Man, people are upset about the Old Valley situation with aren't they. Somebody tweeted the other day they said, it's time to do right by your fans, especially those depending on Bali Sports. Lift the blackouts already. It's a blackout with Exfanity. The contract is with Exfinity. That's that's part of the issue. And then there's others who just think, well, I'm not in TV. I know how to handle this. Here's what you do. Just put him on regular television. That's not the way it works, man.
It's not just simple as just well, let's just flick a switch. They can't put put on there, so let's go broadcast on Channel four Detroit or Channel eight and Grand Rapids. Nope, it's not the way it works. Man. It's surprising to me that people are in this business and they just don't get it. Welcome to the second hour of Exus and Bros. Here on the Michigan Sports Network throughout the Great State of Michigan. Bottom of the hour, we will replay our interview with Ben Raven from m Live in case
you missed it. He joined us yesterday. We'll play it again today for those of you who didn't get a chance to listen in and at eight thirty five, James Edwards of the Athletic will join us as well. In case you missed it, last night beat Vegas on ice three to two. They lead that series, and Edmonton eliminated the Kings for a third consecutive season four to three, the final there in favor of the Oilers. We know already
that Tampa has been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. The question is down in Tampa, at least while they're talking hockey anyway, what do you do with Captain Steven Stamcos he has spent sixteen years in Tampa. He will be a free agent right now this summer and will get, no doubt a ton of interest from other teams. How would he fit with the Red Wings? I think it's a fair discussion. Not sure how many people want a thirty four year old he can still play, man, can still play. Where
would he fit well? Toronto may believes our team for sure Florida. If he wants to stay in Florida and not and Tampa isn't the right fit for him, then that's a possibility. And people have speculated Detroit, and for good reason see Others have said, well, maybe Utah is a good fit. I don't know. Man, he wants to win, who gives him
a chance to win? Maybe this is home cooking on my part, completely open to that criticism because I think the Red Wings should have made the playoffs this year, and I think they're they're on that bend if they stay healthy to do just that. Do they need certain pieces? Yes? Is Steven Stamcos one of those pieces. You could always use more ska, but you'd rather them focus on the blue line or in net, wouldn't you. Absolutely. I'm not saying they're going to go out and get Connor Hollibuck, but
they need somebody who can stop the puck a little bit more consistently. Anyway, I read an article the other day about this, and here's what they had to say about the red Wings chances. It said projected cap space twenty nine million, which surprised me because I didn't think it was quite that high. Anyway, they said, Steve Eiserman's team just narrowly missed the playoffs, and this upcoming offseason seems like a pivotabal moment for the red Wings rebuild.
Bringing in Stamcos would help infuse a championship culture into a locker room that hasn't seen the postseason since twenty sixteen. So let me just stop right there for a moment. Infuse a championship culture. I've talked about this before. There are guys who have played on championships Olimada, Patrick Kane this past year, and guys who've made the playoffs plenty. It's not a championship culture necessary.
That's missing. It's talent on the blue line and defensive talent up front too, because, as we all know, it's defense isn't only by the two defensemen who are on the ice at the time. It continued and said Stamcos could also add some offensive pop that was lacking at the top of Detroit's lineup in twenty twenty three, twenty four, with the exception of a few key players. Fair Enough, I think that's an excellent point. They still need to score goals, we think, not necessarily. You I'm just I used
we as a generality. Okay, First of all, can Steven Stamkos's let's address you know, one thing at a time here, Can Steven Stamkos still score you? Damn right? He can't without a doubt, he's still especially on the power play. Now, is he Nikita kutcher Off on his team? No, but kutcher Off that won the scoring title. Is he braiding point? Not quite. He's still pretty damn good. He still had eighty one points. He still had forty goals this year. Forty goals would have
led the Red Wings for crying out loud. So he can still play now the ice time, Yeah, that's up to coach Lauran to figure that out. And he's familiar with him, so that's a plus. Right. So the question is, look at age thirty four, You guy's got to be committed, and he's sure seen like he would be committed. Absolutely, So it makes a ton of sense. I think. Can he still get goals? No question about it. Does this team need goals, no question about
that either. We think, based on the regular season numbers, based up from a year ago, that this team is a really good offensive team. And they are they finished what top half? They're not Colorado, They're not Toronto. Toronto could be eliminated tonight. Colorado's advanced, Dallas is leading, Edmonton is there, Tampa, Vancouver, New York, Carolina, all those teams better in goals for during the regular season than the Red Wings all in
the playoffs. Now here's what you might say, Well, wait a minute, shot Nashville, Florida, Boston, Vegas, Jets, Kings all right behind Detroit and they didn't make the playoffs fair enough defensively or maybe special teams wise, Like, what do you think the difference between the Oilers and Kings series was. I'll tell you what it was. It was special teams. And Edmonton had another power play goal last night. They had nine overall in
the series. But when I bring up those teams Winnipeg, La, Florida, Boston, know this, All those teams, led by Florida best in goals against Detroit's bottom half. There no team below Detroit in goals against made the postseason. Tampa was barely above them and they made the playoffs. So does Detroit need it? Yeah, you can always use like I said, you can always use more scoring. But defensively, that's where they have to
get better. Is Steven Stamkos viewed as a better defensive forward than a lot of guys that they have not really anyway. So the article continued and said, this potential marriage may come down to the length of the contract. That's always key, how much you're willing to give him and over how many years. That's the hard part with teams who haven't made the playoffs for eight years, and many who feel like they're not ready to turn the corner yet attracting
a guy like that, that's what they mean by overpaying. It's not always in money, it's in years. Two What would you give a guy like Steven Stamkos number one, number two? If you're willing to give it to him? Why not? Why not? Patrick Kine? Those guys want multi year deals, and I don't blame them. Are you willing to commit a long term deal to a thirty four year old forward or a short term deal? What do you consider short term deal? Two years, three years?
Guys in hockey can play a long time if they could stay healthy, and Stampcos has had some injuries. What would be the max that you would give him? Meyer hotlines open for you eight sixty six, eight three, eight forty eight forty three you could tech sports radio to twenty one thousand. Bottom of the hour, we'll replay our interview from yesterday with Ben Raven eight thirty
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You could win up to two thousand dollars in premium play and were Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort your getaway reimagine. Visit Sooringeaglecasino dot com for complete rules and details. Little Anti Ghost to bring you back here At sevent eighteen on this Thursday, bottom of the hour, venravenamplive dot com, who joined us yesterday, will replay that interview from yesterday in case you missed it. Meanwhile, at eight thirty five, James Edwards of the Athletical join us. We'll
talk Pistons and NBA here on exes and Bros. We're open to any conversation you'd like on the Meyer hotline eight sixty six eight three, eight forty eight forty three to the phone line's Ben. Who's waiting for us? Yeah, we got Kenan Burton, Hi, Ken, how are you today? Happy Thursday to you? Happy Thursday to you? Shep, now shep. When you were a basketball announcer for University of Michigan, was Dave Brandon the athletic directors, Then it started with Bill Martin, and then it went to David
Brandon. Yes, which one hired John Beeline, Bill Martin. Bill Martin did, Okay. The reason I'm calling is and I hope I'll try to talk as fast as I can so I can don't worry about it. Eight quaer can no worry? Wow, take your time. Dave. My friend, well, my lifetime best friend passed away of cancer in two thousand and thirteen. And I was a Michigan season ticket holder and my friend was a
Michigan fan. And I wrote Dave Brandon a long letter on email and asked we were having an outing for him to raise money because he was a self business owner and he was hirving a hard time making a living. And Dave was nice enough to send a hat signed by him. He sent I asked him if he could send the picture, and he sent the picture with his signature on it. We had a frame and a couple other things like a T shirt and stuff, and I of course sent them to send them back
and thanked them for everything well. And then I sent him also back after the outing was over was and thanked them again an email. And I could tell these were his emails because he wasn't been like me. He had a hard time sleep in the middle night. They were like two thirty three thirty at night. And so when my friend passed away in twenty thirteen, two years later, I wrote again to Dave and thanked him for all he did and sent him a nice card thanking him and told him my friend had passed
away. And he wrote me two or three more times on email and told me he was a cancer survivor. And I knew that because he's about three or four years younger than me. And I remember him when he played foot bowl because I could back in them days when I had more of a mind than I do now, I could remember every player on the team. And what I'm trying to say that he got such a bad rap, especially from the guys at WTKA, and I won't mention the names. Everybody knows who
they are. And I wrote them a letter to saying what he did for my friend and myself as a friend. And they're trying to tell me that I didn't know the whole story, and I probably don't know the wholes. All I know is the man was nice to me, and I would I would speak good about him the rest of my life. And I know you probably know him. I don't really know him personally. I just know him as somebody that wrote me back at two three thirty in the morning and made
a way out of it being friendly to me. Yeah, well forgive that from him. Yeah, well that's Look, this is what happens anytime you come in contact with person. That's why I was just talking about this with somebody yesterday. They were talking about certain race car drivers. They were asking about athletes and who athletes make an impression on you and how do you form
those impressions, And we have had a pretty deep conversation. We have to remember sometimes when we run into athletes or general managers or coaches or managers whomever, sometimes celebrities. We may be catching them at an off day. It's tough to be on all all the time. You know, it's tough to be the person you want to be all the time because things happen in people's
lives that we're just not always familiar with. Obviously, he's made an impression on you because more than once, so that tells you something about the man, at least when it comes to your situation. I don't blame you. I'm not going to try and change your opinion even if I had a different opinion about David Brandon to you, because first of all, that it's not fair. Second of all, you have this impression, and it's the rightful impression because of what he would the time he took for you, And I
would say this, and thanks for the phone call. I'm sorry you lost your best friend. That's heartbreaking. I would say this to anybody. I say this to my kids all the time too. Time is very valuable in anybody's life. Can you take that This is why it's important for us. This is much smaller scale. I get it, it's just a talk show, but you take the time to call. That's taking time out of your day to listen to us and have the guts to call in and express your
opinions. You deserve to be heard. I'm not going to rush you off the phone. It's not fair, it's not right. Dave Brannon took the time to email you more than once, took the time to actually heed to what you had requested for your friend. I would never forget that either, And to me, if I were in your shoes, I would always feel obligated and honored in that situation, because not everybody does that. Do you
remember when you were a kid, Well, this is dating myself. When I was a kid, I used to write letters to certain players because they were my favorite players and I wanted something from them. I didn't care what it was, whoever that player may have been. If they sent something back, all that does is endear you more to the person who's making the request. It's not that hard, you know. I've been fortunate. There's a lot of people who have sent me letters and sent it to Comerica Park.
Always wrote them back. Have to really important. It's just the right thing to do. Sometimes there's just the right thing to do. Sometimes I think we've lost that in our society. It's just a nice and the right thing to do. You can't I get guys like guys who are superstars, Guys like Mike Trout for example, Guys like show ayo time, they get it all the time. It's almost possible. You've gotta have somebody actually do that for you because you're trying to, you know, play a baseball game every
single day. It's impossible to do that, it really is. But a guy like David Brandon in your situation, yeah, I mean, that was the right thing to do, and kudos to him. Not everybody has the same experience. Not everybody knows him the same way. That doesn't make him a bad guy if it comes in a different form of a relationship. I can't say that I had that same experience, that same relationship with David Brandon.
We knew each other obviously, but I enjoyed my time. There are certain certain things that happen with athletic directors that kind of stick out with you, you as a representative of a university. So I'll just give you a quick thought. We were at the Big Ten tournament and we're getting ready to do a broadcast. Usually, I mean Bill Martin would always come up,
how you guys doing always always say hello? Right? Or manually did the same thing when he was when I was calling games at Michigan and he was in charge, David Brandon didn't do that. We're at the Big Ten tournament and you're going, wait a minute, you're talking to everybody but your home broadcasting team, which was a little surprising at Mark Hollis in Michigan State,
who was actually at at the tournament. He's the one who came over and said hello to us, Michigan State ad, which was a little surprising to us. When we come back. Ben Raven of m Live joined us yesterday to talk Lions at NFL. Well replay that conversation for you in case you missed it, and then bottom of the eight o'clock hour, James Edwards from the Athletic joins us here on Exis and Bros. Across the Great state of Michigan stay with us huge here for my good friend Drew and the crew at
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