The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: Everything is Over

Episode Date: April 29, 2024

We continue recapping the NFL Draft including a hilarious picture of a baby being petrified of Stugotz. Did Dan get dressed up to make the trip to one of his least favorite events of the year? Plus, David Tepper stole somebody's hat and how good is it when the waiter compliments what you order? Lucy has a video from her trip to the NFL Draft, and the crew breaks down Sean Payton apparently baiting the Vikings into trading up for JJ McCarthy and the Falcons taking Michael Penix. The Marlins are terrible, and some even say the worst they have ever been. Is there even any point in having the Marlins in Miami? Barry Jackson thinks not. Stugotz believes the Panthers have to finish the Lightning tonight after he and Mike had a brutal day gambling on hockey in which Mike broke a cardinal rule. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. Folks, Mother's Day is around the corner and let me talk to you about 1-800 flowers. I can't wait every year to tradition. I send stuff to my mother, my mother-in-law, and my wife because they are three amazing moms. They're better than all your moms out there. You think you have good moms? No, I have good moms in my life. I'm just kidding, this was a little harsh.

I'm sure you guys all have good moms too. From your mom to the mother of your children, and all the moms in between, this Mother's Day, give back to the ones that have given you everything. 1-800-FLOWERS helps you celebrate all amazing moms from homemade bouquets, sweet treats, gourmet food, and one of a kind gifts, ordered easily, and delivered fresh.

For a limited time, you can save up to 40% off Mother's Day bestsellers at 1800flowers.com slash Dan. Don't wait order today and save up to 40% at 1800flowers.com slash Dan. Greatest duo's trading cards have arrived at Tim's with two hockey icons on every card like Matthew and Brady Kachuk, rivals, teammates, family and more connected like never before. Head to Tim's and get yours today at participating restaurants in Canada. Welcome to The Big Sui, presented by DraftKings.

Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan LeBattard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not gonna apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there.

That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now, here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar. It was really fun as much as I deplore the draft, both for its moral restrictions on talented people who should be able to work places other than Green Bay if they want to, and because we don't know anything

about everything that we're watching on Thursdays to make an assessment about whether a team is actually better or not. But I will walk that back some, Stugatz, because I do believe that is a bit of dated analysis. I do believe that football teams are better at assigning and measuring value all over the field than they ever have been.

The information game has gotten a lot better. When you're in a competitive salary capped sport you have to be better at winning in the margins smarter than other people about how you do things and so they are better at drafting and replenishing their teams I believe than they ever have been I do believe a lot of people watching are gonna have trouble knowing who's better or not, but 700,000 people in Detroit, a record number of people in Detroit, and you in nearby Troy? Well, nearby, I mean.

You guys covered the hell out of that draft. You did it very well. It was great pride to see everything it is that you guys were doing to make the draft a little bit more fun it was so much fun sitting are back at the draft king saw sports and social in troy miss again watching billy and tony go to work that was really fun that was really enjoyable it was billy was great since he was he was standing he was wearing a suit he was doing uh... walking talks he was commanding the he was wearing a suit. He was doing walk-in talks. He was commanding the room

There was a picture of you and a baby There was a baby that came to see you at a bar You shouldn't put it on the pole please at LeBataard show should not me should you are you asking me should you bring a baby? To a bar the way this baby is looking at Stu gots Can we zoom in on the baby's face? Because this baby is like, what alien is my dad standing next to? Who is this guy? He sees that that guy is near his father's pocket

and that his father's not watching his back pocket and you gotta watch that right hand. You gotta be careful about what it is. That right hand has his wallet. That's right, what you can steal from daddy there. The baby's head is like, three times bigger than Stuugato's head. I don't know how.

It is strange. It is really strange that the baby. Most of us love babies. Yeah, exactly right. Dan, I was flattered because I walked in there. I drove about 40 minutes to get to Troy, Michigan, and I was I was very nervous. You drive, you're a chauffeur. Well, someone drove me, you're right. And I was very nervous about the amount of people

that would show up to see us. But then I got there and the place was packed and they were all there to see us, and the draft, of course. But they wanted to say hello, they wanted autographs, they watched the draft with us. It was very moving, I gotta tell ya. Nice.

Yeah. Jessica, do you feel any remorse about- Babies have big heads. Attacking that baby. I wouldn't do it. I mean, that's a very substantive head. It's all perspective. Stu Gatz is a very small guy,

and this baby is very confused about who this man is and why he smells like a baby. Let's not do this to the baby. Baby's got a beautiful face and head. Yes, a beautiful head. The Giants, by the way, day one, B plus. Wow. We also found out why Dan wasn't part of our coverage

because he was in New York at the draft, as you can see here in this photo. Celebrating it with my soul, with my spirit, because I like to be there so much. The Giants incidentally, you mentioned, they took that Penn State tight end, Billy, because you cannot have a tight end in Darren Waller, who has been talking so publicly about wanting to retire during the season.

Once a football player is feeling like he wants to retire. It's coming soon. It's, you got it, like that is. Weird time for him, huh? Retirement, divorce, what's he gonna be doing? He hasn't yet retired, but it's a hard sport to play if your heart's not in it. Like it's really, if you're thinking about quitting,

that quitting is gonna come sooner. Speaking of Penn State, I saw a headline in People, of all places, that it said, Penn State football coach drove 57 miles to be with both of his players as they got drafted into the NFL. And I thought about this for two seconds, and I was like, 57 miles is closer than

Stugatsa's drive to work every morning. Why are we giving him credit for this? In the Midwest, 57 miles is like a ride to your grandma's house on Sunday for dinner. It's not far. You close your eyes and you're there. We should have spent those 57 miles chasing after James Franklin's chauffeured car,

yelling at him for not winning more with two first round picks. That's what we should have been doing. He's gonna become one of the all time greats now that they've expanded the playoff though. He's right there in that sweet spot. Yep. What, an eighth best team in the nation gets in?

All right. Sign me up. Can I ask a question that I don't mean to be, I don't mean this to come off the way that it's going to come off. It always does. Yeah, no I know. We're talking about James Franklin

and how now he's gonna be one of the all time greats because of the expanded playoff. So now he'll get a playoff banner for just being in the top 12 or whatever. I went to Disney on Ice this past weekend at the UM Watsco Center and I saw a lot of NIT banners hanging. Why?

That's commonplace for basketball programs. It's a loser mentality. NIT. Not for good ones. I mean, NIT banners. I was watching and I was like, come on, man. Make some room for the real tournament banners. Fresh on the scene, blue blood.

But did you see the size of the Final Four banner? I was at a weird angle, I didn't. I think it was behind actually the curtain of the, yeah. Hard to miss. The NIT used to be the premier men's basketball tournament, so really, it's just paying homage to history. Before Miami had a program, I think. So you're alleging that that's the 69th best program

in the country. Well, if you win, you have to win the tournament to be the 69th best. That's right. Nice. I want to show some video here of what I thought was the big football story of the weekend, which is David Tepper, the totally crazy owner

of the Carolina Panthers. Tepper! He walked into a local restaurant, Stugatz, and here's the B-roll, and there was a sign outside, evidently, that read, let's allow the coach and the general manager to make the pick this year. And Tepper comes in and steals the host's hat,

the host's baseball cap. and I don't know, we don't have audio of this. I hope that this is amusing and funny, but I don't think that he's being amusing and funny. I think he- Hand on the chin is rarely amusing and funny. I mean, taking the hat off is rarely amusing and funny. That's very disrespectful, by the way.

His hands on like the podium of the greeter there. Oh, handshake. Shake at the end. I'm glad that that ended nicely. Belly tap. In all fairness to him, it did end with a handshake. It is a bully move, though, to come in and put your bully elbow on his bully pulpit

and take off the host's hat for some reason. So is throwing a drink at somebody. He did that too. That's generally when they told you 15 minutes and it's been 35, the elbow goes on the table then. Hand on chin. What do you do in that situation? That happened to me a few months ago.

I was at a bachelorette party and we had a reservation and it was already too late. The reservation was for like 9.30. And I'm doing the math, I'm like by the time we sit down and get food, it's gonna be like 10.15. So we need to sit down right now. As somebody who's been scarred by my dad huffing and puffing anytime we wait for any seat at a restaurant, I just let it go.

Cause I was in the spot where I awkwardly had to speak for like 12 people. That's the worst. And I was like, hey, it's been had to speak for like 12 people the worst and I was like Hey, it's it's been a half hour and you haven't seen us. It's 10 o'clock Like do you know when the tables gonna be ready and they're like, no, we're running behind and I'm like, okay Your chest out and you felt pretty good about what you were doing there for a second and accomplished nothing and then scampered back And then I was like you guys I argued with them for five minutes and they said the table's still not ready.

You did your best though. We ate at 11 o'clock that night. Where does the great feeling in a restaurant rank of having the waiter compliment your order? Where do you rank that in terms of great feelings? It brings me back to like what's good. That's just one of those things in life, when you order something and they say good choice,

that's a nice little fist bump. Guys, they say that to everyone. They're just working the tip. That's not true. Yeah, no, they say, oh, that's what I would have had. If I was a waiter, that's what I'd say, oh, that's what I would have had. You gotta gauge whether they do it to everyone at the table,

because Billy's right. If they do it to everyone at the table, it's- Do you think all waiters are being disingenuous? You don't think any of them are genuinely like, wow, I'm connecting with you, that was a great order. I just love when they recommend something and then you're like, I don't really like that. It's like, ah, it's not that good anyways.

Like they're always trying to just go with what. I don't like that. Go say that. Never tell me something's not good. They go with the flow. They're going for tips. Billy's right, I mean. They care about your order.

Read the tech and nailed it. Put it on the poll please, at Levitard Show, is the waiter lying to you when he compliments your choice of order? Did they care about your order or whether or not you nailed it? Put it on the poll please at Lebatard Show. Is the waiter lying to you when he compliments your choice of order? Hey, it's Mike. As you know, sports are a bit crazy right now. Kind of feels like everything is happening all at once. And you have to make some decisions to prioritize.

If you want to support your team or go out and see some of these games. Well, I've got a recommendation for you as someone that loves sports and loves attending live sporting events. You're always hunting the secondary market for hard to find tickets. I've been out there in those streets and I know the best possible place for me and you is Game Time. It's an incredible app that is so upfront with its pricing. It's an authorized ticket marketplace of the NBA, which makes getting playoff tickets even faster and easier. Game Time. Tons of last minute deals. You can save up to 60% off buying last minute for sports, concerts, comedy, theater, and more.

Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code DAN for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code D-A-N for $20 off. Download Game Time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. This episode is brought to you by RBC Student Banking. Students, get $100 when you open an RBC Advantage Banking account,

which includes no monthly fee, unlimited debit transactions in Canada, Avian points on debit purchases, and so, so much more. Unlock more perks for less with RBC Vantage. Conditions apply. Offer ends June 30th, 2024. New eligible clients only.

Complete criteria by August 30th, 2024. Visit rbc.com slash student 100. Don LeBattard. All of us who were watching college football elevated everything the weekend was because we missed football in general so very much. You didn't watch the ending of UTEP Jacksonville State. It was awesome.

It was easy. Boom. Mm-hmm. Stugatz. Such a lane for you. Just everything in college football is awesome. Any single thing that happens, she gets deliriously happy about.

Don't you miss viewing sports through that prism though? Like I'm envious of Lucy. Like I wish that I could still be happy. This is the Don LeBattard Show with the Stugarts. Hey LeBattard, you've been replaced. I'm gonna watch it for this young lady because you know, she knocks me out. Dan, you're now legally required to give me your salary.

Hey, Dan, it's me, Lucy. I'm here in Detroit. Stu Gotz is also here. I haven't seen him one single time though. So I don't necessarily know if I believe that. Allegedly, he's staying in the same motel as me. I don't know. I'm gonna talk to the fans. I'm gonna check the vibes, because this is the perfect intersection in the world for me. You got sicko NFL fans and your sicko college football fan.

That would be me. Lucy. You forget my name a lot, so... -♪ Being a Lions fan, what have the last few years been like with Dan Campbell? It's been amazing. If he asked for a kidney, would you give it to him?

Yes. If he's going to give us a Super Bowl ring, I would give him anything. I've been told that we're not all truly Lions fans here. You're a fan of? The Dallas Cowboys. Yeah, you see the way he said that? With shame. What is the best part of being a Cowboys fan?

Yeah, lately it ain't nothing. We ain't one isn't so goddamn long. It pisses me the fuck off. The best thing about being a Cowboys fan is, I would say, Michael Irvin. He get high, and he talk about prostitutes and cocaine. Who's your favorite person on the show? Lucy, of course.

I have not seen Sue Godz. Are you sure he's in Detroit? I haven't seen him either. the show? Lucy, of course. I have not seen Suga. Are you sure he's in Detroit? I haven't seen him either. He goes to a lot of things. I haven't seen him yet, though. By the way, Levitard, I live in Tampa. It's only a short ride up to 75. But bring Poppy with you.

We're going to go out for a good Cuban sandwich. We need a third-wide receiver. Xavier Worthy would fit that bill. Very happy with our current quarterback situation. I'm hoping that now we pick a top end receiver. Definitely do not go for Penics. Who do you want to see the Lions draft today? Offensive linemen. This is a team that needs help in the secondary.

I would like them to draft anything in a defensive backfield. I would really like Kool-Aid because I think we need another corner. But our priority should be a defensive backfield because that's the only reason we weren't in the Super Bowl last year. Cooper DeGene, Cooper DeGene. I want Romo Dense. I'm a big fan of him. Everyone wants a corner and they don't want Cooper.

And I don't know why they don't want Cooper DeGene. Look, we need to draft a new owner, president, and GM, god damn it, because they hit the snooze button. Alright, who do you think is the most overrated player in this draft? Kayla Williams. I think he is Johnny Manziel 2.0. I don't care, I want him to suffer for the next decade plus. I think J.J. McCarthy. That's the right answer.

We're in Michigan, no one wants to say that J.J. is bad. Suffer, and and suffer and suffer. As you can see, I have a phenomenal view. I can see so much and it's definitely not freezing out. And the Bears just drafted Kayla Boyer! Woo! How you feeling after that pick? I'm pumped, they did the right thing.

Monix is so Tim Tebow. Drafted to the Broncos, really great in college, prolific college career, super into God. Bo Nix is Tim Tebow. Initial reaction, I'm depressed. But we could bounce back, you know. We need a wide receiver. The Falcons just drafted Michael Binnick Jr. on purpose.

You didn't need him. Everyone's in shock. I don't know what's going on. Let's go Giants, come on! Come on Raven, yeah! Everybody just come and yell your favorite team. Well that was the 2024 NFL draft. And you may see from the stage behind me

that it might not necessarily be over, but that's not true. I stayed till the very end and I'm so happy that Cooper Dejean got drafted to the team that he got drafted to. I think it's a great fit. I think him and that team are gonna do great and I gotta say as much as I love this job and love you guys, I love my fingers and toes more. So I will be choosing them. I'm gonna go See where there's heats and insulation Thank you. I

Was disappointed that Cooper de Jean didn't go in the first round so that all of America could be hugely Confused by the white cornerback in the first round. Feels like Michael Irvin caught a stray. Yeah, unnecessary man. I was punter. Playmaker. I was, thank you Billy. I was punter, Tori Taylor went 122nd overall. He's a great punter, Stugatz,

and Iowa produces only tight ends and great punters. That's all that they produce. Did you see what Sean Payton, with a sly smile on his face, this is how Stugatz would handle it. Well, it's always how Payton handles it. Well, do you see, you know what I'm talking about here? I don't, no.

Then why did you say it's always how Payton handled it? Because Sean Payton is a guy, when he does things, it's always a sly smile. I mean, that's what I'm saying. I don't care what it is he did, I'm just telling you he had a sly smile. I mean, that's what I'm saying. I don't care what it is he did. I'm just telling you he had a sly smile. Well, I'll tell you what he did. This is how you would do it, and this

would be the sly smile. The Vikings trade up to get JJ McCarthy, and Sean Payton comes into his press conference and is like, yeah, I spent all that time making everyone think I was going to try and trade up tricked I tricked the Vikings is basically what he's saying and provided a smokescreen to trade up and get JJ McCarthy because Sean Payton was lurking and everyone knows Sean Payton doesn't have a quarterback he's got he's got a really dreadful quarterback room and he was hiding and taking a bit of

credit for the idea that the Vikings took someone higher than they wanted to. Isn't that a reason to root for JJ McCarthy? No. What do you mean? I want Payton who baited the Vikings into taking JJ McCarthy to be wrong on this. I thought one of the interesting things about the drafts, Stugats, one of the interesting things about the drafts to God's one of the few for me is that we are now so obsessed with the finances in this sport and you have to have a quarterback on a cheap contract in order to be able to fill out your roster in a way that can give you a Competitive advantage over teams that don't have a great quarterback at a cheap roster on a cheap salary

I thought a bunch of quarterbacks who shouldn't have a great quarterback at a cheap roster on a cheap salary. I thought a bunch of quarterbacks who shouldn't have gone that high went high. And JJ McCarthy's the top of the list on in a previous year. There's no way that you take the risk and the salary hit of having to pay someone like that. But now it's less of a risk to take a flyer on someone. And while I understand all of the criticism on cousins and penics in Atlanta, you're not a cousins away Atlanta. Like,

cousins is going to go and do there what he did in Minnesota, which isn't going to be enough in Atlanta. And while I understand that you don't want to not get him somebody who helps you right away, Pennex does not help cousins right away. And given the way that you're paying cousins, I understand why it is that so many people would question that decision. But I want a quarterback cheap,

not a quarterback expensive. I guess. Yeah, but they have a quarterback cheap and one that's expensive. The decision to question isn't so much so the Penex selection at that point then, the way that you're describing it. It's cousins.

It's the decision to give cousins over $100 million because when you hold the two up side by side, they don't really make sense together. Falcons day one grade, C. Wow. According to? NFL.com. I don't think grade, C. Wow. According to? NFL.com. I don't think that deserved a double wow.

Can you? C plus overall because day three they got a B. Wow. But it's a C today, it could be an A plus later on. You know, if Penex turns out to be one of those quarterbacks, I mean it could be. But how do you find out? Yeah.

I don't know. It's the doing of both that's the head scratcher. You can do one or you can do the other, but doing one after you did the other I think left people very confused about what their strategy was. Well the economics of it do not make sense because you have cousins four years, a hundred million dollars, and if you want to get value from PENIX inside that rookie contract you have to do it inside the first five years. So how are they going to play this? I have no idea. The good thing about it is so many people play in that safe sport and there's no

way cousins will get hurt. No chance. Or Michael Penick, someone without an injury history. The other thing is that he was in college for a while. He's an older quarterback. So it's not like Lamar Jackson where you're drafting him into the NFL and he's an older quarterback. So you're, it's, it's not like Lamar Jackson where you're drafting him into the NFL and he's really young. And by the time he gets to that second contract, he's still really young. Pennex is a little bit older. UV rays don't skip a day. Neither should your SPF. Introducing Daily UV Moisturizer from Umbrell, broad spectrum protection and all-day hydration in one lightweight formula from the number one recommended brand by pharmacists and physicians.

It's the unskippable SPF for your unstoppable day. New Umbrell Daily UP Moisturizer, now available online or at your local retailer. Don LeBattard. WorldRar3. Stugats. We're going to get that off the ground. World Rawr 3 colon our group chat has a pretty good feeling about this one. This is the Don Lebatard show with the Stugats!

I'd like to talk about some of the things going on locally here because Craig Mish who does a very good job covering the Marlins is basically taunting Billy by saying this is the worst Marlins team there's ever been. Things aren't off to a great start in the Peter Bendix era I would say. But it's early it's still early no need to panic. 162 you know. So here. But it's early, it's still early, no need to panic. Yeah, it's 162, you know what I mean? So here is, well it's over. On track for 30 wins? They have put themselves in quite the hole,

I will say that. It's over, it's not, it is a long season. What's over, everything is over? Everything is over, yes, everything is over. In fact, the conversation around the Marlins, Craig Mish is posting worst March, April I have ever seen in Marlins history, truly abysmal baseball, mistakes all over the place, basic plays not executed. I've seen every season rock bottom 6 and 23 and Barry Jackson is now saying, why is baseball in this

town? What are we doing? Why are we wasting everybody's time? That was such a, Barry Jackson tweeted, I know there's intrinsic value in having a major league team, but if the new taxpayer funded stadium could not and will not ever result in anything more than a paltry payroll under any owner, is there a point? More an existential question. And I saw that come across my timeline and was like, huh,

Martin Luther must have lost again. Well, you know what, Barry? I have an example for you. Because the Panthers were pretty bad for a long time And you look at them now it can happen. Okay, it doesn't look good right now, but the baseball team is here It's not going anywhere and they'll figure it out eventually maybe ten years from now What about the Marlins ownership or front office makes you think that they are capable and or willing to turn it around? Genuinely asking a raised guy seems good. They're my fourth favorite team. Does he?

Said Kim Eng. Yep. And not here anymore. This was a playoff team last year. You would think that that means hockey sticks, right? And everything's pointed up. They're two best pitchers. Well, their entire rotation has been absolutely decimated.

Like this past weekend, Jesus Luzardo also went down with it. It's almost laughable if you didn't wanna cry at how bad the pitching situation has been for them this season and how everyone has gotten hurt and seemingly the solution that they came up with was, let's move the closer into the starting rotation. And he was dreadful and also injured.

It's a bit dire though, because you felt like you nailed the manager pick and now the manager's not going to be the long-term answer there. You had faith in the previous front office because they showed you proof was in the pudding and now you're giving yourself yet to another rebuilding process. Crowds are bad, it's just dire. Well, that's the thing that like, so it's bad now, right?

And we're headed towards a situation where at the deadline they're gonna be sellers, right? And this is gonna sound meaner than I intended to, but who do you want from this team? Like who are you gonna train? San Diego wants Arise and Luzzardo. Well, we'll see what they get for them, I guess. That's a start.

Yeah, cool. But this is the start of a, it feels like they tore down a franchise that was one to get excited over, and so I think that the frustration would be, yeah, just another reset, how many of these can we endure? There just wasn't really any improvement from last year to this year.

And you knew that you were losing your ace, but they- And they were already like a bubble team last year. It's just weird, the last two playoff appearances, you would think would mean momentum and something to build on, and almost, it was like an end destination for teams that were building something, at least that that was what they sold.

With Jeter, the playoffs weren't just a destination. We were trying to build something sustainable by building up the forum system, and almost immediately back down to Earth, another pseudo rebuild, get back to the playoffs. That's the destination, tear down rebuild. It's not back to Earth, it's back to the bottom of the Earth. Yeah.

It's horrific. It's what you cannot have when you are trying to build on the momentum of having a playoff team. And the Marlins never have momentum. They have so much trouble building and sustaining momentum because they've done so much damage to generations of baseball fans in South Florida. The frustrating part about this team is this team by record is the worst team in baseball, but they're not. They just make such stupid mistakes. Defense has been.

They're not base running mistakes. And the bullpen is awful. They just have all kinds of dumb errors that just put them in terrible spots that are unnecessary errors. They're not good enough to play as dumb as they've been playing on certain days. You miss Mattingly or?

No. They haven't had sustained success in that building. I do think. You miss Mattingly or? No. No. They haven't had sustained success in that building. This isn't Skip's fault, by the way. I just want, like, I don't, this is not Skip's fault. After 2003, you could argue that the Marlins had their best run of seasons because while they didn't make the playoffs, they were going for it, they were in the conversation, they had meaningful games late in the summer and in September.

And the question that everyone wondered aloud was, well, if this kind of effort would be put forth in a new building, baseball can really work in this market. They move into that new building with two playoff appearances, but nothing really sustained after that. You don't actually have a true sample as to whether or not this sport can actually work in this market. Chris Cody did say something though that is worth revisiting because everything the Panthers have done or the culmination of which is now the single most championship worthy hockey team

we've ever had in this town they're up three to one over their haunting nemesis Tampa and what I've noticed in watching those playoff games is that Tampa has a over their haunting nemesis, Tampa. And what I've noticed in watching those playoff games is that Tampa has a lot fewer players who are willing to take a puck to the face than they used to have. All of those players that they used to have who would just slide in front of shots

and just clog up the toilet of playoff hockey in front of the net where you couldn't get any beauty, long shots off because everything is hitting a Tampa Bay Lightning player. Weren't there a couple of games yesterday where players just kept leaving the ice because they were being hit in the face with a puck? There were about 15 real life minutes

where between two games you had four players get hit in the head with a hockey puck. One player bleeding from the ear leaves for a period, comes back to that game after receiving stitches. Another really sad one in Colorado where a Jets player goes straight to the hospital. You know, we always talk about how playoff hockey, it just feels different. And you could say the same thing about playoff NBA, but where it comes to the NHL is, it's a quantifiable difference. Totals go down a full goal. Block shots in terms of player props and hits.

These things skyrocket. You see as many hits in the first period as you see in full games during the regular season. So it's a different style of game. It hurts to sacrifice the body. My God, it does. These things are traveling at 160 miles per hour. There's not much protection for you, but Tampa Bay was one of those teams and the Panthers fell victim to it, where

Panthers tried to get all the possession in their zone that they could, and they could never get the puck to Vasileski to save because there were just guys throwing their bodies around. Now Tampa has got a couple of different things. Some of those players that were taking those shots just got to a salary structure that they couldn't cheat their way around anymore. So really important role players have found other ways. Now to their credit, they've done a great job in replacing those guys. They made good decisions in paying Cirelli. They made good decisions in playing Paul. But you look at their defense and without Sergechev, it was a dire situation there. The cap is hard unless you're Vegas.

You have to end this tonight though, right? I mean you have to thanks. No, no, no, you don't give that team any sort of momentum all the sudden It's game seven at home. You're tied 1-1 and stamp goes and get your offer out there You know what I'm saying? If you lose tonight all the sudden the pressures on you lose a tip and then we're staring at a game Seven back here. I don't want it. End it tonight snowball starts rolling. Yeah control it Yeah, give that team confidence Mike. I'm telling you okay the heart of the champion they're gonna be they're gonna be hard to kill we Chris and I went to the game game four on Saturday and it was actually a pretty good way to leave

a building if the events are you lose game four you can't have a better situation than you being up three one in the series they can't have a better situation than you being up 3-1 in this series. I can't really muster it up They had difficulty looking us in our eyes. Yeah, I Think it's time to break out the old Mortal Kombat sound Yes for the Tampa Bay Lightning just be done with this already. I hate Stu gots I really dislike this that again the games the playoff games Celtics heat and Panthers Lightning they're competing against each other. There's a third time in this

postseason here in the first round and you used to say that it was an oh they just don't care about South Florida's market. There's Bruin-Celtics conflicts there have been in that market this is really unfortunate there's a recent thing where the league's just decided we don't care about those market conflicts this is going when we want them. if you're a South Florida sports fan this is the third time in short series that you've had to make a decision as to whether or not you're gonna devote most attention to on your dollar to. Plus you have Marlins Nationals. Yeah avoidant sweep big game for the fish. Yeah got to

avoid that sweep. Do you think we see Bobrovsky again today? I think if he wasn't pulled in game four, then he's going to go out there. But in looking back in that, on that game four performance, Sergey Bobrovsky, who was great this entire series, he lost you that game. He was really bad. Let in a couple of soft ones. I was shocked that he wasn't pulled there. What, what has made Bob season so good and what they kind of figured out with Bob was managing his minutes and no matter what giving Salars, who's a great backup goalie by the way, led the league in goals against average giving him an occasional start. I'm also the minder in the playoffs that you don't pull a hot

goalie until he gives you reason to. Well in game four in that first period Bob gave you reason to and you probably win that game if you make the decision to pull Bob. Winnipeg's pulled hella buck. They were down 3-0 what 15 minutes in? That honestly is the most interesting part to me is our mentality down 3-0. This team has been so good at coming back. We were just like if we score the first goal in this second period we're still in this.

Usually 3-0 in hockey feels like a million points. It was just this team has been so good at coming back that we were not that down when we were down three nothing. And then the second period, that second intermission. Oh, we were alive. It felt good. Dan, you should have felt the air in that barn. Nobody was looking at us.

When Sam Reinhardt hit the crossbar that would have made it four four, you could hear a pin drop in that barn. I've never been heckled as little in another city's arena. I probably got heckled twice the entire game. You two hung out together throughout the end? Yeah, we sat right next to each other.

We sat right in front of Luongo. Oh, he was getting the handshake or high five. Wow. Bill Zito just sits there. Whether we score, whether we give up a goal, he just sits there. But if you're sitting there next to Luongo, you can't go down three nothing.

It takes the air. Like you wanted to be hugging Luongo. Yeah. Well I wanted to finish off the comeback just because it would have been, in my mind, full embrace with Bill Zito and Roberto Luongo. Like we did this together, but we didn't have that moment. But what Chris is saying is, if you go to the game,

it'd be an odd thing to do, and you're only watching Bill Zito, you would have no idea if the Panthers are up or down I mean stoic his hand doesn't shake I saw a question I think five reason sports was asking this where do we put already in the Pantheon of great coaches in South Florida sports history Paul Maurice like where do we we get? We get very excited any time we have a, remember there was a Harold sports page cover of Jimmy Johnson, Pat Riley, and Don McClain,

or is it Doug? Doug. Yeah, Doug McClain. Unless he loses the series. And Jim Wheeler, like coaching central. Unless he loses the series, and then he gets fired. Yeah, Paul Maurice is a really good coach, but he's gonna need to win a title. He's gonna need to win a title. By the way, then, you know, he gets fired. Yeah. Paul Maurice is a really good coach, but he's going to need to win a title.

He's going to need to win a title. By the way, Andrew Brunette. Oh, thank God that guy's not our coach anymore. Mike, can we talk about the day we had watching hockey yesterday and gambling on hockey? Because we were having a day and then Mike broke one of the cardinal rules of sports gambling. You don't talk about the next game.

You don't talk about the next game during the current game. We got off to a good start. We had the Lanch. I told you to pound the Lanch. We pounded the next game. You don't talk about the next game during the current game. We got off to a good start. We had the Lanch. I told you to pound the Lanch. We pounded the Lanch. Told you to pound McKinnon. We were pounding McCarr and McKinnon. We were just pounding Lanch stuff left and right.

We're pounding the Preds. We were having a day, and the Preds are up 3-1. Mike told me, must win game. They have to have it. Vancouver, their third goalie this series I believe third goalie. Yeah, we're on Forsberg. We were on Joe Cruiser we're up 3-1 and people are chugging out a catfish So this is what I'm saying Chris Mike starts telling me who he likes in the next game

Thank you while that game is going on and I'm like we lost we're gonna lose here sure enough up with on and I'm like we lost we're gonna lose here. Sure enough up with two minutes and 48 seconds left in the game and Vancouver with a pulled goalie situation up three to one the Preds hit the post on an empty net and then Vancouver somehow improbably ties the game I don't know how Nashville's lost both of these games because in game three they outshot Vancouver 31 to 12. Vancouver's the first team to win a playoff game with 12 shots there. The Preds and Andrew Burnett just find ways to lose.

I think 15 seconds into overtime, Vancouver just ends up killing the Preds. That is a bad, bad beat. When you say it hits the post on an empty netter, people are probably thinking it was a full ice shot. No, they were like right in front of the net. Little soft backhand, little soft backhand. I am texting with Mike back and forth the entire day.

But when that happens and I gave him Ranger picks that came in, I told him to take the Rangers, who's going to score points and all this. But the last text I got from Mike and I didn't get another text was Christ Almighty. Once you hit the post there up 3-1 with a couple minutes left you can see the rest of it coming. When it happens it is your worst most negative thoughts come to life and mushrooming. But before we get to the famous video of former Panthers coach Andrew Burnett, having a bad conversation with police officers while getting a DUI in a golf cart,

I wanna play first the Nashville coat, or no, a Nashville fan, do God's, drinking a beer out of a fish, a fish I'm gonna go ahead and assume is dead, but you can't be sure. So here's the B-roll of that. Let's see what we've got come on come on unpleasant fishy beer what's wrong with these hockey fans

what's the matter with them best time of year man you can't have a fish flavored beer come on you can't drink beer out of a fish's mouth? Did you watch Taylor LeWan's daughter chugging? She chugged water after her dad slammed down a beer. They got a crazy atmosphere in Nashville. Those fans did not deserve what's happened to them over the last two games. Nashville used to have the greatest draft crowd there's ever been for an NFL draft before Detroit swamped them. It just took one year of good Detroit football

to bring 700,000 people out to the draft. Would you rather drink beer out of a catfish or your own shoe? Shoe. Shoe. Yeah. Me too. Over dead fish? Yeah. That I don't know how it's been refrigerated?

Foot? What about Greg Cody's shoe? Foot? Catfish. Foot?