November 4, 2025 • 46 mins
This week on Happy Hour, James and Kim go behind the scenes with one of the Roadrunners’ medical staff members, Nikki Patel, for a look at what it takes to keep the team healthy and game-ready. From long road trips to quick turnarounds and the inside stories that never make it to the ice. Settle in for a mix of hockey talk, behind-the-scenes insight, and a few laughs along the way.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's five o'clock on your Tuesday night. This is Tucson
Roadrunners Happy I were from Fox Sports fourteen fifty A
yea with James Mack, David Brady and then Kim Conor
road Blaze. It's our usual Tuesday night. Can get together
right here on Tucson Sports Dick set, Fox Sports fourteenth
fifty A.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Welcome back to road Runners Happy HOURGYMNACKI joined by Kim
ConA road Blaze, an assistant athletic trainer and physical therapist,
Nikki pa Toe.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Nikki, how are you?
Speaker 4 (00:30):
I'm good? How are you? Guys?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Wonderful? We appreciate your time. I guess we'll start with
kind of take us through your history, How you got
to your role, what school looked like, kind of why
physical therapy.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Yeah, so I kind of knew when I was young
that I wanted to go into healthcare. I just kind
of didn't know what I wanted to do, and I
think hockey played a big role in that, which is
kind of why I pursue the sport itself. When I
was younger. I actually never grew up playing hockey, which
a lot of the guys that I work with, it's
very different for them. But I used to watch hockey
(01:07):
play with my dad, so we used to watch together.
He'd watched me yell at the TV when a Devil's
game was going on, and I watched him yell at
the TV when India was playing Pakistan and the cricket
World Finals, and it's kind of like something we bonded over.
So kind of got into sports that way. And then
I wanted to figure out a way to combine sports
(01:29):
and healthcare into kind of what I did for my profession.
And I actually went to my first hockey game and
it was the New Jersey Devils playing the New York Rangers,
which is a classic rivalry, and it was a game
that actually had a pretty famous line brawl and started
(01:50):
right at the beginning of the game, and Ryan Curter
and Stubi Gel were fighting and I was up at
the class I was watching this fight freaking out my mom.
I took my mom to this game. She hasn't watched
a lick of hockey, so she was like, what is
going on? And Ryan Carter ended up getting hit in
the face and he was bleeding. He got taken off
the ice and I kid you not two minutes later
(02:13):
he's back on ready to go, ready to play this game,
and I was like, how the heck did that happen?
So I found out about the profession of athletic training
through a hockey game, and I told my mom that night.
I was like, that's what I want to do. This
is what I want to study. And from there kind
of did what most high school kids did, looked into programs.
(02:36):
I was actually touring the University of Delaware when my
brother was looking into colleges, and the director of the
athletic training program at Delaware pulled me aside and he's like, hey, like,
you look like you're super interested in I was looking
at their kind of like their booth, and he was like,
you're super interested in athletic training. He's like, come to
one of our open questions, like open like podium days
(03:01):
or whatever. We can kind of like tell you a
little bit more about the profession. So I went with
my mom. I kind of hijacked my brother's college tour
and I went and speaking at this like kind of
open booth was a student who was doing an internship
with the Flyers, and I was like, Mom, this is perfect.
(03:22):
They have a hockey internship. They have a good program,
this is where I want to go. And my mom's like, okay, well,
you got a couple more years of high school, so
like still definitely think it out. And I kind of
just had my sight set on Delaware and kind of
made it. I applied senior year. We had to compete
for a spot our freshman year of college to get
(03:42):
into the major. Got into the major, and then I
told the director of the program, I want to do
this internship my senior year. How do I make this happen.
It was a lot of work. I had to kind
of rearrange my schedule because the head athletic tuner at
the time with the Flyers really wanted the interns there
quite a few times during the week. But I made
it work and I did this internship with the Flyers,
(04:05):
and I think that really solidified like that I wanted
to go into hockey. It was a fantastic internship. I
had so much fun doing it. It was it was
definitely a lot of hard work, but it was such
a blast going in. So I had to kind of
decide what to do after that, and it was between
trying to decide between getting a master's in athletic training
(04:28):
or going into physical therapy, and I had really fallen
in love with the rehab side of treating athletes. So
I ended up going and actually stayed at Delaware to
get my doctorate in physical therapy, and then from there
just tried to get into hockey, back into hockey after
I graduated.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
So thank you. I have a million questions for you
after that. That was so amazing. No, that was such
a great answer. Okay, So back backing up, backing up,
you're from New Jersey. Where in New Jersey are you from?
Or you're in your Devil's fan Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
All, well, right now, I work for the utam Mamma,
so we are U Tummamma's fan. But I grew up
watching the Devils play. I'm from North Jersey. Grew up
in North Jersey. If anyybody ask you, guys, Central Jersey
doesn't exist, and it's Taylor Ham, not poor girl.
Speaker 6 (05:22):
Okay, okay, okay, And then so and then what did
Okay is your brother that you followed to go to
this college tour?
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Is he your only sibling? And then where did he
end up at school? Did he also go to Delaware?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
So he is my only sibling. He's older he's a
year and a half older. He ended up going to
Rutgers actually, so he stated, yeah, so didn't pick Delaware. Definitely,
just totally hijacked the day. But he was fine with it.
I think he kind of knew Delaware wasn't his place.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
So yeah, did it. Was anybody else in your family
like a super hockey fan or are you like training
them all to be hockey fans? Are they there now
or what does it look like?
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, so not a lot of people in my family
were hockey fans. I actually went to that game. I
got tickets from my uncle and he's probably the biggest
hockey fan in our family. He's a Rangers fan, and
he he had season tickets and he wasn't going to
that game, and I helped him out with a favorite
earlier in the week. So he's like, do you want
to go? And I was like, sure, that'd be awesome.
(06:28):
So he's probably the biggest hockey fan. But I will
say like over the past couple of years, my family
has definitely gotten into it. My mom will tune into
all the Roadrunner games. She's she's me text during the
games like yeah, it's kind of cute.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
So they've become like fans of hockey kind of, probably
because they talk about it quite a bit.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
Yeah, that's amazing. Have they had a chance to come
visit you since you've been.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Here, Yeah, so they had. They helped me move over
to Tucson because I had like think, like two or
three weekends to make them move over once I got hired,
So they helped me move over. They haven't seen a
game live actually, so they definitely want to make it
over this season. Yeah, to come see one time.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Jameson and I face is both like I guess.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
I was gonna have them come over the second half
of the season, but we were just traveling so much
and their like work schedule and my schedule just was
not matching up. But a lot of my friends have
come to watch games, and my brother has come to
watch a game as well, so they've all came to visit,
which has been super fun. So I just got to
get my friends down here.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
So I moved here. I'm from Tucson, but I moved
all over the country and the last place that I
lived was DC and I love Oh my god, I
vibe with East Coast drivers so hard. And then moving
back here and driving here is a very different story.
So I'm wondering what the biggest culture shock was for
(08:02):
you coming from that coast to the Sonoran Desert.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Yeah, I mean it was quite a culture shock this.
I've never been away from the East Coast, so I've
moved quite a bit, but just usually along the East Coast,
So I feel like the biggest thing was definitely the driving.
I remember one of the first weeks we started, I
was talking to Jordan and Jimmy that had athletic trainer
and assistant, and I was like, yeah, like I really
(08:28):
like driving. I'm cool with like ten fifteen minute drives
and that's about it. And was like, well, I hate
to break it to you, but most of your driving
is going to probably be like thirty forty minutes. And
I think I was like, what what is going on?
And He's like, we are a lot more spread out
here than the East Coast, so you might have yeah.
I was like, okay, And then I think for me,
(08:50):
it's just the weather. The weather is so different. I
used to four seasons. I used to the cold by
the time December rolls around, a little bit of season depression,
and I just didn't get that last season, I was like,
this is great sitting by the pool and it's January.
I think it was a huge seal of my friends too.
They're like, we're pretty miserable out here. Can we come
(09:11):
to visit you. I was like, say no more, please come.
I think that's been huge And I think I'm a
big foodie. So I really really love the Mexican food here.
It's fantastic.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
It is. What's your spot? Do you have a favor
right now? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:30):
I think El Charro has been like my favorite. I like,
really like.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
The cafe Yea downtown? Is that the one?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Yeah? The one downtown? Yeah? So I really like their
I really like their Okay, So I honestly depends on
what i'm eating, like Barista del Barrio with grape burritos, Yes, yeah,
there's there's. I usually hop around based off of what
I'm craving.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Yeah. I think that BDB versus Al Barrio does not
get enough love on the food and I don't know how,
And I think maybe it's because they don't like have
seating and you have to take it to go because
it's so tiny. Yeah good, Yeah, And I don't know
if you drink chai actually makes Oh my god, their
chi is like no other try I've ever tasted, and
(10:15):
I know they make it special in house. Yeah it's
so yeah, little plug for.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
We usually order Burris to Del Barrio for breakfasts. If
we're like missing a breakfast here and we're working in
the morning, that we'll treat ourselves a little bit. But yeah,
so good.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
So Nikki, what does your day to day look like?
I imagine every day looks completely different, but like, for instance, today,
you guys, you know, we just finished a road game.
You flew back yesterday, which I'm hoping wasn't too Nightmarriash.
I've seen a lot of social media posts about the
TSA and the lines lately, and now so you're back,
(10:53):
and what does your day look like today? And then
what does tomorrow look like?
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yeah, so my role is a little unique. I actually
did not travel to Iowa this weekend. So if we
have guys that are on the ir that are not skating,
we are usually sitting back and I'm rehaving them back
at home, mostly just because we have a lot more
equipment available here. So I was rehabbing during the weekend
(11:19):
and I did not have to go through airport TSA yesterday,
which sounded like it was a good thing because I
think the guys threw a little too late on their timeline.
But today is typically a day off for the guys.
They'll text Jordan if they want any treatments done, and
we usually schedule an open kind of treatment hour around
(11:40):
ten o'clock. Any of the guys that are getting formal rehab,
like so through me. They'll come in on like a
scheduled time, and then I'll roll through their rehabs during
the day as well, and this is typically considered one
of our lighter days. We'll probably get out around like
one o'clock, but after that there's like no practice on
(12:01):
a day off or anything like that, so we're kind
of just rolling through treatments, getting the guys re energized,
whatever they they need for maintenance, and then start back
on our week tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
So the rehab portion is absolutely incredible to me. And
I noticed this. I think it was last season Andrew
Egazino had an injury that was pretty intense, and I
remember seeing it happen and being like, ooh, this is
not going to be good. But every time I saw
i Goo after that, like he was so much more
(12:37):
mobile than I think a normal human being would have been.
It was crazy like when you know, like I saw
him and he was like barely moving. He was on crutches,
and then he was on a scooter, and then he
was like fully mobilely up upright walking. It was slow,
but the rehab times seemed so much more condensed then
I assumed that it would be for me if I
(12:59):
if I took a puck to the ankle, you know,
like I'm down and out probably for like six months,
and he was like good, he was good to go
so fast? Yeah, how what is the magic? What do
you what do you guys do? Like how does that happen?
Is it all red light therapy? Like give me the secrets?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I mean he is like a combination of a lot
of different things. I think like nutrition, like recovery work
is huge, or nutrition sleep. He used the red light
therapy a little bit too. I think for for me,
it's it's really not like a peat can't make a
bone heal faster. That's just how the human body works.
(13:35):
Axis body is going to heal that bone. Peats really
just kind of work around what the injury side is
and make uh kind of like almost in a sense,
manipulate the body to make a function the way we
wanted to function while the body's doing its job with healing.
So for Aggs, I think a lot of it was
just for him putting in a lot of hard work
in emphasizing that recovery and working on his own when
(13:59):
he's not saying too. But a lot of it is
also how can we get you walking again while supporting
the like the ankle injury. How do we get you
moving again, supporting like making sure we're not disrupting your
healing process. So it's really just kind of manipulating the
body until that injury is healed up enough for us
(14:21):
to push it. And then once we get that green
light to push it, then we kind of go very
very hard into reconditioning retraining. I work a lot with
Parker on getting the guys staying fit around the injury
site so then when they are ready to push, they
really just need to recondition the injury site. So it's
(14:41):
it's a lot of teamwork, a lot of manipulating the
body at first, controlling like basic things like swelling, pain control,
stuff like that, and then when the injury itself does heal, up.
It's a lot of working with the guys that are
on our team, like or sportsman med team, to get
(15:01):
this guy reconditioned as fast as.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
We can, other than the obvious getting the guy back
out on the age. What is your favorite part of
your job Something that maybe not everybody would expect, but
what is your favorite part about your job?
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I love rehabbing. I'm like
such a nerd about it, so I talk about that
quite a bit. I think about this specific job. It's
kind of it's it's nice getting to know the guys
outside of hockey, Like what is their personality outside of hockey?
What do they like to do you kind of like
these guys have so many layers other than being a
(15:37):
hockey player. It's kind of fun, like learning fun facts
about them. So like the other day I learned that
Julian Lutz likes to DJ. He's gotten into that. I
was like, oh, this is fun, Like.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Okay, okay, okay. It's just such a great segue into
so many questions that I have. Yeah, I still have
more questions for you about like your training and stuff
like that, but I need to know who has the
most aura on the team, and why is it late
and more.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Morrisey. I don't know. He brings this aura into the
room and it's just very calm, chill and like hey guys,
let's have fun, and it's he's like that all the time.
I don't know that. I can't answer for you. I
can confirm though, he does have that aura. He's like
very easy to talk to. I think that's the big thing, right,
(16:34):
He's super easy to talk to, and he gets along
with like a lot of the guys. I every time
I see him, he's talking to one of our new
rookies or he's like hanging out with one of her vets,
And I'm like, Morezi is like definitely like just the
easiest personality to get along with, the easiest guy to
talk to. So I think that's why his aura is
the way it is.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
I think he I think he's so thoughtful. Yeah, before
he talks to you, like you can not see the
wheel spinning. But he's not afraid to, like he's not
afraid of silences when he's talking to you, like he
needs to like, yeah say the right thing. Yeah maybe
that maybe that's it. But like I've had people meet
him and be like Oh my gosh, who was that guy?
(17:15):
He's yeah, he's like just it's like next level riz.
I can't I can't describe it.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
But yeah, yeah, he's said that, don't tell him.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Don't tell him. I said that. He doesn't need to
know that. My gos, I know you have a question,
but Nikki, you need to ask you when is your birthday?
Because I need to know what your sign is?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Wait? Can you guess first? I love talking about this.
The guys hate it, but I ring up horoscopes all
the time. I want to girl thing that I bring
into the trading room. I'm like, hey, guys, my birthday.
Oh you go go ahead.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Well, I was gonna guess I think you're a libra.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
I'm not a libra, im too?
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Okay? Yes, June thirtieth, did Gemini cancer? Oh? You and
Ben McCartney. Yeah, ah, June, I gotta write this down
June thirtieth.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I don't know what it brings to my I don't.
I'm just.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Honestly, honestly, that's like probably ninety five percent of the
guys on our team. But they'll they'll like, they'll like
converse along with me just because they know, like I
don't know, I like chatting about it.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
So I think it's such a big deal. Like I
sat down, I sit down at the beginning of every season,
and I'm like, Okay, who do we have the most of?
Right now? We're carrying so many aquariuses on this team.
It's not okay. It is not okay.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
I think there's like a fact out there. Don't quote
me on this, but I think like if you take
all Olympic athletes like on the US team and look
up their horoscopes, I think there are like three. I
think it's like cancer's capricorns and like a third horoscope
that the majority of them are made out of them.
I'm like, guys, it has something to do with competition.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
I think it does. I really do. Like I wonder
if like low key John Ferguson, like is it like
has it in the back of his mind, you know,
Like I'm trying to build a team of like water signs,
you know, like all this, Like if I if I
put like all so so aquarius, like we have a
bunch of aquarius right now, which is February, you know,
(19:24):
February birthdays or January February. But that's like the humanitarian
sign of the zodiac, like it's like, let's all get
together and be like, yeah, like we're gonna we're all
gonna be friends kind of thing. Yeah, And so part
of me is always like, Okay, so we have a
lot of Aquarius, but we only have like one scorpio.
Was that on purpose? We have two scorpios right now, But.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
You gotta get John Ferguson on now and ask.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
He's gonna he would hate that question. He would hate
that question. Sorry, James, I just had to know. I
always have to know what what signs are in the
locker room because I think, like, I think it makes
a difference, Nikki, when you're when you're dealing with the guys,
do you feel like do you feel like, yeah, this
(20:08):
guy is like tons of Gemini energy, Like like can
you tell that Maddie's a Gemini?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
I I can tell with some guys and I can't
tell with others. But sometimes I'll keep it to myself.
It depends on the context, Like we're just having fun
and chatting. I'll be like, yeah, that was something that
Burger would say, and the guy just like like just
keep talking, Yeah, exactly. That face shames.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yeah, sorry, James, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Oh, you're good. I was looking through your resume on LinkedIn. Nikki.
You are a social media coordinator for the Physical Therapy
Department at U of Dela. How does that? How did
that come about? Why? I used to do that?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So I was class historian for my class, and part
of the job is to kind of create like social
events for like the like our class to go to,
but then also just to record the history of it.
So my job was to like kind of like record
like what we were doing, all the fun stuff that
we were doing, like just memories that our class would
(21:14):
want to have. PET school is like three years long.
You want to be able to remember all of it
while you're blacking out taking like exams. So my job
was kind of like creating and collecting those memories. And
I had we didn't really we weren't super active on
social media. So I'd proposed a lot of ideas like
getting events going, social media post going, and I think
(21:38):
that eventually, like the director of our PT program, she
was very like open to the idea of creating like
a bigger social media platform, and she wanted to create
like a job of someone that could kind of almost
expand our social media like presence online. So she had
(21:59):
called in me and the class historian for the grade
below and she asked essentially if we would be willing
to do like work part time as social media coordinators
for the department as like almost like a grad assistant position.
So it kind of turned into a grad assistant position,
which I thought was fantastic. We developed our social media
(22:21):
platform for Delawarre's PT program. We did a lot of
fun events. We went on Twitter. We were because PT
is actually pretty prominent on Twitter, so we did a
lot of Twitter posts, we did a lot of Instagram posts,
and it helped outreach to a lot of like kids
that are interested in the program too, So I think
it got the job done. And then I think from
(22:42):
the student perspective, the GA position was just a nice
extra job that I had could work while I was
in PTS school. And it did also help pay for
part of school too, which I thought was amazing. So
it was a great opportunity to kind of do something
fun as a job. And and also the the PT
(23:04):
program kind of helping students out in the sense of
trying to get students to work so they can have
the financial needs to be able to live off campus
and pay for the rent while they're in school.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So it was it was Yeah, it was good follow up.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Who on this staff that you work with do you
think would do the best on social media? Like we're
talking like a like likes right, Like companies have like competitions,
like you post your post, whoever gets the most likes
wins the prize. Who on the athletic training staff do
you think would get the most attention on social media?
Is it Jimmy because he looks like magnum p I
(23:43):
with the like stash? Is it particular you think, like,
out of you guys, who do you think would do
the best on social media with like attention?
Speaker 4 (23:54):
I'm trying to think. I feel like the guys are
not big social media guys.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
I feel like I don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Parker Parker is not a big fan of social media.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Though he's not a fan, but he does post, and
it's he used to post a lot more last season.
He must be really busy this season, but he used
to post a lot on his storis last season, mainly
about the catapult system. Yeah, his little tracking system for
the guys that when they're on the ice. Yeah, he
always post got catapults about that.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Yeah. Are we talking about a job specific post like
this is what I'm doing day to day? Or are
we talking about something like fun?
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Like if you're like screw through, like you're like TikTok
for you page right and you see a post of
Jimmy doing something funny or you or Parker, who do
you think would attract the most like attention, like like
just for fun?
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Yeah, I think for fun it would probably be either
me or Jimmy. We usually we have a lot of
the back and forth, like the banter, We like make
fun of each other all the time, So I think
it would be probably me or Jimmy. We're also Jimmy's
the cancer too, by the way, No, I'm ready to down.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I have no idea what that means.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Does The first time I met him, I was leaving
I think fan Fest, and he was walking out through
the parking lot and I looked at him and I go,
I would ever tell you you look like Tom Selleck,
And immedly all I heard was, do don't say that
to me.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I can't help the mustache is crazy.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Yeah, I think it would be. Yeah, I would say
between me or Jimmy if if one of us like
was being recorded and got posted. Probably one of us. Jimmy. Jimmy,
I think is more is definitely more funny than I am,
so it would probably be him. He'd probably like.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
What Nikki, I don't know if you know. One of
our promotional games this season is Barbie Knight, which is
coming up. We're a few weeks away from Barbie Night.
I'm so excited. So I was curious and I'm actually
this is the first time I'm asking this question, but
I will definitely be asking every player that I talked
(26:11):
to after this this question. What is the most Barbie
thing about you?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
The most Barbie thing about me? I am a pretty
like girly girl. I would say, gosh. I think it's
the clothes that I wear outside of work. I liked it.
I like, I love good fashions, so fashionable, yea notable fashion.
I like dressing up. I like wearing heels, so I
(26:39):
mean I feel like you guys always see me in
like sweatpants and a two Sun road Runners T shirt.
But outside of work, I love dressing up and I
actually do. This is very cliche, but I do love
wearing the color pink. So it's usually when I'm wearing
my pink fits.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Yeah, me too. In fact, when I saw your social media,
because I'd only ever seen you at work, and then
I saw your social media and I was like, oh
my gosh, there's a wide range of fashion to this
human being. I was so excited to see that about you.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Yeah, wait, so James, you look like you wanted to
answer that question. Also, do you want to do you
want to tell us the most Barbie thing about you?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Oh gosh, I.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
Know you do.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Can answer most Ken thing about you too, whoever you are.
Speaker 5 (27:18):
Oh that's a good one.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
Wait, while you're thinking, James, I'm going to tell you
the most Barbie thing about me is that I love
to have a million different jobs. I like want to
do every job for like a year and just like
and then just roll to the next job like that. Yeah,
all the jobs.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Is spending money? Cliche?
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Is that a Ken thing or a Barbie thing?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I think that's a Barbie thing.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Like you know, fashion, I like having different Like I
only wear black and like gray, but I like having
other colors to choo like. I was literally just looking
at pink ties for Barbie because I totally forgot it
was coming up. But I like to have, Like, you know,
I have like two different jackets prepared, and when I'm
in my hotel I'm getting ready for games, I'm like,
(28:04):
I don't have any idea what to wear, Like I
couldn't dress myself if.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
I tried, So I think that would be my big one.
Is like just having different things to choose from to wear,
but then wearing the same thing all the time.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Oh that's funny. I love it.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
I like it.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
Yeah, also get some pink socks, like pink it up,
Like if you wear a pink suit, I would be
so excited. But yes, I understand that there might be
limitations to that. Nikki, who on the team? Will you
never let cook you dinner because you think you might die?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
It's a really good one.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Yeah, that is a good one. I don't know if
I know about everyone's cooking techniques. I've heard just vibes.
Yeah that's fair. I've heard Scotti is a good chef,
so oh okay, Yeah, I'm gonna have to say I'm
rolling through like the roster right now. In my head,
(29:01):
I think it's gonna either be Actually, I feel like
a lot of the young guys do cook for themselves,
I'm gonna have to go with Ben McCartney, and I
think I don't know how well he cooks, but I
know he's got a very simplistic taste in food, and
I love spicing my food, so I think I'm gonna
go with that. Benny.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
No flavor, Absolutely, no flavor.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
He's a simple guy. He's a simple guy when it
comes to eating food.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
Yes, I could see that. We've actually interviewed past roommates
of Ben's, and I know that they talked about how
they had to do all the cooking, so I wouldn't
be surprised if Ben did not know how to cook,
and he mainly was doing sandwiches in his life.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
So man, he just called like three in the same question.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
He's simple. He's simple.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
That's that's poor straight, poor guy. No flavor, he's simple.
You can't cook. I love it. I think it's a
tremendous way to end the interview.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Nicky. We appreciate your time. We know you're busy. You
took time under your day to sit down with us,
so thank you very much.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
I have one more thing. I have one more thing.
I have one more thing because I always I always
do a dad joke for everybody that comes on the show. So, Nicky,
are you ready for your dad joke?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (30:21):
I love a dad joke, actually.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
For you, Okay ready, dogs can't operate MRI machines, but
cat Scan, I'm.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Gonna play that one in the training room. I think
they would like it.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Sorry, it took me to realize it's a medical joke.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Yeah, cat Scan.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Niki, thank you for your time. We appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yeah, no problem. Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
Thanks Nicky.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
So yeah, welcome back to Roadrunners. Happy our James Mackie Joing.
Now Kim Caudle ro blazed Kim. That was a great
I think other than pop Van, that was probably the
most insightful interview we've had on the show, not including
her horoscope sign. I think that was the most important
(31:16):
part of all of it. I still have no idea
what any of that means.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
It always is the most important part of it.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I guess I don't every time.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
That's my favorite subject to talk about because I love
hearing what other people are and then I either don't
follow up on it or I do, and then I
start over evaluating their like personality, and I'm like, yes,
I don't know what this means.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
Wait, so I'm still learning. Like That's my thing about
horoscopes is that I'm still learning. Like I know me
and and I know like my kids, but like I
still have to learn like all the other ones. And
there's definitely a chunk in the summer where I just
don't pay attention because I don't know anybody who's more
in the summertime. But James, what is your sign?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I'm in aries?
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Oh you did say that you're in aries. Okay, I'm
gonna have to google it for you. Do Like, do
you know what like the hallmarks of your sign are.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
The biggest one is stubborn.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
Oh well, you're just holding on to the negative. But okay,
so you're bold, passionate, and energetic, and you have you're
a natural leader with a strong competitive drive.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
That's good for hockey.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
That is great for hockey, that is great for the industry.
You also can be impulsive and ambitious and short tempered,
but there's so many positive things in there. So yeah, bold, confident, energetic, passionate.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
This is when I think we should have Michael come
in and tell me if I'm energetic or not. In
the booth, I think Michael knows me best of like
every Michael and David are the two people I spend
the most time with at the rink.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
I think, yeah, yeah, he could be like, you have.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
A lot of energy, and it's probably a lot sometimes,
but I keep it mellow with the clothes like white shirt,
red tie, black jacket, and then it's like, I don't
know that red ties really allowed too. But like my
personality drives I think who I am?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
I think that's well he gets me through.
Speaker 5 (33:01):
Yeah, and aries. So you're a fire sign, so that
makes sense that yeah, I don't know, like it like
just hold on to that one thing that you are
a fire sign. I am also a fire sign. So yeah,
two fire signs together. I think it's a good combination.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I don't know what David is, but we gel really
all together in the booth.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
Oh, David's a leo. He told me, oh, you do know, yes,
you know my partner and I know I can do
just not believe in it, and he's very very adamant
that he does not believe in it. We've had a
lot of talks.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
I believe in it, but I'm at the point where
I'm like, I don't know that like like, I I
don't want to be like that wasn't like Nikki had
it perfect right, Like when she's in the conversation with
somebody and they say something, She's like, that was a
Virgo thing to say. I don't want to be in
the middle of a conversation be like, sorry, that was
super aries of me, Like, I worry I'm gonna let
it become too much of my personality if I like
(33:54):
know what it means. So I think I think that's
that's so funny though, that David's Leo.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
What is the very good Oh, Leo's love attention very
very much. They're leaders, They're very charismatic and outgoing. David
is very even keeled and he when we did our
very first show together, I found out that he was
a Leo. So but he was very very adamant that
(34:21):
his sister believes in astrology. He has zero belief in astrology.
So I don't know. Yeah, I think he'll get there.
I just I'm I'm going to be working on it
all season, just so you know.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
He don't tell not being treated like a king or queen.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
That is one hundred person and his girlfriend too, Oh,
his girl. I think it's his girlfriend who is very
much into astrology and tells him all the time, Oh,
that's such a Leo thing to do, and he really
hates it. Yeah, so I can't wait to meet her.
Very excited to meet her.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Now I know how to get under his skin.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
Yes, that what we need to ask David what the
most Barbie thing about him is, because I'm super curious
what his answer is going to be. I feel like
it's he's not gonna want to answer it at first.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
He's gonna Leo. Man, he's going to be Leo.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
He's very very proud. He's not gonna want to answer
it at first. But which of which of Nicky's answers
surprised you most in our in our talk with her.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Probably her hijacking her brother's college.
Speaker 5 (35:27):
Tour not so cool. That was such a good story.
I love that. And the fact that he didn't even
end up going to university.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Yeah, that's peak like little sibling, and coming from someone
who is a little sibling, that's like peak little sibling energy,
Like oh for sure, oh no, I want to go
to school here. My brother would look at me and
be like, dude, not your time, and I would be
like Okay, yeah, fair, But I guess Nicky's I'm close
to my brother, but I guess NICKI and her brother
are like maybe her brother didn't know she hijacked it.
(35:56):
But Rutgers is a good secondary school. I'll admit it's
a good that's a good fallback school. I don't know
what he studied. But for nick to be like, mom,
I want to go I want to go to Delaware
and her mom to go, Okay, you have a couple
more years. This isn't about you, is so peak like
little so I don't know if you're a little sibling peak,
little sibling energy.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
Yes, I have two. They are the worst. Yeah, I
did want to ask her how long she was in
school for. So I'm gonna have to like ask her
when I see her because I know that that what
she's doing is not It's not an easy path to take.
I have friends who are occupational therapists and like had
(36:34):
to basically give up being a part of any anything
social outside of school for years just to focus on
school and traveling and doing you know, residencies and like
so many different things. And yeah, I feel like we
talked so much about what she did, but we didn't
actually talk to her about the time that she spent
(36:56):
doing it.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
According to LinkedIn, it was six years.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
Oh okay, okay, and that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
She is a Bachelor of science that like training, strength
and conditioning in a minor in healthcare. She's a master
of anatomy and clinical health services and a doctor of
physical therapy.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
That's amazing. That is very cool. I'm so glad we
had her on the show.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
That was a great interview. She was fantastic to talk to. Wait.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Yeah, coming from someone whose schedule is like as busy
as hers, like, I know that they probably have a
lot going on, right like, but that was that was great.
I'm so appreciative she took the time to see down
on us. That really means a lot that she was
able to fit this in.
Speaker 5 (37:38):
I'll be very excited to see Nikki's trajectory in the
next ten years, yep, because there's no way that she's
not and not on an upper trajectory towards the NHL,
like really, you know, like in that next ten years
or so. So, yeah, everybody keep an eye out for
Nikki Patel. She's amazing.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
You hear her name. Just remember James Mackie.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
And Kim Coda on the Road Happy Hour podcast before
coach Ol Valley.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
So, James, just off of vibes, because I know you're
still getting to know the team, and there's definitely a
few players that are knew that I have not met
or like had any kind of meaningful conversation with yet.
So just vibes. Who would you not let cook you dinner?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Maverick lamar room.
Speaker 5 (38:27):
That's a great answer.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
So I was watching the Halloween Who would survive in
a haunted house or horror movie thing?
Speaker 5 (38:36):
Yeah, sort of the best if you if to anybody
who's listening, if you have not been on Roadrun or
social media, go to the Halloween post and it is
so Maverick glamorous, coded insanity. It's fantastic. Sorry James, walk.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
By with an answer, walk back. Michael agrees, walk with
an answer, walk back, walk walk like. He was like
he was like no, wait, wait, wait wait, I didn't
understand the hold on what am I supposed to do?
Like I feel like Mavi like, yeah, James come over
for dinner tomorrow. I'm like, all right, cool. And then
I'd walk in and it would be pasta chicken, rice
(39:12):
beef and like six seasonings, and I'd be like, dude,
what are you doing? Like what like I can I
can no offense to MAV. And I'll be sure. I'll
be sure. I let him know I said that I
wouldn't let him cook me dinner. But I could just
imagine walking into MAV's house and it's just chaos in
the kitchen, like something's on fire. You know, the stove
(39:35):
is on, but the microwaves running with something, and like
it's just I can just envision this total chaos. So
this like six foot seven guy in this little house
like hunched over, like cooking over, like he's like his
kitchen's too short.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
You know, He's just I just would I'm not MAV Lammer.
That's my answer.
Speaker 5 (39:52):
Hands on.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I feel bad for Ben McCartney. He caught like four
strays in the same question.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Yeah, he's can't cook for himself, Like we were just
like piling them on him.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I was like, poor poor man.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
I think he'll be okay. He probably notes.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Yeah, probably, yeah, who are we kidding?
Speaker 5 (40:16):
We're being too And I just want to share. Maverick
Glamor is a Capricorn, which means he is relentless and
persistent and that he's going to tell it like it is.
It doesn't say anything about like frantic energy. But Maverick
definitely has some frantic energy.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
I definitely.
Speaker 5 (40:36):
I took a couple of the boys on a trip
to the Sonoran Desert Museum last season, and I don't
know my expectations. I should have managed my expectations on
that trip. Maverick he went full Chihuahua on that trip.
He had the best time. Yeah, he was touched everything,
like where I was like, please stop, please stop sticking
your fingers in the cages. I had to go full
(40:58):
mom mode with him because he was just out of control,
but he didn't care. Oh my god. At one point
he touched a cactus, just for everybody that needs to know.
He just wanted to know what it feel like. And
he just held his finger up and he had like spite,
He had thorns sticking out of his finger and he
just like he didn't feel it. He was just so
excited to touch a cactus. It was the craziest I've
ever seen.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
I mean, his quoebec energy. It's so funny.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
Oh his and his accent is so so much fun,
so much fun. Wait, but I have to tell you. Okay,
so I would not if anybody cooking on the team.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Yeah, I was gonna ask you next.
Speaker 5 (41:31):
Yeah, Miko Matica, Yep, absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
He's a dad now, so maybe he's got it. Maybe
he's we don't know, maybe.
Speaker 5 (41:41):
He's his daughter's like two months, so he's still.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Got to cook for I mean, eventually, not right now.
But I think I think maybe I don't know, maybe
I don't understand how fatherhood works. But maybe he had
a kid and he scored his first career goal and he's.
Speaker 5 (41:57):
So you think you can cook.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
I think Maverick would be a good sous chef segue.
I think that would be a good susho. In fact,
he's led the team in plus minus since the season started.
He was plus ten on one point. You know how
rare it is that a defenseman leads a hockey team
in plus minus.
Speaker 5 (42:12):
No, I didn't know. I didn't even think about that.
That's a great stat. Holy, he's a clue.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
He's a fantastic sous chef in my opinion.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
That that's actually a good call. That is actually a
really really good call. Wait, so who do you think
would be a good head chef on the team. Honestly,
I think Kevin cannot.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
I was gonna say, moss.
Speaker 5 (42:36):
Man really man, No, seriously.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
I think so he's so cool, calm and collected that
I feel like if he was in like a stressful
situation or something like that, he would just be like
flying burger's, flipping bacon rotating like you know, he'd be
he'd be making cheese burgers and burritos in like four
other things. I feel like he just he has that vibe.
Plus I've talked to him pre game in passing and
(43:01):
me and they were like hey, mom, like hey, Mo's man,
how you doing?
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Hey Maddie, how you doing? He's like, I'm good, guys,
how are you? This is a guy who's going out
to play a pro hockey game, and he's so like
chill and mellow. Like I feel like he just has
that like poison about him to be able to.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
Like, you know, I feel like he would be a
really good pastry chef and like a Michelin star restaurant. Yeah.
Like he just like needs like some time. Like he's
very like thoughtful and focused on the dishes, but like
but he needs time like to cook or to bake
(43:36):
whatever he's doing. But I don't know about a head
chef who.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Was you not? You said, right, said, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (43:45):
I really don't feel like he could make anything other
than cereal. Maybe he can't wait.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Somebody put him on the list with Ben McCartney.
Speaker 5 (44:00):
I don't like cooking. I can cook, but I it
is not my thing, like my kids will tell you, like,
it's not not I am not at home in the kitchen.
I would really rather somebody be cooking for me. So
I say this with love and light that if I
was going to cook for somebody, it might also be cereal.
So probably senhim in life. I love cinnamon, life cereal.
(44:22):
That stuff is the best.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
You're honest, which is good?
Speaker 5 (44:25):
Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
I think I know for a fact. I wouldn't let
David cook me dinner.
Speaker 5 (44:32):
Really, oh, I think he'd be a good cook. We
need to ask, we need to find out.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
I feel like I would.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
I would cook him dinner. I love cooking. I would
not let David cook me dinner.
Speaker 5 (44:43):
I would, you would, I would, But like I'd be
a tiny bit scared that I might get salmonella just
because maybe like the chicken wasn't cooked all.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
The way.
Speaker 5 (44:54):
I do it. I do it with a lot of
trepidation in my heart.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
That's great. I'll let him know we're gonna have that conversation.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
One final segment is road Runners Happy Hour rolls on
one final touch and go on the road Runners Happy
Hour podcast. It's a weekend look ahead. Coachella Valley comes
into Tucson for two games on Saturday Friday and Saturday
Friday Night. Correct me if I'm wrong. Is just a
regular game. Saturday's military appreciation Correct.
Speaker 5 (45:22):
That's true. Yes, all all of our active duty veterans,
service members, everybody come out to the game. We want
to appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Fun fact, Kim, Do you know what's happening that's special
this weekend?
Speaker 5 (45:36):
No, what's the fun fact?
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Our third jerseys.
Speaker 5 (45:39):
Oh that's right. Oh my gosh. They just dropped on Socials.
They're amazing. I've never seen them before and they are fire.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
There. I think I like the Kachinas.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
Let me tell you, Okay, calling an away game in
that studio with the green so hard, I like, it
doesn't look green, it looks black. But I'm looking for
were calling a game with the black jerseys in person.
Plus the end of the year they were green, but
the black jerseys in person. I'm excited to see them.
Every things about them. I love the way they look
on social media. I can only imagine what they're gonna
(46:12):
be like on the ice inaction on Saturday.
Speaker 5 (46:15):
Honestly, from you and me, as long as we can
see the numbers on the back, that's what I'm most
concerned about, saying. Where you can't see the numbers on
the back, and then you can't call it anything. Yeah,
so fingers crossed.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
I hope, I hope.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
So if you're not getting athing Friday and Saturday night,
seven o'clock puck drop at the Tucson Avenger Center. Tickets
available at Tucson roadrunners dot com. Kim, this was a
happy hour, I would say successfully done.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
Yep, it's in the books. It's been a happy hour.
Thanks for joining me, no worries, Thanks for having
It's five o'clock on your Tuesday night. This is Tucson
Roadrunners Happy I were from Fox Sports fourteen fifty A
yea with James Mack, David Brady and then Kim Conor
road Blaze. It's our usual Tuesday night. Can get together
right here on Tucson Sports Dick set, Fox Sports fourteenth
fifty A.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Welcome back to road Runners Happy HOURGYMNACKI joined by Kim
ConA road Blaze, an assistant athletic trainer and physical therapist,
Nikki pa Toe.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Nikki, how are you?
Speaker 4 (00:30):
I'm good? How are you? Guys?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Wonderful? We appreciate your time. I guess we'll start with
kind of take us through your history, How you got
to your role, what school looked like, kind of why
physical therapy.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Yeah, so I kind of knew when I was young
that I wanted to go into healthcare. I just kind
of didn't know what I wanted to do, and I
think hockey played a big role in that, which is
kind of why I pursue the sport itself. When I
was younger. I actually never grew up playing hockey, which
a lot of the guys that I work with, it's
very different for them. But I used to watch hockey
(01:07):
play with my dad, so we used to watch together.
He'd watched me yell at the TV when a Devil's
game was going on, and I watched him yell at
the TV when India was playing Pakistan and the cricket
World Finals, and it's kind of like something we bonded over.
So kind of got into sports that way. And then
I wanted to figure out a way to combine sports
(01:29):
and healthcare into kind of what I did for my profession.
And I actually went to my first hockey game and
it was the New Jersey Devils playing the New York Rangers,
which is a classic rivalry, and it was a game
that actually had a pretty famous line brawl and started
(01:50):
right at the beginning of the game, and Ryan Curter
and Stubi Gel were fighting and I was up at
the class I was watching this fight freaking out my mom.
I took my mom to this game. She hasn't watched
a lick of hockey, so she was like, what is
going on? And Ryan Carter ended up getting hit in
the face and he was bleeding. He got taken off
the ice and I kid you not two minutes later
(02:13):
he's back on ready to go, ready to play this game,
and I was like, how the heck did that happen?
So I found out about the profession of athletic training
through a hockey game, and I told my mom that night.
I was like, that's what I want to do. This
is what I want to study. And from there kind
of did what most high school kids did, looked into programs.
(02:36):
I was actually touring the University of Delaware when my
brother was looking into colleges, and the director of the
athletic training program at Delaware pulled me aside and he's like, hey, like,
you look like you're super interested in I was looking
at their kind of like their booth, and he was like,
you're super interested in athletic training. He's like, come to
one of our open questions, like open like podium days
(03:01):
or whatever. We can kind of like tell you a
little bit more about the profession. So I went with
my mom. I kind of hijacked my brother's college tour
and I went and speaking at this like kind of
open booth was a student who was doing an internship
with the Flyers, and I was like, Mom, this is perfect.
(03:22):
They have a hockey internship. They have a good program,
this is where I want to go. And my mom's like, okay, well,
you got a couple more years of high school, so
like still definitely think it out. And I kind of
just had my sight set on Delaware and kind of
made it. I applied senior year. We had to compete
for a spot our freshman year of college to get
(03:42):
into the major. Got into the major, and then I
told the director of the program, I want to do
this internship my senior year. How do I make this happen.
It was a lot of work. I had to kind
of rearrange my schedule because the head athletic tuner at
the time with the Flyers really wanted the interns there
quite a few times during the week. But I made
it work and I did this internship with the Flyers,
(04:05):
and I think that really solidified like that I wanted
to go into hockey. It was a fantastic internship. I
had so much fun doing it. It was it was
definitely a lot of hard work, but it was such
a blast going in. So I had to kind of
decide what to do after that, and it was between
trying to decide between getting a master's in athletic training
(04:28):
or going into physical therapy, and I had really fallen
in love with the rehab side of treating athletes. So
I ended up going and actually stayed at Delaware to
get my doctorate in physical therapy, and then from there
just tried to get into hockey, back into hockey after
I graduated.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
So thank you. I have a million questions for you
after that. That was so amazing. No, that was such
a great answer. Okay, So back backing up, backing up,
you're from New Jersey. Where in New Jersey are you from?
Or you're in your Devil's fan Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
All, well, right now, I work for the utam Mamma,
so we are U Tummamma's fan. But I grew up
watching the Devils play. I'm from North Jersey. Grew up
in North Jersey. If anyybody ask you, guys, Central Jersey
doesn't exist, and it's Taylor Ham, not poor girl.
Speaker 6 (05:22):
Okay, okay, okay, And then so and then what did
Okay is your brother that you followed to go to
this college tour?
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Is he your only sibling? And then where did he
end up at school? Did he also go to Delaware?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
So he is my only sibling. He's older he's a
year and a half older. He ended up going to
Rutgers actually, so he stated, yeah, so didn't pick Delaware. Definitely,
just totally hijacked the day. But he was fine with it.
I think he kind of knew Delaware wasn't his place.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
So yeah, did it. Was anybody else in your family
like a super hockey fan or are you like training
them all to be hockey fans? Are they there now
or what does it look like?
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, so not a lot of people in my family
were hockey fans. I actually went to that game. I
got tickets from my uncle and he's probably the biggest
hockey fan in our family. He's a Rangers fan, and
he he had season tickets and he wasn't going to
that game, and I helped him out with a favorite
earlier in the week. So he's like, do you want
to go? And I was like, sure, that'd be awesome.
(06:28):
So he's probably the biggest hockey fan. But I will
say like over the past couple of years, my family
has definitely gotten into it. My mom will tune into
all the Roadrunner games. She's she's me text during the
games like yeah, it's kind of cute.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
So they've become like fans of hockey kind of, probably
because they talk about it quite a bit.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
Yeah, that's amazing. Have they had a chance to come
visit you since you've been.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Here, Yeah, so they had. They helped me move over
to Tucson because I had like think, like two or
three weekends to make them move over once I got hired,
So they helped me move over. They haven't seen a
game live actually, so they definitely want to make it
over this season. Yeah, to come see one time.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Jameson and I face is both like I guess.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
I was gonna have them come over the second half
of the season, but we were just traveling so much
and their like work schedule and my schedule just was
not matching up. But a lot of my friends have
come to watch games, and my brother has come to
watch a game as well, so they've all came to visit,
which has been super fun. So I just got to
get my friends down here.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
So I moved here. I'm from Tucson, but I moved
all over the country and the last place that I
lived was DC and I love Oh my god, I
vibe with East Coast drivers so hard. And then moving
back here and driving here is a very different story.
So I'm wondering what the biggest culture shock was for
(08:02):
you coming from that coast to the Sonoran Desert.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Yeah, I mean it was quite a culture shock this.
I've never been away from the East Coast, so I've
moved quite a bit, but just usually along the East Coast,
So I feel like the biggest thing was definitely the driving.
I remember one of the first weeks we started, I
was talking to Jordan and Jimmy that had athletic trainer
and assistant, and I was like, yeah, like I really
(08:28):
like driving. I'm cool with like ten fifteen minute drives
and that's about it. And was like, well, I hate
to break it to you, but most of your driving
is going to probably be like thirty forty minutes. And
I think I was like, what what is going on?
And He's like, we are a lot more spread out
here than the East Coast, so you might have yeah.
I was like, okay, And then I think for me,
(08:50):
it's just the weather. The weather is so different. I
used to four seasons. I used to the cold by
the time December rolls around, a little bit of season depression,
and I just didn't get that last season, I was like,
this is great sitting by the pool and it's January.
I think it was a huge seal of my friends too.
They're like, we're pretty miserable out here. Can we come
(09:11):
to visit you. I was like, say no more, please come.
I think that's been huge And I think I'm a
big foodie. So I really really love the Mexican food here.
It's fantastic.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
It is. What's your spot? Do you have a favor
right now? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:30):
I think El Charro has been like my favorite. I like,
really like.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
The cafe Yea downtown? Is that the one?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Yeah? The one downtown? Yeah? So I really like their
I really like their Okay, So I honestly depends on
what i'm eating, like Barista del Barrio with grape burritos, Yes, yeah,
there's there's. I usually hop around based off of what
I'm craving.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Yeah. I think that BDB versus Al Barrio does not
get enough love on the food and I don't know how,
And I think maybe it's because they don't like have
seating and you have to take it to go because
it's so tiny. Yeah good, Yeah, And I don't know
if you drink chai actually makes Oh my god, their
chi is like no other try I've ever tasted, and
(10:15):
I know they make it special in house. Yeah it's
so yeah, little plug for.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
We usually order Burris to Del Barrio for breakfasts. If
we're like missing a breakfast here and we're working in
the morning, that we'll treat ourselves a little bit. But yeah,
so good.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
So Nikki, what does your day to day look like?
I imagine every day looks completely different, but like, for instance, today,
you guys, you know, we just finished a road game.
You flew back yesterday, which I'm hoping wasn't too Nightmarriash.
I've seen a lot of social media posts about the
TSA and the lines lately, and now so you're back,
(10:53):
and what does your day look like today? And then
what does tomorrow look like?
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yeah, so my role is a little unique. I actually
did not travel to Iowa this weekend. So if we
have guys that are on the ir that are not skating,
we are usually sitting back and I'm rehaving them back
at home, mostly just because we have a lot more
equipment available here. So I was rehabbing during the weekend
(11:19):
and I did not have to go through airport TSA yesterday,
which sounded like it was a good thing because I
think the guys threw a little too late on their timeline.
But today is typically a day off for the guys.
They'll text Jordan if they want any treatments done, and
we usually schedule an open kind of treatment hour around
(11:40):
ten o'clock. Any of the guys that are getting formal rehab,
like so through me. They'll come in on like a
scheduled time, and then I'll roll through their rehabs during
the day as well, and this is typically considered one
of our lighter days. We'll probably get out around like
one o'clock, but after that there's like no practice on
(12:01):
a day off or anything like that, so we're kind
of just rolling through treatments, getting the guys re energized,
whatever they they need for maintenance, and then start back
on our week tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
So the rehab portion is absolutely incredible to me. And
I noticed this. I think it was last season Andrew
Egazino had an injury that was pretty intense, and I
remember seeing it happen and being like, ooh, this is
not going to be good. But every time I saw
i Goo after that, like he was so much more
(12:37):
mobile than I think a normal human being would have been.
It was crazy like when you know, like I saw
him and he was like barely moving. He was on crutches,
and then he was on a scooter, and then he
was like fully mobilely up upright walking. It was slow,
but the rehab times seemed so much more condensed then
I assumed that it would be for me if I
(12:59):
if I took a puck to the ankle, you know,
like I'm down and out probably for like six months,
and he was like good, he was good to go
so fast? Yeah, how what is the magic? What do
you what do you guys do? Like how does that happen?
Is it all red light therapy? Like give me the secrets?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I mean he is like a combination of a lot
of different things. I think like nutrition, like recovery work
is huge, or nutrition sleep. He used the red light
therapy a little bit too. I think for for me,
it's it's really not like a peat can't make a
bone heal faster. That's just how the human body works.
(13:35):
Axis body is going to heal that bone. Peats really
just kind of work around what the injury side is
and make uh kind of like almost in a sense,
manipulate the body to make a function the way we
wanted to function while the body's doing its job with healing.
So for Aggs, I think a lot of it was
just for him putting in a lot of hard work
in emphasizing that recovery and working on his own when
(13:59):
he's not saying too. But a lot of it is
also how can we get you walking again while supporting
the like the ankle injury. How do we get you
moving again, supporting like making sure we're not disrupting your
healing process. So it's really just kind of manipulating the
body until that injury is healed up enough for us
(14:21):
to push it. And then once we get that green
light to push it, then we kind of go very
very hard into reconditioning retraining. I work a lot with
Parker on getting the guys staying fit around the injury
site so then when they are ready to push, they
really just need to recondition the injury site. So it's
(14:41):
it's a lot of teamwork, a lot of manipulating the
body at first, controlling like basic things like swelling, pain control,
stuff like that, and then when the injury itself does heal, up.
It's a lot of working with the guys that are
on our team, like or sportsman med team, to get
(15:01):
this guy reconditioned as fast as.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
We can, other than the obvious getting the guy back
out on the age. What is your favorite part of
your job Something that maybe not everybody would expect, but
what is your favorite part about your job?
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I love rehabbing. I'm like
such a nerd about it, so I talk about that
quite a bit. I think about this specific job. It's
kind of it's it's nice getting to know the guys
outside of hockey, Like what is their personality outside of hockey?
What do they like to do you kind of like
these guys have so many layers other than being a
(15:37):
hockey player. It's kind of fun, like learning fun facts
about them. So like the other day I learned that
Julian Lutz likes to DJ. He's gotten into that. I
was like, oh, this is fun, Like.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Okay, okay, okay. It's just such a great segue into
so many questions that I have. Yeah, I still have
more questions for you about like your training and stuff
like that, but I need to know who has the
most aura on the team, and why is it late
and more.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Morrisey. I don't know. He brings this aura into the
room and it's just very calm, chill and like hey guys,
let's have fun, and it's he's like that all the time.
I don't know that. I can't answer for you. I
can confirm though, he does have that aura. He's like
very easy to talk to. I think that's the big thing, right,
(16:34):
He's super easy to talk to, and he gets along
with like a lot of the guys. I every time
I see him, he's talking to one of our new
rookies or he's like hanging out with one of her vets,
And I'm like, Morezi is like definitely like just the
easiest personality to get along with, the easiest guy to
talk to. So I think that's why his aura is
the way it is.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
I think he I think he's so thoughtful. Yeah, before
he talks to you, like you can not see the
wheel spinning. But he's not afraid to, like he's not
afraid of silences when he's talking to you, like he
needs to like, yeah say the right thing. Yeah maybe
that maybe that's it. But like I've had people meet
him and be like Oh my gosh, who was that guy?
(17:15):
He's yeah, he's like just it's like next level riz.
I can't I can't describe it.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
But yeah, yeah, he's said that, don't tell him.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Don't tell him. I said that. He doesn't need to
know that. My gos, I know you have a question,
but Nikki, you need to ask you when is your birthday?
Because I need to know what your sign is?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Wait? Can you guess first? I love talking about this.
The guys hate it, but I ring up horoscopes all
the time. I want to girl thing that I bring
into the trading room. I'm like, hey, guys, my birthday.
Oh you go go ahead.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Well, I was gonna guess I think you're a libra.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
I'm not a libra, im too?
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Okay? Yes, June thirtieth, did Gemini cancer? Oh? You and
Ben McCartney. Yeah, ah, June, I gotta write this down
June thirtieth.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I don't know what it brings to my I don't.
I'm just.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Honestly, honestly, that's like probably ninety five percent of the
guys on our team. But they'll they'll like, they'll like
converse along with me just because they know, like I
don't know, I like chatting about it.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
So I think it's such a big deal. Like I
sat down, I sit down at the beginning of every season,
and I'm like, Okay, who do we have the most of?
Right now? We're carrying so many aquariuses on this team.
It's not okay. It is not okay.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
I think there's like a fact out there. Don't quote
me on this, but I think like if you take
all Olympic athletes like on the US team and look
up their horoscopes, I think there are like three. I
think it's like cancer's capricorns and like a third horoscope
that the majority of them are made out of them.
I'm like, guys, it has something to do with competition.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
I think it does. I really do. Like I wonder
if like low key John Ferguson, like is it like
has it in the back of his mind, you know,
Like I'm trying to build a team of like water signs,
you know, like all this, Like if I if I
put like all so so aquarius, like we have a
bunch of aquarius right now, which is February, you know,
(19:24):
February birthdays or January February. But that's like the humanitarian
sign of the zodiac, like it's like, let's all get
together and be like, yeah, like we're gonna we're all
gonna be friends kind of thing. Yeah, And so part
of me is always like, Okay, so we have a
lot of Aquarius, but we only have like one scorpio.
Was that on purpose? We have two scorpios right now, But.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
You gotta get John Ferguson on now and ask.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
He's gonna he would hate that question. He would hate
that question. Sorry, James, I just had to know. I
always have to know what what signs are in the
locker room because I think, like, I think it makes
a difference, Nikki, when you're when you're dealing with the guys,
do you feel like do you feel like, yeah, this
(20:08):
guy is like tons of Gemini energy, Like like can
you tell that Maddie's a Gemini?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
I I can tell with some guys and I can't
tell with others. But sometimes I'll keep it to myself.
It depends on the context, Like we're just having fun
and chatting. I'll be like, yeah, that was something that
Burger would say, and the guy just like like just
keep talking, Yeah, exactly. That face shames.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yeah, sorry, James, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Oh, you're good. I was looking through your resume on LinkedIn. Nikki.
You are a social media coordinator for the Physical Therapy
Department at U of Dela. How does that? How did
that come about? Why? I used to do that?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So I was class historian for my class, and part
of the job is to kind of create like social
events for like the like our class to go to,
but then also just to record the history of it.
So my job was to like kind of like record
like what we were doing, all the fun stuff that
we were doing, like just memories that our class would
(21:14):
want to have. PET school is like three years long.
You want to be able to remember all of it
while you're blacking out taking like exams. So my job
was kind of like creating and collecting those memories. And
I had we didn't really we weren't super active on
social media. So I'd proposed a lot of ideas like
getting events going, social media post going, and I think
(21:38):
that eventually, like the director of our PT program, she
was very like open to the idea of creating like
a bigger social media platform, and she wanted to create
like a job of someone that could kind of almost
expand our social media like presence online. So she had
(21:59):
called in me and the class historian for the grade
below and she asked essentially if we would be willing
to do like work part time as social media coordinators
for the department as like almost like a grad assistant position.
So it kind of turned into a grad assistant position,
which I thought was fantastic. We developed our social media
(22:21):
platform for Delawarre's PT program. We did a lot of
fun events. We went on Twitter. We were because PT
is actually pretty prominent on Twitter, so we did a
lot of Twitter posts, we did a lot of Instagram posts,
and it helped outreach to a lot of like kids
that are interested in the program too, So I think
it got the job done. And then I think from
(22:42):
the student perspective, the GA position was just a nice
extra job that I had could work while I was
in PTS school. And it did also help pay for
part of school too, which I thought was amazing. So
it was a great opportunity to kind of do something
fun as a job. And and also the the PT
(23:04):
program kind of helping students out in the sense of
trying to get students to work so they can have
the financial needs to be able to live off campus
and pay for the rent while they're in school.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So it was it was Yeah, it was good follow up.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Who on this staff that you work with do you
think would do the best on social media? Like we're
talking like a like likes right, Like companies have like competitions,
like you post your post, whoever gets the most likes
wins the prize. Who on the athletic training staff do
you think would get the most attention on social media?
Is it Jimmy because he looks like magnum p I
(23:43):
with the like stash? Is it particular you think, like,
out of you guys, who do you think would do
the best on social media with like attention?
Speaker 4 (23:54):
I'm trying to think. I feel like the guys are
not big social media guys.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
I feel like I don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Parker Parker is not a big fan of social media.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Though he's not a fan, but he does post, and
it's he used to post a lot more last season.
He must be really busy this season, but he used
to post a lot on his storis last season, mainly
about the catapult system. Yeah, his little tracking system for
the guys that when they're on the ice. Yeah, he
always post got catapults about that.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Yeah. Are we talking about a job specific post like
this is what I'm doing day to day? Or are
we talking about something like fun?
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Like if you're like screw through, like you're like TikTok
for you page right and you see a post of
Jimmy doing something funny or you or Parker, who do
you think would attract the most like attention, like like
just for fun?
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Yeah, I think for fun it would probably be either
me or Jimmy. We usually we have a lot of
the back and forth, like the banter, We like make
fun of each other all the time, So I think
it would be probably me or Jimmy. We're also Jimmy's
the cancer too, by the way, No, I'm ready to down.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I have no idea what that means.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Does The first time I met him, I was leaving
I think fan Fest, and he was walking out through
the parking lot and I looked at him and I go,
I would ever tell you you look like Tom Selleck,
And immedly all I heard was, do don't say that
to me.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I can't help the mustache is crazy.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Yeah, I think it would be. Yeah, I would say
between me or Jimmy if if one of us like
was being recorded and got posted. Probably one of us. Jimmy. Jimmy,
I think is more is definitely more funny than I am,
so it would probably be him. He'd probably like.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
What Nikki, I don't know if you know. One of
our promotional games this season is Barbie Knight, which is
coming up. We're a few weeks away from Barbie Night.
I'm so excited. So I was curious and I'm actually
this is the first time I'm asking this question, but
I will definitely be asking every player that I talked
(26:11):
to after this this question. What is the most Barbie
thing about you?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
The most Barbie thing about me? I am a pretty
like girly girl. I would say, gosh. I think it's
the clothes that I wear outside of work. I liked it.
I like, I love good fashions, so fashionable, yea notable fashion.
I like dressing up. I like wearing heels, so I
(26:39):
mean I feel like you guys always see me in
like sweatpants and a two Sun road Runners T shirt.
But outside of work, I love dressing up and I
actually do. This is very cliche, but I do love
wearing the color pink. So it's usually when I'm wearing
my pink fits.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Yeah, me too. In fact, when I saw your social media,
because I'd only ever seen you at work, and then
I saw your social media and I was like, oh
my gosh, there's a wide range of fashion to this
human being. I was so excited to see that about you.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Yeah, wait, so James, you look like you wanted to
answer that question. Also, do you want to do you
want to tell us the most Barbie thing about you?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Oh gosh, I.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
Know you do.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Can answer most Ken thing about you too, whoever you are.
Speaker 5 (27:18):
Oh that's a good one.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
Wait, while you're thinking, James, I'm going to tell you
the most Barbie thing about me is that I love
to have a million different jobs. I like want to
do every job for like a year and just like
and then just roll to the next job like that. Yeah,
all the jobs.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Is spending money? Cliche?
Speaker 5 (27:38):
Is that a Ken thing or a Barbie thing?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I think that's a Barbie thing.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Like you know, fashion, I like having different Like I
only wear black and like gray, but I like having
other colors to choo like. I was literally just looking
at pink ties for Barbie because I totally forgot it
was coming up. But I like to have, Like, you know,
I have like two different jackets prepared, and when I'm
in my hotel I'm getting ready for games, I'm like,
(28:04):
I don't have any idea what to wear, Like I
couldn't dress myself if.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
I tried, So I think that would be my big one.
Is like just having different things to choose from to wear,
but then wearing the same thing all the time.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Oh that's funny. I love it.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
I like it.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
Yeah, also get some pink socks, like pink it up,
Like if you wear a pink suit, I would be
so excited. But yes, I understand that there might be
limitations to that. Nikki, who on the team? Will you
never let cook you dinner because you think you might die?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
It's a really good one.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Yeah, that is a good one. I don't know if
I know about everyone's cooking techniques. I've heard just vibes.
Yeah that's fair. I've heard Scotti is a good chef,
so oh okay, Yeah, I'm gonna have to say I'm
rolling through like the roster right now. In my head,
(29:01):
I think it's gonna either be Actually, I feel like
a lot of the young guys do cook for themselves,
I'm gonna have to go with Ben McCartney, and I
think I don't know how well he cooks, but I
know he's got a very simplistic taste in food, and
I love spicing my food, so I think I'm gonna
go with that. Benny.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
No flavor, Absolutely, no flavor.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
He's a simple guy. He's a simple guy when it
comes to eating food.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
Yes, I could see that. We've actually interviewed past roommates
of Ben's, and I know that they talked about how
they had to do all the cooking, so I wouldn't
be surprised if Ben did not know how to cook,
and he mainly was doing sandwiches in his life.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
So man, he just called like three in the same question.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
He's simple. He's simple.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
That's that's poor straight, poor guy. No flavor, he's simple.
You can't cook. I love it. I think it's a
tremendous way to end the interview.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Nicky. We appreciate your time. We know you're busy. You
took time under your day to sit down with us,
so thank you very much.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
I have one more thing. I have one more thing.
I have one more thing because I always I always
do a dad joke for everybody that comes on the show. So, Nicky,
are you ready for your dad joke?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (30:21):
I love a dad joke, actually.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
For you, Okay ready, dogs can't operate MRI machines, but
cat Scan, I'm.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Gonna play that one in the training room. I think
they would like it.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Sorry, it took me to realize it's a medical joke.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Yeah, cat Scan.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Niki, thank you for your time. We appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yeah, no problem. Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
Thanks Nicky.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
So yeah, welcome back to Roadrunners. Happy our James Mackie Joing.
Now Kim Caudle ro blazed Kim. That was a great
I think other than pop Van, that was probably the
most insightful interview we've had on the show, not including
her horoscope sign. I think that was the most important
(31:16):
part of all of it. I still have no idea
what any of that means.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
It always is the most important part of it.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I guess I don't every time.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
That's my favorite subject to talk about because I love
hearing what other people are and then I either don't
follow up on it or I do, and then I
start over evaluating their like personality, and I'm like, yes,
I don't know what this means.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
Wait, so I'm still learning. Like That's my thing about
horoscopes is that I'm still learning. Like I know me
and and I know like my kids, but like I
still have to learn like all the other ones. And
there's definitely a chunk in the summer where I just
don't pay attention because I don't know anybody who's more
in the summertime. But James, what is your sign?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
I'm in aries?
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Oh you did say that you're in aries. Okay, I'm
gonna have to google it for you. Do Like, do
you know what like the hallmarks of your sign are.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
The biggest one is stubborn.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
Oh well, you're just holding on to the negative. But okay,
so you're bold, passionate, and energetic, and you have you're
a natural leader with a strong competitive drive.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
That's good for hockey.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
That is great for hockey, that is great for the industry.
You also can be impulsive and ambitious and short tempered,
but there's so many positive things in there. So yeah, bold, confident, energetic, passionate.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
This is when I think we should have Michael come
in and tell me if I'm energetic or not. In
the booth, I think Michael knows me best of like
every Michael and David are the two people I spend
the most time with at the rink.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
I think, yeah, yeah, he could be like, you have.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
A lot of energy, and it's probably a lot sometimes,
but I keep it mellow with the clothes like white shirt,
red tie, black jacket, and then it's like, I don't
know that red ties really allowed too. But like my
personality drives I think who I am?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
I think that's well he gets me through.
Speaker 5 (33:01):
Yeah, and aries. So you're a fire sign, so that
makes sense that yeah, I don't know, like it like
just hold on to that one thing that you are
a fire sign. I am also a fire sign. So yeah,
two fire signs together. I think it's a good combination.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I don't know what David is, but we gel really
all together in the booth.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
Oh, David's a leo. He told me, oh, you do know, yes,
you know my partner and I know I can do
just not believe in it, and he's very very adamant
that he does not believe in it. We've had a
lot of talks.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
I believe in it, but I'm at the point where
I'm like, I don't know that like like, I I
don't want to be like that wasn't like Nikki had
it perfect right, Like when she's in the conversation with
somebody and they say something, She's like, that was a
Virgo thing to say. I don't want to be in
the middle of a conversation be like, sorry, that was
super aries of me, Like, I worry I'm gonna let
it become too much of my personality if I like
(33:54):
know what it means. So I think I think that's
that's so funny though, that David's Leo.
Speaker 5 (34:00):
What is the very good Oh, Leo's love attention very
very much. They're leaders, They're very charismatic and outgoing. David
is very even keeled and he when we did our
very first show together, I found out that he was
a Leo. So but he was very very adamant that
(34:21):
his sister believes in astrology. He has zero belief in astrology.
So I don't know. Yeah, I think he'll get there.
I just I'm I'm going to be working on it
all season, just so you know.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
He don't tell not being treated like a king or queen.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
That is one hundred person and his girlfriend too, Oh,
his girl. I think it's his girlfriend who is very
much into astrology and tells him all the time, Oh,
that's such a Leo thing to do, and he really
hates it. Yeah, so I can't wait to meet her.
Very excited to meet her.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Now I know how to get under his skin.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
Yes, that what we need to ask David what the
most Barbie thing about him is, because I'm super curious
what his answer is going to be. I feel like
it's he's not gonna want to answer it at first.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
He's gonna Leo. Man, he's going to be Leo.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
He's very very proud. He's not gonna want to answer
it at first. But which of which of Nicky's answers
surprised you most in our in our talk with her.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Probably her hijacking her brother's college.
Speaker 5 (35:27):
Tour not so cool. That was such a good story.
I love that. And the fact that he didn't even
end up going to university.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Yeah, that's peak like little sibling, and coming from someone
who is a little sibling, that's like peak little sibling energy,
Like oh for sure, oh no, I want to go
to school here. My brother would look at me and
be like, dude, not your time, and I would be
like Okay, yeah, fair, But I guess Nicky's I'm close
to my brother, but I guess NICKI and her brother
are like maybe her brother didn't know she hijacked it.
(35:56):
But Rutgers is a good secondary school. I'll admit it's
a good that's a good fallback school. I don't know
what he studied. But for nick to be like, mom,
I want to go I want to go to Delaware
and her mom to go, Okay, you have a couple
more years. This isn't about you, is so peak like
little so I don't know if you're a little sibling peak,
little sibling energy.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
Yes, I have two. They are the worst. Yeah, I
did want to ask her how long she was in
school for. So I'm gonna have to like ask her
when I see her because I know that that what
she's doing is not It's not an easy path to take.
I have friends who are occupational therapists and like had
(36:34):
to basically give up being a part of any anything
social outside of school for years just to focus on
school and traveling and doing you know, residencies and like
so many different things. And yeah, I feel like we
talked so much about what she did, but we didn't
actually talk to her about the time that she spent
(36:56):
doing it.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
According to LinkedIn, it was six years.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
Oh okay, okay, and that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
She is a Bachelor of science that like training, strength
and conditioning in a minor in healthcare. She's a master
of anatomy and clinical health services and a doctor of
physical therapy.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
That's amazing. That is very cool. I'm so glad we
had her on the show.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
That was a great interview. She was fantastic to talk to. Wait.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Yeah, coming from someone whose schedule is like as busy
as hers, like, I know that they probably have a
lot going on, right like, but that was that was great.
I'm so appreciative she took the time to see down
on us. That really means a lot that she was
able to fit this in.
Speaker 5 (37:38):
I'll be very excited to see Nikki's trajectory in the
next ten years, yep, because there's no way that she's
not and not on an upper trajectory towards the NHL,
like really, you know, like in that next ten years
or so. So, yeah, everybody keep an eye out for
Nikki Patel. She's amazing.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
You hear her name. Just remember James Mackie.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
And Kim Coda on the Road Happy Hour podcast before
coach Ol Valley.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
So, James, just off of vibes, because I know you're
still getting to know the team, and there's definitely a
few players that are knew that I have not met
or like had any kind of meaningful conversation with yet.
So just vibes. Who would you not let cook you dinner?
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Maverick lamar room.
Speaker 5 (38:27):
That's a great answer.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
So I was watching the Halloween Who would survive in
a haunted house or horror movie thing?
Speaker 5 (38:36):
Yeah, sort of the best if you if to anybody
who's listening, if you have not been on Roadrun or
social media, go to the Halloween post and it is
so Maverick glamorous, coded insanity. It's fantastic. Sorry James, walk.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
By with an answer, walk back. Michael agrees, walk with
an answer, walk back, walk walk like. He was like
he was like no, wait, wait, wait wait, I didn't
understand the hold on what am I supposed to do?
Like I feel like Mavi like, yeah, James come over
for dinner tomorrow. I'm like, all right, cool. And then
I'd walk in and it would be pasta chicken, rice
(39:12):
beef and like six seasonings, and I'd be like, dude,
what are you doing? Like what like I can I
can no offense to MAV. And I'll be sure. I'll
be sure. I let him know I said that I
wouldn't let him cook me dinner. But I could just
imagine walking into MAV's house and it's just chaos in
the kitchen, like something's on fire. You know, the stove
(39:35):
is on, but the microwaves running with something, and like
it's just I can just envision this total chaos. So
this like six foot seven guy in this little house
like hunched over, like cooking over, like he's like his
kitchen's too short.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
You know, He's just I just would I'm not MAV Lammer.
That's my answer.
Speaker 5 (39:52):
Hands on.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I feel bad for Ben McCartney. He caught like four
strays in the same question.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Yeah, he's can't cook for himself, Like we were just
like piling them on him.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I was like, poor poor man.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
I think he'll be okay. He probably notes.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Yeah, probably, yeah, who are we kidding?
Speaker 5 (40:16):
We're being too And I just want to share. Maverick
Glamor is a Capricorn, which means he is relentless and
persistent and that he's going to tell it like it is.
It doesn't say anything about like frantic energy. But Maverick
definitely has some frantic energy.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
I definitely.
Speaker 5 (40:36):
I took a couple of the boys on a trip
to the Sonoran Desert Museum last season, and I don't
know my expectations. I should have managed my expectations on
that trip. Maverick he went full Chihuahua on that trip.
He had the best time. Yeah, he was touched everything,
like where I was like, please stop, please stop sticking
your fingers in the cages. I had to go full
(40:58):
mom mode with him because he was just out of control,
but he didn't care. Oh my god. At one point
he touched a cactus, just for everybody that needs to know.
He just wanted to know what it feel like. And
he just held his finger up and he had like spite,
He had thorns sticking out of his finger and he
just like he didn't feel it. He was just so
excited to touch a cactus. It was the craziest I've
ever seen.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
I mean, his quoebec energy. It's so funny.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
Oh his and his accent is so so much fun,
so much fun. Wait, but I have to tell you. Okay,
so I would not if anybody cooking on the team.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Yeah, I was gonna ask you next.
Speaker 5 (41:31):
Yeah, Miko Matica, Yep, absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
He's a dad now, so maybe he's got it. Maybe
he's we don't know, maybe.
Speaker 5 (41:41):
He's his daughter's like two months, so he's still.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Got to cook for I mean, eventually, not right now.
But I think I think maybe I don't know, maybe
I don't understand how fatherhood works. But maybe he had
a kid and he scored his first career goal and he's.
Speaker 5 (41:57):
So you think you can cook.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
I think Maverick would be a good sous chef segue.
I think that would be a good susho. In fact,
he's led the team in plus minus since the season started.
He was plus ten on one point. You know how
rare it is that a defenseman leads a hockey team
in plus minus.
Speaker 5 (42:12):
No, I didn't know. I didn't even think about that.
That's a great stat. Holy, he's a clue.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
He's a fantastic sous chef in my opinion.
Speaker 5 (42:20):
That that's actually a good call. That is actually a
really really good call. Wait, so who do you think
would be a good head chef on the team. Honestly,
I think Kevin cannot.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
I was gonna say, moss.
Speaker 5 (42:36):
Man really man, No, seriously.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
I think so he's so cool, calm and collected that
I feel like if he was in like a stressful
situation or something like that, he would just be like
flying burger's, flipping bacon rotating like you know, he'd be
he'd be making cheese burgers and burritos in like four
other things. I feel like he just he has that vibe.
Plus I've talked to him pre game in passing and
(43:01):
me and they were like hey, mom, like hey, Mo's man,
how you doing?
Speaker 3 (43:04):
Hey Maddie, how you doing? He's like, I'm good, guys,
how are you? This is a guy who's going out
to play a pro hockey game, and he's so like
chill and mellow. Like I feel like he just has
that like poison about him to be able to.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
Like, you know, I feel like he would be a
really good pastry chef and like a Michelin star restaurant. Yeah.
Like he just like needs like some time. Like he's
very like thoughtful and focused on the dishes, but like
but he needs time like to cook or to bake
(43:36):
whatever he's doing. But I don't know about a head
chef who.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Was you not? You said, right, said, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (43:45):
I really don't feel like he could make anything other
than cereal. Maybe he can't wait.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Somebody put him on the list with Ben McCartney.
Speaker 5 (44:00):
I don't like cooking. I can cook, but I it
is not my thing, like my kids will tell you, like,
it's not not I am not at home in the kitchen.
I would really rather somebody be cooking for me. So
I say this with love and light that if I
was going to cook for somebody, it might also be cereal.
So probably senhim in life. I love cinnamon, life cereal.
(44:22):
That stuff is the best.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
You're honest, which is good?
Speaker 5 (44:25):
Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
I think I know for a fact. I wouldn't let
David cook me dinner.
Speaker 5 (44:32):
Really, oh, I think he'd be a good cook. We
need to ask, we need to find out.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
I feel like I would.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
I would cook him dinner. I love cooking. I would
not let David cook me dinner.
Speaker 5 (44:43):
I would, you would, I would, But like I'd be
a tiny bit scared that I might get salmonella just
because maybe like the chicken wasn't cooked all.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
The way.
Speaker 5 (44:54):
I do it. I do it with a lot of
trepidation in my heart.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
That's great. I'll let him know we're gonna have that conversation.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
One final segment is road Runners Happy Hour rolls on
one final touch and go on the road Runners Happy
Hour podcast. It's a weekend look ahead. Coachella Valley comes
into Tucson for two games on Saturday Friday and Saturday
Friday Night. Correct me if I'm wrong. Is just a
regular game. Saturday's military appreciation Correct.
Speaker 5 (45:22):
That's true. Yes, all all of our active duty veterans,
service members, everybody come out to the game. We want
to appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Fun fact, Kim, Do you know what's happening that's special
this weekend?
Speaker 5 (45:36):
No, what's the fun fact?
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Our third jerseys.
Speaker 5 (45:39):
Oh that's right. Oh my gosh. They just dropped on Socials.
They're amazing. I've never seen them before and they are fire.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
There. I think I like the Kachinas.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
Let me tell you, Okay, calling an away game in
that studio with the green so hard, I like, it
doesn't look green, it looks black. But I'm looking for
were calling a game with the black jerseys in person.
Plus the end of the year they were green, but
the black jerseys in person. I'm excited to see them.
Every things about them. I love the way they look
on social media. I can only imagine what they're gonna
(46:12):
be like on the ice inaction on Saturday.
Speaker 5 (46:15):
Honestly, from you and me, as long as we can
see the numbers on the back, that's what I'm most
concerned about, saying. Where you can't see the numbers on
the back, and then you can't call it anything. Yeah,
so fingers crossed.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
I hope, I hope.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
So if you're not getting athing Friday and Saturday night,
seven o'clock puck drop at the Tucson Avenger Center. Tickets
available at Tucson roadrunners dot com. Kim, this was a
happy hour, I would say successfully done.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
Yep, it's in the books. It's been a happy hour.
Thanks for joining me, no worries, Thanks for having
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