All-Star Break

Voice if the Roadrunners Jonathon Schaffer and Arizona Daily Star's James Kelly recaped Tucson's final two games of the six-game homestand as the team looks ahead to the Gem Show Trip after the All-Star Break. They hear from All-Star Forward Cameron Hebig after his skills competition at the All-Star Games and Steve Potvin after the Ontario series. They then draft their created names for the Utah Hockey Club and favorite All-Star Skills competitions.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When you want more Roadrunners, We've got more road Runners.
This is the Tucson Roadrunners Insider Podcast with a voice
of the Roadrunners, Jonathan Shafer.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
What advice do you have for me?

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Drink a lot of water.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
It's pretty odd and your new best friend, my best friend,
Arizona Daily Stars James Kelly. The guys are already talking,
so let's join them right here on your Twucson Roadrunners
Insider Podcast.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to this week's edition of the Tucson
road Runners Insider Podcast. Jonathan Shaver here with Arizona Daily
Stars James Kelly. Lots to unpack and unfold. We are
in the second day of the twenty four to twenty
five AHL All Star Class. We saw the skills competition
last night, Cameron Ebiks showing out for the Roadrunners, and

(00:49):
now he's going to be in the All Star Challenge tonight,
which is a three on three tournament with the all
the divisions going against each other, with the Pacific Division
being the one we're gonna obviously with Cameron Hebek playing
in that one as well, the Pacific Division one. At
last year, I will try to make it back to back.
Might have won it three times or two times in
a row, looking for the third straight. We'll have to

(01:10):
look that up as well. But yeah, James, lots to
unpack Roadrunners. On the other side of things, eight game
losing skid, came back on Saturday, lost in in five
to four to overtime, three points out of the final
playoff spot in the AHL's Pacific Division race. We're gonna
hear from Cameron Heebek after Saturday night's loss here from

(01:31):
Steve Povin as well, But then we also have another
interview with Cameron Hebeck after making his All Star debut
in the Skills competition with our very own Chase Clemens
as well, because him and Bennett are there at the
All Star Games right now in Coachella Valley.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm at home.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
I want to relax, enjoy the next few days before
our next gem show trip or exit our next gym
show trip up the twenty four to twenty five season.
Currently outside in my backyard, relaxing. And yeah, James, for
the road Runners, I mean, you put a valiant effort
on Saturday. You lost the game five four in the shootout,
but you're down four to one. You clawed all the

(02:09):
way back and even though we.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Lost, kind of felt like a bit of a win.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
And I think that's something to just build on moving
forward for our boys, because now you have the Gems
Show trip coming out, which it's probably once they make
or break, but this is a really important trip.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Now.

Speaker 4 (02:25):
It's conversation was, you know, maybe this will determine if
we host a first round of playoffs. Now this trip
is are we going to make the playoffs? And the
team really needs to find a way and we say
it this so much, but the team does. Now you're
feeling the pressure just a little bit of getting back
on that win column. And it doesn't get easy because

(02:47):
you start off a series with the San Jose Barracuda,
who are good this year and they just got ya
a scar of back and yeah, they're fully loaded once again.
We're still a bit depleted just with the you know,
injuries of Canadon and Agazino. No Josh don't still the
rookie still finding their strides. Cameron Hebik obviously still playing

(03:08):
lights out. But you know it's it's crunched time for
the Roadrunners. And now you know you're into All Star games,
you get to relax a bit Cameron Heebek's having a
fantastic time doing great as well. But uh, sooner or later,
it's it's going to get back to work and when
we're gone for two weeks, and that's that's all we
can do is just keep moving forward.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, and actually just the rettle, not correction, but just
still adding on to what you said. The Pacific Division
they won last two. Yeah, thank you. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
See, I was like, I think we win the last two.
I was like, I swear, so the three peat, we
have two three peats in line. James Kansas City is
trying to make a three peat and then the Pacific
Division is trying to make it a three peat in
the All Star Classics.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
So a lot of lots on the line, uh for
this week.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
It's actually been a long time since any other divisions
won it because they've been last two and then the
All and then Satura a last year, but before that
day it was two years off because of COVID. So
each other than I think the North, each team is
each division has one one a couple, but the Pacific
is one last two and in the North, I think
it's one. Only one overall since they went to this format.

(04:17):
Since they added the Pacific Division back the year before
the Roader res joined, So that that's that should be
interesting another you know, another chance for the divisions show
how good they are, and another chance for Cameron Hubick
to show how well he's playing right now. He had
a he had another great game on Saturday and the
unfortunately they did lose, but it was and then showed

(04:39):
up really well on Sunday and the skills competition, having
some great having a great goal and winning winning his
leg of the the relay, so that that was that
was impressive, and it was. It was just a wild
game on Saturday. It was one of those one of
those games where they did lose, but they did get
a Sunday's point obviously unfortunately gets the overtime. But it
was just a wild game. I reminded of the It

(05:00):
was a headline and like the student paper for like
Yale or Harvard or something. It was like Harvard BTL
ten to ten or something. So they did lose, but
it's not lucky when because it was just a crazy comeback.
It was funny when I was listening to the game again,
I sit between between the road owners radio booth and
the other team's radio booth, and so oftentimes I hear

(05:21):
the other the other radio guy, and he said that
after you know, you know, after Ontario went up four
to one or yeah, four to one, he said that,
barringham Rock has come back, the road Owners are gonna
drop their straight and I was like, well, come back.
That's kind of weird to be thinking of, you know,
even though you know that's what the broadcasters do. They

(05:41):
always think ahead, They always they always have that kind
of like you know, insight and thinking like what might happen.
And there I was thinking of five steps, or at
least in my mind, you guys are, and so I
was like, well, that's kind of weird to think about that,
especially since the Roaders they are struggling the score that game.
There they were, they showed a lot better, They're playing
a lot better obviously in that series rest of the

(06:02):
week before, but you know, I wasn't thinking they could
score at all. And then they came back and they
had a great, you know, great rally, starting with a
goal by Travis Barren, a sneaky and impressive, a great goal,
and then public scores and then of course Karen Hebig
forces overtime with the with another crazy, crazy goal, and

(06:24):
you kind of thinking the script writers are kind of
going a little quite a little crazy, kind of maybe
jumping the shark whatever. But with him scoring right before
he goes in the All Star break with his great story,
but another you know, the great series for him. And
although the Runners did lose, they go into the All
Star break on high note and they really did stop
the bleeding.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
I think, yeah. I mean they almost made two comebacks.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
You know, on the first game we were down by
two goals, got the first one, just couldn't get that second,
lost that game two to one on the Friday match Saturday.
You just said that, you just recap that story very well, James, Yeah,
down for the one. And yeah, Jared Shaffern, he's a
broadcaster for the Ontario Ran. Fantastic guy. You know, good scene.
Great seeing him again, and we'll see him again soon

(07:09):
on this gem show trip. But I was constaying the
same thing, James, and we again we were down by
four goals, or partly we were down by three goals
with a four to one score.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
I was constaying the same thing.

Speaker 4 (07:20):
Unless the road Wers make a miraculous comeback, we're in
thread of eighth straight losses. And it's not just me
during in the white towel, it's just the reality and
we just have to, you know, kind of be prepared
of we'll see what happens, but this is the score
and it's gonna be hard for us to come back.
And yeah, Travis parents scored that first one. You're like, okay,
it's a little bit of a game, but you still

(07:40):
have a lot of work to do.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
And then this was the kicker James.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
So there's a lot of penalties in this game, and
it wasn't dirty penalties. It was just like kind of
skill set penalties. Right. Tucson had nine total power play tries.
Ontario had seven. And this is where things got really funky.
If in case you folks back listening didn't see this game.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
So we were down by two goals. It was around
what I would.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
Say, five minutes to go inch of the game.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, about five minutes to go.

Speaker 4 (08:10):
We were on a we were on a power play,
and then we were giving a five on three power
play for a good amount of time. I don't know
off the top of my head, but it was at
least maybe like probably like a minute forty or something,
and then you and then you we started thinking the
back of your head. I'm sure everyone in the arena
thought this, do we pull Matthew Wilalta. Do we make

(08:30):
this a six on three power play? I've never seen
up six on three power play in my life. Our
GM John Ferguson also said that he's never seen a
six on and he's been in hockey for a long time.
He's been a coach GM, He's been all over the place.
He's never seen one before either. So that was a
first a six on three power play for the Roadrunners

(08:50):
because Matthew Walalta was pulled and then you had the
initial five on three power play. We scored. I was
hoping we'd score since it's like, no, wait, we don't
score on this. But at the same time, it's like,
how do you even practice that? You know, no one
expects to me in that situation. We score, and then
things get interesting, right, and then we pulled Volalta again. Cameron,

(09:11):
hebig ties it up. We go to overtime, We kill
off a PK. Matthew Walalta was unbelievable in that pk
Uh got some pressure on the other side.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yamabo had a good shot.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
Uh, Portillo got just enough of it and went kind
of off the pipe as well. Uh, and then we
just didn't really have much of a chance in the shootout.
But uh again, yeah, even though it was a loss
and you've now lost eighty in a row, and uh,
you know, you you got the you got the important points,
probably the biggest point ever of the season. And uh,

(09:43):
you know again, as as much as we've lost that
game and it sucks, that one did kind of feel
like a win.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
You know, you you realize we we.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
Went toe to toe against one of the best teams
in the division, a team that's been playing fantastic, you know,
kind of since the twenty game mark of the year,
and you're with in both games, and I think that's
just you know, it was a much better series than
the Abbotsford series and even the Henderson series as well.
Even though you've lost all the games, you know, it's
been just so close, and you know, we're so used

(10:11):
to two soon winning those one goal games last season
and it's just hasn't been the case this year.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
But you know, again, always the positives.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
You're on an eight game winning streak, but you're still
in line for you're still fighting for that last playoff spot,
so you're still alive. You feel like you're just surviving
at this point. It sucks that you have to snapped
his losing streak now on the road. It would have
been an absolute storybook finish of that six game homestand
you know, a home stand that was rough. But yeah,

(10:40):
now you have to do it against San Jose, as
meant to before they get askarof back, who's leading the
league in the say percentage. He's been with San Jose
for a bit, but their goalies got healthy again, so
now San Jose gets the arguably the best goaltender in
the division. I mean, you got to deal with guys
like Logan, Devin Cooley and now uh ask Rob as well,

(11:02):
and I think San Jose's uh fully loaded once again
and it won't be a series at all.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah, and then going back to the the five on
three and six on three, I wanted to mention that,
of course that yeah, I do keep bringing up how
the what the other guys say? What the other radio
not just say, but that's usually because I can't really
hear Johnny as well because Michael sitting between us, and
then with the glass there pretty loud.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
I don't know how you can't hear y'all.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
I'll yeah, when you get a goal and everything, when
they get a goal, you releapt. But I did hear
him say that when they had that that third five
on three, He's like, oh, are they gonna pull Maddie.
I was like, well, I hadn't thought of that until then,
and I looked at the clock. I was like, oh, yeah,
I totally wouldn't make sense to do it because I
didn't write down what time it was. There was five
twenty three when they pulled. When they pulled Volalta and

(11:48):
they came about it, I'm innute and thirty of of
six on three, and at that point I mentioned that
the miraculous come back thing, and I was thinking that
maybe they're not gonna there. It's just not their night
in terms of scoring, other than you know, they had
an early sort of had to go obviously play he
big early in the game. But I just think it
was their night for scoring because before that they had
a couple of five on threes that they didn't collect

(12:09):
that they didn't collect on but it was kind of
typical five on threes where it was about three seconds
of five on three and then you have the regular
power play after that. So I was thinking that, well,
you know they're not they needed some sort of boost.
And then see if came in with the with the
great move to go six on three and they do
score and obviously and then that started the gates rolling
where they scored or after that, of course Paganski scored

(12:33):
and then he big scored the game tie and goal
Pegasti's goals power play two was that, Yeah, I kind
of coodies on that one, but anyway, so so that
was really, really, really great way to end that series.
And he contrasts that to the first game of the
homestand where they also win the overtime. They also got

(12:55):
a standing's point they went and into that second overtime.
The second time they went to overtime on Saturday, they
went they played a lot different. They were more aggressive.
It kind of felt like they were trying to shell
shocked or something. And that first came in the home
stand or something, but they were playing really tentative. It
almost looked like they're playing for playing for the shootout.
But they came out more aggressive, maybe too aggressive. On Saturday,

(13:17):
they took a penalty but they oppressively killed that penalty,
which I don't remember last time I saw a penalty
and overtime where the team didn't score on the power play,
because it's it's a big advantage in the overtime to
get the power play. But they did kill that penalty
and they did force a shootout, so that that was
reimpressive to another thing that we should definitely know. And
so now they had on the road trip, which you know,

(13:39):
it's a tough situation obviously going on a road trip
when you're having lost eight games durow or you know,
eight gram windless streak. I'm gonna go with that instead
of eight game losing streak because you know, it feels
more like a soccer losing streak where you have a
losing streak where you have some ties in there, when
it's like a windless streak, not a losing streak, because
they have a couple a couple of those games went

(13:59):
to overtime and then guess to at this point. But
you know, of course, another tough road trip. But the
kind of saving grace is that it's it's a lot
travel wise, it makes a lot more sense because a
lot of times I did look up through in history
the runners history, about how many you know, when they
went on gimpter road trips. Where do they go? You know,
because a lot of times they would go and then

(14:20):
they'd go to California. Obviously they go to Nevada, they
go to Pachell, whatever, you know, but they'd also go
to Canada and they go to they go to Colorado,
or they go to Texas, or they go to Rockford
or Chicago or something too. But on this road trip
it makes it it's a little easier for them in
the sense that, you know, travel wise, where you go
up there to California and you drive down driving on

(14:42):
the Bakersfield and then but go to Ontario and you
go to Henderson, you obviously Ontario on Bakersfield, then San
Jose aire having good years. So that's gonna be tough.
It's you know, it's not that part's not easy, but
in terms of travel, it's a little easier than having
to fly across the country. You're flying or flying up
to Canada or anything like that. So it's a it's
a little a little more palatable in terms of the

(15:02):
road trip than those the gym show road trips usually are.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
Yeah, not too bad, right, I mean, we're just kind
of making our way down California. San Jose first, then
we busted bakers Field. That that's a big game. That's
a big game bakers Field because uh play a positioning
that might be the biggest one of the Gems show
trip because you only played them once, right in that
one game. Then we go next day Labs Ontario. We

(15:28):
just saw what happened with them in their series.

Speaker 5 (15:31):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
And then two more against Henderson, which we know Henderson
swept us last time we played them. But again that's
a team that was on a five game winning streak.

Speaker 6 (15:39):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
They're actually playing pretty good hockey right now. They just
came off of a shootout win against San Jose, so
that series won't be easy. But again it's still the
Silver Knights. They still have their weaknesses as we do
as well.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
And then you have the Coachell Valley Firebirds, in which
the road Runners are four and one at Actor Sure
Arena in the last five games versus Coachell Valley Uh
in that hostile environment. So yeah, you know, there's definitely
some favorable matchups. I believe the Roadrunners went three and
one in Texa. You Arena last year versus the Barracudas.

(16:12):
So yeah, that's just how it goes for now. For
these games upcoming. You know, it's a very important Jam
Show trip, but at least we're not having to fly
to Canada or go anywhere far. It's just all busting
out through California and then ending it off with Coachella Valley.
Let's listen to some of our interviews before we start

(16:32):
talking about more of the All Stars with Cameron Hebig.
Cameron Deebig again after Saturday's game two goals, his third
multiple goal game of the season, now leads the team
with sixteen. Him and Soaklov we're tied going into that matchup. James,
there's a time when we were talking about Cameron Hebig
being a twenty goal scorer.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
He's out.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
He can now be a thirty goal scorer easily. Right,
He's four goals away from twenty. He's already matched all
this are broken all this season high and total points,
and actually he might be a couple away from total points,
so he's a two way from total points. But he's
already broken the season high for himself with goals because
he's got thirteen in the twenty one twenty two season
has sixteen. This year, he's second on the team with

(17:13):
thirty points at the moment, just right behind Kylie Yamamoto.
He got two goals on Saturday the night before it
snapped an eight game point street which was his career
high and also the season high. With Kylie Yamamoto, he
gets back on the score sheet and he was just
absolutely tremendous in that series overall, and he just keeps
showing why he was selected as an All Star as well.

(17:35):
Let's listen to that post a game interview from Cameron
Hebig after Saturday Nights five, four overtime shootout loss.

Speaker 5 (17:45):
Yeah, it's great to be on home ice and have
the fans behind us and cheering us on in the
third and trying to tie it up there, having their energy,
and you know, we appreciate them coming out and supporting
us and coming out and whole mice. I think, you know,
we got to come up with always wins, and it's
too bad we we didn't capitalize on home ice, but
it wasn't for the thankful for their support and energy. Yeah,

(18:09):
we showed fight. We we just the message was we
we wouldn't give up till the end. That's how we
got to play and the last goal there, the play
was I think Zoobie passed down to Soco. He took
a one timer and uh kind of got deflected in
front and I was able to bang it home. So
you know, it's just too bad. We can come out
with the two points there and win that one. Battled

(18:31):
back hard, but just came up short.

Speaker 4 (18:35):
Yeah, I just came up short for our guys. We
battled hard. It showed a lot of character of the team.
And uh yeah again, as much as we lost, that
game feels like a bit of a win.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yes, not only that they battle back to you obviously,
that's impressive, that's important, but they also had a lot
of diversity in the scoring. Were obviously at two goals
from Cameron Ebig, so that's the usual thing. But it's
funny the night before when they when Egor scored their
their goal, it was an important goal that they had
to route to rally and get get back, get back
in the game, cut the lead to two to one.

(19:06):
But when when I asked Steve about that was it
was it kind of obviously tough to lose, but it's
a kind of nice thing to get that situation where
before the week before, every it was it was always
Bogo or he Big or young Mota scoring. So it
was nice to get so when I was scoring, is well, yeah,
I guess, but you know, we we always want that
scoring after the first line, but the first line to

(19:28):
score that game. So so then to come back on
Saturday and the first line ups, he scores. You know,
they do well. And then you see guys like Baron score.
You see you see power play goals, you see goals
when you're six on three and stuff like that, so
you see different different kinds of goals and so that
that that's really important. And they they still did give
up a lot of shots. They give up a lot more.
They get more shots than they then they probably would

(19:48):
need to let me see they they they're out shot
forty thirty one. Not too bad, but they started off.
They just give me about more shots than they than
you expect when they're winning. But they they still did
get the come back and get the get the draw
and regulation and then they three on three, they they
got another tie and then they just had some bad luck.
I think there was kind of tired, you know, it's

(20:09):
just kind of rough where they missed their their too
shootout chances and then on Terarryo score their their to
shootout chances and when the won the game five to four.
But you know, I think they may have been re tired,
but it was it was a great way to end
the homestand which was obviously not what they were looking for.
And then they had and the end had on the

(20:30):
road trip, another seven game trip, but you know, they
had in with a lot more conference than they were
the week before because they you know, the last time
they won a seven game road trip a few weeks ago,
they went three and four, which is impressive, but not
something that you you're expecting them to do when they're
losing eight games in a row. But and then you
look at the road trip pass. I did look at

(20:51):
the I did look up the gym show. How they
did how they usually do, and they other than last
year and twenty eighteen, they have losing records. So they
go like one in five two three one one two
four one one two and four one and six on
the on the timpsure road chips. But I think that
they can have a trip where they go three and
four again or obviously going over five hundred real because

(21:15):
just how they're playing and how they how they rebound
and how they got back. It's gonna be a tough
road trip obviously, play some tough teams and I'm micause
the big travels, but you know, it's it's a situation
where they come back, they have they still have stuff
to improve on, but they they did make big strides
on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, big strides.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
Uh, lots of steps in the right directions, and I'm
sure head coach Steve Popn was really happy with how
do guys responded in that matchup. Let's listen to head
coach Steve Povin as well after that five to four
shootout loss, when the Roadrunners were facing a four one
deficit in the third period and came all the way
back to secure that important points.

Speaker 7 (21:55):
Well, i mean, I'm proud of the point, to be honest.
I mean, there's a listen, that's not the way we
want to play. That's not you know, our brand or
what we're used to in our identity. But I'm really
proud of our guys. They found a way, and you
know it's not easy to overcome a four goal or
a three goal deficit and to have to do it

(22:17):
after a five on three penalty kill and not having
scored on our power plays. You know, you have to
deal with a lot of adversity. So I'm very proud
of them, you know what, just trying to find ways
where you know, we can bridge the gap. You know,
we're trying to do what we can to, you know,
just improve our game and find ways to just build

(22:39):
that continuity and chemistry and in the lineup, and find
ways that we can help improve our structure and our
players alike.

Speaker 4 (22:51):
So I coached poppin after Saturday Nights five four overtime loss,
the Roadrunners get a huge point for the standings. We
are at forty one points at nineteen nineteen two and one. Forgot,
sometimes you add the one loss for the shootouts as well.
So I might have said nineteen nineteen three and oh
at the end of the post game, but yeah, nineteen

(23:11):
nineteen two and one now forty one points. Bakersfield is
at nineteen fifteen four and two at forty four points
with one game in head as well games played wise, James,
all right, So I just got an interesting text from
Utah Hockey Clubs head of PR Jeffrey Sanders and since
this show is gonna premiere after the news comes out.

(23:33):
We have a trade. We have just we're making a trade.
The Roadrunners slash Utah Hockey Club will be acquiring Sammy
Walker from the Iowa Wild slash Minnesota Wild organization. No,
we're not losing anyone. It's for future considerations and the

(23:54):
announcement's gonna be made well before this episode premiere so
we can talk about it. But so we have pretty news.
So Sammy Walker is gonna be a Tucson Roadrunner. He
has two goals and nine assists for eleven points and
thirty games this season. Last year fourteen goals and thirty
one assists for forty five points in seventy games. Season

(24:16):
before that with the Iowa Wild forty eight points, twenty
seven goals twenty one assists for fifty six points. He
has thirteen NHL games played with one goal and one assists.
He's twenty five years old as well, and that's big James.
We're getting some getting some bolster to the lineup. Walker's
a veteran, you know, even though he's only twenty five,

(24:36):
he's played a good amount in the AHL who with
three seasons under his belt already had a pretty good
season last year. The numbers aren't as flashy as they
are this year. But that's interesting. We never got a
mid season trade last year, and now we get one
this year. So the Roadrunners getting some help ahead of
the Gems show trips. So we got breaking news on

(24:56):
the podcast.

Speaker 3 (24:59):
Yeah, so it looks like a good move in terms
of looking at his stats, looking at his hockey, you
be he had he's a Minnesota guy who it was
a Minnesota guy being from Minnesota and going to University
of Minnesota, and then I'm playing with the wild organization obviously,
and then he did it. Played with the Iowa three
seasons and a couple couple of stints in our a

(25:21):
couple of years in the UH for the while for
Minnesota having played thirteen games NHL. And he also he's
a center if you if you're wondering about that end
he and it's also an interesting UH. It could be
a big boost like they did a couple of years
ago when they had the Gym Shore Road Tip when
they were let's see what the record was. I workedne
on the records who they played everything. They're one and

(25:42):
six and twenty twenty three when they went to Bakersfield,
Ontario habitspher bakers for one a full series for Ontario
and Abbasford one game segan Diego and one game in
who coachel But they did go one and six. But
then they made the trade for Steam Kaffor and they
really boosted the team and they really you know, they
really got They got back in the playoffs and they
ended that that playoff that little draft they had from

(26:06):
the reger of the playoffs. They did make it twenty
twenty one, but that was a year that they made
the playoffs. That was a kind of weird. But they
they ended that little playoff drought they had and they
got back in there. And then they ended up playing
Coachella Valley really tough in the in the first round,
put forth in the three games, even though it was
on the road. So obviously they're hoping for something similar
to that. And it's it's nice I didn't give up

(26:26):
any current players like something else, thinking if they did
make a trade, they might have to give up on
their goaliest because they do have three goalies that are
obviously HL caliber at least you know, Jacksons. Tarboro played
really well in the NHL, so he showed a lot
in that so I was thinking that they might have
trade one of those guys to if they wanted to
do make a trade. But that's good for the Runners.
That looks like a good move.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, I do really like it.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
I mean, he has over one hundred points in his
HL career, one hundred and four points in one hundred
and fifty six total games played.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
That's uh, that's that's just a veteran guy.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
Again, he's only twenty five, but he's played three full
seasons in the age. How veteran guy you're bringing in
can help out some of the rookies, and for what
he's done in the past, this could be a little exciting.
And it's always just exciting to see a new face
coming to the team. You know, we we again, we
haven't done a mid season trade since Steven Camphor last
year camp for help us make the playoffs. So maybe
it's kind of the same thing. Maybe Walker fits in

(27:19):
very well. It's all about the system, right of you
know who your lines mates are, the style of what
you play. And Walker did good on the struggling wild
team last season. Wilder struggling again this year. And yeah,
well the stats aren't as flashy, but again, from what
he's done in the past, it's a it's a little exciting.
So Sammy Walker welcome to Tucson with the Utah Hockey

(27:41):
Club trading him to the organization, and then he will
be assigned to the Roadrunners to just try to help
us get out of this funk as well. All right,
let's just transition back to the All Star Games. Cameron
hebig AHL All Star debut. I don't know what it is, James, Like,
I've never really been interested in watching the NHL All Stars,
and obviously not happening this year with the four Nations

(28:03):
based up, which is a much better, uh, just a
much better thing to do, you know. But I love
watching the HL All Star because I just like watching
our guys play, you know. And last year watched seash
Stone at Matthew blalta uh, and then this year getting
to watch Cameron hebec It's just always fun. It's cool
hearing about all the other prospects, geeing the Pacific Division guys.
As much as we don't like him, as much as

(28:25):
we hate you, we gotta play them all the time,
you know. It's cool seeing them because it's all respect
for each other, right, and uh, I still love feeling that, like, yeah,
we're the Pacific Division, we're the best in the league,
and it's gonna show tonight as well in the in
the the the All Star Challenge.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
But uh yeah, he looked fantastic.

Speaker 4 (28:42):
He won his puck relay, uh showing his speed as
we've been accustomed to all season long. Uh had a
beautiful breakaway goal and uh I've watched it so many times.
I mean, he didn't really even move the puck that much,
but he just kind of faked the goaltender out, uh
so beautifully. He was wearing a GoPro out there for

(29:02):
the first few minutes as Bennett put it on him,
but then the GoPro died from what I was told,
uh so he ended up taking it off. But uh yeah,
it was It was a fun skills challenge. It was
cool hearing the stories about all the other you know,
great stories. And I loved it best because both when
the broadcasters were talking about Kebig, they just kept saying,
this guy's having a career year.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
He's worked so hard.

Speaker 4 (29:23):
And I've seen there's other videos that Flow has done
a fantastic job with the coverage of Uh. When he
Big did his puck relay, Devin Cooley, rifle goaltender from
the Wranglers, said, he BIG's gonna win this. He's he's
like the fastest player on that team, and he won it.
And then when he Big scored the breakaway goal, you
Aloslav A scar Ascorov uh had a nice reaction to

(29:46):
it as well. So you can if you go to
Flow Sports on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, uh see all
the reactions from all the Skills Challenges camer and he
Big definitely made some buzz with his breakaway goal and
also just showing his skill and and the puck relay
and uh. Then we'll see him tonight for the uh
uh the Challenge, the three on three tournament in which
the Pacific Division has won twice in a row, trying

(30:09):
to repeat it, and uh they're gonna have a lot
of help from guys like Key Big and Devin Cooley
and uh Askarov and Mueller from the Abbotsford Canucks as
well Rory Caron's for the Wranglers, who's one of the
top scorers of the league. Andrew Potowski, the former Firebird,
who was getting some cheers in the crowd. Uh he's
the HL leading scorer for the San Jose Barracuda right now.

(30:32):
And uh and again askarov As Uh is one of
the best goaltenders in the HL as well. Gosh, that's
a lot of talent in this division and I think
we have a good chance of winning it again.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
Absolutely. And if you if you didn't get chance to
see the skills competition last night, maybe forgot about it
or maybe you know I have Angel network or something
to yourself a favor and go to the YouTube and
go go to the Roadrunners YouTube page. I forget what
it's called. I think it's just Runners HL or what's.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Called of the which one.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
The road owners of YouTube account Orange Schoolah, just google
road Ouwners Google.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
Yeah, anything that's posted on the YouTube account, that's all me.
I actually am the one that runs the YouTube account.
Bennett does everything on social but yeah, Uh, go to
the Tucson Rubs YouTube account if you want to see
of the some of the Cameron Heabig highlights and yeah,
it's all over social media too. Again flow sports, Uh,
Bennett from our side and uh, the h I have
done a tremendous dot job in coverage. There's so much
so fun to watch, and it's just gonna be more

(31:31):
fun to watch tonight, and uh, you know, it's a
it's just a it's just a nice time for everyone
to kind of just get together and just kind of
take a breath a little bit. You know, you have
the guys back here relaxing. I'm at home right now
in my backyard doing the podcast. And uh and to
see Cameron Hebig and also his family's there as well too,
and uh, you kind I kind of heard their family
a little bit. I'm not lying, this is not I'm

(31:51):
not I'm serious. When Cameron Hebeg was announced, when they're
doing the introductions, you can hear whoever was by that
broadcast or wherever the ice mics are. I swear I
heard Tbik's family cheering extra alloud for him.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
Thanks. Yeah so. And also if if you don't, if
you don't already look, follow their YouTube channel that you
can check out his stand ups he does before before
the games, after the games, especially the important to see
on the road when you're not seeing him in person
as much. So that's kind of cool to see, does hey,
Johnny and earning that well deserved semi break, you know,
I still working today, but he didn't travel, so the

(32:25):
little as break. But yeah, it should be. It should
be a great, great tournament this tonight with the Pacific
turning to end their to their title. They have so
much talent and it's really it's really fun thing. Because
you talk about the other All Star Games. One thing
that reminds me of I don't remember that point, but
I heard that back in the day, people get really
excited about the MLB All Star Game, the majorriag Baseball

(32:46):
Star Game because you see people playing against teams that
they don't usually play against, and you see guys against
players they don't used to play against, and they do
that in that They still do have separate leagues in
the Major League Baseball, but they have the Inner League
in the kind of stuff, so it's not as special,
and they have teams with guys moving between a lot
in between the least a lot. But in the HL
it seems like guys staying in Division I, stay in

(33:08):
the conference, and even or often staying in Division You
saw the trade their owners just made. But he's with Iowa,
who's also the Western Conference who they played last year,
so they kind of alter who they play in the
Central Division, but so it's still from their face, but
it's really cool to see them playing against different teams
like Syracuse or you know, Charlotte or you know, will

(33:32):
Sperry or Springfield stuff like that. So that's kind of interesting,
and it's fun to see those guys come together against
guys that they go to battle with for so many
games of their lego season and then now they're teammates
for a couple of days. So that's that's always fun
to see.

Speaker 4 (33:45):
Let's listen to our very special All Star interview with
Cameron Hebig. Tucson Rose dot COM's Chase Clements is at
the All Star Games right now with our social media
manager Bennett Silvan as well. Chase caught up with Cameron
Hebig after the skills competition and very much appreciative of
Chase Clemons going on the trip to get this kind

(34:06):
of content for us. And then we'll play another interview
for you may probably later on on our broadcast of
what Cameron he Big has the feeling of after the
challenge happening tonight. But here he is after the skills competition,
showing off the tremendous talents of Cameron heat Yeah, it's.

Speaker 5 (34:23):
Great to be on home ice and have the fans
behind us.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
Whoops, that's the wrong one. All right, here's the right one.
That was the one we played before. Here's Cameron hebig
post game All Star Skills competition.

Speaker 6 (34:33):
Cam Knight, one of the twenty twenty five AH All
Star Weekend. In the books, Wes didn't get the dubbed tonight,
but you showed out.

Speaker 5 (34:45):
Yeah, just how to go for you? How was it
out there? It was a lot of fun. Yeah, it
was great to get out there and meet some of
the guys from different teams and different divisions, and you know,
it was just so much fun. The fans and such
a great event, and the fans out here and Coachella,
the they're always so loud and cheering us on, so
it's great to see them out here and just all

(35:05):
the guys. It's it's it's been a great, great first
event here, and we did come up short on the
skills department, but we got tomorrow in the three on
three and hopefully you can come up with a w there.

Speaker 6 (35:17):
And in the first event, came out of the game
is pretty strong, pretty decisive victory in your race against
Owen Pickering and before that we were talking that fastest skater.
I know it's a different event, but I wasn't one
that wasn't at the top of your list. Yeah, just

(35:37):
kind of what contributed to the outcome in your race.

Speaker 5 (35:40):
Yeah, I put fuck Control pretty high off of my list.
I wanted to do that one. I thought I could
maybe uh benefit from that one. So I was fun
to take part in that one, and uh so it
was a lot of fun. I wasn't sure about the
ice or the the didn't get much of a warm up,
but it was It's just so fun to be here
and take part of any event. I would have done anything,

(36:01):
and I'm just so excited just to be here and
take part in this. It's been a great experience and
really cool to have my family down and my girlfriend.
H So we're just soaking it in and just enjoying
every minute of it. And we were we're having a
lot of.

Speaker 6 (36:16):
Fun, and we're able to talk to your family and
girlfriend at all during tonight.

Speaker 5 (36:23):
Yeah. After the event, there was a little window there
where we were signing autographs and fans, so they were
able to come down and along the boards, and I
was able to get some pictures with them and so yeah,
it's great to have them here and we can kind
of enjoy it together and get some memories together with pictures,
and it's just been a lot of fun. They're having
fun and you know, it's just been it's been a

(36:44):
great event so far. And like I said, it's been
it's been great to experience. One question from doing ask
you about that goal against dev and Lea by what
are you thinking carough that process and eventually dumping it
behind them all? Thank you? Yeah, I just uh, I
wasn't sure on the ice, but if it was bad
or not, I just wanted to, you know, kind of

(37:07):
go out and do something short, you know, get the
hands going a bit. So I was just, uh, usually
one of my safer moves, so I thought I'd bring
it out. It's going to try it out, you know,
worked out good. So I was nice to see that
one going awesome.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Thank you, Carem. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
That's good.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
Asking that other question was Chase Beardsley.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
He used to cover the Arizona Coyotes as well, and
he made it out to the All Star Games and
ask Cameron Heebig about that nice breakaway goal as well. So, yeah,
Cameron hebig in tonight for the skills not skills. Skills
was last night for the age And see, I'm getting
all confused with these names, like just call like a
three on three tournament. But so the skills competition last

(37:47):
night tonight is the HL All Star Challenge, in which
the will have the three on three tournament between all
the divisions. All right, James, let's get to our drafts now.
We are bringing the draft back because you had two
really good topics. Obviously, the big story right now within
the Utah Hockey Club is the name change. So in

(38:10):
case you didn't know, they've been having people take surveys
at the games showing them the potential names and the
logos of what would be with those names as well.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
And I love it.

Speaker 4 (38:21):
I love that, you know, it makes fans want to
come out to games to you know, share their vote
of what they want their their team to be named.
And obviously there's been a lot of not backlash, but
news of a specific name that the Roaderns that the
Utah Hockey Club couldn't get. But then there's also just
the other names floating around. They have kind of like

(38:42):
three finalists right now. But we wanted to kind of
dive in of our potential picks as well, and what
we think are other good names for the Utah Hockey
Club as well. James, you came up with this idea,
so I'm gonna let you go first.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
Okay, So I did. I'm gonna say that I did
like Eddie and funny. One of the things that I
did really like about that was that it was a
unique name. That it's a name that you hear a lot,
but it's nothing you don't hear in sports. So I
guess maybe the reason it was unique because they had
that weird trademark We're don't getting elsee else in the
universe could use yetti for some reasons. But I'm gonna
go with I thought about what's more Utaish because I

(39:18):
like the name YETI but in reality it's more it's
a It's the Asian version of the bigfoot, sasquatch, that
type of thing. So I wanted a kind of more
local name. And when I think of Utah, one of
the big things I think about Utah, especially in northern
Utah with Tall Lake City, is I think of I
think of skiing. So one thing that I was thinking
about was that they said they're going to go with

(39:39):
the kind of keep their their same colors, and their
uniforms look good. They're light blue and black opsly. So
what my what my pick would be will be the
black diamonds like a hockey, I mean hockey, skiing, skiing thing.
So and it fits in with the current current color scheme.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
That's good. That's a good name. You got good first one.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
That's I'm the I was trying to think of some
earlier and I'm like, that's good because, like, yeah, skiing
Utah black diamond I used to rip black diamonds back
in my youth. I haven't gone skiing in a while,
but I hope to again one day. But that's a
good start, all right for me. I thought of, like,
I picked some of the ones they have already, but

(40:21):
I want to go with ones that I came up
with first. And I'm going kind of with the Bees, right,
you know, it's it's what they call it the Honey
State or the just bees are known in Utah. They
had the Salt Lake Bees, which is the Triple A,
my league affiliate to the Los Angeles Angels. I kind
of wanted to think of that some more, and uh,
I went with the Utah swarm, like a swarm of bees.

(40:44):
Obviously a little tougher with the colors because bees are
obviously not black and uh blue and white, but uh,
I don't know if you wanted to, I mean that
you got the hornet to where aren't even the color
of bees as well?

Speaker 2 (40:56):
So in basketball?

Speaker 4 (40:58):
So yeah, that's uh, that's what I would go with
if we started coming up with different names for bees.
Is the Utah swarm and it kind of has a
nice ring to it.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
Yeah, that's a good one. They if you if you
ever go to Utah, there's the state highways that the
logo of it is the outline, like can hear it?
It's just plain not playing, but it's kind of clear
that it's the State of Arizona logo State of Azona
outline as the highway logo for for for Arizona highways,
but for Utah they have a beehive thing. So that's cool.

(41:29):
That's it's a big thing over there. So for my
my second pick, I was thinking a lot of people
are like, what what about just go with coyotes? You know,
obviously the coyotes, because that's the name that if the
cotes do come back, then they would be in Arizona,
but maybe something similar to that, where you know, and
some one of the finalists, the official finalists that they
have is a is a mammoth, and so I was

(41:50):
thinking kind of like an old kind of cold area,
because you think about it, you have kind of cold
ice age kind of theme. Because if you think about it,
most of their their teams that they the NHL have had,
other than returning teams like Colorado or Minnesota or Winnipeg,
the new teams they've had the last few years, last
thirty years or whatever, they've been in California, they've been
in Arizona, they've been in Florida, they've been in Texas.

(42:12):
So I think they kind of wanted to emphsize that
kind of cool thing cold aspect. So for me, one
of the things I was thinking out was it's an
animal that I'd never heard of until Game of Thrones,
but apparently it's actually real. It's just extinct those from
nice age, but a direwolf, so the dire wolves. Yeah,
so that's sounds cool.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
Yeah, dire wolf Game of Thrones. Oh man, you're you're
definitely beating me on this. So you come up with
two really good names so far. I mean, you got
the Black Diamonds and the dire Wolves, and I'm just like, oh,
I'm thinking of bees. I'm gonna go with the swarm another. Okay,
this one's another animal for me in an animal that's
prominent in Utah are elks, right, And but I didn't
want I don't think just like Utah elk would be good.

(42:55):
But maybe like the Utah Mallen elk or something, you know,
like just because in the mountains and everything. I don't
know if maybe we can abbreviate that some more. But
uh yeah, I think even when like the names were starting,
I'm like, they just to do something with like a
deer or something, because that's just not and is.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
There not in like the NHL.

Speaker 4 (43:12):
Of course you have the uh you have that team
in Iowa in the ehl oh Man I forgot their name.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
I would have to look it up.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
But anyway, for my next pick, I thought, you know,
like I said, I thought the whole, the whole, the
whole yetything was cool, but it's not North American. So
for mine, I go Sasquatch because they actually, if you
look at the finalists they had, they made logo street
to them, and then for you talking Club, they have
kind of a bigfoot kind of yetti looking kind of

(43:42):
thing their logo, so that'd be kind of cool and
a lot of people do that. But Sasquatch is actually
northern North American, So that's a pick.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
For the third pick for Testquatch, I like it, yeah, uh,
And they can still go Sasquatch, but maybe like that's
just a bit too much, too weird sounding, I don't know,
because that yetti just rolls out the tongue better than
a sas Squatch, you know.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
The next one for me is similar to the Outlaws.
I just like the word bandits more than Outlaws, So
like the Utah bandits just sounds good, more better to me,
I guess. But you can really uh kind of compare
that to the to the Outlaws as well, kind of
like yours with the Yeti and the sas Squatch.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
Yeah, that's good. I like that. I like those names
with the Outlaw and those type names too. For the
next pick, I was thinking, we don't have a lot
of dinosaur names other than the Toronto Raptors, and they
have a lot of If I find a lot of
dinosaurs there. But the issue is that I don't want
to be like the Copyright Office where they allow there
to be two professional teams called the Aces and in

(44:44):
the Vaticant Summason in the Arena Aces and the Las
Vegas Aces. Yeah, but so I made a little bit
of a change where the official like state dinosaur of
Utah is called the Utah Raptor. So it might be
a weird name to be Utah Utah Raptors, but maybe
Utah Hockey Club Utah Raptors or something. The name would
be Utah. That pick would be Utah Raptors because that's
what the different stinsta is called. I don't want to

(45:06):
use Red Raptors again because they have a baseball team
an Ogden. Yeah, but I think Utah Raptors has a
bit different. And when you use different colors like light,
light blue, and black, I think it's a bit different.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (45:19):
And also do you see the chrome of Vimelka's helmet.
His new helmet has a bunch of dinosaurs on it.
Because Utah has a rich history with fossils and dinosaurs
and everything.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
It was a very very dinosaur area.

Speaker 4 (45:32):
I guess you would call it back in the day
when dinosaurs, Uh still existed, all right.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Next one for me, This one's kind of this one.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
This one was kind of thrown around, and it kind
of copies the Colorado Avalanche a bit in my opinion,
But like, if we were to go with it, it
does sound kind of cool.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
You know.

Speaker 4 (45:52):
The Utah blizzard is one that was kind of thrown around,
and you know, you can play it off of something
sick as well, But I think maybe it would have
been a little too similar to the avalanche, especially when
you're trying to kind of create that that mountain rivalry
between them too, you know, because even in the EHL beforehand,
when the Eagles when with in the EHL, that was
the big rivalry of the mountains, you know, the Colorado

(46:16):
Eagles and the Utah Grizzlies when they're both in that
league where big rivals, and I think you're kind of
trying to recreate it here in the NHL now and blizzard. Yeah,
blizzard was thrown around, but might have been a little
too similar to the avalanche is probably why they didn't
go with it, you know, just kind of both storm
snow type things. But definitely wouldn't be a surprise if
it was one a finalist because it does sound kind

(46:37):
of cool as well.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
Yeah, it does sound cool. It's one of those names
that you want to have an aggressive name, like Blizzard
or Swarm or something like that. So Avalanche I think
it's different enough, you know, I mean, especially enter for
college and stuff like that, So I think it's good.
And so for mine, I'm gonna maybe kind of look
controversial pick because it does already exist, like literally exist,
but I don't think it's kind of where they have
two pro teams and the same I mean, the the

(47:01):
Utah Grizzlies are not in the same city as Lake,
They're in the suburb. But I think they shouldn't have
two teams two pro teams. They should ultimately the UHL
team should move on to a new city and give
another city chance at pro hockey. Lee proa a level
pro hockey. So the pick for me would be Utah
Grizzlies and just kind of continue on that name that
to do a lot of times with, you know, they

(47:22):
do a lot, especially in the m LS, sort of
doing other other leagues where you like that. Los Angers
Angeles used to be minor league teams, so it's kind
of cool to promote that name, and Grizzlies is a
cool name anyway, so I think that would be cool.
And obviously, you know the head coach, head coach, his
nambarrassed or not nickname, not name, but nickname bears.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
Oh gosh, that would fit. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
That that's I didn't even think about that too, Just
kind of continuing on the Utah Grizzlies, you know, name,
but obviously all hypotheticals in the future because you know, yeah,
you have two pro teams in Utah and the Grizzlies
are still doing very well with their marketing wise because
solid is just a huge city. So yeah, but yeah,
that's a that's another potential one. All right, last one

(48:04):
for me, Oh gosh, I'm just gonna go with the
Hockey Club, man. You know, I think it's just one
that uh it sticks well, you know, the Utah Hockey
Club calling it the Club for short.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
We saw in the logos there there was a bit
of a.

Speaker 4 (48:22):
Uh, you know, I wouldn't what do you what do
you call when something gets revealed but it's not not
really supposed to what's that word leak? Yeah, so's there's
a leak on Twitter of the logos and the Hockey
Club logo. Again, these are leaks, so it's not like officially,
but if you see them, what they have plan right
now potentially is calling the team Utah Hockey Club but

(48:42):
then using that YETI logo, and that YETI logo looks
sick if it's is what it is because it's like
a YETI and they have it has like mountains on
its head as like it's hair or something, and uh,
I'm just for the logo. I feel like that would
get votes too, So we'll see what happens with all
the voting. Great draft topic, James. Those are all of
our picks for potential teams that we would maybe come

(49:05):
up with for the Utah Hockey Club. But holy time
will tell the finalists. No officially are the Outlaws, the Mammoth,
and the Hockey Club for those, so we'll just have
to see what that name eventually becomes. All right, So
next draft topic. Obviously, we have the HL All Star
Games going on right now. We just had the Pro
Bowl as well in the NFL. I don't remember. I

(49:26):
don't know when the NBA All Stars are. Of course,
we saw the big news of the trade, so we
saw a lots of big trades in these past few days.
But you know, with with Luca going out to the Lakers,
but that's a whole different topic. But yeah, so now
we're in. Now we're in the All Stars, and we
have we're gonna be drafting All Star Skills competitions as well.

(49:49):
Obviously not all of them can fit because we have
way less hockey ones, but we'll throw in some other
sports as well. And I will start off with this
one since you got to go last time for the
h All Star break just because we just watched it.
I'm just and you can consider this for NHL too.
I'm gonna go with the breakaway relay. I mean, you know,

(50:10):
it's fun seeing what guys try to do out there
on the breakaway, and obviously we saw Cameron he big
kind of like light up that lamp and everyone. I
think if people realize like, oh wow, this guy is
a lot more skilled. Of course we know how skilled
he is, but I think other fans got to see
like what he can do. And yeah, it's fun too
because goalies trying to make these like crazy saves as well,

(50:30):
like they stack their pads to go off for Pope
checks and then players try all kinds of different moves
as well, you know, with the cross legs, maybe trying
to look cross stout goal. So the breakaway is just
so much, so much opportunity to show off just what
you would not do in a regular game.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
Yeah, that's a good and it's always fun to see,
especially the guys can have fun and kind of do
stuff that they normally wouldn't do during the regular season,
kind of express themselves little differently. So for me, my
favorite one of all of them, it's just so satisfying
to see. It's really tough and really pessive to see that.
I mean, you saw last night were a couple of
guys like there were it's something they don't practice. I'm

(51:09):
sure they don't practice that much, but so they had
a little of trouble doing it. But when it works,
when it works well, it just looks so cool. And
that's the accuracy shooting for hockey, where they have the
targets in the corners and he hit those targets and
that's just so fun to see, you know, especially I
was kind of wondering, like, what does it mean out
of you because it looks like it's something weird kind
of material, But I guess last night and the HR

(51:31):
could see that was made at Stropham. But it's just
it's just so cool to see the Bucks break those
targets like that.

Speaker 4 (51:37):
Yeah, it is pretty cool and that I feel like
that one might be the hardest, right. It's literally precise shooting,
and you just you have to be almost perfect. And
like even Paul Doowski, who's leading the league and scoring,
couldn't you only hit two of the of the four
targets and he did even win it. So that's how
hard h That precise shooting is. Mex fell For me,

(51:59):
I'm gonna go with the uh the oh gosh, what
do they call it? The hardest shot? Sam Krrick won
it last night for the Charlotte Checkers. I think he
hit triple digits on his second shot. Each guy gets
two shots, kind of like a warm up one and
then their official one. And I you know, we we
love one timers, James, I mean, we know Sokolov has

(52:20):
a great one time and I'm sure if he would
have made the All Star Games, he would participate in
that contest. And yeah, Sam Kerrick want it with the
triple digits, I mean, and I was thinking their death too,
I'm like, goaltenders really have to stop this sometimes.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Obviously goaltenders weren't in it. It was just a net.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
They don't make goaltenders try to stop these one hundred
mile hour pucks. But I'm like, in real time with
bodies all around you, uh, Like, it's gotta be terrifying
just seeing guys like that just teeing up there one
time and you're like, oh, here we go and I
have to stop a one hundred mile hour puck.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
So that uh, that skills competition just maybe like more, uh, just.

Speaker 4 (52:54):
Admire goaltenders more of you know, they have to stop
these wicked risk shots, but then sometimes you're about have
to stop a one hundred mile hour puck that can
hit you literally anywhere in your body or grow through
the net.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Yeah, it's definitely one of the cooler skills competitions. Obviously,
my scouts tied that had that high in my list,
So that was one that I would have picked had
you not pick it picked it. So for my next one,
I'm gonna go a little different one. Probably. I don't
know how many listeners are familiar with it, but it's
one from the Major League Soccer where they have their
it's called the Goalie Wars where they've put a couple
of goals soccer goals, regular sized goals. They put them

(53:29):
about like twenty five yards away or something pretty close,
and they kind of go at each other and they
try and score on each other. Apparently i'd remembered it
as I didn't seen it. I didn't see last year
because it's they have the weird contract where they're on
Applitude the only but anyway, I had remembered it where
they throw they're throwing the balls at each other and
they're trying to save the balls. So that that's how
I do it. They were kicking it last year when

(53:49):
I saw a video of it, but basically, the the
goals are trying to go and score. You score at
each other. And one thing that we did last year
is that we did for the Stars the Stars podcast
called Wildcaster Bright. I did do an interview with Matt.
He was on vacation and we talked about that. I've
talked about our favorite you know whatever all Star competitions,

(54:10):
skills competitions, and that's one that came up and he's
had he I don't remember whose idea was. It was
his ore breats. I say, what do you do that
with goalies and HL where they're shooting or they you know,
they're trying to score, you know, not no nothing, it's
another goalie but shooting across the buck. I'm shooting across
the rink. So I'm gotta, you know, goalie scoring competition.
Maybe put some dumbas in between there, so it's kind

(54:31):
of replicates just for goal to score. But that's that'd
be kind of cool too. But but for anyone in
my pick is the goalie wars where they try and
score in each other.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Yeah, that's kind of cool.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
I would like to see like uh Askarov trying to
score on like Devin Cooley or something like. You know
that maybe the goalies geta and I've seen goalies trying
to do breakaways on each other just just for the
fun of it as well. At the All Star Games.
Next one for me, I'm gonna go with the dunk
contest and basketball. Again, I don't watch basketball like that,

(55:04):
but I've seen like the dunk competitions and it's kind
of like the breakaway shootout thing right where guys just
start trying all these kinds of different things stuff. They
obviously wouldn't do in a real game because they don't
want to mess up too much. But I've seen some
pretty cool dunks. They kind of sometimes throwing trampolines too,
and do some cool things off the trampoline. So again,
don't watch basketball like that, but I've seen the dunk contest,

(55:26):
and you know, I just like any thing that's just
like a breakaway.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
Yeah, that's a funny one. I used to watch it always,
Like I didn't really watch the NBA All Star Game
because they don't play defensive end of morning put planes
to watch, but I used to always watch the dunk competition,
so that's fun. So for me, one thing I just
love to see and them do is the fastest skater.
It's just like it's something that in the Olympics they
even have that obviously has events fastest as a skating

(55:51):
so it's an event that's good enough for the Olympics.
But it's just fun to see the guys who usually
when they're skating and they're skating, you know, not not
that they're skating like from one zone or another, not
so fast, you know, but we see them go to
fly across the rink. That's just so fun to watch.

Speaker 4 (56:07):
Yeah, it's it's it's always really fun, you know, just uh,
just how everything kind of just moves so quickly in
the All Star Games because you know, you're seeing the
the best of the best, you know, all going against
each other.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
And uh yeah, that's that's a good one too. Let's see.

Speaker 4 (56:25):
Next one for me, Gosh, I just lost my list
on my phone. Next one for me, I'm gonna go
with the what's it called the fast one where the
fastest skater. Yeah, I'm gonna go with the fastest skater.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
You know.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
I kind of wish he Big was in that one too,
because I feel like he had a good shot of,
you know, winning it without fast he can skate. I
know that one Hershey Bears player got the fastest one ever,
even faster than Connor McDavid's all time record. So that's
just kind of cool too, like showing that an HL
player might be faster than the probably the greatest NHL

(57:01):
player of our modern day. Gosh, I don't know his name,
they're talking about him last night. He's been with the
Hershey Bears, not with this season, but he's been with
the Hershey Bears in season pass and he showed that
he is the fastest player probably ever in the sport
of hockey, and he's in the AHL, or at least
was in the AHL.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
Cool, And I'm gonna go with the hom un Derby
for raseball, it's always fun to see. It's it's a
little bit lately it's been it goes on for too long,
So maybe maybe they could often have less guys to it,
and then maybe the innerspice and put something else in between,
maybe like the I've seen Korea they have the bunt competition,
so that would be kind of funny to put that
in between in between rounds of Homer Derby. So the

(57:42):
guy scan of the rest and they have like they
cut down home. The guys are doing it, but Norman
Derby is always classic to watch and fun to see.
They packed the whole stadium basically just for that, so
that that's kind of fun to.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
Say, Yeah, that's a good one.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
I don't know why I didn't think of the home
run derby because it's like I don't really see in
a skills competition, But I think it's just because it's
such a huge deal. It's not just one thing. It's
like it's the thing, you know, and I didn't even
think about that, but that's good. I think I'm what
one more, one more each, I'm gonna go with the
I saw. I saw it in the NFL. It's a

(58:14):
big spike contest where the biggest players of the Pro
Bowl were literally spiking down a football and whoever spiked
it the hardest one like that's it. It was literally
just a spike contest, and I just liked it because
spiking is a big thing in football. Grob Gronkowski, who
I'm actually a Patriots fan, if everyone didn't know, So
I watched Grob Grenkowski over the years with this big
Gronk spike and seeing that was was kind of funny.

Speaker 3 (58:38):
Yeah, it's cool. And then for my last one, I
was thinking, they call it the actually test from the NFL.
They changed it. It's a different thing now where the
quarterbacks where they hit targets, and so I'm not counting
on tracking the current one, but the one they had
like in the late nineties or in two thousands whatever,
the quarter NFL Quarterback Club, that kind of thing maybe
a little bit before time, but they had this. They

(59:02):
would be out there on like a practice field in
the sun and they reach some fans, but they'd have
all these competitions and the best one, the one they
ever loved was where they have these like movie targets
and they move across the and they're and they're they're
different distances obviously, but right now it's not as far,
so it's not as cool. But they have these moving
these movie targets that they go when they try and
hit those, and that that looked really cool to me.

(59:24):
That the NFL Quarterback Accuracy Desk it's called.

Speaker 4 (59:28):
Yeah, that's that's a fun one too, Drake May And
the Pro Bowl this year for the Patriots as well. Uh,
everyone has their opinions about the Pro Bowl. You know,
it's it's a little weirder nowadays in the NFL. I
wish they would go back to Hawaii, you know when
it's it's just felt like more fun because and that's
why I like, that's why the skills competition and everything
is fun for the HL All Star because it's mid

(59:49):
season again. It feels like a break. Vibes are good,
guys are happy to be there. Especially it's in Palm Springs.
It's in Rockford next year. So yeah, that's why I
kind of like more mid season All Star Games instead
of just postgame where no one really cares about anymore,
especially before the Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
So yeah, again, everyone has their opinions about the Pro Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
But HL All Star Classic very much successful, a very
successful skills competition, and we have the HL All Star
Challenge happening tonight as gamerin Neebig's gonna try to help
the Pacific Division make its three p great show James
as always Big Jim Slow Trip coming up for the
Roadrunners as they try to snap that eight game losing skid.

(01:00:29):
Tson Runners Happy our show. We have a pre recorded
special with Maverick Lameru and Ryan McGregor as our seas
at our season ticket members signing events, So tune into
that right here on well not right here, put on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty am or at Tucson Rubbers dot
Com Slash Happy Hour for the podcast version that will
be premiering afterwards.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
And yeah we will. We'll see you in a couple
of weeks.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
It'll be sucks to be It sucked to be gone
from the Tucson Arena after our six game homestand but
let's see if we can get things uh turned around
and try to snap that eight game win streak, a
loose streak, pardon and uh yeah, just try to get
back on the in that playoff positioning uh for the
Roadrunners as we will also welcome the newest member, Samuel Walker,
acquired in a trade during this show. Thanks everyone listening

(01:01:18):
once again, we will see you at the Happy Hour
Show tomorrow night for a pre recorded season take a
members spect show, and later on this week as the
Roadrunners start the Gem Show trip against the San Jose
Bart could have, we'll throw things out with light institute.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Gotta see the line to song, gotta bet, gotta see
the line to to song and coming back.

Speaker 5 (01:01:59):
Just been my little woman is there City Candy isn't
mess with the kid.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
But Tucson.

Speaker 5 (01:02:05):
My heart is a yearning like bronzing.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
My wheels are learning.

Speaker 5 (01:02:17):
Can't we be there with her in the Cattelinas, the
lights of touc sun shining in her.

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
Illo, be Alona, we never Zona, the it desert reaching
the sky.

Speaker 5 (01:02:43):
You gotta see the lions of Tucson, and I got
a back, get a new mom. Gotta see the lions
of Tucson. Can be coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
We'll get a new bottle.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
Gottasy the lights it's too soon. I got it back,
the moon, Get the moon. Goussie does not.

Speaker 5 (01:03:07):
It's too soon coming back, Will you gotta the mo