Man, people are upset about the Old Valley situation with aren't they. Somebody
tweeted the other day they said, it's time to do right by your fans,
especially those depending on Bali Sports. Lift the blackouts already. It's a
blackout with Exfanity. The contract is with Exfinity. That's that's part of the
issue. And then there's others who just think, well, I'm not in
TV. I know how to handle this. Here's what you do. Just
put him on regular television. That's not the way it works, man.
It's not just simple as just well, let's just flick a switch. They
can't put put on there, so let's go broadcast on Channel four Detroit or
Channel eight and Grand Rapids. Nope, it's not the way it works.
Man. It's surprising to me that people are in this business and they just
don't get it. Welcome to the second hour of Exus and Bros. Here
on the Michigan Sports Network throughout the Great State of Michigan. Bottom of the
hour, we will replay our interview with Ben Raven from m Live in case
you missed it. He joined us yesterday. We'll play it again today for
those of you who didn't get a chance to listen in and at eight thirty
five, James Edwards of the Athletic will join us as well. In case
you missed it, last night beat Vegas on ice three to two. They
lead that series, and Edmonton eliminated the Kings for a third consecutive season four
to three, the final there in favor of the Oilers. We know already
that Tampa has been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. The question is down
in Tampa, at least while they're talking hockey anyway, what do you do
with Captain Steven Stamcos he has spent sixteen years in Tampa. He will be
a free agent right now this summer and will get, no doubt a ton
of interest from other teams. How would he fit with the Red Wings?
I think it's a fair discussion. Not sure how many people want a thirty
four year old he can still play, man, can still play. Where
would he fit well? Toronto may believes our team for sure Florida. If
he wants to stay in Florida and not and Tampa isn't the right fit for
him, then that's a possibility. And people have speculated Detroit, and for
good reason see Others have said, well, maybe Utah is a good fit.
I don't know. Man, he wants to win, who gives him
a chance to win? Maybe this is home cooking on my part, completely
open to that criticism because I think the Red Wings should have made the playoffs
this year, and I think they're they're on that bend if they stay healthy
to do just that. Do they need certain pieces? Yes? Is Steven
Stamcos one of those pieces. You could always use more ska, but you'd
rather them focus on the blue line or in net, wouldn't you. Absolutely.
I'm not saying they're going to go out and get Connor Hollibuck, but
they need somebody who can stop the puck a little bit more consistently. Anyway,
I read an article the other day about this, and here's what they
had to say about the red Wings chances. It said projected cap space twenty
nine million, which surprised me because I didn't think it was quite that high.
Anyway, they said, Steve Eiserman's team just narrowly missed the playoffs,
and this upcoming offseason seems like a pivotabal moment for the red Wings rebuild.
Bringing in Stamcos would help infuse a championship culture into a locker room that hasn't
seen the postseason since twenty sixteen. So let me just stop right there for
a moment. Infuse a championship culture. I've talked about this before. There
are guys who have played on championships Olimada, Patrick Kane this past year,
and guys who've made the playoffs plenty. It's not a championship culture necessary.
That's missing. It's talent on the blue line and defensive talent up front too,
because, as we all know, it's defense isn't only by the two
defensemen who are on the ice at the time. It continued and said Stamcos
could also add some offensive pop that was lacking at the top of Detroit's lineup
in twenty twenty three, twenty four, with the exception of a few key
players. Fair Enough, I think that's an excellent point. They still need
to score goals, we think, not necessarily. You I'm just I used
we as a generality. Okay, First of all, can Steven Stamkos's let's
address you know, one thing at a time here, Can Steven Stamkos still
score you? Damn right? He can't without a doubt, he's still especially
on the power play. Now, is he Nikita kutcher Off on his team?
No, but kutcher Off that won the scoring title. Is he braiding
point? Not quite. He's still pretty damn good. He still had eighty
one points. He still had forty goals this year. Forty goals would have
led the Red Wings for crying out loud. So he can still play now
the ice time, Yeah, that's up to coach Lauran to figure that out.
And he's familiar with him, so that's a plus. Right. So
the question is, look at age thirty four, You guy's got to be
committed, and he's sure seen like he would be committed. Absolutely, So
it makes a ton of sense. I think. Can he still get goals?
No question about it. Does this team need goals, no question about
that either. We think, based on the regular season numbers, based up
from a year ago, that this team is a really good offensive team.
And they are they finished what top half? They're not Colorado, They're not
Toronto. Toronto could be eliminated tonight. Colorado's advanced, Dallas is leading,
Edmonton is there, Tampa, Vancouver, New York, Carolina, all those
teams better in goals for during the regular season than the Red Wings all in
the playoffs. Now here's what you might say, Well, wait a minute,
shot Nashville, Florida, Boston, Vegas, Jets, Kings all right
behind Detroit and they didn't make the playoffs fair enough defensively or maybe special teams
wise, Like, what do you think the difference between the Oilers and Kings
series was. I'll tell you what it was. It was special teams.
And Edmonton had another power play goal last night. They had nine overall in
the series. But when I bring up those teams Winnipeg, La, Florida,
Boston, know this, All those teams, led by Florida best in
goals against Detroit's bottom half. There no team below Detroit in goals against made
the postseason. Tampa was barely above them and they made the playoffs. So
does Detroit need it? Yeah, you can always use like I said,
you can always use more scoring. But defensively, that's where they have to
get better. Is Steven Stamkos viewed as a better defensive forward than a lot
of guys that they have not really anyway. So the article continued and said,
this potential marriage may come down to the length of the contract. That's
always key, how much you're willing to give him and over how many years.
That's the hard part with teams who haven't made the playoffs for eight years,
and many who feel like they're not ready to turn the corner yet attracting
a guy like that, that's what they mean by overpaying. It's not always
in money, it's in years. Two What would you give a guy like
Steven Stamkos number one, number two? If you're willing to give it to
him? Why not? Why not? Patrick Kine? Those guys want multi
year deals, and I don't blame them. Are you willing to commit a
long term deal to a thirty four year old forward or a short term deal?
What do you consider short term deal? Two years, three years?
Guys in hockey can play a long time if they could stay healthy, and
Stampcos has had some injuries. What would be the max that you would give
him? Meyer hotlines open for you eight sixty six, eight three, eight
forty eight forty three you could tech sports radio to twenty one thousand. Bottom
of the hour, we'll replay our interview from yesterday with Ben Raven eight thirty
five. James Edwards from the Athletic joins us to talk Pistons and NBA on
x'es and bros throughout the Great State of Michigan on the Michigan Sports Network.
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and details. Little Anti Ghost to bring you back here At sevent eighteen on
this Thursday, bottom of the hour, venravenamplive dot com, who joined us
yesterday, will replay that interview from yesterday in case you missed it. Meanwhile,
at eight thirty five, James Edwards of the Athletical join us. We'll
talk Pistons and NBA here on exes and Bros. We're open to any conversation
you'd like on the Meyer hotline eight sixty six eight three, eight forty eight
forty three to the phone line's Ben. Who's waiting for us? Yeah,
we got Kenan Burton, Hi, Ken, how are you today? Happy
Thursday to you? Happy Thursday to you? Shep, now shep. When
you were a basketball announcer for University of Michigan, was Dave Brandon the athletic
directors, Then it started with Bill Martin, and then it went to David
Brandon. Yes, which one hired John Beeline, Bill Martin. Bill Martin
did, Okay. The reason I'm calling is and I hope I'll try to
talk as fast as I can so I can don't worry about it. Eight
quaer can no worry? Wow, take your time. Dave. My friend,
well, my lifetime best friend passed away of cancer in two thousand and
thirteen. And I was a Michigan season ticket holder and my friend was a
Michigan fan. And I wrote Dave Brandon a long letter on email and asked
we were having an outing for him to raise money because he was a self
business owner and he was hirving a hard time making a living. And Dave
was nice enough to send a hat signed by him. He sent I asked
him if he could send the picture, and he sent the picture with his
signature on it. We had a frame and a couple other things like a
T shirt and stuff, and I of course sent them to send them back
and thanked them for everything well. And then I sent him also back after
the outing was over was and thanked them again an email. And I could
tell these were his emails because he wasn't been like me. He had a
hard time sleep in the middle night. They were like two thirty three thirty
at night. And so when my friend passed away in twenty thirteen, two
years later, I wrote again to Dave and thanked him for all he did
and sent him a nice card thanking him and told him my friend had passed
away. And he wrote me two or three more times on email and told
me he was a cancer survivor. And I knew that because he's about three
or four years younger than me. And I remember him when he played foot
bowl because I could back in them days when I had more of a mind
than I do now, I could remember every player on the team. And
what I'm trying to say that he got such a bad rap, especially from
the guys at WTKA, and I won't mention the names. Everybody knows who
they are. And I wrote them a letter to saying what he did for
my friend and myself as a friend. And they're trying to tell me that
I didn't know the whole story, and I probably don't know the wholes.
All I know is the man was nice to me, and I would I
would speak good about him the rest of my life. And I know you
probably know him. I don't really know him personally. I just know him
as somebody that wrote me back at two three thirty in the morning and made
a way out of it being friendly to me. Yeah, well forgive that
from him. Yeah, well that's Look, this is what happens anytime you
come in contact with person. That's why I was just talking about this with
somebody yesterday. They were talking about certain race car drivers. They were asking
about athletes and who athletes make an impression on you and how do you form
those impressions, And we have had a pretty deep conversation. We have to
remember sometimes when we run into athletes or general managers or coaches or managers whomever,
sometimes celebrities. We may be catching them at an off day. It's
tough to be on all all the time. You know, it's tough to
be the person you want to be all the time because things happen in people's
lives that we're just not always familiar with. Obviously, he's made an impression
on you because more than once, so that tells you something about the man,
at least when it comes to your situation. I don't blame you.
I'm not going to try and change your opinion even if I had a different
opinion about David Brandon to you, because first of all, that it's not
fair. Second of all, you have this impression, and it's the rightful
impression because of what he would the time he took for you, And I
would say this, and thanks for the phone call. I'm sorry you lost
your best friend. That's heartbreaking. I would say this to anybody. I
say this to my kids all the time too. Time is very valuable in
anybody's life. Can you take that This is why it's important for us.
This is much smaller scale. I get it, it's just a talk show,
but you take the time to call. That's taking time out of your
day to listen to us and have the guts to call in and express your
opinions. You deserve to be heard. I'm not going to rush you off
the phone. It's not fair, it's not right. Dave Brannon took the
time to email you more than once, took the time to actually heed to
what you had requested for your friend. I would never forget that either,
And to me, if I were in your shoes, I would always feel
obligated and honored in that situation, because not everybody does that. Do you
remember when you were a kid, Well, this is dating myself. When
I was a kid, I used to write letters to certain players because they
were my favorite players and I wanted something from them. I didn't care what
it was, whoever that player may have been. If they sent something back,
all that does is endear you more to the person who's making the request.
It's not that hard, you know. I've been fortunate. There's a
lot of people who have sent me letters and sent it to Comerica Park.
Always wrote them back. Have to really important. It's just the right thing
to do. Sometimes there's just the right thing to do. Sometimes I think
we've lost that in our society. It's just a nice and the right thing
to do. You can't I get guys like guys who are superstars, Guys
like Mike Trout for example, Guys like show ayo time, they get it
all the time. It's almost possible. You've gotta have somebody actually do that
for you because you're trying to, you know, play a baseball game every
single day. It's impossible to do that, it really is. But a
guy like David Brandon in your situation, yeah, I mean, that was
the right thing to do, and kudos to him. Not everybody has the
same experience. Not everybody knows him the same way. That doesn't make him
a bad guy if it comes in a different form of a relationship. I
can't say that I had that same experience, that same relationship with David Brandon.
We knew each other obviously, but I enjoyed my time. There are
certain certain things that happen with athletic directors that kind of stick out with you,
you as a representative of a university. So I'll just give you a
quick thought. We were at the Big Ten tournament and we're getting ready to
do a broadcast. Usually, I mean Bill Martin would always come up,
how you guys doing always always say hello? Right? Or manually did the
same thing when he was when I was calling games at Michigan and he was
in charge, David Brandon didn't do that. We're at the Big Ten tournament
and you're going, wait a minute, you're talking to everybody but your home
broadcasting team, which was a little surprising at Mark Hollis in Michigan State,
who was actually at at the tournament. He's the one who came over and
said hello to us, Michigan State ad, which was a little surprising to
us. When we come back. Ben Raven of m Live joined us yesterday
to talk Lions at NFL. Well replay that conversation for you in case you
missed it, and then bottom of the eight o'clock hour, James Edwards from
the Athletic joins us here on Exis and Bros. Across the Great state of
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