The spirit of radio. I would argue the greatest drummer of all time,
just my opinion, Neil Purton Rush. Welcome back XES and Bros. Monday
through Friday, from six until nine across the great state of Michigan and our
station affiliates TRX and Flint, KAD and Cadillac Max in Grand Rapids, Gry
and Grayling and Gaylord l u N one hundred point nine in Midland Sagona on
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FM thirteen forty AM in Pototski and Charlevoi, and in Traverse City WKAD ninety
three point seven FM. Glad you are with us, honored to be on
those great stations and throughout the entire state of Michigan eight six six eight three,
eight forty eight forty three. A week from today, I'll be at
Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort. The Getaway Reimagine will be up there for a
draft party on Thursday night and our show Friday morning. Hope you can join
us, our friend Bill Simon's and the huge show on many of these same
station affiliates Monday through Friday three to six will be at the Caucus Club in
downtown Detroit. So if you are coming to the draft in Detroit, swing
by and say hello. I think you have to get some type of pass,
some type of bracelet to join Billy. But at some point he's going
to be in and out of that place. Stick around, say hello,
thank him for all the fun conversation he has on a day to day basis
so in the last two decades plus, and don't forget put this on your
calendar if you can. June thirteen through sixteen. It is the LPGA Meyer
Classic, the tenth annual at Blifffield Country Club. A Lexi Thompson has won
the event. Brooke Henderson has woned a couple of times. Nelly Korda has
won it. It's a gorgeous track at almost sixty six hundred yards. We
are working. I don't have a lot of influence, but we are working
desperately to try and get out there and broadcast from the Mayer Classic in mid
June. That would be a lot of fun. And I'm not afraid to
admit, is there shame here? None? Because I love the sport of
golf. Do I want to play that track? You bet? I do.
Let's go to the phote lines eight six six eight three eight forty eight
forty three. Hey, people openly politic for stuff all the time, why
can't I do it for a round of golf? Who do we got Ben
waiting for us here on Exus and Brokes? You got Freddy on the line,
All right, Freddy? What's up, buddy? Yeah? I played
that golf course. I'll mentioned the golf myself to shop. I played that
golf course. Oh yeah, and how did you do? I just I
mean, you just tore it up, Danie, I mean beaver Pelt after
beaver Pelt. Yeah, I threw up the grass and that you probably would
Joe about thirty yards farther than me. But look, I had my beer,
a few beers. I don't drink much beer, but I have my
cigars right there, you go. I might be I might be the only
guy that can only shoot a golf club with a cigar in my mouth.
I have that. Hey, listen, you got your priorities straight. There's
nothing wrong with like it. We're not good enough. I played with a
pro one time, and I used to get pretty angry if I didn't had
a good shot, which was quite often and a pro one said to me.
He said, hey, man, you just can't do that. And
I said, yeah, no, but you know, it just bothers that.
He's like, no, no, you don't understand. You're not good
enough to get that angry. And ever since then, I said to myself,
let's just go out and let's have certain goals. If I strike the
ball, well, if I hit the ball, well, I'm good.
Now I will say this. I played with my son the other day,
and now I'm shooting. I think I shot like an eighty seven. We
played from the tips, where he likes to play from. I don't know
why, because he's not good enough to play from there. Usually I play
from whites. Actually, we played for the Blues and I had I counted
him up eight three putts eight And I said to myself, why do I
not practice putting more when it's the worst part of my game? Like I'm
on in regulation more oftentimes than not. I only double bogie two holes.
I think for the most part two or three. It's unbelievable. It's I
mean, part four or five. It's unbelievable. I'm on the green,
and I'm on the green in two and on a long par three and I'm
within you know, twelve feet and I'm sitting there three pightting. It's ridiculous,
terrible. That's what makes the great ones great, you know, the
putting. Putting wins the money and uh you know I I you know when
we stick of great ones and any and any sports, that's why a lot
of them can't beat great coaches, because yeah, we're so great at it
that they don't understand how the well the player is not as great as them.
They just can't. They just can't figure it out. Well said,
that's well said. That's why you know Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky is Hey,
Thomas, Larry Bird. They just they were not great coaches. That's
such a good point. How many think of this? The great coaches in
history take one per sport. Let's just and you can even go right now.
Let's just say Andy Reid was Andy Reid an NFL player? No,
okay, because Bill Belichick's not he's not coaching and Bill it's not like Bill
Belichick is a great, great coach or a great player. I should say
Scotty Bowman, Scotty Bowman in hockey great, But no, he was not
the only exceptions might be I mean Bill Russell way back in the day,
but they didn't have that many teams. Eight teams, maybe Phil Jackson,
pat Riley pretty good players. They were good players. They won championships,
but they were but they were great players. Like he brought up Larry Bird,
Larry Bird was great. Yes, I thought he was a pretty good
coach. I mean he took a team to the finals, so I I
thought he was a pretty good coach. But good point, yeah, good
point. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, ere the Tigers. I'm glad you
answered a little bit about AJ. I mean, I'm a fan of AJ.
I just think the town is seen losing for so long that they don't
know, you know, it's hard to gauge him, because you're right,
the one hundred and sixty two game schedule, a lot of you know,
it just it's just it was hard to gauge them. You know. I'm
I'm I'm always playing for the Tigers, and I'm a huge Tigers fan.
I mean, my favorite team. We've gone on it on the eighty four
team, you know. But here's speaking of the eighty four team. You
know, a lot of people are given the Tigers, a lot of crap
for not spending here and spending there this year. And I don't know if
it's right or wrong. It's not really the point of my call. But
my thing is I feel like this team, all the players are bringing up
from the miners, reminds me of the seventy eight seventy nine eighty Tigers,
that all these young kids came up at one time, and then when they
figured out who's good, who should stay, who should go, they started
trading some of those young guys and started bringing in those veterans that the team
really needed. Darryl Evans, Dave Bergman, Willie her Danas sweet All the
Dame is chet Lemon. Do you think this is what Scott Harris is doing.
They can figure out who should stay, who should go, and he'll
make those moves within the next year year and a half. Yeah, it's
a feeling out process. It's a really good point. And thanks for the
call, Freddy. It's a really good point. I do believe. Yah.
I think you have to sift your way through that. I don't think
you can necessarily know that right now. I just think in today's day and
age in baseball, and I look in all fairness to you. I use
the same example earlier in the week, or maybe it was last week about
the eighty four team and how we want all these young guys to come together
and go through growing pains and then have it turn around. Not everything is
guaranteed. I don't know how valued some of their talent truly is. When
you look at young talent throughout Major League Baseball, how many people are looking
at Detroit's roster and saying, anyone who's twenty five and under and as a
superstar, these are the guys I want fill in the blank and look at
all the Tigers. I don't know what people around the league how they view
Detroit's young talent. And at one point, for ready, at one point
we've got to suggest it's no longer young talent. Right now, Parker Medows
is young, Riley Green is still young, Spencer Torkot is still young.
And when I say young, I mean they don't have a lot of major
league at bats and experience under their collective belt. Cole Keith obviously still young,
baiez Urshella Veerling Canna, They're not young anymore. I mean, is
Jake Rogers considered a young player? No, I don't think he is.
He was young when the Tigers got him, but he's not young anymore.
I do want to bring up what Freddy just kind of alluded to. He
said the point of his call wasn't necessarily how much money they're spending fair enough,
but I think it's fair to expect them to spend more than they are.
We'll get to that when we come back. And don't forget. Max
Boltman of the Athletic joins us to talk hockey is about out of the hour
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seasons in Detroit and helped the team win three American League pennants. He also
owned the Major League Baseball record for career triples roughly one hundred years later,
in nineteen eighty three. Miguel Cabrero was born in Merrichai, Venezuela. The
soon to be Hall of Famer was a twelve time All Star, won four
batting titles, seven Silver Sluggers, and a Triple Crown. He also retired
as one of just seven players in history to record three thousand hits and five
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this Thursday. Exus and Bros. Monday through Friday six until by glad you're
with us. A week from today, i'llbeit Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort.
Really excited about the getaway. Reimagine going up there for a draft party hosted
by Herman Moore formerlyon Great And then Friday morning we will be broadcasting live from
a send. They're at Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, a fantastic venue.
I just cannot wait. That's going to be a blast next week. Meanwhile,
my friend Bill Simonson you can hear on these same radio stations, and
the Huge Show Monday through Friday three to six will be at the Caucus Club
in Detroit. Our phone number eight six six eight three eight forty eight forty
three. About fifteen minutes from now, Max Boltman will join us from the
Athletic and he will talk of the Red Wings season, future seasons, and
I do want his thoughts on who wins the Heart after Niki Kutcherov got a
goal on an assist last night and has one hundred assists on the year.
He and Connor McDavid, with one hundred assist seasons, hadn't had one in
the NHL in thirty two years and then you have two in the same season.
Ben our producer, what do you got for us? On a text?
This one is over to the Tigers. Since the Tigers started the season
with a six and one record, their record is four and seven. They
must start a hitting Yeah. Absolutely, we talked about it earlier. The
offense is just it's just not good right now. This is up to every
individual. I don't have a magical number. Okay, but remember Sparky Anderson
said, don't judge us until forty games. Many people in baseball would tell
you this one hundred and sixty two game season, you're gonna have sixty wins.
You're gonna have sixty losses. That's one hundred and twenty. See,
I'm really good at math. That means the forty two in between or the
forty two around those games matters. Those are the ones you have to watch
out for. What are you gonna do with those because you're gonna kind of
fall into the sixty one games or sixty games one way or the other.
Even the best team in the American League a year ago regular season wise now
lost sixty one games. That was Baltimore, by the way. Even the
world champion lost seventy two games. The best team in baseball record wise,
not the American League, but all of baseball, the Atlanta Braves lost fifty
eight games. So there goes the sixty sixty. But it's still pretty damn
close. The Dodgers, for example, lost sixty two games. So there's
your sixty sixty for the most part, and then what are you looking for?
What are you gonna do with the other forty two? Now what the
other forty two is, I don't know. I'm not saying it's the first
one hundred and twenty. Then what do you do with the last forty two
games? That's not what I'm suggesting. I'm just saying during the season,
because it's such a long season, and it's so unique, right, I
mean, we see hockey and basketball each of eighty two games. Football is
on an island because it's once a week. Baseball is very unique in the
sense that it's one hundred and sixty two. It's every single day for the
most part. It gets long, it gets tough, it gets challenging mentally
and physically. You're gonna lose. You're probably gonna lose sixty games. Who
those and what those games are and how they go about it. That's when
you start to judge, right, I get it for sure, and it's
something that you know, we kind of get, we kind of look at
and we kind of see that it continues. That's just the way it is.
There's unique circumstances. A couple of years ago, the Dodgers one hundred
and eleven games, lost only fifty one. That's an incredible season. They
didn't win the entire thing. It didn't help them, it didn't help them
in the win the World Championship. But what we're judging right now is all
we can judge. And I don't think our Texter is suggesting, oh my
gosh, we're not twenty games in and I'm pushing the panic button. No,
that's not what they're suggesting. They're just saying, at some point,
the offense becomes what it is. At some point, it's no longer yeah,
this is what I'm observing. At some point it's you know what,
this is who they are. That's when you start to worry. You're not
winning this division, even though it's a weak division. You're not gonna win
the division if you're ranked in the bottom four and runs average OBP slugging an
OPS throw out average. Forget that even mentioned that. I don't even know
why why I even research that. Forget it. It's about getting on base
on base percentage. Only four teams are worse. It's about driving them in.
Only three teams are worse. It's about having pop in your lineup.
Only two teams are worse. You and I are not going to freak out
about this. You and I are not going to bite our nails down to
the quick and say, oh my gosh, this season they're in deep trouble.
No, there's no reason to do that, none whatsoever. But if
this is the pattern that continues, if this is what this team is,
there is a good reason to be concerned. That's okay too. Now here's
what I somebody had said just before or via text just before the break,
or no, it was Freddy who called in and said, the point that
I call isn't about how much money they spend, fair enough, And I
appreciate that because throwing money at things doesn't always work. It really doesn't.
People think you have to spend money, you have to spend it wisely.
Last year, last year in Major League Baseball, the Mets, the Yankees,
the Padres. Those are your top three spending teams. They didn't win
it all. Rangers were fourth, they did win it all. I'm not
saying you've got to spend a slew of money to get it done. Angels
are a pretty good example. Did make the playoffs. They were terrible year
ago. They're in the top ten at spending from last year. The teams
that are reaching the postseason oftentimes, oftentimes are the teams that are willing to
spend money. Where do you think the Tigers rank. I don't expect Detroit
to go out and spend what the New York Mets are spending. It's borderline
irresponsible. Three hundred and eight million dollars. The Texas Rangers a few years
ago spent one hundred fifty million dollars on two players, Corey Seeger and Marcus
Simeon. People in Dallas don't give a crap about that right now. You
know why because it paid off because they won. But how much do you
think they should be spending. Here's what my guess was. I thought they
should be somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred and forty to one hundred and
fifty million dollars easy to say, it's not my money. The league average
this year is roughly one hundred and sixty five million. That's what the league
averages. The team that won the National League Arizona is slightly above that.
The team that won it All is far exceeded that. The Tigers are at
one hundred and six million. They ranked twenty second. Here's the argument,
the argument against it. Brewers have been successful there below, Orioles have been
successful there below. Cleveland's been successful there below, Tampa, Cincinnati all below
the Tigers. Who says you can't win, I'm not saying you can't draft,
develop, and then sprinkle in what you need. I just think Detroit
is in a position where they could be. Tampa's kind of a bad example
because they don't draw many people. Detroit's in a good position. Detrich should
be spending more than they have. Max Bowman on the other side to talk
Red Wings, NHL, and a whole lot more when we wrap up this
Thursday edition of Exies and Bros. Across the Great State of Michigan. Bill
Simonson here from my good friend Josh Garvey. Now he's a managing shareholder at
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Welcome back on this Thursday to Xus and Brose. We are on throughout
the great State of Michigan and Flint and Cadillac at Grand Rapids and Grayland and
Gaylord in Midland and Saginaw Bay City. We're on in Petasky and Charlottevoi,
We're on in Traverse City, and we're on with you Monday through Friday from
six and till nine. Glad to have you on board. It was a
disappointing way to end the season watching watching the Washington Capitals beat the Flyers in
Philadelphia two to one, while the Red Wings stage and another incredible comeback,
the fourteenth comeback of the season in order for them to win the final game
of the year at the Bell Center in Montreal. Max Boltman has covered the
Wings done a fabulous job with it for years now with the Athletic. You
can follow him on x His handle is m Underscore Boltman and it's really been
a to a certain extent of fun season. I don't know what it has
been like for you, but here's what I said yesterday, and I love
the debate. For me, it was a disappointing one because of expectations that
changed. I don't know how many people thought the Red Wings are going to
reach the playoffs at the beginning of the year. But when you have a
nine point lead at the end of February and you have that momentum going your
way, to not reach the postseason was a disappointment. How do you view
the twenty twenty four campaign for the Red Wings. Yeah, that's a great
question. I just put actually on an article this morning on this exact topic.
Right of it, it was progress. Does that make it a success?
And I think you know, when you look at it just on playoffs,
it has to be a letdown from where they work at the end of
February. But I think the season is also more than whether or not going
made the playoffs. Right, Like I put in the article, it's the
difference in whether the season was a success or not with those same ninety one
points is what happened in that Washington Philly game. That's a tough way to
judge. But if you look at smaller segments, right, did they make
progress? Yeah, I think they did. Did they get to their ultimate
goal? No, I don't think they did. And then the toughest question
is do they set themselves up for the future. I think you can argue
in some ways that they did, but you can look at other things that
the only time Evason only got sixteen games, a lot of other guys in
Great Rapids didn't get up and play any you know, it's an itchy feeling.
I think to be a team that both didn't make the playoffs and only
played one rookie for meaningful games this year, I think there's a lot that
you have to parts us to figure out if the season with the success and
so I know that's not the great radio answer here, but I think it's
really new month that we're going to need weeks to figure out, you know,
with this season a success or not. I'm very curious to see what
Steve Weiserman has to say, whatever we hear from him. Yeah, listen,
there is no perfect answer. I mean that's not Look. Can people
who think are to tune into sports radio and think, oh Max is going
to have the answer for me right right off the hop and that's going to
be the be all endal. We don't know sometimes, and that's okay,
there's nothing wrong with that. It's an educated guess. It's what you have
gathered from talking with players that coach it throughout the season. But I do
wonder what they were missing this year because I think when people look at the
Red Wings they go wow, but the defense isn't very good, so they
immediately could look at the blue line. When defense is a team game,
it's not just defenseman. What do you think they were lacking and why they
missed out? Yeah, I think you're spot on. I think last summer
they went into the offseason knowing they needed to add scoring, and they did
it, but it came at a cost, right, and it was that
the forward group that they assembled was more skilled, It had more scoring talent,
it was not very responsible, and so all year long they started to
find lines that could play kind of a balanced hockey. I guess at the
top, obviously you know what you're asking for from from market to brink,
it tain guys like that. Most of it does come in the offensive end,
but down the lineup it just couldn't get enough guys to create avable matchups,
either at home or on the road. In some cases, when the
hockey got harder, when the checking got tighter, when you weren't going to
have the splashy rush offense needed to be able to a score ugly goals around
the net and be limit your risks that you're not giving up the offense the
other way when you look at that Mark stretch. In addition to the Dylan
market injury, which is obviously a big factor, it was their identity that
the DNA of their game was not weird enough to the defensive side of the
pocket. There's some goaltending stuff too, I think they'll have to address.
But I think you're spot on its defense and that doesn't just mean defenseman.
He is Max Boltman. He writes for The Athletic, A great follow on
x at M Underscore Boltman the article today, the Red Wings made real progress
this season, that much is clear. Does that make the season a success?
Though it's at the Athletic NHL check it out. He's joining us here
on XES and Bros. With that said, and I think so many people
feel like they have guys on this team who don't have playoff experience, and
that's why a postseason put was important. I said they do. Sure,
most Cider doesn't, Evanson doesn't, Raymond doesn't. There's plenty of guys who
had playoff experience. What do they need moving forward? What has to be
corrected? Yeah? I think we mentioned goaltending a second ago. I think
that's an area. When we saw this team at their best in January and
February, they were getting excellent goaltending play from Alex Lyon. Is that reasonable
to expect from him year round? Probably not for a guy who has had
to bounce around. I think I've been really impressed by Alex Yo this season.
I think he has clearly established himself as an NHL goaliade. But in
order to have that kind of fifty to fifty five game horse that you see
most of these playoff teams have, I don't know that the Red Rings can
say they have that right now. Certainly who's those injuries? I think it
would have to be an uncomfortable feeling to go into next year with just Husho
and Lyon were the two guys they have under contract, So I think an
upgrading goal is the quickest way for them to really take the next step if
they can, and there are some avail a guy like Jacob Markstrom in Calgary
was a top five goaltender of this season, lean as all Mark and Boston
won the vesdent of last year. UC Sorrows in Nashville has been excellent for
a long time now. All three of those guys have had their names come
up in trade conversations lately, and I think it's possible we see at least
one, if not two, or maybe even three of them moved. I
think if the Redvends can get into one of those mixes, that's the quickest
path in terms of an offseason upgrade to getting this team back to where they
were in that hot run where they can they know they can lean on an
above average goal center Max. It's really unfortunate that in today's society this is
just the way it is. This is the mindset of many fans and many
members of the media. Quite honestly, you experienced it on a regular basis
too, So I don't want to add to it. But everybody wants to
point fingers. Who is to blame. It's shared throughout. But Steve Eisman,
as good as he has been in building this team through the draft with
some young prospects. Since sprinkling in some free agent pickups, he has misfired
on a lot of the goalies that he has brought in. Did Jelkovic,
for example, is one of them. Whoso you just mentioned and Lion are
both more like twos rather than ones. How much of this is on Steve
Eisman, do you think in the inability to reach the postseason this year?
Well, he's a general manager, so he builds the roster. I think,
you know, obviously he gets a healthy slice of the responsibility. I
guess we'd call it for that situation and building the roster with the goalie specifically.
I think this is really interesting because I was having a conversation on podcast
earlier this year and we're talking about, you know, league average. League
average is going down, right, Do you look at safe percentage? It
was trending up for a long time there in the mid twenty tens up to
the twenty twenty it's going down now. And I don't know if that's because
of expansion and there's more teams which means more goalies in the NHL, which
de lootes the pool, or if it's something else. But the number of
teams that have that rock solid number one goaltender is going down. Some of
that's probably just you know, shooting talent, much like in baseball, like
you know, hitting having a hard time catching up to pitching. I think
Bolten's having a hard time catching up to the offense. To scale the shooting
of the modern NHL, I don't I think most teams are looking for a
goalie now. I think there's really only eight to twelve, maybe fifteen guys
in the NHL. The teams are going to feel really really good about going
into a playoff series with and so it's a scarcity issue in that position in
particular. That's not the whole deal with the doings, right, I think,
you know we talked about. I think they need to get harder.
I think they need to get more defensively responsible, especially from the forward group.
I think they need a number two right defenseman behind Morris Sider to help
take some burden off him. But it's a really interesting, especially in goal,
a really interesting issue, you know, Max, I compared to quarterbacks
in the NFL, because those are two key positions they can make a difference
in a game. I don't think there's better than ten quarterbacks in the NFL
that you'd really want to have. And I think it's the same thing with
goalies, and they're such important positions. I have this discussion with a good
friend of mine yesterday, Sean Beleachan, who loves a lot of hockey.
He watches it all the time. We're wondering, I love Dylan Larkin.
I want him on my team every single time. I think as a hell
of a leader. I think he plays really hard. I wonder if he's
a number one center Lucas Raymond probably too early to judge. If he's a
top line guy, Alex to brinkt on Their top line needs a facilitator,
right I look at the great teams, the teams that are contending. Their
number one centers are really impressive. I mean, look at Vancouver their number
two centers. J T. Miller's got what thirty seven goals on hundred three
points. How much do they need to add to their top six? In
your mind? Well, if they can, right, Like, that's always
the key, right, it's the You know, Dylan Larkin I think is
a number one center? Is he a number one center on a steel The
Cup winner that's a that's kind of another question, right, Like I think
when you look at the East field this year, I was talking about this
with with a buddy the other day. Uh, you know, there's only
really three, maybe four centers in the East that you can say, you
know, that guy's ahead a doubt mark and that's awesome. Matthews at Alexander
Barkov and I'm blank and here at the end here but well well, Sidney
Cross, Sidney Crosby and Sam Ryan Hart. Well Crosby didn't make the playoff
field, and Ryan Hart's I think playing on the on the wing there.
So but but yes, I get your point, like I I just mean,
you know, in terms of the Eastern Conference playoff field at the time,
I'm sorry, okay, yeah, was it Braiden? Was it Braiden?
Point point yes, that's exactly so, yes, And so I think
you know him and Sebastianaho and Carolina are are pretty comparable to me. So
I think, like you can be competitive in that field with Larkin as your
one seat, but every team wants to add more to their top six.
And I think when you talk about J. C. Miller as a number
two, that's really the key it's not so much Larkin as the one who
do you have right behind him? And you saw that when he was out,
you know he was he was asking us so much a J. T.
Comford to step up, And even when Larkin's in, you're asking a
lot of JT. Tom for to be you know, go ahead to head
with a guy like JT. Miller and win that battle. Right. So
I do think if you had another guy at Dylan Larkin, though, I
think of like, you know what New York's doing. They got Meek as
avantage At, who I think is pretty comparable. That's the team that won
the President's Trophy. Pretty comparable to Larkin is their number one center. But
behind him they have Vincent Trochek, who's like a point per game player with
great defensive impacts. To mean, that's where it is. It's really that
number two center. But it's a fair argument because obviously there are Austin Matthews
and Connor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon's out there, and that's a different level of
player totally. Yeah. I mean, look, everybody wants those, every
team wants those. I mean, Steven Stamkos might be in that conversation just
because Tampa's reached the postseason. But yeah, again, I can't reiterate enough
how much I love Dylan Larkin. He's probably my favorite player. I just
wonder, that's all. I mean. If you're looking at a Stanley Cup
contending team, I think the depth is important. We're talking with Max Boltman,
he of the Athletic. You can follow him on x M Underscore.
Boltman read stuff in the Athletic, you can follow the Athletic. It's great
theater for sure when you read it, and you can email him m Boltman
at the Athletic dot com. He's always wanting to take that and get into
that bag of conversation with hockey. Who's the Heart Trophy winner? I mean,
last night Nikita Kucherov had a go on and assist picked up his one
hundred assists. It had been thirty two years since the NHL had a player
with one hundred assists in a season. Now the NHL has two. The
conversation is down to four players. Who gets your vote? It's the best
Heart Trophy race that I have voted in. It is the tightest for sure,
and there are four, in my mind, deserving winners. The two
guys you mentioned Nathan McKinnon and Austin Matthews, who came really close to seventy
goals. The one thing I kind of struggle with is when you have all
those statistical you know, oh, it's the first time a guy's done this
since then it's the first time a guy has done this since the right the
one hundred assist thing. Yeah, first time in however long and two guys
did it. I tell me a little bit about where the game has been
headed offensively, and that not that it cheapens it by any means, but
I do think it speaks to kind of an overall trend in the game.
When I took a step back from it and I was doing my voting,
I just said, there was not a player I watched this year that was
as dominant as consistently as Nathan McKinnon. He's right there in terms of statistics
with all those guys. I don't know that he hit the round number benchmark
and either goals or assists that a Matthews, area McDavid or Kutrov did,
but he was really close in the final production, and he was as dominant
shift to shift as anybody I saw. I'm one of the best teams in
the league. So I intend to vote for Nathan McKinnon. It's hard to
argue that you're wrong. I mean, I love watching Connor McDavid. He's
probably my favorite player in the NHL to watch. But when you see what
McKinnon did, you see what Kucharov did, you see what Matthews did.
Look at some point people forget ted Williams hit over four hundred. He didn't
win the MVP that year. Joe Demagio did. So you're going to have
some discrepancies with people's opinions on this. It's a good question to have,
right, I mean, it's a good problem to have. I mean,
David Pasternak's unbelievable. He had another one hundred point season. He's not even
in the discussion. So it's really fun to have. Tell me about the
Red Wings prospects. When you see and we were just talking about top six
forwards, we're talking about trying to show up the blue line a little bit.
Questions in net, how do you view Detroit's minor league system? Who
can help this team at the ready? It's a great question. It's maybe
the most important question that going into this summer because they're not going to have
as much cap space anymore as they have recently. They got big raises to
do for Cider and Raymond, and the best antidote to that is being able
to bring up your prospects on those really cheap entry level deals. So you
got a couple guys who I think can help fairly soon. Carter Maser in
Grand Rapids. He's a little skinny, but he's got that kind of hard
test game to him in addition to some offense. Marco kaspers Deal, although
he's a little younger. And then Nate Danielson in the Western Hockey League was
their top ten pick last year, and he made a real nice run in
the preseason this season. I don't think you ever really had a shot at
making the team, but he stuck around to the very end and he was
way more productive than I expected. If one or even two of those guys
could make a real run of making this team next year and contributing, I
think that would be a big deal for them. The thing is, though
I don't think he answers that question. You raised a couple of go about
is there a star level player there? I think Daniel think could be a
good number two center. I think Casper and Mazer are going to be really
effective, probably third line players. But I think the question for the Redvands
going forward is going to be do you have another star, especially at the
center position, to complement Dan Larkin and to really get this team to where
it needs to go. Those guys are young. I don't want to put
ceilings on anybody, but I don't know that you can say when you're projecting
it that they definitely have that at the least. Final thought, Derek Lalone
great his performance as a head coach this year, and where does he need
to improve if and when he's back next season? Yeah, And I think
everyone's going to look at the two things. The people that really like Lalone
are going to look at the improvement the eleven points going from eighty to ninety
one. And the people that really don't are going to look at the month
of March winning three out of fourteen games, not being able to beat even
the Arizona Coyotes when one of those wins would have put Detroit in the playoffs
twice. Larkin and so yet it's a tough reality to me. It's like
it's around probably a B minus. I think you have to give real credence
to the improvement, to the fact that they did exceed. Certainly my preseason
prediction, which was eighty eight points, they get to ninety one. I
didn't think that ninety one would get you to the cusp of the playoff race,
but they were right there. But at the same time, I think,
you know, the coaching staff has to eat a share of the blame,
a decent share of the blame when you talk about what happened in March,
would not being able to do anything without Dylan Larkin. Players are the
ones on the ice, but you know there's got to be a couple more
buttons the coaches can press to get a lit more juice out of the month
of March than they did, and that's the month that did them in in
the end. So I'll say it B minus. I think that'll be too
high for some people, and I think there'll be some people that say I'm
knocking them unfairly for March. So I guess that that probably tells me I'm
in the right area. So well said and so well crafted all season long,
every year on the Athletic Max Boltman, thanks for the time today,
really appreciate what you do. Thanks for your professionalism. Thanks for all the
great articles and keeping us engaged with bred Wings, hockey and the NHL in
general. Talk to you soon, Okay, Hey, great to hear from
MI Chef anytime. Yeah you bet man, Max Bowman, great job on
the athletic at m Underscore Boltman, follow them, you'll get to you'll be
smarter. You'll be smarter when it comes to hockey. So really appreciate that
insight. Very interesting. I think something we can pick up again tomorrow.
This show went by quickly here today. A lot of it has to do
with you, because of your texts, because of your phone calls. We
enjoy it. We hope you do too. Tell your friends we look forward
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