00:00what's up man going on he's got the new digits going on over here he's uh gonna hop on mackie
00:07samiskevich
00:08there we go
00:12we are we are live we are live mackie samiskevich we got a we got a michigan party here leroy
00:22let's go all levels we winning yep yep yeah it's as if you didn't have him uh confident enough
00:32with the football championship a couple years ago now he's got you as stanley cup champion he's
00:36feeling he's feeling himself oh yeah oh you should what uh you switched the number this year i did
00:41what uh what went into that um i grew up wearing it um felt like i could do it this summer and
00:49a little cachet yeah a little bit cachet um and then i think i tried to last summer but i was
00:54just a little too late with it um so i made sure to do it this year and i grew up wearing it my sister
01:00older sister wear it wore it growing up and um i looked up to her my my whole life so um thought
01:07i'd keep it going that's pretty awesome man yeah it is um so how was your summer because you know
01:14the older guys kind of do summer a little bit differently because they've been at it for a while
01:19yeah but you got a lot of energy yeah right so how long before you got back into it um
01:25not too long actually we i stayed in the gym pretty pretty quick um i think the week after
01:34parade uh we were back in the gym um right away but on the ice we waited for a bit um needed some
01:42time off there and i don't think i started till i think late july and into august um it's important
01:50just to stay off the ice it's not it's not even close i gotta get on the golf course gotta experience
01:55all the other things so um yeah it took some time off it was nice so going to the gym and running and
02:01it's a different animal to getting on those skates for sure you can't it's it's even it's like hard to
02:07explain like you could do so much in the gym but then you get on the ice and you still
02:11feel like crap like it's crazy um it's uh something about you know how unnatural the skating stride is
02:19and um you know it's weird but uh you try your best and obviously the best you can do in the gym it'll
02:27obviously help on the ice but um yeah what uh what did you lay out for yourself this summer like you
02:34came out like gangbusters last year um but you know this the start of your career where you're
02:40getting to the fold of this really good team what do you what are the expectations you put on yourself
02:44to come into this year um i think just keep doing what i'm doing i don't think i have to change much
02:49um you know obviously just keep doing what i'm doing offensively i think that's uh that's what my
02:58skill is i think are what i'm really good at and then obviously defensively being there too because
03:04you know everyone else is is dialed in on that and i think that's what makes us so good is that
03:09um there's not one guy on this team that's just solely focused on offense and um you know it's it's a
03:17six-man unit out there and um definitely hard to play against as you've seen so yes yeah for sure
03:23was there uh would you did you surprise yourself with like how much you picked up at the level like
03:30just the production that came right away like was there an adapt adaption to the speed of the game
03:34yeah for sure um i think it took me a little bit obviously the games two years ago helped a lot i
03:41think it was only a couple um that helped just kind of get my feet wet and just kind of experience what
03:47it's like and then last year just kind of knowing what it was like from the year prior just was able
03:54to kind of get myself ready in that summer and um kind of knew what what to expect and um you know
04:00took i think a couple games but you know i knew you know with the players around me and the coaching
04:05staff and all this that they'll they'll help me get to where i want to go and um you know i felt like
04:11it was pretty seamless is that was that a change for you everybody playing uh being on ice having to
04:16play defense the way these guys do uh maybe a little bit to the level these guys do it's it's
04:22sick right it's crazy it's really impressive and um they're they're at the top for for a reason and
04:29um you know maybe maybe in college or maybe high school you know maybe a couple guys are stretching
04:37the zone a little better but not here that's for sure you um you took uh the cup back to your
04:42hometown uh you want can you tell us a little bit about it uh yeah it was a great day
04:46um definitely a day i remember my whole life um took it to uh the local rink i grew up playing at
04:54and saw all the coaches that i grew up playing with it was super cool all the old friends and
05:00um all the families that uh i was around with the my whole life so it was really cool doing that and
05:06then took it to uh sandy memorial too which was um really cool i thought uh thought we'd just do that
05:14just because they didn't get to you know experience uh you know stuff we were get to experience so it
05:20felt like we should should have done that and um super thankful we were able to so um then finished
05:26the night off with a brewery at night of course how many breweries went in the cup oh god too many
05:34that cup is drank all over the world yeah oh yeah does the keeper of the cup look exhausted when he's
05:41around you guys is he is like does he look like he's like gotta keep it sit like where is the
05:46keeper of the cup when you have the cup he's within five feet of you all night does he tap you
05:54yeah exactly no like actually like that's his job so um does he have the white gloves on at all times
06:00no no i just picture i picture you get ready to do something crazy because it's hockey hockey
06:05players are just and he's getting ready to do something the guy taps well yeah exactly or if
06:11someone if i'm not there and someone walks up to the cup and like tries to pick it up he's stepping
06:15in there he's ready for it you know like he's they're dialed in and um you know but their job
06:22is so cool i think um being able to experience all the parties that go on and um you know just try to
06:28treat him as well as possible just because what he's doing is is so nice so well man hey that's a
06:34that's a hell of a first full season that's a congratulations and uh we're looking forward
06:39to watching you too uh with the cats man thank you appreciate it maggie samuskevich joining us here
06:44at florida panthers
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