Hello, hello. Welcome to the Hockey on the Beach
podcast. It's Dariya Marinova. We are getting
close to the NHL's new season. Many exciting
things are coming. Two outdoor games in Florida
State. Detroit Red Wings will honor Sergey Fedorov.
Potentially last seasons for Alex Ovechkin and
Gino Malkin. It's going to be fun. Our first
of the season episode in Russian was focused
on the KHL news and exclusive Sergey Fedorov's
interview. Now it's time to bring it on for our
English -speaking audience. I had a chance to
meet the Tampa Bay Lightning radio broadcaster
Dave Mishkin, talk about his Blind Squirrel book,
which is available online and at local stores,
some hockey, and of course Nikita Kucherov. Enjoy
the conversation and don't forget to join the
Hockey on the Beach podcast every week for KHL,
NHL, and international hockey news. Thank you.
Hello, Dave. Thank you for your time and joining
me. Of course, Daria. the hottest news out there
is the stadium series logo how do you like it
i like it i mean i'm not really an artist so
i'm amazed at anything people can draw but they
seem to kind of encapsulate everything that you
want encapsulated for an outdoor game in tampa
they've got the you know the boat they've got
kind of like the treasure map background they've
got the location it was it was definitely appropriate
and again i'm amazed at these people who can
who can design and draw that sort of stuff. Do
you have in mind if you're going to wear, say
something special, or dress up for the game?
Well, I usually dress the same for games. Even
though I'm on radio, I tend to wear, you know,
coat and tie. Now, this is not my first outdoor
game because the Lightning played an outdoor
game in Nashville back in 2022. And I'm trying
to remember. It was actually like it was... chilly
like it which was good you know they were maybe
a little worried like what would the ice be like
that was a stadium series game too I think it
was an early February 2022 and uh or mid February
2022 and the weather was chilly so it was it
was appropriate that I had not just the coat
and tie but an overcoat as well I'm not sure
if I'm gonna need an overcoat for you know early
February in Tampa but I will probably just dress
as I usually do What about something about pirates
like making voices? I don't know. Yeah, that
would be fun. Maybe I should reconsider. I don't
know. I have no pirate wardrobe stuff, though.
So I should probably ask some people who have
done the Gasparilla parade if they have any hand
-me -downs and wear those. It would be hard to
fit a headset, though, over a big pirate hat,
I think. Also in the news. Your book, Blind Squirrel,
because of the cute title. And then, I mean,
it looks cute too. I assumed it was baby's book,
kid's book, but it's not. I mean, it's up to
every parent. I would not recommend this for
you, like a young child. But, you know, by the
time a kid hits maybe 10, 11, 12, it's really
up to the parent. And so I recommend that the
parent read the book first as you did. And you
said, no, I may wait a year or two. Other parents
may feel a little differently, but it's definitely
not. So it's not, you know, juvenile fiction.
I've read some YA books though, that would make
blind squirrel blush. So, I mean, we have to
understand that, you know, kids are reading material
that, you know, their parents would be like,
what? i think that what makes blind squirrel
a little different is is not that there's anything
like sensational in there but it just it deals
with with some themes that you know typically
adults are thinking about and maybe not kids
you know like trauma recovery um you know the
complexity of relationships sometimes um you
know my protagonist noah is is going through
real life stuff and you know for for some parents
of kids they're like i don't want my kids having
to worry about this yet they'll have plenty of
time for that but uh but i know that you got
the book and you read it and enjoyed it so i'm
very appreciative uh for for everybody who was
taking the time to to get it and not just get
it, but read it. And so many people have given
me positive feedback that they really enjoyed
the story. And that was really what I was going
for when I wrote it, to try and put something
out there that people could feel they could connect
with. Yeah. And while I was reading it, I had
questions, but you did a great job providing
many details at the end of the book. So for people
who do not know anything about it, let's explore
a little bit. Why did you decide to write a book?
Yeah, so I had the idea for a story arc, and
the story arc that I had the idea for in the
late 2000s is, in fact, the story arc that's
in the book, which is a minor league hockey player.
He's had a very successful career, but he's silently
struggling with his mental health. He suffers
a childhood trauma. His parents die in a car
accident when he's 12, and he's kind of buried
this within him. So he's not really leading his
best life. Then he sustains an injury and is
forced to retire. And it's at that point that
he's able to begin the healing process. And the
guy at the end of the book is in a much better
place than the guy at the beginning of the book.
So that was the story arc and the idea that I
had to write a novel. But it took me a while.
I got started and stopped. I wasn't happy with
what I had produced. I kind of put it away and
didn't think about it. And I went back to it
in 2022. And the story came together for me kind
of. between the years and then i was able to
to write it during the summer of 2022 and uh
the editing process kind of took about a year
maybe a little bit more than a year um it's a
lengthy process which i didn't know anything
about when i when i started writing but i got
an education in that and uh and we published
the novel in in the spring of 2024. um but yeah
so like there is hockey in it but it's not really
a hockey book It is a book that has sports in
it, but it's not a sports book. And, you know,
I wanted to write a novel that was accessible
for people who enjoyed hockey like yourself,
enjoy sports, but also people who maybe don't
really get too excited about sports, but are
interested in kind of a character driven story
with a feel good message. Yeah, because you also
explained some hockey stuff in the book. And
I was like, oh, that's for people who don't really
care about hockey. Now they know. Yeah, that
was tricky. So you attended an author talk that
I had last week. And what I explained to the
group was, in some ways, the hockey was some
of the hardest to write. look if i had written
a book exclusively for people who were really
knowledgeable about hockey it would have been
different but as i said i wanted to write something
that was accessible to people who don't know
as much about hockey or anything at all so i
had to i had to give some basic information so
that i could utilize my expertise right like
i'm gonna write a novel with hockey and i might
as well you know write what i know and put in
some stuff that's that's higher level but I had
to educate people so they could understand the
higher level stuff, but I didn't want to make
it a boring hockey 101 book. So I had to integrate
bits and pieces to introduce terms, basic rules,
kind of the idea of, you know, what's happening
in a play leading up to kind of the point where.
kind of the game is happening and the reader
is in the middle of it and you're on the ice
or you're in the locker room and all this stuff
is happening and you know every sport has its
own language and you know people who are well
versed in hockey or in baseball or in football
can speak that language fluently people who are
not well versed don't really know the language
like they can describe what they're seeing but
they're not maybe using the right words so that
is part of it too so that I'm able to write a
novel utilizing proper hockey terminology, almost
shorthand, right? But getting people educated
to the point that they were able to follow along,
even if when they started the book, they didn't
really know much about hockey at all. So for
people like yourself who are like, all right,
I know all of this, but you could recognize,
okay, I understand that Dave is kind of setting
the table here. to explain maybe for people who
don't know and set the stage for what's going
to be happening later. So like Noah's the center,
right? So he's got his two wingers. They are
aligned. Like that's a really important component
to kind of what they do on the ice. People who
don't know anything about hockey are like, well,
what's aligned? I didn't realize that the same
three players tend to go out together. You know,
every time they are called to go out on the ice,
other people just, you know, played until they
stopped and, you know, got to the bench or I
didn't even know that I didn't know there were
different positions. What there are three forwards
and two defensemen on the ice. That's how they
can comprise like who's on the ice at a certain
time. And the chemistry that Noah builds with
his line mates, particularly, you know, his protege,
who's a 20 year old rookie that he kind of takes
under his wing, who's immensely talented, but
raw. Like that relationship is a really important
part of the novel, but it's, it's deepened by
the fact that they are line mates, right? So
they're on the ice together and they have to
understand what each other is doing. So just
like jumping in. Yeah. Jumping in and just being
like, well, and he's Russian, Yulia Kuznetsov,
you know, like Yulia Kuznetsov and Noah Nicholson,
like play together and they're line mates. And
like. People who don't know anything about hockey
are like, well, I don't know what this means.
So I had to give some basic information. Like,
oh, okay, you know, a line is comprised of three
forwards. And, like, Noah arrives at practice,
and his coach tells him, we got this new prospect
in. I'm putting him on your line. So now we have
a dialogue to kind of explain in a storytelling
way, kind of like, okay, this is what's happening
here. And that was challenging, honestly, Daria,
because, like, The knowledge I have, not all
of it needed to go into the novel. So I'd write
a bunch and then take a lot out because I didn't
need it in there, right? I just needed enough
to advance the story and kind of advance the
theme of what I was trying to say. We say writing,
but did you actually write or type? Yeah, I didn't
actually handwrite. When I tried it the first
time, I actually did handwrite in a notebook,
but I had so many scribbles and changes, it just
turned into a mess. So what I did was I did a
lot of thinking first. And I explained that,
that, you know, I kind of needed to think about
the story before I sat down to type it. Yes,
that's the right way of putting it. And when
I sat down to actually compose the text. Uh,
I wouldn't say that it was just like lickety
split kind of how I, how I crafted sentences
and how I kind of built scenes that took a little
time. And there was some, some starts and stops
and like editing as I was writing it too. But
for the most part, I kind of knew what was going
to be happening. So it became easier to get it
on the screen as opposed to just kind of making
it up as I was going along. I had already done
a lot of that. thinking about it ahead of time
let's talk about Ilya Kuznetsov you already introduced
so who is that guy you've met a lot of Russian
players and I feel like he's a mix he's not just
one guy that you knew so I never so I mean really
I spent 11 years in the minors and eight years
in Hershey where the novel is is set at least
the hockey part is set there I don't know that
anyone ever came through Hershey who was exactly
like Ilya Kuznetsov, but kind of what he encompasses
is just like a joy of playing and a little bit
of a recklessness to him because he's like a
little kid, right? And there's a theme throughout
the book too of like, Noah is not really crazy
about little kids because for reasons unrelated
to the hockey part of it, but just like, He kind
of likes to keep his life in order and little
kids cause disruption. At the same time, he really
is kind of a mentor or parent figure to a lot
of people in the book, including Kuznetsov. So
the guy I created that would kind of connect
with Noah and Noah would connect with him, they
kind of have this almost like mentor -mentee
relationship. So I have certainly seen immensely
talented younger players that have a great enthusiasm
for the game, but needed to learn. what they
could get away with and what they couldn't once
they hit the pro game. Because players who are
the best at their level when they're 16, 17,
and 18 can basically do whatever they want. Once
they hit the pro game, some stuff they can get
away with, some stuff they can't. So that's part
of Kuznetsov's journey too. He just is like,
I can do whatever I want because I'm me. noah's
like okay some of it you can do sometimes you
can't and that's part of learning to be a pro
um but he is one of the characters that i felt
i just got to know really well thinking about
him and and he's one of them but like when i
said i didn't just sit down and start typing
i spent a lot of time kind of thinking about
the story and as i was thinking about the story
i spent a lot of time with the characters and
thinking about them and kind of what made them
tick and There are Russians that I have met that
have followed a similar path that Kuznetsov followed,
which is they came to North America as teenagers.
They didn't speak a word of English. They got
stuck with some billet family, and they kind
of just learned. And some Russians kind of hit
the pro level, and they hardly speak it. They
need another Russian on the team to communicate.
Others are almost completely fluent. Sergeyev
is a great example of that. Now, he was at the
NHL level, but he got to the OHL and in a couple
of years basically taught himself English. He's
a pretty bright guy. Anyway, but when I met him
as a 19 -year -old, I mean, he spoke English
fluently. There was just a touch of an accent
there, but that was it. So what Kuznetsov was
able to do, like Noah meets him, he's like, your
English is really, really good. Like that I've
experienced. I've seen young Russians come to,
and it's quite a daunting step. You know, like
leave your home, leave your family, leave your
friends, leave where you're comfortable, go to
the strange place, strange people, different
rink, rink smaller, different language, and excel.
is really remarkable. And I've seen that. So
I was, I knew that that was authentic, that there
are players like Kuznetsov who did that. Um,
and also like, I don't know if there's a stereotype
of like the Ivan Drago, you know, kind of like,
Ooh, serious, you know, but like, I've met plenty
of Russians who were just like, happy go lucky.
fun loving great sense of humor and because netsoft's
like that too like he's just so like effervescent
and happy and you know he's got a he looks young
i gave him like baby face right like which is
a point in the book that you know he gets teased
for a little bit but he looks young he acts young
but he's got this immense talent but he's also
got a joy to him that comes through with his
playing and also in terms of how he interacts
with the people around him He also has a crazy
diet. Yeah, so that is something else. So he
arrives as a pro player and basically he eats
fast food because that's what he's exposed to.
And also, I think that's changed a little bit,
Daria. Like the junior players now are so much
more aware of everything. They watch their diet.
They go through training regimen and all that.
when this novel is taking place it's kind of
like the late 90s early 2000s it was not uncommon
for junior players they just kind of again it
was kind of like how they played they just did
what they did right they wanted a you know fast
food meal they just went and got fast food for
because net's off his billet family eats fast
food so that's what he eats he likes fast food
and noah's like you're a pro now like you need
to learn your diet is really important to being
a pro and kind of, it's not that he's going on
a diet, but he changes like, you know, eat vegetables,
right? Like have a salad, you know, avoid the
fried food, no fast food. And it'll help you
become a better athlete and a better pro. And
so he learns that too. But again, that was not
uncommon. Like I saw players kind of reach the
pro game and, you know, they're, they're going
to get basically cheap food because they weren't
earning money. They were getting a stipend and
they were just getting food and it didn't matter.
It didn't affect their performance. Pro game's
a different game. And now even more so. Most
players, I think, are on if they aren't on super
crazy really regimented eating routines, at the
very least they are aware of what they should
put in their body and what they shouldn't. The
usage of professional team's names right yeah
bears are okay but we also have this tiger sharks
san francisco tiger sharks and i actually questioned
myself i was like what is there like that yeah
and i didn't i didn't reference that at the end
of the book i i put some stuff in the author
notes which wasn't i don't have a long segment
on the author notes but I put some stuff in there
thanking some people but I gave the explanation
at our talk so what I learned was so the first
draft basically I just put regular team names
in because I didn't know any different and what
I learned was that in some instances I needed
to get the team's permission to use the name
because all these team names are copyrighted
like they're protected so the difference would
be like if some event happened that is like basic
knowledge like the new york yankees won the world
series in this one year you can have a scene
in your book where like people are watching the
yankee like the yankees exist right it's okay
to mention the yankees and particularly if you're
using them in a factual way it's like it's a
made -up story but like within the made -up story
You're referencing something that actually happened,
like the Yankees won the World Series in 1977.
You're fine. That's totally acceptable. But if
you're creating a player who's playing on a team,
that is a little trickier. So I wanted to keep
the name Hershey Bears. So I actually went through
their organization, and their legal department
gave me permission, basically, to use their name.
But I have all these other names, right? So I
was like, all right, let me just kind of come
up with an adjacent name just to protect myself.
And probably would have been fine, Daria. I mean,
well, you mentioned the San Francisco Tiger Sharks.
Obviously, the San Jose Sharks are close. So
I kind of modeled this team after them. People
were like, so they were the affiliate of Hershey.
People were like, why would a team in California
affiliate with a team in Pennsylvania? So in
like the late 90s, early 2000s. Hershey was actually
affiliated with Colorado, which is not on the
West Coast, but it's not close. Like Hershey
to Colorado is not drivable unless you're going
to take a couple of days. But there were teams
like the California teams didn't have affiliates
in California or close like they do now. So,
you know, during my time in the AHL, the Sharks
were in Kentucky. They were in Worcester. Massachusetts.
So it was not uncommon. At one point, the LA
Kings were in Manchester, New Hampshire. I mean,
that's a long distance. So it was totally fine
to put an affiliate all the way across the country.
And I wanted the affiliate to be far away to
give it separation. So Hershey was kind of its
own entity. Also, Kuznetsov arrives, his flight's
delayed. It just made it easier to put the...
the NHL affiliate far away but so could have
I used San Jose Sharks I probably could have
but I didn't want to kind of kick the hornet's
nest so people like you would be like wait a
minute what's going on here but most people just
like they blow right by it and it wasn't it wasn't
a something that they commented to me about now
I did use NHL and AHL and was kind of given advice
that that's fine to use that because those are
people understand that they are the nhl is the
the major league the ahl is the top minor league
it's okay to to mention them but all the other
team names besides hershey bears for hockey i
made up now we know now you know yes you have
a service dog stella we can see her picture behind
you yeah It's actually not her, but it is one
of her breed. Yeah, my wife got me that for Christmas,
so we got the picture frame. Stella looks like
that. Stella looks like that. Yeah, so your book
and your community service, do they go together?
Because I feel like you have some sort of special
mission outside of your work to save the world,
make it better. Yeah, you're making me out to
be a much better person than I really am. I think
the common denominator here is that it's really
the lightning. So I have a full -time job as
a play -by -play broadcaster, and it's not just
doing the games. I do other stuff as well with
the Lightning, for the Lightning. I'm responsible
to make sure I can call the games as well as
I can, showing up to the practices, et cetera,
et cetera, going on road trips. I write for the
website, not fiction. I write a postgame after
every game. I try and do kind of a... column
overview of the lightning or the league every
few weeks um but i'm not expected to kind of
come in every day and punch a clock so i don't
know how many broadcasters do but what the lightning
have been great at for me and now i've been with
them for over 20 years is kind of giving me the
flexibility to pursue things that are important
to me So, I mean, the novel I kind of did on
my own time during the summer, which, you know,
was kind of really off season. But they were
great in helping me promote the book, which was,
you know, a huge boost to me. And, you know,
they were fine in linking me with the mental
health organization, right? Tampa Bay Thrives
I partnered with for the novel. That kind of
came through the lightning. But they also were
totally fine when I got Stella, who's always
been a big animal family. But we got her right
at the beginning of COVID. And within a couple
of days, I recognized she would be great at therapy.
So everything was kind of shut down. I mean,
clearly, during the spring and summer of 2020,
everything was shut down. But as we got into
the fall and then 2021, things started opening
up. And I was like, I'd really like to get her
certified. as a therapy dog and the lightning
helped set me up at tampa general you know we
have contacts there because the two organizations
work together um and so it's really that the
lightning have given me the flexibility to pursue
things that are important to me or that i want
to do so i wanted to write a novel they were
like great i wanted to do this with you know
a dog that that we got that i thought would be
really good at it she likes it i like it clearly
you know we're having an impact on more her than
me but the people that that she meets when she
goes in there and that's very rewarding but you
know like i could go to the riverwalk when they
have an event and pick up garbage i'm fine with
that like the lightning have events like that
where the staff gets involved but they are very
much about outreach so when i went to them and
said you know i'd really like to do this they
totally gave me their blessing and helped me
kind of get going on it. So it's really about
stuff that I want to do and having an employer
that gives me the freedom to do those things.
Because I'm not expected to, you know, be in
at 9 a .m. every day and, you know, stay until
5 and later when there are games. Minor leagues,
it's different. You know, in the minors, I was
working Monday through Friday, full days, plus
games, weekends. Because the staffs are smaller
at the NHL level. My job is to basically be a
broadcaster. And anything else the Lightning
asks me to do. But it's not like I need to go
in and kind of put in time in the office. So
that frees me up to do other things. Yeah, we're
going to go into that. I know you graduated from
Yale. That sounds fancy. Yeah, it's pretty fancy.
Is that when you decided that you want to be
a broadcaster? Yeah, so I chose the non -fancy
profession. A lot of my classmates who went on
to graduate school, law school, medical school.
But yeah, I was in college and I started doing
college radio and loved it. So Yale's hockey
team is Division I. They were not very good when
I was there. They got good after I... i left
a few years after i left i actually won the national
championship in 2013. um so even though the team
that they fielded during my four years there
wasn't one of the top teams in their conference
they were still playing division one so a lot
of the teams that they played had players that
would go on to play pro, go on to play in the
NHL. So the caliber of play was very, very high.
It was really the highest that you would see
at the college hockey level. So I got a lot of
experience. I did all the sports, but I did a
lot of hockey, particularly my junior and senior
years, and I figured that there would be less
competition for hockey broadcasting jobs than
some other sports. And also I knew that hockey
was a sport that had a minor league system, and
all these minor league teams would have like
they would have openings for broadcasters at
least they would have broadcasters i didn't know
if they'd have openings as opposed to like football
and basketball is a little different like there's
not really a minor league system for those sports
it's more that like you almost have to be in
the right place at the right time or do college
like you get hired as a college broadcaster baseball
and hockey do have the minor league system but
i figured there'd be more competition for baseball
jobs and frankly i had more experience doing
hockey than than baseball because you know i
just didn't do as many baseball games as i did
hockey uh when i was at yale so it did it's not
a it's not a um technical school it's not a vocational
school it's a liberal arts university is one
of the best schools in the world but i actually
got kind of in addition to the liberal arts education
which i got you know i actually built a skill
through my extracurricular work that was able
to land me a job right out of school in the minors.
Yeah, you graduated. What's next? Yeah, so I
got a job in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, which had
a team in the ECHL, which still exists. The Johnstown
team is no longer in the ECHL. They're now a
junior. They basically have a junior team. But
look, they had an opening. They brought me in.
I was two steps below the NHL. which that mattered
less to me. It was more that I had a chance to
do something that I love to do. And probably
in my last couple of years in college, I'd done
maybe a total of 50 to 55 games. You know, the
schedule is not as intense. I wasn't able to
go to every game. When you're working for a team,
it's completely different. So that first year
in Johnstown, I think I did close to 78 or 79
games, including playoffs. Just think about the
experience you're getting in the reps. It's like,
play right i mean the more you do it the better
you get at it right so that's transformational
like once you get the job with the team and you're
doing all these games not only are you working
on your craft you're also kind of building a
reputation you get to be known within the circle
of kind of the hockey world um and as people
who you work with move up they know who you are
right and that's kind of how it happened for
me particularly from Hershey to Tampa because
Jay Feaster was our GM and Hershey hired me and
Hershey when the when the lightning job opened
he was the general manager with the lightning
and and was obviously instrumental in helping
me you know get the job but that's like that's
that's just real world stuff like I mean it's
not who you know like wink wink nod nod but who
you know matters because they can kind of vouch
for you they can speak for you and you know that's
that's usually needed on some level i mean sometimes
yes you can just apply for a job particularly
if it's kind of like a performance job where
you're sending in a demo or you know you're you're
sending in a video um of your work as you know
an actor a singer or whatever but it definitely
helps If somebody can kind of vouch for you and
say, I know this person, I know their work ethic,
I know they show up on time, I know they're team
first. All these things are important in addition
to the actual work on air. But yeah, so I started
in Johnstown. I was there for three years and
then I got the job in Hershey, which was and
still is one step below the NHL. And I was there
for eight. So in 11 years, I probably called
close to a thousand games in the minors. So I
had a lot of experience that I was able to gain
and a lot of reps so that when I got the NHL
job, I don't know that if I knew, yes, I'm ready.
Because you never know if you're ready. But it
was almost like if I'm not ready now, I'm not
sure I'm ever going to be ready after a thousand
games. And you are very technical at your job.
You follow the puck. Yet you get very loud and
emotional in a good way. Almost right away, those
were two elements that I wanted to incorporate.
I mean, it didn't sound then like I do now as,
you know, 18, 19 year old. I voiced that probably
sounded a little different. It was probably a
little bit more pipsqueaky when I got excited.
I made the choice to follow the puck more than
less on radio. I felt that that was something
that I wanted to hear if I were listening. There's
nothing wrong with leaving the puck, and some
announcers do that, where they throw in a little
narrative. They give background, or they set
the scene, or whatever. I made the choice from...
from almost the get -go that I wanted to stay
on the puck or the ball or whatever. I mean,
it's the same no matter what sport it is and
be as uber descriptive as I could because the
audience member can't see what's happening on
radio. And I always liked announcers for teams
who got excited when something good happened
for that team because I was cheering for that
team. And I wanted to incorporate that. So again,
I probably don't sound quite the same way as
I did when I started. I probably don't sound,
I know I don't sound quite the same way I did
when I even got the job with the Lightning. I
listened to some of the calls I had in the 0
-4 playoff run. And my pitch is a little different
than it was for the later cup runs and wins.
Not that one is any better than the other. I
think that's just... You age, your voice matures
maybe a little bit even more from my 30s to my
late 40s and 50s. But those are two components
that I kind of started with from the get -go
and haven't abandoned them. Do you miss hockey?
I like the season when the season is going on.
I enjoy doing the games. I enjoy the rhythm of
the season. So I have two big breaks or shifts
in my life every six months. One is going from
in -season to off -season. One's going from off
-season to in -season. Because things slow down
a lot during the off -season. And so when I'm
in -season, I'm like, boy, what am I going to
do during the off -season? It's not every summer
that I have a novel to write. And then when I'm
in off -season, I'm kind of like, I kind of need
to get going again once the season starts. And
I recognize that the pace is going to pick up.
But it's never as much of an abrupt change as
I think. Once we get into off -season, I do find
stuff that I'm doing and filling time, taking
the dog to TGH. I have more opportunity to do
that. I have different projects that I'm working
on last summer and this summer to some extent,
promoting the book and doing events. So yeah,
my time does get filled. There's more downtime.
I would agree with that. But I don't know that
you asked about missing the hockey. I'm not sure
that I miss the hockey because I like to think
that my life is full enough that I've got other
stuff going on. But I definitely enjoy it when
the season is happening. And I enjoy, you know,
doing a job that I love. And as I said, kind
of being in the rhythm of the day -to -day kind
of ups and downs of a season, an 82 -game season.
Yeah, but this upcoming season is going to be
very different. The Olympics break. What are
you going to do? Well, we've had those before.
So, and I'm going back a few years, but I remember
the Olympic break in 06. I remember the Olympic
break in 2010. I remember the Olympic break in
2014. And then, you know, the NHL players didn't
go in 2018. They were supposed to go in 22, but
they switched gears because we had a lot of outbreaks
due to COVID variants. teams had games to make
up so they ended up not going but we had a break
last year for the four nations um so i don't
know i mean it's it's a lengthy break i mean
it's like three weeks um so greg linelli and
i do a show monday through friday 12 to 1 um
that's something else i enjoyed during the season
we actually kept going on a weekly basis after
the lightning were eliminated all the way into
the beginning of july so i mean we we stayed
pretty consistent with that so i'm guessing we're
probably not going to do all three weeks but
we'll do we'll do some in the beginning of the
break and some near the end of the break i would
guess um and then i don't know i'm not i'm not
entirely certain you know like it'd be nice to
say my wife and i would just go take a vacation
but you know she has a job so what's that write
another book yeah well i don't know if i can
crank one out in two two three weeks um But it's
kind of like the offseason. I'm sure I'll find
ways to fill my time. But you're right. It is
going to be interesting because the players that
don't go, that's a significant layoff. And what
kind of condition, it's not even the condition,
but it's like the game shape, right? Coming back,
are they going to be able to kind of pick up
right where they left off? And then for the players
who do end up going, it's in Italy. Like, it's
not in Boston and Montreal, like the four nations,
where it's a fairly easy, you know, commute.
So I'll be interested to see kind of how the
players handle whether they're playing in the
Olympics or not. Are you disappointed that Russia
does not have a team? Well, you know, I'm used
to it by now. It's been three years. If you look
at the names, it would be an incredible team.
Well, for the Lightning, Kucherov and Vasilevsky
will definitely get a nice break. And I'm sure
there'll be, well, Kucherov will probably be
working hard every day. That's what I wanted
to say. I don't think Nikita Kucherov wants a
break because he works nonstop. Yes, he does.
So I don't think he will be excited about the
break. And my last one. Yes. How do you take
care of your muscles, your voice muscles? I should
probably do more than what I do, which is not
much. I probably... have been told many times
i need to drink more water than i drink i don't
well i don't know i i drink coffee that's probably
not the best for vocal cords even though i like
it so here's what i will say i get noisy but
i'm not getting noisy throughout a whole game
i'm not like a fan screaming if they're screaming
the whole game most of the time i'm kind of talking
at this level and i do get a break you know with
the intermissions and stuff like that so the
the points that i'm really elevating are you
know you could probably count on if not you know
one hand two hands so and then i gotta then i
gotta break right it's not like i'm doing five
games in a day so i do remember the five overtime
game in 2020 the first game in the bubble the
lightning played in the playoffs against columbus
and that was that was a challenge but again Like
I'm elevating usually when there's something
like a near a goal. Clearly there wasn't one
for almost, you know, five periods or like a
dangerous chance. And even there weren't a lot
of like once you got into deep, deep into that
game with first overtime, second overtime, third
overtime, there just were not a lot of scoring
chances. So it was more just the repetition of
talking at this level. But knock on wood, I haven't
had any I haven't had any voice issues. Do you
have advice for the young guys, girls? who are
about to graduate and looking for a career in
broadcasting. You kind of have to be flexible.
When I graduated college, you know, there was
no social media component where, you know, people
have to put together reels now, I think. It kind
of comes with the territory. But I always have
believed that the best way to get better at something
like this is to do it. So however you can get
reps, do it. If you had a chance to do it in
school, great. If you are graduating and you
don't actually get that first job like I did
where you're getting the 70 plus games, find
a way to practice because you won't get worse.
I mean, you will invariably, the more reps you
get, the more seasoned you become at it. And
so that would be the one piece of advice. And
then the rest is a lot of just... It's kind of
like throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall,
right? The stars kind of need to align for you.
But you have to put yourself in a position so
that you can look up and see that the stars are
aligned. So, you know, get your reps and try
and put together the best demo that you can.
And don't worry about spreading yourself too
thin. Like, you have to kind of blanket the entire
region, whatever the region is. If it's, you
know, you want to stay in... you know, your time
zone, you want to stay in the United States or,
you know, you want to stay in North America,
whatever it is, like try and leave no stone unturned.
Cause you never know where that first job is
going to come. That was beautiful. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for listening
to the hockey on the beach podcast.