Well, come back everyone. Playmakers on 105-5, W-I-R-I. Hope you all are having a great afternoon out there. Thanks so much for joining us. Michael and James here with you.
And, you know, this is a great music. You know, I enjoy it and everything. But it's not the music that we need. We need to set this up right.
Let's go ahead and make sure that we get this right here. Where is there we go?
Okay, now I can talk hockey. Now I can talk hockey. All right, let's do it. Wait for stomping time.
We'll get to it. We'll get to it. It's time for the fourth period, everybody. It is that time of year where we're talking River King's hockey here at home of the Wisconsin Rapids River Kings.
All their home games we have for you right here at 105-5. Be on the lookout for that throughout the season. We're looking forward to it.
We're looking forward to getting into the fourth period with our good friend, GM Head Coach, Paul Peckman with us. Coach, good to see you. How you doing?
Doing great, man. Doing great. Thanks for having us.
Appreciate you being here and appreciate you bringing along some company. We've got Rich with us, your assistant coach. Rich, how you doing?
I'm doing good. Thanks. Thanks for being here, Rich.
I want the audience to get to know you a little bit first. So I'm going to ask you some really hard, difficult questions. Rich, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from?
I'm originally from Long Island. I now live in Wilmington, North Carolina. So I just got here about three days ago. Right up.
So I'm just settling in. I played college hockey at RIT and Rochester. I've been last six years. I've been head coach in the UNCW team in Wilmington, North Carolina.
And also the hockey director. Right on. Right on. So this is my first time in Wisconsin.
Oh, really? First time ever in Wisconsin? Yeah. Yeah. It's all new. It's all new. Right on. Right on. I think you got a little bit to go.
You got a little time, but we'll help you out when it comes to that. Certainly anything you need. Let us know showing you around anything like that, man.
What brought you to this division to the USPHL, to the River Kings? Did you have a connection with Coach or anything?
That's exactly how I got here. Actually, me and Paul and I coached against each other. He was at another university.
I don't know if he wants to be said. So I won't. Well, the question is who got the better roof?
No. Rich got the better of me. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Smart, man. You forget that. And coach Paul, if you can't, if you can't beat them, join them. Right? Right.
Smart, very smart book. So that's exactly how it happened. Right on. He had an opening and he felt that this team should go to Nationals and I'm all about, you know, going to Nationals.
In a big part of that, I do believe, yeah, you might have gotten the better of you. A couple of times coach is he's got a slight resemblance to Barry Melrose.
Absolutely. So that's that help. That will help that's a stylist coach right there. One of our stylist coaches you've seen. Rich, what do you if this is an interview job interview kind of thing?
And you're looking at what your strengths are. What is it that you're looking to bring to the Kings to add to this team?
I'm one of a couple of national championships myself. So I feel that I know what it takes or I have an idea of what it takes to win. And you know, you want to pass that along to the players.
And something that I've already picked up in three practices is coach Paul pays attention to the small details. And that's really what it's all about. Yeah, everybody has good hockey players.
It's the one that actually produce and pay attention around the systems.
When you're able to do that, when you're able to add that to the team, it can be the difference maker.
You know, I hear this a lot in like F1 and NASCAR and these things. All these cars, all these guys, they're great at what they do.
They're looking at shaving off a half a second here, a half a second there. And that's the difference of winning. It's a very similar thing in sports in general, but especially in hockey.
And I got to say I got to do this real quick. There's no other sport like this. I talked to somebody and I asked them the resume or something.
And if they won national championships, it's not only the first thing they say, they say it proudly. You say it is nonchalantly as anybody has ever said.
Yeah, that's hockey players, man. That's hockey. That's hockey. You never stop being a hockey player no matter how old you get or what other titles you have and everything.
I love that. My father's the same way. Rich, when it comes to things you're looking forward to out of this team, we're in training camp right now.
You've just got here, I know. So you really haven't gotten a chance to see anything yet. But are there things that you're, you've talked with coach about that you know,
that can be a strength for this team, something that you look like you can add to?
Well, I think that whatever coach is trying to preach being that I've been a head coach before, I can preach the same thing.
And hopefully I'll be telling the players exactly what he wants me to say, because I know as a head coach, if you have an assistant coach that you don't trust and he's saying something different, it can explode.
Yeah, yeah. Rich, we're lucky to have you, man. It's great to have you here. We're going to have a fun season together. This is going to be a lot of fun here in town. This is going to be great.
Coach, the season I'm speaking of, it is, it is in the, you know, early days right now of that. We've been kind of giving people a little bit of a look behind the curtain on how that's going.
We're talking our pregame a little bit, training camp getting going. How's that? It's going well. It's going well. I like what we got.
You know, maybe one of two surprises that actually were better than expected.
You know, and you got a couple young guys, right? So that you could see the difference. The, the returners that are coming back just look real good so long.
I was going to ask you about the returning players. You know, I mean, you got guys like Ilya and Indyman and Balduk and all strand and Shaw and guys like that that just really look really good.
They know the standard. They know what's asked of them. And I'm sure and I've met several of those young men and great quality, great quality character, great players too.
That they're kind of saying, hey, this is how we do it here. This is what you do. You figured out how to do it. It's exactly right. And that's what we talk about.
And they've all been talked to already, you know, we took the leadership group aside in day one and just listen, you have to preach that to the new guys coming in.
This is the way we do things here, right? And there's no deviating from that. You can't get to nationals unless you're all pulling the rope in the same direction.
It starts from day one, right? And you talk about the little things and things like that. It's things like that. It's the mindset, right? This is what we're doing.
You don't get there if you don't start here.
The mindset, you hit right on the word that I was thinking of a words. I was thinking of because again, going back to it.
And this, especially in this league, but really at any level of hockey, a lot of these guys got similar skills, similar talent.
Most of these guys put on skates before they could speak. Some of them, you know, I mean, four or five years old or first wearing skates.
There isn't nothing that you're going to necessarily be able to do that they haven't done in some ways in training camp.
But their mindset, what you can do there in that repetition that you can create, that winning mentality kind of thing.
It's not just, you know, every day waking up and thinking, I'm going to win. There's more to it than that.
There's such a routine to winning. There's a process to it. You don't wake up in the morning and it just happens.
It takes a lot of time and oftentimes it's between the ears that you really got to focus on.
When it comes to, you know, training these guys and then learning plays, then learning ins and outs in all the game. That's one thing.
But how do you train the mind? How do you work that out?
Everything that we do or everything that we talk about is with a purpose.
So you have to constantly remind them why we're doing this.
And that's how you get it to the point where it's second nature and they all understand it.
Why do we do this? Because of this, this and this.
So the mindset is, right, why are we doing training camp, all fights?
Why are we up here at 8 o'clock in the morning? Why are we working on this, this and this?
And it could be simple stretching. But if you call it out, left leg out and have the team just got it right legs out.
What does that mean?
Pay attention. Do it again.
Right? So it starts there in the carry city ice.
And then everything that we do, there's a reason for this when it comes game time.
Everybody knows exactly where to be, what to do. And that's how you go from urine to there and quickly.
When you hesitate, when you think you're dead, you know, putting it blunt like that.
When you think, okay, here's the guy coming down the ice, you either go for a poke check
or you'd play the body and hope that the puck just goes, I mean, which one do you do?
You got a split second to make that decision and it's either a great defensive play or you're hanging your goalie out to dry.
And that routine, that repetition stuck in their brains, rewiring that, getting that correct.
If you need to be, that's part of what this is about.
There are plenty of sports that can claim and talk a very good game and a good argument about being the ultimate team sport.
I've always felt that hockey is that.
Individuals never win Stanley Cups.
Teams win Stanley Cups.
So to your point, then being on the same page, all four lines, all your D's, all the goalies and the D's,
and all of these different things, it's the difference of winning and losing.
It really is.
So it's interesting to hear that part of it though, because I don't, I think we think, oh, they're running sprints.
Oh, they're doing line changes, something like that.
That kind of part of the training is so, like a second part of it that we don't necessarily think about,
I appreciate you kind of putting words to that.
Yeah.
Really awesome.
Thank you.
Because you have returners that need to be reminded.
Right?
It's refresh your course.
And then you got, you guys, youth players coming in that have never been taught.
Right?
So now it's just like, okay, here we go.
So every little thing, especially at the beginning, why we do this, right?
Why we do that.
This is why we do this.
Don't forget about that.
Right?
And then it's taking it from the football field to the bleachers.
Right?
Whatever we're doing.
Yeah.
There's a method to the madness.
Right?
And you go through it and hopefully we're going to win more than we lose.
When it comes to the current schedule, looking at things right now, I see coming up on the sticks,
going to be the blue and white game.
We've got that coming up, looking forward to that.
For the audience, it may not know what that is, coach.
Can you explain to them a little bit of what that is, the blue white game?
Well, that's an inner squad game that we created when I got here.
And I wanted to do that to just introduce all the new guys to the community.
So it's free for everybody to come down and watch and get to meet the players.
And the players get to meet the community, right?
So it's the beginning of the relationship that I want guys to create with people in the community.
And we got some special guests coming in this weekend.
Lucas Whitehead.
Ooh.
Franco Denti.
Right on.
And Anthony Bagnoli from 2G as well.
Oh, hey, yeah.
We're coming to join us and play with us this weekend.
I'm not going to forget a guy with a ball with his last name.
I'm not going to.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Oh, that's great.
Good to see those guys back.
And adding down to what we are just talking about, too.
Those guys coming back and what that does for those current players,
especially those first-year players, of seeing how...
How you act right?
How you handle this, like this career, this job, this industry and everything.
That's along with seeing the way that they have performed.
You know, that's great for these younger players.
It's great for the organization.
It says a lot about the organization.
Players wanting to come back like that.
That is pretty cool.
And thanks.
I appreciate that.
Everybody make plans.
September 6, 7 o'clock.
Get over to the Rec Center and watch the Blue White Game.
I am looking forward to the 17th.
I'll be down there doing my annual interview with all you guys
and the players and everything.
I'm looking forward to it.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
Working on my Swedish...
No, I'm done job.
I'm not going to mess.
They would laugh me out of the room, man.
But I am looking forward to that.
I also want to encourage everybody to check out.
If you haven't already, the River King's new website.
Done a great job with it.
Looks fantastic.
Go to RiverKingsHockey.com.
One of the first things you'll see is some of the signings
that have happened recently.
It's kind of where I want to wrap up with you coach.
I know there's a proud papa feeling to this for you and everything.
How great does it feel to see some of these guys signing these nice contracts for them?
What this means for them?
Well, it's always exciting, right?
I mean, yeah, I'm very proud of them.
And for them, it's the goal.
It's the goal to get to the next level, whether it's college or going back
and playing pro in Europe and whatever country that they're at.
And to be able to FaceTime them.
And they're so excited.
They got their first game, their first shit, first goal, whatever it may be, right?
A guy like Tobias Falkide from our first year.
Still FaceTime in me and checking in and doing well at that level.
Yes, I mean, that's what this is all about.
And I'm very proud of them.
And we're always watching their continued success.
And hopefully that stays for a while.
After talking to you guys, I'm ready to do a shift.
I'm ready.
I'm only got one in me.
One for the whole season.
I only got one.
But if you need somebody, a left wing, something like that.
Let me know.
I get for what you wish for when you didn't.
I could take it.
I could take hits at least.
I could do that.
I could give a couple.
But I don't know about anything else.
But you guys make us all want to get out there on the ice and play.
At least meet you there at the ice and show everybody,
I'll show especially these opposing teams what home ice advantage really is.
Make sure that you're there at the South of County Rec Center.
For every one of these home games all season long and keep in mind.
If you can't make it, we got you covered right here at 10555WiRi.
Michael is going to be calling these games the voice of the River Kings for this season.
We're looking forward to going to be up for two.
Man, can we just play already?
Can we just go?
Got them excited.
Thanks a lot for joining us guys.
Oh, thanks for having us.
Thank you.
Appreciate the time.
We'll talk again real soon.
We'll take a quick time out.
We'll come back and have some more fun here on Playmakers.
We speak sport.
