It is! The JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and many thanks to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. I hope you're smooth. I hope you're amazing. I hope you've had a tremendous Wednesday. I'll be hanging out with you for the next four hours. This is when the show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our producer, our brand new full-time producer in New York City, Ryan Bodger. We got a lot to get into here over the next four hours. Of course, tonight is the start of the 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Finals. We have the Edmonton Oilers.
We have the Florida Panthers. And if you're the Panthers, you're looking to go out there and repeat. And if you're the Oilers, you're looking for a little bit of sweet revenge after that Game 7 loss from last year. Yeah, we're going to talk some NHL. We're going to be joined, a matter of fact, in about 20 minutes by Mick Kern, who hosts on NHL radio, on Sirius XM, the under review show. So we'll have a chat with Mick Kern to learn pretty much everything that we need to know and learn about what's going to take place here in this series. Phoenix Suns have a brand new head coach, Jordan Ott. Yeah, have you heard of this guy?
Probably not. I'm going to describe why this dude is nothing but a glorified babysitter. We have no idea what's going to take place with the Phoenix Suns, especially Kevin Durant. And apparently there are a lot of rumors as to where Kevin Durant might end up next. Speaking of where somebody might end up next, there are a lot of names that have been thrown about as to who could, who might be the next head coach of the New York Knicks. Now that Tom Thibodeau has been shown the door. Mike McDonald, moving into his second year as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.
He has some words of affirmation for Sam Darnold. Of course, today was NBA Media Day. They start their NBA Finals tomorrow.
And then today, it's Wednesday. As I do every single Wednesday, I'm going to be sharing with you a new top six list. We're going to take a look at the six biggest international stars in the NBA ever.
Ever. And why is that? Because Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, he had a special message today that involves the NBA and its international stars. And we'll share that message with you momentarily.
If you want to be a part of the show, you can. Here's the number. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. You can find me online. I exist on the internet every place. I am at JR Sport Brief. Before we do anything, before I say another word, Ryan Botcher, congratulations on the full-time gig.
I'm looking forward to working with you. And how the hell are you feeling, man? I'm doing great. It's feeling like summer here in New York.
And I'm kind of surprised. It's been, I think, 80 degrees two days in a row now. And it's going to be close to the 90s next week. So it's warming up for summer. I'm feeling energized.
Well, Ryan, let me, let me tell you something, Ryan. I don't care about the weather. We're not going to skirt over the fact that you are the new full-time producer of this show.
We're not going to gloss over that at all and talk about the weather. Congratulations, man. How you feeling? I'm doing great. It's great to work with you.
You know, it's another full-time view of you. Well, thank you. I'll try my best not to break anything in the process, okay?
Yeah, no bad connections here. Hey, how about that? Well, having said that, what are you doing? Are you going to celebrate? Do I buy you a beer or two beers or three beers? Do you not drink? Come on.
We got to get to know each other. God, I drink, but I'm not going to drink for this. Just keep it consistent, I guess, regular schedule now. All right. So I can, I can un-ship the beers that are on the way to the studio. Don't do that. It might break in the air. The beer might break in the studio?
Ah, there are some crazy people here, but no, that wouldn't break in the studio. Okay. All right. On the way here, delivery though. Ah, no.
People who deliver beer in New York City are some of the highest quality of individuals, so you don't have to worry about that. Okay, Botcher? I got it.
I got it. They're on their scooter or something. A cougar or scooter?
Scooter, not cougar. What? I don't know. I mean, I don't know what you like, Botcher.
We'll find out. Okay. In, in, in due time, congratulations Ryan Botcher, the new full-time producer here of the JR Sport Brief Show.
Yeah. Eventually we'll get to some cougars and get him some beer and, and what have you, but not, not, not tonight. We got something very special going on tonight. And you know, before we have this chat with Mick Kern in about 15 minutes, the Stanley Cup finals are back. This is my favorite time of the year when it comes to the NHL. When you think about all the college football, the NFL football, the NBA, you think about just everything going on in the world of sports.
I really drill down. I start really paying attention to the NHL come the playoffs. You know, growing up as a kid, sitting around and watching the New York Rangers. And man, I remember 1994 like it was yesterday. I still can't believe it's been 1994 since the New York Rangers, you know, walked away with the cup.
But I remember watching them. And not too long after that, the Devils and Ken Dinaco knocking people's teeth out. I remember hockey. I really get involved in hockey when we get to this part of the year. When Wayne Gretzky is sitting in the studio in TNT and he's complaining about the length of the games.
When the games and the man and the minutes and the seconds, they all, they all matter. And last year we had one hell of a Stanley Cup finals between the Panthers and the Oilers. And this time it is nothing but a rematch. This time we are doing nothing but going forward and seeing whether or not the Edmonton Oilers can bounce back.
And just pretty much redeem themselves based on what we saw last year. Seven game series. The Oilers are slight favorites. They just beat Dallas in five games. They beat the Kings in the first round.
They kept things moving. The Oilers, we know what they have. They beat Tampa Bay in five games. They made everybody in Toronto with the Maple Leafs cry in seven games. They just beat Carolina four to one.
And the Panthers are back. The Oilers are the favorite. Connor McDavid, I saw some comparisons.
People are saying, for all my basketball people out there, they're like, this man is Kyrie Irving on skates. They said that Connor McDavid, well, he is the second coming. You think about Leon Drysdale.
You think about Stuart Skinner. The Panthers. We saw what Barkov and Bobrovsky did last year. I'm just going to root for Miami. I'm sorry. No disrespect to my wonderful callers and friends up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I know we'll probably get a lot of callers from Edmonton. People hitting me up telling me how upset they are. They'll be sending me texts and messages. But I'm going with the Florida team because teams down in Florida, man, come on.
And I get it. They've already won last year. They're trying to go back or trying to win again. They went three years ago, two seasons ago, I should say, Florida did.
And they lost to the Vegas Knights. I like a little bit of history. And at this stage of the sports calendar, I feel bad. I feel sad for people down in Florida. I do. Anybody who has to.
Well, besides the sunshine, the sunshine is nice. Anybody who has to deal with the Miami Heat at this point. And all the Florida Marlins.
I guess people just ignore them wholly in the year 2025. My heart goes out to you. I'm rooting for the Florida Panthers. I know the Oilers are slight favorites. We will have this whole chat with Mick Kern in about 10 minutes, about 15 minutes or so. Mick Kern is going to join us to talk some hockey from Sirius XM, the under review show. Now, we know one thing that hockey did this year. It got a lot of attention outside of what we're about to see starting tonight in about two hours when the puck drops in Edmondson. By the way, the Oilers, they're the ones who have home ice advantage at more points throughout the course of the season. The NHL did an amazing job with their All-Star format. Four team tournament, four international team tournaments.
Everybody absolutely loved it. They had this break this year, a little bit different than years past. And people were saying that the NBA should absolutely pick up on what the NHL did this year with this All-Star format. This NBA All-Star game was another complete waste of time. And so it was just a matter of can the NBA copy the NHL? Can the NBA take advantage of what we saw last year in the Olympics in Paris and maybe apply that to this upcoming NBA season? And well, today we got a little bit of a surprise from Adam Silver. He was sitting around on Fox Sports earlier this morning and the commissioner of the NBA. He basically said that the All-Star game, the one that everybody hated this year, we are adjusting it again.
But I think this time you might like it. So next year, as part of our new media deals, the All-Star game returns to NBC where it was when we were younger. And it so happens that next season we'll be smack in the middle of the Winter Olympics. So, in fact, the game will be on NBC and the very day we're on, the lead-in will be Winter Olympic events. And then coming out of the All-Star game, which is now going to be in the afternoon instead of the evening, there will be more Olympic events. So what better time to feature some form of USA against the world.
I'm not exactly sure what the format will be yet. I mean, obviously, it paid a lot of attention to what the NHL did. Which was a huge success.
The Frozen Four was awesome. But also, you know, going back, you know, last summer, our Olympic competition was a huge success. I mean, those games, USA-Serbia.
I love ranching it. And by the way, to your point about the European style, a more physical style basketball, a 40-minute game, which I won't reference again. You won the 40-minute game. I just said it happened to be a 40-minute game in the Olympics. But, yeah, we're not changing it. But it was, but I think that's another example.
Yeah, another example. Let me tell you something. I don't care what the format is for Team USA versus the world in an All-Star game.
I do not care. They're most definitely going to play the game on the state side. It's going to be here.
This is probably something that's going to stick. No Elam endings. No first team to this. No last team to that. No four team tournament rookies versus young guys versus pros versus none of that in the NBA. If you have the top players from USA basketball versus the top NBA players that represent the world, Team USA might have them beat when it comes down to depth.
But when it comes to the world, you think about some of the talent that goes out there. I'm taking the world to beat Team USA basketball. No disrespect to, you know, Steph Curry just won us a gold medal Team USA. No disrespect to old man LeBron James or older Kevin Durant.
I don't even know what the hell I should call Joel Embiid. Is he going to play for Team USA or is he just going to go play for the world? I guess he's going to join whatever team he feels that he can win a medal. Jason Tatum, Devin Booker, Halliburton, Anthony Edwards, Drew Holliday, Bam Adebayo, Anthony Davis. Do they even want him at this point in time? I mean, I'm pretty sure that we would see Mobley on the team instead of Anthony Davis.
I have no idea. But the world's talent right now is ridiculous. It's full of MVPs, it's full of champs and guys who are still in their prime or haven't yet reached it. Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Shay Gilgas-Alexander coming out of Canada, Giannis Atetokounmpo, Victor Winbenyama, Rudy Gobert. Just Rudy, you can catch all of you.
Just put your hands up in the air. Damonta Sabonis, Pascal Siakam, Laurie Markenet. Come on, man. And this, and people have to think about, oh, is Team USA basketball, are they actually going to play hard? Is Team USA basketball actually going to make this an entertaining basketball game? They don't have to. Because Team World is going to try to go out there and absolutely smoke Team USA.
You don't have to worry about it. Because it's one thing to go into the Olympics and see Nikola Jokic with his team and Serbia and Bogdanovic and a bunch of other guys who play in the EuroLeague, top players but not the best in the United States of America. It's one thing to see those guys compete against all stars on Team USA.
It's one thing for international players all over the world to form and combine like Voltron. And all they have to do is look at Team USA and say to themselves, this is our chance and opportunity. Oh, it's tough at the Olympics. It's a difficult thing to do. But here we are, all of us All Stars, all over the world, together from Canada, from Serbia, from Nigeria, from Greece. All we have to do is go out there and beat Team USA. And then we can finally get our own one pound of flesh. It's really that simple.
I like the concept. I don't think you have to encourage these guys to play. Because if Giannis is going through the lane, you want to know who doesn't want to be embarrassed? I don't know LeBron James. You know, if Nikola Jokic is going up and down the court, and I don't know if Joel Embiid is even healthy enough to play for, let's say he plays for Team USA, you think Embiid wants to be embarrassed by Jokic? Come on, man.
He said he's been ducking this guy for years, especially in the course of the regular season. Do you think Luka Doncic is going to take it easy on Jason Tatum? I think the answer is no. I like this concept. I like this idea. I think it's going to garner a lot of fan interest. I think people are going to be paying attention. I think the ratings will actually do good.
I think you'll have retention. The All Star game won't be relegated to background noise and comedy that nobody wants from Kevin Hart. It looks like the NBA finally got an All Star format that will actually stick.
And God bless them for taking an idea from the NHL. Although, if you ask Charles Barkley, back last year, Charles Barkley, I want you to listen to this from Stephen A. Smith. Charles Barkley said, man, I was thinking about this idea a decade ago. I suggested this ten years ago.
Nobody listened to me. For the All Star game, I would do the United States against the world. I agree with that. I think we should do the United States against the world. And let me tell you something, I might take the world. Yep. I might take the world.
Embiid, Jokic, Luka, Aloha. Wimby. Wimbyana, yes. Hey. I mean, them alone? Hey.
Absolutely. I'm going to count Canada as part of the world, too. I think the United States against the world would be amazing. And it's finally a reality whether Charles Barkley was the first guy to come up with it or not. We're going to get it the next All Star game.
I'm looking forward to it already. Like, who anticipated anything with an All Star game? Maybe we'll even have an international dunk contest, an international three-point shootout. Hey, look, if you're the NBA, you might as well go on and just embrace everything. Because the entire All Star weekend has just been dull as hell.
Way to take an idea from the NHL. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. When we come back, speaking of NHL, the Stanley Cup Finals, they start tonight.
The puck will drop in about an hour and 45 minutes, about two hours from now. And so to get us all ready about what we need to know as the Panthers try to repeat and the Oilers try to get some revenge, we'll be joined on the other side of the break by Mick Kern from Sirius XM. Of course, we've got the top six list.
I'll give you a list of the six best international basketball players ever. We'll talk some NFL as well. The Suns have a new head coach. Ryan Day wants some changes to their playoffs.
There's a lot to do. You're locked into the JR Sport Brief Show coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief.
It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We got a rematch tonight. The Stanley Cup Finals starts tonight.
We have the Panthers trying to go back to back. We got the Oilers looking for a little bit of revenge to talk about what we saw last year, what we can expect this go round, what has changed, what we can look forward to. Joining us right now is the host of Under Review.
You can catch him on Sirius XM, NHL Radio. His name is Mick Kern. Mick, how are you, man? Pretty good, sir. Pretty good.
Awesome. Well, thank you for taking the time to join us. I mean, right out the gate. This is the time that I really start drilling into everything going on in hockey.
This is actually, I think, one of the best times in the entire sporting calendar. For people who are flying in, folks like me, what are some of the big differences from last year to this year? Guys like Brad Marchand, what else has been different this go round or will be different? Yeah, as you said, it is a rematch to these two teams from this time last year. Florida won in the complete seven games. They got three-nothing lead in the series last year. Edmonton clawed back into it. It was a tight game, seven. Florida pulled away. Well, actually, they didn't pull away. They edged them in the third period to win their first Stanley Cup.
It was basically as close as you can get without going to overtime. So here we are 12 months later. Florida has added a couple of players, including Super Pest, a really good player, Brad Marchand from the Boston Bruins. He's won a cup back in 2011, so that's a long time ago.
I'd like to win another. Edmonton has added a bunch of guys, not household names necessarily, but just improved the overall defensive structure of the team. That was a real legitimate critique about the others, that they could score, but could they play D?
They have. I would argue, actually, 12 months later, both teams are better than they were this time last year. Florida, I think, are a better team than the team that won the cup, but Edmonton is also a better team than the team that came up a period short.
So if you're looking for, as we're saying, a smoking Joe Frazier against Muhammad Ali rematch, this is it. And Mick Kern is here with us from Sirius XM NHL radio. The Oilers are the team that unfortunately came up on the short end of the stick last year. How have they improved, and how is their style any different, if at all, under Chris Knoblauch?
I think it's a more complete game. I kind of said they've added to their D. They have two of the best players in the world, Connor McDavid, Leon Drysato. I think even non-hockey fans listening right now know the name Connor McDavid. You know the superstars from the different sports. I'm a big baseball fan, big football fan. I'm not a big basketball fan, but I know the superstars when you talk basketball.
You know, I just got to get a course. I think McDavid's the same. Drysato should be in the same breath. So we know they can score. They don't have Zach Hyman, who was a 50-goal scorer last year, who was a really good two-way player. He injured very badly his right arm with a dislocated wrist. He's got a cast. He's out for the playoffs in a very innocuous-looking play.
But he's gone, so that's a loss. But they've improved their team defense. The coaches got them to play as a whole. They'll take care of their end first before they go and try to score. They know they can score when they want to.
Nobody scores exactly when they want to, but they know they can force the issue. They're getting really good goaltending from a guy named Stuart Skinner, who came under a legitimate criticism earlier on. He didn't start the playoffs very well. And Calvin Pickard, the backup was in there, like putting in your backup quarterback.
He said the quarterback got interested and brought back the starter. Stuart Skinner has been absolutely outstanding ever since he got back between the pipes. But in hockey, goaltending, the team makes the goaltender. The goaltender makes the team.
That symbiotic relationship, they both have to be on the same page. And that they have done, and that's a big reason why the Oilers, after being down to the L.A. Kings way back a month and a half ago in the opening round, they looked like the Kings were going to kick them to the curb. The Oilers righted the ship and have been one of the better – well, one of the two best teams in the league ever since, seven of the Florida Panthers. Well, Mick, you talk about Stuart Skinner. We saw Bob Roski from last year. Is he at the same level in the same space this go-round? Yes, and again, he's won a Stanley Cup. He's won some Vezzanas before.
Bob, as we call him, I don't know whether you call him Serge, but they call him Bob, Serge Bobroski. It was funny because earlier on in the playoffs, I live here in Toronto, so I went to see them play the Maple Leafs in that series that win seven games. The first two games, he didn't look that great.
Toronto got off to a 2-0 lead in that series. The Leafs looked good and Florida looked – we knew they'd wake up, but would Bob all be in the same page? Bobroski, he got his game together, and Florida won four of the next five games, including 6-1 twice here in Toronto Ice, decisive victories. And when Bobroski's locked in, he looks – he has economy of movement. He's not swimming in the equipment, as they say.
He's not leaping around like a ball hockey goalie on a Sunday afternoon. He's just locked in, looks confident, which is funny because last year, when Florida got off to a 3-0 lead in games – and you need four to win, folks, just like in baseball and basketball – everyone thought this was done. And then the Oilers scored in Game 4 eight goals.
Chase Bobroski, chase the Panthers. They won 8-1. They won 5-1 to tie up the series before Florida finally eked out the win. All they remember are the winners, but we remember that because of the rematch. So Bobroski is the more – he's the better of the two goal senders, but he also has propensity for every so often kind of just going out to La La Land. So this could be a tight series. You could see a 7-6 game in this series.
It's possible. Well, Mick, I like La La Land. I don't know if Bobroski wants to be living there at all in this series. Mick Kern is joining us from Sirius XM NHL radio. When you talk about the defenders in front of him, and I mean everybody in front of him, how can the defending champs – you mentioned Connor McDavid and Dry Seidel – how can they slow them down?
What is the best course of action to try to put a chink in them? Well, you know that, first of all, if you haven't watched, folks, turn it on to watch on television. Connor McDavid went against the puck. He's a – he might be the fastest player in National Hockey League history, and there's been some great skaters over the years, the Pablo Berres, the Mike Gartners.
They're so naïve on cornerway. They call him the roadrunner for a reason. But when Connor McDavid gets going, he's almost unstoppable. He scored a beautiful goal last round on a breakaway against the Dallas Stars that I don't care.
Jacques Plante and Terry Sockjock, they weren't stopping in their prime, goaltending legends. He just – he's a beast. He might be too fast for his team at times. And Dry Seidel is just a gunner. He likes to sit off the side of the net on the power play when they have the man advantage.
They feed him and he can just – he can pick a corner. Eye of the needle kind of players. They're both outstanding. Going to the Hall of Fame when they retire. If they retire today, they go to the Hall of Fame. But they're not.
They're in their prime. So how do you stop them? Well, you have to have a game plan.
Try not to go to the penalty box too much or Dry Seidel will sink you. And what you try to do with McDavid is he's going to get some of his goals. So you try to limit it. You try to limit, okay, he's going to get you occasionally. But he's also a really good playmaker. It's one of the reasons he's leading the league right now in playoff scoring with 26 points. Dry Seidel second with 25.
That's not a coincidence. So what you do is you try to limit the damage. You know they're going to get their RBI.
You know they're going to get their touchdown. So you give them a few, but you don't give them too many. The thing is in the past though, if you shut – not shut them down, but if you limited, curtailed their production, then you could beat the others because they didn't have the depth scoring.
Well, that's not true anymore. Even with the loss of Zach Hyman, and Ryan Yushin Hopkins has 18 points. Ivan Bouchard, a really good defense man, offensive defense man, has 17 points. This is a team that has depth scoring.
So if you cut off the head, there's another head and they just keep coming at you. The only thing I can say in response to that, because how do you defend about that? Florida is the same way. Florida may not have a Dry Seidel and a McDavid, but they have very, very good players. Alexander Barkov, one of the best players in the league. He's up there in the top ten in scoring. And Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk is tenth in scoring.
They also have a litany of weapons they can throw at you if you block one or two. So both these teams have depth scoring. Their D-men are – the defense come up and play offensive hockey when needed.
That's the modern game. And they both have good goal setting and they both have good coaches. The only difference I can see is Florida has been there and done this. This is the third straight year to the Stanley Cup final. If Edmonton were newbies here, I might say that's an advantage.
But because the Oilers went seven games, did everything but win the Cup last year, I don't even see that as an advantage. I really think it's going to be who can avoid stupid penalties. And hopefully the ref doesn't call something too egregious on you.
And you just make your own luck. Who wants it more? I'm telling you, both teams want it. Florida wants to be one of the few teams in NHL history that were two in a row. The Oilers would like to win their first Cup as a franchise since 1990.
That's a long time. So I don't think motivation is in question here for either team. It's going to come down to who makes the best of their luck.
Well, Mick, you talk about any type of advantage. Last year they went to seven. And there's a lot of travel involved. I mean, flying from South Florida going out to Edmonton is not the easiest trip to do over a seven-game series. The fact that Edmonton won over Florida in points, is that not an advantage to get that game seven at home?
If they go there? It could be, but it's a great question. Here's the thing. Both teams until now were on the road for the first opening three series. They were the road team and all three series didn't seem to bother any of them. So someone had to be the home series. That's right.
That's right. And Edmonton had to be the home team. They had, what, 101 points to the Panthers in 98? By the way, Panthers beat them twice in the regular season. I don't even care about those results. That was weeks and months ago.
So to me, I'm joking. Yeah, home ice advantage to Edmonton is a big deal. I think it's the same thing with Florida, but Florida likes the road ice advantage.
I'm calling it. They don't care. They like being the underdog. They're perceived to be the nastiest, dirtiest team right now in the National Hockey League. And I don't think they go out of their way to dissuade anyone on that opinion. I think they welcome it. I think they like being the bad guys, the bad Cowboys. Like the Philadelphia Flyers used to be in days when I was a kid.
It's not as crazy as that. Florida is also a very talented team. I think they love the fact of being on the road.
And here's the thing. Just like in a lot of times in the NBA and MLB, if you win that first game, you tear back home ice advantage. One game can tear all that. So I'm not sure how much of advantage that is. I still would take home ice advantage if it was given to me, but I'm not too worried about it. As for the travel, it's I believe the furthest in distance in miles or up here kilometers, however you measure it, in Stanley Cup final history last year. So they're repeating it. I don't think they've moved the arena.
So it's the same distance. And that's why there's a number of days off. So they're playing tonight.
They play Friday in Edmonton, Alberta. And then there's two days off before they start going at it again. I think the reason is for that very reason.
So they'll go on Monday and they'll go, I believe, on the Wednesday. And so that that's not a factor. I think that's why they built that in. The extra delays that some people don't like, but I think that's why they're doing it.
Hey, hopefully it will better the quality that we see on the ice. Mick, final question for you, man. Who do you think is ultimately going to hoist that cup? That's a tough question because it really, I believe, is going to be a seven gamer.
Now, here's the thing. I thought it would be Florida in six last year. It was in seven. I didn't think they'd go to a three nothing lead. I don't see that happening this year. I think it'll go back. It could go back to sunrise for game three.
Tied. Oh, man, I hate going against the champions, but I do also know how tough it is to repeat. Hasn't been done since, I think, the 70s where teams met like this and repeated much over Boston. So I'm going to say Edmonton in seven, but it would not surprise me as Florida in seven. What would surprise me if it goes less than seven games? Yeah, well, we see that overwhelming.
Looks like we're in store for another nail biter of this go around. Hey, Mick, thank you so much for the time. Please tell everybody where they could find and listen to your show as well. I appreciate that. Yeah, Sirius XM Channel 91, 11 a.m. Eastern, 8 a.m. Pacific.
Peter Burson and I do a show called Under Review. First hour we take phone calls and second hour we have a litany of guests and we try to have fun. Not take it too seriously and let the games decide where the conversation goes. Hey, listen, Mick, I certainly understand that. Nothing wrong with a little bit of fun.
I try to have a whole hell of a lot of it. Hey, Mick, thank you for the time. We'll catch you down the line, okay? Anytime. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.
No doubt about it. That Mick Kern covers all things NHL. You can listen to him on his show Under Review on Sirius XM NHL Radio. It's the JR Sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Yeah, the puck drops in about an hour and a half.
Then we, well, it kind of sucks. We're down to the final two teams here when it comes to the NHL. We're down to the final two teams in the NBA. The NBA, they had their media availability today. And speaking of playoffs, this is still absolutely nuts to me. This is like a news story every other day. Ryan Day is now chiming in on what he expects from a revamped college football playoff.
I guess getting rid of the seedings and adjusting them wasn't good enough for Ryan Day. He has something that he specifically wants to see as it relates to the Big Ten. It's the JR Sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network, 888-710-4IS. And we will take a break. When we come back, we'll hear what Ryan Day has to say. But right now, we will hear a newsflash from Rich Ackerman. You are listening to the JR Sport Brief.
It is the JR Sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you so much to Mick Kern for joining us in the last break to talk about everything that we can expect, everything that we should look forward to when it comes down to this year's Stanley Cup Finals. In a matter of about an hour, a little more than an hour, the puck will drop in Edmonton between the Oilers and the Panthers. The Panthers looking to repeat and the Edmonton Oilers looking for a little bit of sweet revenge after losing to the same Florida Panthers squad in seven games last year. Once the puck drops, we'll definitely keep you up to date here as to everything going on on the Infinity Sports Network. And so that's the NHL.
They have the Stanley Cup Finals. Tomorrow, the NBA Finals starts. We already had a little bit of an adjustment we learned earlier today by the NBA when it comes down to the All-Star format. We have the World Team this upcoming season or next season in 2026. And we're going to have Team USA.
That is going to be the new format for the NBA All-Star game. And I think a lot of people are happy about that. And things always change, right? That's just the nature of time. That's the nature of being alive. Whether we want it or not, things are going to change.
You are going to change, hopefully for the better. Everything changes. College football is not exempt. We have gone through so many iterations of a college football playoff, I just want to rip my hair out. Whether it's BCS and selection committees and supercomputers and people sitting around in a room.
We have had every iteration of it. Let's pick four teams to now a college football playoff. And now we've expanded to 12 teams and they've eliminated the seeds because we've got teams like ours. There's just a lot going on. No disrespect to Boise State as well.
But I think getting rid of the seedings is a good thing. We certainly heard, especially from a lot of the commissioners, specifically from the Big Ten, the SEC, that they feel, based on their success, based on their programs, their schools, their records, that they should have a little bit more weight when it comes down to the college football playoff. And so now we have also heard from Ryan Day. The head coach of the Ohio State University that just won the national championship over Notre Dame. They had to beat Tennessee. And damn it, they didn't just beat Tennessee, they smacked them 42 to 17. They had to beat the Ducks. And no, they didn't just beat Dylan Gabriel and Oregon, they smashed them 41 to 21. And then they beat Texas 28 to 14 on their way to going out there and beating Notre Dame.
And so congratulations to Ryan Day. The biggest issue he had at the championship game was getting stuck in the tunnel. Botcher, do you remember when the young lady crashed his golf cart into a wall in Mercedes Benz? You seen that? Oh, I saw it. It was like Austin Powers.
You're right, it was. And then she ran away. Did Austin Powers run away? I think he kept going forward and backwards until he fixed it. Oh my God, he must have been going back forward and backwards for what about three days, I guess? I think so.
And there was like a better stop a rocket or something in that movie. I don't remember. Something like that. I just know that that young lady, she promptly crashed the golf cart in the tunnel behind the stadium, inside the stadium. And then she ran away. And let's just say Ryan Day did not look pleased.
I guess that was the worst thing that happened to him that day. But now, even after winning a national championship, even after being crowned champion, he's like, yeah, we need more spots here. Like we need to adjust the college football playoff. We need more teams. He says we need four teams here. We need four Big Ten schools in the college football playoff. We need four SEC schools because we're the big bad ones between the Big Ten and the SEC. And then he said the ACC and the Big Twelve, tough. Y'all get two teams apiece. The highest ranked group of five team gets a bid.
And so there you have it. Maybe Boise State, maybe not so much when Ashton Gente gone. And then you got three at-large bids.
And let's be real. If you're thinking about three at-large bids, just to go ahead and throw in people unaffiliated with a conference or teams that are just great, you can probably just call it two because there's a good chance that Notre Dame is going to end up with one of those slots. And so even a guy at the top of the totem pole who won is advocating for a change here in the college football playoff.
I want you to listen to what Ryan Day had to say about two months ago. He was on Fox with Colin Cowherd and he says, you know what, the Big Ten and the SEC, we need buys just so we can get better competition. Why we got to smash the world on the way to a championship? But I think it's important moving forward with the playoff system that like in the Big Ten and the SEC, and as we start to work through this, that we do get all automatic qualifiers and a certain amount of automatic qualifiers. If we don't, then you're never going to see these games scheduled to your point. That's right. Yeah. So I think that's critical if we want these games, which I think we should have these games.
Yes. We need to make sure that that happens because I think it's really, really good for college football. And Ryan, there's also other reasons in regards to the scheduling as well.
You want to see tougher competition out there. Yeah, of course. Are they supposed to play Texas to Ohio State this year coming up? Absolutely. So if you're trying to beat Texas in your first three or four weeks of the school year, the schedule, and you lose and that knocks you out of a potential buy, of course I'd be mad if that was Ryan Day.
When you have a team like Boise trying to fight against lesser competition, they get a buy. Yeah. Well, yeah, we know that the scheduling – well, college football is a gigantic mess anyway.
And it's just – the seedings was definitely crap. And here's the thing, I don't think – this is never going to be a perfect solution. People are always going to complain about something because every time that there is an adjustment either in the playoff system, there's now an adjustment in how many teams get in. Or there's an adjustment when it comes to scheduling. Or forget all of this, there's an adjustment when it comes to conference realignment. It's still – I mean, it's settled into me.
I'm not going to say, oh my God, what in the world has happened here? But it is still wild to me that the Big Ten, which I've typically looked at historically as just being the Midwest and meat and potatoes and corn huskers and everything from Nebraska to the Midwest and all over the damn place, man, the Big Ten stretches from coast to coast. Like there's no more historical relevance when it comes to the conferences. I mean, we just went from a power five to a power four an amount of the time. Pac-10, 12 is Pac-nothing at this point in time. And so there's always going to be these ridiculous adjustments.
It's – I feel like – and Ryan, correct me if I'm wrong. When I think about college football and any adjustments that they need to make, that they need to consider, to me it comes across like the government. It's like you got the House and you got the Senate and everybody has to figure out how to keep up with the laws, but everything out in the real world outpaces the speed of government. I feel like that's the same way when it comes to changing anything in college athletics. It's because everybody hates each other so much and they don't want to see their conference get ahead.
They will continue to fight the formats and fight the way things have been and will be. So they just – there's no collaborative effort in college sports because they all think they're the best. It's all about money.
That's it. It's all about money. I mean, when you hear about conversations about how the Big Ten and the SEC could just basically leave and secede from the NCAA and start their own playoff and screw y'all, y'all figure it out, it wouldn't shock me if they were able to figure it out. It may take another decade, 15 years, maybe not that long. It would have surprised me if they said, yeah, well, we are the real champions over here. I'm not going to put it in the category of, I mean, if you really think about it, the world champions. How can the NBA champs be the world champions? How could the Major League Baseball champs be the world champions? Well, I wouldn't be surprised if one day the college football champion is crowned and is strictly coming out of the SEC. Well, the Big Ten, I think that's quite a reality. It may not happen soon, but I think it might happen sooner than later. It's just a wild world that we live in. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We're going to take a break when we come back on the other side. Hey, Ryan Day is a championship coach. I'm going to tell you about the new coach of the Phoenix Suns. You may have heard of him.
Maybe you didn't. I know you know Kevin Durant. We'll get into that. We'll talk about Sam Donald. We got a lot. That's the sport brief show of the Infinity Sports Network.
