March 25, 2024 • 40 mins
Mike Benton and Jessamyn are live and of course the breaking news show of record continues it's run w/ more news as Kyle Smith is leaving Washibgton State University to coach Stanford. After a grear run w/ the Cougs this season, how shocked are folks... Also, they react to the Cougs losing to Iowa State in the second round. The voice of the Seattle Kraken for 93.3 KJR FM, Everett Fitzhugh hops on the line to talk about all things Kraken, including his thoughts on coach Hakstol's comments after a tough loss on Sunday to the Montreal Canadiens.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
At least for me and Chris Kidd, and I think that Mike Benton,
who's alongside here, will empathize withthat. As Kyle Smith one of the
best head coaches we've seen in avery long time, historic season that he
led the Kougs, who has beenhired away by Stanford, who will be
playing in the ACC in a conferencejust two days after he led the Kougs
(00:25):
two a second round of the NCAATournament. Kyle Smith is gone. Crack
and also lose five to one lastnight too the Montreal Canadians. They are
now winless in eight consecutive games.Montreal scored the first four goals of the
game, led for nothing after oneperiod. Philip Grubauer pulled after four goals
on six shots. He had thelost. Cayden Primo had the win in
(00:49):
game two of the four game homestandtomorrow night crack and taken on the Anaheim
Ducks. Yes, and what timewill that happen? O'clock? Yeah?
And six thirty with you, sexthirty with me an Everett's and al I
think more coffee and more sleep underneathme as well. Yes, you get
out of here extremely quickly today,don't stay for a post show recap or
(01:10):
anything. We also have a lotof brackets busting all over the place.
We will get into everything that hashappened over the weekend and break down our
brackets. We want to hear aboutyours text us in four nine four five
one, and we know what thatis. It's a the tullmeror do text
line when it's game time? Rightthere, party people, Mike Bent and
(01:33):
Jasmin McIntyre and Chris Ked as well. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. How's
aybody doing? We're doing this here. I'm sad it's a pool Monday.
I make a T shirt out ofthat because I think it's appropriate for that.
Oh yeah, I told Mike whenwe were wrapping earlier this morning,
I say, this feels like aPooh morning. Mike's like, bro,
I'm off fory here. I'm overhere with a few hours of sleep,
(01:55):
I'm coffeed up, I'm ready togo. Do you specialize that in team
colors depending upon your mood or yourday, or do you even specialize it
in team colors? Yeah, asfar as like the team that that you
were Oh yeah, well I amwearing gray, so it's half of it.
Yeah, yeah, Monday. Thanksa lot, Kyle Smith. But
(02:16):
I understand why you did what youdid. It's okay. I know.
That's the worst part, is it. There's no blame game to play,
right, No, there's not.There's we'll find out the contract details.
Do I even want to know?I don't want to know because I got
so. I have a very highpowered college football and basketball reporter who now
(02:37):
who texted me and and said,you do not lose your head coach to
Stanford if the PAC twelve still exists? And that made me even satdter that
does it hit home from that daythat we found out that the PAC twelve
was that was the first thing Ithought of. If the PAC twelve still
(02:57):
existed, would that would this haveeven happened? No? And for me,
the answer is no, one hundredpercent agree, one hundred percent agree.
I'm just at least he didn't goto Washington. That's our solids here,
just because that was kind of thenarrative over the last you know,
two weeks or three weeks, likeit's it's a matter of time, it's
a matter of time. Will doesKyle Smith really want to go to Washington?
(03:22):
Doesn't really fit him? You know, sometimes the more money comes more
responsibility aka more stress and more headachesas well. I just I thought this
soul Stanford thing was going to workout a lot better for him, I
guess. I mean, they're anacademic institution, so now he's going to
have to focus on the student athletethere at least they proclaim that, even
(03:44):
though they're going to fly their teamsall over the country at various times.
But that's just my an. Isthat gonna last for exactly? But he
even said so, we've had himon several times with Ian Ferness, and
we have talked to him a lotabout the I guess what it means,
and he said, I think itwas last winter when we had him on.
(04:08):
It was early, it was likeFebruary, and he said, I
feel more like a GM than Ido a coach. And Stanford isn't necessarily
a program where that is the focusin any kind of sport, because they
do, they and col even thoughthey went to the ACC do focus on
(04:29):
the student part of the athlete.Well. That also reminded me of some
comments that Bill self had at Kansasfrom this past weekend, and he fully
admitted, He fully admitted that hewasn't even concentrating over this last month on
the NCAA tournament. You know thosewords were his words were, I'm thinking
about next season already. I'm thinkingabout next season. Who's going to come
(04:54):
in, who's going to come out. It's just the world of college athletics
that we live in these day.And we can ham and how about this
all we want here about It's adifferent game than about ten years ago.
But this is the harsh reality,and this is the way that nearly every
major sport that makes money from televisionis going to face until more rigid restrictions
(05:16):
are put in place here with niland that's it. And the NCAA had
decades to prepare for this at thepoint where they could. I and I've
been quite honest about this, Ido think that student athletes should be compensated.
Yeah, in a way if theyare making their institution money, come
(05:36):
on, right, But so theyknew that the whole time. And the
scholarship's great. Everything that you getwhen you're on a full ride awesome.
You deserve it, you earned it. But I think if you're making on
top of that, you always deservethe chance to be compensated. So the
NC DOUBLEA was ahead of it,and then in lawsuit really escalated things and
(06:02):
all of a sudden that was thefirst thing for me, right there was
the Obanon lawsuit that that that thatto me said this is getting real now,
yes, exactly, and the factthat he won and all of a
sudden they had to react and theyhad no plan in place. That's the
way I look at it is therewas no foresight whatsoever there could have been.
(06:25):
I guess, like I went throughif I was in that position,
Yeah, would I be? Iwanted people to get a degree before they
and then it's you know, okay, we will put this allotted amount into
a trust or a fund or anything, and once you get your degree,
you can go. And I don'tknow. I guess I want to know
(06:46):
other people's thoughts on how it couldbe regulated, but we don't. We
just don't know. Four. Howsurprised are you with the Kyle Smith thing
here that was developing this morning again, Kyle Smith, the news breaking that
he's going to Stanford as a newhead coach for the men's basketball side.
Mike Betton, Jessmin McIntyre, ChrisKidd as well, A lot to cover
(07:09):
here today. Party people ever itfits you gonna be along with us at
ten thirty talking more about last nightand the loss to the Montreal Canadians.
It was not pretty and it gotout of hand very very early. Aaron
Levine Fox thirteen as well, joiningus set eleven voicemails eleven thirty. I
(07:30):
can't wait for you again. Whereare you at? GQ? Jerry?
Where are you at? Jamal?Anybody who wants to impersonate me as well?
I think Softy. We had himon twice and in one segment tweeted
the day also eleven forty five,Jess had a cream Once you share this
is why you double check your work. And we'll get to tweeted the day
later on here also Daniel Kramer,I believe of MLB dot com covering the
(07:54):
Mariners. He'll be along and alsoat noon, and we learned earlier today
we have a little bit of breakingnews coming out when it comes to college
basketball that Washington and Utah States DannySprinkle are finalizing a deal or have finalized
it. We don't know what thedetails are yet, but he will apparently
be the next U doub men's basketballcoach. So that's someone off the charts
(08:16):
for our for our Koug's and I'mnot really sure where to go. Let's
get Donald Watts, Like, whynot? He's a really good coach.
I mean he is coaching, youknow, to a smaller degree. His
son has gone to Wazoo and obviouslyhas done really well as a freshman there.
(08:37):
But I would love to see himjust show up take over. Why
not? See here, where's Crimson? Now? See here's Here's where it
I think makes a big difference forme. And we are reading reports from
this last weekend after the Cougars gotbounced again. Sorry Jess, Sorry Chris
kidd as well, hey you knowwhat and you and in one PM slot
(09:01):
here, But there were already reportsthat once the round of thirty two ended
that the Cougar's coaching staff were alreadygetting text messages from recruits and the question
was, well, scouts, andthe answer was no, players are recruiting
themselves. So this is picking upsteam. But then the Kyle Smith news
(09:24):
broke. So this is going tobe a very very important crossroads thing here
for Cougar's basketball. Can somebody comein and be a salesman but also have
enough power here to harness, what'sgoing on all across this nil thing and
keep them relevant and keep them inthe tournament. And that's my also big
question right there is do you setthe bar this high again for the Cougars
this next season? Well, youwould hope they'd be able to retain their
(09:46):
talent. That's what I go withfor first and foremost. Kyle Smith started
organically at Washington State, right andwe saw it way back in the day
with Tony Bennett, and we're seeingagain. I still got to wrap my
head around the fact that it's Stamford, but that's for another time. I
(10:07):
just think that he you can't replicatethat without starting over, you know.
It's just I hope that they're ableto retain everybody. And I don't know
if he's taking his staff with him. I don't know if it's just like
football. I am more of afootball person than a basketball person. But
his assistant coaches are amazing. I'dbe thrilled if they went internal with their
(10:31):
next head coaching decisions. I thinkto me it goes down to also the
Danny Sprinkle thing with Washington and thathe's got the reputation of being a builder
you can bring a guy in.You can bring somebody in who's great at
x's and o's, they're able tocommunicate with their players. But ultimately,
to me, priority number one iscan you be a guy who can be
(10:54):
a builder. And the Danny Sprinklething with this maybe going down over at
Washington is that he took over UtahState and got them into their first NCAA
appearance since two thousand and one.He's got the track record of being a
builder. He turned Montana State intoa March Madness mainstay, and he was
(11:15):
able to do a lot of thisalmost virtually overnight. So the question is
it's not where you can you finda guy from established program A, established
program B, But can you findsomebody who's got the basic core values of
being a builder no matter where theypreviously coached. To me, I don't
care if it's say, if it'sfrom Division two. If you can find
(11:37):
someone who's got that clean track recordof being a builder and turning nothing into
something overnight, like Danny Sprinkle,that's your best fit there. Yeah,
I one hundred percent agree. AndI kind of look at the newer coaches
that we've seen come in here overI mean at Virginia Mason Athletic Center too.
Oh good job there, good Ilearned. I learned. You know
(12:03):
when you look at Aden Dirty,who is the first I think English born
coach to be hired in that positionas defensive coordinator in the NFL, I
look at someone like that where it'syou know, he has proven so much
already and you know, coming anddo it. And Mike McDonald did it
at several levels too. He didn'tplay at a next level ball. I
(12:28):
guess I can just say, andif they've proven that coaching is in their
blood, I agree, it doesn'tneed to be at this level, or
you know, it doesn't there doesn'tneed to be this star studded resume.
See I think to me it Igo, I go back and think of
the NHL analogy, and we tendto circulate coaches over and over with names,
(12:52):
over and over into the pool.They're established, but at one point
doesn't begin to then fall into thecategory of retread and you're looking for somebody
else, maybe who's fresh, who'syoung, who's maybe coming up through the
minor leagues. You know, theAmerican Hockey League is like the Triple A
of the NHL. For instance,and that's where you're getting a lot of
(13:13):
coaches who are becoming hot commodities becausethey haven't been of the NHL yet,
but they've proven that they can fita certain core value of an organization.
And I think, to me,this is where Washington State can't get scared
to hire somebody from maybe a lowermid major or even a Division two program.
(13:33):
Can they do their homework on this. Can they find someone who fits
the criteria and then find someone whocan work in similar fashion to what Kyle
Smith did. Oh, I thinkwe're looking at Pat Chun right now.
He is a starmaker. And JakeDickert was all across the headlines last year
in the beginning of the season asOkay, where's he gonna go? Where's
(13:54):
he gonna go? And you knowKyle Smith throughout their run, a success
breed success, right, and someonebigger and better is going to come and
get you. I don't even careif you go down to the SEC.
You still see it happen. Itdoesn't matter how big your conference is or
whatever. But someone's gonna come withthe dollars. And that's what bothers me
(14:15):
about college sports right now, isthat money is talking bigger than we've ever
seen it. And not only that, but it's also the fact that virtually
we're getting more and more stories ofplayers who are going into meetings and not
saying, how can you make mebetter? Is this team going to get
better? But how much money areyou going to make me? Yeah?
And it's the reason why that NickSaban was chased out. It's the reason
(14:37):
why we're hearing older coaches either aleaving the system or be complaining about the
system rather than see adapting here tothe system. I'm not saying that this
is the way it's got to be, but I'm just saying that you can
hear do two things. You caneither find a way to just walk out
and leave and throw your hands up, or can you find your Can you
(15:00):
find a way to adapt to ituntil someone can finally put better roles in
place to fix this system? AndI don't know if you can put that
toothpaste back in the tube, tobe honest, you just can't. So
you're going to allow anyone to makewhatever amount of dollars anyone will give coaches,
players, you know whoever included andthen say wait, hold on,
(15:22):
now, we're going to regulate itthe lawsuits would be about. So I
just that's what it is. Andso you're having students sign essentially contracts at
the age of seventeen. But that'sI guess what it is. The person
I had referenced earlier at the highlevel college reporter, I said, I
(15:45):
feel like I'm going through a midlifecrisis. Maybe I am, who knows.
I hope not. I hope tolive a little bit longer than that.
But that's that's how it feels froma mentality standpoint. I remember back
of the day, and this isa course before for you know, the
whole Pandora's box open on this nilthing. We were just fine playing video
games and playing the simulation of whateffort for the college head coach and recruiting
(16:10):
right, and the video games allwent away because of we didn't get to
the nil thing. And now thenil thing is back. Okay, now
the video games thing is back.You know what we haven't touched on here?
How you felt after round one?Oh, round one? Let me
go back to that time, ChrisKidd, how'd you feel after round one?
I was, I'll be honest,I watched the game with my parents,
(16:32):
my little brother. It was theKoogs had a hot start, and
I liked what they were doing,but Iowa, Iowa State, I'm trying
to figure it. I'm just excuseme. So after obviously, after round
one, I was very excited,but I knew that the bigger thing was,
Okay, how are they gonna goagainst Iowa State? Here, this
(16:53):
is a team that's defensively, theypressed, they are well, they just
they're a great team defense. Andmy concern was, Okay, the Coups
had a hot start against them inround two, but that run that I
was waiting on, I was waitingto see how the Coups were respond when
Iowa State one on a run,and to be honest, they didn't respond
(17:15):
well. No, And that wasthat kind of when I saw that they
didn't respond well, I say,it's gonna be tough because they're so good
defensively and they don't have scores,but they play as a team. Yeah
and then yeah, and it was. It was frustrating when they were making
tough threes. Watching hours, theyhit these step back jump shots. I'm
thinking, these guys cannot shoot,but they were making them when they needed
(17:37):
to make those shots, and whenthey did go on the run. The
Coups didn't respond. But Mike,to your first question after round one,
I was I was elated. Iwas excited. I even with the on
the morning show. Last week wedid our NCAA March Madness draft and I
picked the Kougs and based on theseating, you get time to the points.
So my seven seed one, Igot seven points based off that win,
(18:02):
so if they won again, thatwould be fourteen points. But I
knew it would be a challenge,but I just had to go with the
Coops. There was no way thatI was gonna draft four teams out of
this big bracket and not go withmy Koops. So they did win round
one, and I was very excitedand happy about that tough, tough challenge.
In round two, as you guysdon't know, they fell short,
but you know what, They're goingto be even better next season. And
(18:26):
I can't wait to see what theydo because I believe they'll be back with
another chance of going to March Batters. You're just like gripping onto the couch
two. No. I going in. I was confident, but I also
knew, Okay, the Coops areoff to a hot start. How would
they respond when Iowa State figures thingsout slows the game down, and that
(18:48):
I found out very quickly. Okay, the coops have to respond, and
they really never They didn't respond theway they should have. Attention. But
also I know Justic's twitter feed caughtmy attention too, and I was like,
oh, God speed, Chess.I hope you come back a live
this next week. You did,She's here. That's the reason why I
(19:08):
felt good. The cougar is oneround one because you're hanging off for dear
life right there, my friend.That one was pretty intense. Around two,
I felt like it was a littlehouse money. Yeah, you know,
you're you're going against a high rankedteam like that, who is like
I said, defense is worse.Oh don't use that as drop please,
(19:32):
but no, I I truly enjoyedit. Tied up at halftime, moderately
low scoring game. I thought Iwas glad we had a chance. I
was actually at a birthday party fora friend and we I was you know,
there were TVs all around we couldwatch and stuff, but I had
to just stifle myself to not becauseour families were around, and I'm like,
(19:56):
don't you are you okay? Justare you clear. Yeah, someone
was like serving themselves food and Iwas standing behind them watching a little TV
in the kitchen, and I'm going, yes, yes, cool jess,
Like I thought you were asking meabout my banked potato. And then I
felt like a silly goose, soI calmed down. But yeah, it
(20:18):
was fun. I was ordered oneintense cookout. It was, Oh,
it's an intense cookout. Yeah.Let me tell you we're all in a
state of cougar morning here, becausewell I wasn't a Washington State cougar,
but now, thanks my division toAzusa Pacific cougar is also about out of
the West regional in the nctate.A very nice run for my kugs got
their two wins in the D inthe D two March madness, but they
(20:41):
fell to cal State Sanbornardino seventy foursixty seven. Big shout out though to
Peter Bond, the head coach overat my alma mater, Azusa Pacific.
All right, well have ever itfits to you right around the corner.
The meaning of last night the fiveto one lost to Montreal and how the
Kraken came and clean this up.Short term and long term fish joining us
(21:03):
next here in ninety three three KJRFM. Last night, we heard this quote,
this stinks we're walking out of thisring for a second time in two
home games, feeling this way andthat's unacceptable. End quote, and then
calling the way that the team hadplayed it was quote more than disappointing.
(21:27):
End quote. In case you didn'tknow where those words came from, that
was crackinghead coach Dave Haxtall. Andwhat might be I think the most fiery
we have heard Dave Haxtall ever aftera game, at least in cracking land.
This after a five to one losshere to Montreal, and the audio
was too good not to share.We're gonna get to that a little bit
(21:49):
later on Mike jessmin in for youthis morning, and why not let's just
jump into it right now. Joiningus next Beacon Plumbing Hotline. Man Our
myth our legend ever refits you playby play voice for the Emerald Queen Casino
Cracking Audio Network fits how are yougot enough sleep under you yet? I
mean I should be asking you thatquestion talking Cracking with John Great uh great
(22:17):
segment, by the way, andthen now they got you pulling double duty.
Man, Look at you I'm powered. I'm getting the air that the
Royal treatment empowered. I'm powered byby by coffee. And I said with
I said to you, after thisone here, I am taking the world's
(22:37):
hardest nap ever. Yeah, yeah, no, you deserve it. Oh,
thank you, buddy. Let's justjump into it here. Man,
what do we learn after last night? Yeah? I mean it was disappointing.
And and I think that we welike to talk a lot about how
(22:59):
the team, regardless of the effortor the result, the effort's always been
there, the try hard has alwaysbeen there. I don't know if you
can objectively say that these last handfulof games. I mean, you've scored
one goal in five of your lastsix games. And if you're Seattle,
that's just not enough, you know, And and you know you talked about
(23:25):
the comments from Dave Axtall last night. I got to tell you it was
a little refreshing to hear that fromhim. We've gotten to know him,
you and I and in the mediapool, we've gotten to know him pretty
good over these last three three years. And one of the really good things,
and I think one of the moreunderrated things about Dave Hastall is His
(23:47):
demeanor is his calm, never toohigh, never too low demeanor, And
I think that that is the signof a good leader. You don't want
when the sky is falling. Youdon't want to appear that this guy's falling
too fast. Right when things aretoo good, you don't want things to
appear things are too good. Andhe keeps it at an even level so
(24:10):
to keep guys grounded. But whenyou when you finally see and and get
that emotion from him that you sawlast night, you know, it means
a lot to wear this jersey.Some guys aren't putting forth the efforts that
it takes to play at this level. It's an honor to play in the
NHL, and guys aren't you know, fully respecting that honor. Kind Of
(24:33):
paraphrasing some of what he said lastnight, it was really refreshing to hear
those comments from him. What redflags first started to appear to you in
the first period last night? Imean, you know, you had a
first, really couple of good shifts. And I think that after the two
(24:55):
goals were given up And this isjust my opinion. I'm not I'm not,
you know, trying to cast dispersionson anyone, but you give up
those first two goals, and itwas it was just night and day.
It was almost as if the guyshad kind of accepted their fate and and
(25:17):
well we got, you know,forty five minutes to get through. Let's
just get through it and and gofrom there, you know. And it
was almost as if, I don'twant to say, you give up.
Teams never give up. Players nevergive up. But you could just see
the will kind of fading a littlebit on the bench. You know,
(25:37):
you lose Ker Evans in the firstperiod, you go down for nothing in
the first period, probably one ofthe worst periods that I think we've seen
from this team in quite some time. And it just it went from bad
to worse. So the system thatthis team plays is a very hard system.
It's a very tiring system. Whenthis team is at their best,
(26:02):
it is a relentless fore check.It is a commitment to pressuring, it
is a commitment to checking. Andwe just saw, at least from my
opinion, we saw that commitment noteven in the rank last night after those
second and third goals. So youfeel bad for Grubauer getting left out to
(26:23):
try a little bit even Jamie Alexix, I had a bit, you know,
leaving leaving our goalie out to drylast night, but you know,
for for Seattle, that was thatwas probably it for me as far as
those those red flags go. Everfor two with us, Jessaman McIntyre and
Michael Benton, with you alongside ChrisKidd and uh with the salute. Thank
(26:45):
you for that kid. I justwant to ask you if you could take
a thirty thousand foot view of thisteam. I've covered a bunch of different
sports and different teams, and youcan feel the energy and everything that you
just said, is you saw thelack of will Hackstall had a pretty fiery
media session. I guess I'll callit last night and we'll play that in
(27:07):
full for the audience who may nothave heard it coming up here in just
a few minutes. But do youthink that was a message he was sending
through the media or just something ofa personal frustration that he had. It
could be both. I guess youknow, yeah, I honestly I think
it could be both. I thinkit could be both. And listen,
(27:27):
Dave is one of those coaches whoalways says the right things. He always
knows what to say, he alwayshas visibility to diffuse a lot of situations.
But you know, every man hashis breaking point, right, and
(27:48):
I think that could have been alittle bit of man, what do we
need to do? What is goingon here? That could have been a
message set. You know, hockeyculture is one where you don't really see
a lot of coaches calling guys outpublicly. This is a very behind closed
(28:11):
doors UH sport. You know,you look at other sports, some coaches
will will call out your star playerin the media. They'll call out guys
in the media. We've seen inthe NFL, we see it in in
UH, in the NBA quite abit. You don't really see a whole
lot of that in hockey, maybeexcept for John Tortorella and a couple of
(28:32):
others. So for for a guylike Dave Axtall to make the comments that
he made last night, something hadto really be wrong. And I think
that again, I was I was, I was glad. It was refreshing
to see that from him, atleast in my opinion from last night.
Now, I'll say this, youknow, we we talk a lot about
(28:53):
how this team needs to start scoringmore goals, this team needs to execute
more this team needs to X YZ more whatever that is. Well,
you know what I mean, We'vebeen saying it, we've been talking about
it, but we still haven't seenit. So maybe this was kind of
the guys, I'm trying to holdyou accountable behind closed doors. Now we're
(29:15):
gonna hold your feet to the fire. You know, no one likes to
be embarrassed, No one likes tohave the dirty laundry aired out in public.
Right, So maybe this was kindof a bit of a tactic like,
hey, come on, you knowit's out there now, It's not
just it's not just in here.Now it's out there. Let's see how
(29:36):
how we respond. There was alsosomething that Dave Hastall mentioned last night maybe,
and I think it has to dowith a move that we saw not
too long after Johnny Forsland and Isigned off from postgame last evening, and
that he mentioned about how much thisis all disappointing and that it's something that
(29:57):
we're going to change. Literally abouta half hour after we signed off,
and this happened as I was onthe way home, we learned two more
names that could be a big pieceof this team here for the future,
and that being Ryan Winterton and LoganMorrison both were called up from the American
Hockey League. These call ups don'thappen often here. Do you think is
(30:18):
there anyone maybe spared in this?What and maybe even more so, what
kind of message is being sent withthis kind of call up? Well,
this is the first step, right, you know, all this talk is
great, all the comments and theand the remarks are great, but until
you actually make a tangible move,that's all it is is just talk.
(30:41):
Well, this is the first tangiblemove that we're seeing as far as who's
spared. Look, I mean,I don't care if you're making five million,
I don't care if you're making sevenhundred thousand. You shouldn't be spared.
Everybody in that forward group, everybodyin that locker room, I think
(31:03):
should be on the same level.If you're calling up Ryan Winterton, you're
calling up Morris. In the play, I'm hoping that they're gonna throw them
into into important, meaningful moments andsituations right now. Dave Hastall has also
talked to you, said to meand now before, like you know,
you want to put guys in theright spots. You're not just gonna put
(31:25):
a guy out there. To puta guy out there, you don't want
to leave them out to dry.And I get that this is still the
National Hockey League. You know,this is still the toughest league to play
in in the world. But thatsaid, I'm hoping you're not calling these
two players up to play them fiveminutes a night and everything is still status
quo. If you're serious, andif you're you know you're making these moves
(31:48):
to bring guys up. That meanseveryone in your top six should be worried,
everyone in your bottom six should beworried. You know, there were
no defensive moves that were made.But hopefully Rker Evans is okay. Vince
Donne was back skating yesterday in ared contact jersey. Practice Today is an
eleven, so we'll see what happensthis morning over at CACI. But I
(32:14):
mean these these types of moves aremade historically to send a message this late
in the season, where you arein the standings, you don't make these
moves for your health. Coachelle Valleyis in a great spot down there.
They just clinched a playoff birth they'retrying to win a championship after losing in
(32:37):
double overtime in game seven of thefinal last year. So they're trying to
get back to that place. Sothese moves aren't made, you know,
with the wave of the wand therewas a lot of thought. There was
a lot of tact that went intothis. So you have to imagine if
(32:57):
they're being called up, they areare going to hopefully get some serious minutes
and a couple of guys up front, hopefully a couple of big forwards up
front are going to be put onnotice over the next couple of games.
Now also too, how long arethey here for? Are they going to
play tomorrow against Anaheim and then andthen smell you on Wednesday? Who knows
right? Or are they going tobe here for the remainder of this homestand
(33:22):
only time will tell. Well,this is a healthy conversation here to have,
and this makes tomorrow night pretty interestingagainst the Anaheim Ducks. Fitz,
you said a lot of words overthe last four days. I know I
have to al as well. Thankyou so much, buddy, Appreciate you
any time. Guys always a pleasure. You're the man, Everett. Thank
you ever it fits you joining us. They've axed all audio too good not
(33:44):
to share. I'll break it downhere with you, with Jess and me
and Chris Kidd as well. Ninetythree three KJFM. This is Sad Day
and Crack and Land last night.As first off, we want to thank
ever it fits you for helping usout and Jeff on with more context from
the five to one loss to Montreal. How you feeling about this folks four
(34:05):
nine four five one, about thisteam and what's got to get fixed?
Where are they headed? Four ninefour five one, And we said Steve
Hackstall audio was too good not toshare, Mike, Jessemine, Chris Kidd
here with you without further ado,let's jump into it, and here's Dave
Hackstall. Maybe, unlike we haveever heard since the Dawn of the Kraken,
(34:29):
you play this game with passion,you play it with heart, you
play it for the guy next toyou, and we're not doing that right
now. And that's that's that's morethan disappointing. That's that's that's hard to
it's hard to be part of,and that's something that that we're going to
change to see it go this wayas kind of kind of hard as it
(34:49):
has over the last five six eightgames or so, Are you surprised that
that has fallen in such a wayover the stretch. Yeah, it's I
mean, it's it's hard to see. It's hard to see us fall off
like this because of what is stillon the line. Every time you you
know, every time you put thisjersey on, it means a lot,
and right now we are not portrayingthat out on the ice. How do
(35:14):
you change it? As a coroach, how do you get them to change?
Do you have to move guys inout of the lineup? Do you
have to you know, I'm notgoing to get into it right here,
not going to get into it righthere. You know, it's got to
come through. It's got to comethrough knowing us getting connected here and figuring
out what we want to do.Because this stinks tonight, this stinks.
(35:36):
We're walking out of this rink fora second time in two home games feeling
this way, and that's unacceptable.That was Dave Axtall after the crack and
lost five one two the Montreal Canadians. They have now gone winless in eight
consecutive games ever since trade deadline timewhen they were still hanging around, and
(35:57):
they're a very closer here to thelottery than they are a playoff spot at
this point, where it would thenmean missing the playoffs the first two out
of three seasons. You know,Jess a minutes. Usually when you hear
coaches say I'm not going to getinto it, when it means the context
of what's being said in the roomright now, and coaches are out for
(36:20):
one thing first off, and itis to protect their players. And if
you go the new crowd and tryto call guys out and we heard this
never fits you, You're playing adangerous game. But when you hear Dave
Axtall, who is as reserved asit can be and as calculated and as
measured, where are we at rightnow with this cracking team. Well,
(36:42):
I like coaches that pick and choosetheir moments, right. And we just
talked to Ert fits you a fewminutes ago, and I asked, was
that a message delivered through the mediawas it just pure frustration? And we
kind of all settled on it wasboth, probably. But he didn't call
out specific players by name, right, He didn't call out He called out
(37:06):
the team, And I think thatwas the right way to express that frustration.
We have to unify, we haveto get together. That wasn't something
we necessarily heard in that exact clip, but it was a little bit later
in the entire audio, which wedon't have time to play for you.
But he did it the right way, and I think he chose the right
(37:27):
time because you don't want to demoralizepeople. You don't want to take them
down when they've got a shot.But you know fits at it too.
You saw it last night. Therewas no will. The will was taken
away, and I just I reallyappreciated it. I like tough coaches.
I just do. That's the wayI would respond to toughness better than honey.
(37:51):
Like I guess I'm a vinegar person, but you're around the team a
lot more than I am, SoI'd like to know what you think about
it. When I go back andconsider the way that this team is supposed
to play and when they're at theirbest, and I mean by defining when
they're at their best, it's arewind button to about one year ago when
(38:14):
they were in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Everything is at a chaotic storm with
how they move, with how theyskate, with how they attack the net.
And I often say that if they'renot scoring, say onlike a mid
range shot from the circles about twentytwenty five feet out. Their best kind
of offense is kind of like maybean offensive rebound in basketball, where maybe
(38:36):
someone's best offense is a misshot andthey have terrific players who can rebound,
get it off the glass and reset. That is exactly the way that this
cracking team can play, is thatif they're not scoring, they're tracking down
rebound and they're able to move thepuck around, find pressure at the net,
(38:57):
and then attack the net with ashot and then with chaos in front
where it could be a shot deflection, whatever. But too many times,
and John Forsln mentioned this too withme last night, there is a disconnect
with speed. There is a disconnectwith how quick they move. And that's
going to raise serious questions on who'sgoing to pull this in the right direction.
(39:20):
Who is going to be the leader, who is going to be the
one to rain this thing back inbecause the playoffs are looking bleak. I
mean, the e is not theremathematically, but we're pretty much almost there
right now, and it's going totake someone to pull this back in the
right direction, to at least setthe appropriate tone for this next year,
because if you can maybe conjure aheadline right now, it's deep trouble,
(39:45):
deep trouble right now. And here'sa great part before we had to break,
is that this is still very muchan infancy situation for this team,
this fan base. And we've seenhow loud they can be, We've heard
how loud it can be. Allit will take is to put together a
few wins in a row to getsome good feelings right back in here,
(40:07):
but then pave the way in thesummer to see how you can make this
thing better. You got to makea trade, you got to sign a
free agent here. Someone needs helpon this top line for more offense.
That's the biggest thing here for meas well. And we're gonna see some
questions answered here, I think,very very soon. All right. Aaron
(40:27):
Levine joining us next year ninety threethree k JFM
At least for me and Chris Kidd, and I think that Mike Benton,
who's alongside here, will empathize withthat. As Kyle Smith one of the
best head coaches we've seen in avery long time, historic season that he
led the Kougs, who has beenhired away by Stanford, who will be
playing in the ACC in a conferencejust two days after he led the Kougs
(00:25):
two a second round of the NCAATournament. Kyle Smith is gone. Crack
and also lose five to one lastnight too the Montreal Canadians. They are
now winless in eight consecutive games.Montreal scored the first four goals of the
game, led for nothing after oneperiod. Philip Grubauer pulled after four goals
on six shots. He had thelost. Cayden Primo had the win in
(00:49):
game two of the four game homestandtomorrow night crack and taken on the Anaheim
Ducks. Yes, and what timewill that happen? O'clock? Yeah?
And six thirty with you, sexthirty with me an Everett's and al I
think more coffee and more sleep underneathme as well. Yes, you get
out of here extremely quickly today,don't stay for a post show recap or
(01:10):
anything. We also have a lotof brackets busting all over the place.
We will get into everything that hashappened over the weekend and break down our
brackets. We want to hear aboutyours text us in four nine four five
one, and we know what thatis. It's a the tullmeror do text
line when it's game time? Rightthere, party people, Mike Bent and
(01:33):
Jasmin McIntyre and Chris Ked as well. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. How's
aybody doing? We're doing this here. I'm sad it's a pool Monday.
I make a T shirt out ofthat because I think it's appropriate for that.
Oh yeah, I told Mike whenwe were wrapping earlier this morning,
I say, this feels like aPooh morning. Mike's like, bro,
I'm off fory here. I'm overhere with a few hours of sleep,
(01:55):
I'm coffeed up, I'm ready togo. Do you specialize that in team
colors depending upon your mood or yourday, or do you even specialize it
in team colors? Yeah, asfar as like the team that that you
were Oh yeah, well I amwearing gray, so it's half of it.
Yeah, yeah, Monday. Thanksa lot, Kyle Smith. But
(02:16):
I understand why you did what youdid. It's okay. I know.
That's the worst part, is it. There's no blame game to play,
right, No, there's not.There's we'll find out the contract details.
Do I even want to know?I don't want to know because I got
so. I have a very highpowered college football and basketball reporter who now
(02:37):
who texted me and and said,you do not lose your head coach to
Stanford if the PAC twelve still exists? And that made me even satdter that
does it hit home from that daythat we found out that the PAC twelve
was that was the first thing Ithought of. If the PAC twelve still
(02:57):
existed, would that would this haveeven happened? No? And for me,
the answer is no, one hundredpercent agree, one hundred percent agree.
I'm just at least he didn't goto Washington. That's our solids here,
just because that was kind of thenarrative over the last you know,
two weeks or three weeks, likeit's it's a matter of time, it's
a matter of time. Will doesKyle Smith really want to go to Washington?
(03:22):
Doesn't really fit him? You know, sometimes the more money comes more
responsibility aka more stress and more headachesas well. I just I thought this
soul Stanford thing was going to workout a lot better for him, I
guess. I mean, they're anacademic institution, so now he's going to
have to focus on the student athletethere at least they proclaim that, even
(03:44):
though they're going to fly their teamsall over the country at various times.
But that's just my an. Isthat gonna last for exactly? But he
even said so, we've had himon several times with Ian Ferness, and
we have talked to him a lotabout the I guess what it means,
and he said, I think itwas last winter when we had him on.
(04:08):
It was early, it was likeFebruary, and he said, I
feel more like a GM than Ido a coach. And Stanford isn't necessarily
a program where that is the focusin any kind of sport, because they
do, they and col even thoughthey went to the ACC do focus on
(04:29):
the student part of the athlete.Well. That also reminded me of some
comments that Bill self had at Kansasfrom this past weekend, and he fully
admitted, He fully admitted that hewasn't even concentrating over this last month on
the NCAA tournament. You know thosewords were his words were, I'm thinking
about next season already. I'm thinkingabout next season. Who's going to come
(04:54):
in, who's going to come out. It's just the world of college athletics
that we live in these day.And we can ham and how about this
all we want here about It's adifferent game than about ten years ago.
But this is the harsh reality,and this is the way that nearly every
major sport that makes money from televisionis going to face until more rigid restrictions
(05:16):
are put in place here with niland that's it. And the NCAA had
decades to prepare for this at thepoint where they could. I and I've
been quite honest about this, Ido think that student athletes should be compensated.
Yeah, in a way if theyare making their institution money, come
(05:36):
on, right, But so theyknew that the whole time. And the
scholarship's great. Everything that you getwhen you're on a full ride awesome.
You deserve it, you earned it. But I think if you're making on
top of that, you always deservethe chance to be compensated. So the
NC DOUBLEA was ahead of it,and then in lawsuit really escalated things and
(06:02):
all of a sudden that was thefirst thing for me, right there was
the Obanon lawsuit that that that thatto me said this is getting real now,
yes, exactly, and the factthat he won and all of a
sudden they had to react and theyhad no plan in place. That's the
way I look at it is therewas no foresight whatsoever there could have been.
(06:25):
I guess, like I went throughif I was in that position,
Yeah, would I be? Iwanted people to get a degree before they
and then it's you know, okay, we will put this allotted amount into
a trust or a fund or anything, and once you get your degree,
you can go. And I don'tknow. I guess I want to know
(06:46):
other people's thoughts on how it couldbe regulated, but we don't. We
just don't know. Four. Howsurprised are you with the Kyle Smith thing
here that was developing this morning again, Kyle Smith, the news breaking that
he's going to Stanford as a newhead coach for the men's basketball side.
Mike Betton, Jessmin McIntyre, ChrisKidd as well, A lot to cover
(07:09):
here today. Party people ever itfits you gonna be along with us at
ten thirty talking more about last nightand the loss to the Montreal Canadians.
It was not pretty and it gotout of hand very very early. Aaron
Levine Fox thirteen as well, joiningus set eleven voicemails eleven thirty. I
(07:30):
can't wait for you again. Whereare you at? GQ? Jerry?
Where are you at? Jamal?Anybody who wants to impersonate me as well?
I think Softy. We had himon twice and in one segment tweeted
the day also eleven forty five,Jess had a cream Once you share this
is why you double check your work. And we'll get to tweeted the day
later on here also Daniel Kramer,I believe of MLB dot com covering the
(07:54):
Mariners. He'll be along and alsoat noon, and we learned earlier today
we have a little bit of breakingnews coming out when it comes to college
basketball that Washington and Utah States DannySprinkle are finalizing a deal or have finalized
it. We don't know what thedetails are yet, but he will apparently
be the next U doub men's basketballcoach. So that's someone off the charts
(08:16):
for our for our Koug's and I'mnot really sure where to go. Let's
get Donald Watts, Like, whynot? He's a really good coach.
I mean he is coaching, youknow, to a smaller degree. His
son has gone to Wazoo and obviouslyhas done really well as a freshman there.
(08:37):
But I would love to see himjust show up take over. Why
not? See here, where's Crimson? Now? See here's Here's where it
I think makes a big difference forme. And we are reading reports from
this last weekend after the Cougars gotbounced again. Sorry Jess, Sorry Chris
kidd as well, hey you knowwhat and you and in one PM slot
(09:01):
here, But there were already reportsthat once the round of thirty two ended
that the Cougar's coaching staff were alreadygetting text messages from recruits and the question
was, well, scouts, andthe answer was no, players are recruiting
themselves. So this is picking upsteam. But then the Kyle Smith news
(09:24):
broke. So this is going tobe a very very important crossroads thing here
for Cougar's basketball. Can somebody comein and be a salesman but also have
enough power here to harness, what'sgoing on all across this nil thing and
keep them relevant and keep them inthe tournament. And that's my also big
question right there is do you setthe bar this high again for the Cougars
this next season? Well, youwould hope they'd be able to retain their
(09:46):
talent. That's what I go withfor first and foremost. Kyle Smith started
organically at Washington State, right andwe saw it way back in the day
with Tony Bennett, and we're seeingagain. I still got to wrap my
head around the fact that it's Stamford, but that's for another time. I
(10:07):
just think that he you can't replicatethat without starting over, you know.
It's just I hope that they're ableto retain everybody. And I don't know
if he's taking his staff with him. I don't know if it's just like
football. I am more of afootball person than a basketball person. But
his assistant coaches are amazing. I'dbe thrilled if they went internal with their
(10:31):
next head coaching decisions. I thinkto me it goes down to also the
Danny Sprinkle thing with Washington and thathe's got the reputation of being a builder
you can bring a guy in.You can bring somebody in who's great at
x's and o's, they're able tocommunicate with their players. But ultimately,
to me, priority number one iscan you be a guy who can be
(10:54):
a builder. And the Danny Sprinklething with this maybe going down over at
Washington is that he took over UtahState and got them into their first NCAA
appearance since two thousand and one.He's got the track record of being a
builder. He turned Montana State intoa March Madness mainstay, and he was
(11:15):
able to do a lot of thisalmost virtually overnight. So the question is
it's not where you can you finda guy from established program A, established
program B, But can you findsomebody who's got the basic core values of
being a builder no matter where theypreviously coached. To me, I don't
care if it's say, if it'sfrom Division two. If you can find
(11:37):
someone who's got that clean track recordof being a builder and turning nothing into
something overnight, like Danny Sprinkle,that's your best fit there. Yeah,
I one hundred percent agree. AndI kind of look at the newer coaches
that we've seen come in here overI mean at Virginia Mason Athletic Center too.
Oh good job there, good Ilearned. I learned. You know
(12:03):
when you look at Aden Dirty,who is the first I think English born
coach to be hired in that positionas defensive coordinator in the NFL, I
look at someone like that where it'syou know, he has proven so much
already and you know, coming anddo it. And Mike McDonald did it
at several levels too. He didn'tplay at a next level ball. I
(12:28):
guess I can just say, andif they've proven that coaching is in their
blood, I agree, it doesn'tneed to be at this level, or
you know, it doesn't there doesn'tneed to be this star studded resume.
See I think to me it Igo, I go back and think of
the NHL analogy, and we tendto circulate coaches over and over with names,
(12:52):
over and over into the pool.They're established, but at one point
doesn't begin to then fall into thecategory of retread and you're looking for somebody
else, maybe who's fresh, who'syoung, who's maybe coming up through the
minor leagues. You know, theAmerican Hockey League is like the Triple A
of the NHL. For instance,and that's where you're getting a lot of
(13:13):
coaches who are becoming hot commodities becausethey haven't been of the NHL yet,
but they've proven that they can fita certain core value of an organization.
And I think, to me,this is where Washington State can't get scared
to hire somebody from maybe a lowermid major or even a Division two program.
(13:33):
Can they do their homework on this. Can they find someone who fits
the criteria and then find someone whocan work in similar fashion to what Kyle
Smith did. Oh, I thinkwe're looking at Pat Chun right now.
He is a starmaker. And JakeDickert was all across the headlines last year
in the beginning of the season asOkay, where's he gonna go? Where's
(13:54):
he gonna go? And you knowKyle Smith throughout their run, a success
breed success, right, and someonebigger and better is going to come and
get you. I don't even careif you go down to the SEC.
You still see it happen. Itdoesn't matter how big your conference is or
whatever. But someone's gonna come withthe dollars. And that's what bothers me
(14:15):
about college sports right now, isthat money is talking bigger than we've ever
seen it. And not only that, but it's also the fact that virtually
we're getting more and more stories ofplayers who are going into meetings and not
saying, how can you make mebetter? Is this team going to get
better? But how much money areyou going to make me? Yeah?
And it's the reason why that NickSaban was chased out. It's the reason
(14:37):
why we're hearing older coaches either aleaving the system or be complaining about the
system rather than see adapting here tothe system. I'm not saying that this
is the way it's got to be, but I'm just saying that you can
hear do two things. You caneither find a way to just walk out
and leave and throw your hands up, or can you find your Can you
(15:00):
find a way to adapt to ituntil someone can finally put better roles in
place to fix this system? AndI don't know if you can put that
toothpaste back in the tube, tobe honest, you just can't. So
you're going to allow anyone to makewhatever amount of dollars anyone will give coaches,
players, you know whoever included andthen say wait, hold on,
(15:22):
now, we're going to regulate itthe lawsuits would be about. So I
just that's what it is. Andso you're having students sign essentially contracts at
the age of seventeen. But that'sI guess what it is. The person
I had referenced earlier at the highlevel college reporter, I said, I
(15:45):
feel like I'm going through a midlifecrisis. Maybe I am, who knows.
I hope not. I hope tolive a little bit longer than that.
But that's that's how it feels froma mentality standpoint. I remember back
of the day, and this isa course before for you know, the
whole Pandora's box open on this nilthing. We were just fine playing video
games and playing the simulation of whateffort for the college head coach and recruiting
(16:10):
right, and the video games allwent away because of we didn't get to
the nil thing. And now thenil thing is back. Okay, now
the video games thing is back.You know what we haven't touched on here?
How you felt after round one?Oh, round one? Let me
go back to that time, ChrisKidd, how'd you feel after round one?
I was, I'll be honest,I watched the game with my parents,
(16:32):
my little brother. It was theKoogs had a hot start, and
I liked what they were doing,but Iowa, Iowa State, I'm trying
to figure it. I'm just excuseme. So after obviously, after round
one, I was very excited,but I knew that the bigger thing was,
Okay, how are they gonna goagainst Iowa State? Here, this
(16:53):
is a team that's defensively, theypressed, they are well, they just
they're a great team defense. Andmy concern was, Okay, the Coups
had a hot start against them inround two, but that run that I
was waiting on, I was waitingto see how the Coups were respond when
Iowa State one on a run,and to be honest, they didn't respond
(17:15):
well. No, And that wasthat kind of when I saw that they
didn't respond well, I say,it's gonna be tough because they're so good
defensively and they don't have scores,but they play as a team. Yeah
and then yeah, and it was. It was frustrating when they were making
tough threes. Watching hours, theyhit these step back jump shots. I'm
thinking, these guys cannot shoot,but they were making them when they needed
(17:37):
to make those shots, and whenthey did go on the run. The
Coups didn't respond. But Mike,to your first question after round one,
I was I was elated. Iwas excited. I even with the on
the morning show. Last week wedid our NCAA March Madness draft and I
picked the Kougs and based on theseating, you get time to the points.
So my seven seed one, Igot seven points based off that win,
(18:02):
so if they won again, thatwould be fourteen points. But I
knew it would be a challenge,but I just had to go with the
Coops. There was no way thatI was gonna draft four teams out of
this big bracket and not go withmy Koops. So they did win round
one, and I was very excitedand happy about that tough, tough challenge.
In round two, as you guysdon't know, they fell short,
but you know what, They're goingto be even better next season. And
(18:26):
I can't wait to see what theydo because I believe they'll be back with
another chance of going to March Batters. You're just like gripping onto the couch
two. No. I going in. I was confident, but I also
knew, Okay, the Coops areoff to a hot start. How would
they respond when Iowa State figures thingsout slows the game down, and that
(18:48):
I found out very quickly. Okay, the coops have to respond, and
they really never They didn't respond theway they should have. Attention. But
also I know Justic's twitter feed caughtmy attention too, and I was like,
oh, God speed, Chess.I hope you come back a live
this next week. You did,She's here. That's the reason why I
(19:08):
felt good. The cougar is oneround one because you're hanging off for dear
life right there, my friend.That one was pretty intense. Around two,
I felt like it was a littlehouse money. Yeah, you know,
you're you're going against a high rankedteam like that, who is like
I said, defense is worse.Oh don't use that as drop please,
(19:32):
but no, I I truly enjoyedit. Tied up at halftime, moderately
low scoring game. I thought Iwas glad we had a chance. I
was actually at a birthday party fora friend and we I was you know,
there were TVs all around we couldwatch and stuff, but I had
to just stifle myself to not becauseour families were around, and I'm like,
(19:56):
don't you are you okay? Justare you clear. Yeah, someone
was like serving themselves food and Iwas standing behind them watching a little TV
in the kitchen, and I'm going, yes, yes, cool jess,
Like I thought you were asking meabout my banked potato. And then I
felt like a silly goose, soI calmed down. But yeah, it
(20:18):
was fun. I was ordered oneintense cookout. It was, Oh,
it's an intense cookout. Yeah.Let me tell you we're all in a
state of cougar morning here, becausewell I wasn't a Washington State cougar,
but now, thanks my division toAzusa Pacific cougar is also about out of
the West regional in the nctate.A very nice run for my kugs got
their two wins in the D inthe D two March madness, but they
(20:41):
fell to cal State Sanbornardino seventy foursixty seven. Big shout out though to
Peter Bond, the head coach overat my alma mater, Azusa Pacific.
All right, well have ever itfits to you right around the corner.
The meaning of last night the fiveto one lost to Montreal and how the
Kraken came and clean this up.Short term and long term fish joining us
(21:03):
next here in ninety three three KJRFM. Last night, we heard this quote,
this stinks we're walking out of thisring for a second time in two
home games, feeling this way andthat's unacceptable. End quote, and then
calling the way that the team hadplayed it was quote more than disappointing.
(21:27):
End quote. In case you didn'tknow where those words came from, that
was crackinghead coach Dave Haxtall. Andwhat might be I think the most fiery
we have heard Dave Haxtall ever aftera game, at least in cracking land.
This after a five to one losshere to Montreal, and the audio
was too good not to share.We're gonna get to that a little bit
(21:49):
later on Mike jessmin in for youthis morning, and why not let's just
jump into it right now. Joiningus next Beacon Plumbing Hotline. Man Our
myth our legend ever refits you playby play voice for the Emerald Queen Casino
Cracking Audio Network fits how are yougot enough sleep under you yet? I
mean I should be asking you thatquestion talking Cracking with John Great uh great
(22:17):
segment, by the way, andthen now they got you pulling double duty.
Man, Look at you I'm powered. I'm getting the air that the
Royal treatment empowered. I'm powered byby by coffee. And I said with
I said to you, after thisone here, I am taking the world's
(22:37):
hardest nap ever. Yeah, yeah, no, you deserve it. Oh,
thank you, buddy. Let's justjump into it here. Man,
what do we learn after last night? Yeah? I mean it was disappointing.
And and I think that we welike to talk a lot about how
(22:59):
the team, regardless of the effortor the result, the effort's always been
there, the try hard has alwaysbeen there. I don't know if you
can objectively say that these last handfulof games. I mean, you've scored
one goal in five of your lastsix games. And if you're Seattle,
that's just not enough, you know, And and you know you talked about
(23:25):
the comments from Dave Axtall last night. I got to tell you it was
a little refreshing to hear that fromhim. We've gotten to know him,
you and I and in the mediapool, we've gotten to know him pretty
good over these last three three years. And one of the really good things,
and I think one of the moreunderrated things about Dave Hastall is His
(23:47):
demeanor is his calm, never toohigh, never too low demeanor, And
I think that that is the signof a good leader. You don't want
when the sky is falling. Youdon't want to appear that this guy's falling
too fast. Right when things aretoo good, you don't want things to
appear things are too good. Andhe keeps it at an even level so
(24:10):
to keep guys grounded. But whenyou when you finally see and and get
that emotion from him that you sawlast night, you know, it means
a lot to wear this jersey.Some guys aren't putting forth the efforts that
it takes to play at this level. It's an honor to play in the
NHL, and guys aren't you know, fully respecting that honor. Kind Of
(24:33):
paraphrasing some of what he said lastnight, it was really refreshing to hear
those comments from him. What redflags first started to appear to you in
the first period last night? Imean, you know, you had a
first, really couple of good shifts. And I think that after the two
(24:55):
goals were given up And this isjust my opinion. I'm not I'm not,
you know, trying to cast dispersionson anyone, but you give up
those first two goals, and itwas it was just night and day.
It was almost as if the guyshad kind of accepted their fate and and
(25:17):
well we got, you know,forty five minutes to get through. Let's
just get through it and and gofrom there, you know. And it
was almost as if, I don'twant to say, you give up.
Teams never give up. Players nevergive up. But you could just see
the will kind of fading a littlebit on the bench. You know,
(25:37):
you lose Ker Evans in the firstperiod, you go down for nothing in
the first period, probably one ofthe worst periods that I think we've seen
from this team in quite some time. And it just it went from bad
to worse. So the system thatthis team plays is a very hard system.
It's a very tiring system. Whenthis team is at their best,
(26:02):
it is a relentless fore check.It is a commitment to pressuring, it
is a commitment to checking. Andwe just saw, at least from my
opinion, we saw that commitment noteven in the rank last night after those
second and third goals. So youfeel bad for Grubauer getting left out to
(26:23):
try a little bit even Jamie Alexix, I had a bit, you know,
leaving leaving our goalie out to drylast night, but you know,
for for Seattle, that was thatwas probably it for me as far as
those those red flags go. Everfor two with us, Jessaman McIntyre and
Michael Benton, with you alongside ChrisKidd and uh with the salute. Thank
(26:45):
you for that kid. I justwant to ask you if you could take
a thirty thousand foot view of thisteam. I've covered a bunch of different
sports and different teams, and youcan feel the energy and everything that you
just said, is you saw thelack of will Hackstall had a pretty fiery
media session. I guess I'll callit last night and we'll play that in
(27:07):
full for the audience who may nothave heard it coming up here in just
a few minutes. But do youthink that was a message he was sending
through the media or just something ofa personal frustration that he had. It
could be both. I guess youknow, yeah, I honestly I think
it could be both. I thinkit could be both. And listen,
(27:27):
Dave is one of those coaches whoalways says the right things. He always
knows what to say, he alwayshas visibility to diffuse a lot of situations.
But you know, every man hashis breaking point, right, and
(27:48):
I think that could have been alittle bit of man, what do we
need to do? What is goingon here? That could have been a
message set. You know, hockeyculture is one where you don't really see
a lot of coaches calling guys outpublicly. This is a very behind closed
(28:11):
doors UH sport. You know,you look at other sports, some coaches
will will call out your star playerin the media. They'll call out guys
in the media. We've seen inthe NFL, we see it in in
UH, in the NBA quite abit. You don't really see a whole
lot of that in hockey, maybeexcept for John Tortorella and a couple of
(28:32):
others. So for for a guylike Dave Axtall to make the comments that
he made last night, something hadto really be wrong. And I think
that again, I was I was, I was glad. It was refreshing
to see that from him, atleast in my opinion from last night.
Now, I'll say this, youknow, we we talk a lot about
(28:53):
how this team needs to start scoringmore goals, this team needs to execute
more this team needs to X YZ more whatever that is. Well,
you know what I mean, We'vebeen saying it, we've been talking about
it, but we still haven't seenit. So maybe this was kind of
the guys, I'm trying to holdyou accountable behind closed doors. Now we're
(29:15):
gonna hold your feet to the fire. You know, no one likes to
be embarrassed, No one likes tohave the dirty laundry aired out in public.
Right, So maybe this was kindof a bit of a tactic like,
hey, come on, you knowit's out there now, It's not
just it's not just in here.Now it's out there. Let's see how
(29:36):
how we respond. There was alsosomething that Dave Hastall mentioned last night maybe,
and I think it has to dowith a move that we saw not
too long after Johnny Forsland and Isigned off from postgame last evening, and
that he mentioned about how much thisis all disappointing and that it's something that
(29:57):
we're going to change. Literally abouta half hour after we signed off,
and this happened as I was onthe way home, we learned two more
names that could be a big pieceof this team here for the future,
and that being Ryan Winterton and LoganMorrison both were called up from the American
Hockey League. These call ups don'thappen often here. Do you think is
(30:18):
there anyone maybe spared in this?What and maybe even more so, what
kind of message is being sent withthis kind of call up? Well,
this is the first step, right, you know, all this talk is
great, all the comments and theand the remarks are great, but until
you actually make a tangible move,that's all it is is just talk.
(30:41):
Well, this is the first tangiblemove that we're seeing as far as who's
spared. Look, I mean,I don't care if you're making five million,
I don't care if you're making sevenhundred thousand. You shouldn't be spared.
Everybody in that forward group, everybodyin that locker room, I think
(31:03):
should be on the same level.If you're calling up Ryan Winterton, you're
calling up Morris. In the play, I'm hoping that they're gonna throw them
into into important, meaningful moments andsituations right now. Dave Hastall has also
talked to you, said to meand now before, like you know,
you want to put guys in theright spots. You're not just gonna put
(31:25):
a guy out there. To puta guy out there, you don't want
to leave them out to dry.And I get that this is still the
National Hockey League. You know,this is still the toughest league to play
in in the world. But thatsaid, I'm hoping you're not calling these
two players up to play them fiveminutes a night and everything is still status
quo. If you're serious, andif you're you know you're making these moves
(31:48):
to bring guys up. That meanseveryone in your top six should be worried,
everyone in your bottom six should beworried. You know, there were
no defensive moves that were made.But hopefully Rker Evans is okay. Vince
Donne was back skating yesterday in ared contact jersey. Practice Today is an
eleven, so we'll see what happensthis morning over at CACI. But I
(32:14):
mean these these types of moves aremade historically to send a message this late
in the season, where you arein the standings, you don't make these
moves for your health. Coachelle Valleyis in a great spot down there.
They just clinched a playoff birth they'retrying to win a championship after losing in
(32:37):
double overtime in game seven of thefinal last year. So they're trying to
get back to that place. Sothese moves aren't made, you know,
with the wave of the wand therewas a lot of thought. There was
a lot of tact that went intothis. So you have to imagine if
(32:57):
they're being called up, they areare going to hopefully get some serious minutes
and a couple of guys up front, hopefully a couple of big forwards up
front are going to be put onnotice over the next couple of games.
Now also too, how long arethey here for? Are they going to
play tomorrow against Anaheim and then andthen smell you on Wednesday? Who knows
right? Or are they going tobe here for the remainder of this homestand
(33:22):
only time will tell. Well,this is a healthy conversation here to have,
and this makes tomorrow night pretty interestingagainst the Anaheim Ducks. Fitz,
you said a lot of words overthe last four days. I know I
have to al as well. Thankyou so much, buddy, Appreciate you
any time. Guys always a pleasure. You're the man, Everett. Thank
you ever it fits you joining us. They've axed all audio too good not
(33:44):
to share. I'll break it downhere with you, with Jess and me
and Chris Kidd as well. Ninetythree three KJFM. This is Sad Day
and Crack and Land last night.As first off, we want to thank
ever it fits you for helping usout and Jeff on with more context from
the five to one loss to Montreal. How you feeling about this folks four
(34:05):
nine four five one, about thisteam and what's got to get fixed?
Where are they headed? Four ninefour five one, And we said Steve
Hackstall audio was too good not toshare, Mike, Jessemine, Chris Kidd
here with you without further ado,let's jump into it, and here's Dave
Hackstall. Maybe, unlike we haveever heard since the Dawn of the Kraken,
(34:29):
you play this game with passion,you play it with heart, you
play it for the guy next toyou, and we're not doing that right
now. And that's that's that's morethan disappointing. That's that's that's hard to
it's hard to be part of,and that's something that that we're going to
change to see it go this wayas kind of kind of hard as it
(34:49):
has over the last five six eightgames or so, Are you surprised that
that has fallen in such a wayover the stretch. Yeah, it's I
mean, it's it's hard to see. It's hard to see us fall off
like this because of what is stillon the line. Every time you you
know, every time you put thisjersey on, it means a lot,
and right now we are not portrayingthat out on the ice. How do
(35:14):
you change it? As a coroach, how do you get them to change?
Do you have to move guys inout of the lineup? Do you
have to you know, I'm notgoing to get into it right here,
not going to get into it righthere. You know, it's got to
come through. It's got to comethrough knowing us getting connected here and figuring
out what we want to do.Because this stinks tonight, this stinks.
(35:36):
We're walking out of this rink fora second time in two home games feeling
this way, and that's unacceptable.That was Dave Axtall after the crack and
lost five one two the Montreal Canadians. They have now gone winless in eight
consecutive games ever since trade deadline timewhen they were still hanging around, and
(35:57):
they're a very closer here to thelottery than they are a playoff spot at
this point, where it would thenmean missing the playoffs the first two out
of three seasons. You know,Jess a minutes. Usually when you hear
coaches say I'm not going to getinto it, when it means the context
of what's being said in the roomright now, and coaches are out for
(36:20):
one thing first off, and itis to protect their players. And if
you go the new crowd and tryto call guys out and we heard this
never fits you, You're playing adangerous game. But when you hear Dave
Axtall, who is as reserved asit can be and as calculated and as
measured, where are we at rightnow with this cracking team. Well,
(36:42):
I like coaches that pick and choosetheir moments, right. And we just
talked to Ert fits you a fewminutes ago, and I asked, was
that a message delivered through the mediawas it just pure frustration? And we
kind of all settled on it wasboth, probably. But he didn't call
out specific players by name, right, He didn't call out He called out
(37:06):
the team, And I think thatwas the right way to express that frustration.
We have to unify, we haveto get together. That wasn't something
we necessarily heard in that exact clip, but it was a little bit later
in the entire audio, which wedon't have time to play for you.
But he did it the right way, and I think he chose the right
(37:27):
time because you don't want to demoralizepeople. You don't want to take them
down when they've got a shot.But you know fits at it too.
You saw it last night. Therewas no will. The will was taken
away, and I just I reallyappreciated it. I like tough coaches.
I just do. That's the wayI would respond to toughness better than honey.
(37:51):
Like I guess I'm a vinegar person, but you're around the team a
lot more than I am, SoI'd like to know what you think about
it. When I go back andconsider the way that this team is supposed
to play and when they're at theirbest, and I mean by defining when
they're at their best, it's arewind button to about one year ago when
(38:14):
they were in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Everything is at a chaotic storm with
how they move, with how theyskate, with how they attack the net.
And I often say that if they'renot scoring, say onlike a mid
range shot from the circles about twentytwenty five feet out. Their best kind
of offense is kind of like maybean offensive rebound in basketball, where maybe
(38:36):
someone's best offense is a misshot andthey have terrific players who can rebound,
get it off the glass and reset. That is exactly the way that this
cracking team can play, is thatif they're not scoring, they're tracking down
rebound and they're able to move thepuck around, find pressure at the net,
(38:57):
and then attack the net with ashot and then with chaos in front
where it could be a shot deflection, whatever. But too many times,
and John Forsln mentioned this too withme last night, there is a disconnect
with speed. There is a disconnectwith how quick they move. And that's
going to raise serious questions on who'sgoing to pull this in the right direction.
(39:20):
Who is going to be the leader, who is going to be the
one to rain this thing back inbecause the playoffs are looking bleak. I
mean, the e is not theremathematically, but we're pretty much almost there
right now, and it's going totake someone to pull this back in the
right direction, to at least setthe appropriate tone for this next year,
because if you can maybe conjure aheadline right now, it's deep trouble,
(39:45):
deep trouble right now. And here'sa great part before we had to break,
is that this is still very muchan infancy situation for this team,
this fan base. And we've seenhow loud they can be, We've heard
how loud it can be. Allit will take is to put together a
few wins in a row to getsome good feelings right back in here,
(40:07):
but then pave the way in thesummer to see how you can make this
thing better. You got to makea trade, you got to sign a
free agent here. Someone needs helpon this top line for more offense.
That's the biggest thing here for meas well. And we're gonna see some
questions answered here, I think,very very soon. All right. Aaron
(40:27):
Levine joining us next year ninety threethree k JFM
Puck & Jim Show News
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