Local Hour: The Florida Panthers Championship Parade
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Today's episode is sponsored by DraftKings. Stay tuned because you'll hear more about DraftKings and all it has to offer throughout the show. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Happy Monday, everybody. It's Mike. Dan and Stu are off today. Amin Elhassan's supposed to be in. He's got some travel issues. He'll be joining us in progress.

But thankfully, I have a good team around me, half of which was at the parade yesterday. Jeremy did some bang-up work out there. You got the clip. You got the clip. And even if you were watching at home on the broadcast, the way that they directed it, they missed the meat of it. You don't have a shot of Aaron Eckblad saying it. Do we have that video of Aaron Eckblad saying the thing that will resonate from this parade? Because I thought, all in all, it was such a perfect South Florida parade reaction.

for hockey. It had all the things that are good about South Florida and it had all the bad things about South Florida, especially when it comes to hockey. But I thought that South Florida acquitted itself nicely. Here is the moment, courtesy of Jeremy Taché on AXS.

X Aaron Ekblad, uh, one of the, uh, the, the leaders on this team comes out with the traffic cone. And for context, Brooks Koepka was famously caught at a Panther game saying Ekblad, you stink. You're a traffic cone. And that's how, you know, Brooks Koepka is a real Panther fan because this is not something. Yes. Granted Aaron Ekblad, you get one over on Brooks Koepka.

Brooks Koepka, no one calls your fandom into question. You are not an actual Panther fan if Aaron Eckblad hasn't frustrated you several times over. But credit to him. He stopped Connor McDavid 1v1. He had that moment. And Jeremy, you got this moment from the parade. Brooks Koepka!

Jeremy and Roy, specifically, how are you guys doing? I asked you before this show if you did the old-timey Looney Tunes thing of just putting your bare feet in a hot tin of water with a thermometer in your mouth.

I am a fair weather fan. I was on my way to the parade. I was driving down from Orlando. I got as far as the Galleria Mall, and the downpour was just too much. I couldn't leave my car to get to the place to get to the place. Unfortunately, I left Orlando maybe a bit late, and I realized after being rained on all weekend, I can't do this. But you guys had your jobs to do. You guys had to cover this momentous occasion. You couldn't just do what I did, which was just watch it from my couch at home. How are you guys doing? Are you feeling okay, stuffy?

Oh, yeah, I'm feeling all right. Actually, at the parade, the current shirt and jacket I have on is a replacement from the shirt that I actually wore at the parade. I went to the Tommy Bahama and got myself a Panthers championship. Incredible. And at the Tommy Bahama. Is that your first ever Tommy Bahama purchase? It is.

Okay. Jeremy, not only did you get rained on, but Ryan Lomberg, I see it in the videos being looped behind Tony, he dunked a beer all over your head. It was truly amazing to have that experience because...

I was already clearly soaked by the rain for hours and hours of downpour. Lombard came up and clearly wanted to have that experience, but it was such a special day and something so unique.

I'm definitely feeling it today. I'm exhausted. I think you can hear it in my voice. But like to be in the fans and all these people who through thunderstorms, through lightning, literally making static electricity come through the speakers from the stage.

And everybody stuck around. The fans that were lined up at 6 or 7 a.m. alongside the barricades, it was like nobody left and everyone was there through literal thunderstorms waiting out and having an unbelievable time. I love the fact that one of the last things that Ryan Lomberg would do as a Florida Panther is pour beer on the top of Jeremy Tashie's head. I'm happy about it, too. I'm sad that Lomberg is going. Yeah.

Yeah, but at least he gave us that parting shot. And I thought it was, I was bummed that he didn't take the microphone at one point, but it seemed as though nobody who was up for a contract extension spoke, except for Sam Reinhart, who sent a video message. By the way, your friend, bad job.

Bad job by your best friend. Sam Reinhardt skips the parade because he's supporting his best friend who's getting married. Be a little bit better with the calendar. Maybe move that one into July. Yeah, I don't know, man, because next weekend would have been July 4th weekend and that's a whole thing. No, look, you get married when you get married and Sam Reinhardt missed like three opportunities to make sure that this conflict wouldn't pop up.

But then he got the game winner in Game 7. But the good news that a lot of Panther fans woke up to, and there was a lot of momentum for months and months and months, it was assumed by people close to that organization, who cover that organization, that Sam Reinhart would be coming back to the Florida Panthers. And...

these terms are tossed out like hometown discount. Look, this is a player that really fulfilled his promise. He came into the league with a lot of hype, struggled early in Buffalo, came here, became a 50-goal scorer. After not being a top liner initially, he had to work his way up. Perfect partner for Barkov on that line. One of the sneaky better two-way players in the league. Sam Reinhardt does not take...

defensive possessions off Roy. He was fourth in the Selkie voting for best defensive forward this season. So you got to imagine this age is pretty well because the annual value on this contract is $8.65 million. That is a bargain for a 50 goal score that is a two-way player that scored the game-winning goal in game seven. You consider what Forsling's number is and that discount applied. You're paying those two players who are elite players,

about $14 million. Panthers right now have about $11 million clear and a lot of free agents.

I don't know how Brandon Montour comes back. That doesn't seem possible given some of the money that is being spent on defensemen in this market. He may have to go get his money. Also, you can't bring him back and pay him more than Forsling or that much more than Forsling. So that one's a little bit tricky, Jeremy. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a different look in the surrounding players. But what's special about what you have now is a team that just won the Stanley Cup and so many talented players in your core locked up, not for like 30,

three more years. Sam Reinhart's now here for eight years. Matthew Kachuk signed a long, long contract with you initially. Alexander Barkov's going to be here forever. Just 28 years old and he's already been here forever. Right. So to have this group locked up long term, not for three or four seasons like you might see in the NBA, but here in the NHL, eight years of this group, it's...

Really a great time to be a Panthers fan. And the Panthers still have to re-sign Anton Lundell, who's a restrictive free agent. Yeah, where do they think that deal's going to fall in between? Because a restrictive free agent, he's got to get some decent money. He is presently a third-liner, one of the better third-liners. And again, fits the identity and culture of a lot of these players, a two-way player. He's probably got to get his. So that's got to eat into your chunk.

You look at the available free agents right now for the Florida Panthers. Maybe Stenland comes back. Stolarz is getting interest. Did Stolarz have the best goals against average in the league? Yes. Your backup goalie, he could probably command some mid-number one money out there. Jessica and Tony and Juju, my experience, I don't know if you guys...

spent your Sunday watching on TV. It was all across the local channels. They all gave up on the dump button. I was bummed that I couldn't be out there in the parade, but I pivoted to watching on my couch and I really enjoyed it. And I wonder, Jess, was this something that you were laughing at as someone that's not

necessarily a South Florida sports fan or was this something that you felt galvanized an audience and was like a pretty unique parade experience because that's where I fell I did think it was really funny just how terrible the weather was because there was lightning I was I was watching the radar from my warm and cozy living room just thinking to myself man I really hope Roy and Jeremy and Greg Cody don't get struck by lightning today because that would be a really sad way for this all to end we were close I mean

It was a very funny... It's so rare to have mornings like that in South Florida where it just is a complete wall of thunderstorms first thing when you wake up. And it was perfect.

It was perfect that it was on the morning of the Stanley Cup parade. It was also very Florida that they didn't evacuate because I've been at large public gatherings. I had been like, I was at Universal for two days prior. If there was lightning in the area, you go inside. There was a large congregation of people with a lot of electrical equipment makes you a very large body of water. They were not moved.

Out on the ocean, I was looking out on the ocean, right? And I saw this big wall of clouds with rain coming down. But I also saw four freighters out on the ocean. About 10 minutes later,

A wall of rain made them disappear. The people didn't get moved out, which I found curious. Logistically, probably more dangerous. I'm sure someone was crunching that, but I've been at Lollapalooza's where they evacuate the entire ground. If it were a golf course, the siren would have been going off all morning. There would not be people out there. Thankfully, no one got hurt. And by the time you got to the end of the parade,

It added to the aesthetic. Everyone soaking wet from just pouring beers. I've never seen someone wandering through a parade with a bucket of beer. And that's what Matthew... He had 10 glass bottles in a bucket that I think he literally picked up at the elbow room that he just made a pit stop along the way. He got out of the bus, went to the elbow room, got a bucket of beer, and also took a dip in...

in the ocean. Tony, you've recently caught hockey fever. Were you spending your Sunday on your couch watching the parade? I had a couple things to do, like family things. We had some lunch that I had to attend. So I was watching on social media. My brother-in-law was there at the parade. So he was sending us videos of the downpour and just everybody soaking wet, just having fun and stuff.

I would never have gone to that. Not because I don't love the Panthers. But it's in Broward. One. One. One. It was in Broward. Two, the rain. You have to get ready for a rain situation like that. I got to get my shitty shoes. I got to wear socks I don't really like. The swag can't be on 100 because I'm getting soaked the entire time. Plus, I don't think I'm a poncho guy. Jeremy, you did not wear shitty shoes. No. This was a nightmare. Yeah.

because I did not yeah well allegedly is fair well he did not wear his shitty shoes right not my version of shitty shoes still shitty shoes generally uh no but this was like obviously I was wearing a water taxi poncho because I was not prepared for this I have a a bally sports branded like rain jacket and I I guess did not anticipate I looked at the weather it said on on Saturday night it said 30 chance of rain at 10 a.m and I was like

okay, it'll rain for 15, 20 minutes like it does in Florida. I'll get under some shelter. I'll probably already be there and then I'll be fine and it'll be over. And it was while I was on my way on the water taxi standing on the second floor of it that all of a sudden the skies open up and there is a torrential downpour. So I was soaking wet underneath the poncho that I then put on that had no real purpose, I guess, after that. I probably should have just

not worn the poncho, but I didn't want to get worse. And I anticipated, all right, it'll be a half hour, maybe an hour of rain. And then it rained all day long. It's still raining right now. It's still raining. That doesn't happen here, especially on the beach where the wind is supposed to push those storms away. And yet, here we are experiencing that on the day of the parade. But the energy was spectacular as a result. Like, it was...

It could have been an amazing day without all of it, but there was something about the thunderstorms and people sticking through it. And every person I spoke to had been a fan for 20 plus years. And now they're there enjoying this experience together.

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This is the bet you're afraid of doubling down on? Putting up a billboard in Edmonton? Stugatz! I care more about Matthew Kachuk than I do my daughter. This is the Dan Levatard Show with the Stugatz! Stugatz!

First of all, rookie mistake. You have to follow the National Weather Service on Twitter. Yeah, that's on me. Because they were on top of it from the moment I woke up yesterday morning. I was like, ooh, this is going to be interesting. They might have to call off this parade. I was worried about getting sunburned. Second thing, are the videos of the players on the buses waving to like six people fake news? It seemed like the parade route was not well-

The bad video that's circulating is literally the start of the parade where the bus came around Los Olos and you could see

the very edge of the parade on one side. So the further you got in and the deeper you got toward the stage down A1A was where the majority of people were. This happens every parade. Sounds like they should have had their parade in Boston. Too soon. But yeah, it's just hilarious. This is a perfect example of saying like, bro, you making fun of parades and celebrations when your team is at the house. You, sir, are the biggest joker.

I don't give a damn if it was one person at this parade. The Florida Panthers are champions, goddammit. That's all that matters. People who make it fun at parades, you are a loser at the house. Raise that cup. Yeah, I had mentally prepared myself because for every parade, outside of ones that happen in Kansas City, every parade will have these isolated views of a thinner part of the parade, and it'll go viral, and it'll be the visual that goes out from that parade, uh,

And I was already not going to let it bother me. I'm not going to make the excuses about the weather. I think South Florida acquitted itself quite nicely. There was a lot of energy. I think the Panthers were pretty smart about how they structured the entire thing. It was very clearly, let's have this big gathering place. I think with the rain and everything, it made for really cool visuals and...

Like Juju said, who cares? The whole thing is that we have six fans. This is the start of something. And I know everyone tapped into the 30 years. This Panther franchise has existed for 30 years in the South Florida market. And there are a lot of people that were at that parade that really just started giving them the time of day. And that's fine, too. This is about building something. This is not a destination. It's a start of something, hopefully, for them. Yeah.

Tony, I saw you wanting to get in there. Do you want to defend the South Florida sports fan? Because you knew that these photos would be coming. Of course. And I mean, especially when you talk about the Panthers, it's Broward, it's raining. You knew that you were going to get a smattering of people at some point just because you hold up on the towels, like we have six fans or whatever. But Juju was saying...

We're talking about a parade. I don't mean to sound like AI, but not every single inch of the parade route is going to be stacked with people. It's totally fine to have a sport that's still trying to find its footing. There hasn't been a real...

reason for this franchise to have a connection, particularly with the Miami-Dade fans. There hasn't been any real moment. This was a bizarre championship in that maybe I cared about this championship possibly more than any other local sports championship.

But usually when other teams make a run, you see stuff in shop windows, people wearing their jerseys. That may be the case in Broward. I don't know. But in Miami-Dade, it's one of those things that if I saw a person with a Panther hat on, I'd give them the DiCaprio point, and I would find occasional isolated instances of people being passionate. But this is...

This is hopefully something to build on. There weren't places that you could go to, especially in Miami-Dade, where you could have the Panther game on and ask for the sound and not get a funny look. And now I think we're finally turning that corner and we're building. A lot of the cities that have Stanley Cups, obviously, are smaller cities in scope of Miami. And there's so much to do and there's so many things around that you don't have those small shop windows with go-oilers or whatever. No.

I don't know about that. I mean, Boston, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles. The original six are big markets. Columbus, St. Louis. I think it's totally fine that we lean into the... Columbus does not have a Stanley Cup. But you know what I mean, right? The sideshow appeal of Florida. This is totally unique. They had a parade...

An ice hockey team had a parade on the beach. It got... In pouring rain. In pouring rain. It should have been evacuated. Absolutely. It was pretty dangerous. And I thought that everything that happened last night was perfect for South Florida hockey and for this franchise and its fans. There's a camaraderie that's starting to build amongst the people that either have been there for a month or 30 years because...

I spent most of my day prior to the speeches and prior to the parade actually starting walking through the rain to all of these people who'd been camped out there since, you know, 5, 6, 7 a.m. And each time that I walked up to someone with a microphone, everybody behind them started chanting, all six of us, all six of us, because there's an embracing of like, hey, we know that we're a new fan base, relatively. We know that there are only so many of us that have been around watching Highlander

For most of their history, they've been a joke. They've been a laughingstock of the franchise. Exactly. And I think there's an embracing of that and acceptance of it. And now wanting to prove like, hey, like you said, Mike, this is the beginning of something special. This isn't the end. But everyone was celebrating like it was the last day on earth. That's what the drinking was like.

The hugs, the screaming, it was spectacular. Well, you never know down here when it rains that much. That's also true. It could actually be the last day. I'm embracing that we live in a major city. The Tri-County area is huge, even though it's all hashtag one territory. And I'm embracing the boutique aspects of this, the novel aspects of this. And I hope that much like what happened in Tampa...

where the seeds were planted in 2004. And unfortunately, they're one of the great hockey towns in North America now. I can't imagine if there wasn't a lockout, a work stoppage after they won their first cup. But they kept building and almost had to kind of hit the reset button, start again, and they built the right way. And I really think South Florida can grow to really deeply appreciate hockey, but they've got to have

this kind of success. They have to keep making deep postseason runs. And I do think that we'll see the tide change a little bit. And maybe you'll see a few more Panther logos in mom and pop shops. And maybe you don't have to point at three people at the Publix. Maybe the Publix is adorned with Panther stuff.

Well, it was a grassroots situation in Tampa. I mean, they built from the ground up over there. And I think the Panthers have to do the same thing. Now they got that new facility in Fort Lauderdale with the Royal Memorial. They built a couple more rinks. You're going to have a lot of new young fans actually playing the sport. So if they can get these fans to play the sport, they can get these kids to play the sport, you'll grow the culture down here.

Throughout some of the properties we have here on DLS, I've made a list of things that are for other people. And I just added, I just wanted you guys to know, sports parades are for other people, not for me. I just wanted to let you guys know that. You never went to any of the heat parades? I did, which is why I found out, you know what? Not for me. For other people. Chris Cody and Ethan are in a Panther group chat that had a pretty good feeling about all of this happening. And they were actually lamenting in the group chat. And I know Ethan went to the parade once.

we should be in this parade. I'm like, what? We should be in the Panther parade? And they were citing Raheem Mostert was at the parade. I'm like, guys, Raheem Mostert didn't make a mockery of the entire Stanley Cup final. Yeah, of course they said no. You think that's why we weren't in the parade? No, I think we weren't in the parade because we were asking Damien two weeks before they actually won the thing. And I think the Greg Cody thing didn't help. And I think largely our show treated this as,

We weren't reverential enough to Lord Stanley or the Florida Panthers. And I think Dan is naturally predisposed to want to make fun of sports. And we, well, I read an article about an awful announcing. Dan? No. I read an article in Awful Announcing that made it seem like for once in our show's really toxic history, we're going to make fun of sports.

They finally found a cause that united a lot of listeners. And that was cool to have that perspective that people in Columbus, Ohio were rooting for the Panthers because they never gave hockey the time of day. And they've been hearing about Roy get the table and the CPR line and Randy Mueller goal calls for our shows 20 years. And they felt some kind of tie. I will say that it did not unite this show.

It was very divisive here on this show. I was fighting with Juju. I was fighting with Greg. I was certainly fighting with Dan. It was all pretty bad. Emotions got ramped up after they blew that 3-0 lead. Telling you. I mean, the argument you had with Greg broke contain. I was at Notre Dame last weekend and people that do not watch hockey or the Labrador show were like, hey, so what's the deal with that Mike guy? So, yeah, it wasn't a good look for me and I knew that going in there. But you know how Dan does these things.

Dan very clearly wanted that to happen. Absolutely. Because he was pushing all my buttons to make that happen. And at a certain point, I'm like, okay, then I guess we'll lean hard bit. And then I lean hard bit, and then the same thing always happens when I lean hard bit. And not only that, I'm leaning hard against like an octogenarian. And this is just not a good look for me at all. And yeah, Dan got what he wanted, and that's the cost of doing business with Dan. And you didn't get a float out of it.

No, but exactly. But nobody got a float out of it, luckily, because they didn't have any media on any of the floats. No, they did not. Just Randy Moore. Let me tell you something. I was on two Miami Heat floats. Okay. Okay.

I've got two parades under my belt. I was there next to Poppy hitting pots and pans. You bring South Florida luminaries, but we don't deserve that one because we made a joke of it because everything around here is a bit weak. And sports fandom usually is canon. And I will admit my own. I think Roy got punished more than anyone else for this. I kind of got to do whatever I wanted. Yeah. Well, you occupy a very unique space. You don't count. I was the only one that was calm in this situation.

Like me. You were never scared. Never. We know this about you, Roy. But I will underscore my own hypocrisy here. Usually, I'm taking the piss too, and everybody's sports fandom is there for the taking. I actually handled the Mario Crisoball not kneeling thing in stride. The Panthers thing got to me because I'm so sick of being that guy. I mean, how sick can you be if you're taking off your Rolex threatening an 80-year-old? But...

I guess there are performative aspects to this. All right, F it, I'm here. It's kind of like when you're at a parade and you're soaking wet. At a certain point, you just stop giving an F. Your shoes are ruined, so you might as well enjoy yourself. You say dump a truly on me, right, Jeremy? Yeah, that's exactly right. It was funny. If you look at the video, Ryan Lomberg did sort of pause for a second to make sure that I was cool with him pouring the drink on me and the pause that I took before deciding to

Whether or not to say yes was should I drink this on camera or should I just have him pour it on my head? Because I had to make the obvious professional decision as you can see in the video very professional of me But I'll tell you like it was really cool How many of our show fans were out there yesterday? And it really did sort of galvanize because I was here every time I was walking through there was somebody yelling Jer bear or Jeremy or where's where's Chris? Where's Mike? Where's Roy?

Because everyone was really excited about it. And whenever I stopped to actually talk to people, they all asked, hey, were the last couple of weeks a bit? All of them. Because I think everybody was legitimately concerned about how Metal Ark Media is holding up. Did you know where Chris was? Because I'm looking for him. Was he at the parade? Was he? No, he was not at the parade. I think he decided after the 11 night. You know what? I'm good. Yeah. I got to tell you, the 11 thing did help.

my decision-making process. And then I kind of had my celebration with the Panthers. And I do want to take like the final 50 seconds of this segment to salute Ryan Lomberg. Your colleague on the hockey show, David Dwork, did make it seem like Ryan Lomberg's going to get his money in the open market. And he deserves it. He deserves it. And I don't know if you saw the Wired for Sound from Game 7,

while everybody had a sphincter that was this tight in that barn. You were there for that game seven. That was as bizarre a pregame atmosphere as I've ever experienced in my life. What Ryan Lomberg delivered before that game seven is exactly what they needed.

the juice. He's a high energy guy. And also he's pretty media savvy because I could tell he recognizes guys like Jeremy and guys that cover the guys and girls that cover this franchise. And he made it a celebration that everyone could be a part of. And Ryan Lomberg, there's a lot of 94 jerseys. He's not necessarily of a talent level that would necessarily reflect the amount of jerseys that are in that arena that wear 94. But he's had big time playoff moments. He's a fan favorite. He's a

physical guy. He's an energy guy. I just wish they handed him a microphone at that parade so we can have that one moment. But best of luck to him wherever he goes.

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And then about three weeks ago, it hit me. Stugatz. He gives them one of these, and he gives them one of those. This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugatz. Stugatz.

I'm going to get all the Panthers shots up here in the early going as this is more local and before Amin comes in here because it's a fascinating time in the NBA. Paul George is headed to the Sixers and the Miami Heat haven't done much, so we'll speak to that when Amin joins us. But there is a move that appears to be happening in the NHL.

And I heard a lot of F the Lightning chants at the parade out there yesterday. Well, that was about the thunderstorms and lightning, not the Tampa Bay Lightning. They leaned in and they took their pot shots. Chucky took another pot shot at Edmonton. I didn't even realize the symbolism of the lightning almost ruining another Panthers Stanley Cup. But not phased. The symbolism here, Jess, is that once again, the Panthers are unfazed by the lightning. Not the other way around. You're talking about ancient history at this point. You're right, but...

The lightning ending the Panthers parade. It would have been terrible. It would have been. Cool. And you couldn't let that one happen. But while that parade was going on, the Tampa Bay Lightning made a very interesting move. They clear about 11.5 million in space.

The Sergeyev trade to Utah caught a lot of people off guard. Sergeyev gave Tampa a big emotional lift coming back from a gruesome compound leg fracture. Really good player when, I don't know if he's ever going to reach those levels again, but might have been a difference maker had he been healthy for that entire series against the Florida Panthers. Who knows? He gets moved. Yeah, him coming in.

Him coming in during the series got them that one game. Yeah. Oh, the pop that he got. I was there for that. It's crazy. And he's a good player. But he gets moved. And you assume, OK, if they're clearing all this space, they were clearly far apart on Stamkos. Maybe this is about getting Stamkos his money. Not the case. Stephen Stamkos...

appears to be headed to one of four franchises in Nashville right now, getting a lot of the hot buzz. I think a betting favorite for him to go to Nashville. But the room that they cleared was for Jake Gensel.

which is a surprising move for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Everyone assumed that if Gensel does test the market, it won't be there because they don't have the room for him. The wide expectation was that he was going to re-sign with Carolina. Doesn't end up happening. Apparently, they felt like they had a deal, pretty much the framework in place,

But then the open market changed things. So Gensel goes to Tampa Bay. And this is a big-time acquisition for Tampa Bay. But, Roy, here is my pro-Panthers spin on it. Gensel. And I know the analytics like him, and he does some things off the puck that you don't necessarily see. I see...

not talked about enough, a smaller winger that you can push to the boards and will go missing during key stretches. Didn't they just have that with Kucherov? A lot of their best guys, and now you take Sam Coase out of the picture, a lot of their best guys are smaller. And that leans into some of the advantages. You saw how the Panthers drafted over at the Sphere. Nobody under six feet. The Panthers' identity is we're going to have big

big guys that can skate that are also skilled they're going small winger Jake Gensel maybe someone you could say maybe some of those stats are empty you got to play with uh some talent over there in Pittsburgh and when Carolina needed him most he didn't really show up what's your immediate reaction to Jake Gensel to Tampa seven years nine million those are the numbers that came in

When you hold that up against the Sam Reinhardt reported details, where Sam Reinhardt is a two-way player, 50-goal score, scored a game-winning goal in Game 7, where Gensel might have been a little frustrating at times during that Rangers series in particular. I mean, who else did they have?

Look, there's moves to be made for Tampa Bay with that space. I think they're just going Talon Onslaught and try to meet the Florida Panthers' depth a little bit. But you lose Sergeyev and you lose Stamkos. You replace them with a really different type of player. And Jake Gensel kind of feels like a panic move, Roy. Yeah, and they absolutely low-balled Stephen Stamkos as well. I mean, that was insulting what they did to him. I mean, oh, I...

Three Stanley, not for him, two Stanley Cups for the Lightning for him. That's insulting. And I'm offended on his behalf, despite being a Panthers fan. You don't do that to him. Tony, do you match Roy's passion on this topic? Absolutely. I mean, Stamkos is just one of the legends of the Tampa Bay area. And you're going to give him that set. You know, you look at my man's deal, seven years, nine million, which is a crime, by the way. How do you even, how does that math even work out?

When you start talking out of your ass, you do the Trump hands. Of course, I have to. You also sound like Stu Gatz doing the good senior guard play on March of Independence. Well, let's talk about something that is a little bit more in your wheelhouse. I saw a highlight reel knockout. Now, I did not see this UFC pay-per-view, although I was excited about the main event. I was just in Universal Studios at Pat O'Brien's. I could not do it.

I could not watch the UFC event. What did I miss? Okay, so you missed, again, this was originally supposed to be Conor McGregor versus Michael Chandler, a massive card in its own right, because any time that McGregor is on a card, the entire world watches, right? He gets taken out. The co-main event also gets removed between Jamal Hill, former champion, friend of the show, and Carlos Olberg. They're now out.

Enter a new main event between Yuri Prohaska and Alex Pereira, who is the hottest star right now in the UFC. There's nobody like him. Highlight reel knockouts. What you saw at 300 where he knocked out Jamal Hill. Intimidating dude. 6'4", 230 pounds. Just an absolute monster, right? So we had that main event.

The co-main event falls apart four hours before the fight. So as everybody's in route to the fight, Brian Ortega, who was supposed to be part of the co-main event, he gets sick, 104 degree fever, he gets out. Dan Ige...

Another fighter with four hours notice comes in, makes weight against all odds, goes in and has an absolute bang of a fight. Probably the second best fight of the night between him and Diego Lopez, another rising star of the promotion. So all in all, it was a...

lackluster card but with those two fights it really stepped up and then what you saw between yuri prohaska who's an insane person in his own right when he found out that he was going to have the chance to avenge his lightweight light heavyweight title he was in the aaron rogers i'm going to sit in the cabin for three days no lights no water no sustenance nothing was the quote and my boy was locked in right the last samurai yeah it was fire because um the champ he said he saw

a tale in Prohaska's game during the pre-game video that he had put out on Instagram. He said, oh, he's dropping his hands every time he blocks a kick. Checks the kick, yep. And then, what, 40 minutes later, crossed the head, knocked out. You dig me? Poison. What's crazy, at the end of the first round...

He hit him with a left hand, falling back, like a fadeaway jumper, falling back left hand that knocked him out at the buzzer. He fell on his back, looked around, was like, oh my God, got up wobbly. They sat him on the corner. First second of the second round, we see something like this. I don't know if we have B-roll or if it's audio. I'll talk through it if it's B-roll.

Let's see. No, this has – okay, so high head kick, like Juju said. He kind of gave him a feint like he was going to go low on a leg kick, which he had done previously in the first round. Goes high and absolutely knocks him out. They had to hold up Yuri Prohaska. Herb Dean was like holding him up. Yuri was walking around like, whoa. He didn't have his sea legs with him. But what we're looking at right now is Alex Pereira is –

Fast-tracking himself to a UFC Hall of Fame career without a doubt. He's fighting so much lately. Not only is he super active as a champion, middleweight, knocking out Izzy Adesanya, commanding middleweight respect everywhere. Then he moves up a weight class and then destroys everybody in that weight class. We have another angle of the knockout that we could play here. This was a boom.

Like, it is over. Jeez. He broke his toe on that kick, too.

but he's incredible and he's fast-tracking to a Hall of Fame career like sprinting. Because of the kickboxing, there's a lot of comparisons. I think the thing that he gets compared to Jon Jones the most is his ability to move in weight class. Jon Jones, very similar. A lot of people were fantasy booking a weight class that they could both fight each other in. I don't

There's no way. There's no shot, right? There's no way. When you talk about the heavyweight division, you talk about a guy like Tom Aspinall who walks around at 260 pounds. When you talk about Jon Jones, greatest mixed martial artist of all time, and what he did to Cyril Ghosn. What does he walk around at? What, like 250? Yeah. Right now, probably. 250, 260, somewhere in that range. I mean, when he first...

burst onto the scene, they could fight in the same weight class. He was a light heavyweight, right? He was the youngest light heavyweight title winner, UFC title winner of all time. He's the greatest fighter of all time. Period. But when you look at what Alex has in his game and the success that the other guys have as far as getting people to the ground and choking them out very quickly, Tom Aspinall, like guys in the heavyweight division would take care of him very quickly because of that weight discrepancy. But I think... And you can't really count on Jon Jones' ability to be available, really.

He was going to be available then toward the peck, and then now it's like up in the air. I think that the fight to make in the heavyweight division is Aspinall versus Jon Jones when they do get that. But I think the next move would be, and we're going to have it in kind of short order, UFC 305, Perth, Australia. We're going to have Drakis Duplessis versus Israa Dasania for the middleweight belt. If Izzy can beat Drakis, okay,

Get back the middleweight belt. We have a super fight champion versus champion for everything, for all the marbles, for bad blood, redemption, finality, closure. Izzy versus Alex one last time at 205 for the light heavyweight belt. Nobody can beat Alex right now. He's on a hot streak. Izzy kind of on a downturn after losing to Sean Strickland in an embarrassing fashion. If he can beat DDP and you can set up a light heavyweight fight between Alex and Izzy for everything, I think it would be one of the biggest fights we could make him.

Tony, getting back to that knockout, how do you feel about Herb Dean's stoppage? Did he go in too late? He went way too late. I think for him, he was like, I'm not going to have anybody tell me that I stopped this thing too early. Do you think a part of it was like, damn, what a knockout? Like it kind of froze him a little bit? 100%. 100%. The knockout was so great. Like after this eighth punch on the floor, like Herb could have stepped in during number four. But again, there has been some talk about Herb being a little slow.

He had one time where they was like, bro, you stopped it early. And then since then, he been stopping them things late as hell, boy. He would let you die on the ring first. It's over. I don't know if anybody caught the draft out of the sphere. Really cool visuals. Probably just scratched the surface on what they could do. And Dana took the opportunity to talk about what the NHL had done. By the way, the moment of the NHL draft was something that they kept pretty well in mind.

guarded as a secret and it was Celine Dion showing up to announce the fifth pick of the Montreal Canadiens. That was a really cool moment and there were two moments from the weekend that I think kind of won the weekend and that was certainly one of them, Roy.

I would say about the NHL draft is not a single team congratulated the Florida Panthers on their Stanley Cup victory. And that's, I've never seen that. So again, I'm coming at this from a pretty peaceful place. I've worked through myself after the Greg Cody stuff. I, I,

thought going into that game seven that we were going to lose because vibes were toxic. They end up winning. So I realized Tony has a Colabo shirt. Can I tell you about what Tony tried to do to me? The shirt that Tony is holding right now. In your hand. Go ahead. Give yourself some shine. Sponsored by the haters. I don't think there's any left, actually. Colabo with Daily and my haters. Yeah, you did a Colabo with Daily. We love Jonathan. We love Daily. Great guys. I got a text message from Tony saying, hey, Limited Supply would like to get you a shirt. $45. $45.

Same. This is the plug that I put him in touch with. It's my plug. And he's asking me for $45. Just in case you wanted to buy others for somebody else, I got you on one. You know that. And I texted you as much. You said you got me on one after I told you, quote, f*** off. The Stu Gatz is strong.

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