October 14, 2025 • 45 mins
This week on Roadrunners Weekly: Happy Hour, we kick things off with a quick look back at the Roadrunners’ season-opening series against the Ontario Reign. Then, David Mooradain and Kim Cota-Robles sit down with team captain Austin Poganski for a laid-back chat about the start of the season, life in Tucson, and what it’s like leading the locker room. Grab your favorite drink and hang out with us — it’s Happy Hour with the Tucson Roadrunners.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's five o'clock on your Tuesday night. This is Tucson
Roadrunners Happy Hour from Fox Sports fourteen to fifty AM
with James Mack, David Brady, and then Kim ConA Roadblaze.
It's our usual Tuesday night get together right here on
Tucson sports station Fox Sports fourteen fifty A.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good evening, and welcome to this edition of Happy Hour
on the verge of the home opener for the Tucson
Roadrunners as they get set to welcome the Calgary Wranglers
this weekend with the opener on Saturday at seven pm.
David Rady and alongside Kim Coda, Roadblaze and Kim We've
already got two regular season games under our belts with
a record of one and one, but definitely the anticipation
(00:43):
is building for the home opener. I do want to
go off topic for one second before we kind of
preview the week ahead. Yeah, one thing that came up
on the broadcast, and you might be familiar with this
game is James and I and sometimes like a rotating guest,
we will predict the first goal scorer of the Roadrunners, right,
and I made a very good prediction for Friday's game.
(01:05):
I took Sammy Walker and he scored twice a lot
of points for doing that. That's not the point. The
point is this, I got the sense that maybe I
kind of overdid my celebration. I was perhaps a bit
too arrogant about the fact that I was right, and
some of the other broadcasts there's people in the broadcast studio.
I think they were bothered by that, and did you
(01:27):
do well contest came up. I just kept alluding to
the fact that I had such a big lead, and
I may have made a comparison to like an election
where they call it at seven oh one when the
polls closed at seven that kind of thing, because my
lead was so big and I just couldn't see how
you know, I was gonna get caught. But then James.
I was talking to James off the air, and I
(01:49):
mentioned to him that my girlfriend says I like being
right too much, and he brought it up on the air,
to which I replied, do some people like being wrong?
Because yes, I do like being right, But I've never
had somebody who likes being wrong. I mean, that's kind
of the other side of the coin.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So I'm just.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Wondering if you think I'm in the wrong here and
I am presenting this from my perspective, But what are
your thoughts on this?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
So my first thought, and you're gonna hate my first
thought is that that is such big Leo energy. Like
I know, I know that you don't want to hear that,
but like it was literally just looking at this recently
because we got a Leo on the team this season,
and it literally says that you are confident, charismatic, and generous,
(02:30):
and you're creative and loyal, but you can sometimes be
the self centered and prone to needing attention and validation.
And I'm curious what you think.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
About Well maybe, I mean, I guess that does kind
of make some sense because I'm certainly was looking for
someone to say, yes, David, you pick you big walker.
Good job. You know he scored twice, including the game
winner in overtime, and was one of their better players
on Friday. So yeah, maybe that's maybe that's all I
needed to hear. You could be right, And I really
(03:00):
enjoyed referencing the fact that I was in first place
by such a clear margin.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I don't know that is such like when I win
those Oh my gosh, I am so happy I am
so excited, but I don't have like in the PA booth,
I can't, you know, do a happy dance like that
vocally like everybody else can. But when I get it,
like if I was on the radio, I would probably
be talking about it quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, the problem is I'm the pregame host, right, so
it's pretty much fifteen minutes of me uninterrupted. This is
setting the stage previewing what happened last. And what happened
last was Sammy Walker scored a game winn and overtime,
his second goal on the night. So I just kept
reinforcing and reinforcing the fact that I predicted he would score.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
And James.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I think James had enough of it, because there's fifteen
minutes where I'm referencing it every two or three minutes.
Anytime I get an opportunity, I was touching on it.
And then when it was time for him to make
his pick, I may have not have been so kind.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Did James say that he was not appreciative of you
were mentioning it, or you're just getting that You're just
getting that energy from him?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
He mentioned on the air and alluded to the fact
that my girlfriend says, I like being right too much,
and I think he agrees with her assessment. That was
pretty much his take.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Gotcha, Okay, that's very interesting. I mean, but I'm with you,
like I don't. I don't want to be wrong. Nobody
ever wants to be wrong. And then when you are wrong,
and then the person who was right is constantly telling
you how right they were. Like that definitely could irk.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So, but the whole point of kind of what we're doing,
we're making the prediction to show that we're watching we
kind of understand what's happening, and then therefore we're able
to see into the future a little bit based on
our you know, analysis, Right. So, I was just excited
that I watched the preseason closely. I noticed some things
and was rewarded with a very accurate prediction.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I think you might be a little bit of a
wizard at this point.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Like, that's that's what I was trying to you know,
you're the first person to say that. That's I was
kind of trying to get through.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Which house would you be in if you were a wizard?
Which house would you be in? Are you? Are you
not a Harry Potter person?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Oh my god? We talked very little about Harry Potter.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
I think you're a raven claw. Ask your girlfriend. I
feel like she would probably be into Harry Potter. Yeah,
I tell her that, I said that I think that
you're a raven claw, and see if she agrees with me.
But yeah, I'm now I'm really curious David, to see
what your predictions for this weekend are.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, and that's I think that's a good point because
I had such a high level of accuracy the opening weekend,
and I think people should be kind of hanging on
every word.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
I mean and hang on every word.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, exactly. The other thing that's working here is everybody
else struggled, right, James struck out both days, so I
think there might be a little bit of frustration on
their part. Meanwhile, they look over to my corner and
you know, I've I'm just nailing it, So there might
be a little bit of envy. I don't know if
that's accurate, but I don't think it's out of the
realm of possibility.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, it's definitely. They're definitely jealous one hundred percent, and
that's where that comes from, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
So anyway, we will certainly like you said, people be
curious to hear my predictions starting pregame at six forty
five on the air for the home opener against the
Calgary Wrangulers. But that's not it. There's also the face
off Gala Thursday at six and Kim is going to
be a big part of that. So Kim, why don't
you elaborate on what we should expect on Thursday?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
So if never nobody's ever come to the face off
gala before, it's it's the first opportunity that the fans
really have to see the team all together. It's it's
the entire team, the coaching staff, the hockey operation staff,
everybody gets lined up and we do you know, this
big intro welcome for everybody. It's a lot of fun.
(06:53):
It's very intimate. It's going to be for those who
know the TCC been those the top of the escalator,
those ballrooms that are over in that direction. So when
you get to the TCC, don't head to the area
that we were in last season. We're going to be
in a different area this season. So I'm sure everybody
(07:14):
knows the layout of the TCC pretty well by this point.
But yeah, it's food, it's getting to meet the team.
After the team gets like formally introduced to everybody in
mass then the players have an opportunity. The fans have
an opportunity to meet the players one on one, get
merch signed, to talk to them about their summers, kind
(07:35):
of catch up, especially for guys that have been on
the team for a little while. I know that there
are a lot of lasting relationships between some of our
fans and some of our players, So this is this
is the opportunity to come get to know the new guys,
get to say hi to the guys who have been
with us for a few minutes, and catch up with everybody,
(07:57):
with all of the season ticket holder fans and and
anybody else who joins us. It's a lot of fun
and it's a really nice way to welcome in the season.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun. And I'll
be honest, you did have me at There will be food,
so I think that might be a nice selling point
for quite a few people as well, not just myself.
And I'm also looking forwards to I understand there's a
media spread Saturday and Sunday for the home games. There's
no spread when we do the games from the studio.
Other than like a bag of cheese, it's or fruit snacks,
(08:25):
which we definitely indulged in, but I mean that's on you.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
You got to bring your own snacks when you do
the virtual stuff. But when we're when we're on in
the TCC, yes, we do have a pregame meal because
we're there so early. Yeah, you're you're kind of there
for gosh, how many hours is it because what time?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I would think six.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
It's at least six hours for pregame and then the
game and then postgame. So we do get a chance
to eat. We eat with the office officials, the rally runners.
It's kind of like big production. Every buddy who's part
of the ensemble of the production gets to a chance
to sit down and eat before the game starts. And yeah,
(09:09):
it's typically pretty good. I definitely have some favorites.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
So it's rotating. It's not the same every time.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Yes, thank goodness, it is a rotating menu. But we
I can't remember when the menus come out, and I
think Bob puts those out. Bob shares the menus with us,
But yes, I always find out after everybody else. There's
apparently an email that goes around, and I am not
on the email distroy system, so usually find out the rest. Yes,
(09:39):
me too, so that way, you know, like just to know,
especially when it's fish and chips. I don't eat seafood,
so it's fish and chips night, and I didn't get
the heads up.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I'm just eating the chips now, I'm.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Just eating the branch mines because there's well, let's some
guys will put out a salad and stuff like that too.
But yeah, there's definitely some stuff that I am not
a fan of, Like I don't really like certain proteins
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So yeah, I think it would be pretty funny from
Bob's perspective for those who don't know Bob as our
team president, if his new analyst reaches out to him
and he sees the email and he's like, oh, this
is exciting. He just joined us, maybe has a question.
You know, Bob had a background of broadcasting, and then
the subject line is TCC media spread menu question mark.
He might be that he might be like, oh, okay,
(10:22):
I see where his priorities are.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yes, honestly, I would say that that's everybody's priority. That's
the number one priority, is what are we going to
be eating and the TCC does a pretty good spread,
and it's it's nice. It's it's really nice and chill,
other than the fact that the boys typically play super
ball right outside where we eat, or they were at
(10:46):
one point they played super Bowl super Bowl Yeah no,
not not an aaptizing name. And then occasionally the soccer
ball would end up in the eating area, so they
moved it over last season so it wasn't so close
to the dinner area, which was really nice because.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
That kind of reminds me of the NFL commercial that
they ran. Some may get the reference. I'll try to
paint the picture for those who don't. It was the
one hundred season for the NFL and the they were
running a commercial and the premise of the commercial was
they're having this big, fancy gala to commemorate one hundred years,
and they had all the X legends there, like ice
sculptures all that that sort of thing.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Right, Okay, I know what commercially you're talking aboutout.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Ball drops off the cake or something like that, and
Rob Rob Gunkowski shouts fumble and all these legends from
the last couple of decades are just jumping on the
ball and there's this big scrum and they start playing
football in this fancy gala. So that kind of is
that's what came into my mind when you said that
there's just soccer balls bouncing around in the media spread area.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
It is a little bit. It can be a little
bit like that. They moved the Super Bowl game moved
at one point, so now it's a little bit closer
to the green room for the on ice production crew.
And I cannot count the number of times that one
of the boys or one of the soccer balls came
crashing into like the the drapes and pipe, the pipe
(12:12):
and drape stands that separate us from them from the
sewer ball situation, literally have knocked down entire rows like dominoes,
the entire pipe and drape system that's back down there
because Ben McCartney came crashing through a curtain And that's
so funny. Yeah, it's hysterical after the fact when it
(12:33):
happens and you're hoping not to get hit by one
of those metal pipes or the ball or a player.
It's a little bit it's a little bit scary.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah. By the way, Bet McCartney scored the first goal
of the season for the road runners had a good weekend,
so you can keep that going. Yeah, he looked pretty good,
so hopefully they'll have some confidence coming into the Homeowner.
I don't know if this is meant for the air,
but I'm just going to roll with it. Our executive producer,
Michael Goodrich has chimed in, and no, not for the hair.
(13:02):
Let's just say he has a take on which meals
he likes and dislikes, and there's one that he's not
a fan of. I'll leave that. I'll leave the rest
to the imagination. But there's one meal that our executive
producer is not fond of, and.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
He's not alone on that. That is a widely held.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Uh, it's a popular take, So is that what the popularity?
We should eat on our own?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
It is not a hot take, yep, definitely a one
you should you know.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And by the way, I'll just say this much, based
on my kind of cultural and regional background, my expectations
would already be kind of low for that night, so
I think I would probably shy away as it is. Yeah, now,
hearing this definitely well taking amongst myself to eat on
my own that night.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
We didn't even talk about we get, we get dessert,
and that's my favorite part of any meal is dessert.
I'm always going to eat dessert first, and the desserts
are always you can't see me, but I'm doing the Italian.
Everything's beautiful like it's and the desserts are always really
really good.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I'm just wondering. I have two or three desserts that
no matter where I am, if they're on the menu,
I have to have to try them. Yeah, And I'm
wondering what those are for you?
Speaker 4 (14:11):
And then I'll say my my number one dessert is crimberlay.
If there is a restaurant that does a cremberlet, I'm
gonna taste it and see if it's I've had bad cremberlet,
which is I think pretty easy to do, but yes,
it's incredibly disappointing to have a bad cremberlet. Honestly, that's
that's my number one dessert. I'll eat ice cream, I'll
(14:32):
eat a Sunday, and I'll eat candy. You can't get
candy stressed, but I will eat almost any candy. I
like going to weddings when they pass out candy. I
went to a wedding over the summer that had candy
and that was yes, all the candy. Wait, so what
are your three?
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I have two hot takes and then I have two things,
two or three things that I really like. So one
of my hot takes, as you mentioned, a wedding, right,
So I think about if I'm going to a wedding
sometimes a rich cake. I like the actual cake. I'm
not a big frosting fan. Frosting, especially a lot of
it on the top, gives me a stomach ache. It's
too much.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Yeah, I'm one of those people that will kind of
scrape off the top layer a little bit of frosting,
just a light coating, like a half an inch of
snow on a driveway.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
That's what I'm looking for, And then the cake. So
I'm good with that, but not a top for me.
Two that I absolutely love key lime pie, huge fan.
I kind of like that mixture of sour and sweet
and key lime Pie for me is just terrific. And
the other, which is totally different than key Lime Pie,
is Tomaso and I don't like coffee, so it makes
sense out of that. I don't drink coffee and I
(15:36):
love termazoo, so that is an enigma in itself. And
my other hot take is chocolate chips on cookies drive
me crazy. But that's that's his story for another day.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
We're gonna have to dig into that. We're gonna have
to call a therapist.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
I just think chocolate is such a strong flavor that
once the chips are introduced to the cookie, it's not
a cookie anymore. You may as well be eating a
Hershey bar.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
You're crazy, dad, It's.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Not a popular opinion.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Who raised you? What this is? Insanity? Yeah, the chocolate chips. Like, okay.
First of all, Austin Piganski's scheduled to join us in
just a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
He's gonna have to weigh and I think on some
of these I am.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Flown away because I mean, if you made a chocolate
chip cookie without putting a chocolate chip in it and
just had the dough, like I think it would be
like an uh cookie, Like it would.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Beg cookie, one of my favors.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
It's completely different. Like it's because that brown sugar. You
don't I don't think I love brown sugar and a
sugar cookie.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
But here's what I would do. I think a chocolate
chip cookie is great when you bite around the chocolate chips, but.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Once you get.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Once I get one taste of chocolate, I can't taste
anything else but it, And I don't hate chocolate. But
you know, if I want to hurshy bar, I'll have one.
I like everything that goes into chocolate chip cookie before
they drop the chips in it, so I would put
brown sugar in my batter, so it's gonna be like
a tan sugar cookie. That to me, would be the
best of both worlds.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
That's insane. If there's a fan out there who wants
to make David a chocolate chip cookie with the chocolate chips,
I'm very curious what this tastes like. But Austin Paganski
is here. He's with us right now, so we definitely
need his take.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yeah, we'll get busy because this is I'm ready to
battle for chocolate chips at this point.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yes, you are listening to Happy Hour on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. Coming up next, one of the top players
for the Tucson road Runners, Austin Paganski, will he weigh
in on the chocolate chip debate on cookies, whether they
belong or not. We are now joined by Austin Paganski,
David Mariding, alongside Kim Coda Roblaze Austin. We have to
jump right in with what we just left on the
previous segment, A very important topic. So I kind of
(17:42):
shocked Kim and perhaps some of our listeners with my
previous statement, but I really dislike cookies that have chocolate
chips in them. Now. I like everything that goes into
a cookie before they drop the chips in them, But
once you introduce the chocolate chip to the cookie, I
think it's an overpowering flavor. And I only taste the
chocolate and the cook cookie's gone. It's like you may
as well have a Hershey bar. What are your thoughts
(18:03):
on this? Am I crazy?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
I was gonna say, I think crazy is a perfect
word for that. I think that is a crazy take.
I think the only time I don't like a chocolate
chip in my cookie is during Christmas time, when you
make sugar cookies and deck gooding with frosting like Santa
Claus and reindeer and all those kind of things. That's
the only time I don't suggest having a chocolate chip
in my cookie.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Yes, so me to you, David, it's one hundred percent you.
I've literally never heard this before.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Now I have a story. So for my birthday, my
girlfriend had a very interesting idea. She took us to
this place where you kind of have a one on
one cooking clinic with a professional chef. So, of course,
naturally I have this chef who trained in Italy for
like a decade. I said, hey, while we're talking about food,
I think chocolate chips on cookies is a disgrace. I
give her this whole, big, elaborate explanation. She said, you
(18:50):
know what, I think you make some very salient points.
That's when she said, a professional chef who trained in it.
I'm not making this up. She was very much open
to the reasons that I had and said, chocolate is
not a subtle flavor. It's pretty strong. And she totally
butt into my overpowering notion, which is critical.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
To my argument.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
It's strong but amazing, Like that's the part that I'm
not that's the math that I'm not getting with you, Like, yes,
it may be strong, but for good reason, like it's fantastic,
it's so so good.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
And by the way, as I can see in your face,
you're not buying what I'm selling.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Well, I just I just don't understand the chocolate chip
cookie is probably the most common, most well rounded cookie
there is. Like, if you take a pole from one
hundred people, ninety five percent of the people are going
to say they like chocolate chip cookies. Got like, what's
what's your favorite type of cookie?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Then I would say my favorite bite into a cookie
is when you have a chocolate chip cookie and it's
the very outer edge before them is actually a chocolate chip.
Because I do like sugar cookies, but I like chocolate
chip cookies better because they have some brown sugar and stuff,
but just not once I get to the chocolate chip.
I'm waiting for somebody to bake a cookie. That's everything
that goes into chocolate chip cookie, but they just don't
(19:59):
drop the chips in. That's what I would it.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Be fair to say you like vanilla ice cream.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I do like vanilla ice cream, but I will eat
other There's other flavors I like to like. I like
cookies and cream because that's more of an oreo. But
oreo isn't necessarily chocolate. It's kind of that. I don't know.
I don't really know what the outer thing is, but
I wouldn't call it chocolate really right. I think it
is chocolate, it's whatever.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
It's nobody is making this cookie because you are the
only person who would eat this cookie.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Well, we're gonna I think we're gonna find out, because
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a community of people
who say, finally we were once voiceless. Here's our warrior,
you know, bringing this cause to the forefront. I think
it might happen. There could be a revolution here.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Easy brave, easy brave heart.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
But anyway, Austin, it looked like to me a very
competitive weekend against Ontario. Obviously an exciting first game. I
did say to coach in the pregame interview. I said, Coach,
this is my first year covering the team. Is every
game going to be that exciting? With a late comeback
six on four than an overtime winner? And he said, David,
you know, I don't like exciting. If it were my
way would be two to one or three zero, Like,
(21:03):
I don't need any more games like that. But it
was entertaining for those covering and watching, and then even
a competitive showing on Sunday, opportunities to win the game
in the third period, going down just by one. I'm
just wondering how you assess the weekend, if you're happy
with the effort, room for improvement, kind of that sort
of thing.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
Yeah, you know, it's the first couple of games this
season are always tricky. There's there's rookies in the league
that are kind of making their mark, trying to figure
out the speed of the game, the tendencies of the
next level from wherever they're from, whether it's college or
major juniors. Guys are starting to learn systems that we
might have differently here. So in my if I kind
(21:40):
of put a whole grasp around a couple of games,
they're a little sloppy. It's kind of misread misreads, kind
of overthinking and not just playing.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
But that happens.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
That's that's pretty common among any new league that you
jump into in the first couple of games. So we
definitely have rooms to improve on. But I really liked
our compete. I liked our our work ethic or we
played fast, we played the right way. So there's a
lot of positives on it. But just like I'm sure
Patsy said, there's always room for improvement. And we'll get
back to work this week and have a couple of
big games of Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, And if I had to guess, I would say,
I'm not sure how much you guys have practiced since
the weekend or meant with the team. But if I
had to guess, I would say one point of emphasis
would probably be getting back into the defensive zone quicker
or tightening up some substitutions because it seemed like there
were quite a few breakaways, especially when guys were trying
to get off the ice. Am I kind of on
the right spot there for sure.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
We definitely had a couple of laps in our game
where we had a couple of bad changes or we
didn't manage the puck how we should have and it
turned odd man rushes against And that's that's what's going
to get you in this league. It's capitalizing on defensive
turnovers from the other team and create an offense off
of that. And I thought we kind of were our
own worst enemy in a way on Friday and Sunday
with a couple of bad turnovers, a couple of bad
(22:54):
line changes, and they capitalized on two or three of them,
which was the turning point in that Sunday game for sure.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Listen, I need to back up with you a second,
because I haven't talked to you in so long. First
of all, you unlocked a new status, which is dad. Yeah, congratulations,
So excited for you. Is anybody calling you Papa Pogo?
Because that's literally the first thing that popped into my head.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
A couple of guys on the team actually call me.
I don't know if it's poppy maybe I think that's
what Latsi's been calling me. I don't know if it's
from back from back home, from him or whatever, but
a couple of people have reference that I'm kind of
like the dad on the team now, or kind of
like that father figure to a lot of a lot
of the guys. But I don't mind it. It's being
a Dad's the best thing in the world. That's It's awesome.
(23:40):
So whatever they want to call, hopefully I'm teaching them
some things too.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
So can you share with us how old is the baby?
Was it a boy or girl? And how is it
being a new parent? Like what is your life like?
Last time I talked to you, I think you had
just bought a new house. You guys had just gotten married.
You bought the house in Minnesota, you were working on
on the lawn. You were really excited about the lawn.
(24:06):
So yeah, what was your summer like now as a
new parent and moving this new human into your spaces.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
Yeah, well, first of all, it definitely changes your life
for the best. But it definitely changed your life. There's
someone else that kind of leads the direction of the
ship and you got it kind of have to do
whatever whatever they need, which is which is part of
being a dad, which is which is awesome. But yeah,
we had a baby girl. Her name is Stella May Pagans.
Oh my god, she's about five months. She turns five
(24:33):
months on the fourteenth, so she's growing up so fast.
It's it definitely was an ideal being away for camp
for about a month or so and then we were
on the road.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
But uh, they're all moved in.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Here, so it's it's awesome to get back and back
being a dad, changing diapers, doing all those kind of things,
which which is awesome, which I love to do so
but no, it's been awesome. The summer was great. The
summer goes by so fast, as I'm sure most most
most hockey guys say that there's so many people that
you want to see, so many things you want to
do and there's just not a ton of time to
do it.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
But the summer is the best.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
And like like I talked to you before, Kim, Minnesota
is my hometown or my home state, which I love
going back to in the summers. I love being on
the lake, I love fishing, I love doing all that
kind of stuff. And now being a homeowner with a baby,
there's just so much little things that you got to
fill your space where there's time with, like you said,
managing the lawn or getting the baby's room all together,
(25:28):
doing laundry, you name it.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
There's so many different things now, but.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
It's part of growing up more responsibility and it's been awesome.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
If I can just make one recommendation, and I'm sure
you have had tons of people in your ear telling
you the best things to do as a new parent,
but to me, honestly, that Costco or Sam's Club membership,
Like that's the way to be as a new parent.
You need all of this stuff and you don't want
to go shopping as often as the baby probably needs,
(25:56):
so like that that's such a time saver.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
We've definitely been a Costco a couple of times, and
Stella actually loves Costco. She just loves the stimulants of
just looking around at all the different things and touch
and everything. So she's actually a big fan of the store,
and sow are me and Cary, so it's actually perfect.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yeah, this is maybe a little bit premature because she's
still very young, But I'm wondering, you're from Minnesota raising
Stella here in Arizona. Are you worried that maybe she
won't have the toughness of going through a Minnesota winter
and that she might be a little bit spoiled with
Like considering forty five to be cold on a December morning,
I think got cold.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
I'm getting a little less tough being here for my
third year.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, it's different.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
It's it's it's you take weather for granted when you
when you do have it so cold and you or
I should say, when you're when you're down here and
you don't have to deal with the cold winds and
getting up early to shelby or driveway so you can
get out of your driveway. So there's different things like
that that even I'm like, holy crap, Like I'm living
kind of a nice life down here and I having
to worry about that. But like you said, she's so young,
(26:59):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
I don't know. Hopefully not.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
We'll we'll have to do some other things to keep
her tough.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
I thought you're gonna ask David if Austin was worried
that she was going to grow up without a Minnesota accent,
and she wouldn't say a boat and and UFTA and
stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
We don't say that bad.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Very funny, but I do, you know, I do wonder,
you know, if she will kind of identify with Arizona,
maybe perhaps more than Minnesota. I don't know if you're
like a big sports fan, if you follow professional teams,
but maybe you may be a Vikings fan and she
will adopt the Cardinals or something like that could be
an interesting thing to follow.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
I think she'll be a Vikings fan. We'll set that
clear right away. She was born in Minnesota, so we
have that going for us.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I don't know, well, houses in Minnesota with the lawn,
I'm assuming there's no lawn here in Tucson.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Nope. Just so.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
We got some rock around our apartment here and a
little bit of a balcony, so no no grass here.
But hopefully when she gets back, she'll be more aware
of the grass and enjoy and appreciate it because I
like to I like I type. I try to keep
a tight ship on my lawn. We actually just had
a ton of landscaping done at our house. I know
we talked about that a little bit earlier, but yeah,
that stuff kind of really interests me. So we got
(28:14):
a bunch of flowers and different shrubs and trees all
around our house, and it actually looks really nice. I
would love to show you as a picture.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Sometimes I really want to see how green it is,
because I know obviously Minnesota's green, and we don't get
a chance to do that here because we're conserving water.
So I'm happy to hear that it's rocks around you
and not not green grass. But I wanted to I
know you want to talk about long care, but I
want to get back to being a dad. There are
(28:43):
some new names on the roster this season that like,
I feel like these guys are so young, you're gonna
need all that dead energy for sure. How does it
feel in the locker room this season, the second season
as captain? Yeah, how does it? What's the difference between
last season and this season?
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah, definitely, we do We do have some younger guys.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
We lost a couple older, more veteran players with like
Travis Barron and Hunter Drew and now Curtis Douglas, So
we definitely do have a younger roster. Which that's kind
of what the American League is now. It's a younger
league trying to develop these guys to one day, hopefully
sooner than later, get into the NHL and produce for
the Utah Mammoths. So's it is a younger league and
(29:26):
it's kind of what it is nowadays. But it's our
responsibility as the captain and as older players in this
league to kind of share our experience and lessons that
we've learned throughout our way that older guys have taught
us and try to kind of carry them and lead
them the right direction so that one day they're NHL stars.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, and Austin, I'm wondering with that introduction of younger players,
is there anything that they've kind of taught you, not
necessarily vocabulary wise, but really just anything that you've picked
up on and you're like, oh, I just kind of
see what's going.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
On here from you're saying from the younger guys. The
younger guys exactly, Well, you said. The lingo that these
younger players have, I don't understand. I think it's a
different language, to be honest, Like some of the stuff
that they say, I have to go ask somebody else,
like what did he just say?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
And what did that mean?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
What?
Speaker 4 (30:14):
What are you hearing?
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Like?
Speaker 5 (30:16):
I don't even know if it's right to say, Like
I think it's all appropriate stuff, Like just like Layton
More and Tyler and Julio and all these guys have
a different language, and I honestly don't understand what they're saying, but.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I think it's all derivatives of something, right. It starts
with a normal sentence and then it just gets deduced
down to shorter and shorter and shorter, and the appreciation
letters and you don't know what's going on.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Yeah, So usually I just kind of shake my head
and agree and then say, yeah, we'll talk, we'll talk
later sort of thing. But no, they're just their energy
that these young guys have is awesome. The skill sets
that they have from back home that they bring to
us is you can always learn from from learn from that.
But now these young kids are so skilled, they're so
strong at such a young age nowadays that us old
(31:01):
guys kind of keeps us a little bit younger and
kind of just chase them around the ice keep us
in shape as well.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
I feel like you throw lighton More and Maddie into
a room together, and that's that's fine. Let them talk
at each other in a weird little lingo and they'll
be okay.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
I don't know if they'll figure anything out, but they'll
have a nice conversation about God knows whatever.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Yeah, they'd be okay.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Correct me if I'm wrong. But Miko Matika is also
now a new father, that's correct, right. I'm wondering you
are older than him, if you had any fatherly advice
for the new younger father.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yeah, so that's I think that's pretty new.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
I think it's a couple of weeks old for his
baby girl, so we haven't had too much to talk
about yet. I think she's still back home with with
his girlfriend. So yeah, we're I'm sure you'll have questions.
I'm sure when she moves down here, we'll we'll get
to we'll get to meet the little girl and have
some play dates or guess whatever you call that. I
(31:59):
guess I'm not really familiar with that quite yet, but
it'll be nice to have a couple of guys that
have babies just for for that kind of purpose, to
get everybody together and kind of have the same relationship.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
I love that you guys are all having little girls. Amazing.
I'm such a big fan of this. I know obviously
you didn't plan this, and this is this is what
the universe wanted for you. Austin was a little girl,
Stella May I'm big, a big, big fan. I had
to ask since going back to Curtis Travis Hunter, a
couple of questions because those three holy smokes just they
(32:36):
brought such a different kind of energy to the ice
and to the team. What differences Who do you think
is gonna is gonna step into those shoes or if
anybody will? And then also, are you still playing Clash
of Clans with Curtis right now we'll.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
Start with Class of Clans. Yes, we're still in the
same plan. We got a couple of guys on the
team into now, so that will that will never change.
We're still done at hard. We still that's kind of
how we communicate a little bit.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
But going going to.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
Those guys and filling their void, that's that's gonna be tough.
It's not gonna take one or two people. It's gonna
take a group of people to kind of step up
and fill that void because they were a huge asset
to our team last year. With We'll start with their toughness,
Like those three guys were out there to protect anybody
on our team. Not a lot of guys had the
(33:30):
will to want to go against them in the corner
or in a fight rather, but it's that's something you
can't teach. It's just something that they had and and
that was a huge asset to our team. So we
will need guys like Ben McCartney who's always willing to
step up for guys, and Montagne and Bucci to kind
of fill that toughness role that those guys brought every
single game. It kind of teams didn't like to play
(33:52):
us solely because we had guys like that that we're
out there kind of patrol and playing hard, playing the
right way, and it's not fun to be in the
on the other side of that when you get blown
up and then have to dance with the bell and
take a couple of right hands from Curtis Douglas. That's
that's no fun for anybody as in NHL now he's
having great success with that.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
So yeah, it's going to take a lot of guys.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
We do have some young guys that definitely have the
capabilities to kind of fill out those roles of playing
the right way, But the toughnest part, that's just something
that you don't teach. It's just kind of in the
heart that you kind of are born with and instilled
within yourself. And that's what we will need some guys
to step up to take that on.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Do you you know, guys, do you guys have been
playing forever? You guys have been playing since you were small.
At what point in your career, I guess do you
figure out, you know, like what kind of player you
are and what kind of energy you're bringing to the ice,
and who you're going to be when the team needs you.
One of the things that I loved about Hunter was
(34:53):
that he wasn't a born forward. He'd been playing defense,
and then who he was playing for at the time
was like, we need forwards, and so he just pivoted
on a dime and did that, and he was willing
to do that, And that's to me, like, I don't
know if playing defense is a little bit it's harder
than playing forward, I think a little bit. But you know,
(35:16):
like when you start looking to the young guys to
see like who's going to be able to match that
and who's kind of like gonna start filling in those voids.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Ye, that's a great question.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
It's actually a really good lesson to teach younger players too.
Like growing up, a lot of players want to be
those top two lines on forward, and as they get
into higher leagues, you might not be that top two line,
where you have to change your role and maybe you're
a bottom six or third and fourth line pinally a killer.
I mean, you kind of just have to adapt to
how things are changing, how the game is evolving. Obviously,
(35:51):
Like as you go from college to the American League,
it's a big step and you're probably not going to
jump right into that first line role. So you got
to find other ways to contribue, other ways to have success,
and that might be on that fourth line being an
energy for bringing bucks to the net, finishing hits, blocking shots,
and as you progress throughout that year or even a
(36:12):
couple of years in the American League, then maybe you'll
start gaining more responsibility, and you'll find more power play time,
top two lines, more face offs, but you got to
be able to adapt like every team. Sometimes teams have
those top six already already filled out, so you've got
to find a role to succeed and to stay in
that lineup every single every single game. So it's a
really good lesson to have. I've been on just about
(36:35):
every situation I've been anywhere from first line to fourth
line throughout my career. Penalty kill, power play doesn't matter.
The teams kind of decide that for you in a way,
but also your work ethic and your compete and your
continuous improvement throughout the year also kind of dives into that.
So kind of going into your second question with what
young guys will kind of step into that is we
(36:56):
do have some holes on just about all those positions
anywhere from first line to fourth line, power play, penalty kill.
So as a young guy, it's first you got to
gain that responsibility. You got to gain that trust from
the coach that we do trust him in all those situations.
And as they continue to progress and get stronger and
show what they're capable of, they'll continue to gain more
(37:17):
responsibility on the ice, whether like I said, top six,
whether it's power play, penalty kill, important face offs in
the defensive zone. There's so many different roles and opportunities,
but it's it's all there. You got to earn that,
it's just not given to you.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I got a quick question and then I think Kim
has something fun in store for you. But what kind
of team should the road Runner fans expect come Saturday
night when you guys take the ice for the home opener.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Yeah, it's a good question.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Patzi's really big on our identity, and our identity Roadrunner
hockey is it's fast, resilient. We play with a lot
of pace. We play with a lot of speed and tenacity.
We're not going to be the most skilled team on
the ice every single night, but we're gonna defend ourn
as well as boss. We're not going to give up
a lot of chances. Can I kind of expect a
(38:05):
low scoring game from us. We don't like to give
up much and we capitalize on our good defense and
turn that into good offense. So I don't know if
that kind of answered your question, but we're gonna be
a hard team to play against. We're gonna play with
as much pace as we're able to play with, and
we're going to defend really extremely hard.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
No, I love that. I think the fans will certainly
embrace that kind of identity.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Yeah, Awestin. I don't know if you know this, but
when we talked in July of last year, when you
were in back in Minnesota over the summer break, you
were the first ever BuzzFeed quiz that I gave to
any of the players. I don't know if you remember
that we did. You had to pick up breakfast buffet
and then the quiz gave you a compliment at the
end of it, and it was a really good compliment,
(38:49):
and I don't remember it off the top of my head,
but it was very you. So I wanted to do
a new BuzzFeed quiz for you in honor of Stella
Estella or Stella May? Are you doing Stella? May?
Speaker 5 (39:04):
We call Estella and then May is her middle name. Yeah, Cai,
My wife really likes to just call her sella Ma.
She thinks it's really cute. Stella baby, Stella.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
Okay, I like Stella. So what you're gonna do today
for our Buzzbeed quiz is you're gonna enjoy a cake buffet.
I'm gonna give you some cakes to pick from, and
we're gonna reveal which Winnie the Pooh character you are.
Oh are you ready?
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Yeah, all right, let's go. All right, you got to
pick one of the four. Cheesecake, lemon, pound cake, red
velvet cake, or vanilla.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Cake, Cheese cake okay, solid.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
Carrot Okay, I'm not gonna say cake after everyone, So carrot, hazelnut, nutella,
or rainbow carrot. Okay. Coffee, macha, pistachio or strawberry.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Would macho ha? Is that be like a macha like
coffee cake?
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Yeah, I'll do.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Okay, that's a surprise, that's yeah, it's a very interesting flavor. Macha. Okay. Chocolate, honey,
mango or raspberry chocolate.
Speaker 5 (40:12):
Don't say chocolate, I'm crazy.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Cherry fudge, opera or dress letches. I don't know what
opera cake is. Trace lay chase, that's solid okay.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Definitely a dairy trend going here with the trayce lay
chase and the cheesecake. But I'm in agreement with that.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
Yeah, okay, I think this is the last one. Coconut
ice cream cake, pineapple upside down or sponge ice cream cake.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
There's the nice who doesn't want ice cream cake?
Speaker 4 (40:48):
You actually got Winnie the Pooh. It says you are
a kind of gentle person who loves simple pleasures like honey,
your thoughtful, innocent, and value friendship above all.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Right.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
BuzzFeed never lies, right, Kim.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
No, I could call you Papa poo.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
That sounds a little different, but that's horrible.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
I'm so sorry. I said that. It was out of
my mouth before it could stop it.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
That's funny. Oh well, yeah, but I think that's everything
we have for you, Austin. We'll let you get back
to the baby and then prepare for the weekend. The
home opener coming up seven o'clock on Saturday, and then
one more against Calgary four o'clock on Sunday. We look
forward to watching you out there. I think a lot
of our fans do too.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Right on.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
Yeah, thanks for having me anytime. I love doing these
kind of podcasts and questions and quizzes.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
That's awesome, Thanks, Austin. We'll see you on the red
carpet on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Right on. I'm excited. Thank you, guys, Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
We are back on Happy Hour on fourteen fifty Fox
Sports Tucson Radio, and we want to thank Austin Paganski
for joining us. It was a fun interview. He laid
out what we should expect for the team, but we
also had some fun with him a lot of food
related questions, Kim and I don't know what that reveals
about us, and certainly in the first segment some time
on food. So maybe this is just kind of a
food obsessed podcast and maybe a perfect name and with
(42:05):
Happy Hour because that kind of implies the same sort
of thing. But anyway, one very interesting answer that Austin
gave and I think our fans will really take to
appreciate it was when I asked him the identity of
the team and what Roadrunner fans should expect come Saturday
in the TCC, and he said, look, we're not going
to be the best team on the ice every night,
(42:26):
but we're going to play with intensity, going to be physical,
defend ourn Nette, defend our arena, and really just give
everything that they have and try to win at any
at any cost necessary. And I think that that's going
to be very exciting to see. And I thought that
was on display frankly, in the first series, I mean,
there were some definite mistakes and we touched on that,
but there was a game to be won. On Friday,
(42:48):
they were they played very well, but we're not in
a great position with a couple of minutes left. But
they played incredibly hard in the final moments and were
able to mount a pretty unlikely comeback, scoring with twenty
two secon left in regulation and then winning it in overtime.
So certainly, if the road Runners are involved in a
lot of close games and able to you know, win
many of them, that would be very exciting and I
(43:10):
think our fans wouldn't have a problem with that.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
I think that that the fans can expect to see
if if they're not the best team on the ice,
they are going to be the most persistent team on
the ice. They are going to be doing unique things
on the ice and making unconventioned, unconventional decisions about what
things look on look like on the ice. So I
(43:35):
am really really interested to see how things go this season.
It is a very very different vibe than last season.
And I've only seen the team you know, at practice
I think twice, you know, and it's really hard to
tell how things are going to go at this point
in person. Sorry, I've only seen them on on the
ice twice in person, so and to me, like that's
(43:58):
really important. I think once the fans are there, once
we're in this opening weekend, we do the red carpet,
we get on the ice, I think that it's just
going to be a tenth anniversary season, Like this is
just going to be a phenomenally fun season.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Yeah, so let's just set the stage one more time.
We've got the face off gala Thursday at six. First time,
as Kim said that fans will have the opportunity to
kind of look behind the scenes, one on one conversations,
that sort of thing. So that's definitely exciting, an unprecedented
kind of opportunity for our fans to connect with the
players and those involved with the road Runners. That's Thursday
(44:34):
at six at the TCC, and then of course the
home opener and everything that goes with that. On Saturday,
the game will be played at seven, which means pregame
coverage is at six forty five. If you're curious to
hear if I'm going to nail another goal scorer, and
that's kind of what I was saying can I anytime
I get an opportunity to mention it, I usually.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
Do and try to get it in there.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Yeah, I want to listen at six forty five to
here if we're going to be accurate once again, but
even before then, check out the red carpet introductions at
four o'clock, three hours before puck drop, and then the
series finale against Calgary on Sunday at four pm, once
again at the Tucson Convention Center. So there's a lot
coming up. Hockey season is upon us, and maybe fittingly
(45:17):
so because the air has been a little bit cooler.
We had a lot of rain this weekend, so I
think it's it's time for roadrunners hockey and certainly much
of it coming down the pike. So very exciting, and
we thank you so much for listening to us here
on the Happy Hour on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. We'll
be back next Tuesday at the same time recapping that
home opening series against the Calgary Wranglers.
It's five o'clock on your Tuesday night. This is Tucson
Roadrunners Happy Hour from Fox Sports fourteen to fifty AM
with James Mack, David Brady, and then Kim ConA Roadblaze.
It's our usual Tuesday night get together right here on
Tucson sports station Fox Sports fourteen fifty A.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good evening, and welcome to this edition of Happy Hour
on the verge of the home opener for the Tucson
Roadrunners as they get set to welcome the Calgary Wranglers
this weekend with the opener on Saturday at seven pm.
David Rady and alongside Kim Coda, Roadblaze and Kim We've
already got two regular season games under our belts with
a record of one and one, but definitely the anticipation
(00:43):
is building for the home opener. I do want to
go off topic for one second before we kind of
preview the week ahead. Yeah, one thing that came up
on the broadcast, and you might be familiar with this
game is James and I and sometimes like a rotating guest,
we will predict the first goal scorer of the Roadrunners, right,
and I made a very good prediction for Friday's game.
(01:05):
I took Sammy Walker and he scored twice a lot
of points for doing that. That's not the point. The
point is this, I got the sense that maybe I
kind of overdid my celebration. I was perhaps a bit
too arrogant about the fact that I was right, and
some of the other broadcasts there's people in the broadcast studio.
I think they were bothered by that, and did you
(01:27):
do well contest came up. I just kept alluding to
the fact that I had such a big lead, and
I may have made a comparison to like an election
where they call it at seven oh one when the
polls closed at seven that kind of thing, because my
lead was so big and I just couldn't see how
you know, I was gonna get caught. But then James.
I was talking to James off the air, and I
(01:49):
mentioned to him that my girlfriend says I like being
right too much, and he brought it up on the air,
to which I replied, do some people like being wrong?
Because yes, I do like being right, But I've never
had somebody who likes being wrong. I mean, that's kind
of the other side of the coin.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So I'm just.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Wondering if you think I'm in the wrong here and
I am presenting this from my perspective, But what are
your thoughts on this?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
So my first thought, and you're gonna hate my first
thought is that that is such big Leo energy. Like
I know, I know that you don't want to hear that,
but like it was literally just looking at this recently
because we got a Leo on the team this season,
and it literally says that you are confident, charismatic, and generous,
(02:30):
and you're creative and loyal, but you can sometimes be
the self centered and prone to needing attention and validation.
And I'm curious what you think.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
About Well maybe, I mean, I guess that does kind
of make some sense because I'm certainly was looking for
someone to say, yes, David, you pick you big walker.
Good job. You know he scored twice, including the game
winner in overtime, and was one of their better players
on Friday. So yeah, maybe that's maybe that's all I
needed to hear. You could be right, And I really
(03:00):
enjoyed referencing the fact that I was in first place
by such a clear margin.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I don't know that is such like when I win
those Oh my gosh, I am so happy I am
so excited, but I don't have like in the PA booth,
I can't, you know, do a happy dance like that
vocally like everybody else can. But when I get it,
like if I was on the radio, I would probably
be talking about it quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, the problem is I'm the pregame host, right, so
it's pretty much fifteen minutes of me uninterrupted. This is
setting the stage previewing what happened last. And what happened
last was Sammy Walker scored a game winn and overtime,
his second goal on the night. So I just kept
reinforcing and reinforcing the fact that I predicted he would score.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
And James.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I think James had enough of it, because there's fifteen
minutes where I'm referencing it every two or three minutes.
Anytime I get an opportunity, I was touching on it.
And then when it was time for him to make
his pick, I may have not have been so kind.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Did James say that he was not appreciative of you
were mentioning it, or you're just getting that You're just
getting that energy from him?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
He mentioned on the air and alluded to the fact
that my girlfriend says, I like being right too much,
and I think he agrees with her assessment. That was
pretty much his take.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Gotcha, Okay, that's very interesting. I mean, but I'm with you,
like I don't. I don't want to be wrong. Nobody
ever wants to be wrong. And then when you are wrong,
and then the person who was right is constantly telling
you how right they were. Like that definitely could irk.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So, but the whole point of kind of what we're doing,
we're making the prediction to show that we're watching we
kind of understand what's happening, and then therefore we're able
to see into the future a little bit based on
our you know, analysis, Right. So, I was just excited
that I watched the preseason closely. I noticed some things
and was rewarded with a very accurate prediction.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I think you might be a little bit of a
wizard at this point.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Like, that's that's what I was trying to you know,
you're the first person to say that. That's I was
kind of trying to get through.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Which house would you be in if you were a wizard?
Which house would you be in? Are you? Are you
not a Harry Potter person?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Oh my god? We talked very little about Harry Potter.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
I think you're a raven claw. Ask your girlfriend. I
feel like she would probably be into Harry Potter. Yeah,
I tell her that, I said that I think that
you're a raven claw, and see if she agrees with me.
But yeah, I'm now I'm really curious David, to see
what your predictions for this weekend are.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, and that's I think that's a good point because
I had such a high level of accuracy the opening weekend,
and I think people should be kind of hanging on
every word.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
I mean and hang on every word.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, exactly. The other thing that's working here is everybody
else struggled, right, James struck out both days, so I
think there might be a little bit of frustration on
their part. Meanwhile, they look over to my corner and
you know, I've I'm just nailing it, So there might
be a little bit of envy. I don't know if
that's accurate, but I don't think it's out of the
realm of possibility.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah, it's definitely. They're definitely jealous one hundred percent, and
that's where that comes from, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
So anyway, we will certainly like you said, people be
curious to hear my predictions starting pregame at six forty
five on the air for the home opener against the
Calgary Wrangulers. But that's not it. There's also the face
off Gala Thursday at six and Kim is going to
be a big part of that. So Kim, why don't
you elaborate on what we should expect on Thursday?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
So if never nobody's ever come to the face off
gala before, it's it's the first opportunity that the fans
really have to see the team all together. It's it's
the entire team, the coaching staff, the hockey operation staff,
everybody gets lined up and we do you know, this
big intro welcome for everybody. It's a lot of fun.
(06:53):
It's very intimate. It's going to be for those who
know the TCC been those the top of the escalator,
those ballrooms that are over in that direction. So when
you get to the TCC, don't head to the area
that we were in last season. We're going to be
in a different area this season. So I'm sure everybody
(07:14):
knows the layout of the TCC pretty well by this point.
But yeah, it's food, it's getting to meet the team.
After the team gets like formally introduced to everybody in
mass then the players have an opportunity. The fans have
an opportunity to meet the players one on one, get
merch signed, to talk to them about their summers, kind
(07:35):
of catch up, especially for guys that have been on
the team for a little while. I know that there
are a lot of lasting relationships between some of our
fans and some of our players, So this is this
is the opportunity to come get to know the new guys,
get to say hi to the guys who have been
with us for a few minutes, and catch up with everybody,
(07:57):
with all of the season ticket holder fans and and
anybody else who joins us. It's a lot of fun
and it's a really nice way to welcome in the season.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun. And I'll
be honest, you did have me at There will be food,
so I think that might be a nice selling point
for quite a few people as well, not just myself.
And I'm also looking forwards to I understand there's a
media spread Saturday and Sunday for the home games. There's
no spread when we do the games from the studio.
Other than like a bag of cheese, it's or fruit snacks,
(08:25):
which we definitely indulged in, but I mean that's on you.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
You got to bring your own snacks when you do
the virtual stuff. But when we're when we're on in
the TCC, yes, we do have a pregame meal because
we're there so early. Yeah, you're you're kind of there
for gosh, how many hours is it because what time?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I would think six.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
It's at least six hours for pregame and then the
game and then postgame. So we do get a chance
to eat. We eat with the office officials, the rally runners.
It's kind of like big production. Every buddy who's part
of the ensemble of the production gets to a chance
to sit down and eat before the game starts. And yeah,
(09:09):
it's typically pretty good. I definitely have some favorites.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
So it's rotating. It's not the same every time.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Yes, thank goodness, it is a rotating menu. But we
I can't remember when the menus come out, and I
think Bob puts those out. Bob shares the menus with us,
But yes, I always find out after everybody else. There's
apparently an email that goes around, and I am not
on the email distroy system, so usually find out the rest. Yes,
(09:39):
me too, so that way, you know, like just to know,
especially when it's fish and chips. I don't eat seafood,
so it's fish and chips night, and I didn't get
the heads up.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I'm just eating the chips now, I'm.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Just eating the branch mines because there's well, let's some
guys will put out a salad and stuff like that too.
But yeah, there's definitely some stuff that I am not
a fan of, Like I don't really like certain proteins
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So yeah, I think it would be pretty funny from
Bob's perspective for those who don't know Bob as our
team president, if his new analyst reaches out to him
and he sees the email and he's like, oh, this
is exciting. He just joined us, maybe has a question.
You know, Bob had a background of broadcasting, and then
the subject line is TCC media spread menu question mark.
He might be that he might be like, oh, okay,
(10:22):
I see where his priorities are.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yes, honestly, I would say that that's everybody's priority. That's
the number one priority, is what are we going to
be eating and the TCC does a pretty good spread,
and it's it's nice. It's it's really nice and chill,
other than the fact that the boys typically play super
ball right outside where we eat, or they were at
(10:46):
one point they played super Bowl super Bowl Yeah no,
not not an aaptizing name. And then occasionally the soccer
ball would end up in the eating area, so they
moved it over last season so it wasn't so close
to the dinner area, which was really nice because.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
That kind of reminds me of the NFL commercial that
they ran. Some may get the reference. I'll try to
paint the picture for those who don't. It was the
one hundred season for the NFL and the they were
running a commercial and the premise of the commercial was
they're having this big, fancy gala to commemorate one hundred years,
and they had all the X legends there, like ice
sculptures all that that sort of thing.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Right, Okay, I know what commercially you're talking aboutout.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Ball drops off the cake or something like that, and
Rob Rob Gunkowski shouts fumble and all these legends from
the last couple of decades are just jumping on the
ball and there's this big scrum and they start playing
football in this fancy gala. So that kind of is
that's what came into my mind when you said that
there's just soccer balls bouncing around in the media spread area.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
It is a little bit. It can be a little
bit like that. They moved the Super Bowl game moved
at one point, so now it's a little bit closer
to the green room for the on ice production crew.
And I cannot count the number of times that one
of the boys or one of the soccer balls came
crashing into like the the drapes and pipe, the pipe
(12:12):
and drape stands that separate us from them from the
sewer ball situation, literally have knocked down entire rows like dominoes,
the entire pipe and drape system that's back down there
because Ben McCartney came crashing through a curtain And that's
so funny. Yeah, it's hysterical after the fact when it
(12:33):
happens and you're hoping not to get hit by one
of those metal pipes or the ball or a player.
It's a little bit it's a little bit scary.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah. By the way, Bet McCartney scored the first goal
of the season for the road runners had a good weekend,
so you can keep that going. Yeah, he looked pretty good,
so hopefully they'll have some confidence coming into the Homeowner.
I don't know if this is meant for the air,
but I'm just going to roll with it. Our executive producer,
Michael Goodrich has chimed in, and no, not for the hair.
(13:02):
Let's just say he has a take on which meals
he likes and dislikes, and there's one that he's not
a fan of. I'll leave that. I'll leave the rest
to the imagination. But there's one meal that our executive
producer is not fond of, and.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
He's not alone on that. That is a widely held.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Uh, it's a popular take, So is that what the popularity?
We should eat on our own?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
It is not a hot take, yep, definitely a one
you should you know.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And by the way, I'll just say this much, based
on my kind of cultural and regional background, my expectations
would already be kind of low for that night, so
I think I would probably shy away as it is. Yeah, now,
hearing this definitely well taking amongst myself to eat on
my own that night.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
We didn't even talk about we get, we get dessert,
and that's my favorite part of any meal is dessert.
I'm always going to eat dessert first, and the desserts
are always you can't see me, but I'm doing the Italian.
Everything's beautiful like it's and the desserts are always really
really good.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I'm just wondering. I have two or three desserts that
no matter where I am, if they're on the menu,
I have to have to try them. Yeah, And I'm
wondering what those are for you?
Speaker 4 (14:11):
And then I'll say my my number one dessert is crimberlay.
If there is a restaurant that does a cremberlet, I'm
gonna taste it and see if it's I've had bad cremberlet,
which is I think pretty easy to do, but yes,
it's incredibly disappointing to have a bad cremberlet. Honestly, that's
that's my number one dessert. I'll eat ice cream, I'll
(14:32):
eat a Sunday, and I'll eat candy. You can't get
candy stressed, but I will eat almost any candy. I
like going to weddings when they pass out candy. I
went to a wedding over the summer that had candy
and that was yes, all the candy. Wait, so what
are your three?
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I have two hot takes and then I have two things,
two or three things that I really like. So one
of my hot takes, as you mentioned, a wedding, right,
So I think about if I'm going to a wedding
sometimes a rich cake. I like the actual cake. I'm
not a big frosting fan. Frosting, especially a lot of
it on the top, gives me a stomach ache. It's
too much.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Yeah, I'm one of those people that will kind of
scrape off the top layer a little bit of frosting,
just a light coating, like a half an inch of
snow on a driveway.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
That's what I'm looking for, And then the cake. So
I'm good with that, but not a top for me.
Two that I absolutely love key lime pie, huge fan.
I kind of like that mixture of sour and sweet
and key lime Pie for me is just terrific. And
the other, which is totally different than key Lime Pie,
is Tomaso and I don't like coffee, so it makes
sense out of that. I don't drink coffee and I
(15:36):
love termazoo, so that is an enigma in itself. And
my other hot take is chocolate chips on cookies drive
me crazy. But that's that's his story for another day.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
We're gonna have to dig into that. We're gonna have
to call a therapist.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
I just think chocolate is such a strong flavor that
once the chips are introduced to the cookie, it's not
a cookie anymore. You may as well be eating a
Hershey bar.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
You're crazy, dad, It's.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Not a popular opinion.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Who raised you? What this is? Insanity? Yeah, the chocolate chips. Like, okay.
First of all, Austin Piganski's scheduled to join us in
just a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
He's gonna have to weigh and I think on some
of these I am.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Flown away because I mean, if you made a chocolate
chip cookie without putting a chocolate chip in it and
just had the dough, like I think it would be
like an uh cookie, Like it would.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Beg cookie, one of my favors.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
It's completely different. Like it's because that brown sugar. You
don't I don't think I love brown sugar and a
sugar cookie.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
But here's what I would do. I think a chocolate
chip cookie is great when you bite around the chocolate chips, but.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Once you get.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Once I get one taste of chocolate, I can't taste
anything else but it, And I don't hate chocolate. But
you know, if I want to hurshy bar, I'll have one.
I like everything that goes into chocolate chip cookie before
they drop the chips in it, so I would put
brown sugar in my batter, so it's gonna be like
a tan sugar cookie. That to me, would be the
best of both worlds.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
That's insane. If there's a fan out there who wants
to make David a chocolate chip cookie with the chocolate chips,
I'm very curious what this tastes like. But Austin Paganski
is here. He's with us right now, so we definitely
need his take.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yeah, we'll get busy because this is I'm ready to
battle for chocolate chips at this point.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yes, you are listening to Happy Hour on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. Coming up next, one of the top players
for the Tucson road Runners, Austin Paganski, will he weigh
in on the chocolate chip debate on cookies, whether they
belong or not. We are now joined by Austin Paganski,
David Mariding, alongside Kim Coda Roblaze Austin. We have to
jump right in with what we just left on the
previous segment, A very important topic. So I kind of
(17:42):
shocked Kim and perhaps some of our listeners with my
previous statement, but I really dislike cookies that have chocolate
chips in them. Now. I like everything that goes into
a cookie before they drop the chips in them, But
once you introduce the chocolate chip to the cookie, I
think it's an overpowering flavor. And I only taste the
chocolate and the cook cookie's gone. It's like you may
as well have a Hershey bar. What are your thoughts
(18:03):
on this? Am I crazy?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
I was gonna say, I think crazy is a perfect
word for that. I think that is a crazy take.
I think the only time I don't like a chocolate
chip in my cookie is during Christmas time, when you
make sugar cookies and deck gooding with frosting like Santa
Claus and reindeer and all those kind of things. That's
the only time I don't suggest having a chocolate chip
in my cookie.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Yes, so me to you, David, it's one hundred percent you.
I've literally never heard this before.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Now I have a story. So for my birthday, my
girlfriend had a very interesting idea. She took us to
this place where you kind of have a one on
one cooking clinic with a professional chef. So, of course,
naturally I have this chef who trained in Italy for
like a decade. I said, hey, while we're talking about food,
I think chocolate chips on cookies is a disgrace. I
give her this whole, big, elaborate explanation. She said, you
(18:50):
know what, I think you make some very salient points.
That's when she said, a professional chef who trained in it.
I'm not making this up. She was very much open
to the reasons that I had and said, chocolate is
not a subtle flavor. It's pretty strong. And she totally
butt into my overpowering notion, which is critical.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
To my argument.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
It's strong but amazing, Like that's the part that I'm
not that's the math that I'm not getting with you, Like, yes,
it may be strong, but for good reason, like it's fantastic,
it's so so good.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
And by the way, as I can see in your face,
you're not buying what I'm selling.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Well, I just I just don't understand the chocolate chip
cookie is probably the most common, most well rounded cookie
there is. Like, if you take a pole from one
hundred people, ninety five percent of the people are going
to say they like chocolate chip cookies. Got like, what's
what's your favorite type of cookie?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Then I would say my favorite bite into a cookie
is when you have a chocolate chip cookie and it's
the very outer edge before them is actually a chocolate chip.
Because I do like sugar cookies, but I like chocolate
chip cookies better because they have some brown sugar and stuff,
but just not once I get to the chocolate chip.
I'm waiting for somebody to bake a cookie. That's everything
that goes into chocolate chip cookie, but they just don't
(19:59):
drop the chips in. That's what I would it.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
Be fair to say you like vanilla ice cream.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
I do like vanilla ice cream, but I will eat
other There's other flavors I like to like. I like
cookies and cream because that's more of an oreo. But
oreo isn't necessarily chocolate. It's kind of that. I don't know.
I don't really know what the outer thing is, but
I wouldn't call it chocolate really right. I think it
is chocolate, it's whatever.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
It's nobody is making this cookie because you are the
only person who would eat this cookie.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Well, we're gonna I think we're gonna find out, because
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a community of people
who say, finally we were once voiceless. Here's our warrior,
you know, bringing this cause to the forefront. I think
it might happen. There could be a revolution here.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Easy brave, easy brave heart.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
But anyway, Austin, it looked like to me a very
competitive weekend against Ontario. Obviously an exciting first game. I
did say to coach in the pregame interview. I said, Coach,
this is my first year covering the team. Is every
game going to be that exciting? With a late comeback
six on four than an overtime winner? And he said, David,
you know, I don't like exciting. If it were my
way would be two to one or three zero, Like,
(21:03):
I don't need any more games like that. But it
was entertaining for those covering and watching, and then even
a competitive showing on Sunday, opportunities to win the game
in the third period, going down just by one. I'm
just wondering how you assess the weekend, if you're happy
with the effort, room for improvement, kind of that sort
of thing.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
Yeah, you know, it's the first couple of games this
season are always tricky. There's there's rookies in the league
that are kind of making their mark, trying to figure
out the speed of the game, the tendencies of the
next level from wherever they're from, whether it's college or
major juniors. Guys are starting to learn systems that we
might have differently here. So in my if I kind
(21:40):
of put a whole grasp around a couple of games,
they're a little sloppy. It's kind of misread misreads, kind
of overthinking and not just playing.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
But that happens.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
That's that's pretty common among any new league that you
jump into in the first couple of games. So we
definitely have rooms to improve on. But I really liked
our compete. I liked our our work ethic or we
played fast, we played the right way. So there's a
lot of positives on it. But just like I'm sure
Patsy said, there's always room for improvement. And we'll get
back to work this week and have a couple of
big games of Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, And if I had to guess, I would say,
I'm not sure how much you guys have practiced since
the weekend or meant with the team. But if I
had to guess, I would say one point of emphasis
would probably be getting back into the defensive zone quicker
or tightening up some substitutions because it seemed like there
were quite a few breakaways, especially when guys were trying
to get off the ice. Am I kind of on
the right spot there for sure.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
We definitely had a couple of laps in our game
where we had a couple of bad changes or we
didn't manage the puck how we should have and it
turned odd man rushes against And that's that's what's going
to get you in this league. It's capitalizing on defensive
turnovers from the other team and create an offense off
of that. And I thought we kind of were our
own worst enemy in a way on Friday and Sunday
with a couple of bad turnovers, a couple of bad
(22:54):
line changes, and they capitalized on two or three of them,
which was the turning point in that Sunday game for sure.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Listen, I need to back up with you a second,
because I haven't talked to you in so long. First
of all, you unlocked a new status, which is dad. Yeah, congratulations,
So excited for you. Is anybody calling you Papa Pogo?
Because that's literally the first thing that popped into my head.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
A couple of guys on the team actually call me.
I don't know if it's poppy maybe I think that's
what Latsi's been calling me. I don't know if it's
from back from back home, from him or whatever, but
a couple of people have reference that I'm kind of
like the dad on the team now, or kind of
like that father figure to a lot of a lot
of the guys. But I don't mind it. It's being
a Dad's the best thing in the world. That's It's awesome.
(23:40):
So whatever they want to call, hopefully I'm teaching them
some things too.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
So can you share with us how old is the baby?
Was it a boy or girl? And how is it
being a new parent? Like what is your life like?
Last time I talked to you, I think you had
just bought a new house. You guys had just gotten married.
You bought the house in Minnesota, you were working on
on the lawn. You were really excited about the lawn.
(24:06):
So yeah, what was your summer like now as a
new parent and moving this new human into your spaces.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
Yeah, well, first of all, it definitely changes your life
for the best. But it definitely changed your life. There's
someone else that kind of leads the direction of the
ship and you got it kind of have to do
whatever whatever they need, which is which is part of
being a dad, which is which is awesome. But yeah,
we had a baby girl. Her name is Stella May Pagans.
Oh my god, she's about five months. She turns five
(24:33):
months on the fourteenth, so she's growing up so fast.
It's it definitely was an ideal being away for camp
for about a month or so and then we were
on the road.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
But uh, they're all moved in.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Here, so it's it's awesome to get back and back
being a dad, changing diapers, doing all those kind of things,
which which is awesome, which I love to do so
but no, it's been awesome. The summer was great. The
summer goes by so fast, as I'm sure most most
most hockey guys say that there's so many people that
you want to see, so many things you want to
do and there's just not a ton of time to
do it.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
But the summer is the best.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
And like like I talked to you before, Kim, Minnesota
is my hometown or my home state, which I love
going back to in the summers. I love being on
the lake, I love fishing, I love doing all that
kind of stuff. And now being a homeowner with a baby,
there's just so much little things that you got to
fill your space where there's time with, like you said,
managing the lawn or getting the baby's room all together,
(25:28):
doing laundry, you name it.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
There's so many different things now, but.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
It's part of growing up more responsibility and it's been awesome.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
If I can just make one recommendation, and I'm sure
you have had tons of people in your ear telling
you the best things to do as a new parent,
but to me, honestly, that Costco or Sam's Club membership,
Like that's the way to be as a new parent.
You need all of this stuff and you don't want
to go shopping as often as the baby probably needs,
(25:56):
so like that that's such a time saver.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
We've definitely been a Costco a couple of times, and
Stella actually loves Costco. She just loves the stimulants of
just looking around at all the different things and touch
and everything. So she's actually a big fan of the store,
and sow are me and Cary, so it's actually perfect.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yeah, this is maybe a little bit premature because she's
still very young, But I'm wondering, you're from Minnesota raising
Stella here in Arizona. Are you worried that maybe she
won't have the toughness of going through a Minnesota winter
and that she might be a little bit spoiled with
Like considering forty five to be cold on a December morning,
I think got cold.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
I'm getting a little less tough being here for my
third year.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, it's different.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
It's it's it's you take weather for granted when you
when you do have it so cold and you or
I should say, when you're when you're down here and
you don't have to deal with the cold winds and
getting up early to shelby or driveway so you can
get out of your driveway. So there's different things like
that that even I'm like, holy crap, Like I'm living
kind of a nice life down here and I having
to worry about that. But like you said, she's so young,
(26:59):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
I don't know. Hopefully not.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
We'll we'll have to do some other things to keep
her tough.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
I thought you're gonna ask David if Austin was worried
that she was going to grow up without a Minnesota accent,
and she wouldn't say a boat and and UFTA and
stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
We don't say that bad.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Very funny, but I do, you know, I do wonder,
you know, if she will kind of identify with Arizona,
maybe perhaps more than Minnesota. I don't know if you're
like a big sports fan, if you follow professional teams,
but maybe you may be a Vikings fan and she
will adopt the Cardinals or something like that could be
an interesting thing to follow.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
I think she'll be a Vikings fan. We'll set that
clear right away. She was born in Minnesota, so we
have that going for us.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I don't know, well, houses in Minnesota with the lawn,
I'm assuming there's no lawn here in Tucson.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Nope. Just so.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
We got some rock around our apartment here and a
little bit of a balcony, so no no grass here.
But hopefully when she gets back, she'll be more aware
of the grass and enjoy and appreciate it because I
like to I like I type. I try to keep
a tight ship on my lawn. We actually just had
a ton of landscaping done at our house. I know
we talked about that a little bit earlier, but yeah,
that stuff kind of really interests me. So we got
(28:14):
a bunch of flowers and different shrubs and trees all
around our house, and it actually looks really nice. I
would love to show you as a picture.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Sometimes I really want to see how green it is,
because I know obviously Minnesota's green, and we don't get
a chance to do that here because we're conserving water.
So I'm happy to hear that it's rocks around you
and not not green grass. But I wanted to I
know you want to talk about long care, but I
want to get back to being a dad. There are
(28:43):
some new names on the roster this season that like,
I feel like these guys are so young, you're gonna
need all that dead energy for sure. How does it
feel in the locker room this season, the second season
as captain? Yeah, how does it? What's the difference between
last season and this season?
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah, definitely, we do We do have some younger guys.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
We lost a couple older, more veteran players with like
Travis Barron and Hunter Drew and now Curtis Douglas, So
we definitely do have a younger roster. Which that's kind
of what the American League is now. It's a younger
league trying to develop these guys to one day, hopefully
sooner than later, get into the NHL and produce for
the Utah Mammoths. So's it is a younger league and
(29:26):
it's kind of what it is nowadays. But it's our
responsibility as the captain and as older players in this
league to kind of share our experience and lessons that
we've learned throughout our way that older guys have taught
us and try to kind of carry them and lead
them the right direction so that one day they're NHL stars.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, and Austin, I'm wondering with that introduction of younger players,
is there anything that they've kind of taught you, not
necessarily vocabulary wise, but really just anything that you've picked
up on and you're like, oh, I just kind of
see what's going.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
On here from you're saying from the younger guys. The
younger guys exactly, Well, you said. The lingo that these
younger players have, I don't understand. I think it's a
different language, to be honest, Like some of the stuff
that they say, I have to go ask somebody else,
like what did he just say?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
And what did that mean?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
What?
Speaker 4 (30:14):
What are you hearing?
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Like?
Speaker 5 (30:16):
I don't even know if it's right to say, Like
I think it's all appropriate stuff, Like just like Layton
More and Tyler and Julio and all these guys have
a different language, and I honestly don't understand what they're saying, but.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I think it's all derivatives of something, right. It starts
with a normal sentence and then it just gets deduced
down to shorter and shorter and shorter, and the appreciation
letters and you don't know what's going on.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Yeah, So usually I just kind of shake my head
and agree and then say, yeah, we'll talk, we'll talk
later sort of thing. But no, they're just their energy
that these young guys have is awesome. The skill sets
that they have from back home that they bring to
us is you can always learn from from learn from that.
But now these young kids are so skilled, they're so
strong at such a young age nowadays that us old
(31:01):
guys kind of keeps us a little bit younger and
kind of just chase them around the ice keep us
in shape as well.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
I feel like you throw lighton More and Maddie into
a room together, and that's that's fine. Let them talk
at each other in a weird little lingo and they'll
be okay.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
I don't know if they'll figure anything out, but they'll
have a nice conversation about God knows whatever.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Yeah, they'd be okay.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Correct me if I'm wrong. But Miko Matika is also
now a new father, that's correct, right. I'm wondering you
are older than him, if you had any fatherly advice
for the new younger father.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yeah, so that's I think that's pretty new.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
I think it's a couple of weeks old for his
baby girl, so we haven't had too much to talk
about yet. I think she's still back home with with
his girlfriend. So yeah, we're I'm sure you'll have questions.
I'm sure when she moves down here, we'll we'll get
to we'll get to meet the little girl and have
some play dates or guess whatever you call that. I
(31:59):
guess I'm not really familiar with that quite yet, but
it'll be nice to have a couple of guys that
have babies just for for that kind of purpose, to
get everybody together and kind of have the same relationship.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
I love that you guys are all having little girls. Amazing.
I'm such a big fan of this. I know obviously
you didn't plan this, and this is this is what
the universe wanted for you. Austin was a little girl,
Stella May I'm big, a big, big fan. I had
to ask since going back to Curtis Travis Hunter, a
couple of questions because those three holy smokes just they
(32:36):
brought such a different kind of energy to the ice
and to the team. What differences Who do you think
is gonna is gonna step into those shoes or if
anybody will? And then also, are you still playing Clash
of Clans with Curtis right now we'll.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
Start with Class of Clans. Yes, we're still in the
same plan. We got a couple of guys on the
team into now, so that will that will never change.
We're still done at hard. We still that's kind of
how we communicate a little bit.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
But going going to.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
Those guys and filling their void, that's that's gonna be tough.
It's not gonna take one or two people. It's gonna
take a group of people to kind of step up
and fill that void because they were a huge asset
to our team last year. With We'll start with their toughness,
Like those three guys were out there to protect anybody
on our team. Not a lot of guys had the
(33:30):
will to want to go against them in the corner
or in a fight rather, but it's that's something you
can't teach. It's just something that they had and and
that was a huge asset to our team. So we
will need guys like Ben McCartney who's always willing to
step up for guys, and Montagne and Bucci to kind
of fill that toughness role that those guys brought every
single game. It kind of teams didn't like to play
(33:52):
us solely because we had guys like that that we're
out there kind of patrol and playing hard, playing the
right way, and it's not fun to be in the
on the other side of that when you get blown
up and then have to dance with the bell and
take a couple of right hands from Curtis Douglas. That's
that's no fun for anybody as in NHL now he's
having great success with that.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
So yeah, it's going to take a lot of guys.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
We do have some young guys that definitely have the
capabilities to kind of fill out those roles of playing
the right way, But the toughnest part, that's just something
that you don't teach. It's just kind of in the
heart that you kind of are born with and instilled
within yourself. And that's what we will need some guys
to step up to take that on.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Do you you know, guys, do you guys have been
playing forever? You guys have been playing since you were small.
At what point in your career, I guess do you
figure out, you know, like what kind of player you
are and what kind of energy you're bringing to the ice,
and who you're going to be when the team needs you.
One of the things that I loved about Hunter was
(34:53):
that he wasn't a born forward. He'd been playing defense,
and then who he was playing for at the time
was like, we need forwards, and so he just pivoted
on a dime and did that, and he was willing
to do that, And that's to me, like, I don't
know if playing defense is a little bit it's harder
than playing forward, I think a little bit. But you know,
(35:16):
like when you start looking to the young guys to
see like who's going to be able to match that
and who's kind of like gonna start filling in those voids.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Ye, that's a great question.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
It's actually a really good lesson to teach younger players too.
Like growing up, a lot of players want to be
those top two lines on forward, and as they get
into higher leagues, you might not be that top two line,
where you have to change your role and maybe you're
a bottom six or third and fourth line pinally a killer.
I mean, you kind of just have to adapt to
how things are changing, how the game is evolving. Obviously,
(35:51):
Like as you go from college to the American League,
it's a big step and you're probably not going to
jump right into that first line role. So you got
to find other ways to contribue, other ways to have success,
and that might be on that fourth line being an
energy for bringing bucks to the net, finishing hits, blocking shots,
and as you progress throughout that year or even a
(36:12):
couple of years in the American League, then maybe you'll
start gaining more responsibility, and you'll find more power play time,
top two lines, more face offs, but you got to
be able to adapt like every team. Sometimes teams have
those top six already already filled out, so you've got
to find a role to succeed and to stay in
that lineup every single every single game. So it's a
really good lesson to have. I've been on just about
(36:35):
every situation I've been anywhere from first line to fourth
line throughout my career. Penalty kill, power play doesn't matter.
The teams kind of decide that for you in a way,
but also your work ethic and your compete and your
continuous improvement throughout the year also kind of dives into that.
So kind of going into your second question with what
young guys will kind of step into that is we
(36:56):
do have some holes on just about all those positions
anywhere from first line to fourth line, power play, penalty kill.
So as a young guy, it's first you got to
gain that responsibility. You got to gain that trust from
the coach that we do trust him in all those situations.
And as they continue to progress and get stronger and
show what they're capable of, they'll continue to gain more
(37:17):
responsibility on the ice, whether like I said, top six,
whether it's power play, penalty kill, important face offs in
the defensive zone. There's so many different roles and opportunities,
but it's it's all there. You got to earn that,
it's just not given to you.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I got a quick question and then I think Kim
has something fun in store for you. But what kind
of team should the road Runner fans expect come Saturday
night when you guys take the ice for the home opener.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Yeah, it's a good question.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Patzi's really big on our identity, and our identity Roadrunner
hockey is it's fast, resilient. We play with a lot
of pace. We play with a lot of speed and tenacity.
We're not going to be the most skilled team on
the ice every single night, but we're gonna defend ourn
as well as boss. We're not going to give up
a lot of chances. Can I kind of expect a
(38:05):
low scoring game from us. We don't like to give
up much and we capitalize on our good defense and
turn that into good offense. So I don't know if
that kind of answered your question, but we're gonna be
a hard team to play against. We're gonna play with
as much pace as we're able to play with, and
we're going to defend really extremely hard.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
No, I love that. I think the fans will certainly
embrace that kind of identity.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Yeah, Awestin. I don't know if you know this, but
when we talked in July of last year, when you
were in back in Minnesota over the summer break, you
were the first ever BuzzFeed quiz that I gave to
any of the players. I don't know if you remember
that we did. You had to pick up breakfast buffet
and then the quiz gave you a compliment at the
end of it, and it was a really good compliment,
(38:49):
and I don't remember it off the top of my head,
but it was very you. So I wanted to do
a new BuzzFeed quiz for you in honor of Stella
Estella or Stella May? Are you doing Stella? May?
Speaker 5 (39:04):
We call Estella and then May is her middle name. Yeah, Cai,
My wife really likes to just call her sella Ma.
She thinks it's really cute. Stella baby, Stella.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
Okay, I like Stella. So what you're gonna do today
for our Buzzbeed quiz is you're gonna enjoy a cake buffet.
I'm gonna give you some cakes to pick from, and
we're gonna reveal which Winnie the Pooh character you are.
Oh are you ready?
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Yeah, all right, let's go. All right, you got to
pick one of the four. Cheesecake, lemon, pound cake, red
velvet cake, or vanilla.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Cake, Cheese cake okay, solid.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
Carrot Okay, I'm not gonna say cake after everyone, So carrot, hazelnut, nutella,
or rainbow carrot. Okay. Coffee, macha, pistachio or strawberry.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Would macho ha? Is that be like a macha like
coffee cake?
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
Yeah, I'll do.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Okay, that's a surprise, that's yeah, it's a very interesting flavor. Macha. Okay. Chocolate, honey,
mango or raspberry chocolate.
Speaker 5 (40:12):
Don't say chocolate, I'm crazy.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
Cherry fudge, opera or dress letches. I don't know what
opera cake is. Trace lay chase, that's solid okay.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Definitely a dairy trend going here with the trayce lay
chase and the cheesecake. But I'm in agreement with that.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
Yeah, okay, I think this is the last one. Coconut
ice cream cake, pineapple upside down or sponge ice cream cake.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
There's the nice who doesn't want ice cream cake?
Speaker 4 (40:48):
You actually got Winnie the Pooh. It says you are
a kind of gentle person who loves simple pleasures like honey,
your thoughtful, innocent, and value friendship above all.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Right.
Speaker 4 (40:58):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
BuzzFeed never lies, right, Kim.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
No, I could call you Papa poo.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
That sounds a little different, but that's horrible.
Speaker 4 (41:10):
I'm so sorry. I said that. It was out of
my mouth before it could stop it.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
That's funny. Oh well, yeah, but I think that's everything
we have for you, Austin. We'll let you get back
to the baby and then prepare for the weekend. The
home opener coming up seven o'clock on Saturday, and then
one more against Calgary four o'clock on Sunday. We look
forward to watching you out there. I think a lot
of our fans do too.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Right on.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
Yeah, thanks for having me anytime. I love doing these
kind of podcasts and questions and quizzes.
Speaker 4 (41:35):
That's awesome, Thanks, Austin. We'll see you on the red
carpet on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Right on. I'm excited. Thank you, guys, Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
We are back on Happy Hour on fourteen fifty Fox
Sports Tucson Radio, and we want to thank Austin Paganski
for joining us. It was a fun interview. He laid
out what we should expect for the team, but we
also had some fun with him a lot of food
related questions, Kim and I don't know what that reveals
about us, and certainly in the first segment some time
on food. So maybe this is just kind of a
food obsessed podcast and maybe a perfect name and with
(42:05):
Happy Hour because that kind of implies the same sort
of thing. But anyway, one very interesting answer that Austin
gave and I think our fans will really take to
appreciate it was when I asked him the identity of
the team and what Roadrunner fans should expect come Saturday
in the TCC, and he said, look, we're not going
to be the best team on the ice every night,
(42:26):
but we're going to play with intensity, going to be physical,
defend ourn Nette, defend our arena, and really just give
everything that they have and try to win at any
at any cost necessary. And I think that that's going
to be very exciting to see. And I thought that
was on display frankly, in the first series, I mean,
there were some definite mistakes and we touched on that,
but there was a game to be won. On Friday,
(42:48):
they were they played very well, but we're not in
a great position with a couple of minutes left. But
they played incredibly hard in the final moments and were
able to mount a pretty unlikely comeback, scoring with twenty
two secon left in regulation and then winning it in overtime.
So certainly, if the road Runners are involved in a
lot of close games and able to you know, win
many of them, that would be very exciting and I
(43:10):
think our fans wouldn't have a problem with that.
Speaker 4 (43:12):
I think that that the fans can expect to see
if if they're not the best team on the ice,
they are going to be the most persistent team on
the ice. They are going to be doing unique things
on the ice and making unconventioned, unconventional decisions about what
things look on look like on the ice. So I
(43:35):
am really really interested to see how things go this season.
It is a very very different vibe than last season.
And I've only seen the team you know, at practice
I think twice, you know, and it's really hard to
tell how things are going to go at this point
in person. Sorry, I've only seen them on on the
ice twice in person, so and to me, like that's
(43:58):
really important. I think once the fans are there, once
we're in this opening weekend, we do the red carpet,
we get on the ice, I think that it's just
going to be a tenth anniversary season, Like this is
just going to be a phenomenally fun season.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Yeah, so let's just set the stage one more time.
We've got the face off gala Thursday at six. First time,
as Kim said that fans will have the opportunity to
kind of look behind the scenes, one on one conversations,
that sort of thing. So that's definitely exciting, an unprecedented
kind of opportunity for our fans to connect with the
players and those involved with the road Runners. That's Thursday
(44:34):
at six at the TCC, and then of course the
home opener and everything that goes with that. On Saturday,
the game will be played at seven, which means pregame
coverage is at six forty five. If you're curious to
hear if I'm going to nail another goal scorer, and
that's kind of what I was saying can I anytime
I get an opportunity to mention it, I usually.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
Do and try to get it in there.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Yeah, I want to listen at six forty five to
here if we're going to be accurate once again, but
even before then, check out the red carpet introductions at
four o'clock, three hours before puck drop, and then the
series finale against Calgary on Sunday at four pm, once
again at the Tucson Convention Center. So there's a lot
coming up. Hockey season is upon us, and maybe fittingly
(45:17):
so because the air has been a little bit cooler.
We had a lot of rain this weekend, so I
think it's it's time for roadrunners hockey and certainly much
of it coming down the pike. So very exciting, and
we thank you so much for listening to us here
on the Happy Hour on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. We'll
be back next Tuesday at the same time recapping that
home opening series against the Calgary Wranglers.
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