00:0297.1 Valenti Enrico, Mark Ryan in for Mike today.
00:09I am the village idiot.
00:12I stuck my neck out on the wings about three and a half weeks ago,
00:16and I said they're going to make the playoffs.
00:18And it was like, silly, Mark, you don't know.
00:21We've been through this before.
00:22How do you not realize what's going to happen here?
00:25And I said, look, different coach, different season, different players.
00:31No, no, no, indeed.
00:32And let me tell you, the lesson that I learned is that Detroit knows.
00:39Detroit, I don't know what a collapse smells like,
00:41but you guys can smell it a while away.
00:45It was in the air.
00:46I didn't believe it was going to happen.
00:48I said, there's a lot of you people, 77% of you,
00:51told me that they weren't going to make the playoffs.
00:54And I said, 77% of you, we're going to be apologized.
00:58Oh, boy.
01:01It is of no small coincidence that I find myself here today to face the music from you.
01:06But there is good news.
01:09You have all gotten a promotion you never saw coming.
01:12Did you realize you were going to get a promotion today?
01:14Maybe not.
01:15But the promotion is right in your lap.
01:19You are now Steve Eisenman.
01:20You have at your controls the ability to press the buttons necessary to make change.
01:29Now, one of those buttons is a self-nuke job.
01:34First of all, I'm sorry.
01:36I didn't mean to interrupt.
01:37I'm just laughing because I do remember those shows.
01:40And it was like, you know, he's just going to have to learn the hard way that fat meat ain't
01:45as greasy.
01:46I jumped off a diving board for a pool that had no water.
01:49Okay?
01:50You're going to go through this, I'm sure, with your son.
01:53You know what?
01:53You're just not going to listen to me.
01:55So you're going to learn the hard way.
01:57Go for it.
01:57Do you ever actually hope?
01:59Like, okay, this is where my wife and I are different.
02:01For the record, I wanted you to be right, but I saw it, and you had the numbers, and you
02:07had the data, and you had, you guys don't understand it.
02:10They got a 76% chance.
02:14Six out of six teams who had 76 points on this date had made the playoffs before now, and they're
02:18like, no, man, but we've lived here.
02:21We've lived through this.
02:22Do you ever, with a young one, if they're ever not listening, this is where my wife and I differ.
02:27Do you ever kind of, like, hope, not that he gets really banged up, but a little scrape, just so
02:33he learns a lesson?
02:34Do you hope for that?
02:35Oh, yeah.
02:36Oh, I got that all the time.
02:37When I was growing up, my father was like, and now you're listening to me.
02:40That was his phrase.
02:41Like, you didn't listen to me in peacetime, but now you're listening to me now that you're all banged up.
02:47Okay.
02:48Well, now I'm listening to you after I've died of blunt force trauma, because the Red Wings have lost.
02:53The promotion for you is, you guys are now Steve Eisenman.
02:56Congratulations.
02:57You get to be at the controls of your favorite team, your favorite hockey team.
03:03I don't know.
03:03Look, the Red Wings might not have a lot of people claiming them as their favorite team in town these
03:07days, but you get to be at the controls.
03:10You're Steve Eisenman.
03:12What do you do?
03:13The way Rico and I see it, there's three options.
03:16You can just make a few tweaks because we're close.
03:19We're close.
03:19It's 97 points.
03:21If we were in the West, we'd be in, but you're not, so you're not.
03:28That option, making a few tweaks, comes with it, some pros and cons.
03:33Make at least one significant change.
03:36You're going to take one big swing here this offseason.
03:39Okay.
03:41Comes with it, a list of pros and cons.
03:43Or, the third option, burning the place down.
03:49You're going nuclear.
03:50No one is safe.
03:52Nuke the entire thing.
03:54The pros and cons of that approach.
03:57Well, that's the route that I'm going.
03:59I'm nuking the entire thing, and I'm nuking the entire thing, and I know what the con is.
04:04The con is that you're really not making the playoffs now.
04:08For probably another three years.
04:10Three years plus.
04:11Unless you do what Pittsburgh did.
04:14Montreal had the worst record in the NHL three years ago.
04:17They passed the Red Wings last year.
04:20They taught you.
04:21The Vegas Knights' success taught you that if you're doing it the right way, it doesn't take forever in a
04:28day.
04:29I do not understand the apologists in this city who say, look, man, it needs 13 years to work.
04:38I don't get that.
04:39If my hands are on the controls, nobody is safe.
04:43Nobody's earned the luxury of safety today.
04:46Now, I'm with you.
04:46And of the three options, I mean, I would love to say tear the thing down, but I don't think
04:51that people realize, or maybe some do, that if you do that, you're probably going to be bad.
04:57And you're going to miss out on the playoffs for another three years.
05:00And how is that any different from the way they've been?
05:03At least you know.
05:04Right.
05:05But at least you know, okay, I'm going to temper my expectations.
05:08Because I do think that after getting booed off the ice on fan appreciation day, losing the lead, and just
05:16finally ending it, that had to be heart-wrenching throughout the entire organization.
05:21I don't think that you can just, you know, make a few minor moves.
05:25Because you've been doing that.
05:28I, all the people that are down, you know, in Grand Rapids, I'm just going to start to assume that
05:33you're not ever going to be NHL type of player.
05:37Like, you'd be like a 4A player in baseball.
05:40You're good, but you're never going to really contribute to help this team out.
05:45Now, I'd like to think that you can make that one significant move.
05:48Because if you tear the whole thing down, that reaches, in my opinion, a whole new conversation.
05:53Because then who gets to tear the thing down?
05:56So that's where, if you're going to keep status quo and Iserman steer your guy, then you've got to go
06:03for that big swing.
06:04That you've got to take option B.
06:06Because you've got to bring in somebody.
06:08And maybe it's taking the C off of Larkin and giving it to somebody else.
06:13You've got to do something.
06:14And in my opinion, I'm open to every trade possible.
06:19There are no sacred cows on this team.
06:21If you make a good enough deal, I'm listening.
06:24I'm taking every phone call from every team.
06:28Because I've got to do something.
06:30Because this isn't working.
06:31See, I've been going on 10 years since you made the playoffs.
06:36What used to be hockey town, we have now degraded to can you just make the playoff town.
06:44That's it.
06:45Like, it used to be about winning titles.
06:47We just want to be a part of the postseason where everybody makes it, it seems like.
06:52And you're not.
06:53For 10 years.
06:54Whether it's lack of first-round picks.
06:57Whether it's whatever.
06:58You're in the East, and this is tough, and it's difficult.
07:02It doesn't matter.
07:04You're not making it.
07:06And I think we talked about a pre-show.
07:07It's almost mathematically impossible to not make the playoffs in the NHL for 10 straight years.
07:13I've done the math for you, ladies and gentlemen.
07:15In a league in which half the teams make the playoffs,
07:18the odds of missing the playoffs 10 years in a row are 0.01%.
07:25That is 99.9% chance you make it at least one year.
07:30That is a 1 in 1,000 chance.
07:32To which people say,
07:33No, that stat doesn't account for how crappy our rosters were.
07:37You're making my point.
07:39Thank you very much.
07:40It's 1 in 1,000 that you miss the playoffs in a league in which half the entire league makes
07:46the playoffs.
07:461 in 1,000 that you do that for 10 years.
07:49That is embarrassing.
07:51It is embarrassing.
07:53Rico, I think there's 1A on the team.
07:56And it's Mo.
07:58I think Mo is the 1A on the team.
08:01If you were going to say,
08:03Resident hockey expert Kenny agrees with this,
08:05If you were going to say there's an untouchable,
08:08you could say Mo.
08:10He's the closest.
08:11I'm so ticked off.
08:12There are no untouchables right now.
08:14I'm going to tell you this.
08:15If I'm making a trade involving Dylan Larkin,
08:18I'm getting the better player back in that deal.
08:20I'll give you a Dylan Larkin and a first for something better than Dylan Larkin.
08:24But the last 10 years,
08:26everybody that's won the Cup has had a superstar.
08:28You're not even getting off the starting block
08:31because you don't have a superstar.
08:33No, you don't.
08:34And whenever you get ready to make a decision or you think,
08:37you know what, man, we don't really need to do this.
08:39They should replay the end of that game.
08:41And let's just turn up the volume and listen to the booze.
08:44This is what the people,
08:45the people still believe in this team.
08:48They still want this team to win
08:50because they went to fan appreciation day.
08:53They went,
08:54they still wanted to believe that you,
08:56even though it was a,
08:57I think a 6% chance,
08:59it was still a chance.
09:01And then you thought, okay,
09:02we just got to keep pace with Ottawa.
09:04Until you didn't.
09:05And then the booze came because people were hurt.
09:08The booze came because people were frustrated.
09:10That's why.
09:11This town will embrace this city.
09:14I mean,
09:14they will embrace this team.
09:16They just need them to win.
09:18They just need to get to,
09:19think about it.
09:21It used to be about winning Stanley Cups.
09:24It is now,
09:25can we just make the playoffs?
09:28That's where the bar is right now.
09:30It's pretty sad,
09:31but you know,
09:32Kenny,
09:33I don't know puck.
09:34So I'll leave that to you.
09:35Oh,
09:35I hate that.
09:36I heard you guys going to know that the other day.
09:38You don't know.
09:39You don't know puck,
09:40man.
09:40You don't know puck.
09:41Well,
09:41I'll tell you this.
09:42I set a definition for a sports success in this city this year.
09:46And here was the definition.
09:47You have at least one general manager have the cojones to make a big move.
09:52Check.
09:52Ding.
09:53Frambois Valdez.
09:54You made the big move.
09:56Number two,
09:57have at least one of our teams make the championship series.
10:00Could still happen.
10:01Detroit Pistons.
10:02Number three,
10:04they just ruined it.
10:05For the first seasonal time in this city's history,
10:09have all four teams make the playoffs in the same seasonal year.
10:13The Red Wings have screwed that up again.
10:17And I've got,
10:18I'm in the no mercy mode right now.
10:19So you're talking from January.
10:20Yeah.
10:21Like this seasonal year.
10:22I was about to say there was another team that screwed it up.
10:25So it wasn't just the Red Wings.
10:26It was another seasonal year.
10:27Right.
10:28So 2026 Lions season coming up.
10:31Right.
10:31I gotcha.
10:32Okay.
10:32It's never happened in the history of this city.
10:34Same seasonal year.
10:35They blew it.
10:36And they,
10:37they continue to blow it.
10:38And I have not experienced anything that I would equate with hockey town.
10:43Since I've been here,
10:44you're telling me it's hockey town.
10:46I haven't felt it.
10:47I haven't seen it.
10:48So we asked this question,
10:50uh,
10:50three options,
10:52option a option.
10:53One minor tweaks,
10:55option to trade for a big name or get a big name in here.
10:59Free agency wise or option three,
11:02blow this thing up,
11:03tear it down to the studs.
11:042,
11:044,
11:048,
11:055,
11:053,
11:059,
11:059,
11:067,
11:069,
11:067.
11:07Take your phone calls.
11:08That's next.
11:0997.
11:09One.
11:10One.
11:10One.
11:10One.
11:10One.
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