Around The A Podcast - Season 2 Episode 13 with Todd Crocker, the voice of the Toronto Marlies

This week we welcome the voice of the Toronto Marlies, Todd Crocker. to discuss the Marlies’ hectic season, including their recent two-week COVID-19 hiatus.

From there we check in with Marlies captain Rich Clune, hear from Cole Bardreau of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, stop by Rochester to speak with Americans head coach Seth Appert, and visit with Ontario Reign head coach John Wroblewski to hear how he approaches a deficiency in a prospect’s game.

All that and more on Around The A for the Sports Podcasting Network.

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David Foot can be heard on CJBQ 800 in Belleville, the radio home of the Belleville Senators. He is also the voice of the Wellington Dukes and has OHL experience with the Belleville Bulls and the Peterborough Petes. You can find him on Twitter at @FootyOnTheAir.

Patrick Williams covers the NHL's top developmental league for NHL.com and EP Rinkside, a division of Elite Prospects, and can be heard regularly on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He has nearly a decade of experience at NHL.com, first covering the Winnipeg Jets before shifting to the AHL beat, and also has experience in the ECHL and OHL. You can find him on Twitter at @pwilliamsAHL.

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
This is Around the A, aweekly look at the top stories, news
and interviews from the NHL's top developmentalleague, with your hosts David Foot and
Patrick Williams on the Sports Podcasting Networkon the episode thirteen of our second season
of Around the A on the SportsPodcasting Network alongside Patrick Williams, David Foot

(00:29):
here, glad to have you withus. As so we dig into the
headlines this week. A lot ofToronto Marley's content this week, pat because
obviously they've been the story because oftheir COVID nineteen issues. They're back in
action this week. We will hearfrom Captain Rich cloon and on the fly,
and our feature guest this week willbe the play by play voice of
the Toronto Marley's Todd Crocker. Wewill also check in a little bit later

(00:52):
on on Bridgeport, Rochester and Ontario, and a whole lot more to discuss
this week, so as we'll getright into it here. Yeah, it
says something about the current season andreally the state of the world right now,
where the team that's been off theice really for almost three weeks now
is kind of the lead story becauseof everything going on and what the Toronto

(01:19):
Marleys have been through this month andthe experience for them that has mirrored a
number of other clubs around the AmericanHockey League as well. So we have
some really good insight here from fromTodd. You know, Todd is one
of the top voices in all theycan hootulate. Just an excellent interview.

(01:40):
And then we'll also hear from RichClune. I thought if you know anything
about Rich Clune and that he speechesfrom the heart, and he did some
really really great insight about what theMarleys have been through and what they're going
to go through coming up on thisstretcher where they'll play thirteen games at twenty
nights in the month of May asthey trying to clear out some of that

(02:01):
that scheduled delay that they encountered reallyfor the for the better part of April.
Yeah, and as you mentioned,we will hear from Todd about what
he expects that stretch to look like. But it's unheard of thirteen games in
twenty nights. I mean, wethought the schedule was compact as it was
when it was released a few monthsback before we got going, but some

(02:24):
folks might say, with no playoffs, why even worth playing this many games
in such a short stretch of time. Well, and as we hear from
Todd, Todd Will will lay outthe argument for that and why the Marley's
and other clubs frankly want to dothat. A lot of teams are carried

(02:46):
far beyond the normal number of playersthat they would in a more traditional type
of season. But yeah, absolutely, thirteen games and twenty nights is something
that would be unheard of in anormal season. Even if you're playing thirteen
and twenty six that would be uhsubstantial. So the way of the world
right now, the way the AmericanHockey League for the Toronto Marlies, so

(03:10):
they'll try, they'll try to makeup what they can in terms of this
missed time. And the goal Ithink is to send players off into the
summer having a lot of experience thisyear. We've heard it many times said
that the objective this year is toget players on the ice, get them
as much ice time as as aspossible, and send them into the summer

(03:37):
and into next season frankly with amusch uh you know, fresher base of
experience because most of the players havemissed the better part of a of a
year coming into this season, sothey need the ice time. Now,
this is probably a little bit morethan they may have bartained four, but

(03:58):
the Marleys do have a large rosterand they'll be able to swap some guys
out moves some other guys in.So it's not quite the same as it
would be in a normal season interms to what your roster would look like.
But the other factor, obviously isthe Toronto Maple Leafs going into the
Stanley Cup playoffs. That you'd havesome players fresh black aces slash Taxi squad

(04:26):
this year, so those those playerswill get get their final amount of game
action in this stretch, send themselvesinto the Leafs pollseason at least ready to
go from from a game competition standpoint, and whether or not there are playoffs
on the horizon. For the AHLteams, the goal of the season has

(04:50):
always been development. The goal ofthis league is always to prepare guys to
you know, support the NHL cluband get their shot in the NHL.
And it comes and that does notstop, you know, pandemic or not,
a heavy schedule or not. Thatwill be the goal. Did we
hear any more this week about whatput Toronto into this lockdown protocol? We

(05:12):
mentioned last week that the AHL isnot overly um open about the specifics around
why a team goes into the protocols. Did we hear much else about what
was going on? No, it'sit's very hush hush there. There's definite
reluctance UM, either publicly or evenprivately, to UM going too any detail

(05:34):
about what has happened with the team, and you have to respect that.
Obviously, this is a very sensitivesituation for the team and UM all all
I can surmise is that it musthave been enough, since significant enough that

(05:55):
they that they decided that the bestcourse of action would be to shut down
for a little while. So UMit's it's obviously not an easy decision.
But you know, when you lookat the wider world out there, I
mean it's it's I get the sensesometimes that people think, when something like
this happens, well, they musthave been doing something wrong. They must

(06:16):
have been all at the bars,they must have been all doing this or
that. As we've seen, lotsof people get sick who are not doing
anything that you would maybe consider tobe irresponsible. It just happens. It's
a contagious virus. UM. Basically, what I think it's thirty one thirty
one million people around the world inthe past thirteen months of been infected.

(06:42):
So um, I think it's safeto say that the vast majority of those
people were not doing something that wasnot a smart idea. So um.
You know, I think there canbe a lot of finger pointing in situations
like this from the outside that thatthat frankly not accurate and also is not
fair. So if you know onething about the Marley's the Leafs in general,

(07:08):
it's a it's a very button downoperation that they run there. Certainly
even going back to lou La Morello'sdays there, and certainly till now,
so players have understood the ramifications ofwhat would happen if they didn't follow protocols.

(07:30):
There's no reason to think that anybodywas doing something they shouldn't do.
And you know, you hear thattossed around a little bit, and it
kind of I think rps a lotof people within the hockey business because I
really have seen players, coaches andteams in general take this very seriously.
They have very incentive to stand theright side of things. But sometimes even

(07:51):
despite your best efforts, things happen. Yeah, I mean it's contagious enough
that unless you are locking yourself downall of the time by your own decision,
if you're out and about and evendoing the simple things like groceries or
something like that, there is achance there that you could get it.
And I think the right decision wasmade by the Toronto Marleyes to shut everything

(08:13):
down, limit any spread as quicklyas possible, target where it came from
and who brought it into the organization, and then stomp it out from there
and be able to move on andfinish the season. I think a lot
of lessons will probably learned from theVancouver Canucks and what happened with them a
few weeks back. And nobody wantsit to get as bad as it did

(08:33):
in that organization because it was whattwenty two players or something like that were
on the list at one point.So good on the Toronto Marleyes for shutting
it down. And again we willhear a little bit later on about their
return to play from a Captain RichCloon in our on the Fly segment and
our feature guests this week, thevoice of the Toronto Marleyes, Todd Crocker,

(08:54):
who was coming up in a fewminutes here on episode thirteen of Around
the eight before we move on,and will remind you to rate and subscribe
to the podcast wherever you're listening toit, follow us on social media as
well at around the apod, anddon't miss a headline as we follow along
with this season that's quickly coming toan end. Pad. I mean,

(09:16):
we've only got about a month orso left here. It's going to extend
a little bit longer than we thoughtjust because of these COVID issues, but
still only a month ago. Andusually you get to this time of year
and you go, man, theseason just flew by, And it still
feels like the season just flew by. Yeah, it's it's weird because on
one hand, it does feel likeit it flew by, and on the

(09:37):
other hand, February seems a verylong time ago. And maybe it's just
the time of the year or twowhere the weather changes so dramatically within a
few months. Time really is kindof lost all structure right now, I
found, you know, especially withthe way the schedule is this year.
You have teams played on weekday afternoons. You may have as many games on

(09:58):
a Monday night as you do ona Friday night, So there's not a
lot of the traditional norms and kindof give the season a certain feel and
a certain structure. So uh,and certainly not having that playoff format,
you know, real established form,knowing that there's that target at the end
of the season that gets you throughsome of those dogs season is weird.

(10:26):
And not having that playoff structure andthat race is something that I still haven't
really gotten used to yet. Imean, I'm used to it. You
know, as you're coming down thefinal third of the season, you're you're
you're checking the standings every night,you're breaking down on the playoff raceason and
that's not happening this year. Imean, whether or not that ultimately there
will be a playoff or not,it doesn't feel like a playoff race right

(10:48):
now. And that's very weird.And that's something that this season, this
is more than anything. And obviouslyeverybody understands why things are the way they
are, but you still have thatthat kind of nanking thought in your head
that you know, jeez, liked, be sure nice to have a playoff
and a championship at the end ofthe year. And a lot of focus

(11:11):
is already shifting to next season.Howard Dolgan, the owner of the Syracuse
Crunch, put out a very optimisticstatement this week about the plans to have
fans back and have things as closeto normal as possible, and hopefully as
we move into the summer and conditionsimprove around the league and hopefully here north
of the border as well, we'llstart to see more statements like that.

(11:33):
I think that's a very encouraging signfor fans of the American Hockey League.
Absolutely. I thought that was areally interesting statement that Howard put out.
He's a guest on this show inthe past. If you know anything about
him, you know either from listeningto our interviews with him or just overall.

(11:54):
Howard wears his heart on his sleevevery pass and about his Syracuse Crunched
about the market in Syracuse in general. And I thought it was a very
emphatic statement. There was no hedgingon it, and I would recommend listeners
go check out his Twitter feed whereit's found. It's also on the Syracuse

(12:15):
Crunched Twitter feed. But Coward isby all indications to at least from this
statement, it's full speed ahead fornext year. And that's been a theme
really around the league from a numberof different front offices that sure, we're
getting this season, but next seasonit's that's where part of the pun.
It's crunch time, and it's timeto get back to business and get fans

(12:39):
back in the buildings and get thingsnormal and not normal for pandemic times,
normal normal like two nineteen normal.I think that is that is the goal,
and the league and its individual teamsare are very set on that and
barring any I guess may your setbacksfar beyond the hockey world that you see

(13:05):
a resurgence or something of that effectwith with COVID, I think the league
and its teams are going to moveheaven and earth to make sure that come
next October, fans are in thebuildings, the turnstiles are spinning, and
it feels more like a real hockeyseason. Yeah. Here is the statement

(13:28):
from Howard Dolgan, courtesy of theSyracuse Crunch Twitter feed. At Syracuse Crunch,
Dolgan says to the Crunch family,since March of twenty twenty, we've
all faced challenging times, both professionallyand personally, but today I feel a
great degree of optimism about the nearfuture. That future beginning in October twenty
twenty one includes the start of afull seventy six game Syracuse Crunch season,

(13:52):
enjoyed live and in person by allof you inside the Upstate Medical University Arena.
That's right, business as usual,combined within a bunce of caution to
ensure safety for everyone involved. Overthe next several months, you'll begin hearing
and reading about some of the excitingpromotions we have in store for the upcoming
season. And believe me when Isay there's been a lot of pent up
Crunch creativity ready to be unleashed.I'm so glad to be able to share

(14:16):
this positive news with all of you. Will continue to keep you informed as
things progress. Again, that's howwe'd Dolgan, the owner of this Yerracuse
Crunch. And again, hopefully westart to see more statements like that from
teams around the league as they continueto begin to roll out plans for what
we hope is a normal twenty twentyone twenty two seasons starting in October.

(14:39):
Yeah, I've been told various peoplearound the league this summer is going to
be heackaged. It's gonna be chaotic. Remember, a lot of these teams
have to almost hire an entirely newfront office. Most teams had to do
layoffs in some degree or furloughs orsomething. Well, eventually people had to
move on to other jobs. It'sbeen dragging it on now for over thirteen
months, So that's a lot oftalent that you have to replace. And

(15:01):
I've told people that are looking tobreak into the hockey business ever, that
you're going to have an opportunity.This is the summer to go full speed
into that because there is a lotof turnover right now people across the entire
hockey industry. Really, I mean, obviously it mirrors the rest of the
world. Lives have been turned updown and there's there's a chance now to

(15:24):
break in. But these teams aregoing to be busy. They have to
reintroduce cells to their fans that they'vemore or less been away from from the
last year plus. They have tohire profices, they have to really go
pretty heavy on marketing. When youcome back in October, you want to
hit the ground running. You wantto make sure that you reintroduce yourself to

(15:46):
your fans. Remember, vast majorityof American Hockey League fans are more in
the casual side, and so they'renot following things necessarily day to day.
They maybe have checked out for thelast year or so, and you have
to say, hey, remember us, come back. And it's gonna be
an aggressive summer for teams and forthe league itself, and it's gonna be

(16:11):
a lot of hard work, butit's it's going to be absolutely necessary.
And I've heard the sentiment around theleague that as difficult as the past thirteen
months and that the heavier lifting maybe ahead because you have to in a
lot of cases rebuild a good portionof your franchise, your business base,
your corporate base. Remember, alot of corporate sponsors around the league have

(16:36):
had a hard time, maybe they'repulling back on advertising. So there's just
a lot of work that has tobe done. There is, and we've
spoken to various players, coaches,team executives about preparing for next season.
And if you head over to SportsPodcasting Network dot com, you can check
all of the past episodes of Aroundthe A and get some great insight from
around the league before we move onto our feature guest, Todd Crocker,

(17:00):
the voice of the Toronto Marley's.This week, a couple other headlines we
wanted to touch on, including outin Hershey, where Spencer Carberry has been
handed a multi year contract extension fromthe parent Washington Capitals. We've talked about,
you know, his work in Hersheya fair amount on this program and
this is obviously a testament to thatand a lot of faith being shown in

(17:22):
him by the Washington Capitals. Yeah, Spencer Carberry one of the top coaching
prospects in the league. He's beenat this since he was twenty nine years
old. He had played four yearsin the ECHL Age twenty nine, became
an assistant coach in the ECHL,has steadily worked his way up the chain.
He was with Washington's affiliate South Carolinawhen he started one Coach of the
Year in the HL. The thingI found it interesting with him is that

(17:45):
he really has tried to get abroad range of experience. He's spent a
year in the OHL with Sighting ofSpirit, then he went into the AGE
as an assistant coach with the prominenceBruins, finally took over the Hershey band,
and obviously, as we've been overso many times, the Hershey Washington
affiliation is one of the premier onesin the entire Hockey World. They managed

(18:08):
took both developed players for the WashingtonCapitals. They had fourteen Hershey alumni on
their twenty eight team. But theyalso win names at Hershey and it's a
real collaborative environment and Spencer carry isa big part of that. He's come
in. He's over seven hundred pointpercentage right now. Had the Bears in
the hunt for the Eastern Conference Leaguelast season, same thinging this year.

(18:33):
Very intense, a little bit ofthe old school in terms of being very
direct, very blunt, but alsoknows how to manage today's player. I
won't be surprised if you see himin a few years running his own NHL
bench. Yeah. Absolutely, He'sdone some excellent work with the Hershey Bears,
and again that's obviously been noticed bythe parent club, the Washington Capitals,
as he signs a multi year extensionto Spencer Carburry. Other headlines this

(18:59):
week include a pretty rare milestone inthe American Hockey League as Cala Riley from
the Lee High Valley Fantoms picks uphis five hundred American Hockey League assistant I
was a little surprised to learn he'sonly the tenth player in league history to
reach that milestone. Yeah, well, the American Hockey League, like if
you go back through the history,I mean it's it's really almost two leagues

(19:22):
in one in the sense that upyou know, from the time in the
nineteen thirties when the league was founded, really up until the late nineteen sixties
early seventies, it was basically itsown league and independent league affiliations were pretty
loose. And then it was inthat that shift after they big NHL expansion
in nineteen sixty seven that he startedto get these direct affiliations, and so

(19:47):
he really changed the complexion of theleague. Players no longer stayed in the
same place as long as they oncedid. I mean, this used to
be a lead where players would playten years with one team, and it
was it was really this the sevenor eight best teams after the original six,
and there wasn't a whole lot ofdifference at that time in terms of

(20:10):
some of the caliber talent. Well, now players are in the same really
in the league now for me afew years as opposed to ten fifteen years,
So it's a lot harder for guysto set some of these records or
reach different milestones. So cal Rileyhas been a fantastic playmaker for years.

(20:30):
The things he can do, thevision. He's also managed to play over
one hundred NHL games, So it'ssortady he's he's got that level of talent
as well, but a great leader, captain of the fantoms. Uh.
He's number ten and with the believeit's another fifty five assists, he could
get up into sixth overall. Now, Willie Marshall, it's gonna be hard

(20:52):
to reach his mile or his leaguerecord. He's kind at the number one
all times for a lot of differentcategories. But good on Cal Riley.
He's really carve out a strong career, that classic in between player between NHL
AHL. Now he's on that sideof his career where he settled into a

(21:15):
leadership rolled down here, but hecould still play top flight minutes and provide
a lot of talent to play alongsidesome of the Philadelphia Flyers stock prospects.
And you get to five hundred assistsby having plenty of multiple assist games.
And in that game where he madethat record, that was his third assist

(21:37):
to the game. So started atat four ninety seven and got four ninety
eight, four ninety nine and fivehundred all in the same game, and
you mentioned some work to do tocatch Willie Marshall at eight hundred and fifty
two career AHL assists. Unlikely hegets there, but he could still charge
up that leaderboard a bit with somestrong performances depending on how long he decides

(21:59):
to play for. So big congratsto Cali Riley five hundred AHL assists again,
just the tenth player in American HockeyLeague history to hit that milestone.
We'll lend the segment with more congratulationsto Boris Kachuck. He's the ahl CCM
Player of the Week. And anotherSyracuse Crunch player that's getting these honors here.

(22:21):
Yeah, back to back weeks forthe Crunch and two players from the
same line. Taylor Radish a weekearlier and Choke has just been on fire
and he came in. It washis third year, which is always a
real crucial I mean, they're allcrucial seasons for young prospect, but that's
a year where now you're you're goingto be coming off your entry level deal.

(22:44):
That's where teams start to assess reallypretty firmly whether or not you're legitimate
prospects still or whether you're starting tomove into that HL players status. So
Boris kolchoke is come in and you'vedone a fantastic job really building up that

(23:06):
that score inside of his game.He had a little bit of a slow,
slow path to this stage, butonce again another Syracuse Crunch player that
has worked very closely with head coachBen Group really to fine tune those details
in his name. Same thing withTaylor Radish and intally into Tampa Bay Lightning
and have had another forward prospect.Now we're starting to really bang down the

(23:30):
door for an opportunity, And Iguess that's a good problem to have if
you're the Lightning. It's maybe notas good if you're a young prospect in
Syracuse who's ripping the American Hockey Leagueapart. And it's still hard to get
an opportunity with that Tampa Bay squad. But all you can do is control

(23:52):
your own play. Ben Group willtell you that time and time again,
and somebody somewhere is going to takenotice of what you're doing. And Boris
Projoke is certainly making a name forhimself this season, earns that recognition as
the CCMAHL Player of the Week withtwo goals and seven assists for nine points
over just four games as he continuesto climb up the league scoring leaderboard.

(24:14):
Let's move on to our feature gueststhis week. Pat it is Todd Crocker
from the Toronto Marley's, the longtimevoice of the Marley's and prior to that,
the Hamilton Bulldogs. He worked withthe CFL's Hamilton Tiger Cats a little
bit before that, and all aroundone of the nicest guys you'll find around
the American Hockey League. Yeah,you won't find anybody in the entire hockey
business who has anything other than themost positive words to say about Todd.

(24:37):
Just just an absolutely fantastic guy,super friendly, always helpful to young broadcasters.
He really gets it, has reallyembraced his role as one of the
senior voices in the American Hockey League. It's obviously it's a premier job to

(24:59):
have the on the Marley's. Uh. Um, you know, it's such
a obviously tremendous hockey market like Toronto. Um, You're, you're you're constantly
uh you're all of a sudden,it's really a mini d NHL operation that
they run there, and Todd's abig part of that Todd's and got his
hands and all sorts of things.He want to calder cut himself back in

(25:21):
twenty eighteen, and so he gotto live at that experience. I think
that maybe every broadcaster dreams, whichis calling a championship win, um,
and the Todd is just like everyoneelse with that Marley's team, He's gotten
an opportunity at the one point oranother to some men NHL games with the
Leafs. Uh. And really,I mean, how do you how do

(25:44):
you get higher in the hockey worldif you're a broadcaster than that? Yeah,
I had some big shoes to fillmaking his uh NHL debut a couple
of seasons ago in twenty nineteen.We didn't talk to him about that,
but we did talk to him aboutthe Toronto Marley's COVID situation and some of
their prospects and what next season mightlook like for the Marley's as we move

(26:04):
out of the pandemic. You canfind him on Twitter at Todd Crocker.
The Voice of the Toronto Marley's joinsus next on the episode thirteen of season
two of Around the Air. Interactwith us on social media, give us
our thoughts using the hashtag around theA and follow us at around the apod.

(26:30):
Usually by this time of year,we've probably seen each other fifteen times
or so, with how much theBCE Ends and Marley's play each other.
But this is the first time.So good to see a house things.
Yeah, it's good to see youtoo, David. It does. It
feels a little bit like at thispoint in the year, you've gone through
the cornfield about one hundred yards inand all you've seen is Belleville, Belville,

(26:51):
Belville, Delville. It's like Cornstockafter Cornstock, after Cornstock, it's
like driving through Iowa. Yeah,it does seem like that. Yeah,
Um, well, what's what's theyear been like for you? Obviously it's
been so strange, you know,not counting even the last couple of weeks
with the with the COVID issues aroundthe Toronto Marley's. How would you characterize

(27:11):
this season so far? Well,I think I think in the beginning when
I heard what they were going todo, thirty six games and that there
wasn't going to be playoffs, orat least there there was going to be
talk of it later, but Ididn't really think that they were going to
be able to pull that off.But I thought this is going to be

(27:32):
a very difficult year for not playerswho were coming up that you know,
the players who were in their firstyear, even a little bit of players
in their second year. They're justyou know, they're wired, they're ready
to go, They're they're electrified.Just to point me in the direction of
a game, I'll play it,you know. And uh, whereas you

(27:53):
know, some of the guys whohave grounded out a little bit, I
felt that they would have a verydifficult development year for the for themselves because,
uh, with nothing on the line, there's nothing driving you. Yes,
you can get into a game.You play at a relatively high level.

(28:14):
Certainly, Uh you know, we'veseen the American League play at at
higher levels. But I just thinkthat that was going to be the most
difficult part. And I think Isaid to Patrick at some point earlier in
the season, I just felt likeevery team at the end of it,
it was going to be five hundredand it was just going to be one
of those you'd go on a runof ten games, or you'd you'd play

(28:38):
a game and you would you know, another team would be right going through
a hot streak and you might loseto that, and I just felt like
every game was unto its own ownthing. That that has borne out by
the way, every game to mehas been just singularly on its own.
Now I've seen some great games,you know, league changes and and just

(29:03):
some amazing plays. I can't negatethat whatsoever. It's been entertaining, for
sure, But at the end ofit, you know, even on a
difficult loss, a blowout or whatever, or or a blowout wind, you
still walk away at the end,and you know, you're kind of like,
you know, sometimes you can baskin the afterglow, the tail wind

(29:26):
or whatever you want to call it, for a good day or so,
you know, after that happens,or at least until the next game.
Yeah, but I just find itwears off, like, you know,
by almost by the time I'm inthe car driving home. So the last
couple of weeks have been something forthe Marley's that other teams have gone through.
Rochester went through a Unica, afew other teams around the league.

(29:49):
What sort of wrinkle does that throwinto the season here, especially now with
with what the schedule will look likedown the stretch. I think I don't
think you play what they're going toplay thirteen games here in two nights or
whatever. I don't know what itis, but it's a lot in a

(30:11):
short period of time. And uh, but I don't think you could do
it normally. I don't think youcould cram that into a February of two
thousand and eight. I don't thinkyou could. You know, you just
couldn't do it. And I knowthat it has been done maybe, But
I will say this, the reasonyou can do it is because there is

(30:33):
so many bodies that are available forthe Marley's. There is such a large
roster on the go and a needto get a look at so many other
people that haven't even hit the iceyet, and some people that have only
played five or six games, somepeople that have only played two games.

(30:55):
You've got guys coming off injury likeJoey Anderson and Christian's Rubens, and that's
allowed them possibly I don't really knowif they're ready to come back, but
those are guys that, if they'rehealthy, that two weeks allowed them to
get healthy and allowed them to continueto play and play some games here down
the stretch at the end of theseason. And I I think because of

(31:17):
the bodies, you can pull itoff. Otherwise I would have I would
think that the conversation would have beenquite short had it just been, you
know, a twenty three man roster. Now, the flip side of that
is, yeah, collectively, youhave an entire team essentially coming off a
long term, multi week injury.How how does the sharpness affected because some

(31:41):
of the players that have just kindof been sitting around, you know,
training to the extent that they can, but certainly knocks within that mid season
mode that they'll be asked to zoom. Patrick, I know you and David
both talk to guys at the beginningof the season a lot, and you
found that the I think the consensusjust like I did. I think the

(32:04):
consensus you found was guys just wantto play. They just want to play
some games. No more practice,no more, just let's just go.
And I think that's gonna I thinkthat's gonna factor into it. And I
think you saw it a little bitwith the Vancouver Canucks a couple a week
or so ago, whenever that wasuh and uh and they came out just
wanting to play a game. Imean, it's it's their whole reason for

(32:30):
existence. They figure is just toget out and play some hockey games.
So I think these guys are inthe same boat. I think, you
know, you go a little stircrazy, you might come out with the
pent up energy of fourteen days atthis point. By the time they play
a game Saturday, it'll be uh, it'll be you know, fifteen seventeen

(32:51):
days and it just be like,let's just go, you know. So
I would I would think that GregMoore would probably have them pointed in that
release the Hounds direction. Would yousay that this is a year that all
sorts of conventional thinking, you know, the sort of the cardinal rules of
hockey teams always live by. That'sall players need time coming off injury to

(33:15):
to get back into any things.All that's gone off the window this year,
you know, even above and beyondwhat we expected. You know what,
It's funny you say that because Ikeep asking guys, you know,
what do you think will hold over? What do you think we'll stick around?
What do you think? Well,but the one thing I wish I
got to put in my mind tokeep asking them is what do you think

(33:37):
has become a myth? And AndI think a lot of things have become
a myth, you know, thethe idea. You know that you need
to do X in order to dowhy you need to you know, this
needs to happen in order for ateam to feel good about itself. This

(34:00):
needs to I think what's been slightlyexposed here is each game is its own
ecosystem. There is each game hasits full new setup. It's it's unlike.
It's not like playing a video gamewhere you know you can work on

(34:22):
it for six months and then findout, oh, here's the final boss
or whatever, and you know youwhat you're finding out is no, they're
just in this case thirty six minigames, but I think seventy six mini
games many seasons. You know,everything is just boiled down to just this
one game. Living in the moment. Now, how you prepare for that

(34:45):
moment? That's of course, youknow, that's of course not in question.
The preparation is still everything. Butall those stories that we talk about,
you know, two days ago thishappened, or you know, do
you see Soul and Soul and theyou know, chasing them down and trying
to do that. I don't thinkany of that factors into anything. I

(35:07):
think I think it's all they're they'rewhat are they what's the phrase? Children
of the moment? You know,they're just like, Hey, we're we're
just uh, we're just living inthis shift by shift moment and uh,
you know, all the rest ofit maybe is just storytelling on our part.

(35:27):
Chatting with Todd Crocker, the voiceof the Toronto Marley's, one of
the themes I think that we've seenacross the league this season, Um,
just because of how strange it's been, is the opportunity for some young players
that may not necessarily get a chanceto get ahl experience, to get some
time uh in the American Hockey League, and for some guys much earlier than

(35:47):
they typically would have. Toronto isno stranger to that either. Um,
what have you made of kind ofthe the quick adjustment that some of these
young guys have had to make tothe pro game, And how do you
think that experience is going to helpthem and the Marley's I guess as as
an organization moving forward. Yeah,David, I gotta tell you, you

(36:08):
know, it's it's no secret thatif you're a I'll tell you guy who's
really impressed me out a PI JeremyMcKenna I just I just like what he's
done. I like the way he'sgrown his complete game. I think he
took a few games to understand,Okay, this is this is going to

(36:28):
be harder. This league is wayharder than often is advertised. But he
didn't have to spend half a yearin Newfoundland with the Growlers to then get
a chance to come up with theMarley's. He got a chance with the
Marleys almost immediately, maybe five orsix games in, and he just he

(36:52):
took it, ran with it andhas been a player that has earned his
way up the lineup. And hejust that would not that would not have
happened with those five guys on theTaxi squad down on the team, because
there just wouldn't have been the spaceto jump into the lineup until you know,
maybe April March of the hockey season, depending on injuries, so uh,

(37:16):
and depending on how his season wentthere. So he got a chance
in the American Hockey League. Andhe's just one player. I you know
that I point out, but there'sseveral of them that have got chances here,
played far more games than than maybethey would have, and that's only

(37:36):
good, you know, it's tremendousstuff to to have to line up against
some of these veteran guys that arejust you know, it's almost it's almost
junior hockey like, isn't it.It's like guys coming out instead of that
step that you know they got totake of either just being with the team
and being in the room and neverseen the ice much. But this is

(37:58):
an actual chance to you know,play sixteen year old against a twenty year
old, see how that sixteen yearold does. And in this case it's
you know, a guy who's twentyyears old and he's playing against a guy
who's been in the league ten yearsand knows his way around the league.
Yeah, it's been so strange.I mean, we've seen it obviously here
in Belleville quite a bit. Butone of the best stories I think out

(38:21):
of Toronto this season is that ofAndrew Dagstini. We had him on around
the A a few weeks back,and you talk about a journeyman. I
knew Andrew from covering the Peats afew years back when he was finishing up
his last couple of seasons. There. An incredible character guy, But I
mean, what a story that's beento see from the outside. What's it
been like to watch that from insidethe organization? Well, as a broadcaster,

(38:46):
it's great. You only have toask him one question. It's just
like, hey, Andrew, howyou doing? You know, and it's
great because you both know you sometimesfight that daily basis. It's like,
oh boy, I got twenty questionshere and I'm coming up to eighteen.
Starting to sweat a bit. Butso Andrews was just effusive with information and

(39:13):
it was it was such a greatstory to tell on a nightly basis,
and to see him in practice andhow the um, how the room kind
of gravitated to him, wanted tosee him have success, and it was
a big part of why I thinkthe Marley's had some success in the early
going. And uh, of coursehe's uh, he's fallen victim to what

(39:37):
often at times happens in in realor regular HL seasons, and that is
the guys who are ahead of him, or guys who are signed as as
goaltenders for the Toronto Marley's need tosee ice time and need to see what
they can do. Guys you know, like Joseph Wall what where is he
in his progression? And uh,and a guy like Joe. So if

(40:00):
Wall makes you think, you know, he didn't have a great first year
necessarily certainly statistically. Uh and uhwhat was he going to do in his
second year? Well, he didn'treally get much of a chance to kind
of try and battle for that numberone position with Ian Scott. Ian Scott
gets injured. I mean he's justback and then boom, he gets two

(40:20):
more weeks off. You know,the guy's got a guy's got a bag
of luck. But uh, youknow, the top apples are all bad.
So you know, now he's gettingdown to where hopefully he gets to
you know, it gets an opportunityto to play some games, but again,
you know, thirteen games, fifteen, get whatever's left. It's just

(40:43):
like you got to get those guysin and Andrew. You know, may
not see Ah much ice time downthe stretch, but they are really reticent
to see him, U see himout the door because he's just been such
a tremendous force of good. Soyou mentioned and Drew, you mentioned mccanna,
the Marley's and the least over thelast few years, that made a

(41:04):
big point to have that three tiersystem going all the way down to ec
HL. Maybe typically this year,a guy like McKenna would have started there,
Like you said, without having theGrowlers played this year, How's that
changed the dynamic? And overall,what's your sense of what that you know,
the future of that three tier systemmight be, Well, the dynamics

(41:30):
change because everybody is with the Marley'sand occupying you know, every nook and
cranny of the four Performance Center inthe Coca Cola Coliseum. They're just everywhere.
It's uh, you know, it'slike watching geese land on a pond.
They are just all over the place. But but I will say this,

(41:52):
I think that is the future ofhockey. I think that you need
to set up in your organization anECL team. I think costwise, it
is the most effective way. Areyou gonna are you? Are you going
to grow one guy a year outof the ECL and onto your big club.

(42:15):
No, but you're going to makeyour Marley's in this case stronger.
Uh. You're going to give guysan opportunity to play, and what they
hope is a great development system becausethey pay great attention to the development of
those players with the Growlers as well, uh, you know, and seeing

(42:35):
just the same guys, it's justthe same development crew that develops William Kneelander
is developing Christians Rubens. You know, so these guys are the same people.
We're going same people, the samemessages and you know, trying to
make everybody better. So the credibilitythere is pretty good, I think,
I think costwise, I don't.I don't think there's another option you are

(43:00):
going to have to have an optionto. Eventually, maybe you'll get one
guy a year that will challenge somebodyat the NHL level that has come out
of your growler system. And youknow, that's the cost of it.

(43:21):
For what you pay for it towhat you get, it's it's pretty darn
valuable. So obviously Kyle Dubis hasalways kind of been known as an outside
of the box type of thinker.But why do you think him and the
Leafs have paid so much attention tothe ec HL, which is typically a
level that a lot of teams,you know, if they're if they're going

(43:42):
to skip skip over, you know, try to save money, that's where
they do it. Well. Ithink it's a little bit of you know,
oftentimes when you go and hear peoplego into a recession and businesses the
very first thing they cut is somethingthat they feel they can cut without too
much of a problem. But instinctivelyit's the think you shouldn't cut, and

(44:07):
that's advertising. And so people gointo a recession and they think, oh,
we got to cut the advertising.We don't need it to survive.
And yet when you do the simplethinking on it and say, wait a
minute, you don't need to goout and try to sell more, you
absolutely that's what you need to do. So I think that's the situation with

(44:31):
Kyle, is that you know,there's a there's a value to be had
there. He sees that the modelworks in another sport, and he sees
that there might be potential to reshapehow the hockey club, the entire hockey

(44:52):
ecosystem works for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And and you know, I think
that to me, uh, youknow, reshaping the ecosystem, I just
don't see a better, a betterway to do it that uh, you
know, handles the value, thecost value of it while still maintaining a

(45:15):
good flow of quality players. Shiftingyears now you're you're talking about your your
your blueline. You had Rasmus standinthere. Yeah, Timothy Lilligren still there.
What growth did you see from Sandeinebefore he eventually moved on and what's
holding Grin back, uh from reallybreaking through? Well, that's that's a

(45:38):
great question. I You know,Rasmus is one of those players that just
has a skill set that is,you know, talent wise obvious souh you
when you see how he handles thepark, the confidence in which he plays,
that's very obvious play and it's obviouslya cut above. And so when

(46:01):
you see that and it's easy torecognize, it's pretty easy to move that
guy along. And you know,we were lucky enough to see it for
a good number of games with theMarley's And I think that was an easy
call. And I think lilia Grennis a little bit more of a difficult
call because he doesn't play in thatflashy highlight real way, uh and doesn't

(46:31):
skate like that, doesn't you knowall the things that seem apparent in watching
Sandine. Lilia Grenn is is moreh he is just working the game on
a thinking man level and uh,And I think it's harder to take that

(46:51):
route and have success fast with it. And but I do think when he
does have success, the stakes willbe minimal. Kellie Rosen another I guess
somewhat similar situation that says, youreally seem to show a lot of promise
early and then he went off toColorado came back. It feels like he's

(47:14):
hit that wall a little bit.Now he's in that that tweener stage.
What will help him to break through? Well, yeah, that's that is
that is a good thing. Oftentimesguys call that like quad a and I
never agree with that. I don'tthink that's a real thing. And why
I say I don't think that's areal thing is I think the opportunity ahead

(47:35):
of him is not is what holdshim back. I think Kelli Rosen is
a valuable member of a blue linein the NHL. Can it be here?
How many guys you got ahead ofyou? You got a lot of
guys that you got to got towork through, So you've got to just
he's consistent, good shot, he'sgot all the things, you know,

(48:00):
all the things, but you know, again, is there an opportunity ahead
of him in this organization? Organizationslike the Leaps would love to continue to
be that many guys deep that areable to play, And I mean like
not going to hurt, you ableto play, but you can't hang onto

(48:22):
those guys forever. And uh,you know where whatever happens to Keli Rosen,
I think he's a solid member ofa blue line somewhere. You mentioned
h Well and Ian Scott. Whathave you seen from them? Especially with
Ian Scott, you know, havingthat serious injury out for such a long

(48:42):
time, coming back getting his feetwith this season. Uh, you know,
guys, the one thing I willsay about goaltending is I don't I
don't the guys who know about goaltendingknow enough about goaltending. I think it's
I think it's one of those thingsthat you know, you know I always
think of is uh Jordan Bennington andand I think to myself, well,

(49:06):
I want to Stanley Cup. Youknow, like, but there were nights
where you were like, I don'tthink so this isn't this isn't gonna work
for him, you know, anduh in the in the American League,
you know, so you would saythe same thing about just about anybody,
right, They're they're different guys.You know. You might have said,
Oh, Garrett Sparks is a bonafide you know, guy wins a Caller

(49:29):
Cup we'll put up spectacular wins,the trophy, all that kind of stuff,
but Sparks still finds himself in theAmerican Hockey League. So goaltending is
such a mystery to me, andI just I sometimes just want to,
uh want somebody to just say,uh no, no, this is how
it works. But I don't seeanybody else does necessarily come up with the

(49:51):
formula either. Yeah, it's alla question mark as has been dealing with
this season, um, and justlooking ahead to to next season. We
had a statement out of Syracuse thisweek from Howard Dolgan, the owner.
They're very positive outlook, um,looking ahead to next season. What's the
outlook ahead like in Toronto right nowas far as preparing for the twenty twenty

(50:14):
one season? And um, isthere you know anything that you think that
the team will carry over from thisyear that maybe they've learned over the last
six months or so. Yeah?You ever, you ever as a kid,
you know here you're like your yourparents. Somebody will say, oh,
we're going to a buffet tonight.You know, for us, it

(50:34):
was a place I think the Ponderosaor something like that. I don't know,
I don't remember what the restaurant was, but it was it was.
It was one of those things.It was like, Hey, we're going
to a buffet tonight, and youwould be like, I'm not eating anything
today, and then you would justbe like, no, I'm done.
That's the kind of appetite there isfor some normalcy out of the Toronto organization

(50:55):
and for me too. I Iam just just like I will eat everything
to bring it back to normal.Just I will even eat the green beans
that have been in the bin forlike six hours. I'll put those on
my plate. I don't care,I'm going to do it. So I
think the appetite is massive for somenormality, and I think that everybody is

(51:21):
doing everything they can to work towardthat. And I hope that I hope
that people understand just how much workhas gone into making this happen, and
the the amount of work the leagueput into it, the amount of work
the teams put into it, theamount of money that the teams had to
put into it. I just thinkthere was a massive effort. I'm appreciative

(51:46):
of it, and I will beamazed at the idea and the prospect that
they can pull off a close tonormal season. I think optimistically, and
I think that that you can sayit's gonna be a full season. I

(52:09):
think that you could say things likewe're gonna have some fans back in buildings.
Uh, some places will be morethan others. There will be caution,
and boy, I am I havebeen cautious through this whole thing.
H You know everybody, everybody alwayssays, oh, you know, you

(52:30):
know, all these people are justlike, oh, it's just a flu.
It's just like, well, Idon't want the flu either, you
know, true, what do youmean it's just a flu? I don't
want that either. So like,how about we just, you know,
go out and do everything necessary inorder to make sure that we can all
get back to being at a hockeygame and talking in person and enjoying all

(52:53):
the things that we love to enjoy. Toronto is absolutely invested in making sure
that that's going to happen. That'sthe longest answer to a simple question I've
ever given. Sorry, Dad,there are no simple answers to when you're
talking about the pandemic and everything we'vebeen through. Uh, yeah, we're
all hungry for some normalcy. Andthen when you're hungry for information on the

(53:15):
Toronto Marley's Todd Crocker is always serveenough the goods, so oh, we
appreciate the time. Thanks so much, guys. Terrific to be with you.
Thank you. You are listening toepisode thirteen of Around the A of

(53:38):
season two on the Sports Podcasting NetworkDavid Foot here with Patrick Williams. Big
thanks to Todd Crocker for taking sometime for us. And Todd's one of
those guys we probably could have donea full show an hour and a half
long just to hear his stories andhis insight. Always a pleasure to catch
up with him. Yeah, Todd, He's been around for a while.

(53:59):
He knows much everybody the hockey business. Actually worked with Scott Helson, the
President CEO of the American Hockey Leaguefor three seasons with the Hamilton Bulldogs,
and they're very close. And Toddhas just a real broad view of the
league from from both the hockey standpointsas well as the obviously the broadcast stated

(54:19):
standpoint. And if you look athis background, he worked in operations for
the Hamilton Tiger Cats back during hisCFL day. So um, he knows
the sports business inside and all,and it really shows in the level of
insite that he provided us. Yeah, absolutely, and if you enjoyed that,
tell your friends to listen in toAround the A as well and find

(54:42):
our old episodes with our other guestsat Sports Podcasting Network dot com. Subscribe
to the podcast and rate it aswell. That'll help us out Before we
move on to our on the flysegment. We'll also remind you to check
out Pat's work at ep Ringside andNHL dot com. This week some features
on the Hershey Bears, the TorontoMarley's, and a whole lot more.

(55:04):
It's been a bit of a lightweek for me with the Belvill Senators and
not playing until the weekend, soit's been kind of nice to just sit
back and watch what's happening elsewhere throughoutthe course of the week, and lots
going on elsewhere. We'll stick withToronto maybe first here Pat and get a
little bit more insight on the COVIDsituation and going through that. We heard

(55:25):
from Rich Clun earlier on this seasonas well, but when you need some
info and some perspective on what playersare going through in a situation like that,
he's the guy to go to andwe were happy to be able to
get some audio from him. Yeah. I mean, if if ever there's
a season where being American Hockey Leaguecaptain is it's certainly going to test person,

(55:51):
it would be this year, andit would be doubly so if you're
the captain of a team that's goingthrough what the Toronto Marleis have just been
through, certainly he has some companythere with some other teams as well,
but that's a lot. I mean, remember, you're a captain of a
team where there are players that aretwenty twenty one, twenty two years old.

(56:12):
You know, young people who arereally starting off, not just in
hockey but in life, and you'retrying to shepherd them through this obviously very
strange, very unusual situation for whichthere is really no established playbooks. So
Rich Clune is he's been tested thisseason for sure. But you know,

(56:34):
if you speak with anybody in hockeyand anybody's serving around the Marley's or the
Toronto Maple Leafs, what they thinkof Rich Clune. I think this cliff
coming up will really give a goodinsight into what he's all about. We're
all aware, you know, insociety, at any point in time are
our careers can be put on holdour lives can be held up. We're

(56:57):
very fortunate and I'm very fortunate toplay a game that I love and I've
had a few instances now or that'staken away like that on a time,
and you know, it's it's nota very good feeling when you feel like
you've maybe not exhausted your talent everyday. And I feel like, you
know, everyone's kind of realizing that. And it's good, good for a
lot of the younger players on ourteam to experiences these things, because these

(57:22):
are sort of lessons you kind ofget as you grow older, and you
and you and you get later inyour career. I think you see,
you get a glimpse of maybe realitythat your career could be over at any
time. So it's a good it'sa good lesson. And I think you
know my message that the guys willbe played hard and have fun, no
different than it would be if inany other season game. I don't think

(57:43):
there's any need to to get tooemotional over the over it. I think
we want to take a more tactical, calm and calculated approach moving forward.
With so many games, right,I mean, thirteen games in twenty days,
you want to play well every night, and you don't want to.
I'm in and overdo it right away. I think nothing special to execute.

(58:06):
Always work. Our hartists, alwaysbe hard to play against. And that's
going to be my message, Shit, guys, some great advice from a
veteran character guy who has been aroundthe Toronto Marleys for a while. And
I always like to tell a storyabout not Rich Clute on the ice,
but the type of teammate he isoff the ice. It's no secret that
he has been scratched a healthy affairamount as a veteran player, and the

(58:30):
Toronto Marley's typically carry a lot ofveteran players, and you know, for
whatever reason, at least leading upto this season, he's kind of been
the odd man out here and there. But in Belleville, the players that
are scratched sit in the media seats, which are like directly below our press
box, and he is on hisfeet and cheering and yelling and supporting his

(58:51):
team even from up there when he'snot on the ice. So he's a
real good team guy. And youcan see, you know why he was
named captain this year, as wetalked about on this show in the past,
and exactly why young guys I thinkwould buy into his message, especially
at a time like this. Yeah, a team needs some that big brother

(59:12):
presence. You can't just have thecoach going in there, and obviously,
you know, as with anything,the same boys kind of gets old after
a while. You also need somebodythat can I think, both soften and
interpret the coach's message at times anddelivered to, especially with some of the
younger players in a way that maybethey can buy into a little bit better.

(59:35):
So that goes doubly so obviously thisseason, where there's so much more
on everybody's played, coaches are beingasked to do a lot more than they
don't necessarily have all the same amountof time to manage everything, both in
terms of the numbers and players arecarried, but also just the various problems
that are cropping up. So RichClun and really the entire Marley's leadership group

(59:57):
really being relied upon even more thanto guide these young players obviously through what
is just a crazy season, andI had to guide those players through the
quarantine experience as well, and aswe hear from Rich Clune in our next
clip from him, a fairly similarexperience I think in thought process to what

(01:00:21):
a lot of other guys in theleague and around the sport that have had
to quarantine have had to go through. Well, I you know, I
don't do anything out of the ordinary. I read book, just watch TV,
work out, you know, talkto friends. My girlfriend Isabel has

(01:00:42):
been living with me for the pastyear, so that's been fun. That's
been a whole other experience in itself, but that's it. I mean,
listen, I live up pretty amazinglife. You know, being put in
a quarantine for two weeks is veryeasy. You know, I've been in

(01:01:06):
places where I've you know, everybodyknows my story, right, I've been
in some places that are a littleharder to be quarantined. At home,
right, have the internet, youknow, I can go in my backyard,
cook my own food. I livean amazing life, and you know,
there's a lot of people less fortunatethan me. So for me to

(01:01:27):
be able to just be a healthyhuman with you know, money in the
bank, a family that loves meis enough for me. Rich clun he's
very well, right, He's gota far broader experience really maybe some people
you might see in sports. He'she's a big picture dry he understands the
world far beyond sports, far beyondtalky, and he's if you know his

(01:01:51):
story at all, he's he's beenthrough some stuff in his life, his
background that he had to battle through, and um, he's given him a
lot of that big picture perspective thatcertainly is help at any time, but
even more so now where there's justa lot more stress coming out of everybody.
And having that Billy to step backto see what the world is all

(01:02:15):
about, to understand how fortunate youare to play pro hockey or a living
doing so speaks volumes about both him. But it is good for players,
especially the younger guys who I thinkmaybe sometimes are just they're soul zeroed in
on hockey, that it's human natureto lose sight of the bigger world that's

(01:02:39):
up there. Yeah, a veteranguy helping to keep the perspective for the
younger players on the team, andveteran players have taken on I think a
much different role this season, perhapsa more important role when it comes to
guiding the rest of their teammates throughwhat has been such a strange, strange
season. And we headed over toa Bridgeport to hear from Cole Bardrow just

(01:03:04):
about that. And before we getinto the clip, Pat, we were
talking off the air before we startedrecording about Cole and even about Michael Mensch
will be or Merch rather, who'llbe a topic of discussion here in a
moment. But we're talking about veteranplayers that are twenty seven years old,
veteran players that were born in nineteenninety three, and you know, not

(01:03:25):
to date ourselves too much, we'renot super far off from that, but
uh, it's it's just crazy tolook at rosters and see how young veteran
players are these days. Yeah,I mean, as we were saying,
I mean you're looking at situations nowwhere you got two thousand and two year

(01:03:46):
kids in the American Hockey League anddoing well for themselves. And the current
NHL draft coming up this July willbe the two thousand and three class and
I can't really jem head around thatobviously, but um, it's hockey is
a little weird sense that it's reallyin sports, and I guess in generals

(01:04:10):
the only the only Roman in life. Really, you could be twenty five,
twenty six year year old and beviewed as the wise old sage voice
of reason, and perspective. Uh. Sports forces players to grow up a
lot more quickly in some ways andthan other areas of life. But colebar

(01:04:32):
Drow is um he's a real honestplayer. UH, very very intelligent.
That's the first thing that stands outwhen when I speak with that. Uh,
you can tell them there there's agood, good, good head on
his shoulders. And um Bridge sportsa young team this year. Uh,
They've they've been through some real struggleson the ice obviously, and uh,

(01:04:56):
just going up against Hartford and Providenceon a regular basis, it's going to
test any team. And it's hardto maintain confidence for young players when you're
not getting results. There's not aton of veteran experience on that team,
So guys like Bardrow, guys likeSeth Elgus and the captain there a few
others have to take on an evengreater role this season helping those young kids

(01:05:21):
through these difficult times, helping themnavigate their first year of Pearl hockey in
some cases where what an introduction tothe pro game. Going through everything that's
happened this season and and helping thosekids and helping them to understand that as

(01:05:43):
difficult as it might be this yearthere are better days ahead and both in
terms of life but also in termsof their careers. It's it's been some
tough times and Bridgeport obviously, buthaving a guy like Bardrow alguson some other
like I said, some other playersthere is a big part of getting them

(01:06:05):
through some of these tough times.Col Bardrow's got a good head on his
shoulders. Four years at Cornell Universitywill do that for you. I used
played two hundred and eighty five butor so games in the American Hockey League
and shared some thoughts with us onthat role of a veteran player. This
season, I kind of see myselfshifting into that presence. I think it

(01:06:26):
kind of like you said, witha taxi squad, it really, you
know, showcases a little bit morewhen there's not as many older guy guys
in the locker room and it's morefilled with young guys. But yeah,
I do. That's something that youknow, I really pride myself on and
I know that the other older guysin that locker room do a great job
with as well. And that's somethingthat I think, you know, if
you want to be successful, yougot to have older guys showing the way

(01:06:47):
for those for those young guys,because at the end of the day,
it's those young guys that are reallygonna push you far and gives you continued
success. We'll continue on are aroundthe A on the Fly segment with the
more talk about leadership, and wego back to Rochester to hear from seth
Appard this week on another leader withhis group, Michael mursh who is also

(01:07:09):
again not an get older I guessa year older than Coole bardro is,
but still in the grand scheme ofthings, just twenty eight years old,
a young pop, a former UniversityWisconsin Badger, and a guy who's been
around the AHL a fair bit Manchesterand Ontario when he was a product of
the La Kings, a couple ofyears in Texas and now here in Rochester

(01:07:31):
where he's having a pretty good yearsixteen points in twenty one games, and
as we'll hear in a moment fromseth Appard, a big part of the
leadership group there wearing an A forAppard's group. Yeah, Michael Mersh,
who, for a reason I'm stillnot really clear on what was a free
agent far longer than he should havebeen this offseason, company this season,

(01:07:54):
he's wanted to call her cup Manchester. He's one of those people that was
at one time a pretty solid prospecthimself, got a little bit off track
trying to break into the LA King'slineup as a young player, like you
said, moved on to Texas andalas in Rochester and he's he's shifting into
that veteran role. This year's ayear that in Rochester. Obviously, any

(01:08:18):
time the NHL team parent team isstruggling those problems to come downhill, and
that has been the case from theRochester Americans. They have their own rookie
head coach, seth Appert, who'shimself been called up to Buffalo at different
points to fill in as an assistantcoach. And Rochester has lost a good

(01:08:41):
portion of its lineup at different pointsthis year, a lot of young players,
and so Appert, who's still gettinghis feet wet in this league himself
and is still learning his way aroundthis league, has really relied heavily on
guys like Michael Mersh, C.J. Smith, Dolphin Smith, Stephen
Folger to the captain, etc.To help both the young players and Frankly

(01:09:04):
Soeth effort himself to navigate what isa very trying season right now. And
as we hear from seth Afford somehigh praise for Michael Mersh and what he's
been able to do for the RochesterAmericans this season. He's unbelievable. I
absolutely love him and I consider ita real privilege to get to coach him

(01:09:29):
in my first year coaching pro hockey. You know, we want to establish
a culture here. To help builda culture in the Savers organization, we
need to have work ethic, Weneed to have professionalism, We need to
have competitiveness and passion and every day, every day, no matter what the
circumstances. And I remember, likeI talked to Jack Quinn about it,
because Jack Quinn and Mercy became close. And if Jack Quinn can emulate what

(01:09:55):
Mike Mersh does on a daily basisand how he goes about his business,
the work he puts before practice,on his body in the shooting room,
how intense he practices. He everyrep is life or death to Mike Mush
and then how competitive he plays,how good of a team it is,
the work he does after practice,like he's just He's so impressive to be

(01:10:17):
around on a daily basis, andfor our young prospects, which a lot
of them are in Buffalo right now, and a lot of them are succeeding
in Buffalo right now because they havethe opportunity to watch guys like Michael mursh
be a pro. We'll finish offore on the fly segment out west in
Ontario with John Robuski, the headcoach of the Ontario Rain and not so

(01:10:39):
much a thought on specific players patbut a thought on player development and a
piece of a guy's game or girlsdepending on where you're playing. That is
extremely important. But I feel likeI overlooked sometimes. You know, there's
always so much talk about how somebodyshoots or you know their position or their

(01:11:00):
passing, but skating sometimes gets overlookedand it's such an important, uh,
you know, piece of development andsomething that never stops developing as well here
in a moment. Yes, skatinghas kept many a talented player out of
the NHL players who had every othertool and their tool kit but didn't have
that that skating element to their gameup to par. And it's a it's

(01:11:26):
a massive part of what coaches anddevelopment staffs ghost coaches do not so much
in games, but every week inpractice. This is this is a league
that in many ways is as muchabout practice as it is about you know,
the games that are played on theweekends, and it's a huge part
of how the schedule is made up. Typically a weekend league, so that

(01:11:50):
means Monday through Thursday or our developmentdays, practice days. The LA Games
have really invested heavily bringing in alot of former NHL players to come work
one on one with their prospects inOntario, and skating is a huge part
of that that. Uh, it'sone of those things. It may not

(01:12:11):
make you an NHL concerned from becomingin an NHL player, but I love
speaking with Robuski. Obviously with hisbackground at the US National Development Program working
with high high end future first roundpicks, that's a huge part of what
he did there. Obviously he's carryingthat into Ontario now. And I opposed

(01:12:32):
a very simple question for him,Um, if a player skating uh is
just not up to part and probablycan't be brought up to part, is
that a fatal flaw? Is thatsomething that can keep him out of the
NHL? And I was interested tohear, especially with someone like Robuski,
would would say in response. It'sinteresting if you if you if you downright

(01:12:55):
don't have straight ahead speed, Ithink you're you're in you're in big trouble
as a forward. Um. ButI'll I'll never say that this game as
you that there's certain things that youhave to have or don't have there.
I think one of the beautiful thingsabout hockey is that you've got you you
have players that are that are gamers, Guys that, um, you know
in game seven, um Williams forinstance. You know, guys I just

(01:13:18):
have a knack and and know thespots and um just so smart. I
think, uh, you know,a guy like guy like Taffoley was I
don't think ever coined to be aburner, but his his you know,
his prowess, anticipation, great stick, um, wall play. Those are
those are things that if you're ifyou're excellent in one department, Uh,

(01:13:42):
if you're if you're the best inthe world or in the in the in
the top one percent of one percentin the world, it's something uh you
can you can find a way tomake it happen. And that's that's our
that's what we're trying to do,is take the guys you know, they're
their best characteristics and try to tryto bolster them as much as we possibly
can. And then and then intoagree at a time, try to take
up the things that they're not greatat. So it was a guy that

(01:14:03):
doesn't skate well, I'll, youknow, you'll work with him on anticipation.
That's that's my my thought process there. And I said before the clip,
you know that skating can sometimes beoverlooked, and I think that's just
from the you know, the casualfan standpoint. You just assume that everybody
can skate well because they're playing prohockey. But not always the case.

(01:14:23):
And we've seen so many teams,um, you know, try to find
other avenues to improve their their playersskating by you know, bringing in power
skating coaches. That's something that youhear about a lot at the young ages,
right when when kids are learning toskate, you take power skating lessons.
But the development on that front ofthe game never stops because while again

(01:14:45):
I say it's overlooked at times,it's obviously the foundation for every good player
to be able to skate well.It's all relative, right, So when
when you say a player can't skatewell, you can't necessarily in terms of
by comparison with with the top topplayers in the world. I remember,
even in the American Hockey League,Um, you're still dealing with an extremely

(01:15:06):
small group of players who are amongthe very pop on the one percent of
the one percent of the one percentin what they do. Uh And uh
So every little flaw is that muchmore magnified, whether you're talking about skating
or whatever element of players game.Um, but it's it's a huge factor.

(01:15:30):
And uh Robluski is um. Histeams play up tempo, they play
aggressive, So skating, especially onthat Ontario Rain team, is that much
more important. Uh So, SoI picked him specifically for that question then,
because I know how how much ofa stickler for details he is UM

(01:15:50):
and certainly with his background, likeI said, it's um. It's something
that he has a love experience withdealing with really super talented young prospects.
But now in the America Hockey League, you did a wide range of players
coming in. You you do getyour cold coff fields and you're Quentin buy
fields and players of that nature,but you also get a lot of undrafted

(01:16:12):
raw talent that has to be boldedand That's a huge part of what an
American hocke League coachings, half enddevelopment staff have to do, far beyond
just trying to win games and winchampionships. Yeah, skating is so important,
and again it never stops the developmenton that and other facets of the
game here in the American Hockey League. That's it Ferrara on the Fly segment

(01:16:38):
this week. Thanks again to thefolks in Bridge Board, Rochester, Ontario
and Toronto for hooking around the aup with some audio and stay tuned for
next week's show to see where westop in our on the Fly segment.
We had said at the end oflast week's show, pat that we were
gonna look for more information on playoffsand how things might be shaking down,

(01:16:59):
But from everything I've gathered, therehasn't been a whole lot of movement on
that front over the last week.Again, I think a lot of the
focus has been on the Toronto Marley'sCOVID situation and you know, dealing with
that looking ahead to the final monthof the season. But did I miss
something or is that kind of thestate of things right now? Yeah,
it's it's really slow to a crawl. I mean we've been told that we

(01:17:24):
should expect to answer decision. Howeveryou want to call it pretty soon.
Well as I've dive in here inthat now for for weeks. So part
of my skepticism, I suppose,and that's not anybody's faults, just what
it is. Obviously, the resurgenceof COVID on the Canadian side of the

(01:17:45):
border has been a real complicating factor, and the odd number of teams in
that division. So for example,to Stockton Heat they wrap up their season
this week, believe it or not, while the Toronto Marleys are grown to
play thirteen games subsequent to that.So if you were going to have a
Canadian Division playoff, you can dothat, dote to Stockton eat around for

(01:18:11):
sitting around for three weeks, andthen bring them back into action, perhaps
into a playoff. I mean,that's just a difficult set up, and
you really go across each division andit's a similar situation where much like coming
into the season, when you wouldsolve one problem, two more pop up.

(01:18:32):
It's the same thing with the playoffs. And while I still think there
there's a good chance there could besomething on a small scale, I would
say I'm getting a little bit lessoptimistic in terms of seeing anything beyond that.
Yeah, and again if anything changes, we will update you next week.

(01:18:54):
Of course, you can always followalong with us individually on Twitter as
well at Footy on the Year atp williams Ahl and all the latest news,
notes and headlines available there. Anythingelse you're keeping an eye on this
week, Pat Well, certainly theMarley's return is is a big story.
We've seen that with Utica they hadthey've had some ups and down since they're

(01:19:15):
a month long return. Rochester withthrough a similar situation, Bannington. There's
not a real clear consensus on howteams rebound from from that kind of hiatus.
I mean, remember it, soit's almost like bringing back an entire
team from an injury and say ourplayer pulls some muscle was up for a
couple of weeks. So now you'redoing that across twenty five players and they've

(01:19:39):
been out of action, really notable to do any sort of real training.
I mean maybe whatever you can doat home, certainly not being on
the ice. So when you whenyou had that, compounded by this,
what the schedule looks like. I'llbe interested to see how they handle that,
and I'll be keeping my eye oncertainly on these incoming process specs first

(01:20:00):
round picks coming in from either collegeor junior. We should be getting some
of the junior kids back, includingSamba, had started the season the American
Hockey League had to return to theL while the HLS wrapping things up,
so now we're dating that influx againcoming in, so kind of I think
would be a nice push to closeon at least the regular season seeing some

(01:20:24):
of that first round, second roundto talent comp. Yeah, we're on
the stretch run and some imports arecoming in from other leagues around the world,
and some young guys who maybe gota taste of AHL action before having
to go back to junior to finishthose seasons are coming back as well,
so there will be lots to recapwhen we reconvene next week. Until then,

(01:20:45):
again, we'll remind you to subscribeto the podcast rated, give us
a review as well, hit usup on social media at around the Apod,
or send us your guest suggestions,even your thoughts on who you'd like
to hear from in our on thefly segment, which teams you'd like us
to try to touch on At Aroundthe Apod at gmail dot com. We'll
see who we can get to,and we'll be back next week to give

(01:21:09):
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(01:21:30):
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