Bob McElligott Radio Voice for The Columbus Blue Jackets

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yes, yes, yes, they're still alive. They're still alive. I'm
talking about the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
That's right, that's what I'm talking about, the Columbus Blue Jackets.
And they're in Philadelphia tonight, and so is my next guest.
He is the radio voice for the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Bob mcgelligate joining us right now, and Bob Chuck is
off today, so it's just you and I and I
gotta start with last night, watching Montreal go to overtime,

(00:39):
I thought it was over for the Jackets because this
has become one of those things that it's like, you're
you know, it's so close the way all of this
is going. I thought when they went to OT, I
was like, oh no, it's over. And I couldn't believe
they start out to nothing and are you kidding me?
Who the Blackhawks come back from that on Montreal's ice.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I'm sure you were watching it or keeping track. And
I know Jody was. He was on the call on TV.
Wasn't he up there?

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah? He was?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I mean that was incredible. I didn't get it. I
wasn't watching it. I didn't even know how to find
it as far as to watch, I was just looking
at it on updates or what have you.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Were you watching that last night by chance?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yeah, I was watching it. I was watching the Chicago broadcast.
Tody was doing the Amazon Prime broadcast in Canada. I
wasn't watching him. I was watching Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, man, your thoughts on that game for starters. I again,
with you being able to watch it, with him going
up to nothing, I go, well, it's been it's been
a fantastic season. I mean I really just kind of
resided the fact that, well, this is probably over, and
I thought, well, that was going to be it. They
were going to slam the door shut last night.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
You were such a positive thinker place.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Well, I mean it's a I'm a realist. I certainly
wanted what happened to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
But when you go up to nothing on your whole
mice against Chicago, I mean, come on right.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
You go up cood nothing and you have a kid
that you just drafted last summer fifth overall, who was
playing in the KHL in Russia, who has come over,
was making his NHL debut last night. They were just
the fans there were I couldn't even tell you how
much they couldn't wait to see this guy play. And
he assisted on the first goal, and he scored the

(02:25):
second goal for his first in the NHL. Didn't look good,
but there were still like forty five minutes left in
the game, so that worked out all right.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
It did end up working out alright.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
And what did Chicago find as somebody who has a
trained eye and watches and knows probably most of those players,
and I don't even know, forgive me for not you
know how much ice time did Fliggy was he? Did
he play? I mean, did he have any ice had?
What did you see? Tell me what you saw in
that game?

Speaker 3 (02:55):
I saw in that game what I'm going to see
here in about two hours. I saw a team that
is going nowhere, has nothing to play for except pride,
and has a chance to stick it to somebody else,
which is all you can do is hang on to
that at this time of year, and it makes it fun.
And I can tell you that because the Blue Jackets
have been sitting in that position so many times since
I've been here, and it's fun to stick it to

(03:17):
somebody that's trying to get into the playoffs. And that's
exactly what you saw Chicago do last night, you know,
go in, play hard and look Montreal, the Blue Jaggons
have to win tonight if they get it done tonight
in regulation, no more overtime like your scenario you set up.
If that's tomorrow, then you're correct, but not yesterday. So

(03:38):
the Blue Jagts have to win it in regulation today.
If they do that, I'll be really interested to see
how tight in certain areas of their own bodies to
Montreal Canadians are tomorrow night when they play against Carolina Hurricanes.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
So that brings me then to yeah, we'll get back
to the Jackets here tonight in in Philly and Torch
has been gone. Well, well, I guess we'll just talk
about this now. But Torch has been gone for a
little while now, correct with Philly? Yeah, yeah, right, So
are they playing better now that he's gone?

Speaker 3 (04:13):
In your estimation, teams always played better when he leaves.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
You are so correct, you are, well, this one does.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
And they have one guy in particular, a guy named
Matte Mitschkopf, who was a first round pick a couple
of years ago, and he is uh, he towards it
didn't work, and you know he wants to be a
high flying offensive guy towards wants to teach all facets
of the game and all night. And so that guy
in particular is really enjoyed the post Tortorella era here.

(04:46):
But look, they're a good team. They've got young talent.
I know they traded a lot of guys away at
the deadline. But Bradshaw, who was John Tortorella's defense coach,
and he was so in Columbus as well, he's interim
head coach right now, and I know our guys really
they respect him. And talked to Zach Wrensky this morning
and he said that, you know, he's expected Brad to

(05:09):
have a chance at being a head coach. And even
though it's happened this way, that guy's trying to get
a job for next year. So are a lot of
his players trying to keep jobs. So they have played
better and they're playing their final home game here tonight,
which is another thing. You don't want to get embarrassed
in the last showing in front of your home crowd either.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, is it safe to say that because the interim
coach there was here that he knows where all the
bodies are buried? Defensively and well otherwise, So he.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Knows exactly knows everything.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, well, okay, that's good. That's great to hear that.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Actually, no, no, that's what you want to hear somebody
who thinks they know everything. That's perfect. But he don't
know Evison, and he don't know the way. I mean,
he's he has whatever he needs as far, but he
doesn't know every single piece of the personnel for the
Jackets and so on. But he's got clearly a lot
and done his research and so on, and it's a
matter of can their guys react and do the game

(06:03):
plan versus a team who is playing with their hair
on fire right now in the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
That's the difference.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
That is the difference. I mean, there they finally got
to that desperate brand of hockey that they weren't playing
there that stretch where they went through that six game
losing streak. They were playing well, but they just didn't
seem to have that extra desperation gear, which they have
found in a big way. I mean we saw it
in two different forms against Washington over the weekend, and yeah,
they just have to play like that. Look, you know,

(06:32):
hockey teams always say, every coach will tell you and
every player will tell you, we're not worried about what
the other team is going to do. We're worried about
what we're going to do. And that couldn't be more
true for the Columbus Blue Jackets every time they played,
because they proved it two weeks ago. They don't do
what they're supposed to do, they're not going to win.
So in the last four games they've done everything they're
supposed to do and now they're still alive with only

(06:53):
two games left on the schedule.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Going back to the Caps, you know, back to back
one here one there with outscoring them to one. Come on,
did any And I get it Ov didn't play here,
but he also, you know, he was frustrated point blank
and Jet Greaves is just slamming the door on him,
and I get it. They're really they're already in and
so on, but they were playing they were pissed off.

(07:15):
I mean, I text you during the game Saturday and
I said, it's gonna get dark now, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Tom Wilson is he is pissed, you know. I mean
it was like, you.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Know, after that hit, which was legal, what Adam fan
Tilly did, and from then on, I said, it's gonna
get dark.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
You're like, dude, you know, keep an eye on this.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
And you know, we know that they they had a
huge chip on their shoulder and going into Washington for
that to play out for one and Ov's scoring within
whatever it was right away, I go, oh, no, here
we go. And then that was it and Jet was,
oh my god. You can't say enough good things.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
About this kid.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Michel said he was the number one star in the
league last week with a record of three and zero
and the goals against Savage of one and a nine
something saved percent. So you know, here's a kid that
last week, what is today, today's Tuesday? Six days ago
he was playing and winning a game for the Cleveland Monsters,
and today he's the number one Star of the week
in the National Hockey League. So it tells you all

(08:12):
you need to know how quickly things can change. If
you're ever thinking about giving up on your life, there's
an example of how quickly things can change. So so yeah,
I mean, look, he's playing really well. That Capital's team
is well, I'm going to say this, I would really
like Jack to get in and play that Capitol's team,
because I think that's a team focuses off and they've

(08:34):
been one of the best in the league all year,
but they're off because they were focused on the ovench
can chase to break Gretzky's record, and ever since he did,
they've got to find themselves again. And I'm not saying
that they won't when the playoffs get going, but I'm
saying right now they haven't, and now time to get
that team.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
So how much are you able to talk about? And
if you can't, you can't. But you know, I know
that after they won on Sunday in Washington, I was
looking at my at one of my sports apps and
looking at the Jackets, of course, you know, at Philly
and then of course the Islanders the final game on
Thursday here in town, and I saw Elvis was gonna

(09:17):
go well tonight, Jets, Jets between the pipes tonight, and
so Jet Greeves is starting confirmed, and so the whole
thing with Elvis, I you know, it was like he
was called down. Jet was called down emergency, and you
know there's no and that's it's always cryptic with the
NHL as far as what's going on.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
But when they use the word emergency. You just you
just say, so, what exactly is going on?

Speaker 2 (09:41):
I'm sure you probably can't talk about it, but I
don't know why Elvis isn't there. But you know, Jet's
the hot stick right now, right with that, so you
got to keep going with him.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
I love that they're using him tonight.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Well, Elvis is hurt. And the reason the recall is
emergency is because after the trade deadline you only get
four regular recall. That doesn't mean you can only recall
four players. It means that there has to be an
injury situation for you to need somebody to bring up
on emergency. So at this time of the year, it
actually reads a little bit more. It looks worse than

(10:16):
it is. Quite honestly, it's just emergency. It's a technicality.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
I gotcha.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Elvis is not here. Elvis is hurt, and I'm going
to tell you right now, if Elvis was here, if
Domina Kashick was here, if Patrick Wall was here, I
don't care. Nobody would start this game. But Jet griefs tonight.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
That's the way that I kind of saw it too, Bob.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
With my limited NHL you know, viewership experience, whatever you
want to call it. I just thought to myself, there
is no way any coach in the league could pull
a guy who is that on fire right now.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Let me ask you this. If they get into the
playoffs and you're playing game one of the playoffs and
Elvis is healthy again, who's starting game one of the playoffs?

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Boy, oh boy, how much time has gone by between there?

Speaker 3 (11:00):
The answer j E Ta right there, Okay. I mean,
there's no way, there's no way. If this team winds
up playing beyond Thursday, this is your guy. And unless
he gets into a playoff game and and totally gets
blown up, if they get there, this is their guy.
Mark it down.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah, he's so athletic and talking about jet he's a
he would be considered a little.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Bit smaller as far as goalies go. Correct.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, that's very time. Yes, it is.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Okay, Well, I'm just you know, I don't I don't
want to. I don't want to step over here.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
We were talking about this. I was talking about this
with Jeff's boata this morning. We're looking we're sitting in
practice and we're looking at the Blue Jackets net on
the one side where Je Greaves is and it looks
like there's a whole bunch of rooms behind him, and
then you look at the other side where six foot
three d Neil Parasov is and it looks like there's
no room and he can't get one through there. But
that's the visual. The actual is a lot different.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Especially when he's covering the ice like he does. He's
so athletic and he's he's so he is anticipating everything
right now.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
It's so crazy, even with all the traffic in.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Front of him and stuff. I'm telling you mcgueligan, it's
like one of the best things ever to watch this
from a fan perspective, whether I'm in the arena or
I'm watching it on TV, to see him doing what
he's doing and is so beautiful. I can't even tell you, man,
it's so crazy.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Oh so good.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
You don't have to tell me. But yeah, you know,
my heart is like not you know, this is this
is not easy. Well S thirty. The other night I said,
I said, you got to get another goal. You just
cannot be a two to one game. You got to
get another one. And then until he got it, and uh,
you know, then they added one more for good measure.
But these are look, these are playoff games, and if
they get into the playoffs, this is why it's going

(12:39):
to be every night. So just uh, I just have
the old bottle. It comes right near by.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Bob, you you have not been through this very much,
I hate to say with the Jackets.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
You haven't, so you know, but you've been.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
But see, here's what the thing is. This playoff run
has been for what's it been six weeks?

Speaker 1 (13:00):
It feels like it's been six years, but god, yeah,
you're right. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
And then and then a week ago, think about this.
A week ago we were done. Yeah, we were all
checked out, and what are you going to be doing
next Friday? And I'm planning shows that have to be
done when the season's over that I don't even want
to do. And now today we're talking about what are
we doing, what are we doing in the playoffs, the
extra stuff that we're going to do. So it's crazy

(13:25):
how it goes, and it's but it's great. It's a
great crazy, and I just hope that it goes on
past tonight, past tomorrow. There's nothing more I want to
see than a win in your in game at home
on Thursday against the New York Islanders.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Hey, on a side note, yesterday I had the pleasure
of being invited to it was like the player's chef.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
It was a luncheon there.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
At Nationwide Arena, So I got to go down for
about an hour during the day yesterday and Dylan spoke
and to all of us in that area, and then
they we toured the locker room, and then we toured
the training facility.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
It was amazing.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
The coach from the Monsters was in there and his
name escapes me.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
I apologize, but he was in there. Uh talk.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
We were talking to him about jet and so on.
But you'll be happy to know Dylan held down the fort.
He did great, speaking to everybody, so on and so forth.
But man, it was it was amazing to see that
behind the scenes stuff which I had never seen before.
So for the first time I went into the locker
room and all that. But it was really really amazing
to just kind of see that right now, especially given

(14:30):
all the magic that's happening with the Jackets. Hopefully it
continues tonight at at Wells Fargo Center tonight on FanDuel
Sports at seven o'clock.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
So you bring any uh, you bring any magic back
for your show today because.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Of it yeah, absolutely, it has earlier's not there.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, stop it was.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Comedian Michael Loftus was on with me for the last
couple of hours, so he was here in studio with
me and man, we had a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
If you have extra time and you're born, jump on
the iHeartRadio app and then you know, punch up my
show and then you'll hear some of the segments with
He is hilarious. I don't know if you've ever seen
him on Greg Gutfeld or any of that, but he
is one hilarious guy.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Man. I love when he comes in.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
So you can see these guys for hours. Man, you
could never do my job three hours a night by myself.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, night, you are. I gotta work.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
I gotta work weekend.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Well, I've said it over and over, but you do
have a few months where you're not really working. But
I've said it over and over that what you do,
you're the best in this business and painting the picture
on the radio is one of the hardest things ever.
You got all the incredibly hard names to to quickly
announce and say on and so on and so on,
and you you're one of the best in the business. Sorry,

(15:45):
I'm not trying to kiss your butt, but that that's
just the facts, you know.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
So you're trying to just reflect that you always need
a partner and I don't. That's fine, understand and I
appreciate the.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, it's much more interesting with me if we're having
a converse.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
You can't do that. Somebody would get in your way
if you were trying to do that on the now.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
I know, but I also know that you talk yourself
a lot. Maybe you just can't air those conversations.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Most I can't because I would get thrown off the
radio and then get kicked out of the FCC would
take away my license.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Man, we'll be listening.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
Slash watching tonight and the Columbus Blue Jackets hopefully can
keep it alive tonight. It's the next step in this process.
And man, exciting times to be a Columbus Blue Jackets
fan and somebody working with the organization.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
So good stuff, man, Bob, thanks for jumping on. Appreciate
you more. All Right, we'll see