[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign the following program is brought to.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: You in living color on Dell gazette.com or wherever you get your podcast.
The Daily Gazette Company presents the parting Shots Podcast. Now here's your host, Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shot. Thank you, Scott Gezy, and welcome to the Parting Shots Podcast, available wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe today. Thanks for joining me from the Rainy Parting Shots Podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. My goodness, the weather has been awful here in the Capital Region the last few days. Rain, rain and more rain. Got to build an arc adventure I think at this point here. So it's been a crazy few days here with the weather. Hopefully one of these days the sun will actually come out and stay out for a while and dry things off. I still have to mow my lawn for the first time.
This spring is starting to really get long out there, so hopefully I guess get a little window and get that done. But we're not here to talk about my lawn. We're here to talk about the latest edition of this podcast and we've got some great guests for you. We're going to have Eric McDowell, he's the president of the Capital District Sports Women of the Year organization, of course, former sports information director at Union College. It's the fifth anniversary of the Capital District Sports Women of the Year and we're going to talk about Eric, what inspired him to start this and help recognize the student athletes both in high school and in college here in in the Capital Region. Tim Reynolds, recently inducted into the New York State Basketball hall of Fame, the Associated Press NBA beat writer. We're going to talk about Greg Popovich, his legacy. He stepped down as the San Antonio spurs head coach after 29 years, suffered a stroke earlier this year and he talked a little bit on Monday. Tim and I spoke Tuesday. We're also going to talk about the NBA playoffs and as I stressed, we talked Tuesday because obviously Cleveland and Indiana played game two of their Eastern Conference semifinals series and Indiana won that game. So they're up two nothing took both games in Cleveland. So we're going to talk about NBA playoffs and some of the strange wild games that happened Monday night in the games one of the New York Boston series and the Oklahoma City Denver series.
Also Pierre McGuire and our hockey analyst where he's back here joining me. We're going to look back at some memorable moments in the last the two game sevens last weekend with Dallas, Colorado and Winnipeg St. Louis that closed out the first round of the Stanley cup playoffs. And we'll look ahead to the second round of the Stanley cup playoffs. So a lot of great stuff coming up here on the Parting Shots podcast. But first, it's Eric McDowell. He'll join me next here on the Parting Shots podcast.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: In school sports, it's easy to see the wins, the moments that make headlines. But there's so much work that goes unseen for any of it to happen. My name is Phil Risen and I'm the executive director of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. Throughout the country, athletic administrators dedicate countless hours to making life changing opportunities possible for student athletes through sports. Their sacrifice is fueled by the belief that every student can grow and deserves their time to shine.
On behalf of the niaaa, we want to thank every athletic administrator for your tireless dedication to providing 7.8 million students across the country a path to a better future.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: This message presented by the niaaa, the.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
[00:03:56] Speaker D: Hi, this is Daily Gazette reporter Ted Remensteiner.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken.
Welcome back to the podcast. This year marks the fifth year of the Capital District Sports Women of the Year. And the man who created that, the president, Eric McDowell, is joining me to talk about that. Eric, welcome to the podcast. How are things going?
[00:04:17] Speaker E: Super. Ken, thank you so much for your time today in the podcast, but also for all you and your colleagues here at the Gazette have done for us over our five years.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Of course, we go back to the Union hockey days and five overtime games. Burger King Whoppers.
[00:04:33] Speaker E: Yeah, we appreciated the shout out. That was fun. I mean, the, you know, I was thinking about you guys up there that night, but also those poor refs because you know, with hockey they don't take any breaks. No, there's no line shifts. And our intern at the time, Ricky, said it was the happiest he's ever seen an official. They gobbled those things down, but great memories and with you and Mesa Rink and it's always going to be a special place. And we couldn't be happier for Josh and the program as they enter a new chapter.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't wait to get to the new arena. I've already had a tour of it and got to see where I'm going to be sitting. After 29 years of watching in the end zone, it's finally going to be nice to see have a regular spot on the side. So that'll be a lot of fun. But let's talk about the Capital District Sports Women of the Year.
As I said, the fifth year what inspired you to start this?
[00:05:22] Speaker E: Well, once I pretty much retired from athletic communications, I talked to a media member, female media member, and she really liked the idea. I met with Philip Morris, who I'd worked with, and about thoughts of having it there. My point, Ken, was when I started in the business as a student around 1980, as an SID, women's sports was not treated right. It was the AIAW, they did their best. But you had young ladies in softball wearing baseball uniforms. I just didn't understand it. And throughout my career, including locally, I always focused on women's sports. So I thought it would be nice to honor high school and college young ladies for not just the athletics, but the academics, the community service. And both of them love the idea. And I knew that it would not be hard to recruit winners when you can, because we knew in this district, between the colleges and high schools, there'd be exceptional young women. And it's been fantastic. So happy.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: How do you think it has grown over the years? I know. You know, I'll say I have. I voted as I voted this in every year, it seems like maybe for the high schools, it was a little like trying to, you know, we weren't seeing some of the major high schools involved, but it seems like. Have they finally realized what this was all about?
[00:06:41] Speaker E: Yes. And I think because it was new, what we tried to do was to. Well, it was right around before COVID started. I was going to go to many of the schools. In fact, I was at Galway High School for the first winter. Rachel Winnock, when Covid hit and couldn't do it after that just zooms. But what I did was try to explain. And we know there's a lot of turnover at the high school AD level, but explain about how easy it is to nominate. And the toughest thing they found is trying to pick one. Many of them would love to have three or four, but I look at the schools like Galway, Maple Hill, you know, they've had four winners each.
Also Averill park, of course, the women's basketball program in those small communities. Ken, these girls are celebrities. They do everything. The nursing home. Those people come to our event to support them. So they are so well known. And now we're seeing Shen and Colony and the other schools, the big ones, get involved, too.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Read some of the items on their resumes, what they do outside of school. And I'm thinking, how in God's name do they have time to go to school, play basketball with all the stuff they're doing? It just. It astounds me. I mean it was something. I mean, I don't think when I was in high school we ever thought about that community service. I mean we did it as part of a school, but I went on to a prep school, Catholic school. But to see players devoting that time in the pressures of playing the pressures of your academics, to find the time to do that, it's just incredible. And I just shake my head. It's like I could never do that.
[00:08:18] Speaker E: The lunch is fun, isn't it? Because folks, what we do is a private media luncheon in the area and everybody looks over the ballots, everybody keeps it to themselves. Of course we discuss things. We don't vote as a board, but nobody knows who the winners are until we do the calls. And it is baffling to see that there's more than 24 hours in a day to these young ladies. There's no excuses either, you know, there's nothing about I've got to do this, I've got to do that. They find the time and it's remarkable. And when we pick a grand collegiate grand scholastic, when that goes onto a website of a college later on or a company that they seniors from college work on, people call me and they say what is this award? And I tell them all of the things they do and when they put it on their resume, I think it does help them professionally too.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I just. The fact that they just incredible women, their grade point averages are great. I mean just I can't imagine. As you mentioned, it's, it's, you know, you only have one from per school. But I mean how much pressure is on the ADS to nominate somebody?
[00:09:27] Speaker E: It's pretty scary for them. It's tough. But what we do is we tell them three months ahead, two months ahead. Right now we're there with nominations. But with three weeks that final day, May 22 will be hammered with nominations. But you look at some of the winners, I'll just throw a couple names out to you. And you know these folks. Anna Jankovic this week at D'Youville won the Legacy award and guess what? That's for. Athletics, academics, community service. Thousand points score at the Youville. Katie Filotico at UAlbany is an athletic administrator. She's in college athletics and we had her come to a the indoor lacrosse game to do a panel with our MC Ashley Miller. And the other two that come to mind are Bridget Duffy at Queensbury. Seems like yesterday we talked to her and here she is, the first all American in army's women's lacrosse history and they lead her in points and goals. She's now finishing her college career. And the other one is Kate Ackerman, who is of Maple Hill. They invited me, the family, to the Recovery Room last fall. Meant a lot to me, where they put up her photo in East Greenbush and she was the USA Today bowler of the year.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:10:36] Speaker E: These are just four of the 64 young women that we have honored and it's so fun to follow them on Facebook and on their websites and whatever career they choose.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: And you're getting some great speakers.
Virtual speaking Last year, I believe, Lisa Bluder, the now former women's coach at Iowa University of Iowa basketball, of course, Caitlin Clark's coach, Jessica Mendoza. I had a chance both to interview both Jessica and Lisa the last couple of years. Tara Vandiver, former Stanford women's basketball coach and who was a resident of Schenectady.
Lindsey Jacob Bellis, Olympic gold medalist. And Chris Polonsky, a Hall of Fame administrator of Texas and of course, a good friend of yours. Do we know who's going to be the virtual speaker right now for this one? Of course.
The honorees will be recognized Monday, August 4th, at the GE Theatre. Proctors.
[00:11:34] Speaker E: Well, we have one warming up in the bullpen and two in the dugout. We always have a couple lined up just in case. But to hear a Tara Vandevere say, this is great, this is wonderful to see. That meant a lot to me and each of these ladies and the history that careers they've had. Lisa Bluta to do this the day after she retired and she found the time. And of course, we met her Ken from the Albany region in March. Just fabulous people. And it adds a lot of credibility and it's strictly for. For that event so the people in the room see it. It's not aired anywhere. It is directed for the young women in that event and their families because they deserve a tremendous speaker like that to talk about not just what they've done in their highlights, but they talk to Ashley about how proud they are of these young ladies.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it's an amazing event.
June 17th, I think it was June 17th, we'll start to finding out who these. The nominees. The nominees are.
[00:12:34] Speaker E: Yeah. And what we do, as you know, the media experiences make it easier for the media and get more attention as well. We spread them out throughout the summer into mid July. So we do about three a week. And we pick the days, of course, like Monday, you know, slow, no track and maybe no Valley cats that night. But again, we appreciate you and the media announcing These throughout the summer, and then it's fun the next day or that night to go and see the reaction of the people. And we notify them by private zooms much earlier.
And they are sworn to secrecy until their announced date. And they've all followed that.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: Our nominees are being sent in right now?
[00:13:13] Speaker E: Yes, they are. And they will close at midnight or 11:59, May 23rd, and then our lunch will be the following week.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Okay, how long. How long would like to seek this? Would you see this going? Keep this going? How?
[00:13:28] Speaker E: Oh, I think because how many things in sports can you guarantee? Right? And what we can guarantee is there'll always be young women ready for this. And there are some young girls right now that I look at that may be playing, you know, softball, Little League or whatever, and know that they are on that path. So this is a garden that never dies. It's always going to have flowers in it. We'll always have nominees. We keep it at 10 high school because there's 99 schools in section two, and we keep it a three college because we now have 14.
Unfortunately, you know, with St. Rose gone, they had three recipients over the years. So the future is great. And after I'm gone, I hope that I can hand that baton to somebody in the track and keep this going because the Capital District young ladies deserve it, as well as their families.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: How much fun do you get putting this together? I mean, I know it's probably a lot of long hours and, yeah, it's a blast.
[00:14:27] Speaker E: I think one of the things is, because it's my show with our board and starting it from scratch, the things we wanted to do, like the gift bag with women's own businesses getting involved, the awards company, to have it at Proctors and to have Philip Morris open the GE Theatre for us. He even said to me, ken, do it on the main stage. I don't know if we're there yet, but it adds a lot of credibility to it. And we want those ladies to feel like the Queen of England celebrities, like the Met Gala, and that's what it's about. We don't do a dinner because we want to do a show. We have local entertainment like Angela Valenti, one of the winners of the local talent. And we want them to feel that night very special. And they all. They get nervous and then they're comfortable because it's their family and they've been at podiums and they've been out in front of people. And to see them together. You know what they all say, too, in their speeches is I'm humbled to be here. I don't belong here. Guess what you do. It's an undefeated team each year and to see them come together like that and to meet them, it's pretty emotional to us.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Could you imagine met Gal and all the other celebrities around the country? Yeah, that's right.
Anything else you want to mention about this as we wrap things up here?
[00:15:49] Speaker E: Well, I want to thank our passionate people on our board. Alyssa Collins, Jennifer McDowell who's our treasurer and keeps the president in line, Brendan Phillips.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Somebody has to keep. Somebody has to keep the president.
[00:16:01] Speaker E: Well, I don't work with you anymore. You guys can't. But our student rep is Claire Howard who's graduating from William and Mary and was our 21 grand grand scholastic from Taconic Hills. So we want to thank them and how to support how the folks that are listening how you can get
[email protected] we've got sponsorships, advertising for our program magazine which is 40 pages with stories and everybody and women's own businesses. We'd love to have you involved with gift bags that we provide or you can mail me at cdswo ymail.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: And for the athletic directors that are listening to this podcast, I know a lot of them do.
Where can they send you the nominations?
[00:16:45] Speaker E: Well, each athletic director receives a special portal. Okay, portal is not a fun word nowadays in sports, but having to deal.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: With the transfer portal with the Union hockey and RPA hockey, it's been. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's like talking with the Brad Elliott Schlossman over at the Grand Forks Herald. We talked about the portal. So it's like a season within a season, you know, once the regular season. Now you can deal with this the next two months.
[00:17:10] Speaker E: No, it goes right through the Stanley cup playoffs. But no, they receive a private form that they have to nominate. And one other thing being the hockey guy like you is I hope the cup goes to Toronto or Winnipeg. I'd like to see it back in Canada. Your Flyers, my Bruins aren't in the hunt and hockey is still very special to me especially you know, watching Winnipeg's incredible comeback and what it means to a city in Canada to have that happen.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: Yeah, we're going to have Pierre McGuire on later to talk about the. We'll look back at the first round and head to the second round. The one thing in Winnipeg, what we witnessed both in Dallas Saturday between the Stars and the Avalanche and the jets and the Blues, incredible game, Sevens incredible comebacks. By the Stars and the Jets. But to me, the jets, they're fortunate that they have homeboys throughout the entire playoffs because of. Hellenbach does not.
[00:18:03] Speaker E: And his glove has been an issue.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: And in fact, he can't. When he's been. He was pulled in all three road games in St. Louis. That can't happen. I mean, he's got to win a game on the road. I mean, there's something. He's been a great goaltender in the regular season. He was the, I think, the inaugural winner of the Mike Richter Award when he played at UMass Lowell. Of course, that war was down. Presented in Philadelphia. I think something else happened Philadelphia, that year in 2014. Yeah. Yes. I know what. I know what happened. I got my picture taken with Brady Prynne. That's what happened.
[00:18:32] Speaker E: Okay. Now, what was going to happen was that I was going to get a net to catch you and Brian Unger from jumping onto the ice.
In my career, the Olympics, the NBA, that special night.
To be a part of a program and to get to see the guys at the casino last summer was special. But all the things that have been involved with. To be able to have CD soy come to fruition, to have the support of you and my friends in the press and to honor these young ladies. We'd love any of you folks to be a part of it in any way you can.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: And women's sports is really on the rise. It's great to see. And you mentioned. I was in College from 1981-85, York College of Pennsylvania. We did not have a great women's basketball team. We had a couple good players, but just weren't that good. I actually did stats for the women's volleyball team my last two years of college, and that was a lot of fun. And I did the play by play for the women's and men's basketball teams and baseball. So we had some decent field hockey teams, a couple of good softball teams, but probably both teams wasn't bad. But I think that just. It's such an improvement now. There's a lot more emphasis. It's great to see. You see what's going on with the wnba. You see, you know, the rise in the ratings of the women's college basketball tournament, especially with what happened last year at Caitlin Clark.
[00:19:51] Speaker E: Caitlin, to be in this market when that was announced and when I talked about Bell Bur, I mean, the eyes lit up. We could not believe the teams coming here. To me, it was one of the best sporting events, talent wise, I'd ever worked in an NCAA tournament. And when she walked up and she looks like anybody else, she said, hi, I'm Caitlin. I went, no kidding. She's just a genuine, tremendous ambassador to the sport. And she's a young Billie Jean King in some ways because of what she's going to do for the wnba, but just a real class act. And not surprised with Lisa Bluder being.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: A coach and what we saw, the sold out crowd for that championship game between Iowa and LSU and just that was I went to that championship guys that in press row and the first shot Caitlin made was right in front of me and was like, oh, okay, she is good.
[00:20:44] Speaker E: And the passing, as I saw when I talked to Roger Weiland, I said, do you notice that if I'm open under the basket and I'm not looking, that ball's off my head? Yeah, just the vision that she has. But it's so great to see how she would sign autographs after and kids are drawn to her because she's a good quality person. And if she was here, she'd be getting a CD Swoy Award, obviously, because of all the things off the court she does.
[00:21:10] Speaker B: Yeah, she got her to be a virtual speaker.
[00:21:13] Speaker E: Yeah, it was a little busy time for her, but I can imagine her coach was a pretty good coon in that respect.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: I wanted to circle back one thing before we close the segment. We mentioned about how special that night in 2014 was for me personally, having grown up in Philadelphia and having been in the Spectrum across the parking lot from where Wells Fargo center is now, or they're actually going to be a new name for the building. But I practically. A lot of memories. I was in section five, that's Sunday afternoon of May 19, 1974, when the Flyers beat the Bruins, 1 nothing to win the Stanley Cup.
[00:21:48] Speaker E: Thanks for the reminder.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: Yes, of course. I'm glad to help you there. And then be in the building at the Wells Fargo center and watching Union win in my hometown. That was a special moment. I mean, that's supposed to be, you know, supposed to be neutral and that stuff. But my goodness, I mean, you know, also covering that program from the beginning and you wonder if it would ever happen. And it's like you wonder why some years, like, is it really worth covering this? And turned out, yeah, it was.
[00:22:18] Speaker E: Well, professionally and personally, it brought you here, family here, and you've been the beat writer, the person that has covered the program from the beginning. In many ways, you're like media friends that I know that covered Geno because I went to school in Connecticut and What Geno accomplished was absolutely remarkable. They had maybe 100 people in the building his first year. It's like, what's this guy going to accomplish? And that's an example of that. And the other coach, I would say, like, that was my baseball coach in New Haven, Frank Vieira, who took a baseball program at New Haven from nothing and built it up. He just passed away last week at 91 years old. Those are two coaches that built things from scratch. And what you've seen here are tremendous coaches that some have moved on and some student athletes who have gone pro, but they've gone pro in other ways as well. So as the rink opens, you'll have some happy tears coming down your head as well, and we'll be thinking about you that way.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that'll be a lot of fun. I can't wait for that season. I can't be. I know it's only May right now, but, yeah, we're gonna have a lot of fun with the new building and being able to sit on the side and watch the actions upsteps. Yeah. Eric, appreciate a few minutes and Happy and happy 5th anniversary.
[00:23:33] Speaker E: Thank you so much, Ken. And thanks to all of you who support us. And we will see you, sir, in a few weeks.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: All right, that's Eric Bedell. Coming up, Tim Reynolds talks NBA. We'll talk the playoffs and the retirement of San Antonio spurs head coach Greg Popovich. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast. Podcast.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Stan. And I'm Shen. And each week we bring you the.
[00:24:03] Speaker E: Stan and Shen Show.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: And each week, we talk about fun.
[00:24:07] Speaker E: Things through our travels throughout the capital region. We touch on food, we touch on.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: News, try to touch heavily on good news. And Shen's always available with hot takes. Yeah.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: So if you could follow along and.
[00:24:20] Speaker A: Listen to us every week on DailyGazette.com or on all major streaming platforms, we'd love to have you join us.
[00:24:28] Speaker D: Hey, everybody, this is don Barnes from.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: 38 Special, and you're always rocking into.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: The night when you're listening to the.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: Parting Shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shot. Hold on. Loosely, Ken.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: Just don't ever let go.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast. It's the NBA playoffs and, of course, some big news coming out of San Antonio. And joining us to talk about that is the New York State hall of Famer. In the Basketball hall of Fame, that's Tim Reynolds. Tim, how's it going? And first of all, congratulations. How was that ceremony last month?
[00:25:03] Speaker A: I. Even though we've got. Thank you first off, it's been 11 months since Rennie set. Rennie LaRue, the great Lenny LaRue, told me that, that we were, we were going in, and it's been almost a month now since the ceremony, and I still think I'm getting punked. I still don't think it's real. I, I, it's, It was so much fun. I was, I didn't know what just, just really.
It was good to be home. It was good to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time, but he just put so much of himself into these halls of fames that he runs. And it meant a lot. It meant a lot to me, Ken. It really did. So it was a, it was a neat night. And I am extraordinarily grateful that, that some people thought it was a funny enough joke to put me in there, because I still can't believe it happened. But really, really honored.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Do you sign your checks now? Tim Reynolds, hof.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: If I knew where my checkbook was, I would.
It's, it's funny. I, I did get.
I have been asked why I haven't updated my bio on X to say it. And I'm like, you know, I, it's kind of funny. I, I just don't think it's, I don't think it's something I'll do. But it was, it was a lot of fun. And now I know now that I have another reason to sneak home for a couple of days every year, because I'd really like to keep going back to that event and just listen to the speeches again. And without.
I'll put it to you this way, Ken. I was kind of in, like, the third. Third of the lineup. Like, I think they'd been through seven or eight speakers before I went, and there was a few after me.
I remember pretty much everything that got said after I spoke and before I spoke. I remember a thing. I was completely paralyzed by fear. I want to go back and just relax. I don't have to say anything. It's going to be a great night. I just have to sit here and enjoy the chicken and sit back and laugh at people and laugh at the jokes. I'm looking forward to that.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: Well, maybe we got Kesty in there.
Next year's inductee.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: I, I would tell you to stay tuned.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: A podcast tease. We've got a podcast.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: Yes, we have.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: It's. I'm certain it's gonna happen one day. I don't know. I'm still learning kind of the nomination process. But one of the first things I said after I got home was this man must be in. So I don't think I wield any power, but I'm certain there will be a day when, when we get to hear a professional orator like himself give a speech.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: So. Well, speaking, let's get into the meat of the podcast here at the NBA. And of course, it was announced last week that Greg Popovich, the 29 year head coach of the San Antonio spurs, was stepping down. He suffered a stroke early this past season. They had a press conference on Monday to celebrate Pop.
I first saw him being maybe early in his career. He was sort of, I don't want to say maybe dour is not the right word, but he was tough sometimes in his interviews and especially on in game interviews, he was not pleasant or maybe that was the way he wanted to be. But just watching that press conference on Monday and just seeing some of his players there, including Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, it seems like there is a lot of love for Pop. What's your assessment?
[00:28:59] Speaker A: So Pop. And again, I've never been based in San Antonio, but I've been around the spurs quite a bit. And I was lucky enough to cover USA Basketball for the World cup in China when Pop was head coach, and then of course the Olympics in Japan in 21 when pop was head coach. And so I've been around him enough and he is a challenge.
[00:29:24] Speaker D: There's.
[00:29:24] Speaker A: There's no question.
It's almost like there's definitely two sides to him. Right. Like, he's very process driven. Like, it's all about the process. And he's incredibly stubborn. And I don't say this to Rip, like, I'm not knocking him. He just, he is what he is. He's incredibly stubborn. It's his way, but his way clearly works. And when you see, like it's not just that Manu and Timmy Dejounte Murray, who does not play for the spurs anymore, came back for the press conference and that was because dejante is also very close with Mitch Johnson, the new coach of the spurs too. But players like, there's been a lot of guys who have come through the heat who have played for population. Nobody says a bad word about Pop. Nobody like Ken. I've been covering this league a long time and no one's ever said Greg Popovich is a blankety blank. No, no one's ever said that.
Yeah, he didn't handle in game interviews well. He thought they were annoying. So he took out his Annoyance on the interviewer. He shouldn't have done that. But.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: But there were some memorable moments. The Craig Sager. You gotta get admit that the Sager stuff was great.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: Hugging Jeff Van Gundy was great.
The one word answers like, you know, I'm. I love Doris Burke. I consider. I mean, Doris Burke grew up in the same town in Jersey where my wife is from within the town where I got married. And I consider Doris family. I love her to death. And Greg was a real pain in the butt to Doris when she was just trying to do her job as a sideline reporter. And I didn't like that.
I didn't think that was funny. I didn't care for that at all. But he's.
He does so many things that people aren't supposed to know about. The San Antonio Food bank, for example. I mean, San Antonio is like a lot of. Like a lot of multicultural cities in America right now. There's. There's a haves and there's a have nots.
There are parts of the city that are very poor. There are parts of the city that aren't.
Greg Popovich kind of keeps the San Antonio Food bank going in a lot of ways because he gives money to it quietly. It was never supposed to get out that he did that. He volunteers there. He makes sure that the spurs donate resources there or steer resources there. And I think people in San Antonio know that this is something that's important to Pop, so it becomes important to them.
I didn't know until a couple months ago, you know, St. Jude's Children's Hospital is a big thing for Pop. Pop has given a lot of money to the Innocence Project, which he doesn't want people to know. He is a generous guy. He's. Yes. He's gruff, yes. But he's also the type of guy like my friend Brad Townsend, the great Dallas Mavericks writer from the Dallas Morning News. Brad worked at another paper in San Antonio in the. It's had to be the early 90s. And that paper went out of business and Brad lost his job.
And Pop had been with the spurs briefly left the spurs to go be with Don Nelson. Go be with Nelly in Golden State. Was coming back to the spurs as general manager called Brad Townsend to say, hey, I'm coming back. And Brad goes, pop, thanks, but I don't have an outlet for this material right now. I don't. My paper is gone. And Pop said to him, yeah, dummy, I'm telling you so you can use this information to go get a job.
So there's. I Always ask, like with people, does the end justify the means? And I think with Pop, the end absolutely justified the means. I mean, he's a brilliant basketball mind.
What he did with Becky Hammond, he knew it would create headlines, he knew it would create news, it would be talked about a certain way. By bringing a woman onto his coaching staff in a forward facing role. Not just to be there, not just to say, we've got it. We've got a woman hanging around. Like she was on the staff. She coached the summer league team. She was. When he got kicked out of a game one night, Becky ran the Spurs.
He did a lot of things that a lot of men in this game didn't have the courage to do. And the fact that Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, who are worth a combined 800 quadra trillion zillion dollars, choose to live in San Antonio to this day is because of Greg Popovich. And that kind of tells you all you need to know.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: Yeah, and I think, I think Greg's mellow, mellowed over the years, don't you think?
[00:34:02] Speaker A: Yes and no. I mean, he still showed signs of it Monday. You know, he was still. Pop still making fun of all he, if, if there were names that he was saying that people didn't understand, it was. He was making fun of the San Antonio writers.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: When he was doing that, when he was talking about Mike Malone, one of the old time writers down there, he's a great guy and, you know, he still just got to poke jabs at people. But you saw the stubbornness, Right. Like, if you really look at the video of Pop walking to the lectern, away from the lectern, Pop walking out of the gym where they had the press conference.
He's moving slowly but without help.
But notice Tim Duncan's carrying the cane just in case Pop needed the cane. There was no way Pop was gonna let people see him use the cane. That was the stubbornness. And that's a good stubbornness to have when you're coming back from a stroke, obviously. So I think he mellowed.
There was a night at the World cup in China. They lost a game.
They weren't going to medal because of this loss. They lost a quarterfinal game and they'd gotten away. Donovan Mitchell kind of had it going.
They got away from him for whatever reason and someone had to fall on the sword. And I, I asked the question, knowing what I was going to get.
Pop, what happened in the third quarter when you guys got away from Donovan? Because that kind of was when France Opened the. And I couldn't even get the question finished. And Pop just yelled back at me, you coat or you write, I'll coach.
And it was one of those, okay, I got yelled at by Pop. And everyone's like, oh, my gosh, you got yelled at by Pop. And five minutes later, Pop pulled me aside and he goes, you understand, right? I was like, yes. And that was all. That was it. That's all you had to do. Like we were. It was always about the team, what was best for the team. He helped writers all the time. He told us great stories. But in that moment, he wasn't going to throw anybody under the bus or be perceived to be throwing anybody under the bus.
They had games still to play. Even though there was no medal to play for. He was not going to give up on that team. So. So he yelled at me a little bit to make a point, and it didn't. I don't think the team probably was even aware of it, but he was going to make certain that he wasn't going to ever indict a player over something. And that was just one of the great ways to Pop. Look, I. I'm rambling about him. Let me tell you this part. So I covered the 2013 and 2014 finals. Heat, Spurs. Heat 1 in 13, Spurs 1 in 14.
The 2013 series is of course, the one where Ray Allen hits the three.
You know, Papa taken Tim Duncan out of the game. Chris Bosh gets the rebound over Manu Ginobili, kicks it out to Ray Allen, Ray ties the game, they win an overtime, they win game seven.
That would have eaten people up to no end. I mean, Pop kind of made a game six blunder taking Tim Duncan out of the game for that defensive possession. And you could say it costed the series. I don't think one play costs you a series, but whatever. And you know, the series ends and the Heater celebrating on their court and Eric Spoelster is hugging his top assistant, David Fisdale, and they both get swallowed up by Greg Popovich, who has a bigger smile on his face than either of those guys do after winning a world championship. He's over there congratulating him. Two weeks after the Finals, Eric Spoelster is at home and he gets a letter delivered to his house from Greg Popovich and written telling him all the things that he respects about him. The Heat, Pat, what they've built just the heartiest of hearty congratulations two weeks after losing an NBA Finals.
And then in 2014 when the Heat lost to the spurs and that ended the LeBron era here in Miami.
Spo did the same thing for Pop. Sent him a letter and the whole bit. When Pop got sick this year, the Heat very quietly sent a video from a lot of people on the staff telling him it was not about the spurs, nothing about that. It was about Pop. We love you, we're rooting for you. Take care of yourself, anything we can ever do or whatever. It's just he had so much respect in the basketball community and still does. And Pop took. Pop was not. The spurs did not expect Greg Popovich. As of Sunday night. They did not think Greg Popovich was going to speak Monday morning.
It was supposed to be, you know, Peter John Holt, who is now, you know, the owner, the de facto owner of the team. You know, it's been in his family forever.
R.C. buford, we thought might talk Mitch Johnson and the new GM Brian Wright. And it became the Greg Popovich show, and rightly so, because Pop took advantage of those seven minutes. And that was his way of saying, not just passing the torch, which was critically important to him, but he wanted to thank everyone. So many people have reached out. Pop had to change his number in the last couple of months because he was getting so many well wisher texts. It drove him nuts. So I.
One of the biggest blessing of my career is covering the Heat. And being here and covering this league has opened a lot of doors. But when it's all done for me and I call you to write my memoir, because Lord knows I can't write.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: It.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: No one's gonna care about my memoir. By the way. We're gonna make 40 bucks on that book. But besides the point, I.
It has been. I am not like. It's like I said in the speech three weeks ago when I went into the hall. I cannot believe I know this person. I cannot believe I've had conversations about this man with this man, about what he thinks about when he goes back to Colorado Springs and walks the trails at the Air Force Academy, a place that he loves more than anything, you know, the place that gave him his start in life, basically.
My middle, you know, our middle nephew is a graduate of the Air Force Academy. And as soon as I can make that connection with Pop, he talked my ear off about the Air Force Academy. He's just.
He's a difficult, complicated, awful, absolutely wonderful human being.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: Well said, well said. Let's talk playoffs. We saw some incredible games Monday night. The Knicks, Knicks rally from 20 down to beat the Celtics 108, 105 in overtime. And if that Wasn't juicy enough. The Denver Nuggets rally to beat Oklahoma City 121119 when Aaron Gordon street pointed 2.8 seconds left. And if you factor in the Indiana Pacers 121112 victory over Cleveland on Sunday, three road teams won game ones. First of all, how exciting were Monday's games?
[00:40:52] Speaker A: I'm getting older.
This excitement going to 1:00 in the morning is not helping. It's not good for me anymore.
[00:41:01] Speaker B: Try watching the Stanley cup playoffs. Good games go overtime.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: I have the Florida Panthers. My friend, your boy is getting a little tired down here.
Just an incredible night of basketball. And you know, it's the ratings the first weekend. Like I was surprised. Like the first weekend's ratings were the best that they've been in the NBA in a long time.
And I'm like, how are they going to sustain this?
Well, the script writers. Because as we all know, every NBA game is fixed.
[00:41:34] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:41:34] Speaker A: Of course we all know it's rigged and the outcomes are pre planned. Of course we all know that. I don't know how they come up with this stuff. This is brilliant writing. I texted one of the guys in the NBA office that last night. I was like, who's writing this crap? This is incredible. This is amazing.
It's. The games are so good. The Knicks are so much that series.
I don't. I honestly didn't know the Knicks would win a game. Like, I thought Boston was a matchup nightmare for them. But all year we've all been saying if Boston misses a million threes, they're as vulnerable as anybody.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:10] Speaker A: Missed 45 threes in game one and lost by three points.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: Yeah, my son was complaining about that. We were watching the game last night, say, why are they shooting all these threes? And I was saying they should drive the basket, try to get at least two.
[00:42:22] Speaker A: They don't know how. That's not what they do.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:42:25] Speaker A: They've done this all year and you play with fire. Now look, if they missed 43 threes, I know it doesn't work this way, but play along. If they missed 43, they win the game by three instead of losing it by three, the next stole one. No question.
But I did say this going into the series.
The most important factor to me, the thing that no one will have a solution for in this series is Madison Square Garden.
If the Knicks have a chance to go up 2:1, or God help Boston if the Knicks lead to one going into game four, a chance to meet Boston is Going to have to go into the Garden, which I still think is the most intimidating arena in basketball with Knicks fans that haven't won anything since Sienna was Division three, which is true.
It's going to be really daunting. Like Boston's going to have a ton of pressure on them in game two. Oklahoma City has not played a meaningful game all year.
They've been great from day one.
They're going to have a ton of pressure on them in game two. And they don't have an answer for Nicola Jokic, but. But nobody does. But they don't have an answer for him. The Nuggets have come back from 12 points down or more now three times against that team this year.
[00:43:52] Speaker B: 42 and 20. Yeah, 42 and 22 for Jokic last night.
[00:43:57] Speaker A: They're not afraid of anybody. And we forget, like, Denver didn't win a championship six years ago. This team won a championship two years ago.
[00:44:06] Speaker B: And they fired the coach. And they fired a coach.
[00:44:09] Speaker A: They fired the coach. And how. They haven't announced David Adelman as the coach going forward.
How do you not give him the job?
And it's, it's unprecedented that you fire a coach of a playoff bound team. Three games left. With three games left in the season, you put David Adelman in an absolutely unwinnable spot if you're unhappy with the head coach. So we're going to promote a guy from his staff to do stuff differently at a time of the year where nobody can practice, where you don't have time to reinvent yourself. And then you've got to go play the Clippers with a healthy Kawhi.
That game, that series goes seven, you somehow get out of that. You go to Oklahoma City. Two nights later, you come from 14 down to beat them in a building where nobody wins.
This guy's done an incredible job.
It's.
It just shows you that the margins are so thin. Like every team has immense talent. The Utah Jazz won 17 games this year. They've got a ton of talent. It's just not the right talent. It doesn't go together. Denver's got championship talent. Denver has a championship basketball team. Oklahoma City has a team that went out in the second round last year. And you see the difference between regular season and. Plus, I still think the Thunder are the best team. I still think the Thunder will be the team that wins the title. I do.
But I think we said a while back, this is the team that nobody's going to want to see if they figure it out is Denver. Denver's figuring it out, folks. Denver's figuring it out. And I love what the Knicks are doing. It makes no sense. It makes no sense that Josh Hart is like the best rebounder and defender in the NBA at 6, 5. It just doesn't make any sense.
Villanova is going to win a. Villanova can win an NBA title.
[00:46:02] Speaker B: It's crazy.
[00:46:03] Speaker A: A year where they don't make the NCAA tournament. Villanova can win the NBA title.
[00:46:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:06] Speaker A: That's why.
[00:46:07] Speaker B: And I should clarify for our listeners. We're taping this on Tuesday so things could change between now and the time I post this podcast. But, I mean, Ken, let me ask you a question. Okay.
[00:46:16] Speaker A: I just said Bill and. Oh, I'm going to flip the script. I'm going to interview the podcaster for a second.
[00:46:20] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: Can you clarify for me?
Is Villanova part of Philadelphia? I know Villanova PA Is its own thing. I know that, but does Philly consider Villanova part of Philly?
[00:46:31] Speaker B: I, I believe so. I believe so. I, I consider Philly Phil. It's, it's, it's a suburb of Philadelphia. But yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's considered Philly.
[00:46:40] Speaker A: I would think if you're, if you're in, if you're Big five, you're in, you're in Philly, right? I mean, I would think that's the rule. If you're Big five, it's Philly.
[00:46:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:46:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: Thank you. So I turn the show back over to you.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you.
Now, the Cleveland Cavaliers mean you saw what they did against Miami, especially down in Miami.
[00:46:59] Speaker A: They just scored again on the Heat.
[00:47:00] Speaker B: Yeah, we're still out of it, but are you surprised they lost this one to Indiana at home?
[00:47:07] Speaker A: No, I'm not surprised about anything anymore.
[00:47:10] Speaker D: It's.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: Nothing surprises me.
Miami can't score like Miami just can't score.
And that means you play so tight because you know you have zero room for error. And as soon as Cleveland gets a 10 point lead against a team that can't score in benches like Miami, it's over. And then you see games become 37 and 55 points like it's insane.
Indiana can score and that makes them believers because that's what the league is now, right? It's not.
You know, you see some Games in the 90s, the Houston Golden State series was a phenomenal series that was played deeply in the mud.
Indian Cleveland is being played at, you know, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I mean, it's go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
They're fearless, incredibly well coached by Upstate New York's own Rick Carlisle, of course, because our state runs everything.
[00:48:10] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:48:13] Speaker A: I love Ty Halliburton.
I think they've got incredible depth. TJ McConnell is one of my favorite guys in the league because he's the quintessential backup point guard. Does exactly what a backup point guard should do.
And Now, Cleveland, you're down 01. You got hit in the mouth for the first time, really, all season. You started 15 and, oh, you've been in first place every day of the season.
This is the first time all year, other than the 04 postseason or preseason, which absolutely doesn't count. Of course, this is the first time all year where the Cavs have to wonder, what now?
And they're really banged up. Yeah, Darius Garland's toe thing we did not think was a major story in Miami. We didn't. Obviously. Either they got new information or it worsened because when they left here, there was quite a bit of confidence that he would absolutely be ready for game one.
Now they've got other guys banged up. You've got ankles, you've got wrists.
Indiana has again, we're taping this on Tuesday.
By the time you listen to this going into game three, it would not shock me if the Pacers are up too low. It would. Now, I'm not saying the series is over because I think Cleveland. Cleveland defends better than Indiana does. Cleveland has a better way of slowing you down. Indiana doesn't. Indiana can't slow you down. Indiana has to run by you. Can they run by even a wounded Cleveland team four times? I don't know. But like we said about the Garden a few minutes ago, Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, that city. I mean, Indiana's basketball mad. Anyway, Caitlin Clark and Tyrese Halberton have absolutely revitalized that city's basketball fandom belief. It's an incredible atmosphere in that building. Whether it's a Fever game or a Pacers game, those fans don't care. They go nuts.
Cleveland is going to have to win a game under extremely hostile circumstances to take home court back in the series. I know they got to win at least one in Indiana. If they have to win two in Indiana, that's huge trouble for the Cavs because they don't know how they're going to react when they get pushed against the wall, because they haven't been pushed against a wall all year.
[00:50:28] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. It's going to be a fun series. Golden State Warriors, I mean, they still have a pulse almost. They blew 3, 1 lead to Houston. But now incredible win on the Rockets home court. I mean, this is there still. Life is still. Does it mean this championship window still open for this team cannot kill them.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: Until they are dead? It's the windows absolutely open.
They have Stephen Curry.
I'm not disrespecting Jimmy Butler or Draymond Green or anybody else. They have Stephen Curry. You have a chance.
He knows that. There's precious few of these opportunities left.
We saw it in Paris.
USA Basketball turned the gold medal game over to a guy who had one good game. Paul Summer. It happened to be the semifinal against Serbia and you saw what Steph did. It's just.
It's so funny, Cat. Like the lights are brightest. He's gonna find a way. He didn't shoot well in game seven in Houston. It wasn't a 50 point Steph game. So what's he do? He gets 10 rebounds, seven assists, six assists and seven rebounds, six assists, two blocks. Steph Curry's blocking two shots. He shouldn't block two shots in a season. Yeah, the guy just finds ways. He's as close to something magical, inexplainable, whatever he. It. The it factor is him times 100. It's it to the Nth power, if that makes any sense. He's.
It's so much fun. And this series, this Golden State Minnesota series will probably be my favorite of them all in this round because you've got the now or even the then, really, with Steph Draymond, Steve Kerr and the future and Anthony Edwards, who is. He doesn't want to be the face of the league and he's not going to have a choice.
He's. He's very close to being the best player in the NBA and it's probably just a matter of time. He can shoot, he can drive, he can finish, he can guard, he can pass. He's athletic. As.
And I mean everyone in the NBA is an athletic freak. This guy is a freak among freaks. He's. Anthony Edwards is so damn good. And not enough. Still not enough people have caught on to that because he plays in Minnesota and they don't get on TNT and ESPN enough.
That will be addressed next year when every game's available in streaming. Yeah, more people will watch the wolves next year.
It's.
That's gonna be an amazing series. And how.
You know, Anthony Edwards has played for Steve Kerr the last couple of summers.
How much does Steve Kerr learned? USA Basketball days on. Is there anything. Is there any way to chip away at this guy?
Steph will have to be Great in that series. Draymond Green will have to be present in that series and Jimmy Butler has to be playoffs playoff Jimmy in that series. It's a lot to ask, but it's not.
It's not un likely that all those things happen.
If Stephen. Stephen. Jimmy is Jimmy and Draymond doesn't be a problem.
Golden State wins and I think Minnesota is great, but Golden State wins that series. If those three. If those three things happen. And who would bet against those three things happening? Draymond is probably the loose cannon and it seems like he's had his scare and now knows where the line is that he has to walk, what he has to do for this team to be successful. I picked Golden State and seven in that series.
[00:54:27] Speaker B: Okay. Of course, big news came out recently. John Tesh is back.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: That's not big news.
[00:54:37] Speaker B: No, no.
[00:54:39] Speaker A: We wrote it too. I wrote that in July. I had that on July 24th.
[00:54:44] Speaker B: It just announced. Now it's starting to announced.
[00:54:47] Speaker A: Then they announced it twice. They announced it when the deal came out. We knew it was. I absolutely. I wrote. I literally wrote the sentence. Round Ball Rock is back on the wire on July. July 24th.
Good for Teshi. I'm sure he needs another billion dollar wing on his estate somewhere. And probably some fancy dancy name, hills in the height of California or wherever he lives.
[00:55:12] Speaker B: Because I like to know what how much money he's making, his radio show he has every night.
[00:55:16] Speaker A: It's so much. But you know what, though? It's just fun.
It's just fun. And I look you know a billion times more about the sports on TV game than I do. You've written about it for decades.
I don't know what it's gonna mean to viewers next year, but I do think reinvention is good. Change is good.
Yeah. You're gonna have to learn. We're all gonna grumble like we do every year at the NCAA tournament. Which channels true tv. Oh, my God. And. And then TRUTV gets mad at you for tweeting it. Then they tweet back at you, and then it takes all the fun out of it. And they really did that, by the way, for a while.
So we're gonna have to relearn, like, okay, what games on Amazon prime tonight? What games on espn? What games on NBC? Who's got this? Who's got that?
We will find the game. I mean, most everybody has a smart TV or a smart remote. You press a button, you say, show me New York Knicks. And the Knicks are going to come on your screen. Like it's not going to be that hard. Will it be different? Sure. It's not going to be that hard.
[00:56:20] Speaker B: Well, enjoy. We'll enjoy it next year, but let's get through the playoffs first. And of course, you know, TNT wrapping up its coverage with the one of the conference finals in a few weeks. But Tim, appreciate it as always. And maybe we should, you and Mark and I get together for the NBA roundtable for the finals.
[00:56:41] Speaker A: I am already looking at travel plans and I think no matter where I end up going for game one, I think I'm flying probably Tuesday morning of that week. And when is the final traditional? I think it starts June 5th.
[00:56:59] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: So I think our traditional Tuesday afternoon taping of the finals revelry will be fine or I don't think there's a scenario where the Knicks would host a game. 1. I don't think that would exist. But a live podcast for media day at the Garden. Let's keep that possibility in mind. A quick little Amtrak ride for you never hurt.
[00:57:22] Speaker B: And I'll. I'll touch base with Caste then, too. So we'll. We'll do it. We'll book it. That'd be right before I take my vacation. So that's. Be good.
[00:57:30] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:57:30] Speaker B: So Tim has always appreciated and again, congratulations on the hall of Fame induction.
[00:57:35] Speaker A: Thank you, Ken. I appreciate it.
[00:57:37] Speaker B: Up next is Springfield.
[00:57:39] Speaker A: Long way off Springfield, Illinois, maybe. I don't think Massachusetts is calling.
Yeah.
[00:57:46] Speaker B: Take care, Tim. Appreciate it. Thanks.
[00:57:48] Speaker A: Thanks.
[00:57:48] Speaker B: That's Tim Reynolds. We're back with talk the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs with Pierre McGuire next here on the Parting Shots podcast.
[00:58:12] Speaker F: We are the nfhs that stands for the National Federation of State High School Associations.
But really what we stand for, together with NSVA are the 369,000 high school sports students in New York.
And so we stand. We stand for the runners, soccer and basketball players. We stand for their coaches, administrators and officials. We stand for the swimmers, football players and wrestlers. We stand for the golfers, softball and volleyball players. We stand as the national leader and advocate for high school athletics and all who participate in them and make them possible. Because it is our purpose to ensure that high school students get to play, perform and compete together.
To learn more about who we are and what we stand for, visit NFHS.org.
[00:59:12] Speaker E: Hi, this is Max Novak of the 2014 National Championship Union College men's hockey team. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shot.
[00:59:23] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast. The second round of the NHL Stanley cup playoffs got underway Monday night, but we had some exciting game Sevens over the weekend. Help us break us down is our hot friend, hockey analyst Pierre McGuire. Pierre, welcome back to the podcast. And just two incredible game sevens we saw over the weekend. Dallas rallying to beat Colorado and Winnipeg rallying to beat St. Louis. This is what it's all about.
[00:59:48] Speaker D: Well, it's all about it. If you're on the winning side, if you're on the losing side, it's major debriefs. You know, we haven't had that happen with teams coming from behind in a game seven in the third period. We've only had it three other times in the history of the National Hockey League. It happened twice in two days.
So there has to be questions asked in terms of players that were on the ice, in terms of coaching ideologies and philosophies, in terms of systems breakdowns. And I was blown away by the physical integrity of the Dallas Stars. And the same thing can be said about the Winnipeg Jets. Both those teams were amazingly resilient, both playing undermanned and obviously with major injuries at key positions. And they found a way to come from behind. So hats off to both of them and Pete DeBoer in particular and Scotty Arniel, the two top coaches for Dallas and for Winnipeg. But major questions, I think, need to be asked in Colorado and major questions need to be asked in St. Louis in terms of what happened in both.
[01:00:50] Speaker B: Those games and I think particularly St. Louis, the two goals Winnipeg scored in the final couple minutes were both extra attacker goals. I mean, I heard a couple times, I think St. Louis cleared the puck and got icing calls when they could have carried the puck out. I mean, it seems like, you know, I go back to the day when goaltenders were pulled with about a minute left for an extra attacker. And you didn't, you did not, you did not try to score answering that goal. You took that puck over the red line and then dumped it in. But it seems like, you know, this day and age, we're seeing a lot more. And it seems like coaches are mostly don't mind it, but I think Jim Montgomery was not happy with the. I think one of those plays late when it was three, two.
[01:01:28] Speaker D: Well, yeah, no, and it's Pavlov Boots Navy, one of the former Rangers. It's on that St. Louis Blues lineup. And that was one of those plays that I think, you know, as a coaching staff, having coached the National Hockey League, you know, at the end of the year, when you do your debrief, with the player, you have to ask him point blank, what were you thinking and why'd you do that? Was a major turning point in the game. There were other situational problems, too, for St. Louis. Guys were not freezing the puck when they had a chance to. They could have killed the clock in terms of guys sticking and pinning on the boards. They didn't do that. So again, I think celebrate Dallas and celebrate Winnipeg, Ken. But I felt terrible for both of the losing teams. I really did.
[01:02:13] Speaker B: Pete DeBoer has not won a Stanley cup, but in game Sevens, he's perfect nine. And, oh, how does he do it?
[01:02:21] Speaker D: Well, I think his message is firm but fair. I think his players understand his philosophy. He obviously had some divine intervention the other day when Nathan McKinnon scored in game seven of the Dallas Colorado series to make it two nothing Colorado at the start of the third period, nobody and nobody, not even friends and family, the Dallas Stars thought they were coming back to win that game, but they found a way. And I think it's because Pete trains his players over the course of 82 games to be resilient, to be coachable, and more than anything else, to understand their roles. And every player on that team understood his role, and they played it to perfection in the last 20 minutes of that game. And that's why eventually they won the series.
[01:03:03] Speaker B: And do you think Colorado is really regretting seeing a next teammate beat them?
[01:03:08] Speaker D: Well, you know, you're talking about Ronton, you know, and I feel great for him. I've known him a long time, going back to World Junior when he played for Finland in Canada, back in Montreal and Toronto back in the day. But, you know, he's a tremendous talent. They knew what they were doing in Colorado. There's a thing in the NHL call a salary capital. And you know, Ken, that they were looking at that, saying, we want to keep most of our team together and we just can't, you know, we can't go to this certain level with him. And so that's what happened with Nicola Antonin. But I would say this.
I think they might have some other regrets. You know, Brock Nelson was supposed to come there and be an elite second center. He didn't do very much. You know, Charlie Coyle was supposed to go in there and provide them with a lot of supplemental offense. It didn't happen as much as they would have liked. The injury to Ross Colton was a big problem. And Jack Durie, who came over from Carolina in the initial Ronton trademark did not provide nearly what they thought he would, especially when he took the penalty. So there are a lot of situations in Colorado that I think again, there's going to be major discussions about what they did right and what they did wrong.
[01:04:19] Speaker B: Most of the series in the first round went to form, except I think the Kings Oilers. I mean, once again, the Oilers have the Kings number, but I think the Kings really lost this series in Game 3 when they were leading 4:3. You know, they're up two games, none in the series after winning the first two games at home. They're up 4:3 when Evander Kane scored with 6:42 left in the third period that the goal was reviewed by the officials to see if the puck was kicked in, which it wasn't. Then Jim Hiller, the Kings coach, decides to challenge for goalie interference, and he loses that challenge. Kings get penalized for delay the game. 10 seconds late into the power play, Evan Bouchard scores, gives the orders a 54 lead, and he always go on to a 74 win and end up winning the next three after that. And it was the Marty McSorley moment all over again. Back from 93 finals when his legal stick turned that series around. What was Jim Hiller thinking? There was. There really was no evidence of goaltender interference.
[01:05:14] Speaker D: No, there wasn't. I don't know what Jim Hiller was thinking in that situation. Somebody must have talked to him on that bench or talked to him from the dressing room via, you know, an earpiece that was relayed through his staff to him. But I don't know what he was thinking. You know, a very good man. Rob Blake's already lost his job, the general manager in Los Angeles. I don't know what happens long term in terms of who they hire as a general manager. And if they do bring in somebody from the outside, does that general manager decide he wants to go with a different coaching situation so that there's a lot of balloons in the the air out in la for sure. You got to give Edmonton a lot of credit. I thought it was going to be a homer series, I'm not going to lie to you. And I thought because L. A had such a good home record the whole year, that they would win. Even if it went through game seven, they would win four games at home, they'd win one, two, five and seven, and that's how I thought the series would play out. It clearly did not play out that way. And it goes to your excellent point about what transpired in game three.
[01:06:15] Speaker B: Yeah, it was just stunning to see that whole. It's amazing how one small play goes against you. It turns that whole series around and just seemed like the Kings never recover from that and they really didn't look good in the home game against Edmonton in Game 5. And then like I said, you got to give the Oilers credit as they move on to the second round. Let's speak of the second round and we are taping this segment on Tuesday afternoon. So they got under. The second round got underway Monday night with the Toronto Maple Leafs holding on to beat the Florida Panthers 5 to 4. But the big news in that game was the Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolars left the game in the second period with a head injury. He was hit in the first period by a puck in the face within his face mask and then he took an elbow to the back of the head by Sam Bennett in the second period. He was seen throwing up during immediate timeout and was removed from the game. We don't know the status right now. As I said, we're taping on here Tuesday because things would change between now and the time the podcast posts. But how do you think this will affect the lease if Stolwers is out for a significant amount of time?
[01:07:15] Speaker D: Well, it depends on how well Joseph Wall decides to respond. Now that was a tough situation they put him into yesterday, obviously. And I think you, if you were to grade him yesterday, I think you probably give him a B minus, you know, and I'm probably being generous. But I think he'll be a lot better if he has to start game two. I think he'll be a lot better because it'll be prepared differently. But you got to give Florida a lot of credit in that one. They showed the heart of the champion. There's no question they pushed back. They're down 4:1. You know, Bobrovsky did not. The goalie for Florida did not have his A game going in that game for sure. And to their credit, the Toronto Maple Leafs found a way to win even though they lost their starting goalie. Toronto is a different team this year, Ken. I think you would agree with me. Yeah, they're more stout on defense, they're way more physical up front. They're four lines deep and their big boys want to play and when their big guys want to play. And you saw from Willie Nylander yesterday, you saw from Mitchell Marner, you see it from Auston Matthews and Matthew Nyes, what a goal. That ended up being the game winning goal late in the third period, going forehand, backhand roof on Bobrovsky, something special. So they got some big time players In Toronto, their general manager Brad Treliving did a great job in the offseason bringing in some real physical, meaty type guys in the back end and it's made a big difference for them.
[01:08:31] Speaker B: Would you want to displease Craig Ruby knowing how intense he is and how intense of a player he was back in the today?
[01:08:38] Speaker D: No, you would definitely not want to get on the wrong side of Craig. But you know what's cool about their staff? Lane Lambert's a Stanley cup winner with the Washington Capitals, you know, and then you look at Mark Savard, the Stanley cup winner at the St. Louis Blues as a coach. Craig Barubi is a Stanley cup winner as a head coach in St. Louis and Mike Van Ryjen's at Stanley cup winner as a coach in St. Louis. Every guy that's on that bench has won the Stanley cup and that gives you huge street credit when you're talking to your players about staying calm or upping the ante emotionally or making in game adjustments. It gives you major street cred in these kinds of situations.
[01:09:14] Speaker B: Well, I'm certainly glad when I covered Craig back in the day with Hershey Bears I never got one of his best. I know he would have put me in, hung me up, hung me out the dry hump upside down. But well, let's take a look at the other series in the east the Hurricanes and Capitals meet.
I mean the Capitals looked impressive against the Canadians and Hurricanes weren't too bad against the Devils. I think this could be an interesting matchup.
[01:09:38] Speaker D: It will be an interesting matchup. Both these teams like to dislike one another which is really good. That leads to really positive playoff hockey for both sides. My question mark for Carolina is going to be in goal, you know, whether Freddie Anderson's 100% healthy or not and whether Kochkov, the Russian born goalie can stand and deliver in a playoff series. We're still waiting to find that out. I also am a bit concerned for Carolina in terms of their overall depth. They made the big swing obviously to try to get Miko Anton and they weren't able to do it. So they brought in Logan Stankhoven who actually had a very good series against New Jersey, but he's not a very large guy. We saw what happened with Montreal, smaller players, players against Washington, they got thrown around pretty good. So we'll see whether Stank Hoven can have the same kind of success against Washington like he had against New Jersey. I think it's a tough series for Carolina to win. We'll see how it Plays out. But I think it's a tough series for Carolina to win.
[01:10:37] Speaker B: Why are the Capital so good this year?
[01:10:39] Speaker D: They're four lines deep. They have the best sports center in the National Hockey League in Nick Dowd. They got tremendous physicality from Brandon Duhame. Tom Wilson's insulated, you know, very well as a second line right winger. And the biggest thing is the addition of Ryan Leonard. He's just starting to scratch the surface now. So they have size, they got great depth down the middle. They've got explosive offense, especially in a power play with Ovechkin. And to me, they've got maybe some of the most underrated defense in the league. You know, nobody talks enough about John Carlson. He's a super elite player.
Nobody talks, I don't think, anyways, they're not talking enough about the way the defense as a whole, you know, plays with one another. So I think Washington's a vastly underappreciated team.
[01:11:24] Speaker B: You mentioned Tom Wilson. I mean, he's a, let's face it, he's a pain in the ass. But you don't want to play, you don't want to play against. You want him on your side. But he seems to have maybe found a middle ground with this game. He's not trying to be over aggressive. I mean, he's had a great offensive season. Do you think he's matured over the years?
[01:11:44] Speaker D: Oh, Tommy for sure. And one of the best things that happened for Tommy, I can tell you straight up, was playing for Barry Trots and Lane Lambert and Todd Reardon. And I'll tell you why, they used to tell him all time because he was, he was a wild bull. He really was. I was there, I did a lot of his games. And he would be very undisciplined. And one off season they said, you know what, Tom, we think you're such a smart, smart player and such a good player. We'd like to include you on the power play and we'd like to include you on the penalty kill. But if you're going to plan discipline, we can't basically put you in those situations. And so he took it personally in a good way and he made himself a much more disciplined player. And you watch Tom Wilson now, he's not just an asset on the power play, he's a major asset when it comes to penalty killing. So I think the discipline that Barry Trotson, Lane Lambert and Todd Reardon taught him really helped him a lot.
[01:12:37] Speaker B: Let's move over to the West. The jets and Stars will Face off in one of the Western Conference series.
My concern, the jets are fortunate, you know, being the President's Trophy winner. They're going to have home ice advantage throughout the Stanley cup playoffs, which means four home games each time. And Colin Hellebuck scares me. He got pulled three times in the games in St. Louis. See, he's a great goaltender regular season, but why does he struggle in the playoffs?
[01:13:09] Speaker D: It's a good question. I've proposed this many, many different times when I've been breaking down Winnipeg series over the years, whether I was broadcasting him for NBC or breaking them down on different networks because NBC lost the rights. So it's. It's one of those things where I don't know why Connor struggles, but I can tell you one thing. He was close to get. He had to be close to getting pulled in game seven after a very pedestrian first period. But what was really impressive about Connor was the way he rallied so well, I thought in overtime and in the third period when the game was really on the line, he made some really key saves and he looked very comfortable. He's gonna have to bottle that, you know, Ken, if he doesn't bottle that, that it's going to be a big problem. Dallas is coming in not only a little bit more arrested, but Dallas is getting some reinforcements. You know, they're going to. They're going to have Robertson coming back in the lineup. They're going to have Hiskin and coming back into the lineup. This is going to be a very, very difficult Dallas Stars team to play against for. For Winnipeg. And from the sounds of it, it doesn't sound like they're going to have Josh Morrissey in Winnipeg and they're not going to have Martin Scheifele and Winnipeg. Those are two major losses, major losses.
[01:14:22] Speaker B: And both teams are coming in. All those dramatic victories. I mean, who takes advantage of that?
[01:14:27] Speaker D: I think Dallas does. Even though they have to travel to Winnipeg, I think Dallas does take advantage of that. We'll see how it plays out. You talked about Pete DeBoer before. I've known Pete a long time, going back to when he was a head coach of the Kitchener Rangers. It's a long time ago. And Pete always, always, always understood how to get his teams to elevate. Even. You can look at when he was in Florida, when he didn't have a very good team, when he was in New Jersey, where he got them, the Stanley Cup Final, where he was in San Jose. And he made them relevant all the time. When he was in San Jose, when he was in Vegas. They were unbelievably competitive. And now in Dallas, Pete always has his teams ready to play and I would say that they will be ready to play against Winnipeg.
[01:15:09] Speaker B: And then the other Western series it's Vegas and the Oilers. Vegas took out Minnesota in six games.
This, I think this has potential to go seven.
[01:15:20] Speaker D: It does. There's one thing that is a bit concerning. Stuart Skinner obviously did not have a very good first round against la. He got pulled and Calvin Pickard came in and I've known Calvin a long time. Calvin's been a very useful goalie in the league but he's never really been an established starter. That's going to be an interesting one to watch, especially against some of the higher octane players that Vegas has. The other thing that I think makes it a little more difficult for Edmonton, the size and the mobility of the Vegas defense. They're big, they're nasty, they can skate and I like to call them the big green trees in the desert. It's going to be really difficult I think for Edmonton especially Dry Saddle, not so much McDavid but Draisaitl who's so important and Zach Hyman who's so important for them to get to the net. If those guys can't get to the net, I think it becomes a very difficult series for Edmonton.
[01:16:12] Speaker B: Some news away from the playoffs, the Rangers have a new coach and it didn't take long for Mike Sullivan to find a job after he stepped down at Pittsburgh. Is this a good fit for the Rangers?
[01:16:24] Speaker D: Oh, I think so. Michael's been there before. He knows the Rangers organization inside out. You know, he never played and this is one thing I'm glad you asked me about this. A lot of people have been reporting that Mike Sullivan and Chris Drury were teammates at bu. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mike graduated in 1990 and Chris became a freshman in 1994. So they never circumnavigated the ice arena back in the day at Walter Brown together. So let's dispel all that. But they are part of the BU alliance. They're both alums from there and there. That is a very tight group. So I can understand there's a sense of trust and relationship there.
But I think Mike's a good hire. He'll have instantaneous respect from the players being a two time Stanley cup champion, especially having played in the same division as the Rangers. The Rangers players know how hard the Penguins players played for Mike. They'll have respect for that. So I think he's a Tremendous hire for the Rangers.
[01:17:22] Speaker B: And he's a. Just watching. I don't know him at all, but just from watching him on games, he seems like a very intense individual behind the bench.
[01:17:32] Speaker D: He's very intense. There's no question about it. There's a little bit of Gerard Gallant in terms of his intensity. And Gerard was a very. And you probably know him, Gerard from back in the day, maybe up to Mattirondack before he went to Detroit. But Gerard's always been a very tough guy. I thought he had some success with the Rangers before he got let go. And Mike's very similar in terms of his intensity levels. It'll be interesting to see the staff that Mike puts together because I think Michael Peck is one of the better young assistants in the league and he was brought in by Laviolette. I don't know if Mike keeps his job or not or if you choose to even go back. I don't know what happened to Dan Muse, whether they're going to keep him or not. But I think it'll be interesting to see the staff that Mike puts together with the Rangers because that's a big part of the job in New York. It's a major part of the job. Your staff has to be very, very good.
[01:18:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And on Monday night was the NHL draft lottery and the New York Islanders, who had a 3% chance of getting the top pick.
I guess Kenny Marr has a good luck charm, was he was representing the Islanders and they got that draft number one pick. So how big was that for the Islanders? Especially now with. Yeah, they don't. Don't have a general manager after Lou Lamorille's let go, but man, they got to be pretty excited.
[01:18:42] Speaker D: They do. And when you look at the players that they have coming along, you know, they have Calum Richie, who they got in a trade with Colorado. He's a tremendous, tremendous prospect. They got Danny Nelson out of Notre Dame. They got a kid Schultz out of Wisconsin. They got a kid Finley out of Wisconsin. They've got some a leg level prospects. Cole Iserman out of Boston University. Just going off the top of my head. They've got tremendous prospect pool coming in, which is very exciting because it's a team that does need a bit of a makeover. That being said, I don't know what direction they go. I'd have a hard time thinking they wouldn't be taking Matthew Schaefer, number one. He's a kid that plays for the Erie Otters. He's been hurt most of this year, but he is a tremendous talent, so I'd be surprised if they didn't take him. There's a Long island kid available, Jimmy Hagans, who I saw play a ton of BC this year. He'll go on the first three picks of the draft, I would think Hagan's. And there's a kid, Michael Misa, who's another one, that's a tremendous player out of the Ontario Hockey League. So there's, there's a lot of good players available for him. The draft this year though, to be fair, Ken, it tails off a lot after the 10th pick. If people think they're getting franchise players from 10 to 20, I don't think that's going to happen this year. It's just not one of those drafts where you say, wow, this is like 03, or wow, this is like 2015. It's not going to be that kind of draft.
[01:20:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I was watching, I was watching last night, the Flyers, I mean, they almost had a shot again in that first round there. They had two ping pong balls and, and they ended up dropping from 4 to 6. I mean, watching fan reaction on social media, they weren't happy that they dropped. But I mean, I, who knows? I mean, they found Meech Cobb, I think, at the seventh pick last year, last year, and see how it worked out there. So, I mean, I think, you know, dropping sixes is not that much a drop off.
[01:20:37] Speaker D: No, not in this draft. I think, like I said, if you're picking in the top 10, you're going to find somebody that's going to be able to play for you and that's exciting.
You know, the big thing that got to be exciting for your flyer fan is you look at what's going on in Lehigh Valley right now. Their farm team, you know, if they're able to knock off Hershey, the two time defending champs in the American Hockey League, that's, that's an impressive accomplishment. So good on Ian La Perriere, the coach there. And they've got a lot of young kids there playing. It's not an older American League team like some of them. They're a young team in the American Hockey League. So the more those kids, kids play, the faster they get to the NHL.
[01:21:16] Speaker B: Well, Pierre is always appreciated. We'll talk, we get to the conference finals.
[01:21:21] Speaker D: I really enjoyed doing this with you. Thank you so much, Ken. I appreciate it. Enjoy the second round, everybody.
[01:21:27] Speaker B: All right, that's Pierre Maguire. We're back to wrap up the podcast and have the latest winner in the Daily Gazettes Auto racing contest in just a moment.
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[01:22:13] Speaker E: Baseball Head coach John Muller. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast with Daily Gazette Sports Editor Kenshot Back.
[01:22:20] Speaker B: To wrap up the podcast. The week 11 winner in the Daily Gazettes auto racing contest was Lorraine Astonborski of Schenectady. With 55 points, Lorraine wins a $50 gift card. Congratulations Lorraine. The VIP winner was Dwayne Leach of All Season Equipment with 55 points. I'll announce the auto racing contest winner's name and that winner's name will appear in Saturday's Daily Gazette. To play, go to dailygazette.com and click on the Auto Racing Contest banner.
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That wraps up another edition of the Parting Shots podcast. I want to thank Eric McDowell, Tim Reynolds and Pierre McGuire for being on the show. If you have questions or comments about the podcast, email them to me at shot. That's s C-O-T
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The views expressed on the Parting Shots podcast are not necessarily those of the Daily Gazette Company. The Parting Shots podcast is a production of the Daily Gazette company Company. I'm Daily Gazette Sports Editor Ken Schott. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time from the Parting Shots Podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. Good day, good sports.
