- 2 days ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00I've just completed my ballot for next year's Jack Adams Award
00:05because I've already decided who did the best coaching job in the league
00:08and I just don't know what to do.
00:10I don't know where to send it.
00:11That's completely reasonable.
00:13I feel like John Hines is somebody who has, I mean, look, they're in tough.
00:17He's the coach of Minnesota, by the way.
00:20They're in tough with Dallas and Colorado in that division.
00:23Winnipeg will probably be back.
00:24I mean, what more does the guy have to do?
00:28He's up against it.
00:29Well, and they did win a round in the playoffs.
00:31Well.
00:33So, I mean, you want to consider that.
00:36I mean, that'll help too.
00:38Do you want to kick at this?
00:40I mean, it's kind of too obvious.
00:43Yeah, I mean, I was really, I mean, there was nothing I could do about not being here yesterday.
00:50But I was really bummed out.
00:52No pun intended.
00:53You asked me, I think on Monday, when is the Jack Adams going to get on it?
00:57I had no idea.
00:58I haven't ever seen a schedule of when they're, because I think they're trying to surprise.
01:03There isn't one.
01:04The winners, right?
01:04So they just, like.
01:05No.
01:06They're not trying to surprise the winners because that's why John Cooper and Marcus Foligno were in hospitals when they
01:13were shown to have learned that they won.
01:15So they knew.
01:16Okay.
01:18Well, I mean, somebody knew.
01:20Right.
01:21Well, that's what I mean.
01:21They said Foligno, they said, was surprised to find out.
01:24But the whole, every one of those videos to me has been presented.
01:28The trophies, the trophies, the NHL trophies has been presented as we, you know, we spread.
01:33But obviously the people who, you know, whoever counted the votes know.
01:37Somebody knows to go track these people down at these charitable appearances.
01:40But they're being presented on social media as we showed up and told John Cooper he won Coach of the
01:46Year.
01:47Look how happy he is.
01:48So.
01:49Look at us.
01:50Anyway.
01:50But I heard about that, obviously, and you had asked me, and I had no idea, and it turned out
01:54to be yesterday, and I wasn't going to be here.
01:58All I really have to say is that every time, including earlier this week, when you might have asked on
02:03the air, when are they announcing Coach of the Year?
02:06When do we get our money?
02:07I said, right, right, right.
02:08I said, I don't know.
02:10And you said, very matter-of-factly, like you have probably dozens of times, he's going to win, right?
02:16And I'd be like, I think so, but the whole conversation, every time I saw a conversation about that award,
02:25and, you know, surely, I tweeted a lot of this, surely there's people that watch way more of the intermissions
02:31and pregame stuff on the national telecast, both in Canada and the U.S., than I do.
02:36Well, that's good.
02:37But I watch a fair amount of it.
02:39You know, I saw a half a dozen or more conversations about awards.
02:43And whenever Coach of the Year would come up, doesn't matter if it's TSN or Sportsnet or TNT or ESPN,
02:51someone, if there's three people there, one person says something about John Cooper and the other two nod and go,
02:57you know, that sounds right.
02:59And that was the conversation.
03:01Never one time did I see, this doesn't mean it didn't happen, again, because I'm not watching and monitoring everything,
03:07but I have a feeling we would have seen it if someone,
03:10remember when Kevin Bieksa went hard on Darlene as Norris, right, that got to us.
03:18It wasn't hard to find.
03:20If someone ever sat sitting at one of those desks discussing the Coach of the Year, ever raised their hand
03:26and went,
03:26guys, the Sabres have been in the playoffs in 15 years, they were in last place on December 8th,
03:32and they just blew past the Tampa Bay Lightning and are going to win the division, what are we doing
03:37here?
03:37If that ever happened, I never saw it.
03:40What I saw was conversation after conversation where Anson Carter would say, you know, John Cooper's never won it,
03:48and the other three people on the day, you know, that sounds right.
03:53Can't argue with that.
03:53And that was it.
03:54Like, that was the depth of the conversation.
03:56And so I would always say something about that, hoping that those guys being the national broadcasters weren't going to
04:05sway the thing so heavily
04:07that Cooper would just win it anyway, but he did.
04:10So I'm not that surprised because the broadcasters vote and the biggest broadcasters in the hockey world, mostly to me,
04:21again, if there's exceptions, I apologize.
04:23But the people that I saw talking about it for the last three months all sounded like John Cooper's got
04:30to win this.
04:31It's an outrage that he never has.
04:32And so I was the littlest bit worried that Lindy wasn't going to, you know, bring it home because of
04:39that.
04:40And it turned out to be correct.
04:43I mean, you watched less intermission content than other people.
04:49I watched Top Chef.
04:51It never once came up on Top Chef.
04:52Right.
04:53Like Tom, Gale, Kristen.
04:55I'm the best we got in the room.
04:56Nobody ever mentioned Lindy once.
04:59You know, so I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't know what to do with it other than, you
05:04know, it seems like since like early in the year, people decided John Cooper had to win the coach of
05:10the year and they did it.
05:11So congrats to them.
05:13Good job getting that home for everyone and ignoring the entire hockey season.
05:19I both, I was, I was here yesterday on this, spent most of my day on this.
05:26I both want to be done with it and never stop talking about it because it's just, it's just amazing
05:36that you could be given the, the honor of voting for these awards and just basically like screw it.
05:47I don't know.
05:48I'm going to, I'm going to vote based on who won the four nations cup two years ago.
05:52So like just, right, how, I want my Heisman vote back.
05:57I do watch a few college games.
05:59I'm ahead of some of these people.
06:00I think in terms of seriousness, I don't know.
06:03You get to a point where I even got to this point last evening where I was like, all right,
06:07well, I've complained about this all day.
06:09I've said what I needed to say and it's just whatever it's, I admit that I care about it because
06:14I was going to win money.
06:15If Lindy had won, I can't deny that that's part of the equation, but it's just like, it's for me,
06:23a lot of things happen in sports.
06:25Coaches make decisions.
06:27Officials make decisions.
06:28I can't do anything about that.
06:30I have no real place to tell you that, well, I would have done this differently.
06:37What, if I were Josh Allen, I would have thrown the ball over there instead of over here?
06:41Like, I don't know, but this is one that broadcasters do get to decide and that's something that I do.
06:49I'm one of them.
06:50I don't have a vote in this one, but like this is kind of my terrain and yours.
06:56And I just feel like it's just so insulting that this happened to any sort of common sense.
07:04Yeah, and further, like, I don't know when, I sort of played catch up on all this yesterday when I
07:12found out just because of the way my day went and how much I was asleep.
07:16But, so I don't know at what point you learned of the actual voting breakdown.
07:21Last night.
07:22Okay, like after the show, did you, did you have, okay.
07:24That's what I thought.
07:26I felt like I didn't see that on my timeline until like into the evening.
07:29I was home when I saw it.
07:30Um, but like, Lindy's not even on like, what, like 30 some ballots or something.
07:36Like, how, how, how, how, how, like, I just, how does that happen?
07:44I know.
07:45Like, I, I just don't even, I can't even, that almost feels to me, almost feels to me because I,
07:52how can I, I'm not going to know unless everyone divulges exactly what they did.
07:56But, but, it almost sounds to me like people who wanted Cooper to win would have left Lindy off the
08:01ballot to make sure that Cooper could win.
08:04Yeah.
08:04Which is just patently offensive.
08:10Again, how many times yesterday did you have to catch yourself?
08:13You mentioned the, whatever, easy come, easy go on the gambling thing.
08:16But it is right.
08:17We were going to win, you know, some money.
08:19Um, but how many times did you have to catch yourself sounding so mad about something?
08:25So, I don't know.
08:27It's not silly to the person who's going to win it, but.
08:32I think it's okay to care.
08:33I don't want to be disproportionately upset that Lindy Ruff did not win coach of the year, but when I
08:41saw the breakdown of the voting, I'm like, how did that many people who are charged with watching the league
08:49leave him entirely off the ballot?
08:53Like, how many places, was there top, like, top three, first, second, and third?
08:58Was there others, other voting places?
09:01Like, how in the world do you leave that guy off the ballot?
09:04There's like, like, 20 of the coaches in the league are listed on that ballot.
09:09Yep.
09:09As having gotten votes.
09:12And some number of people who were charged with that job didn't even recognize him at all.
09:19I'm not sure this makes our case any better, but you don't really even have to watch the league to
09:25know how to do this.
09:26No, right.
09:26All you have to do is sort of pay some attention and look at the standings.
09:30Sure.
09:30You don't even really have to.
09:31I mean, what does it actually, not to get too deep into it, but what does it actually afford you
09:37to watch the games?
09:39What does it tell you about a coach's performance?
09:42The Sabres are a good forechecking team.
09:44Is that coaching?
09:45Their goaltending is good.
09:46Is that coaching?
09:48What does watching the games actually give you?
09:50Yeah, it doesn't really, fine point.
09:53It doesn't matter.
09:54Watch the league.
09:56Pay attention to the league.
09:57Understand what's happening in the league.
09:58And the Sabres were, again, are we totally incapable of being even slightly objective about this?
10:07Because they were at least one of the best stories in the entire league from December on.
10:15And you're, you're, nope, nope, nope, he doesn't qualify.
10:21I just, I don't know.
10:23That, that sort of put me over the edge to where I'm, I'm just in a, I'm in a spot
10:28where I know I missed the day.
10:29So, like, I don't want to be the guy that's a day late and, you know, I'm yelling about the
10:35thing everybody was mad about yesterday.
10:36And I also am very self-conscious about being too mad about it because it's an NHL award.
10:42I mean, I.
10:43Well, that's, that's a particular balancing act that you and I do in our minds because as we get older,
10:52we're really just not that upset about sports things anymore.
10:55Right.
10:56So, I mean, there's a duty to the office, if you will, and like, all right, well, I'm not going
11:04to make it up, but I don't want to lose sleep over anything that happens in sports because I, I'm
11:10not insane.
11:10You know, I'm 54.
11:12I'm not 24 where I was single and had an apartment and no family and just like, oh, this is
11:17the most important thing in my life.
11:19I don't want to come off either incapable of caring about it or unwilling to care about it or just,
11:27you know, like I'm going crazy because I care so much about it.
11:30So, there's, there's a little bit of a balancing act there.
11:33I think it's fine to care.
11:35I, I, I think no one should apologize for caring about it because it's really pretty much like caring about
11:40any of this.
11:41Who wins?
11:42Who loses?
11:43Who wins awards?
11:44Who loses?
11:45Who wins?
11:45I mean, draft lotteries.
11:47I don't know.
11:48What's that much different about who wins the game and who wins the award?
11:52Like, it's just some, it's just for fun.
11:55It's okay to care about it.
11:57I think it's incredible.
11:58You've said everything here again today.
12:01I feel like I said everything yesterday.
12:04I just, I'm in complete disbelief.
12:07I would have voted John Cooper fifth in the Atlantic among coaches.
12:14I mean, it's just like, what, what is the, I don't want to say it all again.
12:18I might, I might, I might, I might, I might've given the nod over Paul Maurice, but I, but I,
12:21but I too.
12:22Yeah.
12:22Oh, oh, oh fifth.
12:23Okay.
12:23Right.
12:23There's, yeah.
12:24There's more.
12:24There's eight teams.
12:25There's eight teams.
12:26Toronto, Florida, and maybe Detroit come in underneath them.
12:28Okay.
12:29Yeah.
12:29Ottawa.
12:30What kind of coaching job, Boston.
12:32What kind of coaching job, Montreal, of course, Buffalo, of course, it wouldn't even have been
12:36that, that hard just, but eventually you go on to the next thing.
12:44Think of the, the, the, the job we could have done for charities here.
12:48Had we gotten the, the win from, for Lindy yesterday, we could have just, Oh, I mean,
12:53I'm a little bit kidding, but no, I mean, really like that could have been a thing you, we did
12:58this as a team.
13:00I'm sorry.
13:00I mean, that, that's just to sort of make fun of ourselves, but yeah, well, it definitely
13:07feels like he got screwed.
13:09There's no, there's no, there's no question about it.
13:11I think one of, one of my favorite points about all of it is that, I mean, really this
13:19is consistent with how I've looked at the NHL and coaching for most of my life.
13:25What does a coach actually do in hockey?
13:29I mean, you got to keep it on the rails.
13:31You don't want to lose your team.
13:33They've got to respect you.
13:34So sometimes you have to be the heavy.
13:36Sometimes you have to, I mean, there's like a human element to it.
13:40Like any manager or boss, I think there is that.
13:43I think there is some strategy.
13:45Of course.
13:45Yeah.
13:45There's, you know, how do we want to do, how do we want to forecheck this team tonight?
13:51When do we want to lay back?
13:52Right.
13:52We got a three, one lead third period tactics that, you know, yeah, there's stuff in game
13:58that, you know, matchups and other, there's stuff, but it isn't the sport with the most.
14:03No, that's right.
14:03Cause it's, it's free flowing and it changes on the fly.
14:06And it's, it's just, it's, you know, you got to make a lineup.
14:09Yep.
14:10And one of the things about rough and the Sabres this year that stands out to me or
14:16stood out to me, it's in the past stood out to me versus a team like Tampa Bay is that
14:21he had a goal tending situation that he had to kind of juggle and make work.
14:28Whereas I don't think John Cooper, like I said yesterday has had to make a difficult decision
14:33about who to start a goal for 10 years.
14:35Like just like, that's easy.
14:37You're right.
14:37Push, let me push this button.
14:38It was a big game.
14:39I got this guy.
14:40All right.
14:40I'm so good at this.
14:41I'm just going to put Vasilevsky in for every game that matters.
14:44The Sabres didn't have that luxury.
14:47Rough did not have that luxury.
14:48That to me seems like something that would come into your mind when you're actually, if
14:53you ever did this, I don't know if anybody bothered to do this, but I would think that
14:56I would, you're sort of comparing coaching jobs and one never had to decide who his goalie
15:03was going to be in any meaningful way because it was already decided for him.
15:07And the other had to decide that every game.
15:10And I know the playoffs don't matter to this particular honor, but think about what the playoffs were for
15:17Ruff and his goaltending.
15:19Back and forth three, four times.
15:20He had tough decisions to make.
15:22And, you know, I don't know if he mostly got them right, but at least he had to do it.
15:26And this Tampa coach never had to do that once.
15:29The only goaltending decisions he ever had to make was when they played two games in a row.
15:34And which one do I?
15:35Right.
15:35But there was going to be one of them.
15:37Right.
15:37I mean, just like, well, I mean, a grade schooler could do that.
15:40You could do that at random.
15:41You could literally do that by flipping a coin.
15:44And just like, was that part of the equation when it came to like coaching performance?
15:52I'm really, I'm disappointed also because John Cooper, this started to change this year.
15:59Like Tampa had morphed into this sort of, I don't know, look, we're going to push you around.
16:05The bully you thing.
16:06You know, the whole show they put on when they came in here for that 8-7 game.
16:10They've been doing that with Florida for a couple of years.
16:12They tried it with Montreal in their first round series.
16:15Like they've got this new sort of, to me, it's new to them.
16:19Like, this is how we need to do it.
16:22And I think mostly it's pretty embarrassing.
16:24You know, like Corey Perry yelling at your bench and like, dude, you're 41.
16:29What are you doing?
16:29Um, and so prior to that revealing itself this year, I would have told you Cooper was one
16:36of my favorite coaches in the league.
16:39I like his interviews.
16:40I like him in post-game settings, like not, like not just on TV shows.
16:45Like he's, he's a very warm, he'll fool around with the guys on the TNT show, which again,
16:50I think is a big part of the reason why everybody backed him is because they all like him so
16:54much.
16:54And like, I've liked him too.
16:56I admired the work he's done.
16:58I like his personality mostly and can be somewhat self-deprecating.
17:04Like he appeals to me, but now he's in my hair.
17:07Now he won a thing that my guy was supposed to win.
17:09And like, I don't know.
17:10I don't, I don't know that I can really be objective about him anymore.
17:14Plus it was already going south this, with the way they performed this year, the way they
17:18behaved this year.
17:20I thought they were just sort of like a, we're old and don't know what else to do.
17:24So we're going to try to punch you, which was, you know, kind of embarrassing.
17:31So I've lost a guy in the league that I mostly have liked over the course of the last few
17:36months.
17:37You don't see yourself getting that back?
17:38No, I don't think so.
17:39Because of this?
17:40I really, yeah, because of this.
17:42Yes.
17:43I don't know if I want to blame him for it.
17:46It might be right to.
17:48Who knows what kind of effort was made.
17:53And you have this Sharks announcer who was talking about like from before the season
17:58almost.
17:58Yeah.
17:59I mean, I don't know.
18:00I feel like I'm grasping at straws a little bit to sort of blame Cooper for any sort of
18:06effort that may have been made to, you know, campaign for himself.
18:10I'm not sure I'd be right to do that.
18:13But I think they're very hateable already.
18:16They were the Sabres didn't get to play them.
18:19I looking back on the playoffs, I kind of regret wanting them to lose just because it was safer.
18:30I think for me, I feel like playing Montreal in the second round was safer, not in terms
18:36of like the building, because you play Tampa Bay.
18:38Nobody for Tampa Bay is in the building.
18:41That's right.
18:41You're going to have your whole building to yourself.
18:43But I thought they were so easy to dislike.
18:47I don't want the conflict.
18:49I don't want the added stress of having a team that I can't stand, the thought of them
18:55winning.
18:56So give me the Canadians who to me are like, oh, they're kind of fun.
19:00Right.
19:01I don't think I would hate them.
19:03Right.
19:04Right.
19:04And I never did either.
19:06I still don't.
19:07But you were probably right in the first round, or even before the playoff started, to talk
19:15like, I don't know if I want Montreal to win.
19:18Yeah.
19:18They're kind of scary, too.
19:20And Tampa just might be old and slow.
19:22And maybe I can take advantage of them.
19:26Yes.
19:26And I don't remember you saying it before the series, but certainly after the series was,
19:32you know, maybe the Sabres kind of planned for Tampa.
19:35Yeah.
19:35All right.
19:36By how they, what they did at the deadline.
19:38I think once they got into the series with Montreal and Stanley was compromised and he's going
19:44to come out.
19:46I feel like Paul was the first person I heard say that.
19:48But I think it was once the Sabres were in a series with Montreal.
19:51It was like, actually, their trade deadline looked to a lot of people like they were loading
19:56up to play Tampa.
19:57Like, we need more, you know, we need to protect our guys because they're going to come in here
20:01and try to, you know, cheap shot us and push us around.
20:05And yeah, that series never materialized.
20:08I, you know, it's funny.
20:10It's a very sidebar thing.
20:12But like, thinking of like planning, which, you know, you plan for things.
20:17Did you, did this come up at all?
20:19Did you see the open of game one?
20:21I don't know if it'll run every night here.
20:23No.
20:23But they had all, Ray Bork is the, is the focus of the big produced ESPN open.
20:31And you know, it's excellent.
20:32It's well produced and makes sense if Colorado had made the final, but they didn't.
20:42And the thing smacked to me, it's all about Ray Bork waiting 22 years, right?
20:49Gary Thorne, after 22 years, Raymond Bork lifting the cup with Colorado, who just lost
20:56to Vegas in four straight games.
20:58It looked like a thing to me that ESPN was planning, like Colorado is going to get there.
21:02Let's produce this thing and send it on Ray Bork.
21:04And they had it and loved it.
21:06And like, we can still make it work and just stuck with it.
21:10I mean, I don't know if that's true, but halfway through the thing, like the first thing you
21:15see is a Bruins jersey, a Ray Bork Bruins jersey.
21:20What are we doing here?
21:22It's Vegas and Carolina.
21:25These are not hardship teams.
21:26And this thing is all about Ray Bork.
21:28And I mean, I know it's hard to win the cup and you got to wait.
21:32And the narrative, it's Jon Hamm and it's, it's great.
21:36And it's tear jerky, but it's the wrong guy.
21:39I mean, I've never shed a tear about Ray Bork myself.
21:41I mean, what, I don't know, it was very strange to me, speaking of things that were predetermined,
21:46like it just smacked of like, well, we produced this, so let's find a way to make it work.
21:51I got to the point, I guess it was today, not even last night when I was sort of more
21:56worked
21:57up.
21:57It was even today.
21:58I actually, I got a tweet that sent me in this direction.
22:02I asked myself if I thought it was likely that before I was dead, I would think sports
22:09were all fixed.
22:11And I thought it was close.
22:13Like, I feel like as somebody that has just been absolutely steadfast forever, don't waste
22:19my time.
22:21I do kind of think that maybe I will be convinced by the end of my, when you sort of
22:26become more
22:26paranoid and more distracted.
22:29I think there's a chance I will be that guy someday.
22:35It's all just, you know, a parallel universe, a simulation.
22:42It's an off ramp right now on the highway that you're probably hoping you don't take,
22:47but you can see a scenario where you're almost compelled to take it.
22:50I don't want to die soon so that I don't get there.
22:54I don't want to go that far at this, but I think I'm like 2%.
22:57And I've never even been 2%.
22:59I'm also rooting for you not to die.
23:02Just, I mean, if it means anything to you.
23:04We really didn't care about this at all, did we?
23:06Out there.
23:07You really didn't care about it at all.
23:09You just wanted to give the guy some flowers.
23:11No matter what happened this year.
23:13Pretty much.
23:13That's really what happened.
23:15Yep.
23:15Well, you know, that's got to feel good.
23:18Maybe it does.
23:18Probably does.
23:19That was your objective if you voted for him.
23:21Yeah.
23:21He just wanted him to feel good.
23:22Good job, everyone.
23:23Are you friends now?
23:25If you're the voice of the San Jose Sharks and you not only voted for John Cooper,
23:29but you explained why you did it, are you guys friends now?
23:32Does he have you over?
23:33Do you guys have drinks now?
23:35Is that what you won?
23:37Did you win the right to be his friend?
23:38Or maybe you already were his friend.
23:40Do you call him by his first name?
23:41Do you call him Coop?
23:44I mean, is that what happens when you just sort of screw with the whole thing?
23:50Is that like this?
23:51Are you guys tight now?
23:53Just for clarity's sake, the Sharks broadcast you've referenced a couple of times here,
23:58the comments that are making the rounds are from last year's vote.
24:02He also voted for Cooper last year.
24:05That's why the Four Nations is mentioned in there.
24:09So, like, you might assume he did the same thing this year,
24:12but he's explaining last year's compulsion to vote for John Cooper.
24:18But everything he cites is outside of the parameters of, like,
24:22how the playoffs went doesn't matter.
24:24How the playoffs went the year before does not matter.
24:26How the Four Nations Cup went does not matter.
24:29Like, none of it matters.
24:30And that's all the things that were...
24:32And it didn't matter last year.
24:33Right, exactly.
24:34It did, but it shouldn't have.
24:36I just wanted to point out that that's not recent.
24:39That's a year old or more.
24:40Good.
24:41Well, maybe they went to each other's weddings.
Comments