00:00So that was cool. That was Saturday night. We'll get to that in a second. 248-539-9797. Owen Tippett
00:06just blowing by everybody and having whatever he wants.
00:10We open the show talking a little Michigan hoops because John is decked out in his maize and blue for
00:15his basketball team, his hockey team, maybe even his women's basketball team.
00:19But we asked a question about the men and it was your investment level with a group of ragtag mercenaries.
00:25Are you enjoying this as much as you have in the past, more so? Or is it not the same?
00:32You have a harder time connecting.
00:34Let's get to Gordon on a cell. Gordon, you're on 97.1.
00:37Happy Monday, gentlemen. Victory Monday. Go blue. Just wanted to say the emotional attachment is definitely high.
00:44It probably took me until January to recognize the name to the jersey number with the team just with the
00:49turnover.
00:49But I've enjoyed this so much. My son's four years old. We watch every game. Then the next day we
00:55hit Bleacher Report, watch the locker room stuff. It's just been outstanding.
00:59It has been a lot of fun. And trust me, I think everybody else is in January trying to figure
01:04out who it was that was on the court as well.
01:07Some of that is just, hey, college basketball for some of us doesn't start until football's done.
01:14Yeah, it's just been outstanding. And John, just a side note, my little guy's four. He can recite the victors
01:20perfectly.
01:21When I was practicing with it, my wife's like, you should be working on schoolwork with him.
01:25I said, honey, that's what his teachers get paid for.
01:27That's right.
01:28Anyway, guys, go blue. Love you guys. Keep doing what you do.
01:31Thanks, Gordon. Keep up the good parenting.
01:34And I think his point about getting attached to a team, winning will do that.
01:39Would you rather have a bunch of three- and four-year guys you know, but they lose and never
01:43win anything?
01:43Or would you rather get attached to a group that's won 35 games?
01:4828 of them are by double digits, including every game in the tournament.
01:52John, winning is contagious. Winning is fun.
01:55They've got a better chance to win this national title than at any point in my life.
01:59That's a generation of Wolverine fans. This is your best chance.
02:03I don't care if they all showed up yesterday to the gym.
02:05But it's probably one of those things like Gordon just talked about.
02:10He didn't really start to get attached until January.
02:13Some even after that.
02:15And I've talked about my love of college football, which is my favorite thing in the world,
02:20was my favorite thing in the world.
02:23The way college sports are now, the business of it,
02:26has taken away the attachment for a lot of fans.
02:30But if your team is in college football, if they're going to the college football playoffs,
02:36I guarantee you, whether it happened at the beginning of the year or it happens at the end of the
02:41year,
02:42you start to get attached because that's what success will do for a team.
02:46And it's the same thing now with college basketball.
02:49It may take a little bit longer, but if you see the new business of sports working out for your
02:55team,
02:56it's a little easier to accept and embrace a few texts.
03:00One points out Illinois was also in the final four in 89 connecting more dots to Michigan's last national title.
03:06There's no attachment of players when they're brand new every single year.
03:09It's the unnamed text.
03:12Cookies calling John obnoxious is hilarious.
03:15How many catios do you have again?
03:17That's Scott and Carlton.
03:18Just one.
03:20Just one.
03:21Just yeah.
03:22Multiple floors.
03:22Yeah, it does have some attractions.
03:25Air controlled.
03:25Yes.
03:29Climate controlled.
03:30Yes.
03:30All that.
03:30Yeah.
03:31Yeah.
03:31A little indoor, a little swimming pool situation.
03:34All of it.
03:37Catnip on on demand.
03:38Yeah.
03:38Like a little waiter that brings it over.
03:40Mm hmm.
03:41Yes.
03:42All right.
03:43So the Michigan stuff is there.
03:44Two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97.
03:47Saturday night.
03:49Saturday night was a joke.
03:53You can tell me you're mad at Steve Iserman.
03:56I'm mad at these players.
03:58When you have multiple home games in this stretch and you're down three nothing and four nothing in these hockey
04:05games, you can say, well, maybe we don't have enough talent to be a playoff team.
04:10And that's a reflection of the general manager.
04:12You should have enough fight to be in these hockey games.
04:14Like, it's a joke to go 10 minutes registering a shot.
04:19It's a joke to play in front of your home fans who want to supply that energy and suffocate them
04:25with your lazy, sloppy play repeatedly.
04:28I'm mad at the players.
04:29If your name's not Alex to bring it most cider or John Gibson, step it up.
04:36This is a collective malaise from this hockey team, and you can bitch about the direction of the team, the
04:43effort, the tenacity.
04:45It's not there from the group.
04:46When your captain says we're mad after losing to Ottawa and then two games later, you're down for nothing at
04:53home to the Flyers.
04:54You weren't mad enough.
04:56I'm upset at these players more than anybody else right now, John.
04:59Well, so we were upset with Steve Eisenman because of the depth of talent.
05:04You lose two guys in Larkin and Kopp, and all of a sudden, hey, things fall apart.
05:09Well, they're back.
05:11They're at full strength.
05:12And Steve Eisenman did go out and get reinforcements at the trade deadline.
05:18And, yeah, we could still talk about the talent level of the team.
05:20But this was a team leading up to those two injuries that was in the playoff mix.
05:28And they're still, quote-unquote, in it.
05:30But what's frustrating is the inconsistency from this team where, yeah, okay, you're playing against Montreal or Ottawa.
05:40And you can't find a way in a got-to-have-it game.
05:44And then all of a sudden, didn't I mention it?
05:46Hey, they're going to draw you right back in because they're going to go to Buffalo and get a win.
05:50Of course.
05:50And they did.
05:51And, by the way, they hadn't scored like a first-period goal in three weeks.
05:54They scored three in the first against Buffalo.
05:56It's like, oh, hey, here you go.
05:57There's enough talent on this team to make the playoffs.
06:00I firmly believe that.
06:01But they don't play to it.
06:03They had more talent than Ottawa last Tuesday when they're missing five defensemen.
06:08They had more talent than Philly, who's a young hockey team playing with a little bit of juice.
06:13But make no mistake about it, this Wings roster is better than that Flyers roster.
06:17Yet it's 4-0.
06:20It just doesn't feel like anything lasts with this team.
06:24Because, and you brought this up earlier when we were talking, in regards to Dylan Larkin's comments of, you know,
06:31we're angry after this Ottawa game.
06:34And, okay, so it carries over to Buffalo.
06:36And they play angry.
06:37They play aggressive.
06:37They go out there and they score three goals in the first period.
06:40Hey, there you go.
06:40They take control of the game.
06:41And then they come home and nothing.
06:46Like, they can't keep that same drive game to game.
06:51You know what it actually is?
06:53It's insulting.
06:55Like, they score a few goals at the end to make the Ottawa game 3-2.
07:00They scored a few goals in a flurry to get back in the Flyer game.
07:03It's actually insulting that you only play hockey for five minutes at a time.
07:07That's insulting.
07:08Hold on, to the fan base, you've won twice in your last ten home games.
07:13Two and eight in the last ten games at home.
07:16Inexcusable.
07:17Unacceptable.
07:19And the coach after the game says, they're not working hard nor smart.
07:22How many?
07:23We're 73 games into the season?
07:25That's the thing.
07:25Like, you could be upset at where they are this far into the Iser plan.
07:29And I think that's warranted.
07:31But I'm more upset that these guys don't even play hard game in and game out.
07:35Well, fortunately, they're playing Pittsburgh on the road.
07:39On a back-to-back.
07:40On the road.
07:42I mean, if you want to make a playoff push, then go play on the road.
07:45The idea that this team's stringing together games.
07:49Open lines, 97-1.
07:50On a back-to-back.
07:50On a back-to-back.
07:50On a back-to-back.
07:50On a back-to-back.
Comments