Rings or Records? (Hour 1)

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AutoTrader. Live from the play show yet not overly ostentatious, studios of the Infinity Sports Network sitting on top of the 10th floor 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Tuesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course streaming live on YouTube. 855-212-4227 is the number to jump on in. That's 855-212-4227. And you can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter X at Zach Gelb.

That's C-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Okay, we got a whole lot to do today. Coming up 40 minutes from now, the voice of the Edmonton Oilers, Jack Michaels, will stop by. At the top of the hour, 60 minutes from now, Robert Horry is going to join us to preview the NBA Finals and he knows about a thing or two or maybe seven how to win NBA championships with what he was able to do in his illustrious career. But we got to start the show with CJ Stroud. And CJ Stroud was on the Million Dollars Worth of Game podcast. He said some things about Matthew Stafford. He said some things about Eli Manning and both had to do with, I don't know if hatred is the right word or maybe this is just how he genuinely feels, but it does seem like he was taking some shots at Aaron Rodgers. Now, you could only answer the questions you were asked, but CJ Stroud, and we'll play you one of the clips later, said that if Matthew Stafford was in Green Bay, he would have had more than one ring, which Aaron Rodgers only has one ring. But the big quote that did go viral from this, and this is where we'll lead the show with, here is CJ Stroud when he was asked, would he rather have the career of Aaron Rodgers or Eli Manning? If you had to pick a career to have, I'm going to have Aaron Rodgers career or I'm going to have Eli Manning's career.

Who career are you taking? You want the rings, dawg? That's all that matters is the rings. Guess what fans don't celebrate? MVP trophies? We don't give a **** about that.

That's for you, buddy. We give a **** about rings. So sometimes you have a guest on that says something that is going to be explosive and hosts do this all the time. And Gilly, the kid did this.

Who's the guy conducting the interview when, uh, when an interview, someone that you're interviewing an interviewee, when they're giving you an answer and they say something that maybe makes you raise an eyebrow, continue to let them talk. Cause in that clip, I would have loved to have heard more of what CJ Stroud was going to say, but CJ Stroud said he'd rather have the rings. And that means he's going with Eli Manning's career. Now, I think we need to be fair here.

And let me just say this right out of the gate. I'd rather have the career of Aaron Rodgers over Eli Manning. If there was a discrepancy, like five rings to one ring. Okay.

That's different. But when you look at these careers, it's not just as simple as saying, oh, I'd rather have the rings. Aaron Rodgers is a lock for the hall of fame. Aaron Rodgers is one of the top 10 or 15 greatest quarterbacks of all time. Aaron Rodgers has a championship.

Aaron Rodgers also has four MVPs. When you look at Eli Manning's career, I do believe Eli Manning is a hall of Famer, but others will argue that he's not. And Eli Manning, who's like the nicest guy in the world is going to turn out to be very polarizing when he's up for the hall of fame, because the facts with Eli Manning's career is this.

He was a very good regular season player. His moments in the postseason, though, is what made him a hall of Famer. And if Eli Manning didn't have two Super Bowl championships, if he didn't have one Super Bowl championship, we wouldn't say Eli Manning is a hall of Famer because Eli in his career only made the Pro Bowl four times. But you can't tell the story of the NFL without Eli Manning because the greatest dynasty in the history of the sport, which ran the NFL for 20 years, one of their biggest problem, not one of their biggest problem was defeating the Giants because Brady and Belichick have three Super Bowl losses. One came when Bill Belichick was stubborn and wouldn't play Malcolm Butler and Tom Brady threw five hundred and five yards and they lost to the Eagles. But the two that are mainly highlighted nationally, when the Patriots were undefeated, 18 and 0, they suffered one big giant loss. And then a few years later, there was a rematch and the Giants beat them again. And Eli Manning in those runs, it wasn't just two good games.

He played some great games in Dallas, in Green Bay, at the Frozen Tundra. And you look at those two Super Bowls, there's that iconic fortuitous play where he throws the ball and escapes somehow, I don't know, and hits Tyree and Tyree catches it with this helmet. But a few years later, he made one of the greatest throws we've ever seen in a Super Bowl when he fired that ball down the left sideline to Mario Manningham. Everyone talks about the catch. The throw was impeccable by Eli Manning.

So let me be clear here. When I say I'd rather have the career of Aaron Rodgers than Eli Manning, this isn't, oh, Zach's just crapping on Eli Manning because he beat his team twice. I've had Eli on the show.

We've joked about the moment. I actually enjoy Eli Manning now. For years, I hated his guts because he beat my team twice. And this is an unpopular take amongst Patriot fans, but I'll say it here. I'm actually more annoyed about the second Super Bowl loss to the Giants in the first one. And the reason why I say that is in the first one, they just got beat the Giants were the better team. In the second one, it seemed like the Patriots choked that game with the Welker drop, how many times you had the Deion Branch drop. It seemed like the Patriots were in control, especially there was a play early on the second half where Patrick Chung laid out a Giants receiver, a tight end, and the Pats were up, I think double digits or nine points. And at that moment, it felt like they were going to win the game, even though the game was far from over. But I look at these two careers and I know it's simple and just easy from afar to say, Zach, I'd rather have two rings than one.

Isn't this why you play the game? But when you go into the Hall of Fame, because everyone, when you say Hall of Fame, what do you say? All time great. There's different sectors of being an all time great.

There's getting a jacket and then there's being an immortal. When we talk about some of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play this game, no one ever mentions Eli Manning. People will mention the skill set of Aaron Rodgers in that conversation. Aaron Rodgers is a top 10, top 15 quarterback of all time.

Eli Manning is not. Eli will be a Hall of Famer. Eli has two enormous Super Ball victories and two great playoff runs. And statistically, in the regular season, his numbers will be good enough to get into the Hall of Fame. But he's not getting into the Hall of Fame because of his regular season play.

He's getting into the Hall of Fame because of what he did in two Super Bowl runs. Aaron Rodgers is in a different conversation than Eli Manning. Aaron Rodgers, from a skill set standpoint, is one of the fundamentally greatest quarterbacks to ever play. But you could also acknowledge that when Aaron Rodgers does retire, even though he is an all time great, and even though he's a top 10, top 15 quarterback of all time, you will look back at the career of Aaron Rodgers and go, huh, should have won more. Should have got more than won Super Bowl. But no one will ever tell you Eli Manning is better than Aaron Rodgers.

Maybe the only way they would say it is in the postseason. But for the overall career, it's not even debatable. Aaron Rodgers, four MVPs, and a Super Bowl championship with the Super Bowl MVP. I'd rather have that career than Eli Manning, who made four Pro Bowls and won two Super Bowls. And I'm not taking anything away from what Eli did. Eli deserves to be in the Hall.

Eli deserves to be celebrated. Eli is a part of the history of the NFL. But no one's talking about Eli as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. People talk about Aaron Rodgers that way.

And if people disagree, I'll give you just one analogy in a second. But let me just go around the room because I gave you my opinion for 10 minutes, where when it's two Super Bowls compared to one, it doesn't just mean that you always take the two over the one. Rodgers was the better player. Rodgers won four MVPs. Rodgers had a great regular season career. I personally would rather have the career of Aaron Rodgers. But just because I feel that way doesn't mean that others feel that way. And this is actually a poll question today. And you can find it at Zach Geld.

And you can also find it on our Twitter account, INF Sports Net. CJ Schrau would rather have Eli Manning's career over Aaron Rodgers. Whose career would you rather have? I'm stunned by these results. 66.9% say Eli Manning right now in the early returns. 33.1% say Aaron Rodgers. Let me get a quick little take from Samter and a quick little take from Carlos Ortiz. We'll start with Samter.

Whose career would you rather have? Is it Eli Manning or is it Aaron Rodgers? And Samter, let me just preface this because I don't know which way Samter's going to go on this. Samter can't stand Aaron Rodgers. Samter is like the leader of hating Aaron Rodgers the last few years.

So Samter, let me hear which way you're going to go on this. A thousand times over and over and over again Aaron Rodgers over Eli Manning. I'm surprised by that. Eli Manning was a mediocre career quarterback who put up big stats in a past happy era and had two really impressive runs. Great runs. All-time great runs. Two all-time great runs over the course of a 15-year career or those 11 whatever years outside of those two years, he did basically nothing.

I can't say nothing. That's a little extreme. I mean, he was a good quarterback in the regular season. He was never, okay, I would never.

Some giant fans are ready to give up on at one point. I never would have ranked him at any point in his career a top five quarterback in the league at any point. That's fair. Never an Aaron Rodgers. He also played in an era, which it helps the Rodgers argument when I say this and I get it and I'm making the Rodgers argument. He also played in an era where there was a guy by the name of Tom Brady. His brother paid a Manning. You had Drew Brees, like just for starters, obviously, and Patrick Mahomes, right? Yeah. Towards the end.

Wasn't around from the homes towards the end. Well, I mean, Aaron Rodgers won what? Two MVPs while Mahomes is around three MVPs with Mahomes in the league. Um, Oh yeah.

Because it was right. He won two right after they drafted Jordan love. Yeah. So at the end of the day, Aaron Rodgers has the exact same contemporaries as Eli Manning. He just did better and multiple times you would have claimed that Aaron Rodgers was the best quarterback in the NFL, whether it was up against Brady. Those people are stupid.

Yeah. Those people are idiots, but just Brady haters, uh, whether it was Mahomes or Brady or Manning, Aaron Rodgers was, if not one, number two, best quarterback in the NFL. Uh, and Eli Manning was never even a top five guy.

He just had two really impressive playoff runs, four game stretches. It wasn't like those teams were like 15 and one and then one Superbowls. They were like nine and seven, both times snuck into the playoffs. They had to, you know, sneak into the playoffs basically both times.

I think it's not fair the way that you're necessary. I'm not that far off with you, but I'll give you a little bit like 2014 and 2015. He had really damn good seasons. He sure did. And there were six, six and 10, both those years, but still individually, he did his job. Those years.

Sure. He has a career record of 117 and 117. It's kind of crazy. Great quarterbacks are not 500 quarterbacks, but he is a hall of Famer. You would agree only because of those two runs.

That's it. Otherwise he's not even in the conversation. All right, now let me go to Carlos, who is a giant sycophant. I'm surprised. I thought Sam, you, you say anyone or Rogers. I always just assume Sam, there's going to go the other person.

So I'm a little startled by that. I'm like Steven A. Smith. I'm, I'm left speechless right now, but Carlos with a K, would you rather have the career lifelong giant fan Carlos with a K, would you rather have the career of Eli Manning around Rogers? And as a giant sycophant, I know first fact that Eli Manning was never statistically a top 10 quarterback when he played top 10, never, not once.

And even in his best season, we even had a season where they won 12 games. That being said, I am 1 million percent taking Eli Manning's career over Aaron Rogers. Infatically 8,000 times on Sunday will I take it because Aaron Rogers memorable moment was what third and long to Jennings, his best high highlight moment, winning a super bowl.

Sure. Listen, his highlight moment cannot hold a candle to any of Eli's top five moments. Eli's moments. I don't know about top five. That's not so much.

Maybe two. Manningham, Tyree. I mean, you, you've listed everything off for us. The 99 yard touchdown pass to Victor Cruz. Right? That was Victor Cruz, right? It was Victor Cruz. I was, and he beat the real Reavis. I was in the building for that.

Oh yeah. So Eli's moments like, yes, his career overall was left, left you wondering that blah, you know, it was whatever. Giants fans were ready to get rid of him his last three years. Granted, he had no offensive line. His singular moments though, transcended football.

It's ingrained in pop culture. Aaron Rogers has the body of work that, yeah, he's a surefire hall of famer, but there was nothing about his career that I can point back to that. I don't know if they transcended football, just put a major dent in the Patriot diamond. He's spitting with Superfire on YouTube. Superfire knows about Eli Manningham's highlight moments. Like that's how we determine if someone transcends football.

I mean, Superfire, top five that are alive. But like, Odell did an interview with Lil Wayne. Did he transcend football? Actually OBJ kind of transcended. Yeah. Yeah.

The one that they catch. OBJ was bigger than life. If he continued along his trajectory. But he did it. Right.

And we lost that game. All right. So let me just ask you this, Carlos, because you're, you're a pretty savvy baseball fan. Sure. And I've been to a baseball game with you. Let me just entertain me here.

Just give me the answer. Would you rather be Greg Maddux or would you rather be Curt Schilling? I'll be Schilling. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll trust me.

I know. Personality aside. No, no, I'm not talking about personality because Schilling says a lot. I used to have Schilling on my radio shows a ton of times.

He was a great guest. Schilling has talked himself out of the hall of fame, but he's one of the greatest post-season pitchers of all time. But Schilling kind of like Eli Manning, where he was a good regular season pitcher as Eli was a good quarterback. He was great Schilling, one of the greatest post-season pitchers ever. And Eli is a phenomenal post-season quarterback. But Maddux having one ring, Maddux with all the Cy Youngs is an immortal. Schilling isn't an immortal.

And it's the same thing here where Rogers isn't immortal, but Eli Manning isn't. Love Maddux. I really do. Former cup. I love Greg Maddux. That bloody sock is more memorable than anything that Maddux has done in his career.

Okay, let me ask you this. Randy Johnson or Madison Bumgarner? Oh, come on. To me, it's Randy Johnson. And Randy Johnson here would be the Aaron Rogers and Madison Bumgarner would be the Eli Manning. He has three championships Bumgarner. All time great post-season pitchers, regular season numbers are kind of like Eli Manning's. So that's what makes it interesting here because you say Eli over Rogers. Fine.

You're entitled to that. I go Rogers over Eli. But then we go Maddux or Schilling.

You said Schilling. I'd go Maddux. And then Randy Johnson or Madison Bumgarner, you go Johnson. And I go Randy Johnson as well.

So that's what we'll throw out there. Whose career would you rather have? Is it Aaron Rogers or Eli Manning? Love to hear from you. 855-212-4227.

855-212-4227. When we come on back, yay, yay, yay, we'll get into the comments of Angel Reese. TemptCheck. What kind of summer are we having this year? A family road trip summer? A beach bump summer?

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Hyundai, there's joy in every journey. I think this is the first and last time this song will ever be used on our network. This is how you know Carlos with a K is running the board today. Alrighty, you got to fade this out because this is going to give me a headache if I'm just being 100% honest and I have no aspirin, I have no Advil with me or Tylenol.

So I will need some drugs if you're going to continue to play that song. Now, we talked a lot about Kaitlyn Clark and the Kennedy Carter incident yesterday to just quickly give you like a brief minute recap on it. The foul that occurred wasn't the most egregious thing I've ever seen.

It did cross a line. And my biggest gripe with the whole thing is Kennedy Carter afterwards not saying anything and then going on threads and basically just saying, oh, well, all Kaitlyn Clark does is shoot three pointers, which is silly to me because if you watch Kaitlyn Clark's game, not only does she shoot three pointers, she's also an incredible passer. And oh yeah, by the way, she has brought an incredible amount of eyeballs to your television sets and also a tremendous amount of people into the arena.

And oh yeah, by the way, got everyone charter flights. So Kaitlyn Clark has done an unprecedented amount for the WNBA. And not only that, she's the biggest draw in the sport and it's not even close. So I understand the jealousy and the hatred that comes with the whole Kaitlyn Clark topic. I just don't like the way that it's being covered. Like when Sonny Houston said on The View, oh, a big reason for our popularity is our pretty privilege.

Like what are we doing? I have never watched Kaitlyn Clark and said the reason I'm tuning in is because she's pretty or tall. So that's just ridiculous. And Kaitlyn Clark has become polarizing when in reality, she shouldn't be polarizing and she should be universally appreciated, applauded, and beloved. Because she has done wonders and she has done wonders for the sport of women's basketball. So this story isn't going anywhere. And yesterday Kennedy Carter and Angel Reese did a press conference together. Let's play Kennedy Carter first and then we'll tie this up with Angel Reese on the back end.

Here is Kennedy Carter saying she has no regrets on the incident with Kaitlyn Clark. I think at the end of the day, I'm a competitor. Now that it's another day, I've had an off day. Now I can answer your questions and I can let you know how I really feel about things. But I'm a competitor and I'm going to compete no matter who you are and no matter who's in front of me.

So that's just what it was. Heat of the moment play. We're getting at it. We're going back and forth.

This basketball, it's all hoops. After we finish the game, it's all love. Do you have any regrets on how it happened and everything that's happened since then? I don't have any regrets with anything. I'm going to compete and play 100% hard no matter who it is, like I said, or who we're playing. No, no, I don't have any regrets.

So here's the problem. Kennedy Carter saying, hey, after the game, it's all love. Well, it's not all love from you. Because after the game, after you had time to cool down, you went to threads and you said, all Kaitlyn Clark does is shoot threes. What else does she do? So that doesn't seem like someone that once the game ends has all love for Kaitlyn Clark. And this is the part of sports that annoys me. If you want to be a villain, embrace being a villain.

Don't try to say you don't hate someone or you don't dislike someone and it's all love when your actions don't show that. You know, what she did was a tough foul. It's not the first time it will happen. It's not the last. I'm not even freaking out over that.

I was more upset that Kaitlyn Clark's teammates didn't come rushing toward defense. But after the game, when you get more attention and there's more media coverage, there's more people caring about your sport. You got to act like a professional. And you can't give a no answer to the media over something that's that controversial. And if you're going to give a no answer. All right. That's your right. You're allowed to do it. At least you showed up to the press conference.

But if you're going to give a no answer, don't run on social media a few hours later and trash the person that you gave a no answer to and then say, oh, it's actually all good between everyone. So here is Angel Reese. She went out of her way to make it known that the growth of women's basketball is not just about Kaitlyn Clark. It all started from the national championship game.

And I've been dealing with this for two years now and understanding like, yeah, negative things have probably been said about me. But honestly, I'll take that because look where women's basketball is. People are talking about women's basketball. You never would think that we talk about women's basketball.

People are pulling up to games. We got celebrities coming to games, sold out arenas, like just because of one single game. And just looking at that, like, I'll take that role. I'll take the bad guy role and I'll continue to take that on and be that for my teammates. And if I want to be that, and I know I'll go down in history, I'll look back in 20 years and be like, yeah, the reason why we watch women's basketball is not just because of one person. It's because of me too.

And I want y'all to realize that. So here's my problem with Angel Reese. She keeps on saying she'll take the villain role. She'll take the bad guy role. But then time and time again, she complains about having to take that role. And this is just the way I feel. I can't speak for all.

And there's many different people with many different opinions. When I tune into women's basketball, it's because of Kaitlyn Clark. Now, when I'm there, do you discover other players that are really awesome? Like Paige Becker's before the injury, she was awesome. Juju Watkins at USC, awesome. If Kaitlyn Clark didn't go off, I probably wouldn't know much about Juju Watkins. And Angel Reese is definitely a part of this story. Angel Reese is fun to watch at a basketball court. But the reason why I'm tuning in is because I've never seen anything like Kaitlyn Clark in the women's game.

It doesn't mean that there aren't people that have won more and are more accomplished because there's a ton. But what Kaitlyn Clark has done is she is the female version of Steph Curry. And I was blown away when I first time I saw her play by the range she has shooting three point shots, her passing. And you never hear Kaitlyn Clark ever complain. And she gets covered like no other. And she always says the right thing.

And her passion and her desire is really fun to watch. But if you need some numbers here, and this is why I believe people are tuning in for Kaitlyn Clark, just the WNBA draft. It did this past year, 2.45 million. Do you think it did 2.45 million because Angel Reese was part of WNBA draft?

No, it was because Kaitlyn Clark. 2.45 million. The second highest rated ever WNBA draft was when Diana Taurasi went number one overall 20 something years ago.

That was at 601,000. Indiana, by far and away, has the highest attendance in the league. Who plays there? Kaitlyn Clark. Kaitlyn Clark's professional regular season debut May 14th at the Connecticut Sun drew 2.12 million viewers on ESPN 2. That was the most for a WNBA game since there was one on NBC in 2001 that drew 2.4 million. Now, I'm not an expert in ION, but Kathy Connors tweeted out Kaitlyn Clark's six career WNBA regular season game tipped off the 10 p.m. Eastern on ION and drew an average of 724,000 viewers.

The 2023 WNBA finals featuring the league's Super Team matchup of the Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces drew an average viewership of 728,000 viewers on ABC and ESPN. Kaitlyn Clark is the draw. When you tune in, you find a lot of other really special players. But the reason why I'm tuning in is because of Kaitlyn Clark and what she has done for the sport is unprecedented. And it's time that more and more people that are hating on her start celebrating her because the game of women's basketball would not be in this spot if it wasn't for Kaitlyn Clark.

And it would have grown to this popularity. We have been on this network for a long time. This year and going back to last year is the most we've ever talked about women's college basketball or women's basketball period.

Because Kaitlyn Clark has taken it to a different level of notoriety and fame. It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We will take a time out when we come on back. We go from the basketball court to the ice. Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup final. You have the Oilers going up against the Florida Panthers. The always exuberant Jack Michaels, the voice of the Edmonton Oilers, will join us next.

Update time first. Here he is, the act man, Rich Ackerman. Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We should be joined by the voice of the Oilers, Jack Michaels coming up momentarily. Robert Horry is going to stop by at the top of the hour as well. You've all seen that video by now of the very good-looking Oilers fan who was showing her hooters to a bunch of fans in attendance.

It hit me last night and that's an interesting segue and I saw a laugh from Carlos Ortiz. But that video popped up on my timeline once again and I'm reading an article about it because everyone's trying to find out who this lady is. Remember when the airplane lady went off and then they eventually found out who she was and she ended up doing some content with Barstool, I guess she lives in Dallas or something like that they identified her as?

No one has been able to figure out who this lady is and I'm reading an article last night and it said that this video went viral in game five and this video is from game five. Now being the astute hockey observer that I am, game five was in Dallas. It was not in Edmonton. When you watch the video and there's a lot of reasons to get distracted by the content of the video where most people I acknowledge will not realize this, it looks like it's in the Oilers stadium and it's at an Oilers home game. So Carlos has done this before where he's gone to a watch party when the Rangers on the road he'll go to Madison Square Garden and watch the Rangers, but if that happened at a watch party, man, I would never go to a watch party. I would contemplate going to an Oilers watch party if that's the scene and that's what you see over and over again. But we still have not found out who the lady was that was flashing the crowd and that has been a viral video and that is a video on Twitter I saw did 38 million views. That is just wild, wild, wild stuff.

So no one investigates those types of things like I do and that's what I thought I have brought to the conversation today. We're going to get to Jack Michaels in just a second. He was he was as exuberant as I've ever heard him and he's always exuberant as the Oilers have punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final. They will go up against a Florida Panthers team who I believe is the best team in hockey.

I said that going into the Stanley Cup playoffs and we saw what the Florida Panthers were able to do as they just suffocated our Temi Panarin, Chris Kreider and Mika Zbenijad. So this should be a very fun Stanley Cup Final and we welcome in the voice of the Oilers. He of course is Jack Michaels who's probably still on cloud nine as the Oilers are in the Stanley Cup Final. Jack appreciate the time. How you been?

I've been great. It's a great time in the city as you can imagine. Nowhere does it mean more than in the city of champions so to speak and Edmonton's hungry for its first Stanley Cup since you and I were in grade school. We heard your exuberance.

It was unbelievable your call of the final minute and I say whenever you hear Jack Michaels it sounds like it's the Stanley Cup Final every time so to punch the ticket to the Stanley Cup Final was awesome to hear your voice and your elation but how do you describe that environment you were in and how you just process it a few days later? Well I mean obviously you're kind of in the moment when it's happening. You're just trying to be a guide dog for the people who can't be there when you're on the radio in particular. You're just trying to capture the vibe right. You're trying to make it feel for your audience that you know probably 10 times the people that are actually able to work their way into the building.

You want to bring them inside a little bit. You want to make them feel like they're sitting next to you but yeah afterwards you realize how much it means to the city. I mean the one thing you get from living in Edmonton is you know hockey is not you know a niche market inside the city.

It's what they it's what they rally around. The city is in a different sort of mood when the Edmonton Oilers are making a playoff run. It's a vibe unlike any other in the National Hockey League and you know again it's they're not part of the sporting landscape. They are the sporting landscape and it's a special opportunity to kind of be part of that. Now I've never been to an Oilers game. I would love to go to an Oilers game but living in here in New York I just haven't made the trip yet. When you do go to the game though do you always get that one beautiful woman who was showing you know her hooters off let's just say to everyone that video since has gone viral. Is that like a normal thing at Edmonton with hockey? Boy I thought you were going to come up with a better euphemism than that.

That was outstanding. No I you know and quite frankly you know I mean you know when someone asks me well you know what where do I find that I could probably give him a give him a couple of hints. I have seen it but no that's not that's not typical but you know it's it's it just goes to show you that that Edmonton you know has other interests in life than than just hockey and and they can be just as rowdy as as the people in Vegas last year on their way to a Stanley Cup.

Last thing I'll ask you about this and maybe it's just because I'm the biggest loser on the planet. Everyone if you're asking me do I have a way to get her on your show yeah you know you you'd have to give me a few days I I'd have to I'd have to track that down I Zach I already I'm picking up a certain vibe that that might be your you know your landing point at some point. She's definitely my type I'll be the first one to say it but but here's what I'm saying is I see that video everyone focuses on two big things I'm looking at it it looks like it's in Edmonton that video went viral after game five. Game five was in Dallas so if that was just at a watch party for the Oilers that's the craziest thing I've ever seen in sports. Yeah well I mean you know I guess you and I maybe we didn't go to the same concerts I I remember Def Leppard in the round you know in the late 1980s. That doesn't happen at Springsteen I'll tell you that.

Yeah well maybe maybe not at Springsteen. Motley Crue yes maybe Springsteen no but yeah no it's that's the thing about the city of Edmonton is is it is a uh it's a special place they really get geeked up for watch parties I mean anything involving the Edmonton Oilers and at this stage of the game especially with the weather turning nice uh perhaps maybe you know maybe that maybe that's the reason behind it maybe it's a little humid. Jack Michael's here with us so nationally everyone's going to talk about Connor McDavid I'm running out of adjectives to describe him I don't want to sell Leon Draisaitl short because we all know how great he is he's just the number the second best player in this team but he's still a top five player in the league for the NHL to get McDavid and Draisaitl finally in a Stanley Cup final just what do you think it means for the league? I think it's huge I think I think the National Hockey League and any league for that matter I mean think about when you and I were little kids you know they wanted Michael Jordan in the final they wanted Marilyn Bue in the final you know and and they had to wait I mean it it doesn't come overnight and uh LeBron James another one you know you you want your marquee players to eventually play on the biggest stage and I think you know the time is right both McDavid and Draisaitl are entering their later 20s both have absolute complete games both are averaging nearly two points a game in the playoffs they're at their height of their powers and if it's going to happen for Edmonton it looks like it you know it might happen this year and and I think that's exciting for for the league and you know for some of the markets where hockey is a niche sport to have a guy like Connor McDavid it can elevate the sport in that market because people get a real glimpse you know for the first time at how good this guy is I mean I'm not naive I'm from the east coast you know a lot of people are still going to bed when the Oilers games are maybe late in the first period or early in the second period and I get that and that's why this opportunity is so unique you know to have Connor McDavid in prime time on the east coast on the game's biggest stage. Talking to Jack Michaels the voice of the Oilers and I remember a few years ago you had St. Louis make a change in season but Ruby was on staff he took over the Oilers made a change in season I always knew Chris Knoblauch was going to be a head coach being a ranger fan I didn't think it was going to happen though getting hired to another team in season what is Knoblauch brought to this team to turn them around and get them to the Stanley Cup final? Well you've seen his press conferences right so he's the same guy I mean he he is that guy reminds me of Bjorn Borg who was once I believe recorded as having a heart rate of 35 right after he played a Wimbledon final and that's exactly what Edmonton needed Zach you're in New York you know the market so when there's huge expectations and you're sitting at two nine and one you know you know the Mets lately I mean you cover these teams you're in the fish bowl so you know what I'm talking about that's what it's like in Edmonton and they needed a calming presence like a Chris Knoblauch to come in I think of the Yankees in 78 when they brought in Bob Lemon and and they had Billy Martin it was a combustible mix and Bob Lemon came in and just calmed the waters and they slowly chipped away at that huge lead Boston had that's what Chris Knoblauch did for this year's Edmonton Oilers he said look guys there's 70 games to go in the season all you got to do is win five of your next eight five of your next eight five of your next eight the rest of the year you'll be in the playoffs and when you break the picture into much smaller components like that and just say look we got the tools Stuart Skinner you're our starting goaltender we're sending Jack Campbell to the minors we're taking 23 different penalty combinations you're the same six guys you're going over we're gonna have three different combinations from this point forward the other guys you know what your roles are I'm gonna play in those roles and you'll either play your way out of this or we will have a miserable season and just to chip away at that and just to be calm I don't know whether you saw the clip of his audio during game seven of the second round against Vancouver Edmonton coughed up a three nothing lead it was three two all of a sudden with four and a half minutes to go he called a timeout called a timeout brought hey we've been here before we'll be fine finish the game they didn't give up a shot on net the rest of the way that's the kind of calm I think Edmonton needed sorely at that point an even keeled guy and you know what Chris Knoblock came in and did exactly what he had to do is reinstill confidence in a club that was a pre-season cub favorite and gave them the requisite time to kind of play their way out of it without making wholesale changes without pulling the trigger on some big trade it was not a team that needed a guy to kick and scream it was a team that it was it needed a guy to basically say guys we're fine we'll be okay there's 70 games to go chill out last moment Jack Michaels hey I saw this Florida Panthers team in person many times recently and then throughout the year Bennett Barkov you got Bobrovsky Kachuk they're just phenomenal how does Edmonton beat them because pound for pound I do think the Panthers are the best team in the league well you can make the argument that Florida won the eastern conference final six games to none I mean it was I you know I think the Rangers might have had even terms maybe one out of six if it wasn't for Igor they would have got swept let's just be real exactly they're they're loaded and they're loaded for bear the biggest thing Edmonton has to do is forget all stuff post whistle they cannot get involved in a rugged you know face washing you know gesticulating forearms to the jaw type of game the one thing I'll say is a couple years ago Evander Kane got in Matthew Kachuk's grill a little bit and rendered him ineffective in a series against Calgary and Edmonton won that series in five games they've got guys that can get involved in that stuff but I still think Edmonton wants to concentrate its play between the whistles because Florida thrives on chaos chaos you know between the whistles after the whistles they're a team that can beat you any which way you want it Edmonton wants Florida have to beat them man-on-man skill wise that's what the Oilers want because Leon Draisettl said it best before game five of the Dallas series deep down we know that our best is better than anyone else's so let's get to our best game and stay there for longer than he was talking about Dallas but that'll be the key against Florida because you're absolutely right this is a deep Florida team this is going to be by far the toughest series Edmonton will play but a lot of people picked Dallas a lot of people thought the stars had advantages in goaltending and depth and that proved to be inaccurate Stuart Skinner stepped up and he better step up in this series because Bobrovsky has really turned the page in the last couple years think about it Zach prior to two years ago Bobrovsky had a terrible postseason reputation and he's really risen to the floor so the game that the Oilers played in game five of the Dallas series to take a 3-2 series lead was the best one I've ever seen them play ever in 14 years of covering the team they won the game three to one they've got to play that game at least three times in this series to beat Florida he's Jack Michaels the voice of the Oilers Jack I know you will enjoy this thanks so much for giving us a few minutes today Zach I appreciate it take care of yourself you got it will do there he is Jack Michaels tremendous he is sensational and I love his energy and also his knowledge we'll go from Jack Michaels to Robert Horry as we'll go from the pucks to the NBA world we return in five minutes right here on the Zach Gelb show okay picture this it's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you I can waste another weekend doing the same old whatever or I can conquer it I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road any road the steeper the better because my all-new Santa Fe is available with h-track all-wheel drive so I can hit the trail without a worry in the world heck with three rows and best-in-class rear cargo space I can pack the whole family in with all our gear we've got available dual wireless charging for our phone so we'll never lose touch with 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