00:00Late last night at the AAC, this man was there.
00:03The Jake Reitma fan club is fired up.
00:06We're commercial-free in the expressway.
00:09Big extra plug ticket giveaway coming up.
00:11Ask Reddit, followed by Brad Sham on who he wants the Cowboys to take at 8 o'clock.
00:16Jake Reitma in studio here on Sean and RJ.
00:19Get in there with the kids.
00:20After the call on ESPN.
00:22And they had the hockey games going out front, by the way.
00:24And the 4-2 win to split with Minnesota at the AAC, I was worried after the first period.
00:33I thought it should be 3-0, 3-1, if not for Jake Ottinger, and then things turned around.
00:39Take us inside the building for game two.
00:41Well, you're exactly right, Sean Sharif, because you know why the Dallas Stars were in that first period?
00:46Because Otter's better!
00:47No, I do think that there was almost a, you could feel and see Otter gaining confidence
00:54with every high-danger chance that Minnesota had in the first period.
00:59So depending on however your mindset is, you know, optimistic that, hey, all of a sudden Otter settled in,
01:05and that's so important, obviously, in the playoffs,
01:08combined with the direction that the game took as far as physicality.
01:12And 30 total penalty minutes, pretty insane.
01:15Some of them, I thought the officiating overall was relatively poor.
01:20Poor on both sides, really.
01:22But the Stars certainly took more advantage of the opportunities on special teams.
01:27Penalty kill was great.
01:28They had a crucial one down the stretch, and then obviously the two power play goals as well.
01:32Did you have a carryover worry and feeling after game one,
01:36or just the nature of hockey, the nature of the Stars starting off a series, you flushed it?
01:41I felt pretty confident that the Stars were going to put forth their best effort.
01:45I think there was a lot of, you could feel kind of the anxiety in that first period,
01:49especially with how poorly Dallas played in the middle of the ice.
01:53A lot of those chances were generated from Minnesota for their ability to create in the neutral zone.
01:58And I was a little bit surprised, because you talk about just the worst recipe for a goalie
02:04that might have struggled a little bit to just allow the opposition to have all those high-danger chances early.
02:10That's when I was feeling very anxious.
02:11But to Otter's credit, he absolutely stood on his head.
02:14And I think, again, you saw Otter gain confidence from that,
02:17and I think you saw the Stars kind of wake up with the way they played in the second period
02:21in particular.
02:22And why shouldn't there be, I guess, more, not panic, but more just general unease
02:27when you see they obviously work him over in game one,
02:30and then in game two it felt like it took Otter playing at his very best
02:34to just not get out of that period trailing for nothing.
02:36Well, I think goalie said it best in the postgame that game two, I think,
02:39is just indicative of what this series is going to be.
02:42And I know we've made a lot of the NHL postseason format,
02:46but you just have to get in the mindset that this is like a conference final.
02:50And it's not indicative with a trip to the cup on the line,
02:54but the quality of play from both of these teams, night in and night out,
02:58you're going to get games like we had in game two,
03:00and I think game one is much more of an outlier.
03:04And to your point, why should Stars fans feel confident?
03:08Because you have the big guns, you have the players,
03:11the skill to go toe-to-toe with a really good team like the Minnesota Wild,
03:14and there's going to be nights like last night where offensively they generate chances.
03:20You know, it's like a boxing match.
03:22Heavyweights exchanging big-time blows,
03:24and ultimately the Stars are the team standing last.
03:27But in a series, I said Stars and Seven from the beginning,
03:30and I think last night was indicative, again, of a seven-game series.
03:34And again, two quality teams that are two of the best three teams in the entire NHL,
03:39and depending on how you look at it, I think it's a shame they're playing the first round.
03:42Are you worried off last night that this thing gets kind of dirty?
03:47Yes, yes.
03:48I mean, we saw so many.
03:50I'm happy about it because I love that.
03:50You love that.
03:51I love that.
03:52It did feel, it felt like it had an old-school feel.
03:55And that hit from Colin Blackwell in the middle of the ice,
03:59that ignited this Stars team.
04:02And you look at points of how they turned it around,
04:05I think you have to put a lot of stock into that particular play.
04:09As the series goes on, that woke this Dallas Stars team up.
04:14And I think we're going to see a lot more of that.
04:15But to your point, we're going to see some of the BS, too.
04:18I mean, you've got Miko Rantanen dishing to Matt Duchesne
04:22on one of the prettier goals you will see.
04:24And was there a little shove after the play?
04:27Sure.
04:27But Joel Erickson going into the Stars' celebration after a goal?
04:32Like, that was kind of Bush League to me.
04:34And the fact that the Wild ended up on the power play is ridiculous.
04:38You know, I'm up there, you know, I've got to behave
04:41because there's very important people up there in the press box.
04:43But I'm coming unglued a little bit because I just could not fathom that.
04:47You're foaming.
04:47You're foaming.
04:48I am.
04:48I am.
04:48And then the...
04:50Foligno tried to kill Harley.
04:51Oh, Foligno.
04:52Oh, both of those guys, man.
04:53I'm just getting fired up.
04:54But the way he put Harley in a headlock is a dangerous play in and of itself.
04:58But combined with where it happened on the ice where you've got the short boards
05:02coming together with the wild bench, he used that as a way to pile drive him
05:07into the boards.
05:08Very dirty play, as Razor said on the Victory Plus telecast.
05:12Dirtier than a urinal cake.
05:14That's a good one.
05:15A what?
05:15A urinal cake.
05:16What's a urinal?
05:17Those little things.
05:18You know those things in the urinal cage.
05:19He said the play was dirtier than a urinal cake.
05:21I didn't know what a urinal cake was, yeah.
05:23Jake Rima, Stars Insider, in studio after the 4-2 win last night.
05:29In terms of Gullitson, are you getting a feel for him coaching in the postseason?
05:36I know we always want to take it back to DeBoer.
05:38We saw the way you were there at the presser for the way that he didn't throw
05:42Ottinger under the bus after Game 1.
05:45Your impressions of him so far after covering Year 1?
05:49It's just so steady.
05:51And it's focused to a point of the bottom line is I was brought here to get this
05:57team to the Stanley Cup.
05:58And I think when you have a coaching change, maybe the NHL a little bit outstanding from
06:03that because they change coaches all the time, but for a coach to take over a team with such
06:09sustained success and his only mission being get over the hump, that's some serious expectations.
06:17But I think he's taken them in stride, and that perpetuates amongst the rest of the team with the veteran
06:23leadership.
06:24And then you combine it with some of the young guys that can be your energy plugs, like Justin Riscovian
06:30that's ready to fight anybody out there that brings that extra edge.
06:34It really feels like they check a lot of boxes, and it starts at the top with Gullitson.
06:39Although I am just waiting for a Gullitson freakout because he's had some of those when he was the head
06:44coach
06:44with the Calgary Flames.
06:46He had just an all-timer, you know, not meltdown, but just a get into him.
06:51But he hasn't had that yet.
06:52He's just steady, cool, calm, and collective, focused, and he's going to get the most out of the Dallas Stars.
06:57How did you catch up afterwards with in the locker room?
07:00Well, Colin Blackwell talked about the hit, and everybody wanted to know about that
07:03because it really did change the entire game.
07:07And, you know, we talk about football guys, but he's just a hockey guy.
07:11You know, he said, oh, yeah, the opportunity presented itself, and it was just, you know,
07:15we talk about hospital balls, like if you're a quarterback throwing it over the middle,
07:18that kind of pass, a long stretch pass into the neutral ice like that, and who was it?
07:24It was Yakov Trenin, who is kind of, not a goon, but he led the NHL in hits himself.
07:28He was put in a tough situation there.
07:31To receive the pass, Blackwell's right there, runs through him.
07:34And then I always love hearing from Robo because Robo's just, he's a goofball,
07:39and I don't think enough people know the personality with him.
07:42And, you know, shout-out to our guy Mack, Mack Englund.
07:46Mack Englund, yeah.
07:47He asked Robo if it meant a little bit more scoring that goal considering who you're playing.
07:54The Minnesota Wild, and then the obvious general manager, Bill Guerin,
07:57who left Robo off the Olympic roster.
08:00He didn't take the bait.
08:01He just said, oh, yeah.
08:03But it was a good question.
08:03I liked the question.
08:04I was here for it.
08:05How many Minnesota fans evaded?
08:07Not as many as I thought.
08:09Very.
08:10Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.
08:11They're all here.
08:11They already moved here.
08:13They became Stars fans.
08:14They moved.
08:15Good point.
08:15But I was a little bit nervous.
08:17I mean, obviously I'm going to do my usual complaint,
08:19because that's all you ever do, Reitman.
08:21You're so negative.
08:21You just complained.
08:22But the 8.50 start time, I was worried.
08:25It did nothing to deter the energy.
08:27I think the Cowboy Margarita glasses pregame, I heard from a good source.
08:32They sold out in 10 minutes.
08:34The crowd was hyped.
08:35They were ready.
08:36And the YouTube got reinstated today.
08:40Yeah, how did I get dragged for that?
08:42That's ridiculous.
08:43Well, I mean, you got us in trouble.
08:45You exposed us to NHL regulations.
08:48It was rather reckless.
08:50And the tolls were not happy about it.
08:53Well, you know, there's no such thing as bad publicity.
08:55So if you guys are talking about it.
08:57We literally lost publicity.
08:58Well, the station did.
08:59Oh, for you.
09:00Yeah, yeah.
09:01Big me.
09:01That was a big day for you.
09:04No, I don't know if you actually had it on the TV.
09:06That's just what Fred said.
09:08And so I was taken based off of what Fred had said.
09:10What would he nickname you?
09:12I'm not doing this.
09:13I'm not doing this.
09:15Stars hat Jake.
09:17Yeah.
09:17You guys want to manufacture things?
09:19That's just not the way it is.
09:21You know, me and Fred stick together, man.
09:23What's your key for game three?
09:25Oh, man.
09:26I think the Stars, there's something to not getting caught up in the chippiness.
09:31Because Minnesota fell victim to it.
09:34And I guess you could say the Stars had too.
09:36They had 14 penalty minutes.
09:37So it's not like they were blameless in that.
09:39But I wanted, and the question was asked, not directly how I would have asked it, but
09:45essentially how do you walk that fine line and balance between being chippy, being edgy,
09:50being physical without costing your team.
09:53And I think guys like Miko's taking some dumb penalties.
09:57And he's got to get back to just being what makes him an elite-level scorer.
10:03You saw it with the assist to Duchesne.
10:05When the puck is on Miko's stick and the offensive attack, good things are going to happen.
10:11So focus on that component of the game.
10:13And I think Otter is going to always be an X-factor.
10:16It's playoff hockey.
10:17Goaltending is going to be an X-factor.
10:18If you get the type of performance that you got from him last night, and not saying they're
10:23going to get that every time, but it's like a pitcher.
10:26Go out there, put forth a quality start, give your chance to the team to win.
10:29That's what I hope to see from Ottinger.
10:31And the Stars' defense has to be better.
10:32Again, a lot of neutral zone mishaps that allowed for some high dangers for the Minnesota Wild.
10:38And some dumb penalties.
10:40I mean, you can't take a penalty of three to go.
10:41Oh, yeah.
10:43Too many men on the ice.
10:44Too many men, yeah.
10:44Which, oddly enough, it wasn't the most egregious too many men in the final five minutes.
10:49Because then Minnesota did.
10:50Minnesota did the same thing.
10:52Thank you, brother.
10:53Fantastic.
10:53We'll talk to you after game three.
10:55Jake underscore Ritma on X for all.
10:59Your Dallas Stars info.
11:00Well,
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