The Ray & Dregs Hockey Podcast - Coming Soon...

00:00:02 Speaker 1: well, the hockey world obviously needs another podcast, But hold on. This is not just another podcast. This podcasts will be edgy, opinionated. We're going to inform you were often going to piss you off. But I assure you this over the course of the upcoming NHL season, the stories the experiences shared here will also entertain you. There won't be many experiences. We won't discuss either personal or professional. My name is Darren Gregor, and I'm pleased and very proud to partner with my good pal and colleague Ray Ferraro's Be Launched the Ray and drinks podcast from Ugo In partnership with TSN Array. You and I go back a long time back to your sometimes early days whose kid news a veteran NHL player, means a cub reporter always afraid to make eye contact with you and scrums. Now here we are, and I feel a week to week we're gonna have a lot to say. I know you're going to have a lot to say, but collectively I think that we're gonna have a lot to say. Would you agree? 00:01:01 Speaker 2: There's lots to say Always. There's lots of stuff that's going on. I like to think of myself as not anywhere near as certainly as you and others might make out from my playing days. You've got to remember, when your plan 00:01:17 Speaker 2: you view the guys that are coming in like you. You're a young guy and I'm like this guy needs something from me that I don't want to give him. So I had my guard up for your roughly 18. 00:01:29 Speaker 2: So now it's different and there's a lot of cool things were going to stumble across in this. I know for sure you've got great contacts. You have certainly contacts that most of us don't get too. Will get a lot of guests on lot of president players, a lot of former players newsmakers in the game. And we're gonna have some fun because I would say for what the people don't know about you, you come across is like this business like Darren Dreger, and you know Darren Dreger, the Insider. They probably don't know how much you enjoy to screw around. 00:02:00 Speaker 2: They don't know the the full picture of drinks, and I think that will be one of the things that will come out of this. 00:02:05 Speaker 1: Yeah, and then, look, I mean, you and I have shared so many travel experiences together for Episode zero. We're not going to get into a lot of that, but I feel like we'd be remiss if we didn't look at your immediate future. You're poised to go to Newfoundland, where the Toronto Maple Leafs they're going through training camp, et cetera, And that's not an easy truck. And and look, you don't have me. You don't have Gordon Miller. Do you have anyone traveling with you who is going to get you from Vancouver to Newfoundland because I'm deeply concerned? 00:02:36 Speaker 2: You should be. I am a follower on the road, like when we go to the world championships of the World Juniors. Whatever gored books 00:02:43 Speaker 2: I follow, I don't really care where we go. I don't care about the flight times. I can't really function by myself and gored takes care of it, or you have my schedule at the finals or at the World championships and I and I get a little confused. I will say this. When we got our first game, our first exhibition games got emailed out to us to do. 00:03:04 Speaker 2: I see the first games in St Johns, which is great except I live in Vancouver. 00:03:10 Speaker 2: There is no short way from Vancouver to St John's. And I said to our boss, Is there no games on the moon that I would do? 00:03:18 Speaker 2: And he said, You're gonna love it, Get on the plane and get there So we're gonna be there for a couple of days. I've never been to Newfoundland. I'm you know, everybody says, Oh, you're gonna love it So we'll get there. We'll see what the Leafs air up to its early in camp. I think there's a 72% chance I'll get there on time 00:03:32 Speaker 1: now. Have you ever been screeched? Have you kissed the cod? Have you taken a shot of? I think it's a run. I don't know what it is. 00:03:39 Speaker 2: No, it's okay. So what is that? Because our boss said they'll be screech and I don't even know what he's talking about. I went, Ha ha ha, but I don't know what he's talking about. 00:03:48 Speaker 1: The I lookit I did this years ago to curling event in a former life I used to curl and cover curling, the briar, the world championships, all of that, and I got sucked into one of these things, but he was on stage. They literally bring you up. You have to where? The rain hat. And I'm not doing a justice, whatever that is. And I look all of our new fi fans, We love you. We love you. You're great hockey people. But I had to wear the hat. I had to kiss this rotten, stinky salted call. And then I had to follow it up with a shot of screech. Okay, by 00:04:25 Speaker 2: the second, you're you are stating second by second of that, I will not do 00:04:31 Speaker 1: so. 00:04:32 Speaker 1: That's why you're a good friend. I don't telling you, but you got to be careful because they're certain parts of the world. We have to embrace the culture and you cannot gets respect the culture. I 00:04:43 Speaker 2: feel like you're setting me up here. Drinks. I really do. 00:04:45 Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I would say don't make the mistake of doing it like a shot of tequila. Sip it and you probably won't do a second. 00:04:53 Speaker 2: So now I know you're setting me up because this is raid up your alley. I I will say this is this is an example of the dragger being a pain in the ass thing. 00:05:05 Speaker 2: If you ever leave your phone unattended, drags will grab it, scroll through your contacts randomly pick a contact out somebody he doesn't know and send attacks. I need to talk to you. 00:05:17 Speaker 2: So the person he sends it to might be somebody you've not spoken to in 15 years. And they think there's something seriously, they got to get back to you and you have no idea what's going on 00:05:27 Speaker 2: except dragger has done this. Now, this is what I feel like you're doing to me in Newfoundland, 00:05:31 Speaker 1: huh? Well, we'll see. And that will be part of our 00:05:36 Speaker 1: next episode, if you will, of the rain dregs podcast, you are going to cover the Toronto Maple Leafs. And unless something dramatic happens and breaking news happens, Metsminor isn't going to be there. And I know that you you do your best. But following on social media, it's because you're multifaceted. You're not just immersed in hockey. That's pretty obvious. You're a huge baseball fan. You're a huge sports fan in general. I don't know if you noticed earlier this week I was trending on 00:06:03 Speaker 2: Twitter head and I had a good idea what it was for 00:06:06 Speaker 1: right. Well, apparently I was trending last week as well. And and that speaks to the power of the station and the angst over Mitch Marner and his contract stalemate. Ah, I mean, we know part of the the rain dregs podcast. Pray and I know you're a big supporter of this is going to be to make sure that there is a fan interaction. Make sure that hockey fans globally, you know, not just in Canada but globally have a conduit to reach out to us with questions we can answer. And we're big supporters of that. But on occasion, this fan base, the underbelly of a fan base, does kind of wind me up a little bit. And you, too. But that's part of the fun, right? That's part of what we're going to embrace here on the rain drink spot. 00:06:55 Speaker 2: Well, the reason that he's that we have forums like we do the reason that the number of people watch the games or listen to our radio hits are gonna listen to our podcast is because we're gonna have an opinion, but it's because they love whatever their team is. I read an unbelievable story today. It was a great story on Evgeni Malkin, written by Rob Rossi on the athletic, and he spoke about Malkin, and the tough season that he went through last year was reading the comments underneath that it was a great article, well researched and really, really well put together, and I'm reading underneath. And some of the comments are I'm not a pens fan. But that was a good story, like, What does it matter if you're a pens fan or not? It's either a good story or it's not yet. The passion that the people have for their team means that sometimes they can't see anything outside of the bubble of their own team, and I get it. I'm a Red Sox fan. I hope the Yankees lose 150 games every year. They never do. But no, but the courts. Last year, Red Sox won the World Series. It was the best. I loved it, so I get where the fans come from. I get their angst about Marner and his contract. I mean, we've been talking about it for over a year, but I will say this is tied to in some form or fashion that last year into December, William the Lander was a daily topic. And had William Nylander signed in October, nobody would be really too worried or too concerned that the same scenario is gonna play itself out, over and over again. And they're gonna hear us talk about a week after week after week of martyr goes to Switzerland. You think we're not gonna be talking about him? Of course we are. If these other eight r f A's don't sign, we're all gonna be talking about a week after week after week. And let's be honest, that part of hockey sucks. Everybody wants to talk about the games. Nobody wants to talk about whether guys making enough for not enough for walking into free agency or, God forbid, another c b A negotiation. 00:08:49 Speaker 1: Well, I gotta tell you, I i to root love the Rob Rossi conversation with Guinea milk and and the candor of Malcolm and him taking ownership responsibility for a bad season last year. I mean, I was intrigued by his full disclosure that there are a lot of times where he until castle didn't get a lot. There were a lot of conversations and disagreements that he had would like Sullivan, the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. You know about his role about his time on ice, about the fact that he wasn't on the ice at the end of games in certain situations and and all of that. And so I reached out to Jimmy Rather for the general manager of the Penguins earlier rate. And I said, Man, does it sound like Gino Malkin is ready? And I wasn't sure what I was going to get back from Rutherford. I mean, I guess obviously the stock answer would be, Yeah, we're thrilled about it, but you never know. I mean, Gino is a veteran player. I thought, Well, maybe he'll come. You know, Rutherford that is, will come forward and say, Well, he better be something along those lines, not ah. He fully acknowledged that they firmly believe that Mountain is going to return to form. And if that's the case and the Pittsburgh Penguins aren't going to have nearly as a Bismol a season this year, they had last year. 00:10:05 Speaker 2: Well, if you know, without Castle, you know that that's clearly a different team, By the way he looked pretty fantastic in Hiss, Arizona press conference. I'm like, man, he looks like in shape fish, which is astounding because he's such a amazing score. But if Malkin is like he appears to be depends, I look. I think of them as a different E. If he's a 40 goal of Ghani Malkin, that means the guys around him are better players as well. Two things stood out for me and that in the article, like above all one, was the fact that, you know his wife and child were, you know, they went back to Russia. She had some work and they were in Florida and how lonely he was. That was number one, and we would all be the same. And number two is. I never quite get my head around until I read it like this. What a difficulty. The languages you know. He's been here 13 14 years, and there were times he's uncomfortable still in his English, and you can say, Well, yeah, he should have learned it better. But drop yourself is an 18 year old in the middle of Moscow and start learning Russian and see how long it is toe. We're comfortable I wish I would have known that as a player because we would say all the time, like when the Finns would go for dinner, we'd be like Those guys only want to talk to themselves on the wonder they do, because they don't understand what the hell's going on. Yeah, I think today's thought processes Maur accepting of those guys. But it's crazy that somebody is accomplished. Somebody who's gonna be a Hall of Famer, one of the greatest players of their generation, still struggles with it, and it's a problem for him. And that really stood out to me. 00:11:41 Speaker 1: And I also like the fact that that Crosby came forward and said, Look, there's more than one untouchable, you know, it's It's me and it's Malkin. Eso obviously sit as, uh, Genome Elkins back as well. The rain drinks podcast is available on all traditional platforms now, so you can subscribe. Download the podcast to make sure you don't miss a single episode. This is Episode zero. We're giving you taste. I can pretty much guarantee that raised fiery side and sparkling personality will set the top. 00:12:13 Speaker 2: Just gonna ask you What the hell is that? Episode zero anyway. Like, who's Carl know who starts at zero? 00:12:19 Speaker 1: Well, we're giving them a taste. Okay, you talked about the guest list that we're going to assemble? Not specifically who, but I think it's pretty obvious we're gonna have the names of the games. And that's the players. That's the coach's general managers. But through your travels and my contacts, your contacts mint. I don't think that enough is done with the personality of those involved in the sport. And I cannot stop my head, and I'm sure we'll connect with him and have him as a guest at some point by the cajole crumble right when you get below the surface and you actually have a conversation with Coach you. I mean, he's one of the more knowledgeable and personal men in the sport, is he not? 00:12:58 Speaker 2: He is. And what comes up with Joel, of course, is his emotion and the way coaches behind the bench. And there's some memorable video of him losing his mind back there. But it's also the Stanley Cups. It's also one of the most winning coaches in the history of the game. I often laugh. I was a teammate of jewels and and you know I've said to him before, I can't believe you went from a defenseman that couldn't skate her pass to a coach That's gonna go to the Hall of Fame. But it's It's really quite remarkable. Joel is He was an embrace er of technology in that, you know, is the game grew into analytics. You know, Joel has done analytics for about 30 years in horse racing, right? It's all on. It's all about training. It's all about extra information. And there were certain things that made so much sense to Joel. Others not so much. And I think that's the same with most coaches. But one thing he really embraced early was own starts a boat. Okay, I got to get Jonathan tapes and I gotta get Patrick Kane on the ice for almost every offensive zone. Face off I can. And so Joel is Jules Brain works at a 1,000,000 miles an hour, and I'm pretty sure we can get him on. I'm sure you'll come on, but when he starts to talk about different topics, you'll just hear how his brain works. It works fast, and you better keep up or else you're gonna get in the Dutch. 00:14:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, I look. I've had some great experiences with him, particularly on the ice from the Chicago Blackhawks or police thing, the Stanley Cup on my favorite experiences with Q or when you're around and he calls you Pee wee and I love that. 00:14:27 Speaker 2: That was that was my name back in Hartford. And, uh, it's funny that, you know, I'm 55 Isidro what's up? And he's like, Maybe we ought to be. We owe everything is fast. And so there was a time in Chicago. Joel was a head coach, of course, and his assistants were all Samuelson and Kevin Dineen and all three of us. Kevin off and I were drafted in 1982 by the Hartford Whalers. OFI was 1/3 round pick. Kevin was 1/4 round pick. I was 1/5 round pick. And so I've known those guys since we were kids and the other coach was my brother in law Don Granado. And so I would go into the office and it was like a Whaler team reunion with my brother in law. 00:15:08 Speaker 2: And so we would I mean, it just it was so fun to go back to those days and all three of them call me Pee Wee. And if they ever call me Ray, I probably wouldn't answer. 00:15:20 Speaker 1: Well, look, I mean, part of the podcast on a weekly basis is, you know, ah, hardcore hockey component and I consider you ready to be the best analyst in the business. So there's going to be trends. There's going to be specific plays that we're gonna hit on as the season unfolds. I mean, it's not going to consume the podcast, but I got some important element. But a couple of other features that we're gonna bring forward that I know that you're going to appreciate one is throat punch, which is a term that I use on occasion. When someone gets under my skin, I will respond by, say, I'm going to throw a punch that guy Now it's an empty threat, to be sure, but every week, great and awful set off in several times per week. There's gotta be an incident, a story, something in hockey. Maybe it's outside of hockey entirely that gets both of us going. So I don't think that we're gonna have a problem identifying a throat punch candidate each week. Do you 00:16:15 Speaker 2: know, I don't think so. Now. So are we going to do this? Like So we've got a couple, 00:16:21 Speaker 2: maybe on the on the block, and then we're gonna pick the throat punch counter. 00:16:25 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we will. I think we're gonna have to. 00:16:27 Speaker 2: I think that this will be rather easy to come up with 00:16:32 Speaker 2: it. For whatever reason, there's lots going on in the game and, yeah, I woke up. When you do say, though, that guy's gonna get a throat brunch Pretty soon, I I got to say it's one of my favorites. It's Ah, 00:16:43 Speaker 2: it's a very prairie draeger thought like, there's two drinkers. There's drinker from Ontario and there's Dragon Fire on this is Dragon the farmer. First Saskatchewan right here. 00:16:54 Speaker 1: Yeah, Fair enough. Fair enough. And finally, I mean, we could go on for several more minutes here, but we talked earlier in Episode zero. This is Episode zero, right? I don't know if I mentioned you have 20 00:17:07 Speaker 1: or force hills. Earlier, we talked about the importance of the social media seem and you had agreed Idea. Ah, it's stealing an old idea, but it's still a great oh, it idea. And that's the use of the fantasy hockey element in the rain dregs podcast. And I don't know that Weaken fully. Hash this out an Episode zero because there's some detail work that has to get done. But suffice it to say that there could be a fantasy hockey element to this podcast whereby we can make fun of everybody out there and enjoy it immensely. Or we could make fun of each other or social media. And maybe Debbie's from Dallas is leading the fantasy pool, and she's got a shot at us. So I think that that's gonna be, ah, nice. Wayto it's not wrap up the podcast on weekly basis. At least have some fun. 00:17:59 Speaker 2: All of those scenarios will come to pass in the same week, like one of us is gonna be in front of the other. So the other guys team is going to suck, right? So that's number one. Somebody will be in front of us. We will be in front of somebody. Somebody will have a week where the players they select score zero goals and and we will have fun. And I think the whole thing will be. I think the whole fantasy deal will be fun. People are right into it. We'll have some transfer windows where you could move some players in and out and just say there's some details to be hatched out. But by the time we get going, when we record this 1st 1 on October, the first I believe it is, we'll be ready to go. I mean, I think this is gonna be fun. I think it's gonna be really good. It's gonna be entertaining. Um, we're going to dig into some stuff that is hard to dig into. But there's some good stuff to talk about. Uh, hope the people love it because we're gonna love doing it 00:18:51 Speaker 1: before I let you go. I look it, I know that that I'm most intrigued is the pre season is right around the corner now, and we look forward to the regular season when the hockey matters. One of things that I'm most interested in rate is how these young guys, they're going to come into play. And how impactful can you know Ah, Capital Kokko be with the New York Rangers or Jack use. Of course, first pick overall with New Jersey doubles lives Patterson in Vancouver. I mean, the list goes on and on with these young guys, and that's the exciting part of the fresh new season for me. What about you? What are you looking forward? Maybe 00:19:26 Speaker 2: in a little bit of conjunction with that, But we you know, you mentioned Mourner earlier, and Zach or Inskeep from Columbus signed just the other day a three year, $15 million contract, and he was really the first of the restricted free agents to get signed. But I'm curious as to where those young guys come and sign where they're able to come to an agreement and get onto the ice, because there's such critical components of their team's success. It's not like it used to be, as we know that the young guys would come in and kind of get their feet wet. Now they come in and they make immediate impacts. And so, while you're talking about Hughes and Kokko, who have played in the rookie tournaments, what I read and see is that there were kids in these rookie tournaments and I'll use Kirby. Doc is an example of the third overall pick by Chicago. They think they're gonna come into the camp and make the team, and they think that they're going to stay, and they think that they're gonna make an impact. Man, we never thought that we never felt that was the case when certainly when I was a kid, even up to five or seven years ago, that wasn't the case. So I want to see how many of these young guys can push their way into rosters that where teams are under capt. Constraints everywhere. I think the first part of the season drinks is gonna be fascinating. 00:20:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be exciting. And so is the podcast. Rain drinks broadcast. It's knew it could be should be an overnight sensations described now and look forward to Episode 1 October first.