a higher level, we're going to
evaluate other players. Let's see what the backup quarterback can do.
Let's see what the backup offensive linemen can do. Let's
see what the backup defensive back and do. There are
(36:05):
easy ways to justify an effort to tank by saying
we're evaluating talent for the future. But when you accept losing,
it makes it harder. I think to restart the lawnmower
with the players who are there next year, you don't
want that to be your culture. So if the Vikings
can keep winning down the stretch and they've got an
opportunity to throw a big fat wrench into the Lions' plans,
(36:29):
they can keep the Packers from maybe winning the division.
Maybe they could knock the Packers out of the playoffs
when Week eighteen rolls around, because the Packers right now
are hanging on to the seventh seed in the NFC.
Those are things that I think could help as relates
to the people who will be there in twenty twenty six.
And I also think that O'Connell's ability to keep the
(36:49):
team on the right track not have four and eight
become four and thirteen. I think that's positive for him.
And the ultimate question that needs to be asked after
the season, and I think this is a fair question,
who was in favor of going forward with JJ McCarthy
and Journeyman, two of whom were cut or traded before
the season. He even started in Sam Howell and Brett
(37:11):
Rippen and who in the building was saying, we can't
do this. We need to keep Sam Darnold, we need
to keep Daniel Jones, or we need to say yes
to Aaron Rodgers. And I think as ownership kind of
sorts this out and learns lessons from this year, I
think it's an important data point. Where were you on
this question of whether or not we needed someone who
(37:33):
has played, someone who has performed, and someone who can
take a team that is you know, fourteen and three
from last year and continue that while the window is open.
And I think that's an important question determining who should
be making the big decisions in the future.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
You know, I agree with you.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
And it's a good segue into Thursday Night because it's
Rams and Seahawks and a couple of eleven win teams
on a Thursday night Amazon Prime getting paid with that.
But he felt this vibe a bit locally, Mike, where
there are some that are almost rooting for Sam Darnold
to fail in a big spot like Thursday almost to
fulfill the prophecy that he can't win in huge moments,
(38:14):
and therefore it's all good that the team didn't pursue him.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
I've just felt a bit of that locally.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Oh.
Speaker 6 (38:19):
I think that makes a lot of sense, because at
the end of the day, that was one of the
reasons why I believe the Vikings chose not to keep him.
And I know last year, as he was having one
good game after another, I sit next to Jason Garrett
and the viewing room at NBC and he would say
to me, can't let that guy out of the building.
Can't let that guy out of the building. And then
the Week eighteen game, when the number one seed was
there to be had, and all of a sudden, he
(38:40):
had the yips or whatever we want to call it,
where the balls sailing over people's heads in the end zone.
When the Vikings could have taken control of the game early.
It doesn't mean they would have won, but there were
opportunities there to get on the scoreboard, to put pressure
on the Lions and to maybe emerge with the top
seed and the bye week and everything that goes along
with it. That's when the narrative began. The next week,
I think it was a total team failure. It wasn't
(39:02):
just on Donald. But we've seen in the other big
game the Seahawks had this year when they played the
Rams in LA for interceptions from Sam Donald in a
game they still almost won. Now, this is the game,
this is a big deal. This is potentially the game
that decides the NFC West, potentially the game that decides
the number one seed. But I'll say this, if the
(39:24):
Seahawks do win, that's not the last big game, because
the forty nine Ers are lurking. They're one game behind
the Rams and the Seahawks, and there's still a way
that these dominoes fall that when it all settles, the
forty nine Ers beat the Seahawks Week eighteen and win
the division and possibly become the number one seed. So
it's not just Thursday night for Donald. If he does
(39:47):
it Thursday night, he's going to have to do it
again week eighteen, just like last year. But I think
from the standpoint of Vikings fans that are hoping to
feel good about the decisions that were made and the
decisions that weren't made, if Donald continues to pete the
narrative that popped up last year, that will make folks
feel better. Conversely, if he goes out and has a
huge game and the Seahawks win big and they end
(40:08):
up being the number one seed and they go deep
into the playoffs, you're gonna have some folks saying, Man,
if they just would have hung with them a little
bit longer, maybe it would have worked out a few.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
More for you. And Mike Florio Pro Football Talk, Pro
footballtalk dot Com. He's got books, he's got podcasts. You
see him on TVs all over the place, and we
love them for it. Here nine to noon.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
With the Vikings out of the mix, we're kind of
left watching and just paying attention. We're spectating.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Now. Do you think that the Broncos can win a
Super Bowl with bow Knicks?
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (40:38):
I think they can. I think they can. Look, by
the time they got to the Super Bowl ten years ago,
the quarterback play wasn't stellar. Now, Peyton Manning in the
Divisional Round win that year against the Steelers, he made
some very good decisions at the line of scrimmage and
getting them out of bad plays that had been called.
Realizing that the plays weren't going to work against what
(40:59):
he was seeing. That helped I don't think they beat
the Steelers without him in the Divisional round, but you
could argue they could have beaten the Panthers in the
super Bowl with Brock Osweiler or even a rookie at
the time, Trevor Simeon. So the rest of the team
is good enough, the defense is good enough, and Nick's
had a huge game in a big spot against the
(41:21):
Packers with four touchdown passes, and he's improving. By the
time they get to the playoffs, he will have had
two full NFL seasons under his belt and he's going
to be the only guy from that class of twenty
four the six quarterbacks taken in the first twelve spots
that will have gone to the playoffs each of his
first two seasons. So the Broncos are in a great position.
And if they get the one seed and teams have
(41:43):
to go to Denver at altitude in whoever knows what
the weather's going to be in Denver at any given
moment in the winter time, that could be a huge,
huge advantage, just like it was in twenty fifteen when
they took care of business at home against the Steelers
against the Patriots and got to the super Bowl with
the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Now in the same division, you got the ACL to Mahomes,
which in the LCL you had surgery on it. So
that's going to probably dominate conversations in Kansas City. But
prior to that, this was a team that, for the
first time in Mahomes' tenure, really just didn't have it.
And that was you know, when we get Rushy Rice back,
we're going to be better. They kept looking for something
(42:22):
around the corner, and frankly, it just never showed up
long road, not just with the QB, but maybe for
the Chiefs to freshen up in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 6 (42:31):
Right, Oh, they got a lot of work to do.
This is a heavy lift. This is not quite a
full rebuild because you're already covered at the worst position
or at the most important position. Excuse me in football,
but how bad would they have been this year if
they didn't have Patrick Mahomes. Think about that. They would
have been down there with the Raiders without Patrick Mahomes.
So they have a lot of work to do. And
(42:53):
I'm not suggesting that Andy Reid should retire, but it's
a lot easier to keep going deep into your sixties
at smooth sailing when you're looking at something that may
take a couple of years. You got to ask yourself,
is it time now? When will it be time? Will
it be time before we get this thing back to
where it needs to be because they need help on
(43:14):
both sides of the ball. They need offensive line. They
don't have that Tyreek Hill type of a receiver. I
don't know what Rashie Rice is going to become, but
he's still a year removed from the ACL Maybe he'll
be better next year or whatever ligament it was, but
he had season ending surgery last year and the suspension
didn't help him get back up to speed. They just
have a lot that they need to do and I'll
(43:37):
be curious and I'll be watching to see whether or
not Andy Reid decides has come back for another year.
I'm not saying that he's thinking about leaving. I'm not
saying that he should. All I'm saying is this is
the first opportunity he's had since he came to the
Chiefs after the twenty twelve season to ask himself, do
I think that I'll still be doing this when this
(44:00):
work that we need to do to get back to
where we've been comes to fruition, and I wouldn't be
surprised if he decides now it's the time for me
to hand his baton to someone else.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Yeah, last thing for you here, this is kind of
hot off the press.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Is your your cohort.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Michael David Smith had written an article about to a
tongue to a tongue of violoa and just the awful
year that the Dolphins have had and a big part
of his potential future or lack of with Miami, and
then you just hit us with Dolphins have benched to
for Quinn yours.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
So that's goat.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
I assume maybe that was expected after the Monday night
el to the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
But it's just ugly in South Beach, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (44:40):
Mike McDaniel, coach of the team, said yesterday everything's on
the table and that the quarterback play hasn't been good enough.
They had a four game winning streak that was fueled
by de emphasizing his role in the offense. And when
you're paying a guy fifty three point one million, he's
supposed to be the centerpiece of the offense, not the
guy that you work around. And the thing about too,
and look, I don't want to be critical of the player,
(45:02):
but the reality is there's only thirty two teams and
it's a merit driven business, and if there is a
ceiling that you just can't bust through. These are some
of the things we were saying about JJ McCarthy not
that long ago. If you're just not good enough, then
you're just not good enough. I mean, you can't wave
a magic wand and turn a guy into something he
just isn't. There's other guys out there who have a
(45:24):
higher talent level who deserve the opportunity. With Tua, you'll
see these plays a couple of times per game, sometimes more.
When things go well, you don't see it, but he's
the guy who can run the offense to perfection when
it's there, when the play that's called is there, he
you know, the timing, the rhythm, the stuff they do
behind the line of scrimmage, flipping the ball around all
(45:45):
of a sudden, it's perfect. But when the first read
isn't there, that's when it all goes sideways and it's
almost like and you know, it's It's amazing how quickly
this reference became dated. But remember when the Xbox three
to sixty first came out twenty years ago and you
get the red ring of death. It's almost like the
system overload with Tua when the play isn't there and
(46:07):
he doesn't know what to do and he's got a
guy coming right for him, and the easy thing to do,
and we've seen it thousands of times just throw the
ball away. He doesn't even do that. It completely seizes
up in that moment. That to me is something that
when I see that, it's like, why is this guy
in the NFL if he can't make a decision in
the moment what to do? And it's whether it's panic,
whether it's just malfunction, I don't know what it is.
(46:28):
But that's happened too many times this year, has happened
too many times in his career, and they've made so
many mistakes with him. Contractually, they picked up his fifty
year option when I don't think they should have done it.
They signed him to a fifty three point one million
dollar contract in his fifty year option when they were
bidding against no one and they could have just said,
let's see how you do this year and we'll take
it up after the season, and if we can't negotiate
(46:50):
a contract we'll apply the franchise tag. They gave him
way too much money. He's got forty fifty four million
fully guaranteed next year. They've got a mess as it
relates to the quarterback position, but you only make that
mess worse by sticking with a guy who isn't getting
it done for the rest of the year. It's not
going to be him, and I don't know what they're
going to do next year. I don't know how you
have him on the team next year. I don't know
(47:12):
how he's the backup, because if the starter struggles, you're
going to have that cluster of Dolphins fans that wont
him back on the field. I think he's going to
get the Russell Wilson treatment, where he gets cut, he
goes somewhere else on a one year deal for the minimum,
The Dolphins pay the rest, and they move on with
someone else.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
Real quick, and then I'll let you go. As part
of this, you mentioned the contract. It's a bad year
to use Trevor Lawrence as an example. Teams ten and four.
I think he threw a touchdown to basically everybody last
weekend on the team except ja Kobe Myers. But with
the way that the market has gone with QB's and
you're signing the twos to fifty per year deals.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
Jordan Love in Green.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Bay and good times bad times with some of these guys.
You think in almost caball like fashion teams are trying
to figure out how to widen that.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Back up a bit, because you talk about.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
The investments that you're making in these guys, there's almost
a requirement in a spot or they could they can
sell the idea that they were backed into a corner.
But the resign of these guys to two hundred million
dollar deals, whether it's it's Kyler and Arizona, we're talking
about Tua, we're not seeing the fruits of that financial labor.
Speaker 6 (48:16):
I remember in twenty nineteen it was the slow time.
In June, there was talk about the Rams extending Jared Goff,
who had not yet gotten his second contract, and I
was very vocal that they should not do it, that
you don't pay him market level highest at the time,
and it was like thirty five million at the time.
It just shows you how much the market has changed
in just six years. Yeah, and they were very strident
(48:38):
about it. Oh well, this is absolutely the guy you
pay this is the guy you keep. And then two
seasons later they attached an extra first round and extra
third round pick to him to send him to the
Lions from Matthew Stafford. That two first round picks and
a third round pick. The way a GM explained it
to me, they give up a first round pick for
(49:00):
or No, they gave up a one and a three
for Stafford, and they had to throw in an extra
one to get the Lions to take Jared Goff's contract.
That's how bad it got. Now he's better now and
the move to Detroit was perfect for him. But these
teams need to be willing to say, no, we're not
gonna do this. We're not gonna pay market level money
just because we drafted you and you're not a bust.
(49:21):
There are degrees of success, and if you're at the
low end of success, it doesn't mean you should get
a market value contract. And a lot of the guys
who are the highest paid players on their teams right
now at the quarterback position and among the top ten
in the NFL, they're just not getting it done. And
when are these teams gonna say we're gonna stand firm here,
We're gonna hold the line here and if we have
(49:42):
to go find another quarterback, we will. We're just not
gonna pay you market level because you've you've checked some
of the boxes, but not all of them.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
Hey, thanks as always for your time.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
I know it's Christmas Eve next Wednesday, so maybe we'll
catch up with you after the holiday.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
But thanks for all you do for nine to noon,
my friend.
Speaker 6 (50:01):
Thank you about see.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
It's Mike Florio, pro footballtalkprofootball talk dot com head coach
of the Minnesota while John Hines is next right here
on the fan
Human things.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
What up on a Wednesday?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
It's Nordo in for Paul Allen, Vocal Maintenance Day always
in play for the host. It's a big Sunday Night victory.
I gotta calm it all down. He charged the batteries
and get ready for the New York Football Giants and
Nooner have met life on Sunday, one of three to
(02:09):
go in a weird game potentially by the way, you
think about two in a row, four ko and you
love that on the backside of it. Now, after the
thrilling Sunday Night victory at Jerry World, you have two
divisional matchups in which throw the records out. This is
spoiler season with the Kiddies on Christmas and then the
(02:30):
Packers to end it. He's got these two win giants
in the middle. It's two win giants. So we're looking
forward to digging back into that tomorrow with the host
of nine to Noon PA. But for now, really on
a Wednesday, it feels like this is the perfect time
Vocal Maintenance Day in play that we pay homage to
(02:54):
a couple other local teams in the mix.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So it's going to.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Be we have Mike Florio at nine p forty hardcore
football opinions from p f T around nine to forty
this morning. But really it's gonna be a two topic Wednesday,
and it starts with these guys.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
See five seconds of going to power Place, you use
let one fly the.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Scyrio Caprisot on the rebound, hits a power play in
the wild.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Have a two nothing late two in a row for Ko.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
How about five in a row for Heinz though, and
we will dig into the timber Tech setlist momentarily. But
the head coach, John Hines will be joining me around
ten oh five this morning and we'll be talking about Carell,
but maybe we'll be talking about Vladimir.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Tarasenko as well. You're off wins the draw Tarasenkosky.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Right on.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Ladimir Tarasenko second of the night, hits his first two
goal game.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
With Minnesota and it's three nothing in favor of the Wild.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, Tarasenko last night with with two goals. It was
kind of his night in some ways or was it
his lines night? Risana with two on the night, prowd rises,
he charges in went between the legs Saturdays.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Guy, Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, throughout the show today because it is going to
be very wild heavy, whether it's texts or talkbacks. How
good it is getting in Saint Paul at Grand Casino
Arena with the Minnesota Wild. You had Matt Boldi with
the shorty really to put just the cherry on top
of a five nothing rip uh when you get the
(04:45):
nothing part of it, well, Gus buss in net perfect
a shutout for mister Guphsterson last evening.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Now it's part of that five zero victory. It is
five in a row for Hinz though.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Five goals though, and the Minnesota Wild improved a twenty
nine and five on the season, still in third in
the Central. You know, that's part of this conversation, just
the juggernaut that the Central is. But twelve three and
four at home.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And when when heines? When when heinse joins at ten
oh five.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
I may bring this up throughout the conversation, but you
know the X and now Grand Casino Arena has been
the comfy confines of the Minnesota Wild for a large
part of their existence as a franchise in the NHL.
But the last couple of years we've watched it where
it's sabers in town. It's a little tougher than it
should be You're you're in you're you're finding your way
(05:39):
to losses or you're dragging your way to a point
in overtime or a shootout in front of the home fans.
How do we pay the fans off with a win?
And just kind of watching as this season is continuing
to unfold. I mean, you're you're less than halfway into
this thing thirty four games, but they're making the home
(06:00):
ice truly in advantage and truly just an awful place
to play for the visitors.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
And we saw last night. Caps are no joke.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
They're third in their division out East and one of
the better defensive teams thus far in the twenty twenty
five twenty six campaign.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And then Wild just made a mess of them. They
were nothing. They were a speed bump.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
As part of that five nothing win, Quinn Hughes didn't
find his way into the net. He did find his
twenty second assist of the season last night. That was
on Carill's goal. You heard it there, Carrill's twenty first
tally of the season. You get Vladimir Tarasenko. I'm kind
of wondering, you know, just at this stage in his career,
(06:41):
so many awesome seasons, so many great moments for Tarasenko
in the NHL. What's it like trying to bring him
along and maybe help him recapture some of that? But
he gets the two goals last night. We're loving it.
Excuse me, but I had to play the year off highlight.
How about that line last night? Now, I don't know
(07:02):
what we call them. I'm not in the I'm not
in the nickname making business, so I'm just going to
roll with the krem line generated four goals and three
dimes last night as part of that shutout victory.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's hard to shut out teams in the NHL. We
get that.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
We know that.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
One impressive statistic, not just that they're climbing up the charts.
They may be second or third in the NHL right
now overall and goals allowed. The shutouts certainly assist in that.
It's two point five two, we'll call it. It's their
seventh shutout of the season in twenty twenty five, and
(07:47):
that's by far the most in the NHL. I think
the next team and I didn't see what the final
score was there for the Islanders, but the Islanders are
next in shutouts with four now still early stages of
the season. But just think about where this team has
been in terms of the injuries and just the malaise
(08:08):
really over that first ten game stretch of the season.
They have been red freaking hot ever since, starting with
the netminders, the tandem there, and then how about our
new fresh hot defensive pairing with Hughes and Faber and
what they were able to do, not just last night,
but just what that looks like small sample size two
(08:31):
game stretch. I don't feel like there's going to be
a buyer's remorse in this Quinn Hughes conversation.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
How good has he looked? And now we're getting to
watch him up close.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I think he had played we'll call it fifteen sixteen
games against the Wild without digging deeply into his game logs,
and you.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Know he's good. You know these players are good.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You watch the highlights and now you see him wearing
your favorite teams sweater. Now you get to see him
playing for your team every single night, and it is
It is a beauty, a beauty to watch. So whether
it is russo in the mix today we have Pat mcalletty.
We haven't had Pat mcletty on the show in a
long time. He's actually going to be in studio hockey heavy.
(09:13):
It shall be nine to noon, but then also tonight,
I mean we're you're home for wild hockey and while
get a data chill, I think they're headed to Columbus
next Well, we get to see this guy tonight.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Goodwin looking to attack con Lay right inside this the
layout Edwards surveys the scene put sad overdrive, fucks it
up down in the found.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Great recognition by Evers Anthony in this foot a guy
that never misses games has missed six or seven thus
far early on in the season, and it's it's foot related, Sorenus.
So we need him to feel good, We need him
to get back to one hundred percent. You have the
fighting Memphis Grizzlies in town this evening seven pm ish
(09:58):
tip and you're gonna get to hear that Alan Horton
on the call free iHeartRadio app. They won the last
two without him, and it's just interesting when we get
to see the game tonight.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Now the Grizzlies coming in.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
They started four and eleven new head coach related bit,
John Morant, He's hurt, can't play missus ten games comes
back retweaks his ankle. I remember those Sam's producing Sam
good morning. Sorry to clomp one, Sorry to clomp on
you here, but I know you follow the Wolves, but
you remember hearing trade rumors like, oh you know John Morant.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Course that would look like with Ant, of course.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Well we would never get to see it because Jah
Morant can't take the court, he can't stay healthy. And
just so you know, all jokes and trade rumors and
everything aside, John Morant talented when he's able to play.
But there's just kind of a just a dark cloud
over Memphis right now in terms of what they thought
they had. Now there's no more Desmond Bain jaring. Jack
(11:00):
has struggled with injury and such and and and the
days of those Grizzlies being kind of the bugaboo of
the of the Minnesota Timberwolves is probably far in the
rear view mirror, don't you.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Think absolutely there. I'm just looking at the standings right now.
They're ninth in the West. Yeah, they be playing for
that last playing spot. It's and that's the I mean.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
And by the way that the Grizzlies, I mean they
started four and eleven, they've won eight of their last eleven.
So they're finding their way down the road here and
adjusting on the fly. But just the inconsistency of their
ability to put John on the court and then on
our side of things, what I'm interested to see if Aunt.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Is back, what do they do with Bones? How about
Bones right eighteen points? The other night?
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I think I think he was six or seven out
of ten shooting and now Bones Hiland.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Interesting. He he lit the NBA world on fire.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
This is like three four years ago when he just
could not miss for the nuggets in the Postsey and
then he just disappeared into the mist, and I think
he ended up with the Clippers, and now we're seeing
him here and clearly dilling Ham just is not an
option at this particular point in time. So it's Bones,
(12:14):
Bones Highland and what that mean if Aunt is back, what.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Happens to Bones?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Steve Ncenzo's looking the part and and just again weird
year when you don't have this stable spot there when
Aunt goes for forty, Jade McDaniels is one of eight.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
When Aunt has.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Seven eight assists and naz Reid suddenly has twenty and
Jayden has twenty, like how that mix is or sadly
in some cases is not working and the team winners
seven of eight still kind of finding w's while finding
their way through the mess at that spot.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Maybe it's bones. What happens to bones tonight?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
If if Anthony Edwards returns now, if he doesn't return tonight,
well okay, see's around the corner.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
We got to avant we're back for that. I think,
I hope, I believe that we should. So it's a
two topic Wednesday with Sam filling in. You heard him.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I'm Nordowin for PA Vocal Maintenance Days and play and
as part of that timber Tech setlist, Thank you TimberTech
TimberTech dot com. Michael Russo is going to be around
the corner. He's going to be our first guest and
we're gonna check in with him. I know he's covering
the upcoming Olympics, but also the Minnesota Wild just knee
deep in what's going good in Saint Paul. And then
we will check in with with Pro Football talking Mike
(13:30):
Florio at nine to forty, and then it will be
Wild head coach John Hines just after ten am, talk
about the victory, talk about this new look that we've
seen over the last couple of days, how hot everything
is running right now?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
And get the coaches vibe on what's going on with
the hockey team. And then Pat.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Mcalletty again Hockey Heavy Today, Mikeletti's going to be in
studio on uh Pope Marie of Topics really with with
Pat Mick two six two six Voice in the Wild,
Alan Horton.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
He'll be joining me at eleven and we'll dig.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Back into what about bones and how this team looks
and what's going on with Aunt and facing those Grizzlies
tonight at Target Center. Texts and talkbacks in play six
four six eight six Brad Shawn Bryant, KFA and text
line and of course the talkback machine. It's the free
iHeartRadio app. You just hit that microphone, give us up
(14:22):
to your best thirty seconds and let's have some fun
on a Wednesday, a beautiful Wednesday morning, nine to noon.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Thanks for hanging out. We'll be back with Russo next
on the fan. Welcome back. Joining me now it's Nordowen
(15:07):
for PA nine to noon.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
At Russo Hockey via X covering the Wild the NHL
and I want to ask him about the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Too for the Athletic Theathletic dot Com. How are you
doing this morning, Michael, I'm good.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I'm doing really well.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Actually pumped up about this hockey team and I do
I will dig into the wild here just in a moment.
But you had some Olympic related duties, I believe yesterday
or maybe it was Monday, and in the end, just
with the twenty twenty six Olympics around the corner, really
cool part of your job getting to be close to that,
(15:42):
and now especially with NHL players being part of that festival.
What's been cool about digging into the Olympics as they
approach us.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Yeah, no, it's been awesome. I mean it's I'm gonna
be covering my third Olympics.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
And I was supposed to go to Beijing in twenty
twenty two, but with the NHLers backed out due to
the pandemic pier and I did not go.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
But no, it's it's just gonna be awesome.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
I mean, you know, I just was around the women's
team for a week up in Edmonton and the United States.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
They are a wagon.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Just dominated Canada for four games in a row back
in November, and then the two Games in Edmonton, and obviously,
you know, in a single elimination, you know, metal round,
anything could happen, So they're not gonna be too over confident,
but they certainly look like the gold could be could
be theirs. And in terms of the men, I mean,
as we all know, the United States men have not
(16:37):
won a gold medal since nineteen eighty and Bill Garren
is the man putting together this roster against a really
formidable Canada team in Sweden and Finland and a lot
of other great countries. You know, it'd be really interesting
if if Russia was involved, how good they could potentially
be with Caprice soft and and I mean just you
know their myriad of superstars around the NHL. So it's
(16:59):
gonna be an awesome ornament. I can't wait to see
the roster that Bill Garran puts together. I covered the
Four Nations. They look like a tremendous team. I don't
foresee a ton of huge changes on that team, but
there will be a handful like Tage Thompson I think
will be there. He was not at the Four Nations.
And we'll see if guys like Clayton Keller or Matthew
Knives or any of those type of players could get there.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
But it's going to be an awesome, awesome tournament in Italy.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, it certainly will.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Is it Is it easy for an outsider or just
somebody that just loves watching, whether it's it's it's the Olympics.
I mean, people are wearing the flag on the shoulder
or on the chest, they dig that rooting for the homeland,
et cetera. Just look back at that Four Nations Cup
and just kind of project that forward into this is
what it's going to look like now that the world's
(17:45):
best are allowed and back into the turning.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Yeah, I think it's going to be incredible. You know.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Obviously, again the four Nations were only four nations, but
as we've seen many times, you know, teams like Germany
and and Chechi and Slovakia in Switzerland, they could beat
you on any given night, and so and we've also
seen NHL players like Matt Zuw Grello has had a
long NHL career and he was really discovered at the
Olympics in Vancouver. So you know, there's just there's something
(18:14):
special about this tournament and going up for the stakes
that are going to be there in terms of a
gold medal. When I look at the United States and
the way they played against Canada, they very easily could
have won that tournament. They were one goal short, losing
in overtime with McDavid scoring the goal off the pass
from Mitch Marner. But that was a game in overtime
where Bennington made a couple of unbelievable saves against Austin
(18:37):
Matthews that could have easily have.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Given the championship to the United States.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
So I think that when Bill looks at that tournament,
he loves the way that the team played, and now
it's just figuring out a way to get that one
more goal than Canada or some of the other nations.
So I think everybody's expecting the Canada and US will
meet up in the gold medal game. But it really
you know, as we've seen, I mean, Sweden's got an
incredible team, and some of these other nations as well
(19:01):
are going to have.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
A chance and a similar elimination in the metal round.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Anything can happen, is there is This is probably a
dumb question, but the fact that they haven't been in
the last couple of Olympics, is this a marketing opportunity
that the NHL has missed in terms of getting their
players on that stage, and is that part of kind
of the conversation and the excitement around having them back
in twenty twenty six, whether it's injury issues and other things,
(19:26):
just put that aside, like this is this is a
good opportunity for the NHL.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
Yeah, I mean, I think if you ask the NHL
and its owners, they're probably less excited than the players.
I mean, the players in this past collective bargaining agreement
that was one of their biggest gets was to go
back to the Olympics, and it's something that the players
want to play best on best against the country. The
international tournament is going to be going on the NHL's
calendar now every two years for indefinitely, where they're going
(19:55):
to have a World Cup every February every two years,
then two years later the Olympics, and so this is
going to me a common thing that we see for
a long long time.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And so, you know, from a marketing standpoint is you're
you're right.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
I mean, they haven't been there since SOCI that was
twelve years ago, and I think that that the league
could benefit greatly from that. But you know, the one
awkward thing about the Olympics with the NHL is they
really get nothing for it. They don't benefit financially there
it's their players that they're putting at risk. They they
the i the IOC gives them no ability to even
(20:28):
you know, you know, they've got to fight for everything
from using video to I mean everything, and yet it's
their players that are putting on the show.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
So that's always an awkward.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Thing when when you talk to the league about the
Olympics that I guarantee if Gary Edmands on your show
right now, you would tell you that he probably wouldn't
want to be there. But but the reality is is
that this is going to be an exciting thing for
the game and and uh and I think that a
lot of not just hockey fans, but but you know,
people that just love the Olympics are going to tune
in and enjoy the show because.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
The games and at the four Nation were incredible. There
was no room out there.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
It was fast, it was skilled, it was physical, and
and if you're a Wild fan, you're gonna love it
because the Wild they're gonna have twelve players there now
that Quinn Hughes is on the team, I mean that
that's pretty nuts if you think about it, that the
Wild are going to have between their three minor leaders
that are going to make it and and nine guys
on the NHL team, it's pretty crazy. Up to nine
(21:24):
guys that they could have there, it's pretty sweet.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Well, you know, and somebody just texted this in, but
but it did pop in my head. They both played
twenty seven minutes last night. I mean, could Faber and
Hughes be the top pairing for Team USA?
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Yeah? I wrote about that the other day.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
You know, I think there's a lot of people that
just believe that it's a for you know, you know,
given that that Slaven in favor, Jacob Slaven for the
Carolina Hurricanes are going to be a shutdown pair because
they were so incredibly good at the Four Nations. But
remember Quinn Hughes had to back out of the Four
Nations because he was injured at the time. Well, now
that Hughes is going to go there and be the
United States number one defenseman, they're going to have to
(21:59):
just recalibrate the defense.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Pairs based just solely on that.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
And I think that if Quinn and Faber in the
next month developed the type of chemistry that we have
seen the last two games from them.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
I think they absolutely could be the number one pair
in the Olympics.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
And you know, Favor has been playing incredible hockey now
for six weeks in a row. But the last two games,
I mean, just the way that he defended last night
was just magnificent. I mean, Ovechkin could do nothing against him.
It was crazy to watch. How well Now, I know
we're at a point in Ovi's career where it's like
he can't skate, especially by the way, when he's in
(22:37):
town for three days like he's so he didn't exactly
play his best game yesterday, but Favor made his life miserable.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
And we know how good of a player Quinn is.
Nobody could skate like him.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
In fact, it's funny if somebody asked me the other day,
why does Quinn fall so much? And I asked around
in the locker room yesterday, and it's because he goes
down so tight on his edges and makes these sharp
turns that he's actually hitting plastic.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
On the ice.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Uh and and and he says, it's like, you know,
he told the wild equipment trainers, and this is nothing
you're doing wrong.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
This is just the way that I skate.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
You're gonna see that I fall a lot because he
takes these unbelievably sharp turns on his edges.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
But yet he's still one of the most.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
Elite skaters that I've ever seen from the back end.
And you put him with Faber, who we all know
is one of the elite skaters in the NHL. It's
it could be a special pair in Milan. If Mike
Sullivan wants to go that way.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Now, that's it.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
And you know now that getting to watch Quinn Hughes
and and maybe it's just dumb because I don't watch
every single game in the NHL. I follow my local teams,
the teams I love, like I knew, I knew who
Quinn Hughes was and and but but the seeing him
in our sweater and watching him play, it's it's it's
just been. It's been otherworldly. On top of just some highlights,
(23:53):
and and then other games, specifically when he was in
Vancouver against the Wild, I mean, what an unbelievable home
run get And now just through two games, small sample size,
but you can tell that that is lifted.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
It feels like the entire operation.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Absolutely I mean, you know, I know that when you
look at this roster now and you see no Marco Rossi,
you start to feel like, especially with their injuries, that
they lack depth up front, and especially you're taking sixty
points out of the lineup. But what Quinn brings you
is those you know, not just the seventy or eighty
points that he could get, but it's the constant getting
(24:32):
the puck out of the o's own that makes everything
else click. And then you go wave after wave because
of that, and because he plays half the game essentially,
it's it's the perfect way to defend. And you just
see him get up and at him all the time
of that puck up the ice and into the hands
of the forwards. And then you add his dimension on
the power play, which is just incredible. It's special to watch.
(24:55):
And you know, he has the ability to find seams
on shooting lands, He has the ability to to walk
the blue line left to right to create those shooting
lanes and passing lanes.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
He is a true quarterback from from up top there.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
And then last night we even saw him play a
penalty kill shift at the end of the game and
unfortunately kirsted he gets the first his first point with
the wild and Kirsted and Quinn were out there together
because your check was in the box, and then they
went to the bench and so Spurgeon in favor came
on for the plus when Goldie scored shorthanded, But that
was all Hughes and Kirstad, so it was pretty It
(25:28):
was pretty neat to see Huit out there because Quinn
didn't expect that to be part of his role here.
But last night they had no trope, no proubt, no uh.
They couldn't get around it just because Damon Hunt got
hurt and then your check was in the box, so
you only have four.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
D left to the pik and the next thing you know,
Quinn Hughes is out there.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Yeah, this is the injury thing, and I might I
might end with that.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
But this is Michael Russo the Athletic Theathletic dot Com.
I did want to ask you before we talk about
the negative because his team is just running red hot
right now. How about this kremline man with with year
Off getting the goal. We're talking about a team that
needs the center and you're off showing up. Tarasenko gets
a couple of goals last night capriz Off assisted by Hughes.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
On his twenty first of the year. The Krem line
is awesome.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
Yeah, a bunch of Ruski's out there, and you know,
and really Matt Boldie, you know, it was it was
like the easiest gamer until Boldi scored, because the only
offense came from Tarasenko, E'rerov and caprisof last night, and
then Boldi kind of messed that up. But yeah, that
line with Trenyon, who's been outstanding here for the for
about a month, physical adding a lot to their for
(26:34):
check and then you just see Eurov and Tarasenko and
it felt like, you know, Tarasenko has been playing better
the last three or four games, but it really felt
like you helped unlock him. Yesterday he saw in the
one goal, his second goal, Tarasenko Europe essentially told him
where to stand and he wins to draw cleanly to
him and he scores. And then he assisted on on
Euros on Tarasenko's first goal. And then Tarasenko turned back
(26:59):
the clock coming up the ice, hustling he was skating
well all night, goes between his legs when he cuts
to the middle backhand right to open space for crashing Europe.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
For that goal.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
So you know, it's been really cool to see Europe
get better and better now. I think that europ and
his vast improvement and what the wild really see from
him in the future is one big reason why Bill
Noran felt comfortable putting Marco Rossi in this trade. And
you know, I give the amateur scouting staff and jud
Brackett a lot of credit for really going out and
(27:30):
just think of how this trade to get it, Quinn
Hughes happens.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
It's because they draft Marco Rossi. It's because they in
a very tight three.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Minute window make a trade with Philadelphia to get ze
Boyem and then obviously the strategy in the Liam Ogren
draft with Danilla Europe to take Ogren first, even though
they wanted Europe first, trusting the fact that because he
was a Russian that teams wouldn't take him. It was
a really incredibly gutsy strategy by jud Brackett to do
(27:59):
that because again, you know, they had what two picks
or parts of you know, I think four slots apart,
and they took the players second on their list first,
hoping that Europe would still be there when they were
drafting the second one and then so Ogrin winds up
going in there is pretty pretty neat strategy. And all
three of those guys are the reason why they got
why you can get a player like Quinn Hughes. If
(28:20):
one of those guys is not on the team, they
probably don't get this trade done.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
And then Billy g Man, I mean, good times, bad times,
but he he jumped headfirst into this thing and I'm
loving every second of it.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Thanks for all you do. Thanks, thanks for hanging out
nine to new Man. We'll catch up again soon anytime.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Nordo.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Yeah, so yeah, that's Michael Russo the Athleticviathletic dot Com.
And when we returned, we'll flip over to football for
an extended segment with Mike Florio, weekly guest to ProFootball
Talk dot com. What do you think of the Sunday
Night affair, How things are shaping up in the NFL
as we approached the playoffs, myriad topics with Pro Football
Talk PFT mister Florio.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Next on the fan, Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Nine forty one am here in Minneapolis, Norden for PA
Vocal Maintenance Day is always important this time of the year.
Six and a radio continues on with a boost from
Mike Florio Pro footballtalkprofootballtalk dot com at pro Football Talk
via X mister Florio, good morning.
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Thanks for the time, Hey man, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Oh? I'm fantastic, absolutely And with the gift giving season
and play, one of the reasons I wanted to bring
you on is I know that you have written multiple
books and I was just curious maybe if you had
any gift ideas potentially for those wanting to stuff some
stockings this time of year.
Speaker 6 (30:08):
All the easiest way to stuff the stocking is to
order a copy of On Our Way Home, It's My
Christmas slash ghost story that lands at the intersection of
a Christmas Carolyn. It's a wonderful life. It can be
had for nine to ninety nine. It is a quick
and easy way to check off names on the gift list,
and it is small enough that you can kind of
curve it like an old newspaper and slide it down.
(30:30):
Depending upon the size of the stocking, maybe slide it inside.
I think it's possible, or you can just wrap it
like a normal gift. But either way, nine to ninety
nine things don't get much cheaper than that, and if
you're inclined to sample the ebook for yourself, it is
a mere ninety nine cents. And tomorrow, the eighteenth of
December is day four of a season long five day
free ebook giveaway. Not the print book, but the e
(30:53):
book will be free tomorrow the eighteenth, And I think
one more day. I'm going to do the twenty second,
because that's the day on the calendar when the action
begins in on our way home. It covers just a
handful of days in late December, starting on the twenty second,
three days before Christmas, So the twenty second is a
good day to also make it free. But the print
book nine ninety nine, come on, that's nothing. And hey,
(31:16):
I know, it's the thought that counts. But if you've
got a lot of people to buy for, the less
thought you have to put into it, the easier it is.
So boom boom boom, Order five sixty seven. Give them
the folks that you think would benefit from an entertaining
Christmas story that has a good message in it that
really wasn't intended.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
But when I.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
Finished, it's like, you know, there's a decent message here,
so all the more reason to give it a look.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
No, absolutely, please do that.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
And are you a physical copy book guy or an
ebook guy?
Speaker 6 (31:42):
Because I have become in my advancing age with the
squinting that inevitably comes into play, and I resisted glasses
as long as I can because it makes me look
like Jerry Lewis. I like to have a book on
my phone. It's easy to read, you can read it anywhere,
you can make the text as big as you want
(32:04):
it to be. And I've just morphed into that you
don't have to carry like do you have your phone everywhere?
You don't have to carry the book around any downtime,
waiting for a plane, waiting to take off, doing whatever.
You pop open the book and you read a few
pages and you move on. So I have become even
though I like having a library full of books, I've
(32:25):
become a guy that reads the book on my phone
and if I really like it, then I'll buy the
hard copy and put it on my shelf and I
can say I read that book, even if I didn't
literally read that book.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
P FT Sunday Night TV duties everything included. You got
the chance to see Cowboys and Vikings on Sunday Night.
What do you make of the entire affair as the
Cowboys playoff chances effectively, Well, they're done as soon as
the Eagles win one more game. And for the Vikings
and JJ McCarthy, first time they've won two in a
row all year.
Speaker 6 (32:57):
Well, yeah, it's funny. We're in the viewing room on
Sunday afternoon, and I knew the Vikings had a wafer
thin chance of making it to the postseason, but it's
kind of fun to hold on to the hope and
the possibility that all the dominoes fall the right way.
And I don't like going down the rabbit hole of
all the different things that have to happen. I just
hold out hope. And I didn't know until someone said
(33:20):
the Vikings are now eliminated and the balloon was popped. Aside,
I didn't given a chance to see if they could
beat the Cowboys before they were eliminated. Come on, let
me enjoy that possibility. But when the Bears won, that
was it for the Vikings, So I kind of took
some of the fun out of Sunday night. I didn't
expect it. I thought the Cowboys, who still had something
to play for at that point, at home. They're a
(33:42):
very dangerous team, get out to a lead, build the lead,
unleash the pass rush on a young quarterback who had
shown plenty of growing pains. So the fact that the
Vikings were able to get it together and win that
game and gut it out, this is all progress toward
deciding whatever's going to happen next year back and I
still think it would be malpracticed to not have a
(34:02):
viable veteran alternative who competes with JJ McCarthy, even if
to get the most out of him. But yeah, it
was encouraging on a discouraging day to see the Vikings
go down and give the Cowboys a little measure of
something after forty to three from three years ago.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Do you buy into any element of not just I
mean the development of JJ McCarthy is certainly the a
topic with this team, but in terms of, you know,
Kevin O'Connell keeping his team aligned, keeping them motivated in
these sorts of games, in some ways playing spoiler, nobody's
worried about draft pick status, just going out and finding
(34:43):
their way to a cohesion that they've lacked all year.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Do you believe that as a momentum piece into the future.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Are you impressed by Kevin O'Connell and how he's kept
this train on the tracks?
Speaker 2 (34:53):
What do you think of all that?
Speaker 6 (34:55):
Teams changed so much from year to year that it
can be a little misleading to say, well, this team
finished the season with five straight wins even though they
were done. Maybe that means next year they'll pick up
where they left off, because there's always going to be
changes from one year to the next. But as it
relates to the concept of being eliminated and the business proposition,
(35:21):
it's good for long term business to draft as high
as possible. We see how much teams give up to
move up in the draft from a spot that they
quote unquote earned with meaningless wins in late season games.
They want to be higher when it comes time to
make those picks. But I know that there are folks
who will say, you never want to allow that mindset
(35:45):
to creep into your building. Not that the players are
ever going to try to lose, that the coaches are
going to try to lose. The easy way to tank
is to say, at a higher level, we're going to
evaluate other players. Let's see what the backup quarterback can do.
Let's see what the backup offensive linemen can do. Let's
see what the backup defensive back and do. There are
(36:05):
easy ways to justify an effort to tank by saying
we're evaluating talent for the future. But when you accept losing,
it makes it harder. I think to restart the lawnmower
with the players who are there next year, you don't
want that to be your culture. So if the Vikings
can keep winning down the stretch and they've got an
opportunity to throw a big fat wrench into the Lions' plans,
(36:29):
they can keep the Packers from maybe winning the division.
Maybe they could knock the Packers out of the playoffs
when Week eighteen rolls around, because the Packers right now
are hanging on to the seventh seed in the NFC.
Those are things that I think could help as relates
to the people who will be there in twenty twenty six.
And I also think that O'Connell's ability to keep the
(36:49):
team on the right track not have four and eight
become four and thirteen. I think that's positive for him.
And the ultimate question that needs to be asked after
the season, and I think this is a fair question,
who was in favor of going forward with JJ McCarthy
and Journeyman, two of whom were cut or traded before
the season. He even started in Sam Howell and Brett
(37:11):
Rippen and who in the building was saying, we can't
do this. We need to keep Sam Darnold, we need
to keep Daniel Jones, or we need to say yes
to Aaron Rodgers. And I think as ownership kind of
sorts this out and learns lessons from this year, I
think it's an important data point. Where were you on
this question of whether or not we needed someone who
(37:33):
has played, someone who has performed, and someone who can
take a team that is you know, fourteen and three
from last year and continue that while the window is open.
And I think that's an important question determining who should
be making the big decisions in the future.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
You know, I agree with you.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
And it's a good segue into Thursday Night because it's
Rams and Seahawks and a couple of eleven win teams
on a Thursday night Amazon Prime getting paid with that.
But he felt this vibe a bit locally, Mike, where
there are some that are almost rooting for Sam Darnold
to fail in a big spot like Thursday almost to
fulfill the prophecy that he can't win in huge moments,
(38:14):
and therefore it's all good that the team didn't pursue him.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
I've just felt a bit of that locally.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Oh.
Speaker 6 (38:19):
I think that makes a lot of sense, because at
the end of the day, that was one of the
reasons why I believe the Vikings chose not to keep him.
And I know last year, as he was having one
good game after another, I sit next to Jason Garrett
and the viewing room at NBC and he would say
to me, can't let that guy out of the building.
Can't let that guy out of the building. And then
the Week eighteen game, when the number one seed was
there to be had, and all of a sudden, he
(38:40):
had the yips or whatever we want to call it,
where the balls sailing over people's heads in the end zone.
When the Vikings could have taken control of the game early.
It doesn't mean they would have won, but there were
opportunities there to get on the scoreboard, to put pressure
on the Lions and to maybe emerge with the top
seed and the bye week and everything that goes along
with it. That's when the narrative began. The next week,
I think it was a total team failure. It wasn't
(39:02):
just on Donald. But we've seen in the other big
game the Seahawks had this year when they played the
Rams in LA for interceptions from Sam Donald in a
game they still almost won. Now, this is the game,
this is a big deal. This is potentially the game
that decides the NFC West, potentially the game that decides
the number one seed. But I'll say this, if the
(39:24):
Seahawks do win, that's not the last big game, because
the forty nine Ers are lurking. They're one game behind
the Rams and the Seahawks, and there's still a way
that these dominoes fall that when it all settles, the
forty nine Ers beat the Seahawks Week eighteen and win
the division and possibly become the number one seed. So
it's not just Thursday night for Donald. If he does
(39:47):
it Thursday night, he's going to have to do it
again week eighteen, just like last year. But I think
from the standpoint of Vikings fans that are hoping to
feel good about the decisions that were made and the
decisions that weren't made, if Donald continues to pete the
narrative that popped up last year, that will make folks
feel better. Conversely, if he goes out and has a
huge game and the Seahawks win big and they end
(40:08):
up being the number one seed and they go deep
into the playoffs, you're gonna have some folks saying, Man,
if they just would have hung with them a little
bit longer, maybe it would have worked out a few.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
More for you. And Mike Florio Pro Football Talk, Pro
footballtalk dot Com. He's got books, he's got podcasts. You
see him on TVs all over the place, and we
love them for it. Here nine to noon.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
With the Vikings out of the mix, we're kind of
left watching and just paying attention. We're spectating.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Now. Do you think that the Broncos can win a
Super Bowl with bow Knicks?
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (40:38):
I think they can. I think they can. Look, by
the time they got to the Super Bowl ten years ago,
the quarterback play wasn't stellar. Now, Peyton Manning in the
Divisional Round win that year against the Steelers, he made
some very good decisions at the line of scrimmage and
getting them out of bad plays that had been called.
Realizing that the plays weren't going to work against what
(40:59):
he was seeing. That helped I don't think they beat
the Steelers without him in the Divisional round, but you
could argue they could have beaten the Panthers in the
super Bowl with Brock Osweiler or even a rookie at
the time, Trevor Simeon. So the rest of the team
is good enough, the defense is good enough, and Nick's
had a huge game in a big spot against the
(41:21):
Packers with four touchdown passes, and he's improving. By the
time they get to the playoffs, he will have had
two full NFL seasons under his belt and he's going
to be the only guy from that class of twenty
four the six quarterbacks taken in the first twelve spots
that will have gone to the playoffs each of his
first two seasons. So the Broncos are in a great position.
And if they get the one seed and teams have
(41:43):
to go to Denver at altitude in whoever knows what
the weather's going to be in Denver at any given
moment in the winter time, that could be a huge,
huge advantage, just like it was in twenty fifteen when
they took care of business at home against the Steelers
against the Patriots and got to the super Bowl with
the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Now in the same division, you got the ACL to Mahomes,
which in the LCL you had surgery on it. So
that's going to probably dominate conversations in Kansas City. But
prior to that, this was a team that, for the
first time in Mahomes' tenure, really just didn't have it.
And that was you know, when we get Rushy Rice back,
we're going to be better. They kept looking for something
(42:22):
around the corner, and frankly, it just never showed up
long road, not just with the QB, but maybe for
the Chiefs to freshen up in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 6 (42:31):
Right, Oh, they got a lot of work to do.
This is a heavy lift. This is not quite a
full rebuild because you're already covered at the worst position
or at the most important position. Excuse me in football,
but how bad would they have been this year if
they didn't have Patrick Mahomes. Think about that. They would
have been down there with the Raiders without Patrick Mahomes.
So they have a lot of work to do. And
(42:53):
I'm not suggesting that Andy Reid should retire, but it's
a lot easier to keep going deep into your sixties
at smooth sailing when you're looking at something that may
take a couple of years. You got to ask yourself,
is it time now? When will it be time? Will
it be time before we get this thing back to
where it needs to be because they need help on
(43:14):
both sides of the ball. They need offensive line. They
don't have that Tyreek Hill type of a receiver. I
don't know what Rashie Rice is going to become, but
he's still a year removed from the ACL Maybe he'll
be better next year or whatever ligament it was, but
he had season ending surgery last year and the suspension
didn't help him get back up to speed. They just
have a lot that they need to do and I'll
(43:37):
be curious and I'll be watching to see whether or
not Andy Reid decides has come back for another year.
I'm not saying that he's thinking about leaving. I'm not
saying that he should. All I'm saying is this is
the first opportunity he's had since he came to the
Chiefs after the twenty twelve season to ask himself, do
I think that I'll still be doing this when this
(44:00):
work that we need to do to get back to
where we've been comes to fruition, and I wouldn't be
surprised if he decides now it's the time for me
to hand his baton to someone else.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
Yeah, last thing for you here, this is kind of
hot off the press.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Is your your cohort.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Michael David Smith had written an article about to a
tongue to a tongue of violoa and just the awful
year that the Dolphins have had and a big part
of his potential future or lack of with Miami, and
then you just hit us with Dolphins have benched to
for Quinn yours.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
So that's goat.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
I assume maybe that was expected after the Monday night
el to the Steelers.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
But it's just ugly in South Beach, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (44:40):
Mike McDaniel, coach of the team, said yesterday everything's on
the table and that the quarterback play hasn't been good enough.
They had a four game winning streak that was fueled
by de emphasizing his role in the offense. And when
you're paying a guy fifty three point one million, he's
supposed to be the centerpiece of the offense, not the
guy that you work around. And the thing about too,
and look, I don't want to be critical of the player,
(45:02):
but the reality is there's only thirty two teams and
it's a merit driven business, and if there is a
ceiling that you just can't bust through. These are some
of the things we were saying about JJ McCarthy not
that long ago. If you're just not good enough, then
you're just not good enough. I mean, you can't wave
a magic wand and turn a guy into something he
just isn't. There's other guys out there who have a
(45:24):
higher talent level who deserve the opportunity. With Tua, you'll
see these plays a couple of times per game, sometimes more.
When things go well, you don't see it, but he's
the guy who can run the offense to perfection when
it's there, when the play that's called is there, he
you know, the timing, the rhythm, the stuff they do
behind the line of scrimmage, flipping the ball around all
(45:45):
of a sudden, it's perfect. But when the first read
isn't there, that's when it all goes sideways and it's
almost like and you know, it's It's amazing how quickly
this reference became dated. But remember when the Xbox three
to sixty first came out twenty years ago and you
get the red ring of death. It's almost like the
system overload with Tua when the play isn't there and
(46:07):
he doesn't know what to do and he's got a
guy coming right for him, and the easy thing to do,
and we've seen it thousands of times just throw the
ball away. He doesn't even do that. It completely seizes
up in that moment. That to me is something that
when I see that, it's like, why is this guy
in the NFL if he can't make a decision in
the moment what to do? And it's whether it's panic,
whether it's just malfunction, I don't know what it is.
(46:28):
But that's happened too many times this year, has happened
too many times in his career, and they've made so
many mistakes with him. Contractually, they picked up his fifty
year option when I don't think they should have done it.
They signed him to a fifty three point one million
dollar contract in his fifty year option when they were
bidding against no one and they could have just said,
let's see how you do this year and we'll take
it up after the season, and if we can't negotiate
(46:50):
a contract we'll apply the franchise tag. They gave him
way too much money. He's got forty fifty four million
fully guaranteed next year. They've got a mess as it
relates to the quarterback position, but you only make that
mess worse by sticking with a guy who isn't getting
it done for the rest of the year. It's not
going to be him, and I don't know what they're
going to do next year. I don't know how you
have him on the team next year. I don't know
(47:12):
how he's the backup, because if the starter struggles, you're
going to have that cluster of Dolphins fans that wont
him back on the field. I think he's going to
get the Russell Wilson treatment, where he gets cut, he
goes somewhere else on a one year deal for the minimum,
The Dolphins pay the rest, and they move on with
someone else.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
Real quick, and then I'll let you go. As part
of this, you mentioned the contract. It's a bad year
to use Trevor Lawrence as an example. Teams ten and four.
I think he threw a touchdown to basically everybody last
weekend on the team except ja Kobe Myers. But with
the way that the market has gone with QB's and
you're signing the twos to fifty per year deals.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
Jordan Love in Green.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Bay and good times bad times with some of these guys.
You think in almost caball like fashion teams are trying
to figure out how to widen that.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Back up a bit, because you talk about.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
The investments that you're making in these guys, there's almost
a requirement in a spot or they could they can
sell the idea that they were backed into a corner.
But the resign of these guys to two hundred million
dollar deals, whether it's it's Kyler and Arizona, we're talking
about Tua, we're not seeing the fruits of that financial labor.
Speaker 6 (48:16):
I remember in twenty nineteen it was the slow time.
In June, there was talk about the Rams extending Jared Goff,
who had not yet gotten his second contract, and I
was very vocal that they should not do it, that
you don't pay him market level highest at the time,
and it was like thirty five million at the time.
It just shows you how much the market has changed
in just six years. Yeah, and they were very strident
(48:38):
about it. Oh well, this is absolutely the guy you
pay this is the guy you keep. And then two
seasons later they attached an extra first round and extra
third round pick to him to send him to the
Lions from Matthew Stafford. That two first round picks and
a third round pick. The way a GM explained it
to me, they give up a first round pick for
(49:00):
or No, they gave up a one and a three
for Stafford, and they had to throw in an extra
one to get the Lions to take Jared Goff's contract.
That's how bad it got. Now he's better now and
the move to Detroit was perfect for him. But these
teams need to be willing to say, no, we're not
gonna do this. We're not gonna pay market level money
just because we drafted you and you're not a bust.
(49:21):
There are degrees of success, and if you're at the
low end of success, it doesn't mean you should get
a market value contract. And a lot of the guys
who are the highest paid players on their teams right
now at the quarterback position and among the top ten
in the NFL, they're just not getting it done. And
when are these teams gonna say we're gonna stand firm here,
We're gonna hold the line here and if we have
(49:42):
to go find another quarterback, we will. We're just not
gonna pay you market level because you've you've checked some
of the boxes, but not all of them.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
Hey, thanks as always for your time.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
I know it's Christmas Eve next Wednesday, so maybe we'll
catch up with you after the holiday.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
But thanks for all you do for nine to noon,
my friend.
Speaker 6 (50:01):
Thank you about see.
Speaker 3 (50:02):
It's Mike Florio, pro footballtalkprofootball talk dot com head coach
of the Minnesota while John Hines is next right here
on the fan
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