05-01-24 Hour 2 of Broncos Country Tonight with Brandon Krisztal

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Broncos country tonight on a Wednesday,I am Brandon Christall, filling in for
Benjamin Albright and often Nick ferguson muchdeserved night off. So happy to be
hanging with you and gonna talk plentyof Broncos, of course, also mixing
some nuggets and abs. But let'sgo backwards and start with the Broncos and

(00:21):
the draft, because it was along weekend, a productive weekend, and
one that we know, like thisis the case with almost every draft,
perhaps this one has slightly heavier implicationswhen you take a quarterback that you expect
to be your franchise quarterback, butone that could change the course of the
franchise for years, if not adecade or more, as well as the

(00:42):
legacy of Sean Payton, George Payton, the ownership group, and of course
bow Nick. So I think weshould start there with bo Nicks and what
he has represented or what he representsand why even though he was a six
quarterback taken in what we saw wasjust the second time ever a quarterback rich

(01:04):
draft that had six quarterbacks go inthe very top of the draft first round.
Last time we saw that nineteen eightythree, three of those guys ended
up in the Hall of Fame andsix quarterbacks taken in the top twelve,
with five in the top ten.Obviously, again at the very top,
we Knewkayleb Williams is going to theBears. We thought Jaden Daniels was headed
to Washington. Then Drake May.Weren't sure what the Patriots would do.

(01:25):
They stood pat No pun intended takeDrake May at three. Then you know
that the Giants might be in thebusiness of taking a quarterback. They decided
not to. The Falcon shocked alot of people. I understand revision is
history. Somebody saying, oh,I heard those rumblings or this or that
or so and so heard it,or man, when I was told this,
I should have gone with it.I've heard people say all that.

(01:46):
But Michael Pennix Junior going eight,when the Falcons just shipped Kirk Cousins not
one, but two Brinks trucks onehundred and eighty million dollars to get he
and his family to move from Minnesotadown to Georgia, where I believe his
wife is from, to then takePennix eight to likely sit at minimum two
years, if not more, althoughhe will get all the throws in the
spring, and a good chunk oftraining camp is Kirs coming off that torn

(02:07):
achilles at thirty six years old.And then, of course you didn't know
exactly what the Vikings would do.They jump up one spot the Broncos I
think made him flinch at least ifyou believe Sean Payton, they give up
some more capital to go get JJMcCarthy. And then sitting there at twelve
is the guy that Sean Sean Paytonwanted. And so I wanted to play

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this back in case you hadn't heardit, But it's clear Sean Payton has
no problem not only staking his reputationon his ability to evaluate quarterbacks, but
on what he thinks makes bo Nicksthe right pick for him and for this
team. This is from the pressconference after selecting bow Knicks as to why
it made sense to him because ofobviously our need and then the amount man

(02:51):
there were trip trip You know alot of those, and all of these
players you know, are at thecombine. Some of them do more or
less at the combine, some throw, some don't. But you know a
lot of private workouts, a lotof their pro days, So you have
a body of work to start with, and I would say, man,

(03:15):
so many of these guys were impressiveand and and then you you really start
focusing in on you feel like Chicago'sgot a player. But but past that,
I think you know you can youcan listen to and read and and
and but you're not sure. ButI would say that probably early into the

(03:38):
process, shortly after these workouts likethis, he stood out in a lot
of a lot of areas, andyou know, and just you pay close
attention to all the film study andand you know, obviously he's played a
lot of football, but you know, sack, differential turnover, differential accuracy,
third down, passing first first,first first in this class, first

(04:00):
and end of half first and endof game, two minute situation, second
in red zone, a lot ofthose other things that and then let's get
let's do another passing statistic and removea lot of the short underneath throws.
And obviously that's part of what theydo offensively, and you remove that and

(04:25):
you come back with the analytics andit's still first. And so but I
would say his arm strength was wesaw the pro day, but then even
in the private workout was very good. And he's super smart Alex. Of
course, when you have a formerteammate that you just signed a year ago,

(04:48):
he's a great resource. And themore the more you just keep digging
into the process and really trying totry and do a eliminate the outside noise.
You know, relative too well,you can move back and none of
that's true. You know, youdon't know that. And honestly, we

(05:09):
felt like the Giants were the thejoker team, and that there were three
teams at the front that needed quarterbacks. Right. We all knew those three
teams Chicago, Washington, New England, and then we knew there was a
second stretch of Minnesota, Denver andthe Raiders. And so man, we

(05:30):
kept the Giant's going to take one, you know, because that then impacted
how the last three were going tobe. And so when they didn't,
you know, I think I saidto George, I think we think Minnesota
likes McCarthy. We think we don'tknow this. We think the Raiders like
Pennix and we like Nicks. Let'sget on a conference call with all of
them, say just say no onespend any money. We think we know

(05:56):
this. And then Atlanta took Pennixand then now of a sudden, you
know, you know, we're we'repaying attention to the team behind us,
and it got a little, uha little crazy there for a minute.
But yeah, the process was long, in thorough and uh man, we're

(06:17):
excited, We're excited. This thiswas and look, this is the this
is the night. Tomorrow's the nightwhere everyone says we got our guy.
Yeah. I told George, Isaid, look, I think we're in
a position right where we're at shoot. I could fly out there today and
be the first one when we're onthe clock to knock on his door and
just and make sure he knew thatwe were the one. And then I

(06:41):
thought that might be a little difficult. If something happened, I'd be in
Birmingham, Alabama, and all ofa sudden we have to divert the plane
somewhere so we stay put. Butwe're glad it worked out the way it
did. So then we got tomeet Boonicks on Friday. You've heard,
or if you haven't, you cango to ka Colorado dot com. But
you've likely heard part, if notall, of his one on one with
Dave Logan that we played a bunchon KOA Sports played it on our draft

(07:02):
coverage, and of course I thinkplayed it on Broncos Country tonight as well.
But Bo Nicks sounds like the typeof quarterback you want. He really
does eat, drink and sleep football. And so when you're the son of
a college quarterback who's been a coachfor a long long time, and it
was really cool seeing Dave Logan andhis dad, Patrick Nicks, who's won

(07:26):
a few state titles in his ownright down in Alabama, just kind of
chopping it up right after Dave talkedto Bow on Friday before they got going
on the show, that that wasreally neat. And then you find out
his grandpa was a coach too.The guy just grew up around football.
Doesn't make him a great quarterback.Lots of people grow up around the things
that their parents and grandparents do.It doesn't make them great at it,
but it certainly can give them aleg up if they have an aptitude for

(07:47):
it. And so you talk aboutaptitude, well, we understand that one
of the biggest issues that any quarterbackthat plays for Sean Payton might have,
and that it seemed like Russell Wilsonhad in his time. I'm not only
Sean, perhaps Nathaniel Hacke, aswell as his ability to process things the
way a coach might want you to, or the way quarterbacks with ultra processors

(08:09):
like Peyton Manning, like Drew Brees, like Tom Brady, like Aaron Rodgers,
like Patrick Mahomes, like Joe Burrow, that can see things at the
line of scrimmage, understand what's goingon, and then make sure you're not
only in the right play, butalso be able to make all of the
throws. So I'm gonna play aclip of bo Nicks because he was asked

(08:30):
and it was interesting. It soundslike he's never been asked us, at
least maybe in a press conference setting, and the kid's done plenty of press
conferences. He started more football gamesin the college ranks than any quarterback ever.
I think it was sixty one wasthat final count. But he was
asked on Friday, what makes hima good processor? That's a great question.
So it starts throughout the week withyour preparation. It starts with what

(08:52):
you can learn and what you alreadyknow, and how you can put it
together, how you can collaborate withcoaches and other players to form a game
plan that's going to best fit youand go out there and essentially execute it.
You got to be as efficient aspossible. So processing to me means
taking something you know from the sideline, being able to evaluate it and see
all the pros and the cons ofthe play and understand that whatever happens,

(09:16):
you got to react to it.So every play starts, usually now in
the league, starts with a huddle, starts with a play call. Then
there's probably a shift emotion or amovement. There's gonna be a cadence,
there's gonna be you know, probablya you know, primary play and a
secondary play. You've got to figureout all this is just offense. So
now you've got to look at thedefense and see what they're in. You

(09:37):
know, you got to see thefront through the linebackers to the safeties,
and then once you see that,you just process everything and then hopefully your
preparation has led you up to thepoint to where you can find the solution
and find the answer. But agreat question, I don't think I've ever
been asked, you know that tobe able to analyze what it means to
have you know, good processing skills. And then it goes back to experience.
You know, I've been able tosee this look over and over and

(09:58):
over to where I get it.I naturally know you know where to react,
and all that is is doing youknow, plays over and over and
over. So at the beginning ofthis process, it's going to be you
know, reading and reciting plays overand over and over, so you can
spit out in a huddle, becauseif nobody knows what to do, you're
all going to be wrong once youget to the line of scrimmage. So
communication communication being an elite you knowcommunicators, and eventually you know, you

(10:24):
just get the process information. Andit's not just about processing it. It's
also about how fast you can doit. So again I think it's some
to some people's second nature. Itcan also be developed. But I think
the processing in you know, fromcollege to the league is going to be
different. The game could be faster. Speed of the game will you know,
be a faster tempo, And soyou know, you'll have to take

(10:46):
that with a grain of salt becauseI think also the best decision makers,
the best processors, are the onesthat do it quick and don't overcomplex,
over complicate the game. And sowhen you see that, you know it's
it's just really pretty to watch,and you know, it's just seeing what
you need to see and reacting offof it. A pretty good answer from
a kid who clearly knows what SeanPayton and company are looking for. What

(11:11):
does it take to process information?To be a good processor? And again
I mentioned some of the greats ofthe game, right, Peyton Manning,
Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, andof course Drew Brees. And it got
me thinking because there's a great storyKayln Kaylor did a couple of years ago.
She might have still been at SInow she's of course with the athletic
but it was about Peyton Manning becauseof the Manning Passing Academy, his involvement

(11:35):
across the NFL. And then youadd to it what he and his brother
are able to do with the Manningcast every monthy. So they're talking to
coaches, talking in front office,people are talking to players all around the
league. But they have every quarterbackthat you can think of, just about
at some point during college comes throughthe Manning Passing Academy. There outside New
Orleans in Louisiana summer in the middleof summer, and Poe Nicks, I

(11:56):
believe when he was at Auburn oron his way to Oregon. He stopped
by. That prompted me to askbow because I was curious with we know,
Peyton being here in town. Weknow Russ certainly reached out to him
and several other qbs. I wascurious Ian bow Nicks's life has Does he
have any NFL vets that are currentlyin the league or guys that are retired

(12:18):
that he's come across, like aPeyton Manning, who I know that obviously
he certainly crossed paths with. Iasked him in his press conference. Is
there anybody like that that is inhis life kind of on a regular basis.
Yeah. So one that that obviouslycomes to my great connection is you
know, I got a text fromPeyton Manning last night from our past at
the Manning Passing Academy, and he'salways been so willing to reach out to

(12:41):
me. You know, he's he'svery good at, you know, being
available to those young guys. He'slike that at the camp, and he's
obviously like that with with Broncos players. But excited to to seriously be around
him and spend some time with himthis past offseason. I was fortunate to
be around, uh, Philip Riversand you know those the knowledge that they

(13:05):
possess is you can't get it fromanywhere else, you know, It's it's
the resource that I'm excited to use. And then obviously with with coach Peyton's
background and Drew Brees, I'd loveto get connected with him and just because
he's been through it, he knowswhat it's like, uh, and maybe
I can you know, take somethingfrom from all those those guys to to

(13:28):
where I can be the best versionof myself. And then on Saturday of
the draft, following the draft andthey signed their undrafted free agency, they've
gotten through all the rounds and youmeet with the coach and GM they come
by and talk to the media,and then George Payton always sits down with
us at KOA And so I knowyou've already heard that, but my favorite

(13:50):
moment of that press conference came whenSean Payton commented on how they were able
to land Boe Nick's favorite receiver,Troy Franklin, the white out that had
a top forty grade some people hadhim and I think, you know,
even in the thirties. And hesits there on day three, all the

(14:11):
way at pick one oh two.So George and Shawn take us through this,
and there's a chance I guess thatthe Broncos could be adding a new
talent evaluator if the way this storyplays out turns out to be true.
And that's something I guess we needto follow up with with Sean and George.
But I enjoyed this maybe more thananything from the three days of post
round press conferences. And we weleft about midnight because we're here late obviously,

(14:35):
and and Sean sleeps in a littlebit typically, and I got a
I knew when I got a textat six am saying I really want you
know, we really want this.Letayer, let's get this player. Yeah.
I said, well, we gotto figure this one out. But
it was universal as a consensus thisLike eleven thirty, I got a text
out of the blue from des Bryantand so, and you know, I'm

(14:56):
I'm brushing my teeth. I'm literallyI hear the phone and I look over
and it's like, coach, youreally, I'm like you preaching in the
choir all right. Then I'm thinkingthe irony of that text at that time,
and I said, listen, Iagree with you. I think I
said I like him at the lineof scrimmage, and then I didn't see
the We go back and he wastexting me about Jordan Love years ago.
And this was right at the endof the season. I didn't start watching

(15:20):
film yet, So I'm glad wedidn't just keep going back further. We
we at the very end of DES'scareer. We Des came to us for
a tryout, and he ruptured hisachilles heel during that and that, and
so I think that I had hisnumbers still saved, and I think I

(15:45):
don't know if I was c forcoach or whatever, but he had mine.
So but I appreciate his insight lastnight there was kind of coincidence,
so as does Bryant kind of joinedthe Broncos personnel snapp. I guess we'll
find out. Brandon christal in forBenjamin Albright. It is Broncos country night,
and we talk lots and lots ofBroncos around here. But again this

(16:06):
time of year, you gotta talknuggets, you gotta talk abs. With
both of them making it to thesecond round only the fourth time that's ever
happened, So we are gonna jumpto the ice so to speak, and
get the latest on the Avalanche,who, like the Nuggets, have the
gentleman sweep from the first round withthe win in Winnipeg Tuesday night. Now
waiting for a couple more days tofind out who they'll play in that Dallas

(16:27):
and Vegas series. Will it goto seven games? I guess we'll find
out with Game six coming up onFriday. But it's certainly good that the
Abs get to rest up and waitto find out their opponents. So Jesse
Montano from Gorilla Sports is gonna joinus on the other side of this break.

(16:47):
Don't go anywhere again. Brandon christallin for Benjamin all Bright. You
can follow me at BK Denver Sports. This is Koa Colorado eight fifty AM
and ninety four to one FM.Murray and reeves difference to two seconds for
the game clock and the shot clock. They'll get your screen. Murray there
trying to take the two James aboutthe feet a drench shot now, so

(17:15):
Nat gets a dance play again andthe the fence ship the championship title.
There's a world and will that ofcourse, the incomparable Kevin Harlan with the
call on TNT No matter what Ido in life. I know that I
will never be the most famous orbest University of Kansas alum to be a

(17:37):
professional broadcaster because Kevin Harlan has setthe bar too high for any of us,
and I don't really do play byplay. Brandon christall in for Benjamin
all Right, this show is calledBroncos Country tonight. But we'd be remiss
to not talk a little Nuggets andaves, as I promised, and so
we are going to get to theabs here in just a second. Waiting
to hear from jesse My Antano ofGorilla Sports, but talking Nuggets. And

(18:03):
I'm traveling with Gorilla Sports, soI'm doing stuff with to every Nuggets road
game. I will be at everyNuggets playoff game and pretty much every practice
from now until the end of theseason. And I'm also doing a Nuggets
podcast that you can hear on thefree iHeart app. It's called Hoops Your
Daddy. It's powered by Guerrilla Sports, but we have it on iHeart wherever

(18:25):
you your podcast. We of coursecourage that you listen to it on iHeart.
But one of the things that Ibrought up was something I was thinking
about during the game the other nightwas Aaron Gordon mostly guarding Lebron, but
every now and then guarding Anthony Davis. I thought that six' nine,
six ten more like six' nine, built like a like a tight end

(18:45):
more than a forward in the NBA. Does Aaron Gordon actually like guarding Davis
more than Lebron? Because AD he'smore straightforward, and so you kind of
know, or rather, I'm sorry, does he like guarding Lebron and rather
than Ad because of the height mismatch, and he can keep Lebron off the

(19:06):
glass better and all of that,and forced Lebron in a tougher shots and
without fail. And this is justhe and I talking to his locker.
He's like, no, absolutely not. He's like, guarding Ad is so
much easier than guarding Lebron because Lebronhas the deepest bag of tricks, a
full bag of tricks, and evenat thirty nine years old, and go
buy you either way and get shotsfrom everywhere. He sees the floor and
creates such easy looks for everybody else. He can blow by you, he

(19:30):
can make you think he's blon byyou, then pull up and so it's
not even close. So AG toldme that. But you can catch more
of that conversation. Liv Mood's hoststhe Hoops Your Daddy podcast. Shelby Harris,
who's also a big part of aGorilla Sports, is part of the
podcast. This week, we're justtalking hoops, taking you through the NBA
playoffs. But let's now as Isee that he's available on the Common Spirit
Health hotline calling in, let's connectwith my guy Jesse Montano. But first,

(19:55):
and how about this Havalants team.They would stand punches from Winnipeg go
at it's backs against the wall andthe Avalanche stance Hall on the road in
Game five and they are moving onto the second round. Yeah, that's
outsunded on ESPN. Mike Monaco onthat call. Not the most dramatic end
of game call, with the Avalanchetaking down the Jets in four straight games,

(20:17):
a six to three win last nightin the PEG and because of the
way that Avs played in the lastfour games, not a lot of drama
needed. We're now going to bejoined by Jesse Montano of Gorilla Sports.
You can follow him on x formerlyknown as Twitter at Jesse Montano because Twitter

(20:37):
can't handle Spanish characters. And thenthere's an underscore at the end, and
you can check out all the greatstuff he does at Gorilla Sports, which
I'm also heavily involved with as well. It's worth noting that your hockey podcast
is on the free iHeart platform,so people will get your reaction to everything
going on as But Jesse, Iimagine you as much as anyone, and

(20:59):
we'll get into the hockey. Butappreciated that that wasn't much to sweat in
the third period and the Avs pulledaway and now you don't have to go
back to Winnipeg till next season.Yeah. Man, Look, it was
the atmosphere. That the one thingI keep standing by, the atmosphere in
that building. I mean, that'sthe Winnipeg white Out lived up to the
hype. It was super loud intheir awesome environment. Outside of that,

(21:22):
not a ton to do in Winnipeg. We got some good food, but
you know, man, it's justgray, it's windy. And then my
biggest beef with it, it's sohard to get there. There are no
direct routes. You have to gothrough Minnesota to get there, Vancouver or
something like that. So the traveldays were a bear for this one man.
The half the media Corps was flyingto Fargo and driving. Everyone else

(21:47):
was on you know, two threehour connections, and so yeah, like
you said, great, happy,we don't have to go back for seven.
So you and GIRLA Sports are theonly outlet not directly affiliated with the
team and altitude that were at everysingle Avs game home and road all year
long, including preseason actually, Andso with the way they kind of limped

(22:10):
into the postseason, what change fromthose couple tough losses of seven to zero
drubbing by the Jets here in Denverand then the next day the blown lead
and the loss in Vegas to wherethey are now. And we know it
was a fun opener, but atseven to six, you're like, I
don't know this is gonna hold up. Is it as simple as Georgie's been
that much better? There's got tobe a lot more to it than that.

(22:33):
So here's what's funny is I don'tthink there's much more to it,
not necessarily that Georgie was just better. But you know, someone asked Rick
Bonus about this, the Winnipeg Jetshead coach, because the Jets swept the
season series with the Avs outscored himseventeen to four, and I mean really
just kind of dominated them in theregular season. And you know, it

(22:56):
was funny. I made the commentto someone, Rick Bonus, he's a
veteran head, he's been to theStanley Cup Final. He literally sounded like
a little surprised at the pace ofplay that the Abs were playing with the
level of intensity that they had takentheir game too. And that's the part
where I'm saying it maybe sounds alittle bit oversimplified, but you know,

(23:17):
we saw this a couple of yearsago. This is now a group who
has climbed the mountain. They've gottento the top. They've also had their
fair share of heartbreaks. They knowwhat it's like to put in the work
and come up short. They knowwhat it's like to put in the work
and what it takes to get there. This is now two separate instance of
the twenty twenty two team that wenton to win the Cup and this team
this year that limped into the postseason, and then from game one in the

(23:41):
postseason, the opposing team just couldnot handle the pace of play, the
intensity, the commitment to play theright way. I mean, the Winnipeg
Jets were outright dominated for five games, even in Game one, where they
scored seven goals. You know,we can talk about that game if you
want to get into it. Butthis series was all Abs for five games,

(24:03):
and the Winnipeg Jets looked legitimately stunnedby game three. You know,
by the time he got to gamefour, you had players in the locker
room saying, and our coaches aren'tmaking adjustments. You got the coaches saying,
no, everyone's on the same page, everyone's in great spirits. It
was a mixed message, and tome, this was truly a bigger,
stronger, better team, just kindof fullying. You know, the Winnipeg

(24:26):
Jets were kind of a feel goodstory this year, right out of the
playoffs and now onto the next round. They've taken their intensity to a level
we have not seen all seasons.The one thing that we were most concerned
about, and I just touched onit. I say, we the those
of us who want to see theAbs keep winning. Yeah, the play
of Alexander Gyorghievn then with usas onand in I guess a little banged up

(24:51):
and a little sick and this andthat it was okay. Georgie was an
All Star. We've seen him playsome of his best hockey all year in
stretches, and then we've seen himplay some of the worst hockey that we've
ever seen, including those in thosecouple of tough losses, like like I
brought up, Has anything changed becausehe was supposed to be even as an
All Star the number two goalie comparedto what Winnipeg's thrown out there with a

(25:12):
guy that's probably gonna win the BesnaTrophy. And did something click for Georgia
or is it just that with theintensity ratcheted up and with so much good
stuff going on in front of him, that the best defense is a good
offense And if they're gonna score fiveplus goals a game and keep the pucking
in the opponent zone, George's notgonna have to work that hard, although
I did hear Sean Keeler told uson Colorado's Morning News the other day that

(25:34):
the metrics say he has made somereally tough saves as well. So here
was let's let's talk about game one. Here was my issue with with Alexander
Giorgiev's performance in Game one. Itwasn't that he gave up seven goals,
you know, like you just saidConnor Hellibuck, He's gonna win. The
Vesna gave up six goals in thatgame, and you know, the Abs

(25:55):
again, we can talk about whatthey did to Connor Helibuck, but you
know, Alexander, the issue inthat first game was there were times in
that game, within the game wherethe ABS just needed one save right there.
I don't need you to make theother six. I need you to
make this one right now, Andthere were just too many, you know,
kind of soft ones or right asthe momentum started to shift for the

(26:17):
ABS favor, you know, they'dbe pushing to play for ten minutes.
The Jets would get one chance theother way and it was in the back
of the net. So that wasthe problem. Alexander Gergiev is a fascinating
goaltender. We have seen you saidit, Bran, and over the last
two seasons we have seen some ofthe best hockey of his career. We've
seen him play at extremely high levels. And look, people can make fun

(26:38):
of you know, he was anAll Star, maybe didn't fully deserve to
be there. He ended the yearand he led the league in wins.
When you say like, oh,well he plays for the ABS, the
Abs finished third in their division.You know, if you pull a lot
of Abs people, even probably withinthe organization, they would say it was
an up and down year. Heled the league and wins. There's a
talented goaltender in there. His issuehas been, in arguably his whole career,

(27:03):
the consistency part. You see thelong lulls where he kind of gets
in his head and he gets frustratedand he starts showing that and it gets
in the way of his play.Goaltending and hockey is only half the battle
is physical. The other half ismental, and that's the part that I
think he's fought at times. Ithink he got a huge push of support
from the team after Game one,saying, and to your point, partially

(27:26):
because of what was going on withyou standon they didn't really have an option,
but they were saying, you're ourguys. We're gonna put you back
in there because we think you're gonnago out and prove everyone wrong. And
he did it for four straight games. He was great in games two through
five. He made big saves,timely saves, and when the Abs started
to stretch the lead, he didn'tgive the Jets anything. So you have

(27:47):
to give Alexanne Gier you have fullcredit for getting his mind right and being
able to get his game on theright track. But to your point,
you don't ever feel fully out ofthe woods because his issue has been the
consistency through the first month, monthand a half of the season. You
know, October no November, AlexanderGiorgiev was the Avs MVP. He was

(28:07):
great to start the year. Canwe see him put together a stretch of
about that long month and a halftwo months to help get them where they
need to go? I will saythis, if they keep playing the way
that they played in games two throughfive, defensively, structurally and to your
point giving the goal support, man, I don't know. Maybe you and
I could play goaltender. It maynot make a difference. They were that
good in those last four games.Jesse Montano of Guerrilla Sports, he covers

(28:33):
Abs as well as anybody in town. Talking with us here for a couple
more minutes. This is Broncos countrytonight. Brandon Christal in for Benjamin Albright,
got a much needed night off,and we'd be remiss if we're not
talking about the Nugs and the Absfor just the fourth time since Colorado got
the Avalanche in the mid nineties,have both teams made it to the second
round in the same year. Soas we turn the page to that second

(28:56):
round, we have, of courseknow the Nuggets are playing the Timberwolves a
couple days off because the way theother series is shaking out or shook out,
and the way the league has tospace things out well in the NHL,
we understand that obviously, until Dallasand Vegas are finished, we can't
get this other series going. Weknow Dallas the challenges it poses. The

(29:19):
Kings are the defending champs, SoI ask you, Jesse Montano, with
the way the Abs are playing now, I'm sorry the stars. We know
the stars are. We know whothe Golden Knights are. Who do the
Abs want to play? If you'resitting there and you're Jared Bednar and his
staff, you're the guys that actuallyhave to lace them up his team.
Who does Colorado want to see inthe next round? So my answer is

(29:44):
Dallas. And let me tell youwhy. Jared Bednar his favorite thing.
His favorite thing is predictability. Helikes it in his players. He prepares
like crazy. They do a greatpre scout that their staff really dives into
their opponent, what their tendencies are, what they're good at, what they're
not good at. You know whatthe ABS can kind of exploit. I

(30:07):
mean, Brendon, you've been insome of those press conferences where people ask
questions. He gets that little grinon his face. He's like, I'm
not really gonna tell you anything,but we're happy with how we're playing,
and that means like, yeah,we've got something scheming that's working. What
you don't like about the Golden Knightsis no one has seen this version of
the Golden Knights before. For thethird straight year, multiple players activated off

(30:27):
long term injured reserve right as aseason comes to an end. You know,
Mark Stone again three straight years,put on lt IR in February,
activated for Round one, Game one. He's their best player, he's their
highest paid player. And what havethey done with that money while it's been
sitting on the LTUR shelf. Well, they've gone out and loaded up.
You know, a couple of yearsago it was Jack Eichel. This year

(30:48):
they get Tomash Hurtle and Noah Hannafin. Like that's a team that suddenly has
gone into the postseason. That isyou know, I believe close to you
know, eighteen twenty million dollars overthe cap, that you don't have any
tape on that group of players hasnever played together before. You know you're
gonna have, however, many gamesthis first round goes to try to figure
out what it is that you're goingup against a team like Dallas. You

(31:11):
know, you know what you're gonnaget. You've had some good games against
them in the regular season, andtruthfully, I mean they're both very very
good teams. Dallas won the CentralDivision, the Vegas gold Knights, like
you said, or the defending StanleyCup champions, they're both very good teams.
I think if the Ads are playingthe way that they played in the
first round, you probably match upa little bit better with the Dallas Stars.

(31:33):
So with the speed, the waythey were getting to the front of
the net taking away you know,Jake Ottinger is not as big, not
as you know, structurally sound asa goaltender like Connor Hallibuck, and if
they're getting in his eyes the waythey were for Hellibuck, I mean again,
you like your chances to create offense. So I think really it's kind
of a coin flip because they're bothvery good teams. But my answer would

(31:56):
be Dallas purely because this version ofthe Vegas Golden Knights, we really don't
know just how good they are.I mean, it's a brand new team
going into the postseason. Jesse,I appreciate the time. I know,
as you mentioned, the travel fromto and from Winnipeg isn't easy at least
this next round. You're either gonnaget on a really short flight, go
to Sin City and win a bunchof money, or go down to my
hometown in Big d where the weather. I'll treat your right plenty of flights

(32:21):
to get you to both Dallas airportsfrom from DA. But I know you're
glad to be home for a coupleof days as the Avs regroup and you
continue to work on everything that you'redoing with Gorilla. Do a great job
covering the abs as well as anybodyin town. So I really appreciate the
time, and I know that we'llbe talking to you plenty on KOA throughout
the next round. Yeah, absolutely, Brand, thanks so much, man.
It's I always have fun talking withyou, and I'll see around here

(32:44):
soon and yeah, we'll wait andsee. Like you said, warm weather
ahead either way, We're not goingto a cold city, So I'm all
good indeed, as are Avalanche fanswho have to feel a lot better about
this team based on what they've sceneof late. A little shaky when you
lose seven to six, but youclose out with four straight wins and you

(33:06):
are in really good shape and youget to relax while Dallas and Vegas continue
to duke it out. Pretty coolthough, that you have both the Nuggets
and Avalanche advancing to the second round, and there's certainly a world where they're
both in the conference finals, orperhaps both in the championship round in the
Stanley Cup Finals against whoever comes outof the East, as well as the

(33:30):
Nuggets in the NBA finals for asecond straight year. And do you have
joint parades? Are we getting aheadof ourselves? I don't know, but
thanks again to Jesse Montano, andI encourage you to check out Guerrilla Sports
g U E R I L lA. You get them on all your
social media platforms. It's the highestquality covers of your local teams. That's
the tagline. And I'm involved withthem and some friends over there and doing

(33:52):
some really cool stuff and I appreciatethat my boss is here at iHeart let
me kind of hang out with themas well as certainly hang out here every
single morning on Colorado's Morning News.Again, I am Brandon Christall in for
Benjamin Albright. This show is calledBroncos Country Tonight, but as it stands,
we always have to keep an eyeon Nugs and avs this time of

(34:14):
year and Rockies. Of course,we're the home of the Rockies, who
now continue to add to their alltime mark of thirty one times falling behind
to start the season. That's neverhappened in Major League Baseball history. But
they lose to the Marlins tonight,as you may have heard earlier on KOA,
So appreciate everybody for helping out,certainly Grant Smith on the other side

(34:37):
of the glass. Hope Benjamin A. Bright's enjoying his night off. But
again, I am Brandon christal atBKA, Denver Sports can catch me every
single morning on Colorado's Morning News.This is KOA Colorado eight fifty AM and
ninety four to one FM.