Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / Brien Rae's Minor League Hockey Graveyard | Ep 234 | Brien Rea
Transcript
- Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. With the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano league teams. Don't wait. You said tip. Yeah. Tip. The p. Would Keep jamming. Even with trying to start the games at like 07:30, 07:40, there's just no It makes no difference. That's right. We know we're live, just so you know. Oh, are? Perfect. Alright. Cool. We're here. Yeah. We're not scared. Everybody knows what you're talking about so that's Yeah. We like the ballpark. We like the Gulf. I love it. Yeah. I love it. I support it all the way. Damn right you do. Everybody likes the ballpark. It's just the 98 degrees until it's 09:30 at night that nobody liked. Well, love the temple for its memories and all that. Yes. We will not miss burning our buns. Yeah. The temple was the temple. Temple was wonderful in its time but anybody who comes up to me and says they don't like the new ballpark, I'd look at them and say you're an idiot. Harsh but fair. Yeah. It is harsh but fair. God, that's what we should have called the podcast. Harsh but Fair? Harsh but Fair. We can change we can change lanes. Let's do it. Yeah. We can. It's your show. I feel like the other It's your company. Two fifty, the final Dark Companion. Okay. Two fifty one, the debut of Harsh but Fair. Starting August 13. Yeah. Harsh But Fair, the Mike Reiner podcast. The Mike Reiner serial podcast. Yes. Cereal. I don't know what that really means for us, but it sounds oh. Isn't every podcast serial because it's recurring? You would think. So I guess it's just implied. Yeah. But if they're serial, that means one has to do with what came before it. Right? Oh, and we definitely don't do that. No. No. We don't do that at all. Wait. I'm curious. The definition of serial? Yeah. Yeah. Cereal is kind of a take on series. Oh. Look at him. Is it not? Hear the words. I mean, I'm asking. It says generally refers to something arranged, occurring, or produced as a series. There you go. Okay. Story published in installments, a computing transfer method, or most famously today, a the groundbreaking investigative journalism podcast or serial killers. I hope everybody Oh, Wait. There was a podcast called serial? I'm totally joking. No. No. I I the driest of sarcasm over here. Yeah. Okay. I've never known you to be sarcastic. Is there a podcast called Serial Killers? Probably. There's bound to be. Yeah. If not, maybe Signal fifty one changed their name. No. Just just to steal a couple of people who like mistakenly typed in in searched for cereal and they clicked on cereal. I would do it just for the for the accidental clicks. Absolutely. To inflate the numbers. Hey, we could use those so we might have a new strategy. Business Wanna give some accidental clicks, go ahead. Right. Them to us. Any and all clicks are accepted. We love all, we serve all. Are we on? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We've been live for a few minutes. Oh, we have? Yeah. Okay. Well, I don't know what the format is. I just figured we were chatting for a while. You knew not to cuss and all that. Even though he can cuss because we're not regulated by the FCC anymore. I I I'll try to keep it clean for you guys. I know you will. Yeah. Family friend family friendly. That's what he does. I know. He's so professional. He is. Who the hell are we talking to? Ish. Yeah. We are talking to Brian Ray. Yeah. And you see Brian Ray hosting that Dallas Stars pre post Intermission. Intermissions. They're not playing hockey, you see him. Yep. You see him and his pal Seve. Oh. The great Brent Severin. We need to get him on too. I've been I'm kinda surprised I got here before Seve. They let you Seve on vaca a lot of people are on vacation if you're pulling me in here. Yeah. Tried a couple times like a little before last season then about halfway through the season, you just it was too busy, but I think now might be a a good time to Probably because Seve was coaching hockey for the thirteenth hour of the day Yeah. His fifth day of the week. That's what he does. Yes, he does. He's a good man. Who does hockey? Just a little bit. Just a little bit. Well, Brian Ray is here. Are you, I'm I mean, I'm I'm disappointed that the the season ended back in May and it didn't end to say three or four nights ago. But first of all, thanks for you guys for having me on. Yeah, man. Which has been a lot of fun. But I'm I'm doing good. I am very much in my parrot head era, which is what I usually get into right about this point of the summer. So You know, without knowing you any better than I do, I would hope for nothing else. Yeah. It's yeah. I mean, it's well, like, you know what? I I say parrot head jokingly, but actually, I grew up with Jimmy Buffett because I have older brothers. And I just finished reading a biography of Jimmy Buffett. So I'm like, you know what? I think I gotta throw on a little bit of a party shirt here for Alright. For the dark companion. Alright. We welcome Para Heads. We've had Evan Grant on. Is he a big time Para Head? My goodness. Hardcore? Biggest. Y'all be the Y'all would I mean, I wouldn't say I'm a hardcore, although I never got to see him live before Jimmy Buffett passed, which is a huge bummer for me. But yeah, I mean it I I would have loved to have seen that. We're always happy to have Evan on. So maybe we bring you on and y'all have Parrot Head. Perfect. There you go. Answer. Is ParrotHead the same thing as Yacht Rock or is it just Jim Buffett? It applies more to Jimmy Buffett, but there are those who would tell you that Jimmy Buffett is Yacht Rock. Yeah. Score. Were you were were in the same ZIP code, so you're you're close enough. Yes. But he falls under that heading. I've been very lost. Yeah. Been to any good concerts lately? What do you got? Is this for me or is this for anybody in the room? For everybody. For everybody but hopefully you. Oh, man. No. I so like, is this the first time, Mike, that you and I are meeting? Yeah. So like my wife and I, were huge live music fans and groups and that groups has made fun of me plenty of times in in in experiences past. Well, there was 70 and I did something online and you took a screenshot of it. I'm pretty sure you turned it into like a collective soul album cover. Oh, I did. Or some type of, yeah. It's- This is why he's the devil. But it's also why he's very good. Because a lot of people saw that and started laughing. Yeah. At my expense, mine and Sevi's expense, I think it was more my expense. Yeah. Yeah. No, you know what man, we But hey, I've I've supported your collective soul love for as long as I've known you. Well, it's but also it's my nineties love because I'm a nineties kid. Me too. So that's that's I mean, was I was born in the eighties but the developmental years were the nineties. So like, you know, collective soul, Hootie, Barenaked Ladies, Matchbox twenty, Cowboy Mouth is my all time favorite band who never made it big. But like those are all in my wheelhouse. And so man, I'm trying to think like it was either, I don't if it was last summer or two summers ago, but we saw Lanus, we saw Third Eye Blind. Yellow card opened up for Third Eye Blind, was hilarious and awesome at the same time. So gosh, man. That's no, the last they'll actually just it just dawned on me. The last concert that I saw, there's an indie band that we really like called The Strike. They're based out of Utah. And they're kind of they're kind of like a synth eighties rock pop type thing. But they were opening for the fray of a yeah, of a cable car over my head frame. So fame. So the funny thing for us is we show up to go see the opener. It was at the Southside Ballroom. We show up to see the opener, and there's a handful of people there. We're wearing our strike t shirts, whole thing. We walk in, the place is totally sold out packed. I mean front to back, completely full, sold out for the fray. And the more we're looking around, it is all Gen Z. And we're sitting here going, the phrase hit was like in 2004 or whatever. Is this this a Grey's Anatomy influence because they had the you know one of their like is that what it is? How how is this place filled with Gen Z for a band that had their hit twenty to twenty five years ago? Yeah. What where is the second wave coming from? We were enamored by it. It was I mean, it a great show. We had a ton of fun, but we were just kinda like, what what is the cultural connection? And great for the fray by the way to have a second wave and and and the next generation coming up. But we were just enamored by it, great show as well. You're looking up the strike right now, aren't you? I'm looking up the fray first but- We went for How the strike life is closing in on 2,000,000,000 streams. I But when was it released? I'm gonna say 2002. Let's see. 2005. Samsonite, I was way off. Shoopy. That's enough. Shoopy. What? What's gen z? Pretty much me and me and Brian. No. Right? No. Millennials. I'm I'm millennial. I'm elder millennial. 85. 83. Okay. We're millennials. 96. Okay, you're yeah. No, I am millennial. You're young millennial, we're elder millennial. Yes. Yes. Are you Gen Z, Shoopee? No. No, millennial. Nobody here I is got my terminology wrong. Do me a favor Shoopey. Yes sir. Put on Overtime by The Strike. That's my that's their opener at all their shows and it's one of my all time favorite songs. It's like it's a great opening number. Here we go. Little synth, little piano, and then they have a saxophone in a ton of their songs. Just we just sit here and listen to the whole strike We do whatever we want. Yeah. Yeah. But this this this is one of my my and my wife, this is one of our favorite bands. First time we saw them live, they were at Club Dada a couple of years ago down in Deep Ellum and then they picked up some momentum and they caught on with the fray last summer on their tour. And so they got to open for them and then they're touring right now, but they're not coming back to Dallas. Damn. And we're not happy about it. Let's put out the call right Yeah. Hey. Like like Strike. Come here. Work your work work work your work your phones. Yeah. Who do who do you people know around here? We know people. I brought that up because I went to a concert last night. Woah. Who? For the first time in a long time. Now this is not Gen z. This is not millennial. This is not nothing of the sort. Who was it? But it's one of the acts that I truly, truly admire. And she be she be know this. K. And it was at the Majestic Theater which is where we were Hell yeah. Just a couple weeks ago. Probably not the Sex Pistols. No. It was not the Sex Pistols. I love Ash's musical brain. What's a band that's fairly older that I could throw out there? Alright. Yeah. That's it was Todd Rundgren. Oh, hell yeah. Okay. Okay. Now if you know me, you know I'm a big Todd fan. If I can go see him when he comes through here, I do go see him. But recently, concerts have hit me kind of funny. And I'm really having a hard time putting my finger on exactly why. But I was expecting to go see Todd and everything would be alright again. And it was not alright. Uh-oh. I felt the same way that that I did at the at more recent concerts that I've seen. And as I was walking out, a a question that I never thought that I would face was stirring around in my head. And that is, do I wanna keep going to these things? Like, in general? Or Yeah. Yeah. Are they too loud? No. They're it's not that it's too loud or anything like Is it seated or are you still ending up like in the GA pin at some concerts? No. Majestic. It's not the butt seats. Exactly. Yeah. Great seats. Oh. You know? And I'm not I'm not saying that there was anything wrong with the venue. I love that venue. Mhmm. I mean, they let us go out in there and knock around a few weeks ago. I hope everybody saw that podcast. But The great Schwedz. I I just don't maybe I'm maybe I'm getting too old for it. I don't know. But it's really weird. But and it flies in the face of everything that everything about me. You know? I mean, I thought I would really enjoy going concerts from now until I just for whatever reason, till I'm in the home or dead or whatever that I just couldn't go to him anymore. And now, I don't know, man. Like are you having a good time when you're there or is it something about the experience? Is it more like, oh, I have to go home after this. I have to go through the process of leaving said concert. No. No. No. It's not like that. It's not as majestic. It's I don't know. The music just doesn't do it for me that much anymore. Woah. Wow. Is it because is it because they're getting older and not into it as much as they used to be? That could be a part of it. Yeah. Because you make comments about that a lot. You have do what? You make comments about that a lot. Yeah. And you have to ask yourself a very important question when you go to these shows with these guys who are of a certain age like as Todd is. Are they still gonna be able to do this the way they used to? And they probably won't. No. But can they at least get it to a level that's worth going for? When you hit the high marks that he's hit in the past, then you are very very disappointed with anything else. Yeah. See, the thing that concerns me, like, can you still play the music? Does it still sound good? And what is your vocal situation at? Are you having to change keys with songs? Are you having to Yes. Slow down? Cover it up with background vocals or or yeah, or or you lower you lower the octave in which you're singing the song in and Yeah. Like that's because man, the miles that these acts put on themselves singing these songs day in and day. Like, it does add up over over that that level of career and that level of time. And the thing about him is he's always he he's never been one to do a song exactly the way it is on the record, especially when it comes to the vocals. He will take all kinds of liberties with those. I mean, not to the point where it's not recognizable. It's just he's just found a different way to do it that he likes a little bit better. And he was doing that last night, but there are a couple times where he tried to do something that he just couldn't. Oh. Oh. Yeah. I'm just Yeah. Oh, man. I wish I hadn't seen that. Is it is it almost your hope this doesn't sound too morbid, because this doesn't seem like a group of dark humor. Right. Oh no, not us. That would not be us. No, but is it almost in that moment you're realizing the mortality of the act that you have so revered and loved. They are not the same that they used to be or how you remember them. It is. And in in realizing the mortality of the act sooner or later, get around to realizing the mortality of you. Yes. I don't wanna take it there this early, Mike. But okay. I mean, let's check that box. We're all dark companions here. And also, guess for you, how much are you looking for them to replicate the record and the performance? Or are you okay with the improv within reason? Or is it, you know, if It's a it's a sliding scale. Okay. And most times, I don't want it just like the record. And if they want to take some liberties with it Mhmm. That's fine. Mhmm. Just do stuff you can pull off. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You need them to land. You don't want just the attempt. Yeah. Like, if Steely Dan were to roll through here, I don't think I'd go see him. Because they're to the point where, number one, there's only one of them left. And the whole time he's up there, he looks like he's hating every second of it. Number two, he always drops the first couple of words of phrases. And number three, when he tries to go up into his upper register, he pulls away from the microphone like that. Like counting on the crowd to fill it in. Yeah. Stuff like that. Yeah. That's not great. But you say dropping the first couple words of lines? Yeah. Like, is he forgetting or misdying? He Or he he's here's what I think. Mhmm. Donald this is Donald Fagan we're talking about here. Donald Fagan has always been steeped in jazz. And frequently with jazz singers, they will not sing the first couple of words of a line. That's just kind of a jazz thing. And I think through the years, be it consciously or maybe subconsciously or whatever, he's sort of picked that habit up. So he wasn't always Interesting. That you can recall. You can remember and recall. Yeah. I could remember when he was pretty good about it. Okay. When he was pretty good about it and he didn't have to pull away from the microphones when he tried to hit higher note. Anyway, I don't know why I cut off of that tangent. Got Ryan Ray here. No. No. But we talk It's a great tangent. Right. I it's Stars lost in the first round. It sucked. None of us liked it. Alright. We covered that. Where do you guys wanna go next? I will I will tell you guys a funny story since we are on the concert tangent and realizing the mortality of the act you are seeing. Yes. So couple of summers ago, they don't do it anymore but my wife and I, we did the lawn pass to Dosecki's here in Dallas, Dosecki's Pavilion. And it was cool because you would go see acts with that and sit on the lawn that you normally wouldn't go see. Chicago was playing and Brian Wilson was opening. And we'll never know. All I know is we show up, Brian Wilson, I think they're like a song or two, and I think Al Jardine was another one of the original Beach Boys, I believe. Right? So it was Brian Wilson and Al Jardine was also there. And so they're playing all the hits, they're doing their thing. Great time. Brian Wilson's set ends and he was sitting at a piano. I mean, he he looked he looked all like he looked really I don't know if he was actually playing, if he but he if if he wasn't, he faked it really well. But sets over, band is they're grabbing stuff, they're moving. And all of a sudden, I just see this guy walk out stagehand and he's got something with him. And he walks right up to Brian Wilson, and I'm not kidding, opens the walker, the two tennis balls are on the bottom of the front legs, and Brian Wilson gets up from the piano, grabs it, and just goes off stage on his own. I just it was kind of a surreal moment for me. Like it was really cool. Alright. I got to see two of the original Beach Boys. I got to see Brian Wilson. It was phenomenal. But then you see that happen after the set is done. It was just a really strange That is tough. Dichotomy. It's- Man. It's I mean, the guy had an unbelievable career and to be that age still touring, still playing. Go ahead, whatever you need to get off the stage, fine. I love your music. I'm a much younger generation here seeing your music. We were jacked up to see that but I- That is a- Guy walked his way off stage. Just kinda scooching down Yeah. The stage. Yeah. Yeah. That's tough. Yeah. It is. But knowing everything that Brian Wilson has been through and knowing his backstory Yeah. Then then I really would not be surprised by that. No. It's it's just a fascinating moment to see. Yeah. It's but man, the song sounded great. Least he's he not wasn't doing what have you seen the footage of, like, Frankie Valli performing? No. Like, he's done performing now. Like, he they finally, I guess, got him to stop, but he looked like a mannequin or animatronic, like, Rock a Fire explosion or something. Like, he was just barely, like, moving, wasn't even making an attempt to sing. It was just all backing track, basically. Oh, that's a bummer. He's Oh, a like, three, ninety four now. Yeah. That's a bummer. You know, it's I love Probably just playing trying to make his money. Yeah. It was rough to see. So there is definitely that line of like, if they're still enjoying doing it, then why not? That's the thing, it's their entire That's it. They're still enjoying doing it and they want to do it and they realize their limitations but they want to do it anyway, okay, conversation over. Right. Concessions can be made but it's tough when you're the audience and like you said, kind of come to expect after thirty, forty, fifty years of performing a certain level and, you know, they miss a a vocal run or Yeah. Yeah. You know, screw up a guitar solo or something. It's just it's it's tough. Don't think I'd go see Paul McCartney again. No? Yeah. And he's kind of obviously gotten a bit of a resurgence in popularity as weird as that might sound. But, you know, he's got a new album that I've really fallen in love with. Yeah. But, you know, we did performances with SNL and Colbert I remember being on yeah, the guest on the Colbert on the Late on the Last Late Show. Big discussion of, you know, I think he still tries to perform all his songs in the original key, basically for the audience, so they don't have to try to adjust how they're having to sing. Sure. But, obviously, he's 83 or 84 now, so, you know, it's tough for him to hit certain notes after Yeah. Sixty years of performing Yep. Multiple nights a week and all that, but it's a fascinating thing. It is. It is. Yeah. What are we gonna do about it, Shoopy? I don't know, Shoopy. I guess we should just talk to Brian Ray about it. What do you Okay. What do wanna get into here? What do we got? I wanna know your backstory. Yeah. Where do you wanna start? Childhood? Career? Yeah. Start at the beginning. It was it was 03/17/1983, Saint Louis, Missouri. And the reason my first name is spelled with an e is because I was not the first. I was the second child in a Irish heritage family born on Saint Patrick's Day. So my older brother was born on Saint Patrick's Day on his seventh birthday. Me, I came along. And I was actually so I was supposed to I was supposed to be totally named different. I was supposed to be named after my grandfather. I was supposed to be William Charles Ray. Billy Chuck Ray. Hell yeah. Gosh, that didn't happen. When I Man, that would have been awesome. It would have been a hockey guy. Or a serial killer. I don't know, to me living in Texas and if your name was Billy Ray, the amount of torture that I would take from that, no, not a chance. But when I came on Saint Patrick's Day, my parents changed it to Brian Patrick. So I was the second kid. So that's because if people, they look at my first name and it's it's Brian. I didn't know it was See? Ashley Ashley thought you might have been a woman potentially. Brian Rhea. Yeah. The Ria I understand because it's r e a. I didn't think the e would be that big of a hassle for people but that's why it's spelled with an e, it's an Irish heritage thing. But no, I am. I guess that. You know what, my Growing up in Saint because I grew up in Saint Louis, I grew up with the blues. So the blues got me into hockey. And when you're a kid, my oldest brother was a hardcore hockey fan. And you just wanna be like your older brothers when you're growing up. So that's kind of, that was like my gateway drug into hockey. And then watching it on TV, the broadcast voice of the blues was a guy named Ken Wilson at the time. And I was just I'm eight years old. I'm like, this guy gets paid to be on TV and watch hockey. This has gotta be the greatest job in the world. It really does. And so that planted the seed of wanting to get into specifically hockey broadcasting, but sports broadcasting overall. And so then when I got to college, there was a campus radio station and I started doing play by play for our college hockey team on that campus radio station. Then in college. Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. Thousand students, northern suburb. There's there's two claims to fame for Lake Forest, Illinois. Number one, it's where the Chicago Bears used to hold their training camp. Yeah. I think there I think there's a there's a place on campus called Hallis Hall named after George Hallis. Yeah. I'd heard of that and it's for that reason. Yes. So the second claim to fame in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the ravine where Cameron kills the car goes through the campus of Lake Forest College. So when you're walking between, they called it Middle Campus and South Campus, if you stop at the ravine, you can look right into the back of the garage that the Corvette shot out from. Because John well John Hughes was from Chicago. Yeah. And so he filmed all of those movies in the Chicagoland area. Think a lot of the a lot of the Brad Pack movies Home Alone and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. So those are the two claims to fame from Lake Forest. Well, don't I know if I'm the third. Third. Me. I'm the third claim to fame. At least two and a Allegedly. Yeah. Two and a quarter. Yeah. Two and a quarter. And you always wanted to do hockey. There were no doubt answers with baseball or basketball or football or anything else? Yes. So when I was in college going through this, I'm way too fast of a talker for baseball. I just I just I'm I'm too fast. It it's it's just it doesn't fit naturally for me. And hockey, I think just growing up playing it, there's so much energy in a hockey game. There really is. And even when you listen to hockey broadcasts, there's just a different kind of energy on hockey broadcast. And I, no indoor voice, outdoor voice, loud kid with a lot of energy. I was just like, I feel like one, I love the sport, but I think my natural vocal tendencies and personality vibrates towards hockey than it does any other sport. I've done other sports, had a blast doing them. But no, it was it was pretty much hockey from day one. It really was. How quick did you fall into doing broadcasting? I know you said you started in college, like did you do anything like attempting it before? No. Recording it to a tape recorder No, or so I didn't, I thought it was a cool job, but I never took myself seriously. Like a lot of kids, like there's the whole self confidence battles you go through with teen angst and all that stuff. I just love what a great job, yeah exactly. What a great job, but I could never do that. And then when I got to college and they needed somebody to run sports on the college radio station, because the college radio station was dormant for a while. And then my freshman year, there was a group of students that brought it back. And so they wanted somebody to do sports and a friend of mine was like the student general manager, and I I will remember this until I'm stealing Dan for getting lines of songs. It's college, there's like your club meetings and your committee meetings. I go to a meeting, meeting gets done, and I'm like, hey, I'll make you a deal. Show me show me how to work the equipment. I will give you sports. One stipulation, I'm doing play by play for every hockey game, and if there's any conflicts with any other student shows, I get priority. And he goes, done. Damn. And so that's where I started doing it for fun. And I was like, I'm gonna be like Ken Wilson. I'm just gonna do this for fun. Then as I was doing it, the seed had been planted. Now it was starting to grow. I was loving it. I was getting some really nice feedback from faculty members and people around. And and I had the guy who was like the faculty advisor for the radio station was, he pulled me aside one day and was like, hey, I think you need to research this. Like I think you might have something here. You need to research this. So that's what I started looking into broadcasting and and internships and just trying to dive more and more into that world. Where'd you go to college? No, Lake Forest College. Okay. Yeah, yeah. This was all at Lake Forest. Okay. This is all at Lake Forest. Okay. And then, yeah. So then after that, I went to like a broadcast trade school back home in St. Louis while working part time behind the seafood counter at a local supermarket. And my first paid broadcasting gig was division two college basketball. It's like a $100 a game. And it was I had a blast doing it. So that kinda started there. And then the hockey journey you guys will laugh at. I finally got a job offer to go work for the Lubbock Cotton Kings of the old Central Hockey League in Lubbock Texas. Moved to Lubbock in May 2007. Now did you get this by sending out audition tapes like Yeah. The I guess. I was sending out audition tapes. And then actually, the Central Hockey League was doing like a job fair Yeah. In Dallas. So I flew down early in the morning, went to the job fair, interviewed with a bunch of teams, flew back that evening, and Lubbock called me back. Said yeah, we're moving on from our broadcaster, we need somebody new, we'd like to hire you. So in May 2007, I moved to Lubbock to work for the Cotton Kings. In July 2007, the Lubbock Cotton Kings went out of business and shut their doors. Welcome to the minor leagues everybody. Wait, did you even work a game for them? No, it was two months. Right. It was, yeah. I sent out a couple press releases. Worked on the website, Didn't even didn't shut the doors. Hired me and they and they went out of business two months after hiring me. Wow. So then in August, the Austin Ice Bats in the same league, they called me. I mean, I reached out to every team in the Central Hockey League. Everybody knew what was going on. And they hired me, so this is now August 2007. I moved from Lubbock to Austin. I do their play by play for one year, And also that season, I met the broadcaster for the Corpus Christi Ice Race, a guy named Josh Bogarad. Woah. Woah. Josh and I go back till 2000 to 2007 Corpus Christi in Austin Texas. He sat in that chair before. Yes he has. Sidebar, my first year in the American League, Dallas came down to Austin with the Texas Stars for training camp and like Josh and I, it's like, look at this. Still or no, we were over in Fort Worth. We were in Will Rogers Coliseum over in Fort Worth and it's like no, my first year in the NHL, we go to training camp at Fort Worth, I'm like, Still back in Will Rogers Coliseum. How are we elevated and we're still here? How does this happen? Kind of Get avoided. Yeah, when you think you're out it pulls you right back in. So I go to Austin with the ice bats in August '7. Nine months later, Ice Bats out of business, shut their doors. Dude. This is where you start to think, is it me? It Am I the guy? And so after that, there was a team in Odessa, Texas. So they hired me. And I even asked them like, are you gonna close within the next twelve calendar months? I have to know. And they're like, no, we're good. So I spent three years in Odessa, which was a really great experience. That was an awesome team. That that is one of the highlights of my minor league career was living out there for for three years. And then after three years there, they were dropping to junior hockey. I didn't wanna go down, you wanna stay where you are, you wanna keep going up. So I worked for a team in Arizona for a year. At this point, I could spot when teams were going out of business. So the second I got there I was like, all right, this is probably gonna be gassed in a year, it's probably time to start looking immediately. Yeah, you know the vibe when see Yeah, and so then I ended up going to Denver, Colorado. The Central Hockey League, at one point actually it was a really good league. Like at one point there were more professional hockey teams in the state of Texas than anywhere else in The United States. But when I got to the Central Hockey League, it was the beginning of the end. Yeah. It was and there's a reason it doesn't exist anymore. So part of it was me taking them all down. Like I I I will joke, I will look at new groups and I'll go, don't mess with me. I've take I've single handedly taken down a hockey league. I was gonna say, that's pretty impressive dude. I've taken out some teams, Black Widow Central Hockey League. Because I measure my life in hockey seasons. That's basically how I measure my life. So from 2011 to 2012, it was Arizona. From '12 to '13, I was in Denver, Colorado. From '13 to '14, I was out hockey. I went back to St. Louis. I did sports talk radio for a year. And then from '14 to now, I've been back in hockey. '14 to '18 was the AHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars, the Texas Stars down in Austin. And then from then on, I've been here in Dallas. But everything in the minors was play by play based. I didn't start doing TV hosting until I came here to Dallas. Yeah. So yeah, that's the career retrospect. 15, one hockey league, five teams dead. That really is impressive man. But the Texas Stars broke the streak. Hell yeah. The Dallas Stars have nothing to worry about, even I couldn't take that team down. Tom, no, Tom Gilardi's done fantastic organization in this city. So the streak was broken in Austin. You still wanna do play by play? Yeah, that's the career goal, that's the ultimate dream. And I'm not saying anything like people at the stars don't know. That's actually been one of the great things about working for the stars. When I when I got hired to work in Dallas, I might have been five shows into my first year with the stars. And my boss at the time was a guy named Dan Stukel, I mean still works for the Yeah. Stukes. Yeah. Stukes. But he called me in, he's kinda doing the check-in and he just goes, so hey, what do you wanna do? He's like tell me what you wanna do. So and from there I told him my goal is NHL play by play. He was like okay, great. But the nice thing about the position I'm in is that's the ultimate dream and that's something that I look for and pursue. But I get to do it in a really push position because I have a great time working with Sevi and covering the Stars games and and between fans, between people. It's been a good team. Playoffs haven't gone the way you wanted. Like there's all 31 teams get disappointed every year, but like there's been a lot of wins and a lot of fun. Draft, Winter Classic, stadium series is coming up. There's been a lot of cool stuff to cover in my position hosting the broadcast. So that's the goal, but it's also like it's a goal that I get to pursue in a really really comfortable great spot right now with the team. Do you think the- Matt Groves, highlight of it all, whatever. Yeah, who could ask for more? Yep, yep. Pretty much everybody? Hardly anybody. So So do you think the team that, was the last one standing was the deserving team? Yes. I do. I I I do. Carolina. It was Carolina. Now, you know what? It's it's you can dissect a couple of things here with with what do you need to go your way to win a Stanley Cup? Probably win a championship anywhere, but Carolina had been one of the best teams in the NHL all season long. They've only been one of the best teams in the last five years in the NHL. So there's a reputation, you know they're a good team. But for me, the Eastern Conference was a mess all season long. Had Carolina, you had Tampa, Montreal had a heck of a run. But once you got past those top three teams, it would you know, like 12 teams fighting for the last five playoff spots. I mean, it was just it was a mess. It was a very top heavy top heavy conference. And then you look at the path Caroline had to go sixteen and three. They had the one of the best playoff records in the last, think like since the Oilers of the 80s or something like that. But it's not, nobody has a cupcake matchup. But Carolina dealing with Philly in the second round, I think it was Pittsburgh they played in the first round. I I can't yeah. But dealing with those two teams is not the same as Dallas, Colorado, and Minnesota Yeah. All dealing with each other in the first two rounds. And even when Connor McDavid is calling the Pacific division during the regular season, the pillow fight division. But it's a Pacific division team that got through and went to the Stanley Cup final. It's life in the Central is an absolute beast. So I I do think if you are going to win a Stanley Cup, you do have to have I'll see a quick series. Not an easy series, but I think you have to have a quick series somewhere along the way. Carolina had two, well actually they had three with the way they handled Montreal. Montreal was so beat up because they went through seven in their first two rounds, but you have to have a quick series somewhere and that's that's really diff it's gonna be really difficult for the Stars to do. Just with the division they play in. What do you think happened to the Stars this year? I think I see. Can I tell you what I think? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, yeah. What do you say? Let's go. Let me let me tell tell you what I saw, and you tell me how wrong I am because I probably am. I I don't think you're gonna be as wrong as you may think you are. I think what happened was that the grind caught up to them, and they just kinda ran out of shit over the last, I don't know, four or five games. They really needed to win those games. Mhmm. And they just could not muster up enough. I mean, a couple of those games were against Minnesota. Mhmm. And it was pretty clear to me that Minnesota was kind of pushing them around a little bit. Yes. No, I think you're a 100% right. So you said exactly where I was going. So first of all, for the Stars this season, their their final two, three weeks. They looked out of sync and I and and to me they looked tired in the series against Minnesota. I thought they looked tired in the last few weeks of the season and Jim Neal acknowledged this when we had our end of the year press conference with him that you know, he was starting to get a little concerned with about eight games left in the season with how they were looking. This is not a coincidence to me, but I don't know what the numbers are now. You know, now that we've had the full playoffs run through, but entering the Stanley Cup playoffs. The teams that had played the most hockey games, playoffs and regular season combined over the last three years I believe. Florida, Edmonton, Dallas. I don't think it's a coincidence. Florida missed the playoffs. Edmonton gone in the first round. Dallas gone in the first round. I do think the tread on the tires was finally gone. And I think it caught them when they got to Minnesota. I mean when you play, and so that's it sucks having a short summer, but you hope a long summer, excuse me, short playoff run long summer. You hope a long summer could set the table for a nice rebound or a great push over the next handful of years for this team. But yeah, I I think the mileage caught up to the car, not just this season over the last three, four years. Do you think it might have been sped up a little bit more with, it seems like goalie was trying to go for a more physical style play. It could be, yeah. That too? Yeah, the hand to hand combat, there could be something to that. You have to be ready, you cannot flip a switch. They've been pretty good about somewhat flipping a switch, but you cannot flip a switch. And I mean, Florida. And when I say heavy style, it's not these thundering body checks. I mean, today's game is not the same as the late 90s and the early 2000s. But it's this physical grinding, never let up, relentless in your face for thirty to forty five seconds. That's the kind of relentless style of hockey you have to play. Florida's been excellent at it. Caroline has been really good at it. Vegas is a is a team that can do that and and turn on that type of play which is why even though they had a rough regular season. I mean Utah, I thought they were gonna be in for a rude awakening, they wore. Anaheim, they gave Vegas a push, but as that series went along, that relentless style. I mean, you have to scar tissue has to be built. I really do believe in hockey. You have to lose before you can win. I was surprised they swept Colorado. I thought Colorado was they had enough of that scar tissue built up and they were ready to do that. I was shocked. I think we all wore the way that series went. But Dallas, the now that they have a season of doing that under Glenn Gulletson, we'll see what moves Jim Neil can or cannot make. But also I think there is the internal scar tissue and it can change you a little bit as a player. You know, some players that haven't gone on long playoff runs like this. I think you kinda learn, okay, I have to change my game a little bit. So we'll see what the year two point o version of Glenn Gulletson looks like with with this team. This is Brian Ray. You see him on that Starz pregame show and postgame show and intermissions. And pretty much whatever needs to be done on TV, he's there for you. He can do it all. And handsomely too. Oh, very handsome. Thank you, Grooves. Ruggedly. Thank you, Grooves. Do you know Grooves is my agent? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I make a pretty penny. He does. Only agent who takes 35% in this business. It's unbelievable. Worth it. Unbelievable. We'll have more with them in just a second. But right now, it is time for us to stop down for just a moment for the dreaded and feared mid show read. You can just chill out for a second if you want. I got this. You sure? Because I well, no. I'm not sure. I'm not sure of anything. I gotta talk to guys out there about, feeling better if you're feeling bad because a lot of you are in that boat. That is not a pleasant boat to be in. The reason I know this is because these last couple of years have been kinda tough for me, and I've found myself having to look around for what to do about these aches and pains that I'm suddenly feeling after making it for eons without any such thing. Now that's seems to be gone. So what do you do about it? Well, what I did is I went to the CBD house of healing, and I got this among other things. This is the full spectrum salve stick. You rub it on to wherever hurts, and you will feel better. It's kind of a heat thing. You know? But there's a little bit more to it than that. Now at the CBD House of Healing, you may be thinking that I'm sending you to some head shop that's left over from 1964 or something like that. I'm really not. Because at the CBD House of Healing, they approach everything from a medicinal standpoint. Their owner is a registered nurse, and you tell her what's going on. I guarantee you she will have something for you to try, and you will feel better. The CBD House of Healing is located at Plano Road and Northwest Highway in the northeast quadrant of that burgeoning intersection. Stop by. Tell them that you heard about it from us here on Your Dark Companion, and start your healing at the CBD House of Healing. Is that enough? Damn right it is. Yeah. Yeah. She says, yeah. Yeah. That's how she normally is though. Yeah. That is how she normally is. That's our Ashy. So you mind if we stay on these stars, Patty? Let's hit it. Let's rock and roll. What do they gotta do this season? What kind of changes do you look for? So don't expect a lot of changes. Just No. I don't. Yeah. Where where this roster is, who is signed, where they are in the salary cap. There there is not a great deal of flexibility. The Jason Robertson thing is the thing. Can Jim Nill re sign him? What what is that number gonna look like? What does he want now? The great thing is he's a restricted free agent. Jim Nill keep in that card in his back pocket was a really smart move by him. It's why he's as good of a GM as he is. But 40 goal 40 plus goals and 90 plus points, you wanna find a way to keep that in your lineup. Yeah. Yes. You can't just churn that out overnight. No, no. And and even it's hard to build that in the aggregate to go money ball style. If you lost that out of your roster. So that's the first priority. I I think it's it's gonna come down to a lot of internal growth. You're gonna wanna find a way to keep Jason Robertson in your lineup. I think you're gonna want somebody like Thomas Harley to have a bounce back year on that second pair of defense. You're gonna want, know, Jim Nell talked about it in his end of the season press conference. A little more consistency out of Jake Odinger is a fair critique. I'm a believer in him. I think he's a top 10 goaltender in the NHL. Goal tending is also my favorite position in the NHL. So am I biased? Absolutely. But, you know, a a little more consistency out of that. And does that consistency come with a slightly lower workload knowing how good Casey is. I mean, arguably the best backup in the league. We'll see what happens there. The big question for me, and I don't have the answer, unfortunately. Wish I did. I have always felt they have always missed Chris Tanev from a couple of years ago. Yeah. And just what he brought to that second defensive pair. Yeah. Now, Niels Lundquist had a really good season last year. And and you could see real growth out of him playing alongside Thomas Harley under Glenn Gulletson. How much does that growth continue? Because I mean, I think they have seven defensemen already under contract. So it's not like you you go out and get somebody because now you're just, you're getting crowded again. But between a bounce back from Thomas Harley and a little growth and improvement out of Niels Lundquist, does that change the way your second defensive unit looks? That's always been a big question mark for me is just I feel like they've always missed what they got from Chris Tana when they picked him up at the trade deadline. Now, I mean, they weren't gonna be able to keep them. That contract that he got from Toronto was by all means go ahead deal with that. And Toronto's dealing with that now. But it it's gonna be a lot of internal growth. That's gonna be the big thing. It's going to be internal growth from the majority of this roster to try and push themselves forward. That's that's gonna be the biggest thing for this team. Where do you think Odinger rings? Is he an upper tier goaltender would you say? He's top 10 in the NHL. He's not top five in my eyes. Because if you if and I and I've had this conversation with people, you know, from from a true hockey nerd them. Let's start rattling off NHL goaltender names. Okay. You know, Ilya Sorokin was a Vesna front runner this year. You know, Vasileski is the one that won it in Tampa. Shesterkin in New York is viewed as arguably the best goaltender in the league. Sergei Babrowski in Florida, has the two Stanley cups underneath him and that's a double digit million dollar contract. You see Saros in Nashville has been a part of the Vesna conversation. So there's five right there and they have arguably been stronger at least over the last handful of years than maybe Jake Odinger has been. But after that, okay, is Jordan Bennington better than Jake Odinger? Is Philip Gustafson better than Jake Odinger? I mean, he was put into a tandem situation in Minnesota this year. Aiden Hill in Vegas was the guy who won them the cup and now he just lost his job to Carter Hart who was the starter throughout the playoffs for big. Freddie Anderson in Carolina who just won. He had consistency issues himself and even had an injury situation and Carolina had to change goaltenders. Like it gets muddy where you start throwing names out there and you can come up with the argument that Jake Odinger has performed better in certain areas there. So I think he's in that five to 10 range, or if you wanna say at least a top 10 goaltender in the NHL. That's how I view Jake Odinger. You're happy to have him. Absolutely. How about that? It's yeah. And the other thing too, who's better and how do you get them? I don't think you can find somebody that you can get without forking over more money, more draft picks, and more of a situation. And also, everybody doesn't have what it takes to win a Stanley Cup until they win the Stanley Cup. Former guy on your show, Ed Belfort. Yes. Hell yeah. How did he end up in Dallas? Cause he couldn't win the Stanley Cup. Yeah. And then he won the Stanley Cup. Your everybody can't win the championship in their respective sport until they win it. Then all of a sudden, the narrative changes. So I must tell you, I was very, very surprised. One of the biggest surprises that I've had in the course of doing this Mhmm. Was when we were able to get him. He's a lot of fun to talk to, isn't he? He's awesome. He's so cool to talk to. Number one, I didn't know he was still around. Oh, yeah. And number two, he just really never seemed like the kind of guy to me that would that would, you know, suffer fools like us. Is is is it amazing when you I've I've I've talked to him a couple of times. It's like I like I don't I don't know him, but I've interviewed him a couple of times. He's so soft spoken and he has this really quiet demeanor. And you're like, weren't you the a hole on the ice in the nineties? And you're like, you were the angry goaltip. It was so funny. Isn't a lot of a lot of players are like that. It is it's amazing. When they get inside the glass, something changes in those players and you see a totally different side come out of them. It's but yeah. I mean, you it's it's amazing how how different he is compared to Eddie the eagle, the persona you saw on the ice. Yeah. Compared to what we thought we were gonna get. Yeah, still got a presence to him obviously. He totally has a presence to Like you said, so soft spoken, so quiet. But he's sitting there and you realize everything he's done in his career. So he's so soft spoken and you're like, yeah, but the eagle is still in there. Oh yeah. The eagle is still in there baby. Yeah, he's so much fun to talk to. Yeah. Alright. One more for you. Okay. Yeah. Coach. New coach this year. Yes. Do you like him? Do you think he'd Oh, yes. Yes. Was he pushing the right buttons? Yes. Absolutely. This this you you can't at some point, time is gonna get you. Yeah. Now now asking from the standpoint of a hockey idiot. Mean, I'm a fan of the game. I've become a fan of the game. I really like the game, but I can't watch it and tell you why whatever just happened did. So, yes. I I think he's a great coach. I actually, Sevi and I have talked about, we talked about this multiple times over over the years. And Peter DeBoer and Glenn Gulletson are two different personalities. And actually, and I I grew up with a lawyer father. Peter DeBoer is a lawyer background. Lawyers don't reveal anything. Yeah. They don't want to reveal any information. That's very common in hockey. That it's not a criticism. It's just the demeanor of the previous coach. Right. Glenn Gulletson, listening to him talk about different areas of the game and how he would just phrase things and reveal certain things. And it's not like he was giving away state secrets or anything like that, but he was just, he was a little more open and a little more fluid with explaining what they wanted to do. Yeah. And in terms of his philosophy, Peter DeBoer was giddy up and go. If the puck's in your own zone, you swarm it, you get it, and you go. Glenn Gulletson's philosophy, the thing that I noticed in Sevi and I watching in training camp, and he even said this in training camp media availabilities. They're okay conceding the low danger part of the ice. The key for them is they wanna be in the most important area. So that is protect the middle, own the middle of the ice. That's the area that they cannot give up. But if you wanna take shots from the outside, go ahead. They're happy to give those up. And so there are times where it may look like the stars are getting caved in or they're being out shot, you know, 31, 21 in a hockey game. But if they're low quality, low danger shots, and you have a top 10 goaltender in the NHL in my own opinion. I understand that philosophy and I don't mind it. Vegas used a similar philosophy when they won their cup. So I I don't mind the changes and the schematic changes. It's more let's protect the most important part of our zone, then once we have control, we will go the other way. And then also, and a lot of this is Neil Graham too, who he brought up as an assistant coach from the AHL, but Glenn Gulletson ran the power play in Edmonton and you wonder, okay, well how good were you really because you had Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. This guy of a cheat code. Yeah, the stars power play was murdering teams all season long with the personnel they had. So it was not just the cheat code that he had in Edmonton. Clearly he and Neil Graham as well, their collective brain power knows how to make you pay on the power play. Think a little more five on five control next season is something we like to see out of this team, not as much reliance on their power play. But no, I think he's a great coach, I love listening to him talk hockey, and any new coach that comes in and get you to the playoffs with the success the stars had, I you don't fault him one bit for the season they had. Not not at all. Not at at all. No. I think he's a great coach. You know what you've done here today, Brian Rain? Hung out with you guys. Actually, I had a great time. You know what else you've done here today? I don't. It's my first time on. Well, you've earned yourself another time on. I would love that. I would love that. But you know what? It will happen. But we gotta get Sevi on first. Okay. Yeah. We gotta we gotta get Sevi on before I come back. I'll I'll check-in back in with him. And you know what? If he blows you off, let me let me know. You got it. Let me know. I cut his grass every Saturday. I'll talk to him. Sounds about right. There he is. The great Brian Ray Thank y'all so much. On the Stars pregame show. He kills it there. Killing it here on YDC today. Thank you very much for watching. We must advise you as we always do. What we need from you is help. Put us out there on your social media. Tell your friends about us. Help us build this thing. Turn it into a mammoth and not a Utah mammoth, but just a regular mammoth. Do that. We'll keep doing it, and Nerd. It'll work out what? Don't worry about it. Was that nerdy? Yeah. A little bit. I thought it was brilliant. No. The wordplay was brilliant. There we Brilliant. It was nerdy, and I'm embarrassed now. Bye. Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. You're Dark Companion is a stolen water media presentation.