The Kevin Karius Show - Mar. 30th, 2026 - Mark Spector

0:00As we welcome in Mark Spector from Rogers sports net good morning spec. It's going on March madness. You're like that. It's sending me a text yesterday. I was busy scouting the Seattle game. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I had the chucker going for the Mariners. I wanted to I needed to keep a close tab on them Emerson, Hancock through six innings, no head ball. So so I was kind of watching that game instead of the Duke final. Well, I was like, I like March madness. And I, you know, I'm like any sports fan, right? I just like good sports. But every time I turn a game on this spring, it's been like a 20 point game. Every time I try whip over to and usually TSN has maybe two different games. So they got maybe the other game will be good. And I go over and that's like a 30 point game. So I really have watched a ton of March madness. I haven't stumbled on the many good games. We'll be honest with you. And you get one yesterday. I'm watching and I go, what's you come doing? Either down by 10, you come down by 10 to Duke. I just that muscle hang around. See if something crazy happens here.

1:00Yeah, I did. I mean, you think about all you guys just hang on to the ball, right? And you're going to get fouled. I know that was your kid didn't sleep good last night. I didn't believe it. That's the way I'm actually, you know, young players, you know, young, young guys in the, you know, it's just that's what makes college. Yeah, so unique is you see those types of mistakes more regularly. Yeah. And then the guy hits the clutch shot. I mean, it did take a mistake to give him the ball. But I love this code after he said, I look, he says, I had the ball. He's 10 seconds left. He says, I wanted to give it to someone who'd made a three pointer tonight. And he gives it to a guy and the guy gives it right back to him. And he says, well, there's two seconds left. And I got to shoot it. Yeah, exactly. Hey, what do you think of the coaching change in Vegas spec? Oh boy, that's a, it's a big one. You know, I mean, eight games left. I don't, you know, it's somewhere between, I mean, there is some

2:04desperation here, you know, this isn't me being an order's fair or something like that. Like, you know, I'm not, but this is, there's some desperation. When you make a move with eight games left, that's a pretty big deal. Like if you're coach, if you didn't like your coach, if your coach wasn't working, if, if there was some reason to fire him, you think you'd figure that out somewhere in the 40s or 50s this year, because it's not like Vegas just got inconsistent and got ineffective. They've been that way all year. Yeah. You want it with eight games left. To me is a little strange, but hey, man, maybe that new coach, Bumple, get you somewhere. I don't know. What do you think? Well, again, to me, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And I mean, it's not like, and John Torturella, yeah, you know, you see the fire, you see the passion, and maybe that's, as you say, that gives, gives them that bump right now. But I mean, his record in the last several years is no scream and hell here. No, he's not a world beater. The thing I look at this move from the athlete's perspective, and you bring

3:07in towards with eight games left, just as a player, how are you going to buy into his messaging? You know, like it's just so interesting because there's no accountability. There's no trust or relationship built up between player coach. You know, normally you need to have a, there's a relationship there. So to have a new guy come in when you're essentially at the playoff door, and it's just strange to me. I don't understand. Like you say, spec, maybe it's a new coach, Bumple, they'll get, but man, it's a weird one to me. That's for sure. Yeah. Like, is he coming in to change your systems? Because I'll tell you what, it's too late to change your systems, right? So, you know, like, look at the audience, you're in a change of defensive system, but you know, a little bit after the Olympic break, and it's really taken, you know, it took a full month before they started to effectively employ the new strategy and the offensive zone that the coaches wanted to do. And now, you know, why it was a good idea and it's working pretty well.

4:09And you can see from the stance of the press box that they're doing things a little different, and they're winning games. Great. They don't have a month there. You know, they don't have a month to put in a whole new defensive system. So, so effectively, you're saying, I got a coach coming in, it's just going to get more out of my guys. Well, Cassidy's a pretty good coach, you know, Cassidy gets a lot out of his guys. So, I don't know, let's watch it unfold. I mean, we're probably going to get a front row seat here in Edmonton, because it looks like a first round series. Well, the thing here is, I mean, don't count the Kings out in the Pacific. They're only four back with a game in hand on Vegas here, too, spec. Yeah. Don't tell me where the eminence will be the Kings again. That would be brutal. That would be brutal. I'm just saying, you know, I mean, L.A.s got an opportunity here, just like, you know, on Seattle's, you know, sniffing around, the Jets are sniffing around, still spec, too. I suppose, I mean, I, I guess if, if listen, if Vegas goes into free fall,

5:10yeah, there's someone there that will take their place. Sure, you can't say no to that. Yeah. They do have to pull out of this tailspin. And really, that's what would bread or what McCrimson's doing. Kelly, yeah, yeah, is, is, you know, they've got to stop the tailspin. It's not getting better. Cassidy, Cassidy hasn't been able to figure out how to get that team to win. Now, I guess I could say to you, maybe a lot of that has to do with picking Aiden Hill over Logan Thompson. Yeah. You know, maybe a lot of that has to do with, with, with losing Patranjolo and filling that hole with Raspus Anderson, who hasn't got any gun down there. Maybe a lot of that's got to do with bringing in Mitch Marner, who hasn't, he's got some points, but he hasn't really turned the wheel down there. No, so none of that's the coach's fault for a second tell. Mark Spector with us, Kevin Carey, Sadie Steele. What'd you make of the orders win for two on Saturday afternoon over the ducks? Yeah, I think everyone, you know, up here, like, what's going on now, you know,

6:10the tough game, good team, you don't get to just win three, nothing like everyone would love like, you know, you got three, nothing lead. And then it melted away pretty quick. Well, you know what they always say, Kevin, the other teams try and do, right? You know, like, I, I think you have to accept that when you get to this time of year and you're playing a first place team, it's not going to be a kick walk. And they got to three, two, and then they weather the storm, man. And they, you know, and they got the goal 10 and they got the defense of play they needed. They did score four, three goals in an empty netter against a very good team against a really good goalie. And who doesn't like the way they play it? I think there's a, there's a real solid, dependable, predictable air, all of the sudden to the way the orders are playing. And that's what we've been looking for all year, isn't it? Well, and, you know, we were just mentioned into they haven't played consistently good hockey for more than a week all year. Haven't had a good week, right? One three game win streak. Yeah, now to two, yeah, this would be, sorry, if you, if you can, sorry,

7:15I'd if you get, I mean, you got saddle and you got Chicago. And those are games, obviously, you can win. You're on home ice, you're healthy. You're looking, you know, you're feeling good about yourself. This to me would, would, would, would define a real step here. Because the whole, you haven't been good for a week thing. I've been saying it. We've been saying it. And it's true. And if you get to Saturday, when Vegas comes to town and you've won, even if you won four out of five or five in a row, I think you could say you've taken a step. Is that fair? Oh, for sure. Yep. Absolutely. Spec, I was just going to ask, we were busting this down a little bit before your hit here. There's quite a few different variables as to why I believe the oilers are playing. Well, and I was just wondering if you might want to attribute a little more weight to a specific variable as opposed to others. And that would be, you know, the Paul Causty coffee effect. That would be the additions of Dickinson and Murphy. That would be, you know, unfortunately, the injury of Leon, but it's forced KK coach

8:17Knoblock to play the roster more as a team. Is there anything you would attribute it to or is it all just a combination of everything? Well, I think if the theme was they had to defend better. And I think that's the, that was the overarching issue with this team is, they've always scored. So, and they're always going to score. So I think, to me, Eddie, the, I think you got to give Bowman some credit here. And we've slagged on Bowman lots of it here, but you got to give him credit. He recognized what his team needed. He brought in a defensive sentiment in Dickinson, who I think's been really good. And he sort of calmed out the line rotation a little bit. And he brought in Connor Murphy, who's a good defensive defenseman. And he's gotten our settled out. And so that's sort of three key positions. Three Cs, a giant position in your defensive posture. And a second pair that's big and gnarly and can defend and makes it hard for the other team.

9:17That's a, every good team that wins something has that. So I guess in establishing those sort of pillars of defensive play, that's where it starts, right? You can't, you know, you can't get anywhere until you have laid down the foundation. And that's, to me, that's their foundation. Nurse and Connor, Connor Murphy are in Dickinson, to me, or the where it's starting to look like a team that can keep a pocket of the net for me. Well, all three defense pairings are complementing each other's back. Yep. Right now. And that's something that you haven't had for a while. Because no, all of a sudden, Walman's games get better to mean. Walman takes us to Paul coffee, Eddie. I'm not sure proper deployment. We got a lefty rating on every pair. That's important. And the first pair has been good for a long time here. And it still is good. It's even better now. So all of a sudden, you got three pairs. You're right. And then you're, and don't forget the goalie, you know, when's the last time we gripped about goal tending on this station?

10:18It's been a while here, right? I mean, his numbers are just fine, Connor Ingram. And now, like, Jari's still, he's, he's the guy that has to still get it going. Because they're going to need him at some point here. Well, when are they going to play him? Wow. I think maybe not tomorrow, but maybe, maybe, maybe Thursday against Chicago. You got to play in one of these two. Yeah. So maybe Thursday, then you get, you know, you go, so you go Ingram tomorrow against Seattle Thursday, Jari, and then go back to Ingram on Saturday against Vegas. No. That's probably what you do. And then you go out and the road and you have a back to back. Yeah, that's right. So yeah, sure. I mean, I think Jari, both things are true. You need to get Jari going and you do, and he deserves a start here. He gave you the last already played. He was really, really good. So you got to push that along a little bit. Speck you get a chance to catch any J's baseball over the weekend. Yeah. I watched a whole bunch. I love watching the J's man. They're fun too.

11:18Like they are to walk off wins and then a solid series sweep. What are we doing with the athletics? They don't even have a name now. Hey, they're just the athletics. That's right. We're doing it once they get to Vegas. Who ever heard of a team that doesn't even have a city name on their uniform? Like, who are these guys? Do we refer to them as Sacramento? No, just the athletic. There's no meds. She they're just no match, eh? You know, they got, they got some good players at the top of their lineup. But then after that, it tails off a lot. And I guess the schedule is just Halle. Wow. They're sharing the triple A park with who's the Sacramento triple A team? Who do they affiliate with? I don't know, Duke, you know, Duke has no sniff either. I don't have a clue. But they got to share that stadium with a triple A team. So their schedule has to has to write that's brutal. That's brutal. It's it's to match up. They're they're opening series season roadtrip is horrible. You know, they're all over the place. Who would be the ownership group out there? Giants, Duke says for that group for the athletics.

12:22What about him? Who would be the ownership group? Any idea? John Fisher, whoever bought him in Vegas. Okay. Duke said John Fisher. Duke, you're a plethora of knowledge back there. Oh, he's John Fisher. He's on the team forever. He's on the team forever. So so it has it transferred to the Vegas owners yet. That's what I'm getting to. Like if it's going to Vegas, why don't they own it yet? He's moving the Vegas on the Vegas. Yeah, because no one's building a park out there. Yeah, I was just in Vegas. And the sports writers were saying there. It's the quietest story in town. No one really cares. There's no park getting built. Like what's happening here? I thought I saw some pictures of them building a park. Are they? I don't know. We better look into that. But it's funny, Vegas, because you know, it's not usually the NHLs on the cutting edge here, but they went in there first. And the Golden Knights are like, there was a quiz out there on Twitter the other day about about cities in the States with all continues the biggest team.

13:22And one of the cities that people said it was for sure, Vegas. And like Vegas is such a success story, the Golden Knights. The Raiders are in there and they're not a success story. They're not Vegas's team. The people down there kind of like, eh, whatever. It's all a bunch of people coming to town once a week to cheer for the visitors. Now we've got a baseball team. I know the NBA is talking about it, but I'm not so sure that hockey won't still be the most the favorite Vegas team there two years, three years from now. Yeah, because they've started exactly. That's what I've heard actually is because it's a bait. It's their own baby. It's not a team that had been relocated there. So there's the community really embraced them. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Well, now they got tornorella. So that's all. The it's going to be built on the historic site of the former Tropicana hotel. Oh, is that right? Apparently. Okay. Well, we shall see. Bearcatch is texting says it says it's a quarter built already spec.

14:25Oh, it's a, ah, I've seen pictures of it. They got, they got the whole outside of it all done. Okay. Well, I'm like that part of spruce grove that's been getting this group. I know you're going to watch a ball game in that. It's been a shell for years. That's a. It's kind of like my career. We keep waiting for it to get somewhere. And it ain't going anywhere spec at this point. I'm not betting anymore. No. All right, spec. Good stuff. We'll see you down in three tomorrow. I guess it sounds good, boys.