August 8, 2024 • 63 mins
Plenty of changes in media coverage!
Hosted By Sam Woo and Nick Villano
http://JoinOurCrew.com
https://pucksandpitchforks.com
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Hosted By Sam Woo and Nick Villano
http://JoinOurCrew.com
https://pucksandpitchforks.com
https://www.LetsGoDevils.com
RATE, REVIEW, AND SUBSCRIBE:
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-go-devils-podcast/id1371371669
#NJDevils #NHL #LetsGoDevils #LGD #Devils #NewJersey #NCAA #AHL
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-go-devils-podcast--2862943/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Happy Devils Wednesday. Yeah, this is a State of a Fan.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Address, episode two seventy.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
One, with an elongated intro bumper. As I'll explain a
little bit later, streaming live on Facebook Live YouTube.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Live, paying the twenty two dollars a month to stream
on x live and Twitch on the Let's Go Devil's Network.
I'm your host, Samuel here with Nick Bolano of Pucks
and pitchforks dot com.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
The editor in chief extraordinaire, coming to you from his
primetime radio studios in the South Jersey Bunker.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
And I'm obviously I'm the North Jersey Bunker.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
But Nick, do you ever get this thing where, you know,
I just drank some ginger ale and I want to burp,
but it's just it's it's just sitting there and during
the intro the bumper, I'm like, all right, just burp,
(01:24):
and then I get I go on air, can't do it.
And now I have this like uncomfortable feeling right here
in my esophagus and the stomach, like I'm about to
belch but it's just not coming out. So hopefully the
trigger on the on the on the cough button will
help in the situation.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Honestly, like I, you know, cause like part of my
stick is I have a beer with the podcasts, and
and here's the interesting thing. It's not interesting. It's really like,
I don't know why I said interesting, It's not interesting
at all. But I don't drink the week until the
podcast starts, and then I'll have my first beer of
the week and then, you know, so I like let
(02:06):
all that pent up stress kind of come out with
a beer in a podcast talking about hockey where the
things don't truly, you know, impact my life one way
or another. But so many times when I'm drinking that beer,
you know, you get into a rant and then it
starts to bubble. And I don't know if it's because
I'm so animated and I'm shaking things up, but I
(02:31):
always tend to belch in the middle of these big rants.
So I feel, you, Sam, there's nothing you can do
about it.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I think I'm gonna belch. I'm gonna ask the YouTube
livers should I belch on air?
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I don't know what kind of belcher are you. Are
you a Homer Simpson or a Barney Gumbel belcher?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I am a booger belcher.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Where's that from.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Revenge?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Of the Nerds.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
I've seen that a bunch of times, but I haven't
watched it in probably a good fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
There's ogre remember, and then and then Booger had A
had a Mentor and The Revenge of the Nerds Part two.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Right, Yeah, I've seen I've definitely seen those two.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Was there a third? There was, but I don't think
and I I yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
It's like one of those like National Lampoon, Van Wilder
level straight to DVD nonsense.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, you know, funny story. I used to like Boston
cream Pie.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Donuts from d Yeah, this was still my favorite.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
But ever since Van Wilder, I can't even eat it.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I cannot, especially when they're warm. Can't. Can't, can't do it.
Just can't do it.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, I just can't.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I know we're talking random stuff, but you know, I mean,
you know, I like to talk random stuff. It's kind
of you know, when I go to Montreal or back
in the day when I did a lot of we
had a lot of for my old XM shows, we
had a lot of Canadian based sponsors sponsor of the
(04:18):
show and part of the deal is part of the
business is to you know, network but also chit chat. Yeah,
and for the longest time, and I think I've told
this story before on live air that for the longest
(04:38):
time anytime I, you know, I talk to people in Montreal.
It's actually a different world out there. And finally, there
were times where your communications specialist, Nick is what you
told me off air that you know, the Montreal Canadians,
you know, Okay, we're talking about sponsorships, the number dollars
(05:02):
and cents and all that kind of stuff, and things
weren't working out. And then finally somebody who was smart
pulled me aside and Sam, I don't know if you
realize this, no offense, but you're talking like a brash
New Yorker. I was like, what do you mean? Am
I being? Am I being like mean?
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Or what are you talking about? Sam? It's French Canadian.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
When you call somebody up, you got to make small
talk for ten to fifteen minutes on the phone before
you actually get to the point. You're so like boom
within the first thirty seconds direct that you take people
off guard. You got to ask how their holiday was,
or you got to ask about you know this, or
how's the weather up there?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
You know, how's your job?
Speaker 4 (05:50):
This is when you're a producer, executive producer.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, when you're talking about talking to sponsors and all
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, yeah, well you don't believe me, that's what they
told me.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
No, no, no, no, no, no, I definitely believe I was.
I'm just thinking like usually, like the producer, like you
expect to get to the point, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
But well, yeah, but but but we're brash New Yorkers
apparently the Northeast, right. And also the other thing too
is you got to manage your ego. Manage your ego,
especially in Canada when it comes to hockey, because they
already automatically think you are I don't know what's that
(06:33):
word not the link wind inferior, I don't I don't
know what's the proper word. And I'm like, are you
kidding me? Why don't we just get to the point.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
All right?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Do you know what I actually had? I had a
boss of mine a couple of days ago, say, we
we were just talking about somebody else in this person
being docile, and she's like, well, you don't want to
change how this person is. You still want to let
person be who they are, Like you wouldn't want somebody
to tell you to not be aggressive. And that was
(07:05):
the moment I was like, oh, people think I'm aggressive here.
It's like, I don't know if that's good, but I
just think that's New Jersey, right, New Jersey is just
I just think that's as somebody who's from New Jersey, like, obviously,
I don't think it's a bad thing, but I just
think we kind of you know, there's time for chit chat,
(07:28):
there's time for consternation, but I I'd rather just talk
and I'd rather just get to the point. And speaking
of the point, we got uh Solemn News today, Sam.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I heard over the wire from you before the podcast.
Tell me more because the title is Devil's coverage changes.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, I still like mine better, but it's it's I.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Know, but I'll talk to you off air about it.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
It's fine, it's fine. Ryan Novasinski AVENJ dot com star
Ledger will no longer be covering the New Jersey Devils
after probably like the first quarter of the season, maybe
less first part of the season. He said, don't worry,
he's staking He's sticking to the Star Ledger in J
(08:21):
dot Com. He's going to be covering the New York Giants.
Ryan was a great friend of our podcast. Came on
multiple times, came on for the Stadium series, show, was
on Live with Us, was on you know, video and call,
and great friend of the podcast. Gave us a lot
of time. We appreciate his expertise here on the podcast.
(08:46):
And but don't worry, we're not going to go back
to the Doldrum days where we don't have a beat writer.
They've given the role to Gabriel Trevino. I don't know
much about Gabriel, but I'm excited to talk to him.
He's he's done a lot of things. I believe he's
(09:08):
a Oklahoma State alum like Nova was was. And it
looks like he's just doing a bit of a little
bit of everything. He's he's covering training camp for the
Giants and putting he's putting in work. And again, you know,
Novazinsky came to the Devils at a time when it
(09:30):
was us Bucks and Pitchforks and and Let's Go Devil's Podcast.
It was all about the jersey. It was the hockey
writers and it was a Mandestein, you know, and the
in house reporters, you know, Chris Wassel and and I
believe was Sam was not there yet. But was Catherine
(09:55):
there at that point when when we had no beat writers,
I believe so, yeah, so I think Catherine was there.
So you had the in house guys and then you
had the blogs, and there was no true beat reporters.
You know, we had a beat reporter and there was
guys who went but you know, it was there, just
(10:18):
wasn't a lot happening. So the uh Ryanobozinski came along
and first of all, and he said that he told
the story on the podcast about how he wasn't originally
given the Devil's beat. He was allowed to talk about
the devils, right. He was kind of like it was
(10:39):
like part of his gig. But he was talking about gambling,
he was talking about like he was a day of
guy who was talking about just about everything. But his
Devil's content was bringing in subscriptions and it was making
the newspaper money. So they sorry, his Devil's articles. The
Devil's articles, you threw me off. Used to know, I'm
(11:03):
blaming you for this one because I just watched your
camera adjust and my brain broke. Wo blame the victim. Okay,
you're right, you're right, I'm gonna pull. I'm gonna pull
on a lot of guys. You know, I'm just kidding. No,
I did just watch you do that, and my brain
was like, why did that just happen? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
That makes great content that he that he zoomed in
on himself.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Sorry, he wrote, he wrote the Devil's articles were bringing
in subscriptions and people, and he turned into a full
time Devil's reporter. And again, I've spoken to Ryan a lot.
He's been a great resource. I've tried to be a
good resource for him, just because you know, we you
(11:48):
can bounce things off each other. But he's I I
truly feel like we're losing a good writer. That stinks.
I'm excited to see what Gabriel has to offer. You know,
he's young, he's spry, you know, give give the buck
a chance to thrive. You know. I'm going back and
(12:14):
forth because a lot of these guys are friends of
the podcast, But I'm just gonna come out and say it, Sam,
what what is your what is your thoughts in the
status of the Beat? Wow? And I don't want this
to come off the wrong way because I truly love
the guy who are writing for about the Devils. I
read it about the devils every single day, and I
write about the most days. But something seemed to change
(12:41):
last year, right, the beat seemed to turn. I don't
know if you've noticed that.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Well, yeah, because you know John Sunders says, first Erica
and now Ryan. Look, I'll be funny about it first
and not serious, and I'll give you my serious answer.
You know, Hey, the team sucked last year, so everybody's
off the bandwagon. Not really. Uh yeah, Look, media as
(13:12):
a whole, Notice I didn't use the words the C word.
Media as a whole is constantly evolving. It's constantly changing.
It's changing so fast, where one medium, like back in
the day, Facebook is now all this. And I've always
(13:37):
said when we stream on multiple platforms that we're bar hopping.
We're social media bar hopping. We're going to this, We're
going to X even though Sam has to pay twenty
two dollars a month for it. Now and you know
Facebook Live and YouTube live and and all these meaning
there's so many because we don't want to alienate anybody.
(13:58):
That's why we do it. Same thing is happening about
this coverage, right, so, and it's constantly changed. It used
to be rich share and Tom Gliddy it was easy, reliable,
and I wish we could go back to old journalism days,
but you know, it's evolved. You know, journalism is still there.
(14:21):
It's just different than it was twenty years ago because
of technology, because of distribution, all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
But to answer your question.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
That I think a lot of it is, there's always
going to be nowadays high turnover because that's the job
market right now where you know, Look, you do a
couple of years here and you move yourself up, be
get more bucks elsewhere. I could assure you that I
(14:55):
would not give up this gig that we have here,
this platform. Let's go to old podcast to do the
New York Football Giants or whatever. But I think that's
what the Devil's as a whole needs their organization is
(15:15):
consistent coverage from the same people. There's not It's just
not gonna happen anymore. So that's why man of Stein's there,
at least from a team standpoint.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
And I truly don't understand it because I'm trying not
to like speak about myself, but.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
No, go right ahead.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I mean, pucks and pitchforks coverage shows what happens when
you have a consistent coverage loop. Yep, Like we when
I got this this this medium, I was doing twenty
thousand views a month. We're up to, you know, four hundred.
(15:57):
Even last month when nothing happened, we did three hundred.
You know, nobody was talking about anything. Everybody was complaining
about how there's something to talk about. People were reaching
and you know, but we we just have so much
stuff in the can that you know, we easily hit
those numbers and anybody should be able to do this,
and and you know, I I do feel like it
(16:25):
something weird happened last year. I don't know what it was.
I don't know if it was because things were contentious
when Lindy, I don't know if if I'll be honest,
last year was was grueling to cover this team, Like
it was just not fun. You had to you had
(16:52):
to figure out whether you wanted to talk about firing
a coach, because that's all anybody was talking about. That's
all the fan base wanted our opinions on firing the coach.
There were sellers. Again, you were constantly reacting to rumors
that like never went anywhere. Everybody was like leaking information
that wasn't true, So you had to really, really really
(17:15):
like question the sources of your information, and you had
to not trust anybody because you know that they were
using the medium. And then on top of all that,
there was a Michael McLeod call foot situation, which it's
very important to talk about and be freely open about,
like when it comes to the information that's coming in
and being truthful and being and trying your best to
(17:37):
be far at all sides while not being judged during executioner,
but understanding the so much that goes on with sexual
assault coverage. You know how much I worked to try
to get the right people on this podcast to talk
about that.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah, and I'll tell you I was.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
I came away very impressed with your effort.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
And I'm not saying that to blow smoke because I
obviously I can't reveal details because I don't want to,
but and I shouldn't. But but it was pretty like
I'm like, Okay, this is real journalism here, I'll just
shut up and let Nick do his work.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Well, I appreciate that, But then there's the like there's
things not as like that just happened, but like what
happen so like a way to talk about injuries, and
the Devil's never reveal what was going on with the injuries,
So you're writing about something you don't know about, which
is frustrating, and like I get it, I get it
from the devil's point of view, like truly why they're
being secretive about the injuries. You want to keep the
competitive advantage. But my point is is that I've felt
(18:44):
some and and I do not want to speak for Ryan,
and I do not think this is why he's going
where he's going. He's got a great opportunity to cover
the Giants, and that looks like a very good promotion.
I'm very happy for him, but this he sucked last year,
Like just to cover this team. It sucked. The team
(19:05):
was bad, everybody was injured, there was awful storylines off
the ice. It was just a calamity. And when all
of this happens, when your team is losing, I have
news for you, Sam, Not as many people read, so
you either work harder to get people to read, and
(19:26):
you know you have to like and then but you
also have to like keep your ethics so you don't
want to just do clickbait. You know you don't want
to be like, oh, this Devil's player is getting traded today,
But you also want to be strategic with your headlines
by not revealing too much because that's what people click onto. Like, Sam,
do you know one of my most click to articles
(19:46):
of last year is what's that the Curtis McDermott trade?
Just because I didn't say his name in the headline,
And honestly, like honest to gosh, I kind of feel
dirty about it just because I was. I didn't I
don't know. I'd rather just be straightforward with our fans
(20:07):
and tell what I'm talking about and let my just
the writings speak for itself. But we live in a
different world and you had to do what you had
to do. You had to be strategic with with your
articles and what you're putting out there and the podcasts
and all that. So so truthfully, from the conversations I've had,
(20:32):
there's a lot of just it was just heavy. It
was hard, and like booh, you talk about sports like
it's really not that serious. But when you have opportunities elsewhere,
you know, I don't blame people for taking them, is
my point. And I know that's not what happened with Erica.
I know that's a different situation. The Erica situation is
(20:54):
just dumb. I'm just be honest, Like, if that loses
us an interview with MHG one day, I'm sorry you
made a dumb decision. Like Erica was fantastic at her job.
I don't know the ins and outs of the contract negotiation,
but it's dumb to let her go, Like you don't
look like there's so many people are like, well, talent
doesn't matter, Like it absolutely does. Talent matters, like truthfully,
(21:15):
like even in sports, talent brings people back and they're
making money hand over fists on these contracts anyway. So well,
I mean maybe not MSG because they still don't have
a contract with comcasts. But who am I saying?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I almost wanted to put
out on my Twitter account that I just hate corporate America,
hate everything.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Well they'll do that. Don't quest yourself a job one day?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah I know, I know, but I look, if I
was a reporter, I go where the bucks are, I
go where where the action's at. You know, the New
York Football Giants, you know, they got a couple scrums
during their practices, and you know, with the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
You know, there's the Giants.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
They play once a week, but somehow they have a
lot of it's a bigger beat. It really is the
devil's beat.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
But it also makes sense. There's fifty three players on
the roster, so you have a lot more to talk about.
You go in different directions with the coverage, the storyline.
It's just there's a lot more going on. There's a
lot more people work for the team, so a lot
more information comes out. I do think football deserves a
lot of covers that it gets. I will say that, sorry,
do you mean to cut you off?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
No, it does.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Major League Baseball will keep you active for three one
hundred and sixty two days a year. However, if you
run into if your New York Mets reporter for some
of those lean years, it could be a very long season,
which stinks, especially in a market that you know, is
(23:00):
is the New York City metro area. It's yeah, yeah,
I mean, it's it's a grind and the competition is sharp,
and you gotta and and you gotta be on your
a game at all at old times. But you know,
one of the things about the let's go to old
podcasts is and and and Pucks and pitchforks dot com.
(23:25):
Is the actual longevity and consistency since twenty seventeen that
we're still doing this, you know? And again it's it's
it started out as a labor of love. It's still
a labor of love, you know. I. You know again,
Nick and I have day jobs, just like a lot
(23:49):
of people.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
And but somehow, somehow we.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Find ourselves on a Wednesday in the middle of August
talking about Devils Hockey and the coverage, and I think
a lot of you know, a lot of lessons were learned.
We've said this before, during the heart of the pandemic
when you I remember that time, I'll never forget when
you and I were like nervously talking, you know, I
(24:17):
don't know if it was on the phone or through
through uh you know, the studio line that what are
we gonna do if hockey is shut down for like
a year?
Speaker 3 (24:30):
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Everything you've built was you know, And then we got creative,
like how to cut your hair during a pandemic? We
talked we remember a real New Jersey the first episode
with short Sky and I we talked about Action Park
and yeah, I loved Action Park. You know, you went
there to get hurt and then tell your parents about it.
(24:54):
It was great and they sent you there.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Anyway, the nineties are a weird time, man, Like it
was just like I a lot of the guys who
work for me at Pucks and Pitchforks are young, and like,
i'd like you were born in the two thousands. I like,
I don't. I don't know how to explain the world
(25:18):
to them. Like I feel so old. I'm not that old.
I'm thirty five, but I feel like I'm a hundred
because I'm like I mean, like like they grew up
only knowing cell phones and social media and and this constantly.
I don't want to cult surveillance. It's such a dirty word.
But like parents always knowing where you are, and and
(25:41):
for the most part, I think that's a good thing.
For the record, I think it's good that your parents
know where you are. But it's just a different world
that I like just disappeared for hours on end, and
we had to go find a payphone to go get
picked up, and like that payphone could be anywhere, And like,
I don't know about your parents. My parents didn't ask
a lot of questions. They asked me how your day was,
(26:03):
and like what you do, but they didn't ask like,
ha'd you end up at a gas station on Route
thirty seven. I just came picked you up or you
walked home, you know, if you're close enough, it's just
you know. But that was the that's to say like
Action Park was kind of that same thing, be like
what happens at Action Park? They didn't ask, there wasn't
(26:24):
there also wasn't the internet to look up what the
heck was happening at Action Park unless something happened at
Action Park and they happened to watch the six o'clock
news while they were doing the story on it.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Oh the da, it's an amusement park. I think the
Daily Record. I think, you know, the small town Morris
County had like, you know, two major actions whatever. Let
me tell you the Alpine Slide Action Park. I actually
I flew out of one because they told you you're
supposed to use brakes.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
But it's like, who's gonna use brakes?
Speaker 1 (26:57):
We're gonna have a great time, didn't care, and then
I flipped.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Out twelve to sixteen year olds going.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Down yet yes, you know, of course, the Action.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Park documentary was one of the best pieces of content
or sorry, the best pieces of.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Documentary I know, but I'm trying.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Like I thought, it was like one of the best
of like pieces of entertainment that came out during the pandemic,
like the Actually, if you haven't seen the Action Park documentary,
highly recommend it's on Max. Still I think they get
still on Max. It should be.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Actually, to tell you the truth, when shorts Guy and
I did that podcast, you can look it up on YouTube.
I think it was before that came out. We didn't
know that it was coming out, so it was kind
of probably, you know, it was kind of wild that
we were talking about it, like just you know, just
the cannonball was the cannonball? Yeah, yeah, the Cannibal And
there was one I don't know if it was the cannibal,
(27:52):
but there was one where you go down and it's
a loop and then you boom.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
That's not the cannonball, but that was That was probably
the scariest ride you've ever seen in your life, like
a loop to loop with no.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, I mean I went. I mean, let me tell you, you
had to be a good swimmer in some of these
water rides in an Action Park. There was there was
like absolutely no rules.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
It was the best.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It was just you know, anyway, we're getting a little
bit off topic here. But but but money talks and
you know what, because it's somewhat of a small market team,
but it isn't you know it? You know, covering the team?
Is it lucrative?
Speaker 4 (28:39):
No? I won't. I mean, what do you mean, like, well,
I mean, geez, no, it's.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
If you're covering a new like if you're covering like
the Mets Yankees, and and you're with the major publication
you know, uh New York Post or Daily News?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Is Daily News still run? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
But yeah, you know, if you're or or MG dot.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Com or any you know.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
And any of those you know, conglomerates, Uh, you're gonna
at least make a living. It may not be like
the best living, but at least you're gonna make a living.
But at the same time, there's a lot of competition.
I mean, do you consider us a competition or pucksopitchforks
dot com? You know, even though it's maybe in a
(29:28):
different niche market.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
But well, because of because of what we're looking at,
I do consider is competition. I don't consider us like
I'm very clear that when I talk about myself as
a journalist, I mean in my previous career. Yep, I
don't mean now. And I did consider like I do
consider what Novazinsky was doing. He was a journalist, right.
But the line between blogger and journal it's flawed, or
(30:03):
it's it's it's very gray, especially for this beat, like
in New York and the Yankees, like the fanside Yanks
go Yard. They do a great job talk about the Yankees.
But I don't think anybody's like foregoing reading Mark Feinstein
or or you know, any of the great New York
Yankees writers to read the Yanks coo Yard. I think
(30:27):
it's a you know, it's it's a compliment to coverage here.
There's there's certain cases where I guess I want to
try to say, if somebody's gonna pick one, I think
they're gonna pick the journalist. If if it's not behind
a paywall or whatever with the devils. If you're gonna
(30:51):
pick one, you're just gonna go to your favorite. Sometimes
Bucks and Pit Trucks is the favorite. Sometimes all about
the Jersey is the favorite. Sometimes Novo is the favorite,
you know, and and I'll get I think many more
people consider Novo their favorite over Bucks, pitchforks, are all
about the jersey or all those. But I still think
(31:13):
there are people, who I know for a fact, that
people bookmark our website, and I assume there's just as
many people bookmarking all about the jersey. And I assume
a lot of those people are bookmarking and dot com
Double's coverage because I want to and you know, Christy
with with with the Hockey News, I think they're bookmarking
her like. I think that truly. I do think people
(31:37):
have their favorite. Then I go on Reddit like once
in a blue mood, just to kind of see what
the uh the status of the fan base is and
just kind of the.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
The feeling they all hate me.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
I well, there's just hate. Hate is always louder than love,
like it just is. And there's a lot of hate
for me and Redditor as well. That's fine. I love y'all.
I love all devils fans. I could care less. I
don't block anybody. I'm mute people just for my own
health because I don't I just don't need it. But
(32:14):
I yeah, I and I will say I I one
thing I did stop doing just because, like I one
thing I stopped doing is I stopped adding people on Facebook,
unless like I legitimately know you, but I had a
lot of friend requests on I still have a I
(32:35):
have dozens of friend requests on Facebook that I just
am ignoring because I I just I don't. Twitter is
one thing where it's just kind of like a fee
just move along. But like Facebook, it's like it's just
so personal and I'm like, and I don't I don't
(32:56):
even post, but I just don't. I don't need to
know like people sharing politics, people sharing beliefs, people like,
it's just a lot. It is a lot. I just like,
you know, So I did stop adding people on Facebook
just because it's it was just too much. Unless like listen,
if you come out and we have like thirty minute
(33:18):
conversation or one of the live podcasts and you're like, oh,
can we be friends on Facebook? I just want to
follow the podcast absolutely, But like if I've never heard
of you or just know you from the comment section,
I don't know. And I feel like a lot of
these a lot of the people who do this coverage
have had to make those U had to draw that
(33:39):
line at demarcation just because it's it's a weird world.
People are putting too much on social media. Nobody needs
like nobody Like people are treating their their their Facebook
page like bumper stickers on a car, you know what
I mean, Like like truly, I don't care what you think.
Like and I'm not even saying that just a better
(34:00):
fans sorry, Like I think that about everybody posts on Facebook.
Facebook is a sesspor right now. But anyway, I notice.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Remember back in the eighties there were like radio wars
like Z one hundred and Power ninety five, you know,
go at it, you know, but they were all really
on the same team, but not really you know, it
was yeah, manufacturing, Yeah it's all manufactured and all that.
But what I will tell you that's not manufacturing.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
And it's weird. This podcast is pretty popular.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
There's other podcasts that I would say pretty popular, but
sometimes it's weird where you get caught in with Devils
fans that if you're a listener of this podcast, it's
like you can't be a listener of the Let's Go
El's podcast. You know, it's weird. It's weird, and it's like,
(35:00):
you know, I I believe everybody has their different tastes
and all that kind of stuff. Thank you, mister best
Heard for saying I think Sam is great and he
loves the show. Now everybody has take Yeah, thank you,
thank you. I need all the compliments I've been having.
(35:21):
I've been thrown under the bus like Nick for the
past week. But and you know, and part of the
I think part of the success or one of the
main reasons for the success of this podcast is that
we never try to alienate anybody. So if you like
(35:42):
a certain Devil's podcast, we're We're okay with that. But
it's weird because some of these fans of these other
podcasts would say really rotten things to me at.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
At you know, when when we're America Whiskey or something.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Like that, or blah blah blah blah, I hate your podcast,
you know what It's like.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Okay, you know, you didn't really have to tell me,
but okay.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
I've had some hangus things said to me.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not I'm not saying I'm the
only one. I'm just I don't know, yeah, I just yeah,
I just I just don't see the logic in any
of it. If you don't like it, then just don't
read it or or don't don't listen. Why do you
have to go out and say you suck or whatever?
Speaker 4 (36:28):
And it's like because people feel it is the same
reason why people feel like they have. We've done like
news stories on this about why people are more bold
on social media than they are in like real life.
And it's the same reason why people feel that somebody
(36:56):
they see on TV or they listen to it a
podcast or they read on the internet, whether that's you know,
small like us or like celebrities, it's because they know
that we can't respond right. It's like we can't be
the podcast that punches people in the face, you know
what I mean. So it's the same thing with like
(37:18):
the internet, like you know, you're not going to face
any consequence, say what you want and it makes you
feel better about yourself and whatever, like if that if truly,
if you're coming into my DMS, calling me an idiot
makes you feel better about your life?
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Well, John Sunder said the best. I listened to multiple
Devil's podcasts, but yours is the top for me and
my response and thank you John for the compliments. But
that's good because you're engaged with the Devil's FanDome. I've
always liked different points of view, even if I don't
(37:51):
like it, Like this is part of this podcast that
we have here. A lot, a lot of it is
Nick and I don't script our feelings. Most of the
times we disagree. Would you agree with that that we disagree?
Speaker 4 (38:03):
I would say most. I say there's a couple of
big things we disagreed on. Yeah, I think you're very
This is the Jersey in you. I think you you
come up with a thought and that's your thought, and
then you will die. Like it's like almost like you
made a bet. You're like, I'm never cashing out. I'm
(38:25):
going to ride this bet. Like Lindy Roff right, I
had changed my mind to Linda roff seven or eight times,
and you stuck to your guns with Linda.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Rough because out in Europe he might kick our asses
the first two games.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
You never know, you never know, No, Yeah, I mean
it's definitely possible that the situation is not great as
far as scheduling for the Devils. Let's let's let's pivot.
Let's talk about Devils real quick. We got about ten
minutes left, if that even but let's I'm seeing first
(39:03):
why I do want to mention the Athletic came out
with the GM rankings and it's kind of like a
happiness quoti or or a that's the word I'm looking for,
like kind of the vibes around them, and they take
like the Hockey world vibes, and then they take the
(39:25):
fan base vibes, and to no one's surprise, the hockey
vibes and the fan base vibes we're almost contradictory. For
Tom Fitzgerald. The hockey world thinks he's a borderline genius,
thinks he's great at development, thinks he's great at drafting,
(39:48):
thinks he's great at roster management, at trades, at signings,
at personnel decisions. The fan base, to be fair, the
fan base gave some like C plus's, B minuses and
bees and most of those things, while the while the
outside hockey well gum a's, but fan base I think
(40:09):
they give must seem minus in development. The thought is
that the Alexander Holtz fiasco is kind of really made
him look bad to the fan base. There are others
and you can read them at puckspittroocks dot com, where
I wrote about five prospects who were still baffled failed.
(40:33):
That's on Pucks and pitchforks dot com right now, but
it just talks about the developmental failures. Alexander Holtz is
not on the list truly, because I wanted to talk
about guys that I had lost faith in as a
hockey player, Like, I don't think they're going to turn
into anything. Ever, some have no chance. Others you still
(40:57):
have so much a chance. You Tyson's only twenty four. Wow,
I thought I like, I was like, you gotta be
twenty seven by now.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
It seems like he's had He seems like he's been
in the league for almost ten years now.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
Right, Yeah, like that rookie season where he was like
a phenomenon. It sounds feels so long ago, but yeah,
it was only four years ago. So but he's on
the list. I've given up on ty Smith. I think
he forgot how to play hockey. But I could see why,
(41:37):
because what are the developmental successes of Tom Fitzgerald, Like
draft to development successes. And I'm going to hear it's
not entirely fair. Mercer's a good one, it's not in
(41:59):
time fair because he took over the team for the
twenty twenty draft, like that was his first draft. So
like I'm looking for like the Jessper Brats, like after
the third round who turned into an NHL player, and
like all of those guys who.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Cam squires that last name.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Yeah, I mean that's that could be a good one.
Ar Sidney grit Sik. I actually think was a race
share out pick whatever happened?
Speaker 3 (42:25):
One pick? What was his name? Sixth round? Josh Filman?
Is that the one?
Speaker 4 (42:32):
Oh he's in So he went to the n h L.
But they sent him to juniors last year and he
was he was fine, he.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Was pretty good.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
Yeah, I think he'll be in the HL this year. Okay,
he's still on track. He's on track, but he just
didn't take he didn't take the headlines last year like
the day before because I think he just he had
like a repeat season, which can be bad. I mean,
but like this happens all the time. Like Tyler Brennan
was like, oh, this is our goalily in the future
(43:01):
when he was killing it in juniors and he was
in the EHL last year and he'll be in the
EHL again this year. So you know, it's we have
to remember with these prospects and doing the research on
guys like Alexander Rbaum, who was also on the list,
and just like lou Lamureau called him our best prospect
(43:21):
when we had John Merrill and David Severson and Eric
Jellana and the couple. Oh gosh, like going down the
path of some of these guys, I was reminded of
names that I forgot existed, Like remember Badock Badock. We
thought he was gonna be the BEA's knees. He turned
(43:41):
into nothing much. There was a bunch of guys, you know,
Josh Jacobs, Steve Santini. I'm not even going back that
far for some of these, uh, you know, we just
we just had these high hopes, especially for defense, but
it's just such a it's such a crap shoot. But anyway,
it was just interesting to see. Are you surprised that
(44:04):
there's such a difference between the thought within the NHL
and the thought of the fan base for Tom Fitzgerald?
Speaker 1 (44:13):
What was the question?
Speaker 3 (44:14):
I wasn't understanding, what the what?
Speaker 4 (44:18):
So the fan base thinks that Tom Fitzgerald's mediocre, above average,
like kind of in that realm, and the NHL thinks
he's like a phenomenal gm hm, Well, are you surprised
by that?
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Not really, because the double fan bas surprised. The fan
base demands the Stanley Cup before they rate you as
a great gym.
Speaker 4 (44:44):
Just because that's fair.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Two predecessors ago, uh Lou Lamarrell really set the bar
very high. Now in terms of the NHL media, are
you talking about NHL media, that's the other side.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
I can't remember if it was hanging a front office,
like anonymous survey from the front office, or if it
was NHL media. I can't remember truly. It was on
it was on the Athletic Domalshinsky Lucien wrote it.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Well either or you know again, you know how I
feel about NHL media whatever, And even like the Hockey
Hall of Fame and all that, and we need Stan
Fischler in the Hockey Hall of Fame that I I
just like the voting for the for the for the
con smythe h Are these reporters so like insecure that
(45:39):
if they don't vote for Connor McDavid, they'll never get
an interview with him?
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (45:47):
I was one side.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
It wasn't.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
It wasn't it wasn't it was so one sided.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
I wasn't a fan. Do you know who was very
upset with me about my opinions on that was artocal
friend of the podcast, really love that I was. He
was very for the Conic McDavid thing, and I was
very huge for the Conmic David thing. After Game five,
I was like, I can't do it, man, we can't.
We can't be doing this.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
I you know what, we like Arta obviously different opinions.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
This is what this podcast is about. Different opinions.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
So we're not trash and Arta like, oh he sucks, no, oh, no,
artists this was he was clearly the opinion of Benny
because he won.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yeah, But you know, at the same time, I'm just like,
do you think like I mean sometimes like when you're
in the media room or all that everybody's drinking the
same koolife.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
That might be it. It might like, honestly, like, we
are a fickle species and opinions can be manipulated pretty
easily for a lot of our a lot of our
species or a lot of our you know, a lot
of mankind. Last thing I'll bring up on the podcast today,
(47:08):
I'm trying to think of the words here. I'm looking
at how everybody's looking at our situation, and especially the
Jacob Markstrom of it all. And I keep going back
(47:29):
and forth. There's a lot of people like, oh, they
figured out like Jacob marxm was really good last year,
it was really good the year before. No, he was
really good last year bad. The year before really good
the year before that. I'm I have two thoughts on this. A.
(47:50):
I think Jacob Marxstrom was the right guy to gain.
It gives them two years to kind of the market
was psychotic. It was psychotic, it was it was just
cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Getting Jacob Markstrom gives them an
opportunity to do two things. One is, let Nico Dawes
(48:12):
see if you get to develop and turn into something,
as well as Tyler Brennan and Jacob Malc and all
the other ones. But mostly does I think Dawes is
the guy it also and I feel like I feel
bad doing this to you Sam at the end of
the podcast. But there's the smallest chance there's no franchise
(48:34):
tag in the NHL. If Shtarkin becomes a free agent
next year, give him twelve million. Give him twelve million
dollars to come and you don't have to you don't
even have to move out of your house. You have
(49:00):
just as much of a chance to win a Stanley Cup.
Do I think it's gonna happen. No? Do I think
that if they could have got you say, Sorrows, but
they didn't because of this thing, that would be a mistake.
What I think happened is the devils looked at the
entire landscape of the makeup of their team. They understand
(49:25):
the cap is going up, so money moves don't hurt
as much if you're not in a certain echelon, and
that's kind of where they are with mark Strom. They'd
beat a different echelon if they got Hellibuck or Sorrows,
but even they would have gotten to that echelon as
far as money goes. If the trade prices were in
(49:50):
Cuckoo for Coco Puffs crazy, And I truly think even
the line of all Mark trade I asked, was Cuckoo
for Coco Puffs crazy? What happens when the Devil's left
the uh, they left the arena and everyone else they
they no longer had leverage, which is why line as
(50:11):
Olmark got such a terrible return. But back to the point,
getting Jacob mark Strom means that you still have this
opportunity if one of these super duper duper star goalies
become available, if Dallas decides they're going to be cheap
(50:33):
with Jake Ottinger, if New York just doesn't get a
deal done with Starkin, and you know, I think so Roken,
He's he's got a pretty good contract there in New York,
So I don't think he's ever going to become available.
But lose Fickle, lose fickle and grazie sometimes, you know.
(50:55):
So it gives you this opportunity that if the super
duper star ever becomes available for the right price. I'm
not saying like cheap, but the right price, you have
the flexibility to make that happen.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
That's an interesting point of view that we really didn't
really hit on enough when mark Strom was traded for
And I say, with Jake Allen, here's something interesting food
for the thought. If if the devils could ever poach
just Stirking out of New York, let's say, for sake
(51:34):
of arguments, twelve twelve million minimum to get them out right,
let's just use twelve million. Jake Allen will be off
the books. So what was he making three point two million.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
Uh less than that because Montreal is covering a bit
of it. I think he's around two.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
Is that his cap number for the doubles?
Speaker 4 (52:00):
Let me, I'll double check. You keep going on your point,
I'll find it, all right.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
And then you have mark Strom, who Calgary is. Did
they retain fifty percent of his six something million dollars
a year contract.
Speaker 4 (52:14):
A little less than he's making around four?
Speaker 3 (52:16):
Around four?
Speaker 4 (52:18):
Like four point one okay, four point one. Ellen is
at one point nine to three Marksham is at four
point one three as far as cap hit, all.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Right, for four point one three, it was so basically
a little bit over six six million a cap space, right,
say if in this instance and Shastrkan is going to
be a free agent unrestricted next.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
Year, right.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
Anyway, so you would have I was asking you a question, So.
Speaker 4 (53:01):
Sorry, I thought that that came up. Like I said it,
stay it one more time.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Susterkin is gonna be a.
Speaker 4 (53:08):
Free agent unrestricted next next off season, one year from now.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
So if you can figure a way how to get
rid of mark Strom, you can bury him in the eggshell. No,
I'm just kidding, but figure away. You you clear out
the goalies, You got six six point two million, so
you're halfway there.
Speaker 3 (53:31):
You're halfway there.
Speaker 1 (53:33):
You would have to bring up Nico Dawes and trust
him to be your backup and then you and then
you're gonna have to find six million elsewhere in that
roster to either trade.
Speaker 3 (53:46):
Do something.
Speaker 1 (53:48):
Plus, are there expiring contracts on the books for for
next season?
Speaker 4 (53:54):
I mean there's yeah, there's like there's Tatar there. Do
you know what comes off the book six season? The
Ilia Kobochuk penalty? So there, Yeah, there is a quart
of a mill after fifteen years, but.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
You're gonna have to pay Luke Hughes. You're gonna have
to You're gonna have to pay Simon Nevins eventually.
Speaker 4 (54:15):
So that's the year after. But you got listen, there's
there's dinks and dunks coming off like Maxwellman, Curtis Bazaar,
Nathan Bastian, Thomas Tatar, Jonathan Cova, Savit sevach Uh. You know.
So it's not a ton of money coming off the books,
(54:36):
but you don't really need to add a lot.
Speaker 3 (54:39):
And what if the captain increases.
Speaker 4 (54:42):
Which it will, yeah, barring something crazy, right, barring Like
I'm trying to see, like, yeah, like that level of crazy.
So say you you know you you lock in Dawson
Mercer through next year at like what do they have left? Yeah,
(55:04):
you could sign Nolan Foot and then still give Dawston
Mercer four million dollars. The goodness the good thing about
it's not really good. I was gonna say, you're not.
You don't have to worry about the bonuses and contracts
like Dawston Mercers and Luke Hughes once you signed them,
(55:27):
because those bonuses could hurt you in future years because
those bonuses are tied to those in true level contracts.
But they should have around does it say on here?
Does not? Let's say that's sick twenty six, twenty seven,
sixty seventy. Yeah, I mean they'll have pretty much enough
(55:50):
to to signs to Starkin. She would have to make
some moves, but I mean it takes like one trade, right,
like a trade Paul Lot and you're fine. You move Dylan,
you're fine. You know, if you move Dylan like you're
less fine. But you can still felt a roster with
another you know, I think they had four or five
(56:11):
million dollars felt the rest of the roster. And all
you need is you know a bottom line and a
depth defenseman. You know so, but then there's a little
cues contract which complicates things. So but here's here's my point, Sam,
(56:35):
is that hitting should stark into this team. Is it's
the game changer. It's the I'll figure it out. Your
signs shoul start get on the botto on the dotted
line can figure it out. And I'm usually not that guy.
It's like it has to make sense. But like all,
they had a first round pick to trade a lot
(56:55):
if that's what takes this sign cirking, I don't hate
a lot. I think a Lot's a good player. Overpaid,
but I think he's a good player. But if he's
the reason I can't get your cirkin, then I'm going
to get him out of my out of my dressing room.
You know, just just and I'm just talking about his contract.
If his contract is a detriment, you know, you you move,
(57:19):
you gotta do. I don't call him desperate things, but
you do you make it work if you can get
your stirk in, if.
Speaker 3 (57:30):
You have a shot at it.
Speaker 1 (57:32):
But I'll tell you if if if you make a
move with your skin, there's gotta be a reason for it.
Speaker 3 (57:41):
It's because you're that close to the cup.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
But if you're not that close, don't make the move
because I can be a twelve million a year liability.
Speaker 4 (57:51):
But he's he's the superstar, like he's not gonna fall,
he's getting old, he's.
Speaker 1 (58:01):
Still These goalies break down a lot quicker.
Speaker 4 (58:05):
I disagree, all right, I think he's the He's that dude.
I want to double check the age because I just
want to make sure that I didn't just.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Oh, somebody's nervous.
Speaker 4 (58:20):
It's twenty eight. Yeah, I knew it was a little off.
Speaker 1 (58:24):
But he'll be twenty nine, twenty nine, and you're paying
them those big bucks on the back nine of his career.
Although he does happen, I.
Speaker 4 (58:35):
Don't think it's the back nine. I think it's I
think it's the middle nine.
Speaker 1 (58:39):
The middle nine, what a what a great.
Speaker 4 (58:42):
I start on hold, You don't start on whole five,
play until whole uh whole fourteen. It's not a normal
way to play golf.
Speaker 1 (58:58):
I don't know, Nick. How about how about I got
I got a cheaper alternative. How about develop the next
Martam Bordour in your farm system. We gave up John
Marino for.
Speaker 4 (59:12):
If they seem to think Michael is that guy. So
we'll say, but I think it's I think it's time
for us. Yeah, it's time for us to go to
the clubhouse, get a hot dog, maybe a beer. It's
a let's wrap up whole fourteen, all right, I'll do
(59:36):
plugs real quick. So you know what I'm waiting for that, Sam,
I am going to write about this striking nonsense. I'm
gonna do it, just kind of put my thoughts on
paper about how the Jacob Marx from deal can lead
to a Hail Mary Jacob marks from trade. But right now,
(59:56):
if you don't want to wait for that one, uh,
there's two I think really articles on there. I talked
about the one about the failures that are still baffling
us today, but there's one where I took five stats
from the twenty twenty three twenty four season that are
so bad that the Devils need to do everything in
(01:00:17):
their power, and more specifically, Sheldon Keif needs to do
everything in his power to make sure they do not
repeat that failure of a stat. Okay, one of them
I think you'll really like, because I could have gone
(01:00:39):
with save percentage and just something super generic, but I
wanted to be a little bit more specific with my goalies.
The Devils had three of the eight worst goalies in
the league when it came out when it came to
giving up rebounds, and none of them were v Tech
(01:01:00):
ban a check, so this is still a current problem.
One was Schmid, but most was not good at it,
and Jake Alleno is not good at it. They both
gave up way too many rebounds, so I think that's
something that needs to be a focus.
Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
They were.
Speaker 4 (01:01:17):
They were all bottom ten in the league, all three
of them from bottom ten in the league. And Markstrom's
like in the middle of the pack, so it's not
like he's great at it. Devils can't be giving up
rebounds like that. Gotta have rebound control, no more second
chance opportunities. If you don't get on the first try,
(01:01:37):
you failed. Easier said than done, Nick, Unfortunately, it's only
my job to say it. I cannot do it. Yeah,
I would give up one hundred rebounds every game. I
would give up rebounds some things that weren't shots.
Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
All right, all right, Well, all I have to plug
is this podcast will be dropped at midnight. Let's go,
but Devil's podcasts heading towards one a million downloads. Yes,
one million, gajillion downloads. That's right, Nick, there you go.
Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
I'm just gonna do that every time you bring it up.
Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Now. Ye a million downloads sometime in the next season, hopefully,
unless our listenership just drops.
Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
Like the stock market the other day.
Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
But yeah, I'm trying to find the button Nick to
close the podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:02:48):
Are we gonna do a party?
Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Oh my goodness, it's gonna be a big budget party,
a real big budget party.
Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
It is gonna be one for the ages.
Speaker 4 (01:03:02):
Listen. Speaking of big budget, I saw a big budget
situation coming to the uh the pregame parties, so really
excited for those.
Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
Wait, situation like the situation. No, like I'm kidding. I
don't want to reveal.
Speaker 4 (01:03:21):
It's not mine to reveal, but i I you shared
with me the big budget item coming to the pregame party,
and I'm excited. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
Absolutely, Steve the door Engel will be our guest. Oh okay, great,
Happy Devils Wednesday. Yeah, this is a State of a Fan.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Address, episode two seventy.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
One, with an elongated intro bumper. As I'll explain a
little bit later, streaming live on Facebook Live YouTube.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Live, paying the twenty two dollars a month to stream
on x live and Twitch on the Let's Go Devil's Network.
I'm your host, Samuel here with Nick Bolano of Pucks
and pitchforks dot com.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
The editor in chief extraordinaire, coming to you from his
primetime radio studios in the South Jersey Bunker.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
And I'm obviously I'm the North Jersey Bunker.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
But Nick, do you ever get this thing where, you know,
I just drank some ginger ale and I want to burp,
but it's just it's it's just sitting there and during
the intro the bumper, I'm like, all right, just burp,
(01:24):
and then I get I go on air, can't do it.
And now I have this like uncomfortable feeling right here
in my esophagus and the stomach, like I'm about to
belch but it's just not coming out. So hopefully the
trigger on the on the on the cough button will
help in the situation.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Honestly, like I, you know, cause like part of my
stick is I have a beer with the podcasts, and
and here's the interesting thing. It's not interesting. It's really like,
I don't know why I said interesting, It's not interesting
at all. But I don't drink the week until the
podcast starts, and then I'll have my first beer of
the week and then, you know, so I like let
(02:06):
all that pent up stress kind of come out with
a beer in a podcast talking about hockey where the
things don't truly, you know, impact my life one way
or another. But so many times when I'm drinking that beer,
you know, you get into a rant and then it
starts to bubble. And I don't know if it's because
I'm so animated and I'm shaking things up, but I
(02:31):
always tend to belch in the middle of these big rants.
So I feel, you, Sam, there's nothing you can do
about it.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I think I'm gonna belch. I'm gonna ask the YouTube
livers should I belch on air?
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I don't know what kind of belcher are you. Are
you a Homer Simpson or a Barney Gumbel belcher?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I am a booger belcher.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Where's that from.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Revenge?
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Of the Nerds.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
I've seen that a bunch of times, but I haven't
watched it in probably a good fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
There's ogre remember, and then and then Booger had A
had a Mentor and The Revenge of the Nerds Part two.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Right, Yeah, I've seen I've definitely seen those two.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Was there a third? There was, but I don't think
and I I yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
It's like one of those like National Lampoon, Van Wilder
level straight to DVD nonsense.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, you know, funny story. I used to like Boston
cream Pie.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Donuts from d Yeah, this was still my favorite.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
But ever since Van Wilder, I can't even eat it.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I cannot, especially when they're warm. Can't. Can't, can't do it.
Just can't do it.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, I just can't.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I know we're talking random stuff, but you know, I mean,
you know, I like to talk random stuff. It's kind
of you know, when I go to Montreal or back
in the day when I did a lot of we
had a lot of for my old XM shows, we
had a lot of Canadian based sponsors sponsor of the
(04:18):
show and part of the deal is part of the
business is to you know, network but also chit chat. Yeah,
and for the longest time, and I think I've told
this story before on live air that for the longest
(04:38):
time anytime I, you know, I talk to people in Montreal.
It's actually a different world out there. And finally, there
were times where your communications specialist, Nick is what you
told me off air that you know, the Montreal Canadians,
you know, Okay, we're talking about sponsorships, the number dollars
(05:02):
and cents and all that kind of stuff, and things
weren't working out. And then finally somebody who was smart
pulled me aside and Sam, I don't know if you
realize this, no offense, but you're talking like a brash
New Yorker. I was like, what do you mean? Am
I being? Am I being like mean?
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Or what are you talking about? Sam? It's French Canadian.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
When you call somebody up, you got to make small
talk for ten to fifteen minutes on the phone before
you actually get to the point. You're so like boom
within the first thirty seconds direct that you take people
off guard. You got to ask how their holiday was,
or you got to ask about you know this, or
how's the weather up there?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
You know, how's your job?
Speaker 4 (05:50):
This is when you're a producer, executive producer.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, when you're talking about talking to sponsors and all
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, yeah, well you don't believe me, that's what they
told me.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
No, no, no, no, no, no, I definitely believe I was.
I'm just thinking like usually, like the producer, like you
expect to get to the point, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
But well, yeah, but but but we're brash New Yorkers
apparently the Northeast, right. And also the other thing too
is you got to manage your ego. Manage your ego,
especially in Canada when it comes to hockey, because they
already automatically think you are I don't know what's that
(06:33):
word not the link wind inferior, I don't I don't
know what's the proper word. And I'm like, are you
kidding me? Why don't we just get to the point.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
All right?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Do you know what I actually had? I had a
boss of mine a couple of days ago, say, we
we were just talking about somebody else in this person
being docile, and she's like, well, you don't want to
change how this person is. You still want to let
person be who they are, Like you wouldn't want somebody
to tell you to not be aggressive. And that was
(07:05):
the moment I was like, oh, people think I'm aggressive here.
It's like, I don't know if that's good, but I
just think that's New Jersey, right, New Jersey is just
I just think that's as somebody who's from New Jersey, like, obviously,
I don't think it's a bad thing, but I just
think we kind of you know, there's time for chit chat,
(07:28):
there's time for consternation, but I I'd rather just talk
and I'd rather just get to the point. And speaking
of the point, we got uh Solemn News today, Sam.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I heard over the wire from you before the podcast.
Tell me more because the title is Devil's coverage changes.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, I still like mine better, but it's it's I.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Know, but I'll talk to you off air about it.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
It's fine, it's fine. Ryan Novasinski AVENJ dot com star
Ledger will no longer be covering the New Jersey Devils
after probably like the first quarter of the season, maybe
less first part of the season. He said, don't worry,
he's staking He's sticking to the Star Ledger in J
(08:21):
dot Com. He's going to be covering the New York Giants.
Ryan was a great friend of our podcast. Came on
multiple times, came on for the Stadium series, show, was
on Live with Us, was on you know, video and call,
and great friend of the podcast. Gave us a lot
of time. We appreciate his expertise here on the podcast.
(08:46):
And but don't worry, we're not going to go back
to the Doldrum days where we don't have a beat writer.
They've given the role to Gabriel Trevino. I don't know
much about Gabriel, but I'm excited to talk to him.
He's he's done a lot of things. I believe he's
(09:08):
a Oklahoma State alum like Nova was was. And it
looks like he's just doing a bit of a little
bit of everything. He's he's covering training camp for the
Giants and putting he's putting in work. And again, you know,
Novazinsky came to the Devils at a time when it
(09:30):
was us Bucks and Pitchforks and and Let's Go Devil's Podcast.
It was all about the jersey. It was the hockey
writers and it was a Mandestein, you know, and the
in house reporters, you know, Chris Wassel and and I
believe was Sam was not there yet. But was Catherine
(09:55):
there at that point when when we had no beat writers,
I believe so, yeah, so I think Catherine was there.
So you had the in house guys and then you
had the blogs, and there was no true beat reporters.
You know, we had a beat reporter and there was
guys who went but you know, it was there, just
(10:18):
wasn't a lot happening. So the uh Ryanobozinski came along
and first of all, and he said that he told
the story on the podcast about how he wasn't originally
given the Devil's beat. He was allowed to talk about
the devils, right. He was kind of like it was
(10:39):
like part of his gig. But he was talking about gambling,
he was talking about like he was a day of
guy who was talking about just about everything. But his
Devil's content was bringing in subscriptions and it was making
the newspaper money. So they sorry, his Devil's articles. The
Devil's articles, you threw me off. Used to know, I'm
(11:03):
blaming you for this one because I just watched your
camera adjust and my brain broke. Wo blame the victim. Okay,
you're right, you're right, I'm gonna pull. I'm gonna pull
on a lot of guys. You know, I'm just kidding. No,
I did just watch you do that, and my brain
was like, why did that just happen? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
That makes great content that he that he zoomed in
on himself.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Sorry, he wrote, he wrote the Devil's articles were bringing
in subscriptions and people, and he turned into a full
time Devil's reporter. And again, I've spoken to Ryan a lot.
He's been a great resource. I've tried to be a
good resource for him, just because you know, we you
(11:48):
can bounce things off each other. But he's I I
truly feel like we're losing a good writer. That stinks.
I'm excited to see what Gabriel has to offer. You know,
he's young, he's spry, you know, give give the buck
a chance to thrive. You know. I'm going back and
(12:14):
forth because a lot of these guys are friends of
the podcast, But I'm just gonna come out and say it, Sam,
what what is your what is your thoughts in the
status of the Beat? Wow? And I don't want this
to come off the wrong way because I truly love
the guy who are writing for about the Devils. I
read it about the devils every single day, and I
write about the most days. But something seemed to change
(12:41):
last year, right, the beat seemed to turn. I don't
know if you've noticed that.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Well, yeah, because you know John Sunders says, first Erica
and now Ryan. Look, I'll be funny about it first
and not serious, and I'll give you my serious answer.
You know, Hey, the team sucked last year, so everybody's
off the bandwagon. Not really. Uh yeah, Look, media as
(13:12):
a whole, Notice I didn't use the words the C word.
Media as a whole is constantly evolving. It's constantly changing.
It's changing so fast, where one medium, like back in
the day, Facebook is now all this. And I've always
(13:37):
said when we stream on multiple platforms that we're bar hopping.
We're social media bar hopping. We're going to this, We're
going to X even though Sam has to pay twenty
two dollars a month for it. Now and you know
Facebook Live and YouTube live and and all these meaning
there's so many because we don't want to alienate anybody.
(13:58):
That's why we do it. Same thing is happening about
this coverage, right, so, and it's constantly changed. It used
to be rich share and Tom Gliddy it was easy, reliable,
and I wish we could go back to old journalism days,
but you know, it's evolved. You know, journalism is still there.
(14:21):
It's just different than it was twenty years ago because
of technology, because of distribution, all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
But to answer your question.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
That I think a lot of it is, there's always
going to be nowadays high turnover because that's the job
market right now where you know, Look, you do a
couple of years here and you move yourself up, be
get more bucks elsewhere. I could assure you that I
(14:55):
would not give up this gig that we have here,
this platform. Let's go to old podcast to do the
New York Football Giants or whatever. But I think that's
what the Devil's as a whole needs their organization is
(15:15):
consistent coverage from the same people. There's not It's just
not gonna happen anymore. So that's why man of Stein's there,
at least from a team standpoint.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
And I truly don't understand it because I'm trying not
to like speak about myself, but.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
No, go right ahead.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I mean, pucks and pitchforks coverage shows what happens when
you have a consistent coverage loop. Yep, Like we when
I got this this this medium, I was doing twenty
thousand views a month. We're up to, you know, four hundred.
(15:57):
Even last month when nothing happened, we did three hundred.
You know, nobody was talking about anything. Everybody was complaining
about how there's something to talk about. People were reaching
and you know, but we we just have so much
stuff in the can that you know, we easily hit
those numbers and anybody should be able to do this,
and and you know, I I do feel like it
(16:25):
something weird happened last year. I don't know what it was.
I don't know if it was because things were contentious
when Lindy, I don't know if if I'll be honest,
last year was was grueling to cover this team, Like
it was just not fun. You had to you had
(16:52):
to figure out whether you wanted to talk about firing
a coach, because that's all anybody was talking about. That's
all the fan base wanted our opinions on firing the coach.
There were sellers. Again, you were constantly reacting to rumors
that like never went anywhere. Everybody was like leaking information
that wasn't true, So you had to really, really really
(17:15):
like question the sources of your information, and you had
to not trust anybody because you know that they were
using the medium. And then on top of all that,
there was a Michael McLeod call foot situation, which it's
very important to talk about and be freely open about,
like when it comes to the information that's coming in
and being truthful and being and trying your best to
(17:37):
be far at all sides while not being judged during executioner,
but understanding the so much that goes on with sexual
assault coverage. You know how much I worked to try
to get the right people on this podcast to talk
about that.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah, and I'll tell you I was.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
I came away very impressed with your effort.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
And I'm not saying that to blow smoke because I
obviously I can't reveal details because I don't want to,
but and I shouldn't. But but it was pretty like
I'm like, Okay, this is real journalism here, I'll just
shut up and let Nick do his work.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Well, I appreciate that, But then there's the like there's
things not as like that just happened, but like what
happen so like a way to talk about injuries, and
the Devil's never reveal what was going on with the injuries,
So you're writing about something you don't know about, which
is frustrating, and like I get it, I get it
from the devil's point of view, like truly why they're
being secretive about the injuries. You want to keep the
competitive advantage. But my point is is that I've felt
(18:44):
some and and I do not want to speak for Ryan,
and I do not think this is why he's going
where he's going. He's got a great opportunity to cover
the Giants, and that looks like a very good promotion.
I'm very happy for him, but this he sucked last year,
Like just to cover this team. It sucked. The team
(19:05):
was bad, everybody was injured, there was awful storylines off
the ice. It was just a calamity. And when all
of this happens, when your team is losing, I have
news for you, Sam, Not as many people read, so
you either work harder to get people to read, and
(19:26):
you know you have to like and then but you
also have to like keep your ethics so you don't
want to just do clickbait. You know you don't want
to be like, oh, this Devil's player is getting traded today,
But you also want to be strategic with your headlines
by not revealing too much because that's what people click onto. Like, Sam,
do you know one of my most click to articles
(19:46):
of last year is what's that the Curtis McDermott trade?
Just because I didn't say his name in the headline,
And honestly, like honest to gosh, I kind of feel
dirty about it just because I was. I didn't I
don't know. I'd rather just be straightforward with our fans
(20:07):
and tell what I'm talking about and let my just
the writings speak for itself. But we live in a
different world and you had to do what you had
to do. You had to be strategic with with your
articles and what you're putting out there and the podcasts
and all that. So so truthfully, from the conversations I've had,
(20:32):
there's a lot of just it was just heavy. It
was hard, and like booh, you talk about sports like
it's really not that serious. But when you have opportunities elsewhere,
you know, I don't blame people for taking them, is
my point. And I know that's not what happened with Erica.
I know that's a different situation. The Erica situation is
(20:54):
just dumb. I'm just be honest, Like, if that loses
us an interview with MHG one day, I'm sorry you
made a dumb decision. Like Erica was fantastic at her job.
I don't know the ins and outs of the contract negotiation,
but it's dumb to let her go, Like you don't
look like there's so many people are like, well, talent
doesn't matter, Like it absolutely does. Talent matters, like truthfully,
(21:15):
like even in sports, talent brings people back and they're
making money hand over fists on these contracts anyway. So well,
I mean maybe not MSG because they still don't have
a contract with comcasts. But who am I saying?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I almost wanted to put
out on my Twitter account that I just hate corporate America,
hate everything.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Well they'll do that. Don't quest yourself a job one day?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah I know, I know, but I look, if I
was a reporter, I go where the bucks are, I
go where where the action's at. You know, the New
York Football Giants, you know, they got a couple scrums
during their practices, and you know, with the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
You know, there's the Giants.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
They play once a week, but somehow they have a
lot of it's a bigger beat. It really is the
devil's beat.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
But it also makes sense. There's fifty three players on
the roster, so you have a lot more to talk about.
You go in different directions with the coverage, the storyline.
It's just there's a lot more going on. There's a
lot more people work for the team, so a lot
more information comes out. I do think football deserves a
lot of covers that it gets. I will say that, sorry,
do you mean to cut you off?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
No, it does.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Major League Baseball will keep you active for three one
hundred and sixty two days a year. However, if you
run into if your New York Mets reporter for some
of those lean years, it could be a very long season,
which stinks, especially in a market that you know, is
(23:00):
is the New York City metro area. It's yeah, yeah,
I mean, it's it's a grind and the competition is sharp,
and you gotta and and you gotta be on your
a game at all at old times. But you know,
one of the things about the let's go to old
podcasts is and and and Pucks and pitchforks dot com.
(23:25):
Is the actual longevity and consistency since twenty seventeen that
we're still doing this, you know? And again it's it's
it started out as a labor of love. It's still
a labor of love, you know. I. You know again,
Nick and I have day jobs, just like a lot
(23:49):
of people.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
And but somehow, somehow we.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Find ourselves on a Wednesday in the middle of August
talking about Devils Hockey and the coverage, and I think
a lot of you know, a lot of lessons were learned.
We've said this before, during the heart of the pandemic
when you I remember that time, I'll never forget when
you and I were like nervously talking, you know, I
(24:17):
don't know if it was on the phone or through
through uh you know, the studio line that what are
we gonna do if hockey is shut down for like
a year?
Speaker 3 (24:30):
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Everything you've built was you know, And then we got creative,
like how to cut your hair during a pandemic? We
talked we remember a real New Jersey the first episode
with short Sky and I we talked about Action Park
and yeah, I loved Action Park. You know, you went
there to get hurt and then tell your parents about it.
(24:54):
It was great and they sent you there.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Anyway, the nineties are a weird time, man, Like it
was just like I a lot of the guys who
work for me at Pucks and Pitchforks are young, and like,
i'd like you were born in the two thousands. I like,
I don't. I don't know how to explain the world
(25:18):
to them. Like I feel so old. I'm not that old.
I'm thirty five, but I feel like I'm a hundred
because I'm like I mean, like like they grew up
only knowing cell phones and social media and and this constantly.
I don't want to cult surveillance. It's such a dirty word.
But like parents always knowing where you are, and and
(25:41):
for the most part, I think that's a good thing.
For the record, I think it's good that your parents
know where you are. But it's just a different world
that I like just disappeared for hours on end, and
we had to go find a payphone to go get
picked up, and like that payphone could be anywhere, And like,
I don't know about your parents. My parents didn't ask
a lot of questions. They asked me how your day was,
(26:03):
and like what you do, but they didn't ask like,
ha'd you end up at a gas station on Route
thirty seven. I just came picked you up or you
walked home, you know, if you're close enough, it's just
you know. But that was the that's to say like
Action Park was kind of that same thing, be like
what happens at Action Park? They didn't ask, there wasn't
(26:24):
there also wasn't the internet to look up what the
heck was happening at Action Park unless something happened at
Action Park and they happened to watch the six o'clock
news while they were doing the story on it.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Oh the da, it's an amusement park. I think the
Daily Record. I think, you know, the small town Morris
County had like, you know, two major actions whatever. Let
me tell you the Alpine Slide Action Park. I actually
I flew out of one because they told you you're
supposed to use brakes.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
But it's like, who's gonna use brakes?
Speaker 1 (26:57):
We're gonna have a great time, didn't care, and then
I flipped.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Out twelve to sixteen year olds going.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Down yet yes, you know, of course, the Action.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Park documentary was one of the best pieces of content
or sorry, the best pieces of.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Documentary I know, but I'm trying.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Like I thought, it was like one of the best
of like pieces of entertainment that came out during the pandemic,
like the Actually, if you haven't seen the Action Park documentary,
highly recommend it's on Max. Still I think they get
still on Max. It should be.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Actually, to tell you the truth, when shorts Guy and
I did that podcast, you can look it up on YouTube.
I think it was before that came out. We didn't
know that it was coming out, so it was kind
of probably, you know, it was kind of wild that
we were talking about it, like just you know, just
the cannonball was the cannonball? Yeah, yeah, the Cannibal And
there was one I don't know if it was the cannibal,
(27:52):
but there was one where you go down and it's
a loop and then you boom.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
That's not the cannonball, but that was That was probably
the scariest ride you've ever seen in your life, like
a loop to loop with no.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, I mean I went. I mean, let me tell you, you
had to be a good swimmer in some of these
water rides in an Action Park. There was there was
like absolutely no rules.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
It was the best.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It was just you know, anyway, we're getting a little
bit off topic here. But but but money talks and
you know what, because it's somewhat of a small market team,
but it isn't you know it? You know, covering the team?
Is it lucrative?
Speaker 4 (28:39):
No? I won't. I mean, what do you mean, like, well,
I mean, geez, no, it's.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
If you're covering a new like if you're covering like
the Mets Yankees, and and you're with the major publication
you know, uh New York Post or Daily News?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Is Daily News still run? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
But yeah, you know, if you're or or MG dot.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Com or any you know.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
And any of those you know, conglomerates, Uh, you're gonna
at least make a living. It may not be like
the best living, but at least you're gonna make a living.
But at the same time, there's a lot of competition.
I mean, do you consider us a competition or pucksopitchforks
dot com? You know, even though it's maybe in a
(29:28):
different niche market.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
But well, because of because of what we're looking at,
I do consider is competition. I don't consider us like
I'm very clear that when I talk about myself as
a journalist, I mean in my previous career. Yep, I
don't mean now. And I did consider like I do
consider what Novazinsky was doing. He was a journalist, right.
But the line between blogger and journal it's flawed, or
(30:03):
it's it's it's very gray, especially for this beat, like
in New York and the Yankees, like the fanside Yanks
go Yard. They do a great job talk about the Yankees.
But I don't think anybody's like foregoing reading Mark Feinstein
or or you know, any of the great New York
Yankees writers to read the Yanks coo Yard. I think
(30:27):
it's a you know, it's it's a compliment to coverage here.
There's there's certain cases where I guess I want to
try to say, if somebody's gonna pick one, I think
they're gonna pick the journalist. If if it's not behind
a paywall or whatever with the devils. If you're gonna
(30:51):
pick one, you're just gonna go to your favorite. Sometimes
Bucks and Pit Trucks is the favorite. Sometimes all about
the Jersey is the favorite. Sometimes Novo is the favorite,
you know, and and I'll get I think many more
people consider Novo their favorite over Bucks, pitchforks, are all
about the jersey or all those. But I still think
(31:13):
there are people, who I know for a fact, that
people bookmark our website, and I assume there's just as
many people bookmarking all about the jersey. And I assume
a lot of those people are bookmarking and dot com
Double's coverage because I want to and you know, Christy
with with with the Hockey News, I think they're bookmarking
her like. I think that truly. I do think people
(31:37):
have their favorite. Then I go on Reddit like once
in a blue mood, just to kind of see what
the uh the status of the fan base is and
just kind of the.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
The feeling they all hate me.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
I well, there's just hate. Hate is always louder than love,
like it just is. And there's a lot of hate
for me and Redditor as well. That's fine. I love y'all.
I love all devils fans. I could care less. I
don't block anybody. I'm mute people just for my own
health because I don't I just don't need it. But
(32:14):
I yeah, I and I will say I I one
thing I did stop doing just because, like I one
thing I stopped doing is I stopped adding people on Facebook,
unless like I legitimately know you, but I had a
lot of friend requests on I still have a I
(32:35):
have dozens of friend requests on Facebook that I just
am ignoring because I I just I don't. Twitter is
one thing where it's just kind of like a fee
just move along. But like Facebook, it's like it's just
so personal and I'm like, and I don't I don't
(32:56):
even post, but I just don't. I don't need to
know like people sharing politics, people sharing beliefs, people like,
it's just a lot. It is a lot. I just like,
you know, So I did stop adding people on Facebook
just because it's it was just too much. Unless like listen,
if you come out and we have like thirty minute
(33:18):
conversation or one of the live podcasts and you're like, oh,
can we be friends on Facebook? I just want to
follow the podcast absolutely, But like if I've never heard
of you or just know you from the comment section,
I don't know. And I feel like a lot of
these a lot of the people who do this coverage
have had to make those U had to draw that
(33:39):
line at demarcation just because it's it's a weird world.
People are putting too much on social media. Nobody needs
like nobody Like people are treating their their their Facebook
page like bumper stickers on a car, you know what
I mean, Like like truly, I don't care what you think.
Like and I'm not even saying that just a better
(34:00):
fans sorry, Like I think that about everybody posts on Facebook.
Facebook is a sesspor right now. But anyway, I notice.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Remember back in the eighties there were like radio wars
like Z one hundred and Power ninety five, you know,
go at it, you know, but they were all really
on the same team, but not really you know, it
was yeah, manufacturing, Yeah it's all manufactured and all that.
But what I will tell you that's not manufacturing.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
And it's weird. This podcast is pretty popular.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
There's other podcasts that I would say pretty popular, but
sometimes it's weird where you get caught in with Devils
fans that if you're a listener of this podcast, it's
like you can't be a listener of the Let's Go
El's podcast. You know, it's weird. It's weird, and it's like,
(35:00):
you know, I I believe everybody has their different tastes
and all that kind of stuff. Thank you, mister best
Heard for saying I think Sam is great and he
loves the show. Now everybody has take Yeah, thank you,
thank you. I need all the compliments I've been having.
(35:21):
I've been thrown under the bus like Nick for the
past week. But and you know, and part of the
I think part of the success or one of the
main reasons for the success of this podcast is that
we never try to alienate anybody. So if you like
(35:42):
a certain Devil's podcast, we're We're okay with that. But
it's weird because some of these fans of these other
podcasts would say really rotten things to me at.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
At you know, when when we're America Whiskey or something.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Like that, or blah blah blah blah, I hate your podcast,
you know what It's like.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Okay, you know, you didn't really have to tell me,
but okay.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
I've had some hangus things said to me.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not I'm not saying I'm the
only one. I'm just I don't know, yeah, I just yeah,
I just I just don't see the logic in any
of it. If you don't like it, then just don't
read it or or don't don't listen. Why do you
have to go out and say you suck or whatever?
Speaker 4 (36:28):
And it's like because people feel it is the same
reason why people feel like they have. We've done like
news stories on this about why people are more bold
on social media than they are in like real life.
And it's the same reason why people feel that somebody
(36:56):
they see on TV or they listen to it a
podcast or they read on the internet, whether that's you know,
small like us or like celebrities, it's because they know
that we can't respond right. It's like we can't be
the podcast that punches people in the face, you know
what I mean. So it's the same thing with like
(37:18):
the internet, like you know, you're not going to face
any consequence, say what you want and it makes you
feel better about yourself and whatever, like if that if truly,
if you're coming into my DMS, calling me an idiot
makes you feel better about your life?
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Well, John Sunder said the best. I listened to multiple
Devil's podcasts, but yours is the top for me and
my response and thank you John for the compliments. But
that's good because you're engaged with the Devil's FanDome. I've
always liked different points of view, even if I don't
(37:51):
like it, Like this is part of this podcast that
we have here. A lot, a lot of it is
Nick and I don't script our feelings. Most of the
times we disagree. Would you agree with that that we disagree?
Speaker 4 (38:03):
I would say most. I say there's a couple of
big things we disagreed on. Yeah, I think you're very
This is the Jersey in you. I think you you
come up with a thought and that's your thought, and
then you will die. Like it's like almost like you
made a bet. You're like, I'm never cashing out. I'm
(38:25):
going to ride this bet. Like Lindy Roff right, I
had changed my mind to Linda roff seven or eight times,
and you stuck to your guns with Linda.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Rough because out in Europe he might kick our asses
the first two games.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
You never know, you never know, No, Yeah, I mean
it's definitely possible that the situation is not great as
far as scheduling for the Devils. Let's let's let's pivot.
Let's talk about Devils real quick. We got about ten
minutes left, if that even but let's I'm seeing first
(39:03):
why I do want to mention the Athletic came out
with the GM rankings and it's kind of like a
happiness quoti or or a that's the word I'm looking for,
like kind of the vibes around them, and they take
like the Hockey world vibes, and then they take the
(39:25):
fan base vibes, and to no one's surprise, the hockey
vibes and the fan base vibes we're almost contradictory. For
Tom Fitzgerald. The hockey world thinks he's a borderline genius,
thinks he's great at development, thinks he's great at drafting,
(39:48):
thinks he's great at roster management, at trades, at signings,
at personnel decisions. The fan base, to be fair, the
fan base gave some like C plus's, B minuses and
bees and most of those things, while the while the
outside hockey well gum a's, but fan base I think
(40:09):
they give must seem minus in development. The thought is
that the Alexander Holtz fiasco is kind of really made
him look bad to the fan base. There are others
and you can read them at puckspittroocks dot com, where
I wrote about five prospects who were still baffled failed.
(40:33):
That's on Pucks and pitchforks dot com right now, but
it just talks about the developmental failures. Alexander Holtz is
not on the list truly, because I wanted to talk
about guys that I had lost faith in as a
hockey player, Like, I don't think they're going to turn
into anything. Ever, some have no chance. Others you still
(40:57):
have so much a chance. You Tyson's only twenty four. Wow,
I thought I like, I was like, you gotta be
twenty seven by now.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
It seems like he's had He seems like he's been
in the league for almost ten years now.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
Right, Yeah, like that rookie season where he was like
a phenomenon. It sounds feels so long ago, but yeah,
it was only four years ago. So but he's on
the list. I've given up on ty Smith. I think
he forgot how to play hockey. But I could see why,
(41:37):
because what are the developmental successes of Tom Fitzgerald, Like
draft to development successes. And I'm going to hear it's
not entirely fair. Mercer's a good one, it's not in
(41:59):
time fair because he took over the team for the
twenty twenty draft, like that was his first draft. So
like I'm looking for like the Jessper Brats, like after
the third round who turned into an NHL player, and
like all of those guys who.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Cam squires that last name.
Speaker 4 (42:18):
Yeah, I mean that's that could be a good one.
Ar Sidney grit Sik. I actually think was a race
share out pick whatever happened?
Speaker 3 (42:25):
One pick? What was his name? Sixth round? Josh Filman?
Is that the one?
Speaker 4 (42:32):
Oh he's in So he went to the n h L.
But they sent him to juniors last year and he
was he was fine, he.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Was pretty good.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
Yeah, I think he'll be in the HL this year. Okay,
he's still on track. He's on track, but he just
didn't take he didn't take the headlines last year like
the day before because I think he just he had
like a repeat season, which can be bad. I mean,
but like this happens all the time. Like Tyler Brennan
was like, oh, this is our goalily in the future
(43:01):
when he was killing it in juniors and he was
in the EHL last year and he'll be in the
EHL again this year. So you know, it's we have
to remember with these prospects and doing the research on
guys like Alexander Rbaum, who was also on the list,
and just like lou Lamureau called him our best prospect
(43:21):
when we had John Merrill and David Severson and Eric
Jellana and the couple. Oh gosh, like going down the
path of some of these guys, I was reminded of
names that I forgot existed, Like remember Badock Badock. We
thought he was gonna be the BEA's knees. He turned
(43:41):
into nothing much. There was a bunch of guys, you know,
Josh Jacobs, Steve Santini. I'm not even going back that
far for some of these, uh, you know, we just
we just had these high hopes, especially for defense, but
it's just such a it's such a crap shoot. But anyway,
it was just interesting to see. Are you surprised that
(44:04):
there's such a difference between the thought within the NHL
and the thought of the fan base for Tom Fitzgerald?
Speaker 1 (44:13):
What was the question?
Speaker 3 (44:14):
I wasn't understanding, what the what?
Speaker 4 (44:18):
So the fan base thinks that Tom Fitzgerald's mediocre, above average,
like kind of in that realm, and the NHL thinks
he's like a phenomenal gm hm, Well, are you surprised
by that?
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Not really, because the double fan bas surprised. The fan
base demands the Stanley Cup before they rate you as
a great gym.
Speaker 4 (44:44):
Just because that's fair.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Two predecessors ago, uh Lou Lamarrell really set the bar
very high. Now in terms of the NHL media, are
you talking about NHL media, that's the other side.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
I can't remember if it was hanging a front office,
like anonymous survey from the front office, or if it
was NHL media. I can't remember truly. It was on
it was on the Athletic Domalshinsky Lucien wrote it.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Well either or you know again, you know how I
feel about NHL media whatever, And even like the Hockey
Hall of Fame and all that, and we need Stan
Fischler in the Hockey Hall of Fame that I I
just like the voting for the for the for the
con smythe h Are these reporters so like insecure that
(45:39):
if they don't vote for Connor McDavid, they'll never get
an interview with him?
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (45:47):
I was one side.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
It wasn't.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
It wasn't it wasn't it was so one sided.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
I wasn't a fan. Do you know who was very
upset with me about my opinions on that was artocal
friend of the podcast, really love that I was. He
was very for the Conic McDavid thing, and I was
very huge for the Conmic David thing. After Game five,
I was like, I can't do it, man, we can't.
We can't be doing this.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
I you know what, we like Arta obviously different opinions.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
This is what this podcast is about. Different opinions.
Speaker 4 (46:22):
So we're not trash and Arta like, oh he sucks, no, oh, no,
artists this was he was clearly the opinion of Benny
because he won.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yeah, But you know, at the same time, I'm just like,
do you think like I mean sometimes like when you're
in the media room or all that everybody's drinking the
same koolife.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
That might be it. It might like, honestly, like, we
are a fickle species and opinions can be manipulated pretty
easily for a lot of our a lot of our
species or a lot of our you know, a lot
of mankind. Last thing I'll bring up on the podcast today,
(47:08):
I'm trying to think of the words here. I'm looking
at how everybody's looking at our situation, and especially the
Jacob Markstrom of it all. And I keep going back
(47:29):
and forth. There's a lot of people like, oh, they
figured out like Jacob marxm was really good last year,
it was really good the year before. No, he was
really good last year bad. The year before really good
the year before that. I'm I have two thoughts on this. A.
(47:50):
I think Jacob Marxstrom was the right guy to gain.
It gives them two years to kind of the market
was psychotic. It was psychotic, it was it was just
cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Getting Jacob Markstrom gives them an
opportunity to do two things. One is, let Nico Dawes
(48:12):
see if you get to develop and turn into something,
as well as Tyler Brennan and Jacob Malc and all
the other ones. But mostly does I think Dawes is
the guy it also and I feel like I feel
bad doing this to you Sam at the end of
the podcast. But there's the smallest chance there's no franchise
(48:34):
tag in the NHL. If Shtarkin becomes a free agent
next year, give him twelve million. Give him twelve million
dollars to come and you don't have to you don't
even have to move out of your house. You have
(49:00):
just as much of a chance to win a Stanley Cup.
Do I think it's gonna happen. No? Do I think
that if they could have got you say, Sorrows, but
they didn't because of this thing, that would be a mistake.
What I think happened is the devils looked at the
entire landscape of the makeup of their team. They understand
(49:25):
the cap is going up, so money moves don't hurt
as much if you're not in a certain echelon, and
that's kind of where they are with mark Strom. They'd
beat a different echelon if they got Hellibuck or Sorrows,
but even they would have gotten to that echelon as
far as money goes. If the trade prices were in
(49:50):
Cuckoo for Coco Puffs crazy, And I truly think even
the line of all Mark trade I asked, was Cuckoo
for Coco Puffs crazy? What happens when the Devil's left
the uh, they left the arena and everyone else they
they no longer had leverage, which is why line as
(50:11):
Olmark got such a terrible return. But back to the point,
getting Jacob mark Strom means that you still have this
opportunity if one of these super duper duper star goalies
become available, if Dallas decides they're going to be cheap
(50:33):
with Jake Ottinger, if New York just doesn't get a
deal done with Starkin, and you know, I think so Roken,
He's he's got a pretty good contract there in New York,
So I don't think he's ever going to become available.
But lose Fickle, lose fickle and grazie sometimes, you know.
(50:55):
So it gives you this opportunity that if the super
duper star ever becomes available for the right price. I'm
not saying like cheap, but the right price, you have
the flexibility to make that happen.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
That's an interesting point of view that we really didn't
really hit on enough when mark Strom was traded for
And I say, with Jake Allen, here's something interesting food
for the thought. If if the devils could ever poach
just Stirking out of New York, let's say, for sake
(51:34):
of arguments, twelve twelve million minimum to get them out right,
let's just use twelve million. Jake Allen will be off
the books. So what was he making three point two million.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
Uh less than that because Montreal is covering a bit
of it. I think he's around two.
Speaker 3 (51:58):
Is that his cap number for the doubles?
Speaker 4 (52:00):
Let me, I'll double check. You keep going on your point,
I'll find it, all right.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
And then you have mark Strom, who Calgary is. Did
they retain fifty percent of his six something million dollars
a year contract.
Speaker 4 (52:14):
A little less than he's making around four?
Speaker 3 (52:16):
Around four?
Speaker 4 (52:18):
Like four point one okay, four point one. Ellen is
at one point nine to three Marksham is at four
point one three as far as cap hit, all.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Right, for four point one three, it was so basically
a little bit over six six million a cap space, right,
say if in this instance and Shastrkan is going to
be a free agent unrestricted next.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
Year, right.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
Anyway, so you would have I was asking you a question, So.
Speaker 4 (53:01):
Sorry, I thought that that came up. Like I said it,
stay it one more time.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Susterkin is gonna be a.
Speaker 4 (53:08):
Free agent unrestricted next next off season, one year from now.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
So if you can figure a way how to get
rid of mark Strom, you can bury him in the eggshell. No,
I'm just kidding, but figure away. You you clear out
the goalies, You got six six point two million, so
you're halfway there.
Speaker 3 (53:31):
You're halfway there.
Speaker 1 (53:33):
You would have to bring up Nico Dawes and trust
him to be your backup and then you and then
you're gonna have to find six million elsewhere in that
roster to either trade.
Speaker 3 (53:46):
Do something.
Speaker 1 (53:48):
Plus, are there expiring contracts on the books for for
next season?
Speaker 4 (53:54):
I mean there's yeah, there's like there's Tatar there. Do
you know what comes off the book six season? The
Ilia Kobochuk penalty? So there, Yeah, there is a quart
of a mill after fifteen years, but.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
You're gonna have to pay Luke Hughes. You're gonna have
to You're gonna have to pay Simon Nevins eventually.
Speaker 4 (54:15):
So that's the year after. But you got listen, there's
there's dinks and dunks coming off like Maxwellman, Curtis Bazaar,
Nathan Bastian, Thomas Tatar, Jonathan Cova, Savit sevach Uh. You know.
So it's not a ton of money coming off the books,
(54:36):
but you don't really need to add a lot.
Speaker 3 (54:39):
And what if the captain increases.
Speaker 4 (54:42):
Which it will, yeah, barring something crazy, right, barring Like
I'm trying to see, like, yeah, like that level of crazy.
So say you you know you you lock in Dawson
Mercer through next year at like what do they have left? Yeah,
(55:04):
you could sign Nolan Foot and then still give Dawston
Mercer four million dollars. The goodness the good thing about
it's not really good. I was gonna say, you're not.
You don't have to worry about the bonuses and contracts
like Dawston Mercers and Luke Hughes once you signed them,
(55:27):
because those bonuses could hurt you in future years because
those bonuses are tied to those in true level contracts.
But they should have around does it say on here?
Does not? Let's say that's sick twenty six, twenty seven,
sixty seventy. Yeah, I mean they'll have pretty much enough
(55:50):
to to signs to Starkin. She would have to make
some moves, but I mean it takes like one trade, right,
like a trade Paul Lot and you're fine. You move Dylan,
you're fine. You know, if you move Dylan like you're
less fine. But you can still felt a roster with
another you know, I think they had four or five
(56:11):
million dollars felt the rest of the roster. And all
you need is you know a bottom line and a
depth defenseman. You know so, but then there's a little
cues contract which complicates things. So but here's here's my point, Sam,
(56:35):
is that hitting should stark into this team. Is it's
the game changer. It's the I'll figure it out. Your
signs shoul start get on the botto on the dotted
line can figure it out. And I'm usually not that guy.
It's like it has to make sense. But like all,
they had a first round pick to trade a lot
(56:55):
if that's what takes this sign cirking, I don't hate
a lot. I think a Lot's a good player. Overpaid,
but I think he's a good player. But if he's
the reason I can't get your cirkin, then I'm going
to get him out of my out of my dressing room.
You know, just just and I'm just talking about his contract.
If his contract is a detriment, you know, you you move,
(57:19):
you gotta do. I don't call him desperate things, but
you do you make it work if you can get
your stirk in, if.
Speaker 3 (57:30):
You have a shot at it.
Speaker 1 (57:32):
But I'll tell you if if if you make a
move with your skin, there's gotta be a reason for it.
Speaker 3 (57:41):
It's because you're that close to the cup.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
But if you're not that close, don't make the move
because I can be a twelve million a year liability.
Speaker 4 (57:51):
But he's he's the superstar, like he's not gonna fall,
he's getting old, he's.
Speaker 1 (58:01):
Still These goalies break down a lot quicker.
Speaker 4 (58:05):
I disagree, all right, I think he's the He's that dude.
I want to double check the age because I just
want to make sure that I didn't just.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Oh, somebody's nervous.
Speaker 4 (58:20):
It's twenty eight. Yeah, I knew it was a little off.
Speaker 1 (58:24):
But he'll be twenty nine, twenty nine, and you're paying
them those big bucks on the back nine of his career.
Although he does happen, I.
Speaker 4 (58:35):
Don't think it's the back nine. I think it's I
think it's the middle nine.
Speaker 1 (58:39):
The middle nine, what a what a great.
Speaker 4 (58:42):
I start on hold, You don't start on whole five,
play until whole uh whole fourteen. It's not a normal
way to play golf.
Speaker 1 (58:58):
I don't know, Nick. How about how about I got
I got a cheaper alternative. How about develop the next
Martam Bordour in your farm system. We gave up John
Marino for.
Speaker 4 (59:12):
If they seem to think Michael is that guy. So
we'll say, but I think it's I think it's time
for us. Yeah, it's time for us to go to
the clubhouse, get a hot dog, maybe a beer. It's
a let's wrap up whole fourteen, all right, I'll do
(59:36):
plugs real quick. So you know what I'm waiting for that, Sam,
I am going to write about this striking nonsense. I'm
gonna do it, just kind of put my thoughts on
paper about how the Jacob Marx from deal can lead
to a Hail Mary Jacob marks from trade. But right now,
(59:56):
if you don't want to wait for that one, uh,
there's two I think really articles on there. I talked
about the one about the failures that are still baffling
us today, but there's one where I took five stats
from the twenty twenty three twenty four season that are
so bad that the Devils need to do everything in
(01:00:17):
their power, and more specifically, Sheldon Keif needs to do
everything in his power to make sure they do not
repeat that failure of a stat. Okay, one of them
I think you'll really like, because I could have gone
(01:00:39):
with save percentage and just something super generic, but I
wanted to be a little bit more specific with my goalies.
The Devils had three of the eight worst goalies in
the league when it came out when it came to
giving up rebounds, and none of them were v Tech
(01:01:00):
ban a check, so this is still a current problem.
One was Schmid, but most was not good at it,
and Jake Alleno is not good at it. They both
gave up way too many rebounds, so I think that's
something that needs to be a focus.
Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
They were.
Speaker 4 (01:01:17):
They were all bottom ten in the league, all three
of them from bottom ten in the league. And Markstrom's
like in the middle of the pack, so it's not
like he's great at it. Devils can't be giving up
rebounds like that. Gotta have rebound control, no more second
chance opportunities. If you don't get on the first try,
(01:01:37):
you failed. Easier said than done, Nick, Unfortunately, it's only
my job to say it. I cannot do it. Yeah,
I would give up one hundred rebounds every game. I
would give up rebounds some things that weren't shots.
Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
All right, all right, Well, all I have to plug
is this podcast will be dropped at midnight. Let's go,
but Devil's podcasts heading towards one a million downloads. Yes,
one million, gajillion downloads. That's right, Nick, there you go.
Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
I'm just gonna do that every time you bring it up.
Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Now. Ye a million downloads sometime in the next season, hopefully,
unless our listenership just drops.
Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
Like the stock market the other day.
Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
But yeah, I'm trying to find the button Nick to
close the podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:02:48):
Are we gonna do a party?
Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Oh my goodness, it's gonna be a big budget party,
a real big budget party.
Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
It is gonna be one for the ages.
Speaker 4 (01:03:02):
Listen. Speaking of big budget, I saw a big budget
situation coming to the uh the pregame parties, so really
excited for those.
Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
Wait, situation like the situation. No, like I'm kidding. I
don't want to reveal.
Speaker 4 (01:03:21):
It's not mine to reveal, but i I you shared
with me the big budget item coming to the pregame party,
and I'm excited. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
Absolutely, Steve the door Engel will be our guest. Oh okay, great,
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