The Kevin Karius Show - Mar. 31st, 2026 - Hour 2

0:00All right. Welcome back to the big program. It'll one in Edmonton. Still a little chilly here as we wrap up the month of March, but looking a lot better for the tail end of the week and maybe spring is finally year. Time now for on the mark. Brutti by Northgate Chevrolet, but GMC and spring is coming. So are the Corvettes. Come see the vets inside Northgate showroom and you can get 0% financing. See more at northgategm.com as we welcome in Mark Specter from Roger Sportsnet. Good morning. Spec. Come on now, Spec. Hey, what's going on? Sorry. That's okay. I don't know what. It's what he's sorry, buddy. You didn't have the buttons pressed there correctly or what? Exactly. Well, you know, I don't know. You go from room to room. You wear different hats. You got an expose hat on. Now I don't know what the hell's going on with you. I know. Well, you know, I turn you guys on like a half an hour ago, just so I can hear what you're talking about. Then I turn it off to commercial. Then it's on mute. And then I'm like, Oh, my God, it's 805. I guess I

1:02better look up. You've never been on it. 805. Once big guy. It's on. I know. I know. It's the gig was a lot easier when it was when I signed up for this gig. It was just a phone call. Now it's on. That's all on video. I think I got to do my hair. Well, not when you're wearing an expose hat. I mean, how can you cheer for the cubs and wear an expose hat? Well, so I like to play each other much anymore. No, that's not. But I, you know, what I think like everyone, like you might not be a J's fan or where maybe like, you know, for me, I was a Yankee fan growing up. This is before the J's were even in the league. But then, you know, once the J's in the 90's, how could you not not cheer for them? Yeah. I mean, first of all, we see them every day. That's the one team that's on TV all the time. And that's okay because they're a pretty good team now. So it's fun to have a good. We're lucky that the team we get every day force fed. Like, what if the Leafs were any good, you know, at least the blue J's are legitimately good now. So

2:07what everyone in Toronto tells us how good they are. They're not making it up. And, you know what? I like my cobs are like my blue J's. I like baseball. I don't think about baseball. You could pretty much watch. There's something soothing about having a ball game on the background. It doesn't matter who's playing. Does it? Yeah. I mean, I love watching ball. But, you know, like the J's game last night, that was like a bizarro world with ponds falling off the hill and then running to first and trying to snag a ball. It looked like he'd never never feel that a ground ball in his life. Oh, my God. I personally never heard of the guy until he started. Yeah. I know. I never heard of him again. And then there might be some story that he was never actually a baseball player in the first place. He was just something foster like the guy that was in that picture you were talking about. Yeah. Sean Majumder. Did you remember that? No. Yeah. I don't remember. I don't know who airbrushed him out, but they weren't happy that he slid in there. I can tell you that. Well, probably the same guy that's going to airbrush Torturella into the Vegas team picture.

3:12Instead of butch Cassidy. Yeah. No kidding. Well, unless they haven't had their picture yet, but yeah, Torch gets a win last night. It's back. Yeah. Life and death to beat the Vancouver canops. You know, whatever. They wanted to beat the 32nd place team to lead. Good for them. Maybe that's something to build off of, right? Better to lose than to win. So we want to see him here Saturday. I'm sorry. We'll see him here Saturday. Yeah. We'll see him here Saturday. That would be obviously a bigger test. I think they get Calgary coming up on Thursday. And then they're here Saturday. So, you know, let's let's I mean, listen, it's you can't ask the coach in four days to turn his team all completely around, but maybe instill some confidence. Maybe win a couple games. Maybe, you know, the the issues that they have are, I mean, can you coach good goal tending? I'm not sure you can. You know, can you can you coach? I mean, I guess you could possibly coach a couple of those defense within our playing very well to play better, but you better coach as fast as you can because it's

4:16we're running out of daylight here. For me, like, I think he just comes in and says to the guys yesterday, just go and play hard and have fun. Play for each other. Don't try to complicate it any more than than what it than what can be complicated. Just say to the guys, you guys have been here before. So how many of you guys won cups? Go out, have fun. Play hard. Play for each other. And and that's probably all he needs to say here for the first bit. Well, I guess so. And then that's fine. Like, let's take some pressure off and let's let's get guys to play to their potential a little bit more for sure. Loosen up the atmosphere. That's great. And and that last for how long is that last four? Well, you know, the thing is by the time and we're assuming that they get into the playoffs by that time, everything gets ratcheted up. Anyway, and you don't have to worry about it. Well, I guess so. I mean, again, like to me, you know, we know all the reasons why the orders are sitting there where they are like two points or one point ahead of Vegas. So it's

5:19all like they're any screaming hell this season. But the reasons that Vegas are where they are are, you know, it starts it starts with gold tending, but there's a there's a few other things with that team that that I'm not sure just having fun is going to solve like there's got to be some, you know, some guys have to up their performance considerably if that's going to be a team that can win a playoff round. Yeah. And again, it starts in goal. So listen, maybe torts has the magic, the secret sauce here. Maybe he can get Aiden Hill to stop more pucks, you know, post Bruce Cassidy than than during Cassidy's tenure. If he can, good luck. So I think I asked you earlier respect, like whoever comes into this wild card block and let's just say it's going to be Utah right now. It comes into the Pacific division. So to me, the Vegas goal of the nights are still the most dangerous team that I would be playing if I'm the orders just because of the playoff pedigree experience. They want it. They aren't the same team as they were when they want it.

6:25Obviously with no Patrangelo and the goal tending, but all of those things, they scare me the most out of the ducks, Utah. And if you're putting Vegas in there, Vegas scares me the most. Yeah. I mean, I say, I'd say that to you that that's a fair assessment, but, you know, I guess if I'm the orders, I mean, I beat him in five last year, two years before that, we played a playoff series, had him on the ropes and had took, remember, they led in three goals in the minute and 45 or something like that. Blue that series really left that series feeding like it was an own goal. Like you had him on the ropes in Vegas and let him go and should have beat him. You know, the orders have won for fun against Vegas over the last dozen games. I mean, they're eating three or something down in Vegas. They won five in a row in Vegas. I understand what you're saying about Vegas's pedigree and all that, but I'm looking at a team that Edmonton has no trouble against and has absolute confidence against. So,

7:29I guess the way I look at the playoff, so I know a lot of these people are crying in mourning about, you know, two versus three in the central and the format and all that. You got to beat good teams and you got to, you know, you're going to play Vegas eventually. I don't personally find the orders. I don't care if I play them right away. I'm confident I can beat Vegas if I'm Edmonton. Yeah. I play them the first round. I play them in the second round. Who cares? Let's get it over with. I think I can win. Well, and again, their path to the final four, never been easier. Yeah, I agree. So, let's start the playoffs. I don't, it doesn't matter who the orders play to me. Yeah. You know, don't tell me that they shouldn't, that they can't beat Utah. I don't tell me they can't beat Anaheim. You know, the Anaheim is, I watched the game last night, a great deal, the Toronto game. We should talk about the least with tree living pressure coming up, but Anaheim doesn't defend it all. They're lost in their own zone. So, they're really dangerous. So, offensively, they're going to be a really good team. They're,

8:33they're the future of the Pacific for sure. But right now, a solid defensive playoff effort and the Oilers offense will beat Anaheim, in my opinion. Yeah. That was, I mean, everyone knew it was going to happen between Goodis and whoever last night and they kept coming after him. But, you know, that's a pound of flesh for, for what he did. Yeah. I mean, the Leafs wanted more, but it doesn't matter, you know, in the sense that the ducks and, and Duke said this many times, that the ducks are probably a better team with Goodis as their seventh D-man, not as their sixth. I don't know who's going into this place, I guess I'd ask you. Duke, you know, who's the guy, is it more? I mean, is it more? Is it more? You know, I'm not sure. Like, he does bring a certain quality. He does have everybody's head on a swivel. He does play physical and, and take a pound of flesh. Like, he's got an identity and he does a certain thing for you. Sure, put him in open ice

9:33against Connor McDavid. And I'd like, you know, I see what you're saying. But there's a lot of guys out there that just play and they're just uniforms and you're not sure what they're actually doing. At least, you, at least Goodis gives you something. When he's on the ice, you tend to know he's on the ice. When he's on your team, you know, you, there's a certain element of having Radco Goodis on your team that I don't mind. I think like what Duke is saying is defending isn't, you know, it's dropped off considerably. Okay, sure. That's fair. So, you know, that's fair, sure. But I don't know, like I say, like, I'm not telling you the best player in the world or anything like that. But I'm just saying there's a lot of third-parent guys that just exist and don't have any outstanding qualities. At least Radco Goodis will drill your best player on the other team once in a while and wake everybody up. But I don't mind that. Yeah. So, the firing of tre-living, like, as an organization. So, you let this guy, you know, run the trade deadline

10:34and then three weeks later, you can't, I don't understand it. Like, if you knew back then that you think that you weren't going to go forward with this guy, why do you want him in charge of trade deadline? Well, that's a good question. The Leafs are, you know, the Leafs are like government, right? There's so many cooks in the kitchen that it takes a long time for a decision like that to get from the top guy's brain down to HR. It's about three months. Yeah, you know. So, don't ask the Leafs to act expediently on anything because they are. They're like, they're like a university or a government. There's more red tape there than there is in Ottawa. Well, everyone wants Pelli. They don't want Pelli to run it. I don't know who knows who they want to run it. I don't know what they want there. I'm just, you know what, I am, and people can say, oh, you're just a western guy ripping on the Leafs, whatever. You know, I was born in 1965. The Leafs last cup was in 1967. Yeah, okay.

11:44Like, I'm an old part around here. I'm 60 years old. I can't ever remember even seeing the Leafs make a Stanley Cup final ever. In my lifetime, I was two years old. I don't remember it. The comedy cups are the orders been in. How many cups have the flames have been in a couple of cups? The Rangers have been in cups. I mean, Anaheim's been in cups. Oh my God. Like, it's, and I guess coupled with the fact that, and all our media comes from Toronto and I work for Rodgers, I get it. But a lifetime of being force fed, how good and prominent and well-run and organized, and savvy and innovative the Leafs are. I mean, a lifetime of being fed that stuff by our sources in Toronto. And I guess I'm willing to say the jury's back after, what is it? 58 years, 59 years. The jury's back. All of those predictions of smart things by the Leafs were wrong. Like, everyone was wrong. Every guy that told you, this is a good hire. This guy's going to turn it around.

12:49This coach is the answer. They're all wrong because none of them ever did it. You know, the only thing I can remember where there was a glimmer was when they lost to the L.A. Kings, right? In the semi-finals. They got to a Western final in 93 or whatever. Trumpet's sound, Kevin. They got to a Western final. Do we, do we talk about Dallas, who's been to three Western finals? And, you know, are we forced fed? How Jim Nill is the savant of Western civilization? Like, come on, man. You know, it's the hell of a GM. And they got a really good team. But they haven't accomplished anything either. Did you watch the, the Harold Ballard documentary? No, go find it. You'll love it. It's a perfect, like, the whole franchise in 67. Basically, it's a perfect analogy, perfect script for how he became the owner, sole owner, or because he came in and he had just a little percentage. And then all these other

13:51guys ended up bailing. And it was hilarious how he became the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. You'll go, how could this possibly be? Like, you'll go, this doesn't make sense. So how long you think that documentary lasts? Like, is it two hours? Is it like an hour and a half? No, it's just an hour, it's an hour and a half or something. Hour and a half? Yeah. How long does a root canal take? About an hour and a half. So you can watch it while you're getting your root canal. You watch that documentary. I'll go for a root canal. Hey, what about, we got a text this morning too. And I got an email. Our old buddy, Danny Barnes, retiring. Yeah. Yeah, Danny Barnes. Now, uh, send me his number. I got it, but he's not responding. Maybe it's an old one. Yeah. Okay. I think I've, I think I have an upper form. Yeah. Yeah. Danny Barnes, good, uh, long time sports right here in this town. I covered the orders, beat with them for many years. We had a good system.

14:52Yes. When we were on the road together, he covered it for the eminent son and I was the one to journal. Okay. And again, spec. I know how it worked. You guys were in Kahoot's. You had your meeting. You'd say, okay, this is what we're going to do. We're not going to scoop anyone. I know. No, no, no, no, no, no, Danny scoop me. I scooped him. For sure. We had lots of scoops against each other. Yeah. Yeah. I remember in the 90s, uh, the, going to Dallas and him enlarged like Terry Jones. They'd sit at the bar together. And like Jones, he could pump him back pretty good. As you know, and Barney tried to keep up. It seemed and it was like, it don't even, why would you even try? You know, we all made that mistake once. Yes. You're right. Once we all made that mistake once. Yeah. Never did it again. Exactly. Anyway, a really good career. Him and I were good. You know, we battled hard in the road. I beat him. He beat me and then we'd go out at night and have a hell of a good time together.

15:55Oh, and, uh, he had a good career at Edmonton Logtime Sports Red. We were columnists at the Evan the Journal together. Yeah. You know, I and, uh, hell of a guy, good guy, fun guy, good writer, good reporter all around good journalist, uh, fun guy to work with. Yeah. Like to have a laugh, you know, oh, yeah. We're going to get a min studio here a couple days or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You should for sure. Ask him when he's been doing the last three years. I thought he retired three years ago. So, uh, I mean, he's had three bylines in the last four years. And oh, what a gig. Yeah. Tell him, tell him, maybe I can, if that gig still open, I'll take it. Well, and then the one article I started reading was 19 pages long. I said, sorry, Barney, I don't have time to invest myself in this case back. Have a good one. Big guy. We'll see down in the ring tonight. All right. Uh, Mark Spector on the mark brought to you by Northgate Chevrolet Buick GMC. This trucks for you. Check him out at Northgate GM dot com. When we come back, Frank Saravoli from victory plus TV on the Kevin Kerri show with the Ducat Delburn, Josh Fenwick on sports 1440 AM radio presented by sports select. We're streaming on YouTube

16:58X Facebook Instagram and Twitch. All right. Welcome back to the big program. A 23 in Edmonton in time. Now for the headline or the day brought to you by Mr. Rooter plumbing, giving snakes deep and giving 110% day in and day out for all your plumbing needs. Go to Mr. Rooter.ca as we welcome in Frank Saravoli from victory plus TV. Good morning, Frank. How you doing, Kevin? Good. Great weekend. What'd you get up to? Not much, to be honest. I can't tell you how refreshing it is to have a life back after coaching and doing everything else over the winter. So to be able to kind of hang out and watch TV is like the oddest feeling. Well, that's good. You can recharge the batteries for next year's coaching job, Frank. It's it's already started. We already had tryouts, pal. Hmm. Maybe you should apply for the Leafs GM job. Yeah. I don't know, honestly. It's the Toronto Maple Leafs, the self-proclaimed center of the hockey universe. Clearly there will be interested parties. I just wonder like with everything that goes with what is staring down

18:01a potentially long rebuild. Is it is it odd to question how interesting the job is? Well, as he said, it's, you know, that when you say the Toronto Maple Leafs, it reminds me of the line from Moneyball, right? When Brad Pitt goes to Boston and goes, I thought the guy offered you the job in Oakland, restructure your contractor, renegotiate it or extend it. And he just said, it's a red socks, you know, so that's kind of kind of where I'm at. Everyone's living under a, I guess you'd say an aura of if I could be the guy that could somehow get the Toronto Maple Leafs over the hump. If I could be Theo Epstein that gets the Boston Red Sox to win their first title since 1914, I'm going to be remembered forever. You would. Yeah. I mean, forever. Road to perdition is paved with skulls of GMs and coaches who have gone in there thinking that they're going to be the guy since 1967. I don't even just go up a step higher in the organization with

19:03Keith Pelley here, Frank. I met Pelley 37 years ago. He was doing curling for TSN. So that's how far he's come. And then we know he went to Europe with the PGA, Europe Golf, and he was with the Argonauts. So, but when you hear all the outside noise, I've never heard anyone say that this is the right guy to be at the head of MLSE. Well, I think it's a great question to ask. I mean, what are his credentials? What is his authority to be conducting this search clearly being put in place by MLSE to do it? We get it. But rewind back to one year ago. Brandon Shanahan was in need of a new contract extension and they shoved him out the door. And then they said at that moment in time Keith Pelley did specifically that he has the right leadership in place with Brad Tree Living and Craig Ruby. Now Craig Ruby is surely to follow Brad Tree Living out the door less than one

20:04calendar year later. And it's every facet of the MLSE operation it feels like that Keith Pelley has cleaned house on. Masayu Jiri left last year. I mean, it's one person after the other. And I think you then have to ask the question. Keith Pelley, you've put yourself squarely in the crosshairs here. You're making, I'd say in arguably the most important and critical hire for the Toronto Maple Leafs and MLSE for the next quarter century. So, I mean, you've heard the names floating around like Doug Armstrong. DeBoer is head coach. If he goes a different route and goes off the board here for either of these jobs, he might not have a job in three, four months. Yeah, I'd hesitate to put a timeline on it. But what do you consider off the board? Now,

21:07here's the way I look at it, which is the magnitude of this job, and I don't mean just the enormity of the position and its standing in the league, I mean managing a staff that is as large as the Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the the biggest in the league. I'd have to say just based on sheer volume, it cannot go to a job, a person that doesn't have experience in the role. That's how I see it. Now, does that mean they could hire someone without experience? I mean, they could, but I don't see it that way. And so, my view would be that it's going to be someone and if it's not Doug Armstrong, someone that has done the role previously. Yeah, like Doug Armstrong's name is the one that floats around here. His contract is basically expired at the end of this year with steam taking over there in St. Louis, Frank. No, it extends into the future. Doug Armstrong will take on a new role as president of hockey ops.

22:14Which, look, I'm not privy to the exact details of how the machinations all work, but my understanding was that once Doug Armstrong found a successor and groomed him in Alex Stene and set him up for the role, that if something were to come along for Doug Armstrong, that he felt made sense for him and his family, that Tom Stillman and the St. Louis Blues ownership group wouldn't stand in his way of taking it. So, I think that door, as we get closer to that transition on July 1st, from general manager to president of hockey ops, that door is wide open for Doug Armstrong, and I have to tell you that this has been whispered in hockey circles since the beginning of this season. People are already talking, well, if the leaves blow up and if bad tree living is gone, look for Doug Armstrong to come in there as it makes a ton of sense. So, I'd say interestingly

23:15enough, as much as Brad tree living was rumored to be going from Calgary to Toronto, that same vibe, that same feel exists right now with Doug Armstrong going from St. Louis to Toronto. And there's no more compensation anymore, right, for guys leaving? Well, there there technically is, but I mean, I don't think it would apply in this case. I'm sure Doug Armstrong can find a way out of his deal. So, let's just play the hypothetical here then. If it is Doug Armstrong and he does want this job, is the board number one, is Cassidy number two? Like, what's he going to be looking at? As you said, the experience in a market like Toronto, it has to come into play. I think it's impossible to handicap at this point. We're talking about hypotheticals of hypotheticals. If it is Armstrong, will it be X coach? I think the biggest thing that needs to be sorted out in Toronto is, what is their posture with whoever's hired? Do they believe that they need to tear

24:18this thing down and start over? Or is this a quick, hey, we're going to fix things, we're going to get everything back in order, we're going to keep William Neelander, we're going to keep Austin Matthews and we're going to reshape our defense and we'll be right back in the playoffs next year. If that's the case and to operate on another hypothetical, I could for sure see Doug Armstrong bringing in one of those two highly qualified candidates, Bruce Cassidy and Pete to board, both of whom worked on team Canada staff with him at the Olympics in Milan. Without question, I could see that. Austin Matthews and his decision making process, what does he think and have to say about Brad True Living being fired? What does he feel about how the Toronto Maple Leafs didn't come to his defense? And they can all sit there last night after playing the Anaheim docks and taking on Radco-Gudas and say they all wanted a piece and act tough. You can't do it in the moment in real time. Anyone can do it after getting raked over the

25:23coals for two or three weeks by the Toronto media. Just one last one before we talk about the Gudas and Domey and everything last night. Any chance because of the history between, and again, if it is Doug Armstrong, because you know, he has a past history with the chief Craig Barubi, but no chance he comes back. I have a hard time seeing it. I think he's a dead man walking. And I think if Keith Pelley and Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment had their way, Craig Barubi would have been fired back in December. Yeah. So anyway, you saw the Gudas and Domey right off the hop. It was almost like Gudas was going, okay, get your licks in here. Get your licks and let's just move on. I don't even think he swung. No, I don't think he did either. And I give him a ton of credit for being willing to answer the bell as he framed it his quote own mistake. And I think he deserves a lot of, look, it's not easy to do that. And the fact that

26:25he was hurt and decided to play anyway, it shows his character. And I think he's got a ton and it's, it's why guys around the league respect him. And you saw just about every guy that was on the ice for the ducks came over and gave him a fist bump when he was in the box. I don't have any respect or, let me rephrase that. I don't, the Leafs don't get any credit from me today for stepping up to take on Radco Gudas in such an obvious spot. Yeah. Like you don't get any points after the fact we're not giving out extra credit. This is not one of those math tests where if you show your work and do your corrections that I'm going to bump up your score. It's just it's not how it works. And I think on one hand, it's really admirable how this sport works in the sense that you have a player who's who's willing to take the temperature down for his team and not force someone else on his team to answer the bell for him. I also think it's absolutely idiotic

27:29that we're at this stage where Radco Gudas served a suspension. Obviously the Leafs didn't feel like it was long enough. And you know, there's this retribution factor for next time you play. Like it's like, what are we doing here? I mean, as stupid as that was, and like having Max Domey, you know, well on Radco Gudas a couple times and I'm not even trying to fight back, it's like, okay, because I just think this code it like it's always going to be part of the game. Yeah, there's so much honor to it, but at times you like sit back and you, what are we doing here? For me, I mean, it's taken number, I mean, I 100% they should have had something that happened during the game, you know, right after the incident happened, but you know, they're always still is that, you know, we'll take a number and we'll get it next time too. And that's always going to be part of the game. Yeah, but that's no, like they didn't do anything the rest of the game when they did it the first time. That's what I'm saying. This whole notion of because Radco Gudas has heard,

28:35he needs to come out and answer the bell. Like, it just seems stupid. John Torturella, what kind of bump is he going to give the Vegas Golden Knights? Can they do some damage with him behind the bench in the playoffs? Assuming they get in. Well, they're fully capable of doing some damage. I mean, they've got some really talented players. And I think that top four of their defense should be in a much better position than they've been in. I mean, even without Alex Petrangelo, Shay Theodore, Braden McNabb, Rasmus Andersen, Noah Hanuffin, like, that's a pretty quality top four to be able to start with. And I'm just lost on the whole John Torturella thing to begin with. Like, did you, like his press conference yesterday was so wholly on appealing. And I don't mean like, personality wise. I just mean the first words out of his mouth are, we're not going to change much. And then the second thing was, well, I, I don't watch a lot of Vegas Golden Knights.

29:38And then the third thing was, I don't know any of these guys' names. So I'm going to have to write them down on the wall in my office in order to try and remember them. He was calling the, one guy on the team last night, the wrong name all night. But he's deflecting stuff like he's trying to make it something else a story here. And I think, as I said earlier, I think his goal right now is just to say to these guys, go out and play hard to have fun, play for each other. And then that works when you've got a couple seasons to get it right. Not when you've got eight games now seven. See, that's your only guarantee to play off run. But that's the thing, Frank. That's why it makes sense because there's only seven games. He doesn't have to worry about something 30, 40 games in it because everything's going to get ratcheted up here down the stretch, even more so and then into the playoffs. So he doesn't have to worry about that. Look, I applaud the Vegas Golden Knights for having balls the size of a dump truck

30:40to make this move and fire unquestionably one of the best coaches in the league with eight games or meaning. And John Torturella has won a Stanley Cup and has got a ton of history and experience seventh most wins in the league all time or whatever the number is. But I'm not blowing it all up to have a guy come in with eight games left that has won one playoff round in ten seasons. I'm just not doing it. So I understand the notion of making a coaching change at this juncture. If that's what you want. But just like this Brad tree living situation in Toronto and now doing it with a couple of weeks left in the season, you better get the right guy because as bad as you think of things have been, it could always be worse. One last one, Frank. Hey, what's this post on the weekend? Did you have a scout that you were quoting or about NCAA teams? No, what was this all about? So I misspoke and I corrected it and I

31:45owned it and I said it. I was doing a duck's intermission and I was talking about the NCAA and I said that there are some scouts who believe that the top-end NCAA programs can go toe-to-toe with AHL teams. Now I misspoke and said NHL teams. I have three different leagues on my brain and I corrected it and somehow that made it worse and people are saying that I have zero credibility and I don't understand hockey, which I mean if that's your take, that's fine. But this whole notion that I said that I think NCAA teams can compete with NCAA teams or NHL teams is lunacy. It's absolute lunacy and I think anyone that's saying that the top-end NCAA programs can't compete with AHL teams either hasn't watched the AHL recently or hasn't watched the NCAA. It was changing rapidly with NIL money and there are a ton of NCAA players who make a lot

32:55more than AHL players. Hey, what's your favorite game of the night? Detroit Pit, Flyers Caps, what do you like? I mean, Hurricane's Blue Jackets are playing. This is kind of put up or shut up time for the CBJ, isn't it? Their playoff hopes are dwindling. As I see it today, the playoff odds entering tonight, Islanders and Columbus are both at 49%. Yeah, I'm watching all of them but I'm particularly interested in Columbus because it would be quite a story to have the run that they did only to eat her out with eight games left. See, I'm looking at Detroit too tonight to see what they do, Frank, because Todd McClellan came out again at a little speech like he had at the beginning of the year. So I want to see how they respond tonight. You saw what his quote was the other day, right? Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. So he talked about it like again, but we shouldn't

33:56be having to find tune things. Yeah, as exact what was, you shouldn't be trying to extract competitiveness or heaviness out of the players at this time. But here we are. But here we are. That's your boy. Yeah, known each other for 50 some years. Good stuff, Frank. We'll talk to you on Thursday. Have a good one, Kevin. Frank Sherrivali from Victory Plus TV. Headliner of the day brought to you by Mr. Rudy, the number one overall pick in your fantasy plumbing pool. That's Mr. Ruder.ca. I got an email sent to me, Duke. The only bad thing about it, it's just, we've got Lori Ann, then we've got LaWalle. I got a wake like about 40 minutes to read it on air. And this email is skeeting. And it has to do with you, Duke. Oh, excellent. It is like I mean, I only read the first line or two, but if you have been thrown under the bus, it is, I mean, our listeners are going to be blown away

34:56when they when they hear this. I can't wait to answer the bell. When we come back, Lori Ann Monzer on the Kevin Kerry show with the Duke Adalb and Josh Fenwick on sports 1440 AM radio presented by sports select, we're streaming on YouTube, X Facebook, Instagram and Twitch. Well, I mean, 44 in Edmonton time to welcome in, Lori Ann Monzer, Olympic gold medalist from 2004. Good morning, Lori Ann. Good morning, Kevin. How are you doing today? Well, I understand you got it. I'm doing great, but I understand you have a big night ahead of you. I do. It's just continued on from the weekend. So tonight is oil or the game, and I got my jersey. Well, I actually have two, two special shirts. So I've got the crack and t-shirt that I'm going to wear underneath my oilers jersey because crack and are coming in, but I am on a mission to see if I could meet Jessica Campbell because she's coming into town. Oh, that's correct. Yeah. You know, she's from from my hometown, Melville. I understand that. Yeah, totally Canadian. I think what she's doing is fantastic and doing a

36:04little trailblazing too. Yeah, you better watch with that shirt on, Lori Ann. You might, someone might take you under the stands. You never know. Uh-huh. Here you go. Wait with the oilers. The oilers wonder the crack and what he never know. He could be both. Well, that's why I got both. So if I have to, you know, I can take off the oilers jersey, become a crack and then put it back on and, you know, be the oil and so I've got both just in case. So you have to do something with a panel here like and maybe we'll touch on that before. Are you going to try to get to see Campbell like before, you know, the warm up things like that. Like, how's it going to work? I really don't know. I've just put it out there. So I am on a panel with two other women. So we have Rachel Foley, who is the new CEO for the YWCA here in Edmonton. And then Daniel Weller. She is the OEG, the oilers entertainment group VP of Human Resources. So today is, you know,

37:05the last day in March here, celebrating women in sport. And it's going to be talking about leadership, resilience, courage, a bit of a fundraiser doing the game afterwards. So panel and three groups have come together. So women in leadership, lean in Edmonton and business professional women's group. So yeah, lots of, I think there's going to be some some really great questions. And celebrating, you know, different experiences and sharing insights and lessons learned. Yeah. So where is this panel going to be, Lauren? Like, how's it work? Is it going to be in like Ford Hall or like, where is it going to be? I think it's in the hall of fame room in Rogers Place. So we're going to be there before the game. So it's a sold out event. She had to get tickets for it. It's been sold out for, I think, three weeks. I think the tickets went on sale three and a half weeks ago. So it was a sellout just within a couple of days and, you know, continuing the month

38:13of celebrating women in sport and women in leadership. That's pretty cool that you kind of got all this together. It would be great to have Jessica Campbell this all of a sudden show up out of the blue. Oh, I think that would be just amazing. So I think she's got a lot of stories and a lot of lessons learned. I just think what she's doing is fantastic. I remember last year when they made the announcement as assistant coach, that was a big day. That was a big moment. And seconds being Canadian, wow, super great combination. And for her to, to look at it from a different perspective, I think she's doing a fantastic job. Well, you know, for sure, Lauren, I mean, this is a situation, you know, she was in the minors in Seattle system and then ended up coming up with Dan Balsma and ends up staying. And, you know, so this is, you know, it's unprecedented really when you think about it because, you know, there's still, and maybe you can attest to this,

39:15women in sport, they're still, you know, women are still trying to make strides to do certain jobs with their qualifications, whatever they might be. So maybe just touch on that. And I guess tonight is something that would, what goes hand in hand with, I mean, the future growth of women in sports. Oh, absolutely. And without a doubt, we've always been here, Kevin, whether it's been supporting roles, it's been stepped in in intram leadership roles and then taking the helm and leading it. Some people love it. Some people don't. Some people are for it. Some people are against it. And I think it's really about having that strong vision of where do you see position, a group, a team going and growing, whether it's business or sports, but especially in sports, we've seen the PWHL come up. That game is changing. That is inspiring. Even more women to

40:20play professionally, you know, and I'm using the air quotes because for a long time, so many sports, they're considered amateur. And that's it. But to have that designation as a professional, that is a game changer. But having the physicalness to change the game is one thing. But then it's also bringing in the mental aspect because everything we do, there was a physical component to it. But the part that will either make or break us is the emotional component. Can you be tough enough to stay in the game? Like when I was racing with the men, man, I had to put my gladiator, armor, and and shelve on sometimes because it was really tough. It was really hard, but it's how we look at it, our perspectives, our beliefs. And I'm seeing more and more women going, this is who I am. This is what I want to do. I think we can do things really efficient or we can

41:21get some great results in some arena that's all about winning. In other arena, it's about the success. So there's different areas of where we can shine. And what I see the most is women saying, this is what I love to do. This is what I'm really good at. And when I put the two of them together, here is what's possible. And it's really, it's about creating those pictures and selling that vision, that dream, those goals, and connecting pieces together that people maybe haven't done a great job before, or that we've been missing, or they see a new way of doing something. And I think that's where things are moving. And it's a matter of having a voice and saying, you know what? I love this. And I'm also really good at this. Yeah. I don't know if we'll ever get to, you know, a stage where there is a like a head coach, a woman head coach in the NHL, or even a general manager for that matter. Like I was thinking, like, you know, the Haley Wicken-Haisers worked in the Leafs

42:25organization here, way down, you know, as far as like an assistant GM and then some. But, you know, do you still see, I guess the question that I'm trying to get out here is a pushback, still pushback from, you know, the men, male, orientated, you know, where they are and how they end up to be running a lot of the organizations, obviously. Do you still see a little bit of a pushback? Oh, I see a lot of pushback. It's not just a little Kevin. It's about changing and it's about changing the paradigm. And the paradigm is the beliefs, the behaviors, the systems, the way it's always been done. And we hear that with everything, you know, from grassroots sports right up to the elite level in every sport. And I see head coach coming. I don't know if it will be in our lifetime. I hope it will be in our lifetime. However, it's changing the paradigm. It's changing the

43:26way and seeing things being done because we see, we see so many females stepping into those roles. And unfortunately, we have the label of interim. And then, oh, then they select somebody else. But it's, it's about leading the way. It's about thinking things in a different way, doing things in a different way, where you get a better result or you get the exact same result, but it is better. So then, yeah, it is the better way of doing it. So again, it comes down to like, what is your vision in the role where you are? What is the long-term vision of, you know, the radio station? I know Jason has a vision. You've got a vision. I've got a vision. I saw so many visions that got tried and executed on the weekend with the junior national championships being held at the velodrome. Some of the kids won. Some of the kids didn't. Some of the kids finished. Some of the kids got ejected off of the back. And you know what, this theme was, Kevin, that I heard that I was just

44:31grinning from year to year. When I was talking with these young up and coming athletes, they all said, oh my god, this is so much fun. And they were just vibrating. Their energy was just oozing out of them. And they were smiling from year to year. And I was just, I'm thinking 21 years ago, when I went to Athens, what could the possibilities have been if there was an indoor velodrome back then? But there wasn't. We have an outdoor track. We've had an outdoor track since 1977. 1978, the Commonwealth Games were here. Amazing. You build it. They will come. Guess what? People are coming. It's open to recreational riders, club riders, masters riders. It is open to the public. So if you want to come and have that experience jump on a bike, we've got it. If you want to watch and support and volunteer, we've got that as well. And when you see somebody doing something, Kevin, it plants the seed of, hey, this is possible. If

45:36they're doing it, maybe I can do it. And then that maybe I can do it. It starts to become, you know what? I can do this. And then that I can do this becomes, guess what? I am doing this. And that's where the shift, that's where the changes I believe come from. Well, it must have been a lot of fun down at the Velodrome for you to see all the young kids. Man, oh, man. Yeah, it was amazing. And then I had a surprise reconnection. Eric Van Den Eyne was the national track coach. He was a national cycling coach at the Olympics back in Athens. I have not seen Eric since I left Athens. And he is one of the biggest game changers with Quebec cycling. He trains. He coaches. He works with athletes. He works with the coaches. He was there. I haven't seen him in 21 years. And Kevin, it was just like it was yesterday in Athens. And

46:38both of us, I think we both had the biggest grin on our face. And it was so awesome to reconnect. And he said to me, he said, Laurie, do you remember the first time I met you on a bike? And I was thinking, and I would go through my role of Dexcom. Okay, you're taking me back to 1989. And I thought of a couple of events. And he went, no, I thought of a couple more. He went, nope. He says, I was on a ride from San Bruno to Sandra to look at a car. And you were out riding. I saw you do a U-turn and then you chased us down to catch us. And then you rode with us back to Sandra. He said, that was the first time I met you. And little did I know what his background was. A accomplished junior rider, accomplished senior rider, also a coach. And just so many projects that I had done with him. And it was funny because I said to him, here I am on the start line. And I don't remember if it was semi-finals or the finals. And I've got my arm around him because he's hanging on to me to make sure that I'm getting set to go and do my heat, the race.

47:43And I looked over and I went, you've got the shiniest bald head ever. So I just kind of rubbed the head for good luck. I think that's what you're supposed to do. And then I got into beast mode, monster mode. And then went off and did the heat and won the heat. So we were laughing about that story. Well, at least you got to rub his bald head. That's a mean thing. Good stuff, Lori. Enjoy your night tonight, Donald Rogers. And hopefully you get to run into Jessica Campbell. It'd be great. Yeah, totally. Well, I'll text you where I'm seated and I hear you're going down to the game. So maybe we can connect down there too. Be up in the press box. You know, we up there. So right on bird's eye view. Have a great night, Lori. I appreciate it. And you to take care. Lori and Muns are 2004 Olympic gold medalist in cycling. Top of the hour, he's in the studio, LaWaloo guac defensive lineman for the Montreal alowets. Edmontonian, one of the all-time good guys. He's been on in studio here a couple times.

48:44Now it's going to be good to talk to him. Before that time offers, sports 1440 update brought to you by a WS welding supplies and NISQ product sales, servicing, calibrating, free, same-date delivery of Instaq items to the Duke NISQ and South Edmonton year one stop shop for all things welding a WS welding dot CA. Here is the Duke