The Dan Patrick ShowDan reacts to the current state of the Lakers and thinks they could compete for a championship this year. Shedeur Sanders opts out of throwing at the NFL Combine and Matthew Stafford is free to explore. Plus, NHL insider Steve Levy discusses the NHL 4 Nations Tournament's impact on the sport of hockey and where Wayne Gretzky's legacy stands with Alexander Ovechkin closing in on his goal-scoring record.
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The NFL combine later this week. The Rams have said to Matthew Stafford, go ahead, test the market. And if there's a franchise that knows about letting a quarterback go who is close to winning or has won, it's the Rams. They did this with Jared Goff, who had gone to a Super Bowl with them. They got Stafford in return. Now they're gonna let Stafford test the market and maybe you get his replacement. Maybe it's a Sam Darnold kind of situation where you go a little younger. And I'm sure with Sean McVay, Sean McVay probably thinks I'm the genius here. I'll turn somebody into a great player. But the Rams letting Stafford gage the market, we'll talk about the potential options there. The Spurs have lost Greg Popovich and Victor Wembenyama for the year now. Popovich has been out for a long time with the stroke. Wembn Yama has a blood clot in his shoulder. And because it's the Spurs and it's rare when they have news, and they make it even bigger than what it normally is. If this was New York or LA or Boston or Philly. It feels like it would be a bigger thing. To me, it's scary because we've had Chris Bosh who had a blood clot that cuts short his Hall of Fame career. Here's web Ben Yama, who's twenty one and the blood clot in your shoulder. Now I know it's not a knee or a foot for a big guy, but this, to me is it feels like it should be more concerning that. Maybe nationally it's playing here's the future face of the NBA, a player who I think will be the best player in the game by the time he's twenty five. This is worldwide and just feels like, oh, they shut him down and we moved on. Hey, let's talk about Luca's performance against Denver or the Knicks getting blown out. But wembn Yama done for the year. Very very surprising with that news. Hopefully it's nothing, but then it could be something. It could be really, really something. So that was a little bit of a surprise. Alexander Ovechkin a hat trick and now thirteen away from topping Wayne Gretzky is the greatest goal scorer of all time. Not the greatest scorer, nobody's going to get that. But Ovechkin, he's chasing down Gretz. Cavs Celtic's thunder Nuggets all of one, nine of their last ten. But the Nuggets did get roughed up against the Lakers. And the one thing I think we weren't fair to Luka Doncik about was the shock value of being traded by the Mavericks because he didn't know nobody knew. The next thing, you know, you're being traded. He thought he was being pranked, thought it was an April Fool's Day joke a couple of months early. And I don't know if we ever gave him the time to get kind of acclimated to this, and that's what he was saying. It was like, you know, I haven't played very well, but I thought, give him two weeks to find out, you know, where am I living? He just bought a I don't know, fifteen or twenty million dollar home in Dallas and then next thing, you know, hey what, yeah, you're traded to the Lakers. No I'm not, Yes you are, and Lakers getting used to him, him getting used to the Lakers, and you saw that the other night against Denver. But here's the thing, and I know this sounds a little bold, but if they play defense, and I know it's a big if. If they play defense, they can challenge for a championship. They played defense against Denver and that's jj Reddick devised his scheme where you're going man and zone, they double triple team Joker. They did an incredible job in Denver. They don't win in Denver, but see that gave me the Okay, can they do that? Now? Luca doesn't play defense, Lebron can This is where the younger guys really have to almost inspire the other players Lebron and Luca to play some defense here. If they play defense with the other weapons that they have in the West, they can challenge for a championship. Here is Luca on what the win against Denver does for the team, Coral confidence.
You know, I remember when when was the last time I won here? So you know, it's very tough to play here against that team. So you know, just to one like that and it's it's an amazing win for us and gives me a lot of confidence moving forward. Like I said, you know, every day is going to get better. You know, I'm getting to learn learn the place, but I'm getting to learn that. But you know, us three, I think depends on the day. You know, everybody has so much stealing. So I think today the way we did, the way we shared the ball was amazing and the ball moving was amazing.
And Lebron talked about Luca as well in kind of getting that chemistry.
I'm a natural born wide receiver and he's a national born quarterback, so it fits perfectly. I've been running a floor and running lanes like you know, pretty much my whole life. And he's been throwing great passes pretty much his whole life. So it's not it's not hard to get a rhythm when it comes to that. You know, it's just all about you know, eye contact and you know, him being a great quarterback like he is, and need being the recipient of it.
And they got a pretty tough schedule coming up, some back to backs. But if they play defense, and defense to me comes down to do you want to play defense? Because if you're getting to the NBA, you're probably a really good athlete, and now it comes down to how much do you really want to play defense? And is it a team commitment. Also your coach and JJ Reddick once again did a great job because you shut down Joker at seven seven field goal TEMs. He has that in a quarter. He has triple doubles before the end of the third quarter. They did a great job. Now is going to work against everybody?
No?
But can you find that sweet spot of this is who we are? These teams? Now? Golden State's looking for its identity. But Jimmy Butler, who are you? What are you? And can you continue? They won three in a row and I think they're all surprised at how good Jimmy Butler still is. Is that enough? Now you're trying to figure out are we a three point shooting team? Like what is our offense? And having that strategy? They have young players, but they're just young players. They haven't been great players. It's still Steph Curry, Steve Kerr and I still think Golden State has one of those magical runs still left in them. Now how long can that last in the playoffs? That's really the key? You know. Do we trust Oklahoma City? Okay maybe to a certain degree, yes, but it feels like in Houston is sneaky. I mean, you may not watch them, you may not know them. Houston's good, and it's these who's built for a seven game series? Now, who's built for the next seven game series? That's how you win championships. You want to make them match up with you. How are you with half court? Do you play defense? All the things that you know come into play every single year, and we get caught up in threes and offense and all of this, and it comes down to what matchups half court offense, half court defense. But a long winded way of saying, we got some I think some interest here. The Caves, the Calves are here for the long haul. Celtics as well, thunder Nuggets, throw in Golden State, and throw in the Lakers as well, and you know it'll be fun. Now the Knicks got blown out by the Cabs, got roughed up by the Celtics, is well, and we keep waiting to see are you the best team of the East? Second best team in the East, third best team in the East. So a lot of NBA that as we start to pick up a little bit here and maybe you know, we'll focus on that. You got the combine coming up, So once again, here comes the NFL. You had your little window, and I hope you're happy you got a little window here hockey in NBA, and now all of a sudden, the combines this week. Then we're going to lead up to the draft. There's gonna be mock drafts, there's free agency. Matthew Stafford. I mean, this is where you hold on for dear life if you're a sport that's kind of on the periphery. It's like, can we get just something. The fact that the NBA overshadowed the NFL during the Super Bowl, but it took what is truly one of the blockbuster trades of all time with Luca, but it did it overshadowed because it was a Super Bowl matchup that we had had before a couple of years prior. And I don't know if everybody was all in on this, because you may not want the Chiefs to win, but I don't know how many people outside of Pennsylvania wanted the Eagles to win either. It's like, hopefully it's a good game, all right? Eight seven seven three DP show Best and Worst of the weekend Seaton Poll question for our.
One pole question for our one how about more cemented legacy? Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Oh.
God, it's hot, scaldy hot.
We're talking about it a little bit before the show today. Okay, obviously with Ovechkin getting very close to passing Wayne Gretzky, Okay, but you're still nobody's going to doubt that Wayne Gretzky is the great one, the greatest of all time. It doesn't seem like Michael Jordan anybody's really going to be able to pass him either in terms of perception.
Well, we won't let them. Correct, Yes, no, you have Michael Jordan gatekeepers. Correct, Hey, don't you're not going in. Don't. Don't even think about Lebron. No, you're not going in. Nobody's going to go in there with Wayne. If I said how many how many Standy Cup Championships as Wayne won? Marvin four, but we don't know what I'm saying with Mike, Mike Hey won six? Wayne was you know? Edmonton had one of the greatest teams of all time, like Hall of Famers, talent, and then he got traded to the LA Kings and really changed hockey. You want to talk about somebody who changed the game, he did. He helped expand it in the United States, Southern States where you would go hockey, but they embraced it because everybody wanted it. It's it's very similar to what Caitlin Clark is doing in the WNBA. You're starting to see, hey, Boston once won, uh partly you know, everybody's kind of going, hey, we want one of those, you know they the Bay Area. Now you're starting to see that Wayne did that with hockey. We love basketball no matter where it is, and women's basketball still rates well when they're big games. But hockey, I mean, that's bringing in Canada's sport here and all of a sudden, we want to see Wayne Gretzky play for the La Kings. It's pretty monumental when it happened. But you're seeing that with Caitlin Clark with expansion as well. So Wayne o doing that. I mean, Mike didn't change the NBA. Think he changed marketing, the shoe deals, but worldwide, you know, Mike had a large imprint on the game, like Steph Curry changed the game, probably more than Michael did from a playing perspective that this is what Steph did, Like we can't be Mike, but you can think you can be Steph. So there's a difference. Even when you watch Wayne play, you go, how does he get away with that? And if you ever stand next to him, you're like, dude, you're the great one. But he did change the game. Mike did to a certain degree, but I think his is more global marketing. Steph changed the game from a playing perspective. What else do you have, Seeton.
Yeah, You're still never going to convince anyone that Michael wouldn't have won somehow twenty championships in a row if he wanted to.
If you didn't play baseball, you would have won eight in a row. Trust me.
Okay, they didn't win those yuses because they didn't want to actually trust you.
I don't think we look at Wayne the way we do Michael Michaels was about championships because statistically there were going to be better players. But as far as winning championships, he was six and oh Wayne, it was he's the greatest scorer. He's the great one. But I don't think we go, well, how many titles did he have compared to Lemieux or Messier or Gordi. We don't do that. Wayne. It was just different, uh, And we had not seen somebody who had that ability to score and be as if John Stockton led the NBA in scoring, he was the all time leading scorer. That's what Wayne is. Wayne is the all time assist leader and the all time goal scorer.
Yeah, pulling Oveska needs thirteen goals to pass Gretzky. All happen in the next few weeks. He needs fourteen hundred more assists to pass Gretzky.
With assists, I don't think he's gonna get it.
I don't think so. You got a way of it, v Patient, Yeah, I know. Gretzky has two eight and fifty seven points. In second place is Yager at nineteen hundred and Messi at nineteen hundred. He's a thousand clear.
Yeah, but once again, fact just let that sink in. John Stockton would be the all time leading scorer and the all time assist guy at his size. By the way, crazy.
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I never figured this out. Eight am and somebody's drinking a beer at the bar in the airport. I haven't gotten there. Now. I've walked by, and I've actually been with people that I work with, in fact, maybe people in this room where I've walked by and it's eight in the morning and we're getting ready for like a nine o'clock flight, and you're like, you're having a beer. I haven't been able to go. Yeah, that's exactly what I need right now. Yeah, what have you not figured out? He said, I haven't figured this out yet. People sitting in the bar alone at eight am. What have you not figured out about that situation? I don't know.
First of all, this is why bloody Marys were invented. Okay, bloody mare I get But yeah, you're sitting down. There is something about a beer, and usually you sit down at the bar and you're like, ah, yes, screw it, I'll have a beer at eight o'clock up, get a quick buzz and get on my plane or whatever. And they're like, hey, you want the sixteen or the twenty.
Yeah, I'm going to.
Gigantic beer with your eggs. I get it with you know, if you're gonna have a bloody mare, like, I understand that, or a mimosa, I understand it. I still can't. I'm not a day drinker. I'm certainly not a morning drinker, but a day drinker not, that's not my wheelhouse. I end up taking a nap and you wake up and you go, God, let's do it all over again. It's perfect. It's the ideal scenario. Yes, yes, ball doesn't.
It depend on the destination and the group. Because if you're let's say you're flying down a Kiowa Island on a bro golf trip and you're on the ten o'clock flight, you're in the in the lounge at eight forty five, you crack a beer, You crack a drink. But if you're just flying home casually from a business trip and you're at the bar at nine am, that seems problematic.
Yeah, but when you see those twenty two ounce beers, like you couldn't do sixteen. Now I got an upgrade here, right, let's go with the gigantic one beer. Yeah, dear, my my seat's in coach, but my beer's in business class. I'm going twenty two ounce heer.
You gotta drink it fast because it gets warm towards the bottom. So you're like, ah, I just slug this down real quick.
Yes, but you talked about when does vacation start? Airport beers is a one seat of your crack that beer? Now, I'm you hold it up, you go, now, I'm on vacation. It's the biggest dadline of all time. Oh, it's great to be back now.
Like I get to I get a little twitchy at the end of vacation where and my wife goes, you got another day of vacation. I go, I know, I know, no, no, just you start to think about getting back into the work mode. And she goes, how about half the day? How might stay on vacation half the day? Can you do that? I said, what half do you want? Hunt? Yes, Marv.
So what in the blue hell are you going to do? Christmas vacation twenty twenty seven?
There's nothing to come back to January second, twenty twenty eight. I don't know. I have no idea. But you don't have to worry about that, because you know what, it's none of your business. Yeah, how about that?
Yeah, I'll just nosy.
I don't care. Yeah, I don't care what you do. Stat of the Day brought to you by Panini America, the official trading cards of the program six WWE superstars face off inside a giant steel chamber for a championship match at WrestleMania. Watch Elimination Chamber live Saturday at seven eastern four Pacific. Countdown at five eastern, two Pacific, live on Peacock. All right, some of the headlines here. The combine is later this week. A lot is going to be made to the fact that Shador Sanders won't be throwing at the combine. Do not get tricked, don't You don't need to click on this, And that's what this is. It's clickbait. Quarterbacks who skip out on throwing at the combine. Now used to be you were hiding something or you know, maybe it's a mechanical flaw, maybe arm is hurt, maybe something happened during the regular season that no longer holds weight. The combine really isn't about on the field. It's really about medicals and team interviews. That's the most important things. Especially medicals. They just want to know, are you really six ' three? How healthy are you? You know, we get caught up in the forty yard dash, we get caught up in the three cone drill and all that. To me, does it matter? I mean, is it interesting? TV? Yeah, if you got nothing going on. But you know, the quarterbacks didn't throw last year. Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Jaden Daniels all opted to throw at their pro days. Was there any outrage? Were they hiding something? So? I think you've got to be fair in what we're covering. How about we be fair to what the real story is here. Shador Sanders is doing what other quarterbacks have done first round draft picks, not throwing. Now you might view this as a knock on should do or saying, oh, he's not throwing, that is going to be the message that's probably going to be conveyed. The draft process has evolved and skipping the throwing portion of the combine isn't a red flag. It's just the new norm. And cam Ward, do we care if he's throwing or not? And the reason why we don't care if he's throwing or not because he's not clickbait. You're not clicking on some If cam Ward decides he's not going, you know, he opted out of the second half of his bowl game, and that was a red flag to some people that did get covered, And I get it, but I don't know if cam Ward throwing or not throwing is going to matter to anybody, but should or Sanders because it's Dean Sun is going to be clickbait and does it matter? I want to see what you do. You want to do it on your pro day? Good? I don't take any thing out of this. Remember Zach Wilson, My god, did you see that throw? He did? The mahomes throw left back right? Oh my god, did you see that? How did that work out? Right? Kyle Boller from his knees can throw it fifty yards? Maybe you should have played on his knees like JaMarcus Russell. Like we go down the list of guys, where you go, Oh my god, did you see that? That's the problem. It's it's like you study all year and then you decide you're gonna throw away all your notes and you're gonna just go Hey, I'll just go with what I remember. But I think what happens is you get caught up in the now. Let's take the approach. Now, let's look at game film, Let's talk to you know, maybe coaches who coached against this guy, players who played against you. Just no, no, we're not going to do that. We're going to you know, change direction right at the last minute. That's why you have teams that are littered with quarterbacks who didn't make it for a variety of reasons. No one was talking about Jayden Daniels last year. It was well, Caleb Williams, he's going to be the guy. Drake May. I don't know acc Flaud mechanics, bow Nicks. You know, I played with two different teams, but I don't know Kenny. We tend to put the negative out there instead of looking that Drake May proved that he could play. Caleb Williams we're going to be waiting and is he going to be compared with Jane Daniels. We had Jaden Daniels as an MVP candidate. Bow Knicks was wonderful, led his team to the playoffs, and these two quarterbacks this year would be behind those quarterbacks who were taken last year. In my opinion, I don't think any of them are better than bow Knicks and he was the last one. But these teams have needs. Tennessee, is you know, are they going to take a quarterback? The Brown's going to take a quarterback, the Giant's going to take a quarterback, the Raiders going to take once again, when you get into you fall into this trap. We need a quarterback. No, you need your quarterback? Who is the right quarterback for this team? Not we need a quarterback because that's when you take a quarterback who maybe isn't the right guy unless you say Shador Sanders and cam Ward they are the same quarterbacks, they're graded the same. Okay, Now where do they rank with the other players in this draft? You might pass up on Mason Graham out of Michigan, who might be a top five player, Abdua Carter, like, these guys are impact players who might be Pro Bowl players. While you're trying to find your quarterback, that's where you get in. That's you find danger there more often than not, you find danger because you got to get a quarterback. Tennessee. Yeah, you need a quarterback. Is cam Ward is should or Sanders the quarterback? Or would you be better suited at taking Travis Hunter? Or would you be better served by trying to get Kirk Cousins for another year or Sam Darnold. Like that's where teams make mistakes because they reach, and they always reach on a quarterback. But should or Sanders not throwing at the combine couldn't care less.
Yeah, some quarterbacks absolutely need to throw at the combine.
I think cam Ward. If I'm cam Ward, I go balls out, like throwing balls round, not literally, no, no, like, let's throw some footballs out and you know, be the talk of the combine. If you're confident in yourself, take over the combine. If Shoudor's not throwing, I am like, I look forward to seeing Jackson Dart, who I think is the first round talent. I think he's underrated talent now. Might go at the end of first round, maybe second round, third round. I don't know, haven't seen you know, draft grades on him, but I know what I saw. Athletic can throw and has a coach who knows a thing or two about quarterbacks. So I I think sometimes when you get you watch that guy. Even pro days. Pro days are supposed to be it's you're supposed to look good. It's like your highlight you know, high school highlight tape. It's supposed to be good. He dribbled off his shoe. Yes, Paulie, I go back to that. You said, uh was it?
Christian Ponder? Remember that draft twenty eleven, Cam Newton went number one and everyone needed a quarterback, and it was like Blaine Gabbert went, Christian Ponder went. Everybody needed a quarterback. A lot of them didn't work out that year. They took guys Christian Ponder a week before the draft. They had him as a mid second second round guy. And then the Vikings everyone had to have a quarterback. There's some drafts where everyone does it.
Well, I'll go back to Achilles Smith got drafted by the Bengals third overall. You're like, why gotta get our quarterback? And Tim Donovan McNabb go before him. That does that sound right? Tim Couch go number one. I gotta get our quarterback, don't get get the right quarterback? Not uh the yes, yes see.
I remember in the Christian Ponder era, as it will forever be known of overreaching, there were these funny storylines about how like and it was really a lot had to do with I think Tom Brady and like, no, no, no, no, no. The best quarterbacks are later in the draft. Everybody's reaching for these guys up here. Most of them don't work out. So we're gonna anybody that's graded like a third rounder we're gonna take in the first round because we're flipping the script on how where the value actually is. It was one I remember being one of the craziest times and most confusing times to talk about the draft because it would be like, well, this guy's projected as a first rounder, right, that's why he's going to fall to the fourth Yeah, Like, what the hell if this guy's a fifth rounder, right, he might go top ten?
What why? Uh? Tim in Ohio? Hi, Tim? What's on your mind today?
Five days muscular, two seventy five Cleveland Browns are looking at the rulers of the problems, are looking at sitting Matthew Stafford, then trading Miles Scarett to the Lions for a bunch of draft picks.
Okay, you're not reporting that, Tim, You're just sources close to you tell you.
Yeah, of course, of course. Yeah, first on.
Line, that's what I thought, Thank you, Tim. Yeah, sure, Lion's got a lot of draft picks. You know, your first round picks are going to be at the end of the first round. But you can get Miles Garrett. You bringing Math Stafford? But what are you doing with Matthew Stafford? Are you ready to win? Matthew Stafford wants fifty million dollars a year. Probably at least you're going to bring him in two years, one hundred and ten million. Meanwhile, you're paying to Shaun Watson. Uh, meanwhile, you had Joe Flacco who led you to the playoff, Like, what are you doing? The team that should be calling right now, right now, even though it's a West coast time that they would be calling the Rams, So it's only seven fourteen. You could get a hold of Sean McVay right now, Pittsburgh Steelers, I'd be calling. They probably already called. You get Matthew Stafford now to help. If you got a couple of good receivers. I mean, Najee Harris gets you a thousand yards, you got a good defense. Pickens is unreliable, he's always worth, you know, worthy of a highlight. But you've got to get, you know, some guys who can be out there all the time and give you There's no reason to bring in Stafford unless you're going to give him some talent. But if I'm Pittsburgh, absolutely Matthew Stafford wants out. He once get paid, okay, And the Rams aren't afraid, No, that front office is not afraid. They'll be like, hey, so just bring in another quarterback here, we'll figure it out.
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Got to watch a lot of the four Nations face off tournament. It's a lot of fun. But once again, we've talked about this with the NBA. Can you have the United States against the rest of the world. I think it would be interesting. And if you get to see that documentary on the Olympics and you see Joker and how passionate he was they won the bronze and he was so excited winning the bronze and losing the gold medal, but because he was with his fellow countrymen. I don't know if you could get that same kind of patriotism in different parts of the world. But if you're the NBA, and I know maybe we shouldn't link together the NHL and the NBA, but the timing of it, and one was successful and one was once again not successful, I think you have to Steve Levy, the SPN NHL play by play man and host Sports Center host as well. All right, Leaves, how did we get to this four nation tournament. How did it come up and how long has it been kind of in the works, not that long.
Dan, We needed a spark. I think I think people have grown tired of the All Star breaks for all the corporate sponsors and those kinds of things. I think the skills competitions of all getting old, and I think we needed some kind of spark. I think we saw the and I say we, I mean the NHL and Hockey saw the Olympics on the horizon and let's do something. So that's the amazing thing about this four nations. But I think that this is a one off. I don't think we ever see four nations again. This was a stop gap, despite how successful it was.
NHL has already said they're gonna do World.
Cup of Hockey and that could be eight eight nations, eight countries.
So I think this is a one off.
I don't think we see four nations again in this in this exact format with the Olympics next year.
Do you think that's a mistake.
No, Listen, the only downside, and we're really nitpicking because this thing was unbelievable, you know, made for television gimmicking. We obviously got the right matchup in the end, in the right places, there are still some great players. I mean, if you want best on Best, you know, Alexander Rovetskin's not there, David Pastrnak is not there. These are you know, outstanding players, and there's five or six other guys. And listen, but this could have gone This could have gone awfully wrong.
Right.
We could have had the Finns and Swedes, and while they hate each other, they despise each other at least as much as America in Canada does. I'm not sure nine point three million people would have tuned in the US.
I was wondering about this if they did this again, could you see where there was a draft of Russian players. Each nation got to bring somebody just so I can incorporate some of these great players. And maybe you don't want to recognize Russia, but you still have to recognize the players who play in your league. Could you have something like that? Would that work for these names?
Something?
Absolutely, because you can't do another one of these tournaments without those guys. It's not then best on Best. The draft is an interesting idea. I hadn't heard that. You know, we've done World Team before, right, So everybody other than you know, US Canada and so and so. I want to give Greg Wshinsky credit because he writes to ESPN. I don't know if it's his idea, but he told me about it. He approached the idea of a Summit series. So we can just get the US Canada, okay, and are assured of that. And the nineteen seventy two Summit series people of our age Dan when where Paul Henderson scores the goal. They had a best of eight and it was simply Canada against the uss R.
I don't know how I got the best of eight. How that works doesn't make any sense.
But things were different than seventy two and so, just because the US Canada thing was so good. But I'm with you, we need to incorporate everybody, and right, have two spots, right, you want have two roster spots for you know, players who are not American or Canadian or something along those lines. But I think we go to five or six or eight nations and you hope for the matchup we got in Boston on Thursday night.
Steve Levy of the Mothership Seaton, what is the poll question? With Gretzky and Michael Jordan.
Whose legacy is more cemented, Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky.
It's a good question.
I think I think it's Gretzky's is more cemented because there is now the fair argument of Jordan Lebron and I don't think it matters how many goals Alexandrovitchkin scores. No one will ever say that, you know, someone other than Wayne Gretzky was the best hockey player of all time unless you live in Boston, which then you say it's Bobby Orr. I get that, or Pittsburgh Mario Lemieux.
But I don't think.
There's any real argument other than Wayne, Whereas in the NBA now there seems to be a legitimate argument.
Yeah, you look at the cultural impact of Gretzky, and I liken it too. Now you have Caitlin Clark, who is opening up the entire United States for w NBA teams. Now all of a sudden, you have Boston once won, and you know Portland, and Gretzky did that when he came to Los Angeles. The fact that there was going to be hockey in Florida, and people are like, really, but that's because of Wayne Gretzky and the amount.
Of youth hockey rinks that exploded and opened up. And I mentioned Bobby Yor, but you know all over Massachusetts people went wild for Bobby Yor and all of those things. And yes, Wayne Gretzky, Anaheim, obviously, Los Angeles, all of these those southern states. You know, for a long time you had a team in Arizona that didn't work out, but in the desert they were playing hockey. And the great example of that is DP is you know Austin Matthews. So he grew up in Arizona. He was at the game where Ovechkin scores what is many believe was the greatest single regular season goal of all time on his stomach, on his back, twisting around.
Austin Matthews is in the.
Building for that game, for that Coyotes home game, and so whatever spurred him on, and so players are then exposed to it.
The Caitlin Clark, it's a great example. You get seer her on TV.
She's in Subway commercials, and sure all state commercials and all his insurance came. And yet it has to capture the imagination and young people watching. And that was the great thing about the four Nations two to go back to it, like I heard from so many non hockey people, Dan right, and I mean, you know NFL types, people who would never give hockey the time of day, and we're watching it and fell in love with it. And I go back to the fights and people won't like this, but I think the Kuchuck fights on the Saturday night in Montreal, the three fights and nine seconds really made the turn look people would have watched US Canada. I get that, but that attracted a certain crowd. I know people were calling their buddies. You got to put this on with the hopes of maybe seeing it again, which we didn't. But I thought the fights had a great impact on the television rating and whatever. You're a hockey person who cares whatever it is to get you there. And now can the NHL harness that momentum. We had great games yesterday and the day before on EBC two and not going down and now here it comes down right here. Here's the outdoor game in Columbus, little Ohio state Michigan flavor for you. Here's the trade deadline and the run of the playoffs and what I think is the best postseason all of sports. So can this momentum keep going?
Why did they fight right away?
So there's a story that they had a group chat like a text chain that the Canadians, of course, are now making fun of after the tournament was over. But the two Kuchucks and JT. Miller who were out there, they had a chant, hey, you go first, No, I'll go first, you go for who's gonna go first? Right, I'll take the first guy, you come after me. And it was, you know, it was like right out of the Bash Brothers for the you know, the Mighty Ducks movie, right it's and it was wild. I think they caught the Canadians off guard. The Kuchucks, they loved being the villains up in Canada where they're booing the American national anthem. And although that side show is definitely going on and plays a role, and I think the Kachuck Brothers shook the place up. I think it shook everything up. It got everyone on board and Canada and back down. And you know, they won one of the fights at least to think, and but it seemed to galvanize the whole tournament and bring it together. And if you're asking, you know, who's the face of hockey in the US. You know, I think now it's I think it's Matthew could chuck and and the downside of the four nations, Dan, And this is you know, the only the only negative to this whole great tournament. We don't know when Matthew's coming back. He plays for the defending Stanley Cup champs, and you know there's talk he might not come back this season. So you know, you want you don't want the All Star Game where the guys aren't trying hard. But when guys are out there killing each other, you get where you get real injuries. Shay Theodore hurt himself, Vegas's top defenseman, uh and they're Charlie McAvoy of Boston. We don't know when he's coming back. So that's the risk verst reward in a tournament like this.
You ever been hit by a puck while on the jump.
On the job, No, I have not, because I've never been in that in between spot between the benches.
But I played back in the day, Dan, I was a feared center.
I really really led my.
Team at penalty minutes every year now wearing a full cage, of course, to protect the money maker.
As you know, you want to protect your hair.
Steve still looking all right.
Yeh, it looks pretty good for.
Not sixty, let's put it that way.
Oh wow, that the hair looks like it's sixty or so.
Just happy to have some quite frankly.
Yeah. I remember in the day though on Sports Center. Yeah yeah, you had you had good moss.
It was darker.
Yeah, I had mine. I think mine was puffier.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Did you do that on purpose or no? No?
And I don't know if it cost me a job at Fox, but I I interviewed for their pregame show, and I was with David Hill, then president of Fox Sports. We're in Arizona, super Bowl big, you know, secret meeting. I'm gonna I'm gonna join Fox. I'm gonna be there pregame football guy. And I meet with David Hill having lunch. I think it's going great, and then he says two words fail you cream rints. And then he got up and left. And I didn't know what that meant other than cream rints, you know, to condition her to keep your hair, you know, from getting too So I said to my wife. She goes, how did it go? And I go, I don't know, he said, two words to me. At the very end, he goes, Cream rants and she goes, oh, he's probably making fun of your hair. I go, what so I didn't get the job.
I wouldn't have gotten the joke either. By the way, at that time.
Well, I'm thinking it's a legitimate meeting. I'm he's he's quite. He says, Oh, I ranted by random by everybody on the dais you're really really well liked. You know how he loves you? And Terry and I go, okay, I are good, I'm good, all right, all right, two words for you, cream Rance. Never heard from him again.
I think that's changed over the years, because bald seems to be in now. Bald seems to beautiful. A lot of successful bald guys on TV.
Yeah, yeah, you know. I if I look like Messier, then I would do it right. But I don't look like MESSI he.
Looks great in a helmet.
He's still got that great farhead too, you know what I mean, forehead forehead, he looks. He looks tough man back in the day. You want to google a guy international play too. By the way, google some Mark Messier for you. Elbows and just taking people.
Out Okay, okay, Gretzky's the greatest score of all time. Yeah, and see the greatest player of all time.
I think he is.
And uh, you know, sitting next to mess mess just can you imagine being the second.
Guy Dan all the time like your entire life.
Gretzky Messia, you know what that kind of and and mess defers to gretz Actually they have such a beautiful relationship because every time and I watch Gretz on TNT all the time, and he always the first guy he throws out of a Mark did for us what mess did.
Messier did for us. And they've got this great thing.
And I maybe that's part of a hockey there's no ego, you know, and team first and all about the team and all that thing. I have heard that that Messia is considered the greatest leader in all of sports, which is quite the compliment. You know, the the weighty see on a hockey sweater that you don't see in the other sports. But no, I think Retch is the greatest player of all time.
I don't think there's any question yager best hair of all time.
You know, he's still playing Dan, He's still playing competitive hockey.
That's crazy. You want to see fives.
On a guy, buddy, No, I don't, not really, but but but thank you though. Thank you hockey Pants. That was my nickname in high school, Big hockey Pants. I didn't even play hockey, that was big hockey Pants. Great to talk to you again, Always a pleasure, Dan, Thank you Leaves. That's see Believe me.
