04/22/24 - Admirals Center Ice

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome. It's Milwaukee AdmiralsCenter Ice with Mike wil Jehowski. I'm
Aaron Simms. The regular season isover. We're not going to say it
was meaningless, because there was alot of meaningful moments throughout a regular season.
But now it's the nitty gritty,it's the meat of the whole thing.
The playoffs begin. The Milwaukee Addrelswill play Game one of the Division
semi finals May second, on theroad, either in Winnipeg or Cedar Park,

(00:21):
Texas. After finishing yesterday, finishingthe regular season yesterday in Grand Rapids
with an overtime loss. Fun,fun season and it's going to get better,
will Joe. Great season? Andyeah, I tell you what.
Anybody that was at the game,sellout crowd on Saturday night, it was
unbelievable. The intensity in the buildingwas incredible. Versus a great hockey to
preview the playoffs and talk about everything. Milwaukee Addrals Admirals head coach Carl Taylor

(00:43):
joins us now coach. It wasa good week for this team. And
I don't know, you tell me, did it kind of re establish the
way you felt about your team goinginto the postseason? Did did Did this
week give you anything, any ammunition, any anything like that? Well,
I liked how we responded at homeon Saturday, so I like the response.

(01:07):
I like the fire the guys hadand their commitment to playing the right
way. Like we basically have hadfive games that haven't meant anything standing wise,
So that's sometimes difficult to deal withfor a coach to keep the guys
dialed in. The guys made iteasier for me, So I'm happy about
that. Now, we just gotto manage this whatever it is. Ten

(01:29):
working days off prior to starting playoffsand what about that's talking about the time
off, how are you going tobe able to use it productively and be
able to keep everybody focused on thetask in hand. Well, when we
win the first round, we'll saythe rest was awesome, and if it

(01:51):
doesn't go our way, we'll saywe were rusty because of the layoffs.
So you know, it is whatit is. This is our league,
this is the way it is.We're going to do everything we can and
consider all the different factors, rest, injuries, competitive nature. We're going
to do everything physically mentally possible toget this group ready for Thursday night somewhere

(02:16):
you know, and the interesting thing, one of the many interesting things is
again the way this league is,it's a division heavy schedule, and it
just so happens that all of thepossible teams you're going to play in the
first round or the second round,you've played them all within the last couple
of weeks. So you have somefresh rivalries going into this postseason. Yeah.

(02:39):
I don't think Manitoba and US needany help in that department, right
just based on the last few playoffyears, they have lots of motivation to
beat us. We've been fortunate toget by them the last two years,
and we don't take that for granted. They're a well coached team and play
a very direct dial. So yeah, so there's gonna be a motivation everywhere.

(03:04):
It's playoffs. Everyone wants to pushand see how far you can get.
Obviously, we had a good runlast year, but we fall short
of the final goal. This isa much different team this year. Obviously,
you know, we almost got ahundred points on the season, playing
seventy two games. Very proud ofthe effort of the players and what they
did. But overall, great regularseason, lots of good stuff within it,

(03:30):
played a lot of really young players. There's a lot of old trees
and fours two's on our roster,a very young forward group, a lot
of growth, but you know,the the old thing goes. These playoff
games. The more you get,you're probably getting three three regular season games
for every playoff game you play.In the situations you have to you have

(03:52):
to deal with. You can seeit now in Nashville they played last night.
Obviously, with that game last night, a lot of those players with
us last year, going through thehighs and the lows of a long playoff
run last year, appnal's head coachCarl Taylor joining us between college players and
DAN junior players and guys that havecome back from spending some time in Atlanta.

(04:15):
You've got a lot of guys here, and how are you going to
go about putting together on lineup forthis because a lot of guys have shown
pretty well and over the last coupleof weeks. Yeah, that's a good
problem to have. So we tryto say as loyal as we can until
loyalty gets beat by talent and effort, and so it's a catch twenty two.

(04:38):
But if there's a player last yearit was Kimmel. So Kimmel was
a big part of our run.He joined us in the end of the
season, became part of our groupand really assisted us through playoffs. Who's
it going to be this year,We'll wait and see. But if we
feel there's a player that can helpus win game one while they're going to
get an opportunity to play game oneand if they grab it, then they'll

(05:00):
play the next game. So we'renot too married to the situation. The
differences are some players have been hereall year and had a really long look.
If they haven't secured their spot bynow, then unfortunately that's the way
the pro hockey works and they've missedthat opportunity. Or these other young guys

(05:21):
have come in and been able toestablish themselves and make us reconsider some things.
And it's something we talk about duringthe season. We tell the current
team, look, the team changesat the end of the year. You're
going to see seventy eight guys hereevery year. Some of them are going
to play and some won't. Butif you don't want to be the casually,

(05:41):
make sure you take care of yourbusiness while you have the opportunity in
front of you. You mentioned willJoe asked about the young players coming in,
and yesterday you were able to restsome guys and not make them make
the overnight trip, and some veteranplayers who have played some hard minutes for
you all season long, and yougot the chance to see a lot of
young players play again into a GrandRapids team that had pretty much its full

(06:01):
lineup on the ice yesterday. Thatgroup average sixty five games in the American
Hockey League. I mean, thatwas an inexperienced group that showed pretty well
against a very good Grand Rapids teamyesterday. Yeah. No, we we
had to change our game plan alittle bit. Obviously, we had five

(06:24):
defensemen out and a few forwards out, plus a couple of guys banged up,
so we probably just ten guys thatwouldn't have played if that was a
win it all cost situation. Now, in the same breath, we did
try to win the game. Andthen, right, of course, we're
never gonna We're never gonna apologize forwhat we do. We've earned the grace

(06:44):
of securing first place and having theoption, and so you know, I
kind of wish I got to siton my couch overnight instead of in the
front seat on the bus. Soanyways, long story is, the guys
tried hard. You know, wehave a lot of respect for the American
Hockey League and a lot of respectfor our partners in the league. Obviously,

(07:06):
Grand Rapids and Rockford were playing forhome ice. That was a consideration
and we wanted to make sure wemanage things properly. And we almost pulled
it off. You know, theygot a late power play goal and then
they were able to sneak it outin overtime. But I thought we showed
very well. We also wanted togive some players an opportunity, but always

(07:29):
remembering respect to the game and respectto the league, and also to our
partners. You can't play hockey gameif you don't have an opponent, so
we really respect what the other teamsare doing. We definitely want to make
sure that we played with honor,and it's something we talked about in our
meeting in the morning to make surethe guys knew there was a responsibility to

(07:51):
make sure we tried our best.But also you respect and absolutely respect all
the teams and everybody involved, butrespect to your players too. Jeremy Hansel's
here, He's probably gonna play minutesnext season for the Admirals. Give him
some minutes and let's see what hecan do at crunch time of a regular
season. A Ryanufko, Jack Mattier, A lot of guys that are gonna

(08:11):
factor in, you would think inthe Admiral season. Next season you get
a chance to see them in agame that means a little something, not
only to the other team because they'regoing for second place and home ice in
the first round and all of that, but means a heck of a lot
to these young players trying to makea name for themselves. Yeah. No,
that's the goal when you join ateam pro team, whether it's an

(08:35):
East Coast League team, American Leagueteam, or an NHL team at the
end of the season, when youget that opportunity, your goal is a
young guy coming into a new scenario, is to establish yourself, get comfortable
in order to leap, leap,fraud yourself the next fall and get ahead
start. Now you've seen the coaches, you know the staff, you know

(08:56):
the arena. It's a little moreuncomfortable hopefully in the fall for all the
players that join us at the endof the season. On top of that,
you're trying to give yourself a chanceto keep playing hockey, and if
we have a good playoff run.You look at last year, you know,
Kimmy comes in, he's a bigpart of our group. It gives
himself a leg up going into trainingcamp this season, and so it puts

(09:18):
you on the radar, gives youa chance for people to see you have
higher expectations. It's not just aboutyour own career, but it's about having
an opportunity to have Nashville get agood look at you as we move forward
and hopefully have a deep run.Admiral's head coach Carl Taylor joining us at
Milwaukee Admirals Center ice this season.Carl, You've had so much success in

(09:39):
playing eleven forwards and seven defensemen.And when you were doing that, you
said, we're playing the eighteen bestskaters that we can on any given night,
and you had great success doing that. Is there any consideration in the
playoffs? Does it matter the matchups? All of that coming up? And
not that I want you to tipyour hand necessarily, but nothing is off
the table, I guess is whereI'm trying to go with. Well,

(10:01):
if the other teams in the divisionare listening to our radio talk. I'll
tip my hat to them. Nooffense to you, fellas Again I would
say about that. The thing Iwould say about that is pretty straightforward is
that we've had success with that.It started off for one reason, it
ended up becoming something else. Yeah, we're gonna play the best team we

(10:22):
can. We're not focused on whetherit's this or that. The matchup will
matter. Manitoba's bigger, stronger,Texas is quicker and more transitional team.
So there's there is some differences betweenthe two teams we'll see in the first
round that could determine the last rosterspot, whether that's a twelve ford or

(10:43):
seventh defenseman. Back to the twelveand or the eleven and seven. When
you go through that, if youd dress twelve and six, say you
do that other than losing the extradefenseman, I can still play eleven forward
and double guys up and get getdifferent looks. You know, it's at
the expense of another player, butyou can still do that. There's an

(11:05):
option to do that within your realm. You don't have to have only eleven
boards to do that, right,So you can do it both ways.
There's different ways of looking at it. Typically you're trying to change your matchups.
A lot of times with a teamwho is our hard match coach or
hard match team, you can movearound, you're some of your better players,

(11:26):
give them different looks. That makesthem more difficult for the visiting team
to have to try to get theirmatchups or even when they have last change.
It does allow the coach to controlthe other team's bench a little bit.
It's something I believe in and somethingwe can do as a group.
I always try to get information fromthe other coach A lot of times on
the road. You'll see me goone two one two, one two three

(11:50):
with my line rotation. I'll dodifferent things in different combinations just to see
and get some information out of theother coach early during the regular sea or
with playoffs, just to see wherethey're at. And I just want to
know what they're hard matching and thenif they're doing it, and then I
know, am I okay with it? Do I want to change thing?
You don't want to overcoach, butyou definitely want to drag all the information

(12:13):
you can early in a game thatinterests me and it makes all the sense
in the world. But now I'mwondering is that in your memory bank or
is that something you write down ina notebook and you have that at your
fingers for the next time you playa Mark Morrison, you know Mark Morrison
very well, or Neil Graham orwhoever it might be. Yeah. No,
we make notes on everything and we'llrefer back to them, even with

(12:35):
this break. It's a similar lengthof time. Last year for us,
I pulled out my old, myold. I wouldn't call it a diary,
It's just a day book. Iwould call it just makeing notes of
who you meet with, how dowe handle it, What did we do
with the schedule last year do?What do we like? What do we
need to change. The difference isthe other teams are playing. But with

(12:56):
other teams coaches you know, likeI knew when Timmy Army was an eye,
he would coach hard. We triedto get to a situation. He
was a hard match coach. Sothere was times when I would try to
run certain things, or I'd putcertain lines on in different situations, knowing
Timmy would stay with it longer.Even to the first year we played them

(13:16):
in playoffs. The first home gamethey blew us out down there the first
two games. We came home andthen I saw they were hard matching,
and so we ended up being ableto get their bench a little rattled.
They start put their best players out. I'd put someone else out. He
would try to change them, andyou know, you get a few gate
slams. There's some verbal and nonverbal things you can see as a coach

(13:37):
that you can take away and youtry to stir the get a stick in
the nest over there and get hergoing a little bit. Anyways, I
thought it worked well in that series. A lot of respect to Tim Army.
He's a very good coach and hada long career and has done a
great great job. He's coaching theNHL for twenty years. So it just
you get the Tennessees just like theydo of me. So you know,

(14:00):
if you're a smart coach. Isaw the other day Paul Maurice thought they're
going to play Toronto in the firstround, so he watched all Toronto games
against Florida the previous year, tryingto see the rotation and how they move
people around so he could predict howShelton Keith would deploy his lines at home
and away. I haven't gone tothat likes, but maybe this is the

(14:22):
year I try to do that afterlistening to a very successful NHL coach looking
at different things to drag information andjust tendencies from the other coach and how
they operate. So not only notonly your matchups, but now you get
the and again it's a delay,and it's rest versus rust and all of
that stuff, but you get youget the opportunity to see potentially three games

(14:43):
between Texas and Manitoba at this timeof the year, at what would be
their best You would think, doyou are you glued to the TV watching
these or do you how do you? How do you go about these next
couple of days? Yeah, no, no, we'll watch the ta if
whether we watch them or not isrelevant. We got twelve days off,
so it's it's not as important anduh, but we will watch the games.

(15:09):
Obviously, Well we'll break them down. The nice thing with Texas is
we came back and beat them downthere. That was a bit of a
singer. So the next night theygot they got a hard coach team,
very detailed players. The next dayin their response and so that second game
that we lost was probably the perfectsituation for us to pull information out of
because they got dialed in hard.The coaches really dug in, the players

(15:33):
dug in they had They played verywell in Game two, so I think
we saw a lot of things inthere that we could predict that they're going
to try to do against us movingforward if they come out of it.
And then with Manitoba, we wantedto play them hard, but we know
what they're going to do. Theyknow what we're going to do. We've
pad them. I don't know howmany games last three years, too many

(15:54):
to remember, but playoffs both years, going five rounds plus the regular season
and plus both the up rounds couldhave been won by either team with you
know, both going down to thelast seconds in single goal games. You
mentioned earlier that you know their tendenciesand they may know yours. Do you

(16:14):
have a self scouting situation where youhave somebody that scouts the admirals and comes
back and says, hey, coach, you're doing too much of this.
You're doing too much of that.This guy's doing too much. That's guys
doing too much. Any any doyou have a self scouting setup or you
know how you can to be ableto break your tendencies. I do some
different things. I kind of knowwhere what I'm doing now and what my

(16:36):
faults are or where I focus on. So I've been doing it long enough
to recognize on your own. Sometimesit doesn't mean I don't continue to do
it. But every year I havefriends and mentors that coach, and I
will call them and say, hey, how are you going to beat a
Here's two games. Watch these games. You come back and tell me how
you're going to beat the Milwaukee Admirals. And so I don't give them a
lot of information. I just getthem to breakdown film and I want to

(17:00):
know their decisions on how they wouldtry to beat us. I give them
a bad game in a good game, and so they're going to see us
at our best and at our worst. And then I ask them to tell
me, okay, make your fivekeys to beat us in a playoff series.
So I'll do that. I alwaysdo that. I've always done it
over the years. I think it'sreally good to do. Part two of
that is, you know, selfawareness and reflection is really important, and

(17:23):
we film practices two or three timesa year. I always like to see
and unfortunately you don't always like whatyou see, but sometimes it's a reflection
of you get a different view ofhow you're operating and how you're moving around,
how you're communicating, and just geta bit different looks. So no,
we do do a lot of theself scouting. I believe in getting

(17:44):
into outside view that doesn't have theinformation or the bias of being with us
all season. But it's a trustedsource, and I'll ask them just to
watch a couple of games and letme know what their keys would be to
knock us off. Well, thead rules will start the playoffs second,
either in Winnipeg or in Cedar Park, Texas. The Manitoba Moose and the
Texas Stars get going tomorrow night,best of three series Tuesday, Thursday,

(18:07):
Friday, or the scheduled games.Coach, thanks so much for the time,
Congratulations on a great season, andlook forward to celebrating hopefully back in
late June. Sounds good. Ijust said, the last day possible is
June twenty sixth. June twenty sixa long time away. Yeah, yeah,
it's a it's a even. Theplayoffs is a marathon, not a

(18:27):
sprint, right, it is amarathon. Let's hope we have the option.
Absolutely thanks coach. All right,guys, Admiral's head coach Carl Taylor.
The Admirals again May second on theroad. The first home game will
be May eighth. That'll be Gamethree of the best of five series.
If necessary. May tenth will beGame four, and May twelfth, the
eighth, tenth, and twelfth allat UW Milwaukee Panther Arena. We're gonna

(18:49):
take break. Come back in amoment. You're listening to Milwaukee Admiral Center
Ice. Welcome back to Milwaukee AdmiralsCenter Ice with Michael Jehowski. I'm Aaron
Simms. It is a thrill.This is the second time I've had the
chance to spa with this man onthe telephone. Certainly a hero. Anybody
who's in the game, he's probablytheir hero. Wojo had an interesting email

(19:10):
a couple of weeks ago for thisguy. If you love hockey, you
love doc Emrick. If you loveDoc Emrick, Yeah, hit Hall of
Famered Mike doc Emrick joining us onthe phone. Doc, It's great to
talk to you. Thanks so muchfor your time. How are how are
you doing? Are you keeping busy? Yeah? Aaron and Mike, it's
it's all good, and it's niceof you to remember me. You know,

(19:30):
when you're retired sometimes it's very easyto be out of circulation, but
it's always good to be remembered.And I remember it was I think three
years ago that that we were heretalking about the admirals, about the i
h L, about the EHL,about are wonderfully archaic people like myself and

(19:52):
Phil Whitlist's and all of those otherthings that go back well into history,
but trying to be relevant to thepresent as well. You know, my
dad retired from and there's a totallydifferent job. He loaded and unloaded airplanes
for thirty five years. He's beenretired almost in goodness, yeah, he's
been retired about nineteen years. Itreally is okay, well, yeah,

(20:15):
he's eighty one right now. He'sdoing great, but he says, good
for him. The retirement doc is. He says, it's great. But
I missed the guys, And I'mcurious about you. What is it like
for you? That's it? Likehim, I don't really regret unloading planes

(20:36):
that had my baggage on it,and I really don't miss riding in planes
or staying in hotels, even thoughthat was the great appeal in the days
when I was in the IHL andAmerican League, where almost exclusively the travel
was by buses. I look forwardto the planes and to the to the

(20:57):
nicer hotels when I got into theNHL. But after forty years of that,
that was what I don't miss.But what I miss were being around
the players and the coaches and fellowpeople in the media. That I miss.
But I sure enjoy watching other peoplework, and I like the games,

(21:19):
especially at this time of year.And I'm so happy that the Admirals
had a wonderful season, my goodness, And you get a break now and
so a few of the welts onthe shoulders can heal as you wait for
perhaps Texas or who knows, tofinally get into the playoffs. But despite

(21:42):
what people say about having a layoff, yeah, maybe you're rusty for the
first period, but it sure isnice to not feel as much pain as
you did in the last regular seasongames, right, And it's wonderful to
have a break at the end ofthe regular season and just like the others,
slug it out for a little while, right, absolutely, So what

(22:03):
have you been up to in yourretirement? Right? I mean well,
Fortunately, some people have remembered meand asked me to do voiceovers on various
things, and not far away fromyou as a place called Shattuck Saint Mary's
and they were one that wanted meto voice over a special video for them.
The Boston Bruins and Anaheim Ducks andDetroit Red Wings and others have asked

(22:27):
me to do that. And itdoesn't involve travel, which I don't enjoy
that much anymore. And so I'mable to find a studio about an hour
away in Detroit and work with themand do things like that. Otherwise,
you know, I'm around home.We have these horses, and we have

(22:47):
a dog, and my wife andI stay pretty busy with that. And
over the course of forty seven years, I was largely an analog person.
And you know what that means.That means You've got tons of stuff that
you have to go through. AndI think there are probably some Milwaukee Admiral

(23:08):
stinks in there too, from yearsand years ago, and so you don't
seem as motivated to go through thatstuff as you do is sit down and
watch a game on television. SoI'm not making great progress with that.
Let's put it that one. That'sright. I totally get that. Doc

(23:30):
Emerck joining us at Milwaukee Admiral Center. Ice. I'm curious you're you are
all sports, You've done them all. John Sterling recently retired and it was
abrupt, and I'm sure the decisionwasn't abrupt, but the the final thing
was abrupt. I'm curious how youcan sympathize and empathize with a situation like
John Sterling went through in New York. Well, it's a different life,

(23:55):
isn't it in baseball or the broadcastin general. Now, No, that's
a very good point you're making.Baseball, I think is a much different
life. Because I had a chanceto be around the Pirates at spring training
several years in a row, andGreg Brown, who was in his thirty
first season with the Pirates, allowedme to go on and sit in with

(24:21):
him once a year down in springtraining, and he's been very cordial about
letting me actually ruin a regular seasongame with him and John Wayner. But
occasionally I'll do that. But Idon't know how they do that. One
hundred and sixty two games and allof those spring training games where guys come

(24:42):
in in the sixth and seventh inningsthat have numbers ninety one through ninety nine
and nothing on the back, andtheir number may change the next day and
they may be wearing a different one, and somehow or other they keep track
of it, and they do maybethirty to five of those, So you're
looking at like two hundred games,and sometimes rain delays in all of that.

(25:06):
So it is a totally different life. And John has been doing that
for eons, and he actually wasthe voice of the Islanders at one time
when they first got started, andthen he did I think the New York
Nets before they became the New JerseyNets. So it's he's had a wonderful

(25:26):
career and he has all of thesesignature calls that he is very creative with,
and so I wish him well inretirement, and I hope he doesn't
miss it too much. I'm surethat he will, at least initially.
But I'm happy for him that hehas made this decision and I hope he's
happy with it. Did you missit right away? Was it tough not

(25:49):
going into the rink in October orwhatever? Yeah, Well it went through
September, that's for sure, andthen we had because it was that year
when the COVID gap. Because ofCOVID that we finished at the end of
September, and the leaves were justturning, and it made sense that we
should go right into training camp,but of course that would have been in

(26:10):
humane, so they started the nextJanuary, and no, by then it
was the middle of winter, whichI'm sure you and Milwaukee can appreciate,
just like we in Michigan camp thatit just didn't seem right to be going
to training camp at that time.But I was well into the midst of

(26:32):
and you helped me with that,promoting a book which came out just about
the time that I retired, strictlyby coincidence, because I didn't know I
was retiring until later that summer.But anyway, it probably was the best
time to retire, simply because itdidn't everything seemed out of whack in terms
of the calendar because of COVID.Doc Emrick joining us at Milwaukee Aperal Center.

(26:57):
I so tell you what, Doc, We're going to take quick break,
will come back for another segment ifyou're good with that. Oh yes,
well just text me the commercial maybeI can will do. We will
do if you can get to Detroitan hour away or wherever you are here.
We'll take a break, come backwith more in just a moment with
Doc Emrick. You're listening to MilwaukeeAdmiral Center Ice. Welcome back. It's

(27:18):
Milwaukee Admiral Center Ice. Continuing ourconversation with Hall of Famer Doc Amrick.
We're talking about about the last coupleof years for you. Doc. I'm
curious now how much you're into it, how much you enjoy watching the games.
This is this is probably the besttime of year, right the playoffs.
Oh yes, It's amazing what sacrificesplayers make at this time of year.

(27:45):
And you know, I've I've talkedto NHL ers and the same would
be true of American Hockey leaguers andand e C. H L and all
of the other levels of the sacrificethat they make. And I remember speaking
with John Madden the last time theDevils won the playoffs, which remarkably is
twenty one years ago in two thousandand three. I saw him in the

(28:07):
summer at a golf outing. Itwas probably August, maybe September, late
August. Anyway, I'm sorry tointerrupt. Are we talking. We're talking
John Madden, the hockey player orJohn Madden the football coach. Oh,
very good, that you clarify JohnMadden the hockey player. Okay, who
later went on to coach in theAmerican League. Yes, yes, But

(28:30):
anyway, I said, so,how is your summer and he said,
of course, wonderful. We wonand I said, so, how did
you recover from the end of theplayoffs? He said, it was the
middle of July and they won inthe first week of June. It was
middle of July before I got outof bed and didn't hurt somewhere. And
Sean O'Donnell, who won with Anaheim, I asked him how it was physically

(28:56):
to recover from the playoffs. Hesaid, we won on the ninth of
June, and I realized when Iwas supposed to go to a to a
Stanley Cup celebration a couple of dayslater, I got in my sports car.
My shoulder hurt, my elbow hurt, and he mentioned like a knee

(29:17):
was bad and an ankle was bad, and he said, I didn't notice
it before. Now, some ofthose painkillers just to get ready to play
every other day like they had todo to win. But he said,
I just didn't realize how much Iwas blocking out, you know, every
other day, and it's the hardesttrophy to win because you have to go
through so much physical pain. Iworked with Matt Millan doing some football games

(29:41):
in the NFL on CBS, andhe was amazed too. He was a
hockey fan and he would go togames, but he was amazed how much
punishment players would take four times aweek, because football players did it once
a week, and it's a lotof f sacrifice. They are really gladiators

(30:02):
and they understand that this is whatit takes to win the championship. And
even though not every guy wants todo it, most people just block it
out because this is this is whatyou do. And they don't talk about
the money, largely because the money, compared to what they make during the
regular season and compared to what otherathletes make for winning a championship in their

(30:26):
sport, is kind of minuscule.I don't know what. I don't know
if for eight weeks work, IfI haven't researched it lately, I don't
know if it's reached two hundred thousanddollars for eight weeks yet or not.
If you win, and then ifyou lose. It's about half that.
But it's not about the money.It's about getting the name that your parents

(30:48):
gave you on a trophy that goesall the way back into the late eighteen
hundreds. And that's kind of whatit's about. It's a ring you can't
wear because it's it's obscene, it'sway too big, and it's not about
that. It's about getting your nameon this trophy that is heralded. There

(31:11):
are only two of them. There'sone that's located in a vault at the
Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.Now that is the replica, the one
that is carried out onto the ice. That's the real one. That's the
one that goes all the way backin time, and that's the one they
carry around, and that's the onethat goes to all the parties, and

(31:33):
beginning with the Devils in ninety five, they determine that everybody should get it
for one day, every player andevery trainer and every coach and assistant coach
and all around it goes. Sothat's the one that really has the great
meaning. And later on you'll inthe summer it will go. They are

(31:55):
only I think three three or maybefour people that have ever had the privilege
of etching the names on the cup, because it's done at a jewelry store
in Montreal, and it is LouiseSaint Jox who has done it now for
probably fifteen to twenty years, andthen before her it was someone else who
had done it for decades, andso their very few hands touched the cup

(32:20):
other than player's hands and jeweler's handswhen they put the names on. So
that's all a part of the lorethat I have occupied your time with here.
But it's all about what means somuch to these guys when they finally
grab it for the first time andthey realized, holy gee, this thing's
thirty five pounds. Right absolutely,And that's clear by hearing you tell that

(32:44):
of your incredible passion for the gameof hockey, and you've, as you
said, you've called them all andHall of Fame former Admiral's owner and Hall
of Famer Lloyd Pettitt had told mehockey was the easiest game to call because
there's always something going on, andyou mentioned earlier about baseball pitching changes in
this and all the things that goon can sometimes not be as easy to
do what sport to you was theeasiest to call, Well, it's this

(33:08):
one, and largely because there's nottime between pitches. There's not a whole
bunch of timeouts like there is latein basketball and in football you have to
wait for everybody to unpile. Fortunately, in this sport and in the other
sport, you have an analyst thatsits next to you and he's there for

(33:29):
a reason because he's experienced these thingsor she and they can pass along information
that you don't have because you haven'tplayed this sport and they have, and
they can share something important with theaudience that you can't. But I think
hockey is the most important because whenplay stops, either here comes a commercial

(33:53):
or the person with you or twopeople sometimes have something that they can pass
on. But it's non stop.And we had we had one game I
was working with Eddie Olchek and PierreMcGuire. We had one game that played
in the stop for over eight minutes, and they would occasionally jump in with

(34:16):
short sentences because they realized that itbelongs to the play by play guy unless
there is, you know, somethingmeaningful when there's nothing much going on,
like the defenseman standing behind his ownnet and both teams are changing lines.
Well, that's that's a good timefor them to give you a break and

(34:38):
also pass along something that they've noticedin the last two and a half minutes
when you've talked your head off.So those are those are moments where you
know where you get a break fromit. But normally it's NonStop action.
And so I agree with Lloyd.I always marveled at his exciting calls of
games, and I got a chanceto talk to him a couple times at

(35:00):
Milwaukee Admiral's home games back when hewas when he was there, and he
used to always talk about how easyit was to do hockey. Well,
most people, when they see itand see the passing of the puck and
mentioning of names, don't think that'strue. But really it is. And

(35:20):
in any sport, when you're describinga game, the legs that get you
through play by play from one thingto another are the names of players and
identifying players as the most important thing. I always said, and not to
be labor the point, but peoplesay the same thing, like how can
you do hockey? And I'm sureyou've had that question a million times in

(35:43):
your career. And I say,especially for me, I'm not doing the
national game of the week, Ifocus on one team and the opponent,
and if I know my team,that's pretty much eighty percent of the battle.
Yeah, it is. And youknow, when you're doing it in
a one team city, you're expectedto do, you know, eighty percent.

(36:04):
Like you said, of the emphasisis on what is the home team
doing? Are they doing well?Are they not doing well? And that
was the way it was. Evenwith national telecasts, we would do fifty
to fifty. Now, if itwas a you know, I did the
Devils for twenty one years, itwas the Devils and the Philadelphia Flyers.
On a national telecast, it wasfifty to fifty unless one team was dominant,

(36:28):
and then you left the team thatwas behind alone and you focused on
the team that was ahead, becausethere was no reason to, you know,
run one team into the ditch.On a national telecast, you might
as well praise the team that wasahead. If it was a devil's game

(36:51):
for a devil's audience, you wouldgo something like seventy five five percent.
Take it from the angle of theteam with the most listeners, and so
you would portray it that way.But we were in a New York market
where there were three teams, andthere there was a diversity of people coming

(37:14):
from all over the universe that werein the New York viewing area, and
so you tended to go less withpartiality than you would if you were in
a one team town, like sayPhiladelphia or Pittsburgh. Doc Emerck joining us,
and what we got, we gotjust a couple of minutes left.
I'm curious of your thoughts. Ohmy goodness, if I'm sorry I talked

(37:37):
that. No, I tell youwhat I wish we you know, it's
commercial radio, man. We couldsit here and listen to you all day.
I'm curious your thoughts on the Arizonasituation. I jokingly said to somebody
last week, to Ken Sabron,Actually, I said, it seems everybody
is down with keeping hockey in Arizona, except for the people that have to

(37:58):
travel so far to Glenna or whereverthey may be to play the games.
Yeah, you know, I wasgoing to Winnipeg on a regular basis to
the original Winnipeg Jets, right,and then they moved to Phoenix, and
when they were downtown it seemed thatit was a more rabid group, and

(38:21):
they cared a lot about the team, and yet they were in a basketball
arena where there were television monitors atone end, because when the team came
across the attacking blue line toward you, if you were sitting in the end,
you could not see the action.And yet there were people sitting in
those seats and filling the place,and when the team came toward them at

(38:45):
that one end, they had towatch it on television, and yet it
didn't matter to them. Well,then they got, you know, they
got something away from downtown out inGlendale, and that seemed to be you
know, it was a treck fora lot of people to get out that
way because of the freeways, andthen that arena, the shelf life of

(39:09):
that arena became very very light.I guess that it didn't take but a
few years before it was archaic,and so I feel bad for the people
that really cared about it. Myunderstanding is based on media reports that despite
the apologies of the owner, thata lot of things that were promised didn't

(39:31):
work out. And I always feelbad for fans such as those in Phoenix
as well as in Atlanta, thatwere very loyal to the team, but
it just did not work out.I get the idea he's going to try
to get another franchise, but SaltLake is a wonderful area and they're going
to be very passionate about their teamtoo. It's just always sad to me

(39:57):
when a coach gets fired or whena friend guys gets lost, and that
includes franchises in the minor leagues.Two yes, yeah, and and yeah,
unfortunately that it happens. Uh,it still happens too frequently, which
is which is really too bad.Doc. Again, as we JO said,
we could do this forever, butyou're on the road and we got

(40:19):
you know, bills to pay here, so to speak. Right, So
yeah, yeah, you do.It's a it's a pleasure. It's always
a pleasure. Uh continued. Thebest to you your family. Just again,
it's just a thrill to talk toyou, and we wish you nothing
but the best. All the bestto you as well, and good luck
to those admirals in the playoffs thathaven't even started for you yet. So

(40:43):
we got and and rest all ofthose weary bones until it gets started.
Thank you so much for thinking ofme and uh and for calling and Doc,
one more thing with all due respectyou, with all due respect,
Doc, go Brewers for the nextfour days, and then then then I
will kick my love for the Pirateswill kick back it. Yeah, we

(41:07):
had a great start and now we'reon a six game losing streak, which
is probably more normal than not.Great Pirate teams have been ruined when they
come to Milwaukee. Yeah, thankyou, Doc. Take care. That's
the UH Hall of Famer, thegreat Doc Emrick joining us. We're going
to take a break. We'll comeback and wrap things up. You're listening

(41:29):
to Milwaukee Admiral Center ice, onefinal time, Milwaukee Admiral Center Ice.
What a treat to talk to Docemrickh with Michael Jahowski. I'maron Sims.
Just again, you could do thatall day. Yeah, you could do
that all day every day and leaveforty questions and asked. But you know,
you know, and and many peoplehere know this, But he called

(41:52):
a Packers game that Brett Favre completedhis first pass and it was to himself.
Yes, right, I mean,but Doc Emrick was calling that game.
I mean, he's he's done alleverything. It's just it's such a
treat. The Admirals playoffs are aroundthe corner here, but they've got to
wait about ten days. May secondis the first game they'll take on the
winner of the Manitoba Texas series thatgets going tomorrow night in Cedar Park.

(42:14):
It's a best of three series.Texas is the home team for game one.
Manitoba will be the home team forGame two even though the game is
in Texas, and Game three,if necessary, will be Thursday the winner
of that series against Milwaukee. Maysecond is the first game that will be
on the road for the Admirals.They'll be home May eighth, May tenth,
May twelfth, the tenth and thetwelfth if necessary. Tickets are on
sale now for all of these games. Absolutely get the whole package, the

(42:36):
whole entire bit. You can getthe whole package or you get individual game
individual games at Milwaukee Admirals dot comor give them a call. Thanks for
listening to Milwaukee Admirals Center Ice