ESPN Analyst Kevin Weekes joins the show to talk about Chaos Cats! He locks in who he believes will have a breakout year and end up a hall of famer. Will these injuries move up players to the front line, will they feel the pressure? With Spencer Knight's trade to the Blackhawks, how taxing is Sergei Bobrovsky's age in his position, is he done with the sport, does this climate take part in his focus? Any word on his extension?
00:00We'll talk to this man who's going to be on the call tonight for Panthers and Blackhawks
00:04on ESPN, 5 o'clock.
00:07You can also, of course, listen to that game right here on FM 104.3 WQM.
00:11Kevin Weeks joining us there on the program.
00:13Kevin, how are you today?
00:15I'm good.
00:16Good morning, SoFlo.
00:17What's going on?
00:17How's everybody doing?
00:18We're doing good.
00:19Feels like a holiday today.
00:21The cats are back.
00:22We're excited.
00:24Does this feel like a holiday to you that the hockey season is finally here?
00:30It depends.
00:31I feel like a holiday when the season's out, and then I feel like a holiday when the season's back.
00:36So, yeah, no, this is an exciting time, man.
00:39I'm pumped.
00:39I'm pumped for the game.
00:41It's great to be back down here.
00:42We live up in New York, but we've got a place down in Miami, so we try to get down here as
00:47much as we can.
00:47But we're really excited, excited for the start of the season.
00:50It's going to be massive.
00:51We have a tripleheader on ESPN, starting, of course, here with the Blackhawks at the Panthers
00:55at 5 p.m. Eastern.
00:56So we're jazzed.
00:58We just had a production meeting downstairs.
01:00And I'm looking forward to it.
01:01I think it's going to be a great night.
01:03Kevin, have you ever had a situation that occurred between Tampa Bay and the Panthers
01:09this past week?
01:11And do you even play?
01:13Like, hockey's weird in that you play teams like that in the preseason.
01:19Yeah.
01:20Well, listen, I can tell you, you know, I was drafted by the Panthers.
01:23I'm always grateful to the Panthers for giving me my opportunity, and then I played for Tampa.
01:26So I know the Battle of Sunshine State.
01:28I know what it is.
01:29It's always been intense, but it's never been as intense as it is now.
01:34But we just spoke about this.
01:35It's funny.
01:36You must have been eavesdropping in our production meeting for the game on ESPN tonight.
01:40I just finished telling our crew, this is the hotbed of hockey right now.
01:47Like, the Sunshine State is where it's at.
01:50Six Stanley Cup Finals appearances between these two teams, between the Panthers, of course,
01:54and the Lightning.
01:55So a ton of respect because the Lightning were out ahead of the Panthers doing their thing.
01:59And the Panthers were like, hold on a second.
02:01I think the sun's a little brighter.
02:03It shines a little hotter down here in South Florida.
02:05So we're going to do our thing.
02:06And they've been to three straight Stanley Cup Finals.
02:08So there's a lot of players and coaches and even the staff of both teams that love competing
02:14against one another.
02:15Over 500 penalty minutes in those two games in the preseason.
02:19I'm sure Dana White was sniffing around to see if he could get some content from those
02:23games for UFC.
02:25But in saying that, no love lost between those two teams, but a lot of respect.
02:30And they're two Stanley Cup contenders.
02:32They're Stanley Cup winning franchises.
02:34And they're competing for attention.
02:35You know, you've got to earn attention down here in Florida.
02:38You can't.
02:38There's so many other things.
02:40You go to the beach.
02:41You can hang.
02:42Go to dinner.
02:43The weather's great.
02:45There's a lot of different opportunities.
02:46There's every different sport.
02:47There's every different entertainment thing.
02:49So you've got to compete for attention down here.
02:52And those two franchises are definitely doing that.
02:55Are the injuries, though, for the Cats?
02:58You know, we're all excited at this opportunity for them to three-peat.
03:01But losing Barkoff, losing Kachucka, we've seen them overcome some stuff.
03:05But how many blows are too many blows for them?
03:09Look, those are huge.
03:11And speaking to Paul Maurice and different people in their group, there's no way to offset
03:15and to say that they're as good a team without those guys.
03:19Those are two amazing players.
03:21Your captain is Sasha Barkoff, is the best 200-foot, two-way player in the game.
03:26And then my guy, Matthew Kachuck, is power forward extraordinaire.
03:30And with those two guys out, that's 180 points from the lineup.
03:33You can't just find 180 points on the street.
03:36It just doesn't happen.
03:37So those are major misses for them.
03:41However, this team is still stacked.
03:45They still know how to win.
03:47They know how to manage the game.
03:50They know how to play situational, which can't be necessarily said for the Dolphins
03:54and not throwing any shade at them.
03:56But the Panthers can manage the game.
03:58They know how.
03:59Hey, listen, if we have to play a more physical style, we can do that.
04:03If we need to tone it back, we can do that.
04:05If we need to be a little bit more aggressive offensively, we can do that.
04:08If we need to kind of slow the game down a little bit, we can do that.
04:11There's something to going on these deep Stanley Cup runs where you learn how to play the game
04:17and different games within the game, game management, as I like to say.
04:21And the Panthers have that.
04:22So I think that'll be very helpful to them.
04:24Also, what I would say, too, and to the listeners is they've got other studs on the team, too.
04:30Look for Mackie Samoskiewicz to have a breakout year, that young kid.
04:33I can kind of go around the horn.
04:35If Erod Rodriguez is healthy, to me, he's a top six skilled forward.
04:40So look out for him to take the next step.
04:42I think they're going to be able to find ways to play around it just based on all the things I just told you.
04:49What do you think a full year Brad Marchand means for them, too?
04:52He comes in, obviously, so many great moments in the postseason.
04:56But now he has the comfort of it.
04:58What do you think that does?
04:59That line with him and Lindell and Lester Reynon, they were magic last year.
05:04They were magic last year.
05:05They were a mismatch against the opposition every shift, especially in the postseason and deeper into the postseason.
05:12Those guys controlled play.
05:13They dictated play.
05:15They made plays.
05:17Yeah, they just tilted the ice heavily in their favor every time they were on the ice.
05:21But Brad Marchand is a baller.
05:24And I love the fact that he's found a way, because people don't recognize, when he came in the league in Boston, he was hardly getting any five-on-five minutes.
05:32He was a penalty killer.
05:33That's how he kind of got in.
05:35And then listen very carefully, because I'm going to enunciate.
05:38He became a shift with an F, shift, disturber, every shift, just to do something disruptive.
05:49So the coaches are like, ah, we've got to keep this guy.
05:52You know, he's making things happen.
05:53And that's before he got to the skill part of what we've seen in what's already a Hall of Fame career.
05:59So I think he's acclimated very well here down in South Florida in speaking to people with the group, off the ice, on the ice.
06:08You can see that, as you guys pointed out.
06:09And here's his ultimate.
06:12I love the fact that he's left some of the shenanigans behind, and he's matured and evolved.
06:16Well, and here's the thing, Brad Marchand's a future Hall of Famer, so you could lock that here, first of all.
06:22And secondly, whenever they play internationally, you know who wants him on his line?
06:28Sidney Crosby.
06:31Sidney Crosby.
06:33Every year for Team Canada wants him on his line whenever it's an international competition.
06:38So you can't get a better endorsement than that.
06:41I mean, that's the ultimate stamp right there.
06:43He's, you know, he's minted just based on that alone, and that says a lot.
06:47Well, I'm getting ready to get in trouble again for asking, because I ask crazy hockey questions.
06:52Go ahead.
06:52Ask him.
06:53My question is, now that you have these frontline guys hurt, everybody moves up a shift.
07:00Yep, true.
07:01Does that put more pressure on the guys that, you know, for the last couple of years, that shift with Marchand has been dominant, but that's like the third shift.
07:09True, true.
07:10If they move up to the second or some of those guys move up into the first shift with those front liners, does that put more pressure on, like, Sam Miskevich and those guys?
07:20Yes.
07:20Because now that was an advantage that this team had that they may not have going into the future.
07:26That's not a crazy question.
07:28That's a great question.
07:30And with that, no, no, that's a certified great question.
07:34I think it wasn't even the first segment.
07:38Hey, listen, maybe this is his redemption segment.
07:41Who knows?
07:41Maybe this is a redemption segment.
07:42That's what we like to say, a redemption segment.
07:45But no, I would say this.
07:48You know what it is.
07:50Certain players thrive in certain roles.
07:52Sometimes you try to give them a little more, they might not be able to handle it.
07:56Sometimes you give them a little less, they might not be able to handle it.
07:59But until you see what they're like in this new role, you can't necessarily know how they're going to perform.
08:07So with that, I would say something that's very important to this Panther team is they have a lot of interchangeability.
08:15There's a lot of interchangeable parts.
08:17Guys that can play different roles.
08:19Guys that can play a different role within a game, within a shift.
08:22But to your question, they'll have to do that for an extended point of time now.
08:25And with that being said, I think only time can determine it.
08:30But if I had to hedge, I still think, I just said this, and you'll hear me say this on the air when we come on in ESPN at 5 p.m.
08:36I think the Florida Panthers, with those injuries, and of course both those players will return at some point this season.
08:45At some point, I believe.
08:47With the injuries.
08:49For me, they're still the team to beat.
08:52That's how bullish I am.
08:53That's how bullish I am on the Panthers.
08:56That's exciting.
08:57Kevin Weeks, you're going to hear him on the call today or watch him on the call today on ESPN, Panthers and Blackhawks.
09:02Fascinating goalie matchup here.
09:04Of course, we all have a lot of love for Spencer Knight.
09:05The Panthers made that big trade for Seth Jones last year, which was really, it felt like, Kevin, Seth was great, but it also felt like a big endorsement.
09:13Hey, we feel like Sergei Bobrovsky can keep this going, even at 37.
09:17How long can he keep this going?
09:19I mean, he works like a maniac.
09:20We're all too familiar with that, but at what point do you, what kind of taxing is this position on a person of his age?
09:29It's taxing on anybody at any age, but for him, he has the fountain of youth.
09:36Truth be told, we have the same agent.
09:38I was talking to our agent yesterday here.
09:40Actually, we were talking to him, and he said, Bob's not done.
09:43So, for as hard as he works and the way in which he lives, it's almost, pardon me, I'm going to say this in a complimentary way.
09:55He lives his life and his approach to the craft and training and recovery and all those things almost in a monk-like way.
10:04He's kind of like a monk.
10:06And that's hyper-disciplined, hyper-committed to everything he has to do, from stretching to working out to lifting to recovery to practice to everything.
10:18He's gotten to a point, he was like that in Columbus, and he's even dialed that up even more since coming down here to South Florida.
10:28And then I would also say, too, being down here, it's regenerative, man.
10:33It's restorative.
10:34You regenerate when you're down here if you play it right just based on the climate, just based on how warm it is.
10:42You have the ocean to go and take sea baths.
10:44There's a lot of different things you can do.
10:45And I can tell you, I have Caribbean parents, man.
10:48My parents are, you know, from two hours, two and a half hours south of here in beautiful Barbados.
10:52So I know the difference when you're in a tropical climate and how your body feels.
10:58And throughout the course of a year, I played here and I played, you know, in Tampa.
11:01I know the way the body feels when you're living in Florida.
11:04It's very different than the way in which your body feels when you're living in, say, Winnipeg or Minnesota or what have you.
11:12It's a big advantage.
11:13And that's not a slight.
11:15My wife's family is from Alberta, man.
11:17She's from Calgary.
11:17So that's not a slight, but it is a huge advantage when you're focused and you're living and playing in a place like this.
11:25And that's been the case for Bobrovsky so far.
11:27So I don't see any let up for him.
11:30And hey, if you're Spencer Knight, just to be fair, the Panthers drafted you.
11:33This is a great opportunity to come back and play against a team that gave you a chance and believed in you and helped you become an NHLer.
11:41So there's a big opportunity for Spencer Knight tonight as well.
11:45Did your agent have any interesting tidbits on Bob's extension?
11:48None that I can report at this time.
11:52It's none that I can report at this time.
11:54That all seems to be quiet at this point.
11:57But listen, for the continuity, you know, there's certain things you don't mess with.
12:02And they've been very successful, the Panthers, at re-signing a lot of their players, which I respect.
12:09That says a lot to me about the commitment of Mr. and Mrs. Viola to the program.
12:14And you guys know this.
12:15We have all the different sports down here in South Florida.
12:17Sometimes you see a player and then you're like, hey, what happened?
12:20Ah, the team didn't, ah, we didn't want, da, da, da.
12:23Too much term, too much this.
12:25You need that continuity.
12:26I mean, that's what the Heat have had for the longest time when they've been at their best with the Godfather.
12:31You know, when they're having those runs on their teams, you know Alonzo Borning was a part of the equation.
12:37You know, you know Bam's a part of the equation.
12:39You know UD was a part.
12:40You know what I mean?
12:40I can kind of go up and down.
12:42And some players came and went.
12:44But the identity, a lot of the identity stayed the same because you had those people.
12:49Coach Spoh, I can kind of go on and on.
12:51And that's what we're seeing here with the Panthers.
12:53So, if I were them, at some point, I think, and both sides can, hopefully, they can find an agreement because he's been a great fit down here.
13:03He's a future Hall of Famer, too.
13:05Absolutely.
13:06Kevin Weeks, thanks so much for joining us.
13:07We appreciate it.
13:08Go catch him on the ESPN broadcast today.
13:10They got a triple header coming up starting at 5 o'clock, Panthers and Blackhawks.
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