Four Nations face off final last night. Canada got it done in overtime, and I am still buzzing from the event. Not just last night, but I thought the tournament got a lot of people off guard in the best of ways. Oftentimes that's how life works. Our next guest, I've never interviewed them for We'll do a little hockey Little Utah Hockey Club and obviously the Four Nations face off with Tom Callahan on a Friday afternoon.
Tom, Happy Friday, sir, how are you?
Oh my goodness, it's Friday. I love it. I'm doing well. Thank you.
I appreciate the time. Today I got to ask you how many corny Tommy boy jokes have you received over the years?
All of them?
Okay, good, good good.
Yeah.
See, we were debating whether or not we wanted to bring that up, and I'm like, no, with a name like Tom Callahan, my man has heard this like his entire life.
So it's good that we didn't lead with that, you know.
What I mean. Yeah, it's funny.
I like to tell people I heard the movie twice before I ever saw it because people just, yeah, they love giving me lines too. But you know, I mean, it's a classic for a reason, right, So it's not all bad.
Yeah, you certainly have the name that is tied to a great movie, which I suppose is a benefit. But Tom, since I've never interviewed you before, tell me about yourself, you know, kind of growing up in this business, how you kind of latched onto the NHL and what you're doing now, and let's go from there.
Absolutely. So.
I grew up in Buffalo, New York, so big Bills fan, growing up still Big Bills fan, you know, and grew up rooting for the Buffalo Sabers as well, and just always loved hockey, you know. Once I figured out I wasn't good at baseball I was like twelve, I ended up playing hockey ye around. It was just my favorite thing to do. And so eventually, you know, go to college and try to figure out what you want to
do with your life. I ended up calling games and spent nine years in the minor leagues calling hockey and baseball and doing the occasional one off one there for like.
Football or basketball.
But that made it to the NHL with Nashville, did five years of play by play with the Nationale Predators. Uh, and after that I went from the Predators over.
To ESPN Nashville.
Actually, I did three years as a host there and then like a fool, decided I missed hockey wanted to go back to calling games, so I moved to Indianapolis and then Tucson, and.
I just I missed him. It went two Son.
That's where the whole Coyotes scene comes in is I was working for the Coyotes there. I had a chance to start up the Tucson Roadrunners in a pretty high capacity, so I was.
Pretty excited about that.
Unfortunately, that didn't last because when the franchise was sold, that all kind of fell apart.
But you know, it was a great experience. I loved it.
Spent two years in the Coyotes organization and met some fantastic people along the way, and you know, just now post pandemic and everything kind of coming back online with hockey, I'd been looking for a chance to cover an NHL team again, and that's how I ended up with the Lockdown Utah Hockey Club podcast where I'm a co host
with Robin Leano. And uh Yet it was easy for me as a franchise I already knew with some people I still knew in the franchise and have been watching now for the better part of I guess nine years.
Very nice, very nice.
So I am also a child of the Northeast, the mean streets of Fairfield County, Connecticut, and grew up going to Madison Square Garden to watch the New York Rangers. And there's still my team this day. So you and I are Northeast boys, which is always good. But let's talk about this smash hit, this Four Nations faceoff tournament.
According to the reports from bett MGM, DraftKings, and Fan Duel, all three sports books said it is the highest bettan on hockey event of all time by total tickets and we just have the ratings spilling, and I guessed that it would scratch ten million. It came close nine point three mil, which is the highest watched hockey game of all time outside of Olympic hockey. So by all accounts, Tom,
this has been an unbelievable boom for this sport. Give me your thoughts on it, and I also want to know, prior to the events starting, what did you anticipate Because we have Neil Smith on weekly to talk hockey, and before it started, Neil, who was a general manager of a Stanley Cup winning team said that he was not really excited for this, didn't think it was going to be great. When we had him on on Wednesday, he
ate his crow. What were you anticipating and what are your thoughts on how it kind of manifested?
Well, the first thing I'll say is, boy, doesn't that gets excited for the Winter Olympics.
For Saltway for sure?
You know, I mean, how pumped are you now? Just thinking down the road for that?
But you know what, I it's kind of funny because being around hockey and being a.
Very vocal Team USA guy, mostly on a team full of Canadians for most of the time I've been around the sport, you know, you take your good natured riving and you're not so good natured driving.
But I've never played for Team USA, but it's important to me, especially when they go up against Canada.
Beating Russia or Finland or Sweden is nice, but beating Canada is a must for me when it comes to Team USA and the sport of hockey and really any sport. But that's where the rivalry is, right. Canada really says, hey, this is our sport, and the US, especially in World Juniors lately and in a lot of other ways, has
been flying a lot of that away. So Canada had a lot on the line for this, the US had a lot on the line for this, and quite honestly, not that Sweden and Finland weren't good rosters, but I think it was obvious going into the tournament Canada and the US were the class of the tournament. So the fact that they met in the final was not a shock. I think what was a shock to me. I didn't
know what we were going to get. I know that the blood boils for these players when they play one another, but I also wondered if because it's an All Star Game replacement and you know that you have to be a teammate with the guy, we're any other sweater in another week, are you going to hold up on them? Are you not going to put him through the glass, like I wondered how that would pan out. Then we got three fights in nine seconds and that answered my question.
In that first time that Canada to the US, Matt and I'm like, oh, okay, it's on, gloves are off.
And literally it was great. I loved it.
I think that a lot of people were very excited by it, and I think it brought some needed attention to the sport right now, if I could take a broader tack for just a moment, Metia rights are all over the map right now, Spence, and this is something
that I'm keeping a close eye on. I've always been a sports media junkie, but ESPN and MLB are getting a divorce now, Formula one is leaving and I'm a big F one guy is leaving ESPN and a lot of rights are coming up, and it just seems like at the moment, with all the rsns going down, it's a very tenuous moment for sports in general to be
carried over any medium. So I'm kind of wondering, you know, hey, how important is this going to be the fact that we really got some big time attention to this game?
And do you keep this format? It was successful? Next year? Obviously you have the Winter Olympics.
But you know, is this something that maybe you try to go and expand the format to maybe do another team that's Team Europe as a catch all for the guys that maybe don't have.
A country to play for.
But I think they finally hit on something that quite frankly flought some attention back to an All Star game. You know, baseball is all about the home run derby, not so much the game. Basketball it's the dunk and the three point and nobody cares about the game and football. I can't tell you the last time I watched the Pro Bowl. I think I was still a kid. So I think it's a great injection into the sport.
So, since you are a sports media junkie, how did the Kurt Russell plane Herb Brooks miracleonized speech land with you? Did you think that was the right move or did you think it was incredibly corny and also a bit misguided because there are two very different situations.
Absolutely two different situations.
I was actually a little surprised that that popped up.
I understand the illusion, but yeah, I mean that was nineteen eighty, that was USA versus Russia. And for folks who don't know, and you're kind of wondering where that came from, it's from the movie Miracle, which kind of you know, details as much as it can. It's like a little bit of historical fiction around the United States winning the gold medal. But you know, for Russell did a tremendous job playing Herb Brooks. Talk to anybody who
knew Herb, and they felt he was channeling herb. Very important speech, very important moment in the United States history. Do I think that the USA Russia game had anywhere nearly important to that game last night?
No?
And I thought that was out of place. But again, I mean, look what we're dealing with here. I mean, it's a Disney funded movie, ABC EST and.
Disney they own the rights to the speech.
Gives them a chance to revive kind of a movie that nobody's talking about for a long time. Maybe give it a little extra life and a bit of a boost, and maybe somebody watches on Disney.
Plus. I understand why they did it. I just I wouldn't have done it.
Tell me your thoughts, because every time I hear Sean mcdonnac call a game, I'm like, this dude doesn't give enough, get enough credit for how what a mastery is at his craft. So give me your thoughts, Tom on the actual broadcast and how that was handled.
ESTN does. I almost think ESPN is a little guilty of doing too much. They're trying so hard, you know what I mean, And you don't mind McDonald's call at all. I enjoy listening to those guys, and you know, maybe I'm probably a little more critical having actually.
Done the job.
Than most people would be, But I don't think there's anything wrong with their personalities that they have, and especially when they let them stretch their legs a little bit, even in your mission with Sue Ban and Messia and letting those guys be who they are. Is everybody's trying to catch that magic that the NBA on TNT has,
right like, that's what everybody wants. They want that whatever, that thing that Barkley and Shaq and Ernie and all those guys have, and everybody's trying to capture that lightning in a bottle. ESPN's trying that. What I don't like about ESPN is how they really graphically overload the broadcast.
I wish they'd let it breathe a little more.
You know, there's always a pop up marker and this guy's here, this guy's here, that guy's here, and here's where the puck and the shot and the stats and the thing and the like, Holy cow, guys, can we just watch a game?
And I don't know, maybe that's just me.
Being a little more old school, I think, you know, I just wish they'd lay out with some of that stuff sometimes.
But they're they're trying. They're trying to come up with a formula, that's for sure.
Okay, fair enough. Now, I'm genuinely curious. I've never called the hockey game in my life. I've watched the grip of them, but since you have, I'm curious as to what your thoughts were on that.
So, you know, Tom, whenever, and I don't.
Mean this disrespectful at anybody, but if it's not football or basketball or baseball, you know, the fringe sports outside of the Big three, whether it's hockey or soccer or whatever, whenever there's a moment like this and this feels real to me, it feels different.
You know.
In the nineteen eighty miracle on ice led to a lot of people watching hockey in the way they hadn't prior to, led to a lot of parents putting their children in hockey in a way that we hadn't seen that prior to. And as you reference, the US just won the World Juniors and a lot of people drawn a straight line between the interests that was generated in nineteen eighty and the evolution of the hockey that has played in our country. Does this feel like the same
type of seminal moment? I mean, Eruzione, that was cool, I'll tell you that. Like when he walked out, I'm like, yes, very nice. I thought that was really cool. But he said the buzz in that building reminded him of that game in nineteen eighty And ERUZIONI can be a little performative, as we know. But for a guy that's been in this game for a while, in a hockey historian, does this have the same type of juice? And what do you think this can do for pro hockey in America?
Did it have the same juice? No, the juice I would compare it to.
It's funny you mentioned that because I was one of those kids that got on.
The ice after the gold medal game.
I started playing hockey in nineteen eighty one, so that that kind of tells you where I come into the equation.
I was a child of that boom. You know.
That's so I understand that completely. What I would actually compare this to is a couple of different games. Number One, actually, the last time the Winter Olympics were in Salt Lake and that game there where Sidney Crosby wins it in overtime or actually sorry, that was twenty ten. And then Salt Lake Olympics. I think both of those were big, and also the nineteen ninety six so it's really three moments, and the nineteen ninety six World Cup of Hockey. I
think all three of those were important. I think they were best on best. They were a great showcase for the sport. And what happens is when you get people who don't normally watch the sport and then they follow through in the timing on this is perfect because we're about to hit the trade deadline in the playoff race in earnest and there's nothing like playoff hockey, and I think people will stick around for a month or two and watch the playoffs this year. So yeah, it's going
to grow the game. It's going to grow interest in it. Youngsters are going to want to play. Is it going to be the explosion of nineteen eighty I don't know, simply because the US won the gold, you know what I mean, It's hard to top that. But I do think we're in a different day and age where the people who are now.
Going to be reached by.
This, It's not going to be this explosion of a moment that happened on TV and then people talk about it for months. This is going to be something where it's going to be highlights on your phone, It's going to be on NHL dot com or on your team's web page. Guys are going to be talking about coming back from four nations. This is going to be the topic of conversation for a while now, and we're going to easily be able to recall those moments through video. So yeah, I think it is going to be a boost.
I just I have a hard time comparing anything to nineteen eighty.
To be honest with it.
Yeah, totally fair, and I was only two, so I don't have memories of it. But it's just kind of interesting watching the reaction after this tournament. The leak has said has got everybody off guard.
All right, let's move.
Over now to do a little Utah Hockey Club. Here's where I'll start this portion of our conversation. You know, now that we have seen the majority of the game's play, we do this thing where it's like, hey.
It's halfway or halfway through the season.
Well, we're very much not We were a number of weeks ago they played fifty six games. When they're successful, because it's been such an ebb and a flow, you know, they'll go on this streak and then they can't win. They have trouble closing out games. They don't win at home, which is wild. But when they're playing their best, excuse me, what are they doing well? And when they struggle what tends to happen?
So all those are excellent questions, and I think with the Utah Hockey Club, honestly, it's pretty easy to identify a few things that go well and go poorly. First of all, when they're playing well, special teams is doing its job. The penalty killers are taking care of business. When they're shorthanded, they kill those those penalties off, and the.
Power play produces.
When Utah's power play is going, they really can get this team over the hump in a close game. And we've seen it time and time again this year, and that is one of the big things they do. Another thing that they do when they successful spences, they they spend a lot of time with the puck. Their puck possession numbers are good, their four check is good. So in hockey, it's not always a dump and chase. You don't always throw it in the corner and go get it,
but a lot of times you do. But or you have a way to enter the zone when their zone entry plays are good and they maintain possession off of those, or they're dump and chase and that four check results in then maintaining possession of the puck. That's when they're playing well. And when they don't do that, when they turn the puck over going into the offensive zone, or when they don't come back up with it, when they don't win the battles on the wall, that's when they're
playing poorly. So to answer the poorly side of the equation, it's that, and then it is also defensive lapses. I've taken to calling them naps a lot of people. If you listen to Lockdown Utah Hockey Club podcasts, you've heard me talk about the naps. They take naps, They just blow coverages. They lose their like energy and enthusiasm and momentum, and they sleepwalk a couple of shifts and inevitably the
puck ends up in the back of the net. They're just not consistent when they're losing, and they don't give you that same effort, shift in, shift out.
Is part of that.
Being a young team, yes, is part of that. The fact that you know they've gone through all these injuries this year. Yes, but those are reasons not excuses. And I think that you know, if this team is ever going to make the playoffs, and they certainly have the ability to, they just need to be far more consistent than they've been.
So help me understand they're at times inability to close, and maybe you just outline some of the some of the issues they have when it comes to the defensive lapses, because there've been and I think I've been i think five games at home, and I try to tune into every game when they're on the road, and oftentimes they'll enter the third period, I'm like, they got a shot, and then so many times they just tend to blow it.
Is it youth? Is it lack of execution?
Why is this team struggling to close when they have a lead or close in that period?
You know, So there's three reasons why teams fail.
It's gm, coach.
And players, right, because those are really the three places where you get the contact in the games. I believe in Bill Armstrong in the way he's building a team. I like his philosophy. I don't think that's it. Andre Tourney is doing a good job as a coach. I don't think a seat is warm in any way. A plus, he seems to have very good relationship with Bill Armstrong, so I don't necessarily think that they don't like what he's doing. So to me, it kind of boils down
to the players in their consistency. Some guys, like it or not, just for whatever reason, cannot apply themselves for that sixty minutes.
And it's not that they're not gifted. Some guys take risks.
Some guys are so gifted that they believe they can cover for themselves and always recover. And you know what, you can't in one hundred percent of those situations. You can sometimes and what it works out awesome? Right, you score this dynamic goal, the roof comes off the building, everybody's fired up. But then there's every other time, And I think.
That that's what it is. It's managing the risks.
But each person has to kind of come to that reconciliation on their own as a player. And again, I mean, look, I don't think this is the final form or shape of this team that's going to be in the playoffs two years from now, I don't. And it's going to change again at the trade deadline coming up here. So they're they're figuring it out, they're putting it together, and you know, for the first time, we're going to see
what the defense actually looks like. We haven't seen what it looks like what we've been told it would be since October.
You alluded to my next question, which is that trade deadline on March the seventh, And you know, I talk about this anecdote on air quite a bit. I thought it was so funny when we had the opening kind of press conference arrival event down to the Delta Center and you know, Spicy Tune is doing his thing and the crowd's going crazy and everybody's pumped, and Bill Armstrong is like, hey, everybody knows that we're rebuild, right.
Like everybody's everybody's aware, like exactly what the deal is.
And I thought it was so funny, and like you, I've been impressed with him. They've got a bunch of draft capital, they've got assets, they have clean books, a lot like the basketball team we have here in the Jazz do you anticipate anything getting done prior to that March seventh deadline, and if so, generally speaking, what do you think it is?
Absolutely and all encapsulate quick because I know we're coming up on the top here there's nine defense from monsters. He comes back, and I'm excited to see Jersey back. I'm excited to get them as healthy as possible. But you've got Sergachev, Jersey, Marino, those are your long term guys.
I don't think they're going anywhere.
You have a couple of big expiring contracts, veterans Robert Bortuso I and Cole.
I expect them to be in play. Only Mada I love.
I'd hate to see him go, but I understand why another team would want him because of his presence and his experience, and a couple of those guys Bortuso cold, they've won Stanley Cups. Then you have Valley, Mackie and Kessel Ringy signed for another year a piece, and Nick de Simone, who's really impressed come in as a thirty year old. He's inexpensive and I think he's done great. I'd actually like to see them extend him, So I think yes, they're going to make a move. It's going
to be on defense. One of the goalies might be in play, just because of the contract situation there, and I wouldn't I don't rule out seeing the move a forward.
Maybe you know there's.
A team that comes crawling for like a bukestat a kerfoot of loss and Krause. I think Utah is in a position of strength. They have some cap room, they have the ability to make some move. They're going to continue to build it.
This is trade deadline a radio pro knowing that we're approaching the top, Tom, I appreciate that.
Where can people go find your work? My man?
I'm honest, you want you spend most of my time on Blue Sky now social media, I'm at Tom Talks. I am still over on Twitter at Callahan on air. But you've got a better shout out getting on Blue Sky. Please check out the podcast Lockdown Utah Hockey Club podcast or on YouTube in anywhere you can download a podcast and love talk and Honky appreciate it.
Thank you, my friend. It's been illuminated. Love to do it again. Okay, sounds good. Thanks Tom Callahan. Not that one.
I'm very glad we didn't lead with the Tommy Boy stuff because I when I asked him how many Tommy Boy jokes he's heard over the course of his life, and he said all of them. I think we would have annoyed him greatly if we played like Chris Farley singing fat guy in a little coat or something.
Well, I did have to warn him just in case, because I knew that I would go overboard with it. Tommy Boy was like my family's still to this day, maybe more often. We would watch that one, and I will have to admit I did come in with a maniac no.
I caught that, and I just wonder how it landed. It was subtle because he sounds slightly annoyed. Oh now, I have all the best Tommy Boy scenes going through my mind where that they're when they're at the restaurant, he's like, it doesn't hurt here or here, but right he's got this big gash on his face.