Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHR's Playmaker.
Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Monday edition of Playmakers, solo show
for me, but I am not alone. Not only do I got all of you, but at 5.30, we're going
to be joined by GM, head coach of your Wisconsin Rapids River Kings. Coach Paul Peckman
going to be joining us, looking forward to that for the fourth period. We'll be talking
some River Kings a little bit later. We want to talk to you, call up, join the conversation.
We are wide open. Hit us in the numbers. 715-424-2600. We'd love to hear from you. Your
sports takes, feelings, thoughts, all of the above. Please feel free to reach out to us.
We're going to get into a couple of things this hour. Got some stats to the show for you
a little bit later. We will talk a little bit of baseball and remembering a legend. I'll
actually remember a couple of legends in basketball and in baseball and a little bit, but first
let's get to some calls. Good afternoon. You're in the game.
We still friends. Hey, man. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. How's it going?
It's been a typical Monday. Yeah, right. Yeah, I feel you. It felt like a week long
Monday. It really has felt that way. I looked at the clock earlier and it's only five
o'clock really. It feels a lot longer than a day than that. What's on your mind for today's
sports wise? Well, I mean, do we have to talk about the Super Bowl? Not at all. Really.
I mean, honestly, I had two comments on the Super Bowl that I was going to move on. One
thing I do want to say real quick is I believe, I don't know what you can say about a human
being that can't own their mistakes or can't own their takes or any of these things. And
I said about week three that I didn't think Nick Ciriani was a a Super Bowl winning coach.
And I still don't think that he's a Super Bowl winning coach, but I do. I do want to give
credit to him for doing something I did not know he was going to be able to do in that
in the biggest game of his career. He took a step back. He let his coordinators run the
game. He did wear it when he had to do as a coach, but he's not asked to do a whole lot.
He doesn't call offensive plays. He doesn't call defensive plays. He let those guys do their
jobs. And one of them is going to go and be and had coach New Orleans now. And they want
a Super Bowl because he was able to do that. He kept his mouth shut through the game.
And I did not think he was capable of doing that. I thought after the game, he was incredibly
classy. I like the way he handled himself and seeing him with his boys got me that got
me. I didn't think I wouldn't I didn't have that on my emotional bingo card that Nick
C. Nick Ciriani, a little smile would make me happy. I was really happy for Sequan Barkley
and just wanted to own that that I was wrong about that about Nick Ciriani. I do want to
also say real quick. One of my stats of the show and it is the number two. I did something during
the game last night just for the fun of it. And I didn't necessarily start out meaning to,
but I couldn't help myself. And that two times two drives yesterday is the amount of times Tom
Brady did not talk about himself. There were two dry and I'm being literal about this everybody.
Two drives in the whole Super Bowl that he did not reference himself or talk about himself
in some way. That was brought up even on some of the talks. Oh, really? Okay. Good. I was wondering
if it was just me and I was being a jerk for noticing that or if other people did too because
it was just seem like it. It's part of the reason he's in that chair is for some of that.
But not every drive and not every single thing. It was I don't know. If he doesn't have even
a quarter of the pedigree, he does. There's no way he deserves to be in that chair.
There's a million announcers out there that would give anything to be in that spot that went to
school for it that worked through the traveled following a small teams and everything around just
to call games just to do what they love. And this guy just walks into the booth and doesn't even
doesn't even come close to earning it. Well, I mean, eight women did the same thing too.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. When he first started out and I mean, he still does it too. He's like,
I'm back when we were in Dallas. You know, it doesn't do as often as he did. So I mean,
obviously, this is his rookie year. I mean, now is he going to still be able to do the games?
Now that he's got ownership into a team. Yeah. I mean, I don't know.
Because it shouldn't happen. It shouldn't what John Madden didn't own part of the Raiders.
Like, it shouldn't happen. Pat Someral didn't own part of the giants. Like, it shouldn't happen.
He should have to choose either be part of one of the Raiders or being an out sir.
Put one foot in the in one of the other and one real quick thing. I keep hearing
for every person that takes a shot at Tom Brady, I hear more and more people defend him. Why?
Why does he? Why does he get the why why did what is he done to earn? Look, he's getting paid
$350 million to do this. I don't think it's expecting him a lot to for him to be good at the job.
Like, how often in life that we feel sorry for a millionaire like this? Like, oh, be good at the job.
Like, there's a lot of people. There's nobody in the industry being paid even close to what he is.
And he's not even close to being in the top 50 announcers in the country. Let alone in the world
or anything like that. And this guy's making that kind of money. If we're if I'm paying him
to be good at to be I'm paying in that much money, he better be paying good at the job.
Well, right. And I don't disagree with you on that. I mean, look at me. Like I said,
back in the day when Ekman first came out and he would be doing games and it would just, you know,
how many people wanted to turn their TVs off or turn the volume down on the TV and listen to the radio
and those between him and the buck was doing the games. He got to the point where it's like,
really, it's be a little bit more via, you know, could be in all about Dallas and
I agree with you. I agree with you. And I think that it's asking a lot for somebody who just
walked into the job to be good at it. But again, Ekman wasn't paid 350. You're getting paid
that money. I want to be I want you to be good at the job right away. I feel this a very similar
thing about sports. We all have an understanding. Oh, this guy's a rookie. Oh, he's learning in that.
Again, you're getting paid the big bucks to do a job. Get out there and get good at it and get
good at it quick. Otherwise, there's plenty of other people that could do the job. There is so much
time and effort and money put into this and so many people working their tails off. And to have a
guy who does not, I feel like respect the position enough and treat the position well enough. I
say that because I don't feel like I watch Tom Brady throughout his career make mistakes and get
better. I watched him as an NFL player do that. I haven't seen even a smidgen of that as an
announcer. As an announcer, I've seen a guy who feels like he's digressed through the year.
And I don't feel like I've even seen Tom Brady. I just wanted to be himself. I don't think he
it's this is that hard. I don't think it's to try that so hard. I think if he's just whoever he is
as a personality and maybe he is being a little bit, I think that would go a lot farther. But
regardless, I just thought it was funny and a funny stat. Out of all that there was two drives
in the whole game that he did not talk about himself. And both of those drives were eagle drives,
by the way. I thought that was interesting too. What do you want to talk about though? We've
already talked probably too much Super Bowl. Well, I think I'm going to go because we're getting
down to getting close to that magic month coming up here with March Madness. It was kind of a
crazy weekend with college basketball. I mean, Florida beat Auburn, the number, you know,
the number one team in the country, Duke Falada Clemson. And I'm looking right now at the rankings
that they came out today. You know, Florida's this ranked third type with Duke. Yeah. But they
did get three first first plays votes. And Auburn still got all the votes almost with being
number, you know, even though they got beat. And then you look at Wisconsin, they moved up five
spots from 21 to 16. But now we're starting to get, and this is when I kind of start watching,
you know, the Bracketology stuff. Oh, yeah. And they actually have Wisconsin in the Midwest.
And I have no idea who they got just abbreviations LPSCMB. This is on CBS Sports.
Yeah, I'm going to say Long Beach might be Long Beach State. Because I thought I saw them.
I thought I saw them as one of the bubble teams. But regardless, yeah.
Yeah, Wisconsin has a three feet in the Midwest. And then which then they put them at Milwaukee
for the regional. And then they would end up playing the winner, which could be a big 10
showdown because they would, you know, they have Missouri against Ohio State and that other bracket.
So I know it's too early to tell. And but the thing is over this Wisconsin team. And
if they can just this next couple of weeks, they come out and they got a tough schedule coming
up here. Purdue is right around the corner this Saturday. I'll be right here at WFHR. That's the
one. I've been eyeballing this game for a month. And I'm so thankful that both teams, well,
you know, they've had some losses here and there and everything. Both teams have been playing
some pretty steady basketball. This probably could be one of the better games of the regular season
before as we get ready for a big 10 matchup. Right. And, you know, they have Purdue coming up and they
then, you know, they got their nemesis Illinois lately. Illinois is the top for them. But if
if it holds true, they got this week against Purdue. And then they got Michigan State. Those
are the only two ranked teams they got coming up here in the next three weeks. And if it stays
true, what they say about Wisconsin, they can't beat the big teams, but they can beat the teams
they're supposed to be. I mean, they're going to they're going to probably end up, I would say
probably still fourth in the big 10. They will get that first row by.
And then hopefully, I mean, I would like to see them make it in the in the championship Sunday
in the big 10. But I guess I just kind of see how everything falls with their the bracket and
stuff and where they, you know, who they play. But man, this team can shoot. I mean, they have been
they've been lights out. It's been a while since we could say that about a badger team that
that's one of the highlights. That's one of the strengths of this team is it's shooting and
it's three point shooting in particular. I think it's outside the paint shooting as well. It's
better. Those rough kind of areas. They're able to really hit on, um, chanjase been playing
great. I kids, uh, I saw earlier, he's averaging 18 points of game or something like that. I,
I don't believe that's real. It's got to be more than that. I know that I know that it's numbers
that they're not lying, but I feel like it's more than that because it's it's even if he does
score exactly 18. It's they're more than that. They mean more than that. He gets things going for
that team where he'll he'll have a basket. Maybe it's the only basket of the whole quarter. But
everybody else is shooting great and he's setting other guys up. Very fun young player. The, um,
big 10 mat tournament will be on March. Let's see here. I believe March 1st. Um, yeah, no March 12th.
March 12th is when the that one, I want to get excited about March madness, but the conference
play in the conference tournaments always catch my eye first. I'm I really want to see a good showing
not just from Wisconsin, but the big 10. I want to see great competitive basketball because
unlike in football where teams literally beat each other up and and they're not the same
the very next week or whatever. You get a little of that in basketball, but I think more than anything
as we've seen, especially out of big East teams, a team has a good conference, you know, a good,
a good run in the tournament and they take that to the big dance.
Great. And you know, there's five teams in the big 10 that are ranked right now. We've got through
with seven Michigan state 11 Michigan 20 Wisconsin at 16 and then Maryland at 25, which you know,
it's kind of, you know, yeah, they got the badgers have a better record than Maryland, but
they're, you know, and they get in they're kind of tied for overall record with Michigan,
both those teams be Wisconsin and they're ranked higher than there. Yeah. Um, I just hope,
I mean, I said it, but you listen to great guard. He said this to the surprise of the most
uh, close team that he's ever coached. I mean, they're, they're, they spend time together. They,
they're, uh, having fun together and you could see it out. You could see it on the court. I mean,
that's just, um, playing the simple. And it goes, uh, that goes to show to, um, that with a lot of,
you know, transferring and, and uh, some of those things in the portal and some of that stuff that
goes on with college sports, that it's about the players and if they want to and if they try to bond,
they can even in the short amount of time. Uh, because I, it's one of my favorite things about
watching this team right now and even listening to this team, you can hear it. You can hear it on the
court. You can feel it in the players. Winner lose these guys enjoy playing together. Uh, that,
that's winning basketball almost every time. There's, there's plenty of stories about shack and
Kobe not getting along in these things. They didn't hate each other. You can't, you can't,
you have to have, uh, uh, somewhat cohesive unit out there. They ain't got to be best friends,
but they have to get along to a certain level. And it's such a different style of basketball and
game of basketball when people enjoy playing together. I say this, uh, with ingest, but also it
was some seriousness. It's part of the reason the globe trotters are still going. Because they,
they love what they do. They love enjoying playing the game and everything. It's why you see a
70 year old globe trotter still or something like that, uh, that basketball is one of those sports.
I don't know that, I don't know that you can play successful basketball if you're just unhappy
all the time. If you're, if you're not happy in your surroundings, if you're not happy around
your team, that's, that's a life, you know, in, in everybody gets in situations like that. But
you, I don't feel like, I feel like you see it all the time in basketball where a player or a team
just isn't there and then you move one piece here or there and boom, everybody's all right,
everybody's getting along and stuff. It's, it's such a smaller, uh, yeah, it is the smallest of
all the team sports. Uh, they, they have the smallest roster of all the team sports. And I think
that has a little to do with it. Yeah, you know, and I'm kind of, um, as you're talking, I'm trying
to look up some stats real quick that with Wisconsin, um, that I don't think I've seen it's
before with the team is that they're shooting 35, almost 37% from three point range. Yeah,
they're clip is amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And they've shot their attempts are higher than I've never,
I think I've ever seen it. Yeah. 672. But the one big thing that I guess I'm, that I think was
the badgers is the little different. I think in years past is that they're averaging 10
turnovers a game where when both Ryan teams, I don't think they were even close to that. Yeah,
at a per game on turnovers. So, but I mean, they're still, they're still making their shots. Um,
time J is, there's a great transfer, a great portal pickup. Um, I know, I think you and I and
Michael talked about this last week that you didn't know how this was going to be. Yeah.
You know, they had the badgers picked what 14th or whatever, like in the bottom part of the conference
because they weren't because they didn't have a name. In time, Jay, you actually talked about that
on our interview. I heard that nobody expected the badgers to be where they're at. But like he said
that they were looking at the names. They weren't looking at the team. They were looking at the names.
Well, and now we have, yeah. I do. It's amazing. It is. Uh, the thing that stands on
and I don't mean to jump on you here, but you set me up perfectly because this is one other,
the one other thing I wanted to talk about with the Super Bowl and it ties perfectly into what
time J and what you're talking about with the badgers basketball team here and the motivation factor.
When you get to a certain level college pros, there is not a gigantic difference most of the time
with your starting left tackle on this team and you're starting left tackle on that team. There
is a, your Trent Williams out there and your guys that just stand out and he'd walk into the room and
you know, that's an all pro. And then there's, you know, the rest of the league where it's pretty
pretty close to it and everything. What, what differs is everything between the ears and in the heart.
And when, you know, I talk about Patrick Mahomes all the time and his creativity and how that
can not only keeps plays alive, but it's such a bell weather for the rest of the team of men.
That's what my, that's what the highest paid player in the organization is willing to do to win.
Even when there's no chance of winning, he's still going out there and trying to make plays happen
et cetera, you know, whatever. The same thing can be said for when the Eagles lose the Super Bowl
a couple of years back and Jalen Hertz is out there. Well, the rest of his team is in a locker room
and he's out there watching the confetti and watching it all happen and that motivation and where
that can take you. If you, if you believe in it, if you really truly do give all in and Tom J's
touching on that, where they, the doubters, the, the, the, the naysayers, what they does to motivate
you and everything. I think there's a great life lesson in all of that for anybody. It doesn't
matter if you, you don't play a sport or not. I think that you can take a lot from that.
Well, yeah, I mean, and that I think that probably what brings a team that together more too is when
you, you have those doubters and say, you know, like, there you go. So let's go out there and just
take it to them and show them who we really are. I mean, you know, you want to go back to the Super Bowl.
I mean, everybody was, you know, for, you know, we can't be bad on Kansas City. You know, they came,
they had 12 one score games all year long and, you know, how many of they come back on it and all this.
And I, I kind of had a sneaky suspicion that it could end up being the way it was last night where
filled off those incomes, you know, punch them in the mouth and just take it to them and, and, and,
just keep grinding and just keep their, their foot on the floor and going and, and not letting up. And,
and it came back and showed, I mean, obviously with, um, uh, I'll show it to I came in. Um, their
offense, a coordinator knowing that he's probably this was the me as last. Yeah, telling more,
telling more, but I mean, and then also they could be looking for a new defensive coordinator could,
you know, oh, yeah, I could see Fangio retiring. You know, Fangio got what he needed and this is what
he wanted and, and, but man, I just have to, I've to, I've to admit something with that too.
Watching the Super Bowl with my father a bit and everything and going into it, my dad was talking
about a lumbarity a bit and being a kid and watching lumbarity and how he was the only Italian coach
and all the NFL and all of, almost all of sports, you know, and, and how rare it was. And now,
here we are watching the biggest game in the world. And he got Spagnolia and Fangio going up
against each other as defensive coordinators. And we're looking at each other. We're like, oh, we
can't lose. I mean, we're Italians. We can't lose here. Either one of the, we got to follow
the other way. We got it was, it was, it was funny, but it, um, it also led to a better conversation
about, um, while so many things change in the NFL, uh, going back to those early packer teams to,
to the team that just won not even 24 hours ago, uh, there are certain things that have never changed.
And they say defense wins championships. And they're, it's only half the story. Punching people
in the mouth wins championships. Right. Wins the last team that won a Super Bowl that wasn't
punching in the mouth, even the Kansas City teams of the last two years. It wasn't Patrick Mahomes
doing these amazing plays that was winning those games. It was Chris Jones. It was, uh, you know,
Chanel last year, a badger, another badger showing up in the Super Bowl again like last year,
with Chanel and this year with, uh, uh, uh, Braun and everything, um, that, you know,
Wisconsin fans got to be a little happy about that. I would think, uh, enjoyed that part of it.
I hope the NFL, I hope that if, if you are a, a fan of a team out there and you are not the
Detroit Lions, because that's the only team I'm, I'm not talking about right now. Everybody else in
the NFL needs to take notice and be reminded that this is what wins championships. You have a
front office that does not blink. They go after guys and they get them. You have, you have an
organization that saw that they had something here and they didn't give up on it and rebuild.
They stuck with the coaches, whether I greed with them or not. And, and they punched people in the
mouth and they got players and drafted players that punched people in the mouth. That's how you win
football. You can have all the cool plays you want. You can have all the million dollar players
you want. All the first round draft picks you want. You can have the greatest 40 times in the
fastest team out there. Can they punch somebody in the mouth? That's football. Like that hasn't changed.
The player sizes and everything have changed. All these other aspects of the game change
until they turn it into flag football, that is not going to stop. If your team is not built for that,
you are not going to win a Super Bowl. That, that's just, it's not going to happen. There's no way.
If, if, if any other reason, then how long they're making this game, how many weeks there are,
how many games there are, the, the teams that can survive that punch, that take a punch left and let
right, that's the teams that go on and win. We've been seeing it for decades now. You got to build
your team that way from the core on up. You start with that O and defensive line and you build out
from there. Philly got that. They did that right. Kansas City tried that. Kansas City tried that
and they tried to be that team. They, they, they ran up against a team that was a bigger,
a better puncher and a tougher punch. But with, you know, your, how we were talking about how
defense was championships, there was a sound bite that I heard today from Jalen Hertz.
And I, which, and I, I don't know if that was from Mike or who was from, but he said that
offense wins games, defense wins championships. And that was right straight from Jalen Hertz.
Yeah. And that was a good one. I mean, he put all the credit and all the credit
that says defense last night and how they just, I mean, yeah, I was impressed with him. Not,
not certainly his play, obviously his play. You know, they, they had a great defensive scheme.
They were going to knock out, say, Juan Barclay and makes Jalen Hertz beat him and Jalen Hertz
beat him that he did his job and he did a good. But what I was so more impressed with was him
after the game and the way he just conducts himself every interview. I would like to see a little
personality. I'm not going to say that I wouldn't, I, you know, I, it'd be nice. I think that they've
really ground grind these guys and these players to where it doesn't matter what happens to them.
They're going to say the same sound bite every single time and that's gotten really annoying. But
at the same time, the demeanor of him and the ice water and that kid's veins. Yeah, it was fun
to watch. I thought it was fun. And that, and even though say, Juan didn't have a big game or
anything, and I was really looking forward to seeing that, I was still, I was still really enjoying
his game and watching him play the game and playing it so well. It's been a lot of fun talking
with you, man. Thanks so much for the time, Kev. All right. You have a great day. I got something
else I'll talk about with on Wednesday. Sounds great, man. Sounds great. I appreciate it.
And looking forward to it. We are going to take a quick time out. We'll come back and we're
going to have the fourth period. GM head coach Paul Beckman going to be joining us. We'll be hanging
out with him more coming up here on Playmakers, which is proudly brought to you by family natural
foods and quality plus printing. Welcome back, everybody to WFHRs Playmakers.
Have your host, James Biden, the Mike, and I am joined right now. But GM head coach of your
Wisconsin Rapids River Kings. Coach Paul Beckman joining us. Coach, good to see you. Good to have
you with us in studio. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. Appreciate the time as always.
We got the fourth period here where we're going to take a little bit of time talking some river
kings hockey with you, everybody. You can follow along at riverkingshockey.com and encourage you to
follow the boys of winter as they build hockey up and down the river. We're going to talk some
game with the coach here in just a minute in the showcase. But coach, we got a guest in here.
We got introduced right away. We do. We do. We have Dominic Hyte here. We just came in the town
today. We just signed him from the Hudson Havoc. Gold tender here that we had the pleasure of
playing against our own pleasure. I should say they gave us a lot of fits and I thought it was a
great ad for us going down a stretch here. Coach, real quick, I don't mean to get in the weeds on
this or anything, but I know I think that it's not common knowledge necessarily how this works.
How can a player be able to do that contractually and all that? Well, it's just really between two
teams. The agreement and some needs and whatever they want and that kind of thing and usually it's
player for player or player for a fee or whatever it may be, right? Dominic is 20 years old and he
brings that age and that experience. Something that, you know, I mean, the other three guys are a lot
younger and it's just something that I think it could be the missing link to what we got to make
it deeper on you. That's what I wanted to go to next and thank you for that. I appreciate that.
I just didn't find that stuff interesting and I think it also highlights the class and the way
that we feel about the USPHL and how it's about the players first. It really does seem to really
focus on the players first and foremost and I always like that about show of highlighting that.
Do you, you mentioned this being a missing piece? Is this, do you think this is one of those things
that does lead to a stronger playoff run here? Well, I think experience, you know, I mean, you
can't put a dollar amount on that or that's something that especially in that position.
I think we're pretty good team, right? But goal tending and our goal is a good one. We got three
good goal tenders, but they're young, they're inexperienced. They haven't been in the trenches.
Dominic has played some unbelievable games against the squash with a team that that wasn't as tough
in front of him. So he's faced a lot of shots, right? So he's got that in his back pocket and
bringing that here would have been a team in front of him like the way we play. I think he's
going to serve him well, which will serve us well and and I think the other guys are going to,
they're going to watch and it's not like they're going to not going to get a gamer too,
which is, you know, we're just going to play it by year. But mainly, I think, you know,
Dominic is going to take the brunt of it here. Dominic, when it comes to that and what you can,
what do you feel you can bring to this team? Does it start right there? Experience or does it
having a similar name as one of the greatest goalies of all time? Is that a little bit of it too?
I mean, I do get that a lot. I imagine you got it, right? Yeah. Um, honestly, I mean,
yeah, the experience part is a big factor, I think, but I think, uh, I mean, obviously,
the other three goals are great. Like, very good. But um, I'm just really excited to kind of try and
make a big playoff or make a big impact on the team. I mean, I'm, I'm excited to be here to start
winnest of games. What is it about, um, this sport that brought you to it to begin with? Um,
it's going to sound really dumb, but just it being cold. I'm, uh, I was born and raised in
Minnesota. So I'm pretty used to the weather. And I just, I can't do hot sports. It's not for me.
Right. This is my father's the same thing, man. I just made my dad so happy. I thought you
would him. I think of the only people I've ever asked that question. He's the first way they
respond to it. But there is something different about playing in cold weather and playing on the ice
and all that. Um, when it comes to playing goalie, what was it about goalie? They brought you to that.
I think for me, it was just the athletic part of it. I think it's just how different it is compared
to the being of forward or a defenseman because like, I started off as a defenseman. It wasn't very
good, but I tried goalie and it was just, I mean, partially because I didn't have to get off the ice
either. You're just staying with the whole game. So that also does help. Uh, interesting. Uh,
coming out of the week's games and everything coach, I wanted to talk a little bit about goalie
play with you. Uh, we'll get to that in a second. But first, uh, Dominic, great to have you in town,
by the way. I appreciate you being here. Thanks for showing up. He's here for five minutes and
comes on the air with us and everything. That's a good kid. Um, when it comes to, uh, what was,
uh, over the week, uh, over the past week, you guys were in Chicago and my old stomping grounds and
everything. How did that go? It was good. It was good. It was a lot of fun. You know, we go, we did
the outdoor, uh, inner squad game, the blue white game. So that was a lot of fun. It's always good
to take the boys down that little break in the monotony of the January, February grind, you know.
Uh, it was good to have fun on a way out to Battle Creek. Rosemont's a great area. That's a great,
uh, uh, uh, a rink, uh, my dad is a race, race down that and everything. It's, it's a fun one.
That's, that's really cool. That, that's, that's, it had to be a great experience where
there are scouts around. Were there anything like that happening? No, it's just, just us, you know,
even better. It's just having fun. Uh, certainly we want every opportunity for you guys, Dominic,
to get to the next level and help you guys do that and everything. But at the same time, uh,
I think one of the best things about hockey and I think it's a sport that does it better than
any other sport. You almost have to take the moments. Yeah. You almost have to in this game to,
take breaths and be like, man, I get to do this. This is what I get to do. This is, you know,
whatever level you're at. This is what I get to do for a living. We do this. I do this with the
team around here all the time with radio. We're having a long week or whatever. And like,
remember, we get to do this for a living. This is what we get to do. Not everybody gets to do this.
Uh, it's a privilege to be able to do this stuff. It's a nice reminder of that. I'm great to hear,
great to hear that it went well. Let's talk about the weekend, uh, games, uh, uh, I, I feel like
this is another one of those weeks, uh, coach, where I can talk about one game, but I'm really
talking about both games, uh, both games, uh, two one victories for the Kings, two very different games.
Um, uh, now I, I do want to take a moment. I, I looked up his name and I, we're, we're talking
about goalies here. I want to make, uh, Galvin Regan, uh, the goalie for Battle Creek.
Wanted to shout him out a little bit because that young man had a, uh, two back-to-back great games,
uh, just, just coming up one goal short in each game. And I'm glad he did, to be honest,
because I'm, uh, I'm a, I'm a homer by far away. But just want to, we don't get to know
other players very often on other teams. And I, I couldn't help looking at those stats being
like that. That kid had a couple of good games there. If, um, if you ask a goalie to play one of
those games, that's really something back-to-back nights. That's really a lot on him. Uh, good,
good shout, a good a game by him. He was definitely a different snow question about it. I mean,
we dominated for most, most part, right? And that kid, he stood in the set, you know, reminded me a
lot like this guy here because what he did, uh, the first time we played him here. So it's, uh,
like, they got ten new players from the last time we played him. So, uh, they brought in some
guys and, you know, coached a good job upgrading his team. And, uh, they gave us a lot to,
to handle for a while. And it was getting a little nervous in the first game. It was losing one,
nothing going into the third period. But, uh, the boys didn't get rattled and we just stayed focused
and just, uh, kept grinding and take advantage of the opportunities.
The, um, the one thing that stood out to me about the outside of the winning and everything,
what these games, uh, the game two, uh, shots on goal, uh, they had 34. We had 32. You
don't see that very often, uh, where the losing, um, the losing team has more shots on goal.
And you don't see it very often where the Kings have that few shots on goal. What happened there?
Well, those numbers aren't correct. I didn't think so. I, I, I, I did not think so, man. I was
wondering, it was going to ask you off air if we didn't get to it, uh, uh, in the show,
in the segment here and up, but okay, that, that, that makes a lot more sense. Yeah, even close.
We can move on that. Yeah. Um, but I, I, I do want to, I actually give us more time to talk
about goalie play a little bit here because you, you touched on this already. I think, um,
even your average, uh, watcher of the team this year wouldn't necessarily say, well,
are, are we need help at goalie? But I think a smart coaching staff, uh, a good team that knows
its team and is in tune is looking at more than stats and knows the game that's more than that.
Um, you mentioned something really quick and it's not, uh,
often we get to say this about a 20 year old, but experience. How much difference that makes.
And you can have, uh, all the talent in the world, but there's nothing like doing things in real time.
Uh, we'd talk about this with, uh, your everyday announcers you see doing, uh, TV news. Um, with a job
like that, there's only one way to learn it. You have to go out there and do it in real time.
On the job, on the job and in sports is like that completely. When it comes to that, it's no
different. A kid can have a great regular season, but the playoffs are completely different.
Having somebody like Dominic there, even when not on the ice, I would imagine is also
an asset just with his demeanor and his experience. Well, you hope so. You hope so that the guys
in the locker room, you know, absorb that. Yeah. Right. So, um, uh, it's what nobody sees is what I
see on a day-to-day basis, right? And in practice. And that's how I evaluated all you long.
And it's, you know, you give guys certain opportunities. And my job is to put guys in position
to be successful. Now, whether that means not being in the lineup or in the lineup depends.
Because if you look at all three records with these guys, they'll have outstanding records.
And the numbers are good. It's because there's strategically put in certain spots to succeed,
which is going to help them. And some of those guys, I know they don't look into it like I do.
So they don't understand it, right? And again, that goes back to the maturity and the experience part
of it. They don't know why, right? And that those are conversations for another day. But, um,
that there's a reason why I do everything that I do. And it'll help them in the long run.
And for now, it's about bringing in a guy with a ton of experience that's going to lead the way.
And for them to absorb, watch, learn, okay? And be ready when your number's called, right? And that's
that's junior hockey. That's life. That's what that's how you learn to get to the next step.
We talked about this months ago when we were starting the season and we were watching the
Kings from afar as you guys had a long road run to begin the season. Here we are at the end. We
are looking forward to these home games and wrapping up the season kind of at home no matter
when or when or whatever happens in the playoffs. We've got these four home games kind of wrap
to wrap up the season with. What are you looking for out of these guys as you're building
a getting ready for playoff hockey? Well, I think we have looking for consistency. I'm looking for
guys to really hone in on what we're trying to accomplish, whether and that could change from
period to period, right? That kind of thing on structure, systems, tempo, all that kind of stuff
is, you know, let's do this, let's do that. And then guys, I want to see guys that can see it
and implement it, right? And that's really the difference of going from a regular season to playoffs,
right? There's a lot more to take, right? And now the deeper we go, the higher your stock rises
and more coaches are watching. And I think that's what I'm really waiting to see. And there's
just a few guys and especially the 19 year olds, the old fives and the old sixes that have
potential to come back or move up. I want to see how they're going to react, right? We have a lot
of guys that the old fours that have been here last year that have just dominated this year.
I know where they bring to the table. Now it's supporting cast that really have to step up here
if we're going to go deep. Dominic, have you been to rabbits before? Have you been in town before
other than maybe the play to Kings or anything? No, this is the first time. All right,
off air. There's a bunch of great restaurants. I got to tell you about that. This is what we
got to do. We'll sit you up that way and everything. But as far as with the team, what are you
looking to do as far as chemistry-wise in building with these guys? How do you do that? How do you
like to do that? Today was a pretty damn good start, I think. All the guys are really welcoming.
I showed up and they just all shook my hand and introduced themselves. It was pretty great,
to be honest. It's a bit of a right of passage. I have to go up on the air and put up with my
questions, too. It's a build up. It's a build up. Yeah. But honestly, just the more I hang out with
and the more I spend time with them, skate with them even, skating for sure, though, just kind of
building that trust and building that. We're going to do this, we're going to make a run. I think
that'll definitely help for sure. Have fun. Enjoy it, man. It's great to have you in town. It's great
to have you on the show here and everything. You're welcome back with Coach anytime. It's been a
lot of fun doing this. I want to remind everybody that go to riverkingshockey.com,
get your tickets as we've got the Kings back in town on Valentine's Day. That's a fun one right
there. Asante coming to town to take on the riverkings, both Friday and Saturdays weekend,
7 o'clock, puck drop over at the South of County Rec Center. Let's show them on home ice advantages,
get your tickets and help the boys of winter build hockey up and down the river. Be sure to follow
them on social media as well and share their posts on your pages. You just never know who might see
it otherwise. Thanks for the time, guys. Appreciate it. Of course. Thank you. Talk again,
real soon, Coach. We'll be back with more show coming up here on Playmakers at WFHR.
Welcome back, everybody to WFHR's Playmakers. Got your host, James behind the mic. Take
you right up to the top of the hour. Get you ready for night light with Pete Schwabba. Thanks a lot
for joining us, everybody. That was a great time with Coach Paul and Dominic being here.
Great to welcome Dominic to town. That way, that was fun. We should make a thing of that. That was
actually a lot of fun doing that. Be sure to follow your kings as your boys of winter as they
build hockey up and down the river, riverkingshockey.com, follow them on all your socials. As long as we're
talking about local teams and everything as well, want to remind everybody, if you didn't get to catch
the interview, great interview on Midday Magazine today had a couple of Raptors front office members
in with us. I want to encourage you to go check that interview out and be sure to get ready for your
season tickets of Raptor hockey North R. LaRaffer baseball at northwoodsleg.com. Be sure to do that.
I'll be honest, I got hockey on the brain. I got hockey on the brain. I've been enjoying this riverkings
season so much and I was talking to coach there and then I look at the schedule and I see there's
only a couple of games left in the regular season and it may be sad. I don't want the season to end.
But I'm excited about the playoffs and I'm excited in the NHL with the all-star weekend that they
have lined up. For those that are not paying attention, I get it. I understand football takes over a
lot of brain power. You only have so much brain width to be able to take in so much sports.
So now that football season is over and everything, let me take over some of that brain years with NHL
hockey and riverkings hockey and some of it is really cool, I think. What they're doing with the
all-star game this year is the best of four nations where they've got Finland, Sweden, Canada and
USA all lined up going up against each other. And not for nothing, the USA team pretty loaded.
Pretty loaded USA team, man. So that should be pretty fun. I'm going to be following along.
I'm looking forward to that. We are earlier talking a little basketball with Kev. That was a lot of
fun I thought. Not only a fun season and fun talking basketball, but it's this badger season has
been great. The men's and women's side have been fun. No, the lady badgers haven't been
record wise is great, but I think if you've been watching the games listening to the games right
here, you've heard some really good basketball. So they're a lot to build on there. And of course,
the boys side, the men's side has been fantastic. As long as we're talking basketball, I did want
to touch on one other thing over those sports weekend that I noticed. And what the 20 hours of
pregame that they do for the Super Bowl, I don't know about all of you, but when I was a kid,
I might have taken in a good 13 of those 20 hours. But now I just, I don't know. I don't really
watch a lot of it. So while I actually had a moment to watch TV, I don't really have that very often.
Over on the other channel, they had the NBA on Milwaukee Bucks playing. And I like seeing Damon
Lillard. Damon Lillard's probably my favorite player. I was going to look forward to watching that.
What I didn't know was that it was he'll be brown calling the game. I didn't know that he'll be brown
was going to be calling his last game this weekend. I didn't realize it was that game.
And for those that don't know, he'll be brown one of the long time great announcers in announcing,
especially in basketball, but just in announcing in general. He'll be brown is one of these guys
like Neil deGrasse Tyson or somebody who can explain the most complex things in the world and
make it simple where I can even understand it. He did that with basketball all the time.
Legendary coach, legendary announcer, just a great run. And we're losing more and more of
these legends of announcing, legends of voice and the people that bring these sports to us.
For so long, now we have been spoiled by visuals of sports to where so many of us, including
myself, will mute games instead of listening to announcers. And I'll just follow it along
out over the corner of my eye or something like that. When for the longest time, the only way
you could take in the game was through the announcer. It was over the radio. And there was an art
to this. There was a style to this. You had to be good at the job. And if you weren't, you didn't
last at any level. And while that has changed quite a bit and announcing has changed quite a bit,
I don't think that core part of it has changed. It's part of my frustration with Tom Brady.
And him just being handed this job just because he's Tom Brady. And part of my standard for
announcing. I think, you know, I don't think I don't. It's one thing in sports to expect greatness.
Well, these are professional athletes and have trained worked and all that for this thing.
Announcing, there's a lot of good announcers out there. And they all deserve shots.
But the ones that are good at it deserve to be, you know, celebrated. And it should be like,
you know, highlighted much, much more. And as we lose these legends more and more, I don't see
people replacing them. There are great announcers out there. I've talked a lot. I think Kevin
Burkhart's a good one. My favorite announce. I love Kevin Harland. I love listening to him. I
love listening to him call a game. I think he's fantastic. I think he makes he is one of those
guys that can also explain the game very well. Well, also feeling like he's just in the room with
you hanging out. And of course, Bob Euker, who we are missing and going to be missing. And more
on you can a second. But as we're talking about Huebe Brown, our real stat of the show today,
it gave you a two. There was two drives in the Super Bowl. The Tom Brady did not talk about
himself. That was our fun stat of the first half of the show. Second half, this is the real stat of
the show. According to the reports, Huebe Brown, legendary NBA coach and broadcaster,
is said to have coached against or broadcast games featuring roughly 80% of all the players
in NBA history. 80% he either coached four or coached against or he announced 80% of the NBA's
history. Just an incredible stat, an incredible legacy. And also made me think of Duke a little bit
because if you remember one of my stats of the show a little while ago when we lost Bob Euker,
Bob Euker broadcast 3.5% of all major league baseball games in history.
3.5 games in all of MLB history. Well, the NBA has been around for a while. It hasn't been around
nearly as long as MLB. I think both stats are amazing. But that just really stood out to me
about Huebe Brown and wanted to make sure to note that. I got to watch some of that game. I
pretty much watched the whole fourth period and everything. I thought that was pretty cool.
I mentioned Euker for another reason because it was announced today. We've heard some rumblings
about this already, but it was announced this morning that the Milwaukee Brewers are going to
honor Bob Euker with a uniform patch. And it is pretty cool. If you have not gotten to see it,
you can go on there social media and look. It'll be on the sleeve and it's circular. And it has
appended in the middle that says Bob Euker on it. It has the the new-ish logo of the Milwaukee Brewers
where it's a baseball, but it's with the grains, the brewing grains on there as the seams,
which is a great idea. But then there is a like a flannel, a plaid, if you will, around it.
And I know I'm a little biased about this because Euker is one of my favorite people
little known announcers of all time. But that's one of the cooler logos. That's one of the cooler
respectful kind of things I think I've seen. Also, I heard somebody say, they granted, I don't
heard one person say this, but they were a diehard brewer fan. I heard one person say, wow,
they're just giving them a patch. Well, what else do you do? How do you honor somebody like that?
Somebody that meant that much to your organization, to your to the sport, to the state.
What way can you honor Bob Euker that's fitting? Every first born in the state has to be named Bob.
No, I mean, how do you honor somebody like that? It's nearly impossible. I think the patch
and that patch staying there, because from what I'm reading, that patch ain't going anywhere.
It's not just for this year. That thing's staying there. I think that's a pretty great way to
honor him. I think that's a pretty honorable way to do that. And I'll be fair too here. I don't
know how you would. I think that's just as good of a way of doing it as any. A big tip of the hat,
the baseball cap to the Milwaukee Brewers. Nice move by them and that. I think that's a great move.
We are getting ready for spring training. Pictures and catchers are going to be reporting very soon.
Actually, for the Chicago Cubs, pictures and catchers have already reported the camp.
And this week, the Dodgers and Rays, pictures and catchers will be reporting the camp.
They're the first teams as they're getting ready, of course, for the Tokyo series. They'll be coming
up in March 18th and 19th. First spring training, training games happen on my birthday. Actually,
happened on the next, on February 20th coming up here. That's going to be exciting.
And it's the perfect shift away from football right into America's pastime.
Excited about the baseball season. I think there's a lot to look forward to. I think there's
a lot that's going to be fun about it. So, I don't know, I'm excited about it. And I'm certainly
excited about Raptor baseball, especially after the guests we got to hang out with today.
We had a really good time. I do want to send a quick shout out to, and not only to,
I'm sorry, to Jake and Gwen for the time today, but to the Raptor's organization who we've been working
with in front of y'all and behind the scenes to make our relationship that much stronger.
We're going to have such a fun season. You're going to be hearing from the players more. We got
more time here on playmakers now. So, we're going to be having the players down here a lot more.
We'll be talking with coach. It's going to be a lot of fun. I have a lot of fun.
And as long as we're talking about fun, it is a blast every time we get to have the fourth period.
The friendship and the relationship we have with coach Paul is second to none. And I am so
appreciative of him and him just being able to stop by and talk hockey, talk, it's been great.
We've been really having a lot of fun with the Kings this season. I don't want to say we're spoiled.
I think this town deserves and has earned this, but we're spoiled that. We got some really fun
teams around here that are very successful in doing very well as organizations.
That's even before we get to wins and losses. I'm talking about the kind of kids that they bring
into this town, what they do in this town. The economic impact that they have on this town
that really stands out. And the winning is a lot of fun too.
Follow your River Kings as they build hockey up and down the river River Kings hockey dot com.
And of course, the boys of summer getting ready to take things over for the boys of winter.
Go ahead and help them do that in Northwoods league dot com. It's been a fun show. Thanks to our
callers. You guys are the best listeners in radio. Appreciate you. We back on Wednesday with
another edition of Playmakers for you. Got a lot of fun there. Michael, I believe we'll be joining
us. So we'll be shifting gears him and I am talking a lot more basketball. I imagine and
having some fun there and getting ready for baseball. That being right around the corner.
It'll be a good time. Big thank you to Quality Plus Printing and Family Natural Foods. Have a
good night everybody. This is locally grown radio WFHR 1328F W24 ADE Wisconsin Rapids and always streaming
on the Civic Media app.