- 7 weeks ago
Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin are two legends in the world of DC sports! They both sat down with The Sports Junkies this morning to preview the Washington Capitals season. What are your expectations for Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals this season?
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00:02I did not realize, are we dovetailing with Joby and Locker in 30 seasons?
00:08Is that right?
00:09Wow, that's big.
00:11When was your first broadcast together?
00:14It would have been in...
00:18I arrived at 10-4-5, we don't get up to 10-5.
00:2195-96, I'll hope to be.
00:24Right.
00:2596, I'll be Locker and I'll...
00:29Wow.
00:30It's basically exactly parallel.
00:33Maybe a few months.
00:35Yeah.
00:35Hell yeah.
00:36Those were the fun days.
00:37Yeah, exactly.
00:37They were just supposed to get up at 3.45.
00:39Saying we look tired.
00:40We are tired.
00:43Yeah.
00:44No, no, no, no, no.
00:443.45 for me this morning.
00:47Usually you guys just, when we have you on the show, you just kind of roll over in your bed
00:51and hop on the phone.
00:53You had to get up this morning.
00:55Right.
00:55That's the way you bother us when we're out west.
00:57True.
00:59We tend to do that.
01:01So, Joby, you were saying that you've been calling lacrosse and what else?
01:08Maryland football.
01:09I mean, I've got Maryland football coming up.
01:11He's got Maryland football.
01:12What have you been doing, Locker?
01:14You've still been playing tennis all the time?
01:15He's raising Montana.
01:18Our dirty girlfriend is a lot of work to get to do.
01:22They're not involved.
01:24So, that sort of thing is a little better off.
01:27It's like that's been a kind of granddaughter.
01:30Wow.
01:30And one of the four and one, a story of my life.
01:34They're both five, so I get to help them.
01:36They're not going to be with them.
01:41what do they call you papa papa there you go see that's a big deal right you had to think
01:48about it
01:48right before you came out with it that's a big deal like what are you gonna call me no it
01:52is and
01:53they always pop us the one-year-old is sort of poppy yeah papa for the four-year-old i
01:59always
02:00knew he was a great family man but since he's become grandpa wow they're like your eyes are
02:06open to a totally different person especially when he's around the girls it's amazing wonderfully
02:12amazing just yeah not what i expected having them around just you know changes your whole focus on
02:17life uh just changes how you feel about things so if you're down a little bit they as soon as
02:23they
02:23walk in the door i'm just like this is the greatest thing ever nothing else things may not be going
02:29right but man they step in the room everything's fine with the lachlan and then i'm wondering you
02:33know you went through some health challenges everybody knows the heart and everything and
02:36then uh you know look great has that made you cherish every season more and more now that you
02:42keep getting to do this i think so i think you know when i went through that heart issue and
02:47you know i'm part of the zipper club now as they call it because i've got from here to here
02:52right but
02:53you know it's been a it's been a i guess a little change in a lot of things how i
02:58view life and how
02:59each day is so precious to anybody and everybody and it's definitely been for me since that happened
03:05and it brings joy you know to come to the rink you know as a former athlete and as a
03:10former player
03:11coming and being with joe b and the rest of our great people at monumental has been it's like my
03:17second team right so it's just that you know i'm the star obviously yeah i'm the ogie i'm the ogie
03:24on this team but right right it just brings i just approach every day a little differently
03:31with the heart and everything else does it still kill you guys i know that when you know there are
03:35critical games on you know maybe in the playoffs or whatever that you you have a national whatever
03:40broadcast it takes precedence for whatever you know i'll let him yell i'll let him yell at that
03:46kills me at home there will be no yelling it's it's all part of the business and we understand that
03:53we know that going in it hurts the beginning of the year when you get a schedule that's now 84
03:57games
03:58long and you know immediately that you're going to lose perhaps 14 15 16 of those games um but that's
04:04a sign that the boys are good always correct yes and they don't take the lesser light games the
04:13national networks are going to take the the matchups that you want to be doing on monumental sports
04:17network um invariably i wind up looking at that list going oh you only took all four pittsburgh games
04:24and this is what potentially could be a the last year for alex against sid you'd like to have at
04:29least
04:29one of them yeah yeah but this is part of the business and yes i will moan and hem and
04:33haw about it
04:34and i'll grumpily uh walk up to the press box on games that we're not working and angrily sit down
04:39and go i wish we were doing this but it is part of the the bigger picture but you're so
04:43different
04:43than jason jason be like day off well the fans what am i the only one no i don't know
04:48you got to love
04:51it that you know fans they just won't listen to the national guys if you guys aren't on they'll just
04:55turn the volume off they just won't do it and if there's obviously if there's sometimes you have a
04:59choice obviously they're always going to pick you guys you got to take a lot of pride in that
05:02we do take a lot of pride and we take a lot of pride i think in the preparation
05:06and the preparation of both teams you know we've always lived sort of a 70 30 type telecast where
05:1270 heavy caps 30 but still have information on the opposition because sometimes if the caps get down by
05:19four or five you want to talk more about the opposition sometimes and that's when you probably
05:25won't hear me much because i just sort of lean on the table and let joe i just go keep
05:29going buddy
05:31keep going you're play by play uh it's tough how does it work so i did like you know during
05:37the
05:37whole covet uh era uh the only way i could see my son play lacrosse was i they weren't letting
05:42anybody
05:42go to the games right and so i said to the coach and the sID i said let me help
05:46broadcast let me let
05:47me help right anything just get me to the freaking games so i you know i'm not trained for that
05:52it's not
05:53my muscle i don't know what i'm doing right away i'm stepping all over this college kid and he's
05:58pissed because he wants to make his goal call you know what i mean but i learned quickly a lot
06:02of
06:02goals you are with me my man that's sometimes my best part of the game if i call i talk
06:07if you steal
06:08if you steal one oh but no i relimit that he said he looks at me with the most angry
06:16look if i call
06:18oh yeah he's as soon as it's in the zone i gotta be careful now especially with ov right the
06:24way
06:24these teams score i've got to be more careful now yeah than when we first started but you guys
06:29handle it seamlessly nobody notices and i've seen sometimes they have cameras on you guys you can
06:33see you know a goal scores and then joe b's doing his thing god only knows he blessed from god
06:38he does
06:39it and then but you find a way to seamlessly kind of get your commentary in and replay sort of
06:44how it
06:44went i mean just is that hard for you are you thinking consciously or is it just i'm thinking
06:50because you know i've learned especially with the ovechkin era that anything can happen on the ice
06:55and i never want to be talking over an ov shot or goal i know who's on the ice and
07:00it's important for
07:01me and then you know he makes his fantastic calls on the goal and then you know like we like
07:06to say
07:06in the booth let it breathe a little bit which will allow the fans that are crazy here in washington
07:11to have we get shots of them and then i'm able to chime in on the how and the why
07:17and that's what
07:18i'm there for and that's what i try to concentrate on i do what where and when yeah yeah he
07:23sticks
07:24with how and why and that's the other thing there's a divider that blows me away i'm sure
07:28you guys know too like when we're watching hockey you know it's not the easiest thing to watch on tv
07:34right the smaller puck and you follow what's going on it's fast in the locker immediately goes and the
07:39biscuit mask breaks it down like how did you see all that how did you know when all their guys
07:44foot
07:45they're clairvoyant though the best analysts see the play develop before it happens yeah and they
07:51can actually while i'm continuing to describe what's going on they're already prepping the
07:56producer for i want to see this from this angle it's amazing and and that's from sport to sport
08:02especially the best football analysts are brilliant in the way that they conduct their interactions
08:09with the producers the producers with the tape operators and all of a sudden in that three or four
08:13or five seconds of lag where the director is cutting the the happy crowd shot right all the while
08:19the producer has talked to the analyst they've lined up where they want to see the replay from
08:24and they actually that's crazy and we're on a set and wonderful and we're on a wonderful team aspect
08:28of television as opposed to if we were doing a radio medium it's a lot of play by play a
08:34lot of play
08:34by play way less of locker over the play right during a television broadcast the viewer can see what's
08:40going on and locker and i have gained a rhythm together over 30 years you know between the
08:47blue lines craig be conversational yes top of the circles down great scoring chances leave it leave it
08:53in my lap that's i'll get it back to you i'll give you room yeah and he now knows exactly
08:59where
09:00i'm likely to lay out and he can step in and being that's the mesh point of 30 other other
09:05other play by
09:06play and analyst um teams that have gone 30 years right now well right now we are number one we're
09:13going to hockey in the united states united states um ken daniels and and mickey redmond in detroit
09:19are one year behind one year behind yeah one year behind that's what you guys have to keep going
09:23that's impressive we got a team going hey joe you and craig you mentioned the 84 games bumping it up
09:28for and obviously nfl increased their regular season and they're going to do it again i'm sure
09:34um is that a big deal to add the two in your eyes no it's not a big deal yeah
09:39and you know
09:40there has to be concessions made between the players and the owners and their collective
09:44bargaining agreement the training camp's not as long and they don't do as many preseason games
09:48they're only allowed four and we're doing four back-to-back weekends this year and and so it all
09:54evens out the players got less training camp the owners get more games doesn't affect why did it take
09:59so long because it's there's nothing wrong with it there's no negatives depending upon olympic years
10:06and four nations years they they have some other things obviously the plan that will extend the
10:12season you want to go too long i for one i mean when we hand out the stanley cup in
10:16the middle of
10:17june i think that's pushing it yeah i think a lot of fans have checked out to other things by
10:22then but
10:22um you don't want to extend it too long and i don't think you want to start it too soon
10:27although the
10:28guys have been in town for almost two weeks now uh ramping up getting ready for the beginning of
10:33camp september 16 or 17 i think they take their physicals and then within no time we're doing a
10:38game uh in boston on the 20th and the way you can alleviate that you know i've always thought that
10:43you know these guys are such machines they are in the best shape of ever you know we were coming
10:50to
10:50camp in the 80s yeah i wanted to ask you what it was like trying to work off the summer
10:54beers and
10:55everything else we were trying to get in shape and back then if you guys all remember the playoffs
11:01were three out of five in the first round and a lot of times it went more than that you'd
11:07play two
11:07at home back to back you have one day off you play two on the visitors team ice and that
11:13shortens up
11:13and i wish the nhl would go to that i know it's every other day and give the players rest
11:17and all
11:17that but these guys these athletes now are superior and they can do two and two and not miss a
11:24beat
11:25and i think that would speed up and alleviate going into mid-june for the stanley cup so let's so
11:31let's
11:31get to these athletes the team has a lot of new talent you guys can talk about it but let's
11:36start
11:36with ov because that should be front and center what are the expectations for him this season cakes was
11:42like oh let's just sign him up another 30 goal season yeah i mean that that's what he does and
11:45did you guys also know all along did you figure he was coming back or were you a little bit
11:50surprised
11:51when he said he's coming back for a 22nd season i think as soon as the doctors said geez as
11:56a 40 year
11:57old you've just come off a season where you didn't miss a game i don't believe there were any surgeries
12:03that were required or any major procedures that were required in the offseason i think they gave him
12:08the green light from a health standpoint if you want to do it you can come back and be yourself
12:14and now he's you know on september 17th he's 41 years old yeah 30 goals he falls out of bed
12:20and
12:20gets 30 goals we expect that of him yes but i think he's going to have to do that in
12:25less
12:25ice time this year i think spencer and the staff are going to manage his minutes a bit more and
12:30let's
12:31see how that plays out but the offseason moves by chris patrick have given them so much depth
12:36that forward room is loaded yeah and you can do a little bit less with alex and hopefully
12:41preserve some of that strength for later in the year when things get more and more important but
12:47this guy is a bull and he still has this amazing love for the game it's the enthusiasm that will
12:53never leave him he'll he'll want to play when he's 80 yeah he can definitely still play when he's 41.
12:58yeah he's i mean he's amazing i mean to me with ovi let him do his thing i think is
13:04the way the
13:05caps have lined up this season with all the additions that they have they're going to be
13:09a four line team and you know four line meaning i'm not sure there's a designated so-called checking
13:15line or a so-called designated energy line all four lines are going to be able to really contribute at
13:22both ends of the ice so that takes a little pressure off of ovi five on five we always talk
13:26about
13:26these own starts he never gets them doesn't need to get him he's got to be in the ozone that's
13:31where
13:31he's most effective but i think it's also going to give him a little more energy on the power play
13:35where generally he's out there for two minutes he's still a threat everyone's still going to watch him
13:41because of the canon of the shot so to me i think he's i with you guys he's definitely a
13:4630 year 30 goal
13:48guy here in our 30th year which would be great so symmetry you you mentioned all the guys that
13:54they're bringing in talk to us the big names are alex tuck and jordan kairu correct those are the big
13:59two speed and skill yeah so for caps fans who don't know the rest of the league that we just
14:04pay
14:04attention to the caps tell us about these guys what are they so good at i'll take kairu okay jordan's
14:09coming in off of a what for him was a down season he had a surgical procedure he had a
14:14minor knee
14:15procedure i want to say in april and when he is healthy he's one of the quickest fastest players in
14:21all
14:21the nhl he had been a routine 30 goal scorer in st louis and i fully expect with the guns
14:29that are
14:29around him here in washington the playmakers that'll be working with him that he can definitely eclipse
14:34that 30 goal margin the question with with jordan let's see how the knee responds and i i haven't
14:40heard any reason to believe that he's not going to be jordan kairu jordan used to be one of the
14:45fastest
14:45men in the nhl he was the fastest skater at all star game competitions incredibly quick a great
14:51finisher added depth to a team that already has a lot of offensive muscle and talks all about being
14:57a full grounded player he can play in every situation i think he's going to help out in the
15:01power play he's going to help out in the penalty kill very diligent at what he does at both ends
15:06of
15:06the ice and he's got a knack around the net throughout his career he's always been a good goal
15:11score the puck gravitates to him i'm looking forward to see him and a guy i saw at my golf
15:16golf tournament
15:17on monday guys is going to be an impressive guy which is de harney this guy is two joe bees
15:24stacked
15:24together he's six foot nine or six foot seven he's going to be six foot nine on the ice and
15:30we've never
15:30had a guy like him over the years i mean i can look back to when i played we had
15:35hatcher we had stevens
15:36that were really tough to play against in front of the net and i'm looking forward to seeing
15:41de harney how he plays in front of the net because he's big he's tough and he's physical and we
15:47haven't had that impact in front of our goal net in the last several years i think he's going to
15:53fill that role so that's another nice addition that a lot of people aren't talking this team's
15:57going to look really good getting off the bus really good getting off the plane i think more
16:01than half of them are six foot four tall it's big it's powerful it's fast all the produce is
16:06running around the guys yeah those guys are nba small will send oh he's no small dude i mean
16:13look at everybody this is a stanley cup contender yes stanley cup contender no doubt i like the quick
16:19answer from oh no doubt at the start of the season what's on paper here to me it's going to
16:24come down
16:24to and we all know carbs he's great at delineating what your role is going to be how the players
16:29have
16:29to play here in washington he's already set that and i think the guys he brought in are easy to
16:34fit into
16:35that i was kidding with him on monday i said what have you been doing in your office you know
16:40putting
16:41name place here here and here he says i'm still juggling yeah i'm hoping when i put the formula
16:46together and the lines and the defensive pairings together that they're going to come together and
16:52they're going to be able to meld quickly because it's going to be a good i think at the start
16:56of
16:56the season i would say this they could go oh and three they could go on two but it's going
17:02to take
17:02a little bit of time for everybody to adjust but then i think they're going to be a wrecking ball
17:07in the nhl wow it's great to hear so you think this team the depth chart is as deep as
17:12it's been in
17:13a long time absolutely because they address the issues you know just getting to jordan kairu
17:18he's a guy they haven't had in a while because mention all the things joy had joe mentioned about
17:24him but he's got that he's one of those players that we haven't had that can turn the game around
17:31in just one shift like he's so dynamic that's how carbs described he's dynamic and that type of
17:38dynamic player so important the way the nhl that's been a speed speed skill combo you he'll flash
17:45if we're talking about football wide receivers he'll flash a lot of players what he does and a lot of
17:50players which a lot of players though slow down with the puck he's as fast with the puck as without
17:57and that's a hard thing to have in a player the caps depth wise were at their best 16 17
18:0318 19 that
18:04four-year run where you did pick off of stanley cup title and you could have arguably picked up
18:09another one or two on either side this team is as deep as that one am i saying they're going
18:14to win
18:15the cup no do i think they're going to contend in the east yeah they're going to be right there
18:19with
18:19carolina they're going to be right there with florida and should they get through that difficulty of the
18:25eastern conference and we get to a final four you get to a stanley cup final this team's probably
18:30equipped and will add more to to try and get it across the finish they're faster right they've
18:35improved their speed and that was always while we're playing carolina and that's all about speed
18:40right they not only have added speed but they've added size that physical element doesn't have to be
18:46just tom wilson this year they're going to spread it around because of the size they have up front now
18:51washington florida games must see tv with what florida added oh yeah those are going to be
18:56physical lord that'll be football on skates didn't florida have a bad year last year yeah they were
19:01they missed they're they're one year removed from back-to-back top right and then they had a bad
19:07uh bark off is healthy they're they're loaded and they're big and strong caps open with carolina
19:13correct yep correct carolina tampa pittsburgh hello hello sounds like this sounds like the commander's
19:19free talk to you guys forever but they're telling us we've got to go to break rap these are the
19:23legends joe beninati craig lachlan on the junkies keep it here on the fan thank you