1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Cristiano Simonetta (Lincoln Stars PxP): February 4th, 10am

Episode Date: February 4, 2022

What is going on with the Stars this weekend?How is the hockey scene?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the Coppull Chevrolet GMC Studios, here is your host, Derek Pearson, presented by Beatrice Bakery, on 937 The Ticket and the Ticket FM.com. Happy Friday again, we got a good one for you. Got a good one for you for this hour. Locked and loaded, lots to talk about good stuff. 4-2-464.

5-6-85, the start of human text line. Honolink and Hotline if you want to call in. Put in your two cents. We're welcoming it today. It's Friday. We're in that mood. You can follow on the starting hand in live video stream, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch. See what's going on. Those chat rooms are open.

If you've got commentary thoughts, opinions you want to share, please do so. Also, we want to say thank you to be at Spakery for making this hour happen, taking care of that stuff. As a matter of fact, I am going to give away another care package today. Why? Because I'm in a good move. I'm in a very good move. So go to the ticketfim.com, find the Beatrice Bakery banner. Click on it. Tell us who you are thinking of when I ask you this question. Who do you want to make smile today? Who do you want to make smile today? Who has had a really good week, a really bad week? Who needs a pat on the back and add a boy and at a girl?

It could be somebody that works with you, somebody that lives with you, somebody that has done something kind for you, or somebody that needs forgiven. Nominations are open. And as a matter of fact, along with Beatrice's Bakery, I think I can talk our first guest into throwing in some Lincoln Stars tickets. Absolutely. So let's do that. Let's bring in the golden voice of the Lincoln Stars. Cristiano Seminetti. Cristiano, man, what's happening?

The Golden Voice, D.P., I really like that. I think I got to change my, you know, LinkedIn bio and stuff like that. Absolutely, right? Let's go. You got the pipes. Let's say it. Thanks for having me. You guys have just done just such an awesome job with me and Rocky show outside the box on Tuesdays.

We, you know, couldn't be happier to join you guys and partner with you. It's been a blast. Yeah, we have more steps to take because it is my mission that we will be your flagship station next year. And we'll make whatever deal we need to make to get that happen. You guys need it. I've been in the spaces we've been in, I did a similar thing with Utah Grizzlies back when I was in Salt Lake City, and I understood the value not only to the organization, but to the station.

Those partnerships give balance, and they also set some really cool boundaries for how hockey fans engage and gives them a place, a meeting place, another meeting place to do that. I still think the star's happy hour is the thing that we're... Look, we may have to call it the D.E. Happy Hour. Everybody comes in an hour before the game, you know, it's, you know it. Here's, but here's the thing we did in Utah, and you can tell me how bananas that is.

We had, so we allowed the radio station guy to have a, a listener's skate. And we would have people throw themselves into this pool throughout the week. And then we picked a day after practice where folks should come on and lace them up and, you know, get out there, take some shots. and skate around if that's what they wanted to do. I'd love to do that because I think that you guys have a fan base enough that would kind of enjoy that sort of thing. And then to spend more time getting your current players on this station so they could share who they are.

Because you've got, they're interested to people within the organization, but on ice, you guys from dudes. Yeah, and you've got to break that mold of, you know, 16 to 20-year-old kids sometimes afraid to be in front of a camera. And in the social media era, these guys are explosive personalities. They're funny guys. They're from Western Canada riding horses or, you know, from Minnesota ice fishing. They're just awesome.

You want those stories. Right. Like it's all of this. We end up bearing the lead from time. But I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. The stars need to be a consistent presence on this station and in this community. That's the target. That's the mission.

That's what we're going to do. You guys, before we get into the personal stuff, You have a big event coming up tomorrow night. Huge military night at the icebox. Saturday night, Pucktrop is at 6.05. Just an awesome initiative that we put on every single year. But to be against the Lancers, it's our best crowd of the year at the icebox. And we'll have a post-game jersey auction.

The jerseys that the players will wear, the specialty uniforms will be auctioned off after the game. We raised over $23,000 last year with only 25% capacity because that's what the stipulation was last year in the city of Lincoln. no restrictions on attendance. So we expect to double those numbers and have a heck of a night and beat Omaha. How many jerseys will be available in the auction? 27. So plenty. So 25 jerseys will be available.

Yeah, 25. The largest, the goalie jersey, because I'm a big dude. Yeah. I need a goalie jersey. All right. I need that. I'm sorry, fans. I apologize in advance.

and I'm taking it on credit. So like, well, it's in the contract of our. Right. Well, it would look really good framed here in the studio. Of course. Right? Like, that's what it's for. I promise you, I'll never wear it other than when you're not looking.

The keep it simple. So what time will the auction happen? Is this a post-game deal? Pre-game deal. How's this work? Yeah, post-game deal. We got some things going on throughout the game on the concourse, a crocheted American flag blanket.

We got some other things the players signed throughout the game. But the big event is that post-game auction. I'll interview Rocky after the game on the stage as always. And then the guy shower. They come up. They model their jerseys. And it's cool. Do the fans want them showered?

I kind of get the impression that most hockey fans would rather have their players sweaty, hair messed up, slightly bruised. Yeah. And if there's a little blood on the jersey and it goes for a little more? Right. Like this is the thing. People just scour you go down the line. I see,

Cristiano just told you a secret. Hockey fans are weird. Like this is the thing, like just to go down the line and go, hmm, that one looks game warm. Like it looks game warm. And it's way more important. Like the guys who, is there anybody that won't skate for tomorrow?

We have a couple injured. Right. You'll have just that, you know, clean, right off the presses. But then you'll have the. fighters that, you know, got some, hopefully the other team's blood. Omaha's blood. Drip on the jersey. A lot of that.

So 25 jerseys through that time. Give us a price range of what they went for last year. And again, we understand the market is that it will go up because there'll be more people betting or making a bit. Yeah. So when it comes to like younger guys and rookies that maybe haven't had as much experience, they go from, you know, anywhere from $200 to $700. But then when you get into our veterans and we've got a draft.

The drafted player of the Washington Capitals this year. We have two goalies that are going to be drafted. Say it again. Yeah. Two of the best goalies coming up in the country, Caden and Barraco and Cameron Whitehead. So those are going to go pretty high because you have fans thinking, well, in June, they're going to be drafted to an NHL team.

And that's being a Cubs fan, can I change my pick? Can I change my jersey? Okay. You want Joe LeMay. I will even take a back, like, his game won, should go to the auction. But I think as a Caps fan, I should have. have one of his jerseys in this building. Is that fair?

Absolutely. And we need to get him on the show because he's that Western Canada kid. He rides horses here in Lincoln on his off days. Where is he riding? I really don't know. I'm going to figure that out. But he knows someone at the rink that just picks him up at 7 a.m. on a Sunday after a two-game series and says,

I'm going to go ride horses for two hours. Let's go up and down this roster because this roster is fantastic. It's fantastic. Give me the biggest. personality on this roster. Ooh, that's a very good one. I think Dalton Norris, he's our 20-year-old captain. He leads our

team in goals, leads the U.S.HL and power play goals. He's just such a great guy and the funniest guy in the locker room. He'll manage the post-game win song, so he's got the playlist going. He handles the warm-up playlist. And just a prankster. I think all these guys

just have such a great relationship with one another because DP their kids, man. They're 16 to 20-year-olds, and we want to showcase that personality, so the locker room is definitely a fun place to be when Daltz is getting them going. Biggest ceiling, highest ceiling. I think our goaltender Cameron Whitehead. He's 18 years old.

He's 9-4-1 this year, and he was drafted by Lincoln in the 10th round. So it's not like he was a guy who was first round in the draft. All right, he's going to be the guy. He really wasn't. He was the third goalie on our depth chart, and he beat a guy out, and he came into the season and has just had an awesome year. And after every game, it seems like 20 different scouts from the NHL want to talk to him and get to know this kid.

Who's been the biggest surprise? That's a good question. I think Norris, because Norris actually, he has 14 goals this season, right? His past two seasons, two goals combined. He had injuries. I was going to ask you, what's the change? What's been the difference?

I think it's just guys as they get more experience. It doesn't matter if it's hockey, basketball, or life, DPA. I think you get a better understanding of what you need to do to succeed. And I think the effort that he put in the offseason, becoming a leader and just putting himself in the right spots, he's just done an awesome job. And yeah, he's five goals away from our single season power play record and we're only game number 33 in. Well, that speaks then. What's happening that you guys are getting into so many power play situations? Oh, I think we just play hard.

Okay. Linkin stars hockey. I love the fact that on social media, what you get is, oops, we did a thing. We did a thing and we're short-handed and our apologies. It's just who we are. Define Lincoln Stars hockey. It's just rough and tumble.

I think anybody who has been watching this team since 1996, it's hard to play against. It's all right. If you have your head down driving to the neutral zone, well, you better be ready to feel something. And a lot of hitting and a lot of brotherhood. If our goalie gets bumped into after the whistle,

you'll have five guys, just punch and punching because it's like it's protect our house sort of thing and when you have that camaraderie and that chemistry on the ice you can do a lot of great things and you know that very well what do you say to folks who have not attended a home stars game it's just something i don't think you know you can even preface and describe it's something that when i came to this city from chicago a mecca of sports you come to lincoln nebraska for a hockey game you don't really know what to expect and you got the light show in the beginning you're the fans screaming and yelling and sometimes, you know, there'll be fights on the ice. There may be a fight or two in the stands too, which we were just talking about that this morning. What is going on? Hockey fans are a different breed. Fair to say? A hundred percent.

Okay. Give me the Christiano view of a hockey fan from 10,000 feet. Oh, man. Look, if there was like a job description, it'd be someone who screams a lot, someone who, you know, thinks they know everything. And that's a good thing, right? They think they know everything. You'll hear them yell, shoot when the guys run up.

I think they know what they're doing, but I just love the enthusiasm from those people. Shoot it. Shoot it. Skate faster. Move the puck. That's the same thing. For every sport.

Don't get hit. Every sport has those people. Punch him. And those fan coaches are welcome, but they're still hilarious. Don't let him score. I wouldn't, I wouldn't let them do that. Why did you do that?

Come on. Christiane-Civenetti, Play-Ban, PlayVoce with Lincoln Stars. I want to talk about Coach Russo because I think that the stars have landed on the right guy for their organization and fan base. I don't, if you're a sports fan and you aren't connected to Rocky Russo, you're missing. Because he's a sports guy who happens to be a really top-level hockey coach, right? That's a fair assessment of who Rocky is.

Yeah, and he's grinded. He's been in the league right below us. I mean, it's the same tier of junior hockey, but, you know, the U.S. HL has been widely regarded as, you know, the more superior league connected to USA hockey, etc. But Rockies had to grind for this position. And once he took it in the summer, he has just, you know, fit in so well with the guys in the locker room. And you see that instantly on the ice. And to have us where we're at,

in the middle of a playoff race, two points out of second place in the conference after missing the playoffs last year, that's a pretty big deal. And Rocky obviously gets a lot of credit for that, too. We missed an opportunity. Just hit me because folks are going to come in. Nicolingham's and Kenzie Knuckles from volleyball coming in. We should have had hockey jerseys. We should have had Stars jerseys.

We missed one. That's okay. We'll work on. From the text line, Jordan says, I know a lot of people don't get hockey, but tomorrow night is in the night to go to a hockey and go support Nebraska's Warriors, even if you don't buy a jersey. the ice box icebox will be rowdy and electric tickets are cheap there's hitting fighting and beer it's guaranteed good time so you guys i mean beer is a big part of the the stars experience correct well yeah i think

jordan just summed up best with that holy trinity there you know fighting beer hockey i mean that that's the beauty of it and it's just the atmosphere the energy hockey is a sport that kind of depends on that and where you can actually have that momentum you know you'll have some people that say momentum isn't really a real thing. In hockey, it definitely is playoff hockey for sure. And when we have the icebox rocket, I mean, we're 11 and 5 this year at home. Big reason for that is our crowd at the icebox every Friday, Saturday. What are the tickets going to go for Friday?

It's, you know, just our same ticket price, $16 for mezzanine, $18 walk up. So if you want to save a couple bucks, buy online before Saturday's puck drop 6.05 p.m. What time do the doors open? Five o'clock. So five o'clock for a skia. 5. That gives about an hour. Plenty, plenty of drink. Because you guys do realize that you're the example that's going to be used for folks

who want beer at Memorial and Haymarket at PVA. Do you have any problems with beer being consumed in excess? Not really. I think you may have to talk to our security and they'll have a better answer for you, but no, I think it's, you know, drink responsibly, come to a, game and it's not just for you know college kids to get rowdy you got you know families trying to get out take a load off have a beer we got plenty of lincoln hometown beers from imperian and can cater so we're supporting the local community here and so if you want to have eight or nine of them you can responsibly or you can have one or two it's a big part of it from the texas

and there's this thing I did enough it's a thing we talked about uh they said the beer at the hockey games are only craft beer choices needs to change you were telling the story about what the situation is with that please let the listeners know what's going on Yeah, I can't really get into the politics of the situation in the summer, but there's good news on the forefront of that situation. We hope to have more information in the next couple months, but we definitely want to get those brands that everybody knows and loves back to the icebox. See, there is a method to the madness.

Road trip today, you guys take off at 3 o'clock. We're two. Sioux City, Iowa against the Musketeers, starts with 3 and 1 against them this year, and they're right above us. So it's a huge weekend. We have two games against Omaha this weekend as well. Omaha right above us in second place.

It's a huge weekend for the boys, and they're pretty fired up. So what's the game schedule for the next three days, four days? Friday, which is today, tonight in Sioux City, and then tomorrow, 605 at the icebox against Omaha, and then in Omaha on Sunday at 405 p.m. So pretty quick turnaround for the guys. How do you get through, how did the players, I mean, they're young, so that certainly helps, but still three hockey games in, you know, a night plus. That's a lot.

Yeah, you'll talk to some guys and they'll say that, throughout Sunday's game, they'll feel better and their legs will feel better than what they did on Saturday. Like you said, there's a method to the madness. They prepare for this type of stuff. They condition pretty hard throughout the week. They're pretty fine-tuned athletes. So I think they can play every day if they really wanted to. How much recovery? What's the process within the organization for the young guys to recover? Yeah, well, our athletic trainer and equipment manager, Corey Courtney, has been with us for 23 years. So he knows every single type of, you know, recovery, process and that's evolved right through sports so sometimes it's a cold bath sometimes it's certain

products and proteins that the guys take and just we have a great sports drink uh presented by nutrizos on o street so it's again uh these guys just kind of feel it in their bodies they know when they're tired they know when to push back and they know when to say hey i've had enough let's just relax for for six eight hours maybe i won't skate on friday maybe i won't skate on saturday but i'll play in the game so it's all about just managing that i think the guys have done a good job that. Also for the text, I'm telling you all, going to a Starz game will be the best $16 you've spent a long time. Great atmosphere, even greater beer. Also tell me another place where you can watch a sporting event and order a Freddy's Cheeseburger. I'll wait. Yeah. Freddy's was with us

last year. They're with us again this year. They got chicken sandwiches, custard. Again, DP, I keep, sound like a broken record, but this city here in Lincoln and a big reason why we're proud of you guys allowing us into your vessel is because we're all trying to support each other, right, especially through this time. That's what we're trying to do. So let's get, Cristiano, give me a trivia question so we can give away some stars tickets.

Ooh, let's see. And we will allow you guys to answer on the Star of Hammond Tech's line. If you can answer the question, we'll give you at least some tickets for you, either Saturday, for this Saturday's game. I think we can come up with something.

What do you think? Yeah, the last time we played Omaha, January 1st at the Icebox, won an overtime, who scored the game winning goal? 402, 464, 5685. Want passes, and even if you already have tickets, it's a way for you to invite somebody else to understand why you care about this team

and why the games are such a great experience. So the game winner, that's a simple one. We'll see if we can get that done. I haven't asked you about the new ownership because I know they like to kind of low-key it. But what has that done for the organization from top to bottom? I think an investment in the front office and in the hockey operations. The guys, they've had plenty of renovations in the locker room, new whiteboards, new TVs.

So you want to talk about ingesting that information during the game. There's different methods to break down plays on a big screen as opposed to a mini iPad. The bathroom in the locker room has been renovated. The rink has gotten some behind the scenes. touch-ups that maybe fans don't really appreciate it right now because they don't really know about them, but they've just really invested in the product, and they're really bought into the Lincoln Stars here. And I know there were some skeptics in the summer because you never know when new guys come in, and people come into a team that is foreign to the Midwest and stuff like that.

But no, it's just been an awesome time with the ownership, and you're seeing that payoff on the ice, and you're going to start to see it in the in-game entertainment level, too, as we move forward. I'm going to ask, we had a nomination for Beatrice's Baku Care Package. I'm going to ask if this is possible. This is a family of four. Could you guys set aside four tickets for this family? 100% DEP. I will give you the name of the family.

We'll take care of that to do that. And then if folks can, again, if you answer the question, we'll get you another pack of four for this thing. What I'd like to do, he says, don't love hockey. Love beating Omaha. There you go. Amen. They said it in a very, very hockey-ish way.

So we can be clear with that. Next week, we've got to find another time and have both you and Rocky. If we can make it work, we forgot what time that is. Get some hats, some bumper stickers, bring them in, let's load up the place. And we'll share some love with Link.

How about that? All right. Sounds good, D. Good luck tonight. We'll see you guys tomorrow at the auction night. I think it's going to be amazing. Thanks, guys, for having me. Thank you, brother.

Travel safe. We'll see you tomorrow. We'll throw it to break when we come back. Husker volleyball. You might know who they are. If you don't, stay tuned. Find out. Download our app by searching 93.7

The Ticket in your app store. You're listening to One-on-One with DP on 937 The Ticket in the Ticketfm.com.