Bonus Episode with Special Guest Jesse Cohen

Summary

In this engaging conversation, Jesse Cohen, host of 'All the Kings Men,' shares his journey as a Kings fan, the impact of excitement in sports, and the cultural phenomenon of the Mighty Ducks. He discusses the evolution of his podcast, memorable moments in Kings history, and provides insights into the current season's performance, emphasizing the importance of genuine excitement and community in building a fanbase. In this engaging conversation, Jesse Cohen discusses the current state of the Los Angeles Kings, reflecting on their inconsistent performance and the unpredictable nature of the NHL season. The discussion delves into the implications of free agency on the team's strategy, the future of the center position following Andrzej Kopitar's eventual retirement, and the promising prospects within the Kings' system. The conversation highlights the challenges and opportunities facing the Kings as they navigate their path forward in the league.

Jesse Cohen:
Theroyalhalf.com

https://youtube.com/@royalhalfradio?si=HuxxBqIFi7Evg_QS

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Guest Introduction
• 3:25 Becoming A Kings Fan
• 6:10 How Excitement Converts New Fans
• 14:10 Live Games, Fights, And Crowd Energy
• 21:40 Goalies, Near-Fights, And Quick Lore
• 28:10 Birth Of All The Kings Men
• 38:20 Royal Half Era And Bark Madness
• 45:50 Favorite Episodes And 2014 Memories
• 55:10 Respect For Teemu And Fan Stories
• 1:03:00 Rivalries And Southern California Hockey
• 1:10:20 Overtime Equals A Tie Philosophy
• 1:17:40 State Of The Kings After Thanksgiving
• 1:28:10 Playoff Picture And Parity Math
• 1:35:10 Why Big Free Agents Don’t Sign Myths

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 1:55

Welcome back, everybody, to Royally Quacked Special Edition. We have a special guest, especially for you Kings fans. He's the host of All the Kings Men and the Royal Half. So don't forget, after the Kings game, go on to the Royal Half and call Jesse Cohen. Welcome to Royally Quack, Jesse. It's such a pleasure to have you on. Thanks, Gary.

SPEAKER_00: 2:23

I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02: 2:24

Yeah, so.

SPEAKER_00: 2:25

I'm not talking to Cody because he's the wrong kind of fan.

SPEAKER_06: 2:29

I get it from Eddie Garcia all the time, so you're fine.

SPEAKER_00: 2:32

Good.

SPEAKER_06: 2:32

Yeah. Yeah. He'll talk crap on me all the time, and it's fine.

SPEAKER_02: 2:36

It's funny. It's it's okay because him and Doug talk crap about me and Eddie, so it's okay. I can live with that. So the first big question is how did you become a Kings fan?

SPEAKER_00: 2:51

Uh well, um I was born in Toronto, and my family moved to LA when I was three. And my dad and his best friend, who my dad's from Ottawa, and he and his best friend who is also from Ottawa, uh, by coincidence found themselves both living in LA in the early 80s, and they both loved hockey, coming from Canada, coming from Ottawa, and so they started going in on tickets to the Kings games. And uh my dad's friend has a son who is maybe 10 years younger than me, somewhere in that neighborhood. So he would go to some games, we would go to some games, um, and just over the years it became something that I did with my dad, and that's kind of it.

SPEAKER_02: 3:42

Wow. I mean, we don't even understand that at all, Jesse. I mean, obviously, um my son's a hockey fan because I was a hockey fan. And I gotta say, I mean, I've been a fan since almost day one. I mean, I really wasn't a big follower probably till my mid-20s. When I started playing street hockey, I really got into the everything. And I I I did love the whole triple crown uh triple crown line. That was so much excitement and fun. Um, so I can understand anybody. Um uh if they don't know what hockey's about, they they need to find out because it's an awesome sport.

SPEAKER_00: 4:33

Firm believer, Gary, that the way you convert fans into something that they don't care about or don't know about is to show them how excited other people are about it. Right? I was talking to a friend of mine, we went out to dinner the other night after, you know, the day after Thanksgiving, and it was sort of a bunch of friends that had gotten together. And we were all sitting around asking each other, are you watching this show? Are you watching that show? Are you, you know, who's watching what show? And a friend of mine who doesn't have social media, he's got two kids, he's uh he works in in medicine, he's a very busy guy. And he was talking to us and he was totally incredulous. And he said, like, where do you guys like how do you know what show to watch? And I had to stop and think about it and be like, I I honestly don't know. But but the more I thought about it, the answer was, well, when I'm on social media, or if I'm on Reddit, which I don't know, I guess is a form of social media, there are people I trust, there are people whose opinions I trust, and when they're excited about something, I get excited about it. And even if it's not one specific person, if enough people are talking about something in an excited way, I feel like, oh, everybody out there seems to have gone and seen this movie. I would like to be part of that conversation. I am going to go watch the movie, if for no other reason than to be part of the conversation. And it works good things and bad things, right? Like I never saw Madame Webb, but I know a ton of people thought Madame Webb was awful. Cody, I'm assuming you did see it. Yes. Um, but the point is, I have not seen that. I was tempted to go see it just because people seemed to be having a lot of fun talking about how awful it was. So, like, the way to get people into things is to be genuinely excited about it and expose people to your excitement. You can't trick them with, you know, commercials or or whatever. You gotta, you gotta have, and if it's your parent or your spouse or your loved one or family member, whatever, your friend, it's gonna be ten times as powerful, right? I I got into hockey because of my dad. Cody, you got into hockey because of your dad. Gary, you're the outlier here because you got into it. I don't know, I guess the team showed up and you were like, well, I guess I'll do this now.

SPEAKER_02: 6:48

Well, there was a c I know there was a couple times I ri I think I was maybe nine when the Kings started. And I was at my sister's house, and they're for some reason they wanted to go shopping or something, and I stayed at their house, and I just happened to turn on the TV and there was a Kings game on. And I started watching it, and then I that's how I first really got interested. I mean that's a memory that I had forgotten about, Jesse, until we just started speaking about it. But um, and then it just you're right, the excitement of other people. I had a friend, I'm tw when I was 27, he goes, Um, I played softball with this guy, and he goes, Um, hey, we're we're gonna play street hockey. You're really athletic. Would you like to play? I go, I've never had a hockey stick in my hand. You know, so they take me out and they started teaching me a little bit. And you know, after that for and I started playing by the end of the and we got put in the top division in uh Buena Park uh Street Hockey League. If any old people like me remember, that's where it started big in Orange County. And by seasons two and three, I I was scoring a couple, two, three goals a game or assists, and you know, and being being something. So and it was and it was so I had so much fun with it. It really that revitalized me into hockey, you know, and the only fortunate thing my whole family's excited about hockey, but other than my my daughter's husband, they're all ducks fans. What it where did I go wrong, Jesse?

SPEAKER_00: 8:36

I don't know where it's you somewhere, somewhere you went horribly wrong. I'm trying real hard not to judge you for it, but well, I can tell you what to blame Mighty Duck movies and um the Mighty Duck cartoons.

SPEAKER_02: 8:53

He he was glued to that stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 8:56

I have had this fight with Jim Fox countless times. I think that the Mighty Ducks movies converted way more people to be hockey fans than the Wayne Gretzky trade. Now, if you want to be super pedantic about it, you can say that the Mighty Ducks movies happened because of the Wayne Gretzky trade, because the guys who wrote the Mighty Ducks movies realized how much they missed hockey because they had moved to LA to work in Hollywood, and then Gretzky gets traded to LA and they go, Oh yeah, hockey, and hockey becomes popular in LA, so that motivates them to make movies about hockey, but nobody knows any of that. That's all just behind the scenes stuff. The reality is I talked to tons of fans of a certain vintage, as I like to say, uh, who their first introduction to hockey was the Mighty Ducks movies. And everybody knows the Flying V and the Knuckle Puck and all that dumb stuff that isn't real. Um but it's not true.

SPEAKER_06: 9:50

I've done it many times on NHL 26 or whatever.

SPEAKER_00: 9:54

Sure you have. Um but no, I mean that's the real like that's and again, you know, if you can that's that's who stuff like that works on is kids. That's who you know.

SPEAKER_02: 10:08

My wife worked at Disneyland and before the ducks I mean I had her leaning over, we had on the uh ice tickets at the forum. This is how long ago. The forum, right? Getting Wayne Gretzky's autograph in uh 92-93 before the Stanley Cup, he was hurt, hurt his back, was out for a while. He walked by, we she stuck the program down. I was holding her so she didn't fall over the edge. And we got Wayne Gretzky's autograph somewhere in my house, which I have no idea where it is.

SPEAKER_00: 10:44

And I'm hoping we get your still a ducks fan. I don't know how to do that.

SPEAKER_02: 10:47

Well, she became a ducks fan because one of the guys she worked with had season tickets, and she actually went to the first home game they won.

SPEAKER_00: 10:57

There you go. So the Iceman.

SPEAKER_02: 11:00

And she traded on me. She became a trader. You know, I gotta say, we have three great kids, even though they're all duck fans too. Um I'm blessed that way. But at least it's hockey. And and I'm more I'm a big hockey guy more than just for just the Kings. I love hockey, and I could watch anybody play anytime, anywhere.

SPEAKER_06: 11:23

At least we're not Boilers fans.

SPEAKER_00: 11:27

Silver lining.

SPEAKER_06: 11:29

Yeah. I agree with what you were saying about bringing people into the game. I also found another way is just bringing people to games as well. Yeah. And I've done that because I had a buddy that used to make fun of me for always like being up to date with the hockey games and the ducks games. I'd always get the ESPN alerts. And he was making fun of me. I was like, let's go to a game. I guarantee you're you'll change your mind. We went to a game. It was I forgot who the ducks were playing. They were down by a goal, and they're like, hey, we're gonna leave. I'm like, well, you leave, I'm staying. I'm like, I'm like, it's a one-goal game. The ducks just pulled their goalie. I'm like, I stay till the very end unless it's like a blowout, you know. And sure enough, everyone decided to stay. The ducks tied it up with like three seconds left. We go into overtime. It was, I think, just when three on three just started happening, so it was very exciting before the coaches ruined it. And then um, the ducks went in overtime, and my friend's like, holy moly, that was fun. Him and his wife didn't even invite me. They went to the next home game and didn't invite me. And then they're they've been ducks fans since.

SPEAKER_00: 12:38

So the trick of bringing someone to a game is that that's just mainlining mass excitement.

SPEAKER_06: 12:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 12:44

Like that's that's bringing somebody to plugging an IV directly into them of here's 20, like you thought one person was excited about it, here's what 20,000 people look like when they're excited about it.

SPEAKER_06: 12:55

It this is like when the Ducks were like playoff team every year.

SPEAKER_02: 13:00

So Cody's wife had no idea what hockey was till she met him. No, now if you take her to a game, uh Jesse, if they don't let 'em fight, those words that my wife doesn't like to hear happen. And it comes out of her mouth. We went to a goals uh rain game down in San Diego, and the refs would not let them even try to have a little fisticuffs.

SPEAKER_04: 13:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 13:28

And she was screaming, and the guy in front of her just turned around and just started laughing. I mean, because here's somebody who hate didn't even know what hockey was. Now you take her to a game, you talk about passion. His his wife has passion.

SPEAKER_00: 13:44

I just went to uh a Gulls Wranglers game uh weekend before last, and a friend of mine hadn't been to a hockey game in, I don't know, maybe 30 years, 20 years, something like that. And I don't know these two teams, it's Calgary versus San Diego in the AHL. I'm just sort of there watching it, and 30 seconds into the game, I point out, I go, Oh, those two guys, there's gonna be a fight before the end of the game. My friend looks at me and goes, You're crazy. And I go, No, I'm telling you, man. And sure enough, eight minutes later, it's one of the most brutal fights I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_06: 14:17

Well, we took my cousin to his first ever hockey game a few years ago. It was Ducks versus Kings, and it was the game where Gibson skated out to center ice with Copley. With Copley, and I was like, Oh my god, I get to see a goalie fight live, and the refs ruined it. Yeah, and you can hear my wife yelling, let them fight, because I it you heard everyone in the crowd. They wanted to see a goalie fight. And I think with yeah, with Copley and Gibson at that time, I and I know Copley has a an anger streak, and I know Gibson was just tired of always getting hurt and injured and losing. I can only imagine the anger from him. So I was like, that would have been so fun just to see.

SPEAKER_00: 15:01

I still take it as a personal affront from the hockey gods that we never got to see Jonathan Quick just swinging in a King's jersey. Like the amount of times that there was almost a goalie fight with Jonathan Quick, but not quite, and there was all that tension built up, and I just thought, you know what? He's like his last game, he's gotta just go hoping crazy. But didn't happen. So what do you mean?

SPEAKER_06: 15:25

Yeah, it didn't happen. Now he's a red wing.

SPEAKER_00: 15:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 15:30

Oh, oh. You're talking you're talking about.

SPEAKER_06: 15:35

I mean, we'll saw that against the sorry, we almost saw that against the Red Wings, though. When after that last second empty net goal, or yeah, because Quick went on the ice and just went right after the guy.

SPEAKER_00: 15:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 15:50

But yeah, I could see Quick going at someone. Boy, how did one question turn to all that back to the stuff? Yeah, sorry about that.

SPEAKER_00: 15:57

14 minutes later.

SPEAKER_02: 15:58

You know, hey, I gotta tell you, Jesse, it was awesome. I you you gotta sometimes just run with it, but I do want um you to answer this question. Uh uh, how did all the King's Men get started? I think fans want to know. Is any I mean, maybe when you first started you explained it.

SPEAKER_00: 16:16

Uh yeah, probably I've explained it different ways over the years. Um the long and short of it is I in 2007, before smartphones were even on the market, um, I had a flip phone, a Motorola, I don't even remember. No, a Sony W3, I think maybe. It was a flip phone, I think that was the model.

SPEAKER_06: 16:39

It was everyone that flip phones.

SPEAKER_00: 16:40

Well, yeah, no, I mean like literally, this is before before iPhones hit the market. Um, so it was a flip phone that also had an MP3 player in it. And at the time, I was walking my mom's dog multiple times a day for her. And this is again 2007, I think, early 2007, maybe 2006. And I was loading up songs on the phone to play while I walked the dog, and I just the long the walks got longer and longer and longer. I ran out of music to play on the MP3, so I started looking for podcasts because podcasts were kind of well, not kind of, they were totally new. Um, and the only ones that really existed were shows that ESPN produced that you could then download the audio of. So I would listen to Around the Horn and Pardon the interruption while I was walking my mom's dog. But the walks kept getting longer and I would run out of stuff to listen to, and so I went back on the internet and I said, Well, surely to God, somebody out there somewhere is doing this, but for hockey, so that I can listen to people talk about hockey while I'm walking my dog or my mom's dog. And there was only one show that I found, I did not like it, so I went on let's go kings.com and I said, I don't like this show. What sh come on, world, surely we can do better than this. And somebody said, Well, if you're so smart, why don't you do it?

SPEAKER_02: 18:09

So I didn't that's how it that's how it started, really.

SPEAKER_00: 18:12

That's that's how it started.

SPEAKER_02: 18:14

I I actually love that story. Um, but I don't I mean, you I think you've talked to Eddie, right? You know how Eddie was doing the they've been doing a podcast for 20 years.

SPEAKER_00: 18:25

Yes, they started about the same time as I did. The original version of All The King's Men was called Life in Hockeywood. It doesn't exist anymore. It was a guy named Matt Murray and I. And just to extend the story a little bit, uh, did Life in Hockeywood from 2007 till December-ish of 2011. They fired Terry Murray. My family was moving, my dad, not my I wasn't moving, my dad and his wife and my two sisters were moving to the East Coast. It was a bummer. And Matt and I were not seeing eye to eye on the execution of the show. And so I said, you know what? I don't want to do this anymore. I got to focus on family, I gotta focus on my life. This podcast has been fun, but it's just kind of eating up time, and the kings are terrible, and they shouldn't have been terrible, they should have been good. They fired Terry Murray, I'm bummed. Jim Fox yelled at me, and I was just like, I don't want to do this anymore. So I stopped doing it. Then they hired uh Daryl Sutter and they started to turn things around. And by February, I was like, I miss doing this. I can't not subject the world to my opinions anymore. So I reached out, I started uh going door to door, basically, with my microphone. And at the time, I don't know if you'll remember this or not, Gary and Cody, I'm not sure how old you are, but I suspect you might be old enough. Well, you're a Ducks fan, so what do you know? Um but at the time, in like 2012, there were Gary, I want to say two dozen different King's blogs in existence. Like my bookmark tab on my on my web browser was just jam-packed. And it was like the Royal Half, Mayor's Manor, uh, Battle of California, Jewels from the Crown, blanking on some, View from My Seats, the King's Court, uh, Matt Barry had something going, Surly Inscribe, like there were just tons of them. So I went around to all of them and I said, listen, why are we all fighting for the same audience? There just aren't that many Kings fans in existence. We're all fighting for the same audience. Anyone who pays attention to Mayor's Manor pays attention to Surly's Ascribe, pays attention to the Royal Half, pays attention to Jewels from the Crown. It's we're all reading, everybody's reading the same stuff, everybody's having the same conversation. Everybody on Let's Go Kings is also on all these other places. Now, as it turns out, there's some slivers of the fan base that that exist in, and it's getting more pronounced today. Like there's people on the Discord who don't go on Twitter, and there's people on Twitter who don't go on Reddit, and there's people on Reddit who don't go on any of them. Facebook and it so it's getting more segmented, but that just means that it's smaller and smaller pieces of the pie because there just aren't that many Kings fans out there in the universe. There's even fewer Ducks fans, thank God. Um but um but so I just went around and I said to everybody, why don't we team up and combine forces and make one place where everybody can go and just, you know, Hovind, you'll write your Mayor's Manor bits on Monday. Uh, Jacob and Bobby, you'll do your surly inscribe bits on Tuesday. Half, you'll do your stuff on Wednesday. You know, Battle of California, you get Thursdays. Like, let's just divide and conquer. Why are we fighting for the same slice of the pie? And everybody said no, because nobody wanted to sacrifice their own little piece of editorial control, which I get. I'm a control freak. Ironically, I started doing life in Hockeywood as an attempt to therapy myself, therapeutize myself. I don't know the proper conjunction of that word, but like to try and learn how to be less of a control freak, and it only made me more of a control freak, so it didn't work. Um, but I get it. Nobody wanted to sacrifice editorial control. They all said no. The Royal Half was the only one who said yes. The Royal Half said, That's a great idea. We should do that. Why don't you come do the podcast on my website? So I started doing all the king's, came up with a name, launched all the king's men, death of life in Hockeywood, birth of all the king's men, started at theroyalhalf.com. It did include John Hovind from Mayor's Manor, a little bit to begin with, but over time, scheduling and just issues didn't personalities. I don't remember why it didn't work, but it didn't work. So I wound up doing it at the Royal Half. And over time, the Royal Half, uh, we wound up adding, I think at the peak, we had 13, 14, 15 different writers on the site. Um, and the Kings got wind of us, and like I don't know if you guys know this, but Bark Madness started at the RoyalHalf.com, the name That 70s line started at The Royal Half.com. Um I know that. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that happened from 2010 to 2017-ish that came from the dozen of us that were cranking stuff out at the RoyalHalf.com. And I'm not gonna take any personal credit for it, but like the Bark Madness stuff was there was a guy named Flubber, he lives in Kansas City, he wrote an article ranking the kings, the dogs of all the kings on the roster at the time. And he just thought it was a good idea. He didn't know it was gonna turn anything, he was just like, you know what? I'm all the way out here in Kansas City, team's all the way out there in LA. I got to write articles for this website. I'm gonna write an article ranking the dogs because we got access to their social media, so we're gonna look at pictures of their dogs and we're gonna do it. And then I think I could have this wrong, so apologies if I'm stepping on anybody's idea, but I was always constantly trying to find um March Madness substitutes. So like I wanted to do, you know, let's rank all of the goals from the 2012 Cup run. Let's have like a bracket challenge where we like vote on like this goal against that goal and like narrow it down.

SPEAKER_02: 23:58

I love that idea.

SPEAKER_00: 24:00

Tons of ideas. Um, or I also wanted to do like a bracket challenge of like the best masks in LA King's history, goalie masks, because I was always fighting with Hovind that Stevon Fazé is the best goalie mask of all time, period, barn on the end. So I think that what happened was we saw the success of the dog article and how many people liked it, and I think I probably said, Hey, why don't we do a bracket challenge of all the dogs? Um, and then it became very popular the first time we did it, and then the Goostels tweet account started up because of the popularity of the thing, and now that's its own thing. Um, so like that's how it all started is is again a bunch of people who are passionate and creative and loved doing a thing who just collaborated and weren't scared of other people um not liking what they were into. So sorry, it's a very long answer to a very simple question.

SPEAKER_02: 24:52

That was a great answer. That was intriguing. I the whole dog thing, I know that's still going on.

SPEAKER_00: 24:59

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_02: 25:00

Yeah, who is uh like the king's dog of the year type thing? Vote for the dogs, right?

SPEAKER_00: 25:05

Like the Kings took control of Bark Madness, I don't remember how many years ago, but for the first five or six years, we ran it at the website. Um, it was it was our little team and we handled the voting and we ran everything and we worked in conjunction with the Kings, which is how I wound up working for the Kings through the connections made as a result of collaborating with the RoyalHalf.com. Um, and yeah, eventually we just said, like, okay, it's kind of done with this, and people had kids and jobs and stuff and life to do, and so it's like, all right, well, you here you go, Kings. You guys are obviously more invested in this than we are at this point. It was kind of a dumb idea when we started it, and now it's become like a marketing push for them.

SPEAKER_02: 25:44

I don't think it was a dumb idea at all.

SPEAKER_00: 25:47

Well, I I you know, people love they all love their dogs. I mean Honestly, I because I'm arrogant, I look at the success of like what was the name of that bulldog in Washington uh that was named after Alex Ovechkin. I don't remember the cute name they gave it. Um but for like the last 10 years, dog content in the NHL has been a thing. And I am convinced it's because of us.

SPEAKER_02: 26:14

I would probably totally agree with you. I think that was a that's genius. Absolute genius. Um so we'll move on to the next question.

SPEAKER_00: 26:24

Yeah, sorry.

SPEAKER_02: 26:26

Pat myself on the back a little too hard there, but all right. You don't know how this is fun. We I love stuff about hockey, and this is stuff maybe a lot of people never knew. Or if they did, they forgot about. So nothing that you said isn't something that's totally going to be intriguing to hockey fans. Well, I hope um this is season 15 for the podcast. Could you give us some of your favorite highlights other than the uh the the dog one? Sure. Stanley Cup wins.

SPEAKER_00: 26:57

Let's try to there are two episodes that are no longer available to be publicly consumed for very good reason, and they are my favorites. One, and they're both from the 2014 Cup run. Um, one is game seven of the King's Ducks playoff series. Um, I was not planning on going to that game, but the Royal Half and a bunch of the guys from the RoyalHalf.com. Sorry, the Royal Half's a person, by the way, so it's weird to always talk about the Royal Half.

SPEAKER_02: 27:24

I've listened to you guys. He calls in just about every time and talks to you for a bit.

SPEAKER_00: 27:30

So the half the person calls me up the day of game seven and says, Hey, I know you weren't planning on going to the game, but tickets are stupid cheap. So you should just drive down to Anaheim and go to this game seven. It's the Kings versus the Ducks, you know, you gotta go. And I love telling that story because if either of you can guess how much I paid for my game seven Kings Ducks tickets day of, uh, you know, I'll give you a shiny quarter. Like there's no chance either of you guess how much I paid for my game.

SPEAKER_06: 28:01

I mean, especially it was, you know, it could have been Timu's possible last game. It was. Well, I know I know that, okay. I was very devastated that day. That was the main reason I was devastated. Because he's my favorite all-time player. But if I had a you said it was dirt cheap, just to get it.

SPEAKER_00: 28:19

It was way cheaper than it should have been.

SPEAKER_06: 28:21

Wow. Um that's a a Ducks Kings game, especially the first ever playoff series games. That's just I'm gonna sit like what 350? No. Oh, jeez.

SPEAKER_02: 28:33

Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna go crazy low, 25 bucks.

SPEAKER_00: 28:36

It was more than 25, it was less than three, three, whatever you said. Three it was a hundred dollars. No way, yeah. Oh my god. I just walked in off the street, just bought a ticket, just like that. Tickets were available.

SPEAKER_06: 28:50

Where were you sitting with that hundred dollars?

SPEAKER_00: 28:52

Upper level. Um, King's end. I don't remember, I guess it must have been the end they shot on twice because I remember Jeff Carter streaking in by himself directly at me. Um, because we were sitting behind the net in the upper level. I mean, they weren't great seats, but that building is well made, so there aren't any bad seats.

SPEAKER_06: 29:09

Yes, that is true.

SPEAKER_00: 29:10

But yeah,$100, and this is my argument to everybody forever and always people in Southern California don't like hockey. The people who do like it like it very much, and they like it very passionately, but the vast majority of people in Southern California don't even know it exists. And my evidence is the two teams finally played each other in a in a playoff series. Seven years after one of them won the cup, two years after the other one won the cup. The Ducks had won this division title, I don't know how many years in a row at that point, maybe just two, three, I don't know.

SPEAKER_06: 29:41

I want to say it was three at that time.

SPEAKER_00: 29:43

Okay. Timu Solani's last game, Kings win the cup in 2012, made it to the Western Conference. Like, that should have been a huge game. And I walked in day of and bought a ticket for a hundred bucks. No sweat.

SPEAKER_06: 29:56

That's crazy. I I would have never if you would have told me that, I'm like, no, no, no, no way.

SPEAKER_00: 30:00

My favorite thing to do to rage bait hockey fans from out like from the East Coast is tell them how much I paid how much face value was for my tickets to the 2012 cup final, and just watch them tear their own eyeballs out. Um, because it was less than 100 bucks. Wow. Now that was face value, but it's all the same. Um supposed to oh yeah, so that so anyway, leaving game seven to answer your actual question, which was favorite episodes. Um, leaving that game, we decided to record a post-game episode in the parking lot. So we stood in a circle uh in the parking lot at the Honda Center. Uh, I think was it still the Honda Center back then, or was it the Arrowhead Van?

SPEAKER_06: 30:39

Yeah, it was still Honda Center. They changed it like I want to say like 07-08.

SPEAKER_00: 30:43

I still like calling it the Arrowhead Pontavan, but whatever.

SPEAKER_06: 30:46

I still call it the Ponda. It's a great name. Or the Ponda. Like that less.

SPEAKER_00: 30:51

But either way, we were standing in the parking lot. Um we were perhaps enjoying adult beverages during the game. And we were just berating Ducks fans as they walked past us as we were recording in the parking lot. And at one point, a group of Ducks fans who were taking it very well and seemed very pleasant, I called them over and I was like, Hey, we're doing this post game podcast. Do you want to join us? And they came over and talked to us for a while. And uh, people who remember that episode still talked to. About it. It was great. The other episode is after game two? No, game four. When did they lose the one game against New York? Was it game three? Game four?

SPEAKER_02: 31:34

I think they won the was that the one no that that was the 12 where they won the first three games almost against everybody.

SPEAKER_00: 31:41

Yeah, in 2014, I want to say they were up three to nothing and lost one or something. I don't know. But they lost, and that set it up. And I I think I went back and looked at it. It was seven, somewhere between 75 to 90 seconds. Off the dome, just unfiltered rant about how much I'm tired of hearing about New York in my life and that I don't like New York and all the reasons I don't like New York. And it makes me smile and laugh when I go back and listen to it because I thought it was really good. Um I didn't know I cared that much about not liking New York, but even as I'm talking about it now, I'm remembering all the reasons I don't like New York.

SPEAKER_02: 32:21

Um we're not New York fans either.

SPEAKER_00: 32:23

Good. Now, having said that, I've been to New York, it's a lovely city, it's perfectly fine. Yes, the tons of restaurants and culture and lots of people there, so there's lots of stuff to do, but I don't live there. I don't care. So, anyway, now I'm getting mad again.

SPEAKER_02: 32:36

Don't get mad. That's a good one. So uh Brit uh on that game seven, did you stay um when Solani uh skated around the pond and the ducks all stayed out tapping their sticks?

SPEAKER_00: 32:52

Probably.

SPEAKER_02: 32:53

Now, what you probably don't know is he is still one of my favorite players of all time, even though he's not a king. I just liked him for his humor and his likability, and he was a great player.

SPEAKER_00: 33:09

He's an amazing player. I'll tell you a little story about Kings players loving Timo Solani just to make Cody feel better. So last year, the 2014 LA Kings Cup winning team had their 10th anniversary reunion party, and I was part of a camera crew that got to go to record interviews with them for I I actually listened to that episode. So I was asking them loads of questions, not ever knowing what question would get a good answer and what question would not get a good answer, but just sort of shotgunning questions all over the place. And I asked, I won't say the players, I don't want to throw them on the bus, but I asked one player, did it feel good to end the career of Timu Solani? And he kind of got upset with me. And he was like, Excuse me? Like Timu Solani was great. Like basically show some respect to Timu Solani. And I was like, I agree with you. I'm just I'm just sniffing for good answers here. I just want someone to say something that can be put in the video when they make it for you know for black and white. Um but yeah, I I clearly overstepped the boundary there. Um but fortunately nobody ever saw that exchange because it went straight in the uh editing room floor.

SPEAKER_02: 34:29

Well, I have a funny story for you. Um Cody's soccer coach in high school was a is a bit and still is a big Kings fan. And um he got tickets uh for the whole team, and somehow he was able to get me one for like 20 bucks to go to um Staples Center, and it was uh I think a preseason game.

SPEAKER_06: 34:52

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02: 34:53

And they were playing the Ducks, and they had this Russian guy in this No no, that was just when you and I and Tim went.

SPEAKER_06: 35:01

That wasn't the whole soccer.

SPEAKER_02: 35:02

So I'm thinking I'm I got it mixed up. Well, anyways, we were we were sitting there watching the game, and this Russian guy gets up and he's really foul mouthed, and and Tim was pretty young. You were what my younger brother, by the way, his name is Tim. And he's he was yelling obscenities at Solani, and and to me, he I respect him, and I would never want to say anything bad about him. You could say anything about any other duck you wanted, but I turned around and said, You better pick on somebody else, or I'm coming up there. And he shut up and picked on somebody else, but man, that guy would I don't know, maybe he's known.

SPEAKER_06: 35:41

No, so that's apparently he starts a lot of the chants because my my soccer coach warned me because he sat with all the season ticket holders because he had season tickets, and he's like, by the way, there's a Russian guy, he's like, just be careful around him. He likes to start chants and he doesn't care. And sure enough, I knew right away because when we got to our seats, he had a wild wing doll, same one that I had growing up, and he had wild wing with a rope around it hanging.

SPEAKER_00: 36:09

And I'm like, now I know now I know who we're talking about. Yeah, but you know who now I know exactly who we're talking about.

SPEAKER_06: 36:15

So I like I was 17, 18 at the time. So pretty pretty much my soccer coach, when he whenever he had like tickets and he couldn't go to the game, he would text everyone on the soccer team. Who whoever texts first gets it. I was the only one that ever texted him, so he'd only ask me. I'm like I said, I love hockey first. I took so many different people to Kings games those two years I played for him in high school. So I guess I just love going to games. I took my grandpa, I took him, I took some other friends, all during school nights too, all the way to LA. But like I said, just love going to games, and yeah, I I got used to the the Russian guy. Yeah, well, I guess he's famous, huh? Well, I'm pretty sure Jesse's been around the game long enough. He knows a lot of those things.

SPEAKER_00: 37:04

I mean, I I don't know him enough to say hi, but I mean I've seen him. The the image of the duck in the noose is yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 37:11

Yeah, I saw that mic, I'm like, oh, that must be the guy he was talking about.

SPEAKER_02: 37:15

And I heard the accent, I'm like, oh, that's definitely him.

SPEAKER_04: 37:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 37:18

Yeah, I think I laughed about the Wild Wing, but I didn't like Solani because I just I had too much respect for him as a person because um they got me a birthday present, a cameo, and it was Timu Solani. And he actually knew I was a Kings fan. He was very kind. He even talked about how much he appreciated the whole Kings team honoring him on his last game and talked about that.

SPEAKER_00: 37:46

And it was I mean, I listen, I this is one of the great pains of my existence as a Kings fan. The Ducks shouldn't exist.

SPEAKER_02: 37:57

Um you know, you know it's all Bruce McNaughty.

SPEAKER_00: 38:00

Yeah, well, that's what I mean by they shouldn't exist. He sold his territorial control for cash because he was cash strapped, and that's the only reason the ducks I mean, it's not the only reason, but that's the primary reason the Ducks exist. So it's always painful when somebody says, like, yeah, well, you know, the Ducks fans this or ducks fans that, and it's like, yeah, they should have been Kings fans.

SPEAKER_02: 38:18

They should have been, yeah. But unfortunately, California's got three teams now.

SPEAKER_00: 38:24

Yeah, it's silly. But what are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_02: 38:26

You know, but let's move on to something else.

SPEAKER_00: 38:30

Sure.

SPEAKER_02: 38:31

I mean, I think we've already kind of hit on some of your favorite King's moments. Um or do you have something else you'd like to say?

SPEAKER_00: 38:38

Uh uh well, favorite King's moments or favorite all the King's men moments, because King's moments, I mean, there's obviously when Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 38:47

Uh do you have a couple favorites you want to share?

SPEAKER_00: 38:50

I mean, obviously the cup win. Uh goes to the top of the list. For me, watching Dustin Brown score the empty netter to seal the sweep against St. Louis, that to me is almost better than the cup win. Um, or it's a lot closer than you might think it would be.

SPEAKER_06: 39:10

Um they're gonna say Alec Martinez's overtime winner.

SPEAKER_00: 39:15

I wasn't there.

SPEAKER_06: 39:16

Oh.

SPEAKER_00: 39:17

Which is harmful to me. I don't like saying it. I don't like remembering that I wasn't there.

SPEAKER_06: 39:21

Um trust me, I I give my dad crap about the Lakers championship parade. He promised me we would go. He's like, well, if they win it next year, I'll take you. They won the next year, we never went. Is that when LeBron won it? No, I no, I don't care about LeBron.

SPEAKER_02: 39:37

I'm gonna talk about when Kobe was there. I mean, because LeBron ruins the Lakers for me. So yeah, let's not talk about LeBum on this podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 39:46

Um, honestly, most of my favorite moments are the obvious ones, and then there's just private stuff thrown in, like, you know, um when I was diagnosed with cancer last year, you know, having members of the organization reach out to me um personally. That was cool. Or, you know, getting to go to the 2012 and 2014 reunion shows. As corny as it might sound, getting to be part of the whole thing and having people come up and say, like, you know, somebody recently told me at a game, a fan came up and said, you know, the team has had an incredible run of broadcasters, you know, Bob Miller and Jake's McDonald and Nick Nixon and Jim Fox and Daryl Evans and blah blah blah, and then they included me in that run. And like, I certainly don't think of myself as a first of all, I don't think of myself as a King's broadcaster, and I certainly don't think of myself as being on par with those guys.

SPEAKER_02: 40:42

Um so I think I I I would have to disagree with you on that. I mean, because I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00: 40:49

I still don't see myself that way, but I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02: 40:52

Even if I don't listen to the sometimes uh there'll be three days I listen to all the King's Men on a podcast going to and from work. Or if I'm driving for work, which I do sometimes, you you will be part of that. So I mean I it's not like I always keep up right on the same days, but sometimes it's like I'll have to um binge listen to all the kings.

SPEAKER_00: 41:18

The trick I use is I put everything on on speed and a half, 1.5 playback speed, so that you get through it faster. I will say this. One of the things, and I still get to do it, it's still a treat. We just recorded one last week. When I get to sit down for an hour, hour 15 minutes with Jim Fox and whether it's Nick Nixon or in this case John Kelly, I get to sit down and just talk to them.

SPEAKER_02: 41:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 41:42

And I get to set the I get to set the conversational, you know, outline. That is the biggest treat for me. Like I get to sit down with the guys who call the games and say, like, okay, this is what I want to talk about. And then we do for an hour.

SPEAKER_02: 41:55

Well, he Cody asked me, because he does a lot of the not recruiting, but reaching out to people.

SPEAKER_06: 42:04

I do all I do all of it.

SPEAKER_00: 42:06

So Cody's the producer, I got you.

SPEAKER_06: 42:09

No, he's I started, I I do everything, he just shows up pretty much that's the light.

SPEAKER_02: 42:14

Well, you you didn't want to do a podcast alone, if that be the truth. And we tried to find him another ducks person because we know some, and none of them would do it. And then I came with a rev uh revelation. How many rivalry podcasts do you have? It would be something different.

SPEAKER_00: 42:32

Yeah. I don't know that there are that many. I guess Eddie and Doug might be like the only one on the city.

SPEAKER_06: 42:36

Yeah, but they do a whole NHL, not just Ducks and Kings or a rival.

SPEAKER_04: 42:42

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 42:42

So, and then you know, we were trying to come up with the name, and I I walked out of uh uh uh Palomar Palmerado Hospital in San Diego, and Royally Quack came in my head. I called him immediately when I got to the car. He loved the name and it's still there.

SPEAKER_00: 42:58

There you go.

SPEAKER_02: 42:59

So, I mean, we both have collaboration, although I gotta say, all the technical stuff is him, it's not me. You know, he he does a fantastic job. I feel so blessed that I could do this with my own my kid. I mean, I brag about it all the time. How many people their kid actually wants to spend that much time with them? And I feel so blessed that he wants to spend that time with me, even though we disagree on our teams.

SPEAKER_00: 43:26

Well, look, there you go. Even though you you know did something horribly wrong to wind up with three kids that root for the wrong team, at least they still like you. So you did something right. So there you go.

SPEAKER_06: 43:36

Like, to be honest, like I didn't even tell my dad I messaged you when when so you agreed, and then I told him.

SPEAKER_00: 43:43

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_06: 43:44

So it was a surprise. Like, I surprised him with getting Eddie Garcia on too. Like, I like I almost did not tell him until I added Eddie into StreamYard. Yeah, but we were but Eddie was I but I guess Eddie was having audio issues, so I was like, Oh, I guess I'm ruining the surprise.

SPEAKER_00: 43:58

Right.

SPEAKER_06: 43:59

And my dad was like literally like just speechless to start the podcast because I surprised him.

SPEAKER_02: 44:03

I was glad he told me beforehand because I'd have been speechless with you too. Because I mean, you talk about the two Kings guys I listen to, it's you and Eddie um all the time. Well, I appreciate it. You know, so you do event, and you're so different. Like I said, you come with ideas that are just so different. Like like I said, like the tie game going to overtime.

SPEAKER_00: 44:29

Which I believe I said on Eddie's show.

SPEAKER_02: 44:32

It might have it might have been.

SPEAKER_00: 44:34

It was I remember it. Yeah, it definitely was.

SPEAKER_02: 44:37

I go, I I'll go when I saw that, it's like a light went on, and I go, you know, I feel better about those losses and wins now after the way you explained it.

SPEAKER_00: 44:49

For those who may not have, sorry, this is just my host jeans kicking in, but for those who may not know what he's talking about, I said to Eddie uh when we were talking about whether or not games should end a certain way. I don't even remember how we got onto the topic, but I just said, listen, an overtime game or a shootout game ended in a tie. 60 minutes of hockey was played, the score was tied, both teams got a point. That was a tie. You watched a tie. And then the stuff that happened afterwards, that's just a second event that occurred to distribute another point. Right. That's what happened to the. And then there was some goofy stuff that happened and they gave out a second point. Vancouver didn't, or the Kings, I guess. The Kings didn't win that game. That game ended in a tie. And then there was some make-believe that happened, and they decided that the Kings should get a second point.

SPEAKER_02: 45:42

But see, I just I loved I love that. Yeah. And you do that a lot.

SPEAKER_00: 45:46

Somebody likes my nonsense.

SPEAKER_02: 45:48

It makes complete sense, too. Well, and you're not afraid to tell everybody just sometimes how you feel. I mean, it's not necessarily a negative thing, but I mean, you know, hey, I don't like that. I'm I don't we're not gonna go with that. And I'm you you stick by your guns, and I I just you you do it and you do it well. Thank you. I don't find you ever to be offensive. Um, but you I just I'll have to try a little harder.

SPEAKER_06: 46:16

Oh, I'm pretty offended what you've said to me so far this morning.

SPEAKER_00: 46:19

Well then then I then it's working.

SPEAKER_06: 46:23

Yeah, that so you're fine.

SPEAKER_02: 46:26

So did you want to ask any of these questions, Cody, or am I just gonna do it?

SPEAKER_06: 46:30

Um so well, I mean, it is more of a king's one, but I mean I did come up with a lot of the the questions that we have. Yes. Um, but so what are your thoughts on the king so far this season just after American Thanksgiving?

SPEAKER_00: 46:44

I honestly don't know. That's fair.

SPEAKER_02: 46:48

Um it is fair.

SPEAKER_00: 46:50

So I was just talking to my dad this morning about it, and um it's tough for me when he and I disagree, because you know, when we started out, he knew way more about the team and about the sport than I do because I was whatever, eight years old or something. But now he lives 3,000 miles away and he's got you know his own life, and he watches the games, you know, late at night on cable, and I'm in my late 40s, and I worked there for 10 years, and I know the people, and I have spent just an inordinately more amount of time thinking about the sport. And as you said, Gary, I have my opinions and I don't like to back off of them. So when he says something to me like about last night's game, well, hey, like at least they won, that's the bottom line. And my takeaway is nah, man. That's not the takeaway. The takeaway is that was the worst win I've ever watched. Um, it's hard for me to have that conversation. Sorry, Dad, if you're watching this.

SPEAKER_02: 47:44

Um I hope he does. So I'll talk about it. I'm Mr. Cohen, if he is. Mr. Cohen. So you love your son.

SPEAKER_00: 47:52

But this year, there's a lot of that stuff going on this year. It's I think last year was what, their 12th overtime game in 25 games.

SPEAKER_03: 48:01

I think last night was 13.

SPEAKER_00: 48:07

And you know, like for my money, those games that ended in wins for the Kings, they count as wins in the standings, but in my mind, that's that's ties. Those are ties. That's half they've tied half their games. And I don't know what the record is in games whether they didn't go to overtime, but um the power play's awful. Um and and I thought after the Boston game, when Jim Hiller said what he said to the media that that was an acknowledgement from the team that the power play would was awful and something had to change, and then it didn't change, and then he said what he said last night after the Vancouver game, and now I'm even more confused. Um but it is just awful, right? There's no point in pretending anymore. I looked it up this morning for a different uh project. The team, the league has been tracking net power play percentage since I want to say 1977, 1978. For anybody who doesn't know what net power play percentage is, that's the power play success rate, and then you factor in short-handed goals scored against you. So the Kings net power play percent, I believe, is at nine right now. Single digit nine. I am pretty sure if that's not the worst since 1977, it's in the worst, it's in like the top five worst of all time. Um everything else they do is either excellent or fine. Right? Like defensively, they're great. Penalty kill, they're great. Goaltending, they're fine. Sometimes great. Depends on what night you catch them at. But the game of hockey is played across all three zones, not just in one zone. And I said this last night on the postgame show. I expect the team to make the playoffs. It's not a foregone conclusion because this is a weird season and everybody's bunched up. But I would expect the Kings to make the playoffs. So when I'm evaluating the team right now, I'm not evaluating it on, oh man, we need points to make the playoffs, so points accumulated good. I take it as a foregone conclusion, they're gonna make the playoffs. So now I'm looking at are they building to something? Do they look like they're rounding into a team that can actually compete once they make the playoffs? And if the power play is gonna play like that, the simple answer is no, not even remotely. Um and that's upsetting because then they go out on the penalty kill and they look gangbusters. Um, so yeah, simple answer is I have no idea what to make of this team after Thanksgiving. They're tied for first place with the crummy ducks, so that's great. But but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 50:48

Oh, I'm loving this already.

SPEAKER_00: 50:51

Nothing, by the way, until you tell you. It's nothing I haven't heard before, so you're fine.

SPEAKER_06: 50:57

I've heard a lot worse. We used to umpire baseball with travel ball, so I've trust me, we've heard a lot worse.

SPEAKER_00: 51:04

It it it's honestly it's it's one step forward, one step back with this team.

SPEAKER_02: 51:08

Yeah, in first place, and we're not happy.

SPEAKER_00: 51:10

Yeah. And I mean, honestly, like I this is a stat that I sort of stumbled onto the other day, or I heard somebody else say it, and I've become obsessed with it. It changes, the actual numbers shift every day. But as of right now, when we're recording this, the Colorado Avalanche have 42 points, they're in first place, the Carolina Hurricanes have 32 points, they're in sixth place. So there's 10 points separating first place from sixth place. If you drop another 10 points from 32 points down to 22 points, you go from sixth place to 31st place. So like that's how close it is. And the Kings are 10th. And the Ducks are eighth. So people go like, well, first place, whatever, whatever. And I go, Yeah, but what it means is they're not in that top six teams or top, it's really just Tampa, Dallas, and Colorado, but Jersey and and Minnesota are sort of hanging around. Then Carolina and Washington are tied with 32, and then there's 25 teams that are just bunched up. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 52:16

It's it's been kind of an upside down season, way I see it.

SPEAKER_06: 52:20

So I feel like this is the first year that like with Elliot Freeman saying like if you're within four points of a playoff spot, you're almost guaranteed, like almost guaranteed, uh, or 77% of your making the playoffs. But I feel like this is the one year, it's like that's like the exempt yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 52:36

No, everyone is so close. Yeah, the stat is yeah, if you're in a playoff spot by Thanksgiving, you're in, right? Or whatever.

SPEAKER_06: 52:42

Yeah, but I mean 77% of the teams make it.

SPEAKER_00: 52:45

Yeah, the Sharks and Oilers, Sharks, Oilers, Jets, Blackhawks, Blues are within two points of a playoff spot right now. Yeah, I feel like this is like the one year that's like and in the east, the Islanders, Senators, Red Wings, and Rangers are all within one point of a playoffs. The Islanders are tied with the Penguins for a playoff spot. So it's like, yeah, I who knows? There's only really one bad team, and it's Nashville, or I guess two, maybe Nashville and Calgary. Vancouver looks like they might be going for a dive, but even they're only four points out of a playoff spot. No, it's it's a bizarre of season. I don't know. I don't know what to make of it. I hate it. I don't like it.

SPEAKER_02: 53:20

Yeah, didn't we go 0 for three on the power play against the team that's worse than penalty kill? I think so did we. I don't want to say that. I mean, it's it was it was gonna make me in a bad mood. It was awful last. Well, yeah, I've been in a bad mood and we're tight for first place. And you know, and and and his team, I I watch them and I'm going, they gotta be as happy as can be. Yeah, we're tied for first with them. And I'm not happy.

SPEAKER_00: 53:46

I said to somebody, I don't remember when I said it, I say too many things to too many people now. Um, I think part of the discomfort in the Kings season is the fact that it is Anaheim in first place. You know, if if Vegas was in first place, if like Vegas and Edmonton were just out ahead and the Kings were sort of hanging around in third place, and it was like, well, one step forward, one step back, we're trying to figure out the identity. I'm not really sure, but like they were solidly in third, I think it would feel familiar, and you'd go, like, okay, well, at least I know this script. But Anaheim's in first place, and and I don't know what else to make.

SPEAKER_06: 54:28

You guys are going into so many overtime games where games you should have won and they got forced into overtime.

SPEAKER_00: 54:34

That's a huge part of it for sure. But I just mean like it's looking at the standings, and you go, okay, well, who are we competing with right now? Anaheim, Seattle, Utah, San Jose. Oh, yeah, and also Vegas and Edmonton. And it's like, okay, so these three teams that should have been out of the picture, have been out of the picture for the last couple years, are suddenly now serious threats to hold playoff spots. And and you know, and but then in the back of mind, you also have the familiar threats of Vegas and Edmonton. So it's like if Vegas and Edmonton ever figure out what's ailing them, and they go ahead and take their rightful spots, and now you have Anaheim, San Jose, Utah, Seattle, like all of a sudden, very quickly becomes well, the Kings should have made the playoffs, but will they? I don't know. It's just unsettling to me, anyway.

SPEAKER_06: 55:22

That's if all that's if all the teams like Seattle, and even Anaheim, like I said as a Ducks fan, even I know is what we're doing right now is not sustainable. I believe that's what I that's my opinion. Um, like Anaheim, Seattle, Chicago, San Jose. I I don't think like you know, things could change with them pretty quick too.

SPEAKER_00: 55:43

Yeah, but every day that it doesn't, every day that it sustains, then the concept of it being unsustainable gets a little bit harder to swallow. Now you're entire I mean, there was one year I think the ducks were in first place into like late December or something, and then just fell off a cliff.

SPEAKER_02: 55:57

Yeah, that was a year or two ago. Two years, two years ago, yeah. I don't remember when they did fall off a cliff.

SPEAKER_00: 56:03

Recent memory, but it was like, oh my god, well, are they good? And then the answer very quickly was no, they're not.

SPEAKER_06: 56:08

Um I think that was the year we picked up Minchikov, I want to say. I think it was like 22.

SPEAKER_00: 56:15

Sounds right.

SPEAKER_06: 56:16

21, 22.

SPEAKER_00: 56:17

Um, so it could be one of those situations, but the fact that it's again 70% of the league that are fighting for those spots means okay, fine. Four or five teams might fall off, but four or five teams might spring forward. Um, and you just have to hope that the kings are one of them. But if they keep getting scored on on the friggin' power play, they're not gonna be.

SPEAKER_02: 56:39

So uh we'll move on to another question. What are your no, that's okay. That was great. I mean, what are your thoughts on why no big name free agents sign with the Kings?

SPEAKER_00: 56:51

I don't believe it. Those are my thoughts. You don't believe I re I reject the premise out of hand, and I've had this fight on multiple platforms. I even got so pissed off this summer, this is what a lunatic I am. Plus, I was dealing with chemo, so I had tons of time on my hand. I actually went back and looked at all of the big free agent signings over the last like 15 years, and I don't have the file anymore. But if I ran down the name, the names of like who was the biggest free agent signing in 2007 or 2015, there aren't that many big name guys that move in free agency. So people talk about it as if like nobody wants to sign in LA. What's going wrong? Why is it is it the market? Is it the team? Is it state taxes? And the reality is we're talking about like two guys spread out over 30 years. Because free agency didn't even show up in the NHL until the 90s. Then from 2010 to 2018, the Kings weren't even in the free agent market because they were constantly right adding veterans to go for the cup wins, right? They get Lucich in a trade. They're not at they're not signing, right? You're not gonna sign, first of all, sorry, you've oh man, you triggered me. Big name, big name free agents means big forwards, big defensemen, or big goalies. So you're not signing a big name forward when you've got Andre Kopotar, Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown, Justin Williams winning cups back to back to back. You're not gonna get a goalie when you've got Jonathan Quick, and you're not going after a big name defenseman when you've got Drew Dowdy. Maybe you might go after a big left shot defenseman, but you're already paying a ton of time and money to one guy. So that's that that 10-year window is out of the conversation. Of course the Kings didn't sign a big name free agent from 2010 to 2018. That's not what they that's not where they were. Then from 2018 to 2022, they were terrible. Yeah, they were. So then you start looking at okay, who are the names that actually signed with other teams? And you start whittling it down, and you go, okay, Brad Richards went to, was it Dallas, New York, wherever he went? Um, Zidano Chara went to Boston instead of LA. And like, yeah, there are some examples, but then you go, okay, Ilya Kovalchuk signed with the Devils instead of LA, but it turns out the Devils broke the rules to get him and were punished for it. So that's not really a fair comparison. A lot of the players we're talking about are Europeans who just for whatever reason said they wanted to play on the East Coast. So I nothing to be done about that. LA exists where it is. And then you start looking at who are the actual big names signed in free agency, and I hadn't even heard of some of them. Like going back and looking at who the actual biggest contracts signed in some of these years were guys I'd never heard of. Or they were total busts, or they were guys that like signed a huge contract and then turned out to be nothing. So listen, Andre Kobitar re-upped here, Drew Dowdy re-upped here, Adrian Kempe re-upped here, Jonathan Quick signed a 10-year contract extension when he was here, um Phil Deneau signed here, Alex Edler signed. Like, to me, it's just it's people who want to make a big deal out of something that isn't a big deal to me personally.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:07

So, on another level of that, Kopatar is retiring.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:13

Yes, he is.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:15

And how strong are the centers that we have right now?

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:20

Not strong.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:22

So, would that possibly become maybe a way to fill those roles in the coming years? Just a thought. That's that's a ro that question was there for that more than anything else.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:37

So this is all I think. No, they definitely need a replacement. I have begun calling it a replacement for Quentin Byfield because the assumption is that Quentin Byfield is the replacement for Andre Kobotar. Now, no disrespect to Quentin Byfield, but replacing Andre Kopotar with Quentin Byfield is a regression. Because the best version of Andre Kopotar is a thousand times better than the best version that we've seen so far of Quentin Byfield. It's possible that Quentin Byfield will evolve into a player who is better than the best version of Andre Kopitar, but that's how good Andre Kopotar has been.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:15

Exactly agreed.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:17

He's incredible. So we're already taking a slight regression. In replacing Andre Kopotar with Quentin Byfield, and that's no disrespect to Quentin Byfield, that is all respect for Andre Kobotar. Now you have to replace Quentin Byfield. And there's only three ways that you can do that: internally, free agent, or trade. It's two ways, I suppose, externally, and then you can divide externally into two ways. So you got an internal promotion, bring in a player from outside via trade or via free agency. We've seen the free agent market, it's gonna be dry.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:49

Um, pretty much dry now.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:52

Yes. I mean, it's possible that some name sneaks out there that nobody knows, uh, but it's not likely. Um, internally, I don't see a lot of strong candidates. I don't see any candidates, frankly. Um not at the center. Yeah, which basically leaves trade. And then trade, you have to sort of bank on a number of things breaking your way. You have to hope that an acceptable candidate is available, the other team wants, and the other team is willing to trade for what you are willing to part with. Because I personally, there's one player in the league that I would trade every single asset the LA Kings own, including the building, to acquire, and that's Connor McDavid. There's no price I wouldn't pay to get Connor McDavid. And having said that, I don't think it would work. I don't think it would make them contenders. I don't think it would help them to win the cup. I just think it would be exciting and entertaining.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:49

So I I could see that point totally because you'd have to give up so much. We wouldn't he it wouldn't be he wouldn't do it anyways. He would veto the trade because I'd still do it. I would literally trade Bailey. Um because he signed a two-year contract with Edmonton because he's not truly believing that they can be competitive.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:08

Outside of Conor McDavid, I don't want to trade futures. I think the goaltending crop the Kings have has incredible potential. I know who I think is gonna come out on top, but uh I'm perfectly aware of the fact that I could be wrong. I just hope they don't trade the wrong goalie for the wrong stuff. Because eventually they're gonna have to trade two of the four goalies they've got in the pipeline, at least, if not three. I mean, ideally you'd trade three because one of them just Jonathan Quickson. Um but I don't like if if it turns out that they trade Carter George, Liam Greentree, and a first to get, you know, I don't know who's this, Nathan McKinnon or whatever. I'm just making stuff up here. Um that's he's pretty good. He is, but I mean, obviously that's I'm just making stuff. I mean, like McKinnon and McGavid are obviously the two primary targets, but they're not going anywhere. But if you trade a bunch of futures for a replacement for guys leaving, I just I I feel like the franchise has painted itself into an ever-shrinking corner, and eventually you just have to accept that it didn't work. And this is to me, this year is sort of it. Like, this is it. You you put all your eggs in this basket. This is the corner you've painted yourself into. The corner is shaped like 2025-26. So let's see, does it work? Uh it might, who knows? And if it does, that'll be great. The third ring for Kobotar on his way out the door, that'd be the be a hell of a lot better final chapter than Timo Solani had. Um, sorry, I had to get one in there. Um it it had been a while. Um, but if it doesn't work, I just don't know what your solutions are because Yeah, you don't want to trade away the future. No, because and everybody's getting older. They're already the oldest team in the league.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05:03

So yes. So I guess we agree totally on that aspect. I would not be trading futures just to try to do something for one year because I think it's gonna make us bad for a long time. And we think we've been in that market already.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:21

Yeah, I think the price of 2012 and 2014 was 2016 through 2022. That was the actual ticket price, and I was fine with it, right? When they were losing and terrible and they started to rebuild, I was like, you know what? That's fine. I got to see the Kings win the Stanley Cup twice, and the penalty is that they traded away all their young players and they traded away first-round picks trying to chase another one, and it didn't work, so okay, this is what we have to pay for it. I think they took out a second mortgage in 2022. They didn't have to keep paying that price, but I think that they are still paying the price for 2012, 2014 today. I agree. Because in 2022 they said, you know what, we're we're almost free and clear, but we're we're just gonna take out another loan and just keep doing this.

SPEAKER_06: 1:06:13

Do you think that was the wrong because in my opinion, I think you the kings should have been bad for maybe one or two more years to kind of get that prospect pool a little bit heavier before what you, as you said, took out that mortgage?

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:29

I think it's that and also, and I've had this fight with a number of not fight, I've made this point a number of different times, and I'm not sure how many people agree with me. Quentin Byfield and Brand Clark cannot be Andre Copotar and Drew Dowdy if Andre Copotar and Drew Doughty are still Andre Copitar and Drew Doughty. Like, that just can't happen. There was no bad contracts lying around preventing guys from playing. You know, Brian Burke tells this story when he was GM of the Ducks about taking Getzlaff and Perry and sending them back to the miners a year before they finally cracked it through. And he said the locker room was toxic, and he didn't say it meaning that the guys in the room were bad guys or that there was anything wrong with the locker room. He just says, like, that wasn't the right environment for those two young players to come into.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:36

Correct.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:37

So he sent them down, he waited a year, and they came back up. I don't think there's anything wrong with the King's locker room. I don't think it's full of bad guys. I just think if you're like, why isn't Brand Clark your number one defenseman? Why is your second overall center pick in his D plus six year or whatever it is, D plus five year? I lost track. He's played just as many games as a wing, I feel like, as he has as a center.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:04

Like this is his second year at center.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:07

Yeah, that's crazy. And like Brant Clark, you know, yes, when Drew Dowdy's injured, he's playing more minutes, but plenty of nights, he's getting the sixth most minutes on the team. And people say, well, he's young, he's developing, you know, defensemen develop at different speeds or whatever, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, okay, fine. But point to me, and and I'm, you know, I say this sincerely. I'm not trying to say this in a snarky way to say that it's never happened before, but like, I genuinely can't think of a number one defenseman who slowly over time developed into a number one defenseman behind another number one defenseman, and then one day graduated into the spot. And there was like this peaceful transition of power. And I will put it to you, Gary and Cody, because I suspect you follow other sports closer than I do. Name me a superstar, all-star, hall of fame athlete who played the same position on a team, any sport, same position as another Hall of Fame, all-star, superstar player. That there was a peaceful transition of power from one to the other.

SPEAKER_06: 1:09:10

I can almost think of one.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:12

Let's hear it.

SPEAKER_06: 1:09:13

The Green Bane Packers with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:16

I'm so glad that you suggested that because that's the one that everybody comes up with. And here's what I will say: Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre hated each other, and Brett Favre had to leave for Aaron Rodgers to become Aaron Rodgers.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:27

Well, you you know the funny thing is it happened with uh Rodgers and uh Jordan Love.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:35

Aaron Rodgers hated Jordan Love, and Aaron Rodgers had to leave before Jordan Love was allowed to become.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:40

I'm not saying Jordan Love is in the same category as Rodgers, but he's not bad.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:45

No, but then I mean the point is that like you can say Joe Montana and uh Steve Young. Um there's tons of quarterback examples, but they all involve the elder statesman vacating the position. It's you know, or like in in in Boston or in New England, excuse me, uh I forget who the quarterback was before Tom Brady. Um Bledsoe. Bledsoe. Bledsoe gets hurt, right? And and Tom Brady sort of takes his spot. It wasn't a peaceful transition of power. We don't have, oh, you know, Magic Johnson was the point guard on the Lakers, and then they drafted some incredible young point guard, and slowly over time, Magic Johnson mentored him to replace him, or oh, the Chicago Bulls had a two-guard who slowly learned under the tutelage of Michael Jordan, and then when Michael Jordan retired, it was a seamless transition of this team that had been built around Michael Jordan to the next version. Like, it doesn't happen that way. It doesn't happen that way 99% of the time. It cannot, right? Like the Kings have identified the Kings have been built around in some form or another the bones of that cup win from 10 years ago. And you can't build a new foundation if the old foundation is still there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10:59

Um it's gonna be interesting to see if Byfield flies next year.

SPEAKER_06: 1:11:08

I mean, now that what Jesse's saying kind of makes a little bit more sense is because like look what happened with the ducks this year. There's no one in front of Leo Carlson, and look how he's thriving. So I I I I get now that uh you said that I'm like, wow, I that well, I think Cronin was the one that was really holding.

SPEAKER_00: 1:11:27

There's a friend of mine who said when the Blackhawks traded Patrick Kane, he immediately called me and he said, I guarantee you that between the Kings, the Penguins, and the Blackhawks, the teams that were, you know, that all sort of rebuilt at about the same time, right? The Penguins had Crosby, Malkin, Flurry, Letang, Kings had Doughty, Copotar, Brown, etc., and the and the Blackhawks had Taves, Kane, Tnyemi, Crawford, Keith, yeah, thank you, and all those guys. They all sort of the the lockout of 2004-2005 sort of corresponded perfectly with their rebuilding efforts, right? So the the Penguins luck out and get Crosby, King's luck out and Copitar Falls, because all the teams ahead of them were dumb, except for um Pittsburgh including Anaheim, ha ha ha. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_06: 1:12:19

No, I I agree with you 100%.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:21

But yeah, so so he called me up as soon as the Blackhawks traded Patrick Hain, and he said, I guarantee you the Blackhawks will be of those three teams, they'll be the first one back to being good consistently. Because they're the ones who are most comfortable cutting ties to the past. And it's tough. I don't love it. And having said that, I have no regrets on my end. I think it is I think it's great that players play their entire career with one team. I think it's great that Timo Solani finished as a duck, and I think it's great that Anj Copadar is going to finish as a king. I think there's value in having fans connect to players who stick it out. But if you want to know why, you know, there's like these things aren't happening, I think it's pretty simple. Like, you know, you can't, you know, the I had this one conversation and I'll put this question to you guys. Sorry, as I totally take over your show. Uh the question was and was had at the King's Office. I said, what does an NHL player have to do today? And let's just say this was 2023, 24. What would an NHL player have to do today to gain multi-continental mainstream fame?

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:36

Like, what would an NHL player have to do to become as famous as Michael Jordan? Oh, they'd have to dominate. Conor Lane dominates. Tons of people win.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:55

The only thing I could come up with was date Taylor Swift. And the reason I thought to link and the reason I could think of to link. Tate McRae ain't Taylor Swift. Here's the difference. My 80-year-old mother knows who Taylor Swift is, she doesn't know who Tate McRae is. Um, and the problem with dating Taylor Swift is, and this is what made me think of it, there's only one Taylor Swift. And I'm of the opinion that there won't be another one because I think the internet has sort of fractured the way fandoms work and the way that that mass media culture works. And so it's almost impossible these days to get that kind of universal awareness of something. And so it's kind of it. So there ain't gonna be another Taylor Swift. Before Taylor Swift, there was what, I guess Britney Spears, and before her, there was Madonna. There's like a pretty clear like progression of like one star at a time, and then now we're in a in a period where there are no stars. Um, or I guess Taylor Swift is, but but once she's done, I think that'll be it.

SPEAKER_06: 1:14:56

What's his name? Uh was dating Carrie Underwood is married to Carrie Underwood. Yeah, you don't even know his name, dude. Uh Fisher, Mike Fisher.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:04

Okay, they're married.

SPEAKER_06: 1:15:05

Um I I knew at the time, I just as far as I was just talking about it with somebody who got divorced.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:10

Maybe they did. Who the fact that we don't know sort of proves my point.

SPEAKER_06: 1:15:15

No, they're still together. I literally looked it up like a week or so ago. I forgot who I was talking to about.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:21

But yeah. Outside of Nashville, nobody cares about the underwoods.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:26

Yeah, I you know what? I I think hockey's trying. They're coming up with more clever commercials to get bring people in. I mean, the one with Crosby and and Fleury was pretty good. I don't know if you've seen it.

SPEAKER_06: 1:15:40

Isn't that when he uh when Flurry disguises himself as Sidney Crosby and steals his stuff? Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:46

I haven't I haven't seen it, but that sounds funny.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:48

Yeah, I mean the NHL's trying.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:51

I I but isn't Marc Andre Fleury retired?

SPEAKER_06: 1:15:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:55

All right.

SPEAKER_06: 1:15:57

Yeah, he until Edmonton calls. Sure.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:00

Well, the point of all that was I don't know what the Kings are gonna do about Copotar. Sorry. It was a totally long jag on a simple end.

SPEAKER_06: 1:16:08

No, it makes sense what you're what you say, because especially like what I was just saying with the Leo Carlson thing. There's nobody in front of him, and look how he's going. Yeah. So I and we were all trying to get him to be the number one center. He's incredible. We saw what he could do, but there was just no runway for him. Now he has the runway, and now he's thriving. Same with Bedard right now, too.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:32

And Fantilly and Celabrini. I mean, honestly, I thought the Ducks were silly for taking Carlson over Fantilly. I think a lot of people thought that. Turns out none of us knows what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_06: 1:16:44

Well, I mean, I already knew that. I already know I don't know what I'm talking about. That's why I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:48

I thought you were saying you don't I don't know what I was talking about.

SPEAKER_06: 1:16:50

Wow. No, no. Well, I mean, you've jabbed at me this whole time. But I mean, honestly, like I was shocked they took Carlson. But then then again, I think there was just more hype around Fantilly than there was Carlson. And and I always trusted Martin Madden with the ducks. Yeah. And I I think that was a big choice that he made as well.

SPEAKER_00: 1:17:10

Well, I I think, and part of this is just that I was born in Canada, so I grew up identifying as Canadian, which is silly. Um, but I have always thought, and I've yelled at Hovind about this a number of times, I think Americans are so insecure and desperate for Americans to be good at things that they can't handle it when like a European player comes in and is good as the best option at something. Like, you know, I've heard people complain that like in the NBA, oh no, the best five players in the league are all European. So what? Like, they're popular, they're good, they keep winning, they keep winning the MVP. You know, the best players in the NHL are Swedish one year, so who cares? Well, it's not like Mario Lemieux hung out in Long Beach and you know, and was an American citizen who spoke souther with a southern twang.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:06

Like Well, our our leading player for both of our cups was uh a guy from Europe.

SPEAKER_00: 1:18:14

So here's a fun uh podcast detail. Um, in that cup run in 2012, um I think it was either Greg Wyshinsky or Jeff Merrick, I don't remember, but one of them had me on their show to talk about the unforeseen Kings run, and I think it must have been Wyshinsky, and he asked me if the fact that the Kings were having this unbelievable success was because they had the most Canadians on the roster. And I said, I said, no, I think the success is because the Kings have the most Slovenians on their roster.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:46

There you go.

SPEAKER_06: 1:18:49

What Slovenians did you have? Just the one? Yeah, he's the only one in the league. That's why I was like, wait, I thought you had multiple. I was like, I can only count now.

SPEAKER_00: 1:18:57

That was it. I'm pretty sure he's still the only one in the league. I could be wrong about that, but um yeah, turn turns out he was a real good.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:06

Thank God uh 10 or 10 teams after Crosby or nine teams didn't didn't select him. Yeah, because he'd be number two in a redraft for sure.

SPEAKER_06: 1:19:16

Oh, 100%. And then he and then he would be a duck. But yeah, I know. Well, I mean, that's how we feel about Corey Perry right now.

SPEAKER_00: 1:19:25

Sure, sure. Yeah, how is that? Is that weird? I mean, I know it must be weird.

SPEAKER_06: 1:19:28

Uh when I first heard the news, I don't know why, like I was disgusted, but I was also laughing at the same time.

SPEAKER_04: 1:19:37

All right.

SPEAKER_06: 1:19:37

Well, just because like just seeing him in a Kings uniform, just I was like, ugh, like really. But then I also because I usually have a very wicked sense of humor, I would say, where I also had to think about, especially knowing Eddie Garcia, knowing that Kings fans now had a root for Corey Perry. That was like the second thought that came into my mind. I was like, huh, now they have to root for Corey Perry after all these years. I think that that was my those were my two first two thoughts.

SPEAKER_00: 1:20:06

I think there was just enough distance between the ducks and the Kings that it for me, anyway, it made it easier to take. The bigger issue for me is hey, he's an oiler.

SPEAKER_06: 1:20:19

This was the last two years.

SPEAKER_00: 1:20:20

Yeah, which is weird because like he's Corey Perry, but and also honestly, and I'm sorry, not sorry, I don't care about the Ducks that much. No, that's fine. I don't care. Like I had this conversation with somebody recently where they were like, yeah, the Kings and the Ducks are a rivalry, and I was like, no, the Kings and the Sharks are a rivalry. The Ducks are the other team that happens to play in Southern California.

SPEAKER_06: 1:20:43

I think well, I think Friday really showed us that it's more Ducks versus Kings now and a rivalry than Ducks or than Kings and Sharks.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:52

I mean I think there's gonna be both both of them are gonna be battles this year. Obviously, we've split with the sharks this year. We lost in overtime. Well, what our shootout. What games what games haven't you been in overtime, first of all? Well, the thing is, is we just gotta win it in overtime because we're terrible at the shootout.

SPEAKER_06: 1:21:13

Or you could just win it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:21:15

Yeah, we are I mean the the last shootout loss that shot Kimpe, who's one of the first guys to go out, looked like you know, me skating out there trying to score a goal. It just wasn't a pathetic attempt.

SPEAKER_00: 1:21:33

I don't know what's going on.

SPEAKER_06: 1:21:34

I mean, Fiala, Fiala had who's so beat on that one on the shootout. He just beat everything but the post. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:21:44

Well, uh, I don't know how much more time you free time you have with us. I got nothing but time. I I can see how much time we've been going. I don't want to run your show two hours into the ground.

SPEAKER_06: 1:21:54

Uh you want to ask one more question, then we can then we we'll we'll get out of here, Dan? Yeah, that's fine. All right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:02

Or you can pick the you you pick the last one. Your guest. Well, I think I this is the one I think we're probably gonna be most excited about. It'll be the last question. Are you excited for any upcoming prospects in the king system? Excluding well, not excluding Carter George and Liam Greentree. Um those are the two obvious ones.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22:27

I know, but I'm so excited for Carter George. Well, let's um let's change that subject.

SPEAKER_06: 1:22:32

Okay, tell us. We saw him in the in the rookie face-off.

SPEAKER_04: 1:22:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:36

In the he we were there too. Okay. Um we had uh Daryl set standing right behind us for a while.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22:48

I can I can come up with other prospects to talk about.

SPEAKER_06: 1:22:51

Yeah, Carter George, like he was the reason you guys won that game.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22:55

So I will just say this very quickly about Carter George. I am of the opinion that the industry is slowly being ruined by people who hyperfixate on technical ability because it has created a cottage industry of people whose livelihood depends on being specialty coaches and specialty analysts and draft specialists, where they go, well, his you know, lateral movement is 2.3% better than the blah blah blah, or this guy's this tall, or he can skate that good. And I just go, okay, fine. I don't care about any of that. Can he play hockey? Is he good at hockey? Kelly Buckberger was one of the least physically gifted people I ever watched in my life, and dude could play hockey. Um, so Carter George has, you know, oh, he's short. I don't care. He makes saves, right? When he's out there, he plays incredible. So that's why I'm excited about Carter George, and I've spoken to him a number of times, and he is sharp as attack, he's personable, he's smart, he's comfortable in his own skin. He I just have the utmost faith in that young man to become the peak version of himself. And that that is an ability that that right never gets talked about in the analytics or the scouting, right? The ability of somebody to become the best version of themselves. And I'm getting a little, you know, woo-woo here, but I don't care. That to me is a huge and you can and I do think it is detectable by people who know how to detect it, and I think Carter George oozes it. So I love Carter George. Having said that, Hampton Slukinski is also incredible, and I don't have as much experience with Patteri Rympin, but he looks incredible too. And I also like Eric Portillo very much. But yeah, I'm super excited about uh Carter George. If you're excluding Carter George and Liam Greentree, it's Jared Woolly. Um because I believe, and you guys may have helped me stumble onto a connecting thought here. I believe, and I've said this of Jordan Spence a number of times, the thing that had me most excited about Jordan Spence was the power of the story. You have this kid who comes from the other side of the planet. He moves to Japan, he has to learn Japanese, he moves to Canada, he's got to learn English and French. He's small, he's undersized, everybody says you're not gonna make it, you're not gonna make it. You had a good run, but it ends here, and all he ever does is get, you know, defenseman of the year in the QMJHL, defenseman of the year in the AHL, rookie of the year in this league, rookie of the year in that league. Just, you know, bing, bang, boom, challenges in front of him, knocks it down. And so that to me, that type of person, the person who is capable of becoming the best version of themselves, there's that connecting thought. I get on board for that because that's the kind of person, like, I don't know enough about basketball to say this definitively, but I'm willing to bet Michael Jordan didn't have any one singular physical ability that was better than anybody else. And I know hockey enough to say this definitively. Wayne Gretzky definitely didn't have any one singular physical ability that was better than everybody else. He wasn't the biggest, he wasn't the fastest, he wasn't the strongest, he didn't have an incredible shot. What he had was was rink vision, right? He had the ability to see the rink in a way that nobody else did. And Jared Woolley is a guy that was not even playing in the OHL when the Kings started scouting him. They were bummed when he got called up to the London Knights before they drafted him because they thought that they had found a gem, and they were upset that if he got called up to London and started playing more games in the OHL, that other teams would see him and they would draft him. He's huge. He's six foot four, I think. He's big, he's mean, and he is a quote unquote, you know, stay-at-home uh defensive first, whatever, and yet he's six foot five. I'm sorry, I had it wrong. Six foot five, two hundred and fifteen pounds. He's on the London Knights, and for a player who's supposed to be the defensive half of the Brustevich Woolley pairing, who incidentally they're also best friends, he's got 17 points in 24 games so far in the OH. Um, they won the Memorial Cup with him. Sixth round pick. That's the kind of guy that the Kings pick and turn into absolute gold. That is what this organization has maximized itself off of doing. That guy couldn't be any more perfect of a Kings type player. Um, and like I said, for whatever reason, I believe that he has it in him to become the best version of himself. I'm very excited about it. And I have said time and time again, I am a defense first person. I believe in the philosophy that is presented publicly by the LA Kings. If the next foundation of greatness for this team is one of those goalies, I believe Carter George, Carter George, Jared Woolley, Henry Brustevich. I'm I'm excited for that.

SPEAKER_06: 1:27:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:27:51

So hope that answers that question.

SPEAKER_06: 1:27:54

No, that's that's a great answer. It was a great answer. I I'm remember when you guys drafted him. I didn't know much about him. I just remember he was with the London Knights. And then when you guys drafted uh Brustenovich, Brustevich. I heard yeah, I and they're like, oh, he their D partners. I was like, wow, that's even better for you guys. And then I didn't know that they were best friends either. That's kind of funny. That was like with the when the Ducks drafted um Noah Warren and Tristan Leno. They were they're best friends too.

SPEAKER_00: 1:28:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_06: 1:28:24

But they they weren't playing on the same line because I think they're both right-handed shot.

SPEAKER_00: 1:28:27

But that's just that's just yeah, Brustevich is a righty, Wooly's a lefty. That's even better. I think Brustevich is six foot three, six foot four, Wooly's six foot five, six foot two. Yeah, I mean I've interviewed them both collectively together, and you know, it's one of those wacky things where like you do you wouldn't think they'd be friends because they're so totally different, and yet there's obviously something there that that links them.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:52

So we have hope in the future, at least a little bit.

SPEAKER_00: 1:28:55

Yeah. I mean I mean it it honestly doesn't take that long to turn a franchise around. That's the thing I think people lose track of. Like, Cody, when was the last time the ducks were good?

SPEAKER_06: 1:29:06

2017?

SPEAKER_00: 1:29:08

Okay, and now it's 2025, so they had how many years on the down road?

SPEAKER_06: 1:29:13

Well, I that's a trick question because Bob Murray kind of retooled.

SPEAKER_00: 1:29:19

Okay, but but when you officially were like, okay, this is over, how long did it take too?

SPEAKER_06: 1:29:23

I would say five four or five years, I would say.

SPEAKER_00: 1:29:27

Dean Lombardi took over the Kings in 2006, they won the cup in 2012. I don't remember what year the the Penguins first started collecting young first round, first overall picks, but like yeah, give or take. I mean, Crosby was 2005, they won the cup in 2009. It's like if you do it right, it's a relatively fast process. And even the blues, who didn't win anything, they were right there with the Kings, the Blackhawks, and the Penguins. It's it's the outlier teams like Edmonton and Buffalo, where management is just a dumpster fire and they luck into generational talents that cover up all of their decades of of failure. And people go like, well, rebuilding doesn't always work. Look at these awful franchises. And I go, Yeah, you left out the part where they're awful franchises. Like, just don't be awful, and your rebuild time should be like five, six years tops. So that's why I'm never that upset about it. Because like, okay, you know, let's just say the bottom falls. I mean, even the Kings, right? The bottom fell out in the 1819 season.

SPEAKER_04: 1:30:36

That was six years ago.

SPEAKER_00: 1:30:39

Okay, we're a playoff team, have been for the last four years. It's not that big, I don't know, it's not that big a deal.

SPEAKER_06: 1:30:44

So but uh well, I think that was we already got you for an hour and a half. Yeah, I this probably went a lot longer than I think all of us expected. Sorry about that. But no, no, it was every second was great. I except for the ones where you took jabs on it. Those were my ones.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31:02

Those were my favorite parts, by the way. Um, and I just gotta say, Jesse, going this long is because you were you were such a great guest. I appreciate it. It was uh yeah, it was riveting. You get a lot of good stuff you gave us. Um, really appreciate it. We're I don't know how. I'm gonna be listening to you all the time. So um I just recently started.

SPEAKER_06: 1:31:26

I I try to listen to I have so many podcasts when I try to fit other ones in.

SPEAKER_00: 1:31:30

I will say the same thing, Cody, to you that I say to my extended family who always says very sheepishly, Oh, I don't listen to your podcast. I go, it's fine, it's not for you.

SPEAKER_06: 1:31:38

It's okay. No, it's just I get it. I try to listen to other like hockey ones, so I just to make our podcast better. I try to listen to like all the big news ones so that way I we're not we're not missing anything. And I got my you know the ducks ones as well. But I always try to fit you and uh locked on LA Kings in. Those are the two I always try to I try to for sure get in. If I have time, like in the wintertime, I'll have a lot more time because we're working more for wintertime, so you'll I'll be listened to a lot more.

SPEAKER_00: 1:32:11

Well, people always try and give me advice on how to do things in a very broad, like how to reach the broadest audience, and I always try and tell them I'm not going for a broad audience, I'm going for an incredibly niche audience. I'm talking to a really small group of people, and if you're not in that group, this is not for you. I am not your cup of tea.

SPEAKER_06: 1:32:27

I have friends that say, Oh, like I'm sorry I never I was like, You're not a hockey fan. Like, I know you're I'm like, I didn't make this podcast for you to listen to. Right. I'm like, I you're not gonna hurt my feelings.

SPEAKER_00: 1:32:37

In fact, I full full disclosure, one of my best friends who I just had dinner with the other night, I can remember walking from our my uh the house that I lived in off of Second Street in Long Beach, and he would come down and he lived on the he lived on the other side of 2nd Street, so we would walk to each other's houses and go hang out. We were walking one day, it's like probably 2010-ish. And he said, Do you ever think about maybe not doing the podcast and like focusing all that time and energy on something better? And I said, I said, What do you mean? And he said, Well, who cares about this podcast? Like, it's not doing anything for you, it's just taking time and focus away from you know you improving your life. And I was like, Well, gee, thanks for the support. Um now he wasn't wrong, and I appreciate him feeling comfortable enough to say that to me. But he didn't get what I was doing because he didn't care about hockey. And frankly, if he had cared about hockey, I probably wouldn't have done the podcast. Because the podcast really came out of not having anybody to talk to hockey to about hockey. So I picked everybody. Um and I it sounds like you're in a similar situation, Cody, where it's like, yeah, if I had friends who gave a crap, um I probably wouldn't do this. I'd probably just go talk to them about hockey.

SPEAKER_06: 1:33:51

I know maybe one of my friends, maybe he'll listen to it, but I I guarantee you none of them have really listened. And honestly, it does not hurt my feelings at all. We do have Adam. Oh, I oh yeah. I meant like friends that I've had since high school, middle school. Like, I know I didn't make this for everyone to listen to. I made it because we one love talking hockey. Yeah. And plus we used I used to work nights, he worked nights, and we both drove. Our phone conversations were pretty much our podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 1:34:24

There you go.

SPEAKER_06: 1:34:25

So that's why when he told me that, I was like, you know what, we're pretty much just talking on the phone like we used to, just now we're recording it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:34:31

The the worst thing for me, and I'm sorry to just keep this going now beyond an hour and a half. The worst development for me has been ages ago, I used to go to like a friend's birthday party or a dinner or whatever, and somebody would say, Oh, meet so-and-so, this total stranger, they love hockey. And it used to get me excited. And I'd be like, Oh, sweet, I here's somebody I can talk to hockey about. Now, if I go to a birthday party or dinner party or get together with friends and somebody says, Oh, here, meet so-and-so's husband, you know, they're in town for Thanksgiving. He loves hockey. I go, Oh boy, no, he doesn't. Yeah, I I just go, No, he doesn't. Oh, like I just, you don't, not the way I do. And I don't even, I'm not even sure if I even like hockey anymore. I just know about it, and it's all I all I can ever think of and talk about. Um, but I just go like, okay, you think you like it, but I don't want to talk to you about it. I want to talk to you about whatever you're into. I don't want to talk about what I'm into. Um, and I get it, that's an incredibly privileged and and silly standpoint, but that's been the No, I I I trust me, been there, done that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:35:40

I know exactly what you mean. And and we do appreciate the time you spent with us. Um it it was a lot longer than any of us planned, but it wasn't because it was bad, it was because it was good. Yeah, well, I mean, you had a lot of good insight. You always make me think rethink things. I gotta tell you that. And I I like it that you chat you challenged me.

SPEAKER_00: 1:36:02

Well, then my work here is done.

SPEAKER_02: 1:36:06

And it maybe in the future we could talk again and uh anytime. So I mean we do have a uh usually like at the start of the season, a kings only episode. Love to have you be part of that. That would be awesome. We usually get Eddie in on that too, and you know Eddie already. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:36:23

The only time I'm not available is during practice and games. Anything other than that, I can't.

SPEAKER_06: 1:36:27

Yeah, you discussed that with me. That's why I was like, does because I told my dad was like, all right, let's pick days. I'm like, like Jesse said, he's he can't do like for sure game days. And then you gave me a bunch of lists of days. I'm like, and I had I was on call last week, and I didn't want to have an interview when I was on call for work, and then we're in the middle of something, and I had to go out first call. I I wanted uh you know, 100% here and everything like that. So that's why I was like, today is perfect, other than the your formatting. But uh, we made it work, that's all that matters. But um, just can you uh just let our listeners know where they can uh find you at?

SPEAKER_00: 1:37:04

Sure. So uh on social media, I'm at Kings Men Podcast. Um, I'm still doing content for the Kings, so you can find all the Kings Men um on the LA Kings YouTube page or wherever fine podcasts are curated, you can download the audio versions. I'm also doing independent content, uh including the Royal Half Radio postgame show, which I do following every game. And you can watch those on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. The YouTube channel is Royal Half Radio, the Twitter channel is at Kingsmen Podcast, the Facebook thing, I think, is at Kingsmen Podhost. I can't remember why I did that differently, but so there's some dumb reason for it. But um, and you can watch all of the archived episodes of all of those up on YouTube uh at uh Royal Half Radio. And there are articles that are not coming as quickly as I would like them to, but there are articles on the RoyalHalf.com, some written by me, some written by other people. It is not the same writing staff as was uh around at the peak of the RoyalHalf.com. So apologies, you're not gonna get updates from uh uh Rudy Kelly or Pumpernickel or uh Jersey Bryan or Indiana Matt. Uh, but you'll get the occasional article from me and from some other people. So RoyalHalf.com, uh Royal Half Radio, all the King's Men. Um I think that's about it. Oh and sorry, listen to the Bannerman, listen to Thanks Bud, listen to the King's Realm podcast. Um, because I'm trying to recreate the collaborative spirit of the old Royal Half. I'm trying to bring everybody under the umbrella, trying to promote them as much as possible. So Bannerman, Thanks, Bud, uh King's Realm podcast. Uh I feel like I'm leaving somebody out and I hate it. Uh that might be it. Sorry.

SPEAKER_06: 1:38:53

I'm trying to think if there's any other ones I can at the top of my head. But uh well, no, I appreciate you uh coming on and joining us, and we'll be looking to hopefully have you on again for a whole we'll do it when we do a whole Kings episode and and everything like that. And you know, just I hope the Kings do have a good season, just not as good as the Ducks.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39:15

Yeah, well, same back at you. One of the one of the things that I love to do when we would have guests on all the Kings men from other organizations, I would say I wish you the best of luck, just not your team. So, Cody, I wish you the best of luck in your personal life. I hope the Anaheim ducks fall off a cliff and miss the playoffs every year for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_06: 1:39:33

Ditto for opposite.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39:35

Perfect.

SPEAKER_06: 1:39:37

Well, all right. Uh, do you want anything else to say before we got out of here, Dan? Yeah, go kings go.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39:42

Go kings go.

SPEAKER_06: 1:39:44

Alright, I'll I'll leave it at that. Alright, thank you, everyone. We'll see you guys next time.

SPEAKER_01: 1:39:54

A father and son, a boss strong. Talking hockey all day long. Royally craft the podcast oh, sharing stories, high and lows.