You're listening to Miller and Milton coming at you from the floor Meisters studios floor Meisters keep it at rail And now here's Mark Miller and David Molten Halfway home at least in Jacksonville in Tampa St. Pete final hour of the show in the 239 Punagorda Port Charlotte Venice area Live Oak Lake City in surrounding areas Miller and Molten Miller and Molten comm Miller underscore Molten on X one of our favorites joins us Rob Ellis Wip in Philly He's still handing out winners by the way a couple of sites in Florida that you can't access Okay, but bet parks in a couple of other places He's still handing out winners for you that like the wager You could check them out there and then you probably have to go elsewhere to actually make your bet You can follow Rob on X at RL of sports. Good morning, my friend. How are you? I'm doing well guy checking in from the 610 That's that's where I am right now aka Delco, which you know has gotten its own notoriety Monthly, but yeah doing well guys. Yeah doing well. It's good to see both you guys Well, great to have you on and Rob There's plenty of things to talk about in the Philly sports scene But I do want to get to something that David and I have been harping on because you I guess you kind of have to you have to watch the 76ers It's part of your job to pay attention to your teams But we're not in an NBA market and the NBA is not super popular anywhere where we do our show But we have complained a lot About the product that just night in night out the playoffs are great And we hope that the playoffs when everybody starts going they look like they could be really good in both conferences But as someone who's watching the sixers night in and night out Just how tough is it to watch a product where one night a team It's seemingly every night a team's getting blown out by you know 20 30 points and the games look rather uncompetitive And your team as much as anybody is Jekyll and Hyde every night So to watch the sixers on a nightly basis the product how difficult is it to to want to pay attention to? It's funny you bring this up. I had this exact conversation with my son last night Who's a diehard NBA and sixers fan? I said if you even I'm talking a notch above a casual fan If you ask them on a given night to watch the wash watching wizards who we had to watch last night because that's who the sixers played You couldn't name one player on the floor for that team That can't be a good thing. It can't be it's got to be a repellent if you're flipping around and or trying to watch a game It's bad and and silver better get a hold of this thing somehow some way He's doing a lot of talking now a lot of you know chess puffing now But he created in a lot of ways this monster and has has fostered it and allowed it and enabled it It's a big big problem guys and you're right. I mean the sixers We're doing this on purpose for a long time and when we're sort of the you know the the the precursors to what it's become now Um, but no it's it's not good for the game and and they recognize that and and the answer in a lot of ways is let's expand Let's put more guys. Nobody knows out there You know two more teams not one not two not moving teams from markets that don't care Let's add two more to it. It's it's absolutely an issue It's an epidemic In that league and you have teams like the jazz who are giving the middle finger to the league with what they're doing Well, not to spend too much time on this but we brought it up recently Could you imagine if david stern? We're still commissioner and he had teams that would 10 point leads would five minutes to go We're taking their starters out of the game Putting their backups in to lose because they want to make sure they keep their draft position I mean he we think he might almost put him out of existence. He would have been so mad but The reason why we reached out was also this ongoing Eagles soap opera Is it truly a soap opera or is this just the media with nothing to talk about? for six months and they're making Something out of nothing now jaylin hurts is the problem. He's not a team player Okay, and there's real dissension. How much of this rob is real? I'll start with this. I think your your your point leading up to the the direct question is dead on david to me I look at this and you know, you got to fill the vacuum 24 7 you look you guys can relate you do a daily show But you got to fill the the void every single day and there are so many different people Nationally and locally who cover an nfl team, especially in big markets and It's it's about creating content. It's about putting something out there and in some ways It's about one upping people now. I'm not disparaging in any way shape or form espn's story because I know both of those guys I especially know tim mcmanus, but jeremy fallers a very established guy. You guys know that So i'm not in any way knocking it, but it's a part of that beast and and what happens When it's april when it's a little bit slower when we're not at the draft yet When we're not at camp yet when free agency is cooled off. It's why the timing of it is what it is So to answer your question, there is always a soap opera and let's face it. It's philadelphia. It just never ends It it is perpetual. Okay, which is i'm not complaining because you know, it helps makes things interesting but What's really going on in my opinion in a lot of ways? Is a little bit of a lot of things. So I think jaylon is stubborn to a degree And comfortable in certain things that doesn't make him You know abnormal when it comes to any quarterback certain quarterbacks like certain things But what happened last year guys? Was a clear indication the change needed to be had and they became boring predictable and quite frankly painful to watch on offense and It was something that needed a drastic change. You couldn't just count on seyquan barkley Ripping off 60 yard runs every other play that's the way it felt in 2024 and you couldn't count on your defense to hold teams to Less than 15 points per game. It was just unrealistic So they went with an extreme makeover on offense And we are really going to find out a lot about jaylon hurts because he's he's going to have to get out of his comfort zone It's going to have to get under center He's going to have to deal with a lot of motion a lot of eye candy and he doesn't necessarily thrive in that setting But I would never write that guy off because as you guys know going back to his college days He is usually someone who answers the bell when this kind of stuff starts happening when this kind of talk starts happening Is part of it You know for the longest time david and i because we kind of do a more national approach because of where we where we are Yeah, and we've always been in very high regard of the ravens and for a lot of years We thought the ravens were the best run organization in the league When you look at the eagles now roster makeup from howie on down This is a incredibly well run organization Is it just part of the fact that you know people think this might be one of the best rosters in the league? And when they don't get to the super bowl, they don't you know, they they maybe underachieve a little bit Is that the biggest part of it rob? Yeah, it is and You know, I appreciate the frankness from howie roseman. He'll tell you the same thing You know nobody was pleased with just winning the division and just getting to the playoffs and getting bounced in the first round You know it's super bowler bust and I think one of the things that people do have to take into account And I say this all the time and I draw the parallel with the fillies um You know they look at the at the roster and they see brice harper and tray turner and Kyle schwarber and jt real muto and they say my god this team should score eight runs a game Maybe they're not the same guys they were Maybe that's the case, you know, and and I think with the eagles offensive line And this is a big part of this guys lane johnson miss significant time future hall of famer He's coming back, but lane's getting up there landed dickerson almost retired this this off season at 27 years old Uh, he was banged up cam jergens Was on the bussen with the boys podcast and said a disc broke off of his back Wrapped around his sciatica and was strangling his leg I I can't I could barely get upstairs after I do this hit with you guys and and he's out there dealing with 350 pound guys If your offensive line is not right. I don't care who you are I don't care who you what kind of quarterback you have you're gonna be in trouble and a lot of this the issues the eagles had offensively Yes, they were predictable. Yes. I think they missed on the offensive coordinator Yes, their system needs to change was the offensive line It was the offensive line in a big way and if they come back healthy, you're gonna see a team that's going to compete for a super bowl Boy, they still are one of the best teams though, you know it listen It depends on what quarterback you're gonna get if you get jaylon hurts alabama Okay, this is gonna flame out But when he went to oklahoma, Lincoln riley made him, you know Lane kiffin wouldn't even ask jaylon to do the things that lincoln riley not only asked him to do but he ended up thriving Doing okay, and that couldn't have been his comfort zone. So he's actually gone through this before It was just last decade Let me just the compliment both of you guys you're both very insightful. I'm not blowing smoke So let me just say that because in this business it's you only usually hear the negative So let me let me give you a heap of little praise upon you guys for a minute. Um, I agree with you this When jaylon had brian johnson who was a family friend from back in the day I don't think he pushed him as hard as he could have I don't know that kevin patullo did that last year and i'm referring to a couple of eagles offensive coordinators kellamore wasn't afraid to challenge him shane steikin wasn't afraid to challenge him I think what's going to be interesting the dynamic with shawn manion who they hired who came comes over He's only 33 years old He's never been a coordinator But he did play nine years in the nfl and he played under guys like mcvay and kevin o'connell and uh, Dave canales and and kyle shanahan he's got he's from that tree hence the extreme makeover on offense The biggest thing he's going to need to do in my opinion even though they're pretty close in age is challenge jaylon And he's going to have to have the support from nick siriani and everybody above him to push him You know what? I don't it's fine. I understand you may not be comfortable with this jaylon But this is what we're going to be doing and this is how we need to succeed That's the key to this whole thing and I think jaylon will be receptive to it. I really do. I think he'll be someone who Who is willing to try but make no mistake guys. This is a critical year for him contractually It's a critical year for him to show that he can do something different offensively All right, aj brown. I believe that howie rosman is just saying hey I'm not trading him because I haven't gotten a good enough offer yet I think that's the code there. Do you think aj brown? Is an eagle next year? No, I think he's a patriot. I still think this is going to happen I think how we slow playing this as he should what why panic and jump at anything Um, it's advantage is to do it technically after june 1st. We'll see how they work this out I think that's a big thing. It's it's 10 million dollars less on the cap And I still think new england views their offensive roster as not being good enough in terms of playmakers Vrable loves them. There's too much smoke there with new england in my opinion for them not to be fired Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it's not going to happen how he's not afraid to wait this thing out So I I don't think he's an eagle. Um, I think it's unfortunate. He's he's been paid a ton of money He's put up big numbers. He's won championships and it's still not enough. So But I also think he's kind of checked out and when you get a player that checks out you got to move on Diva wide receivers, baby Gotta love them and then you got to move them. He's rob bellis Wip in philly follow him on x rl of sports rl of sports. He makes picks every night Okay, check them out. I have one for you today, david. Just go to rl of sports All right, I got one late night mba. You got you got to go and look I'm not giving away the milk for free We gotta go. Absolutely. I saw it's there in the cow Rob ellis wip and philly rl of sports is where you need to go and get that late night mba pick Rob all the best to you and your family. We'll talk after the draft. All right. My pleasure guys. Have a great day Welcome back to miller and molten text the guys what's in your mind at 21 000 that's 21 000 And now here's david molten 21 minutes past the hour Miller and molten miller and molten dot com miller underscore molten on x Three different poll questions. It's national pb and j day We asked one's the last time you had one It's um Why do we do the uh favorite, uh, mexican food? It's national burrito day. Here you go Gotcha So maybe you need to run for the border today for your drive through choice You know what? It's not a bad idea When's the last time you ran to the border for your drive through choice? Oh um Earlier this year, but it's been over a month In fact, it's it's probably been over six weeks Oh, wow I did see and it could be just a local thing, but I did see bk has wopper wednesdays where they're cheaper I'm just trying to look out for you david things are expensive. Thank you. I don't do fast food, but it doesn't mean I can't recommend it to you Thank you. And I have to admit I don't necessarily buy fast food because of the price Which I know is probably surprising because a lot of people probably when they do fast food They do it because they've seen an ad or heard an ad and it's like oh, this is unspecial Uh, hey, I don't have a hungry. I just get what I want Uh, sometimes they stumble into it and go. Oh, wow, really? You got a special? But thank you though. I do appreciate that You are looking out for me Why do you do it for the drive-thru the convenience or do you like it? You prefer fast food to other food Yeah, I go there because I want a double cheeseburger or I want a burrito or three or Because by the way, minimum two double cheeseburgers minimum three burritos Well, we're making a run for the border and minimum Just throwing that out there And the third question we got to talking rick stroud Tampa Bay Times did a story that uh, what we had said by the way for months that hey If the rays are going to need money for a stadium, uh, the bucks are being very polite But how long is it going to be till they walk in a room and go? Hey, remember us? Well, apparently that's going to happen next week And meeting with the Tampa sports authority and You know the stadium is 28 years old by the time they refurbished it it'd be 30 plus years old And they've got a five-year extension to their lease that they can re up in the next 10 months mark basically until the end of january Of 2027 to extended five more years and then the bucks will probably go by the way. That's it though We need what we need in order to stay And we just got to talking that hey if you're Tampa Aren't you calling the nfl and going hey We know we're not on your a list for Super Bowl cities anymore What would you want us to do to? Get that Super Bowl that you owe us wink wink nod nod And we got to wonder and what if they had to increase the capacity because the capacity is in the low 60s and mark said Well, then they might have to get rid of the ship And I was like oh damn That's going to lead to a brawl And mark said well, let's make it a poll question To get a Super Bowl would you get rid of the ship? Yes or no? And Our votes on x for whatever reason I don't know if you guys have all just dropped it for one reason or another because like We're getting 10 percent of what we were getting but I know it's about 50 50 Um, it is I will say I am impressed with the amount of pb and j as you guys eat Just the the pelican roofing of florida text line by itself has blown me away at the number of adults That eat pb and j's on a regular basis because I had no idea none whatsoever. I haven't had a pb and j Since I was a kid and I don't think I'm a weirdo My dad didn't like them So we didn't have peanut butter in the house ever as a kid wow ever Wow the first pb and j I had I was a freshman in high school and it was my buddy's mother Who made them because she picked us up from school and she was taking us to golf practice And she made a couple of pb and j so we had something to eat I had never had one and I'm in the car going What the hell is this thing and I you know you don't say anything right and I took a bite and I went Damn this pretty good. Yeah, I like this right And that was my first pb and j and I don't think past college I ever had another one like I don't My daughter eats them. I've made them for my daughter And maybe I've had five as an adult maybe so you don't when you're making her a pb and j Then just make one for yourself. No Well, don't say it like that no offense the majority of us do I mean don't It was it's a lunch it's a lunch thing for her. I was making her lunch for school and I'd make a pb and j for So no, I don't make one for myself okay I really don't think I mean I had about a four or five year span where I ate pb and j's and it was other people making them for me Huh That's interesting. So you don't have a favorite peanut butter then Yeah, jiff Smooth creamy rather figures Well, what are you a skippy crunchy guy or something? Well, I'm not a crunchy guy. No, I think that's I that that's a misdemeanor. I think eating crunchy peanut butter. I really do okay, but uh, no, I just you're not a connoisseur of of peanut butter. So you know I just You know don't think highly of jiff. That's all My wife loves it. My wife loves peanut butter. She actually has like a long spoon Specifically for her it's a pb. It's a peanut butter spoon And when she needs a sweet treat like if she's got a craving for something sweet And we're trying to be good and there's not a lot of sweets in the house She grabs said spoon And gets a big chunk of peanut butter and eats it. All right, that's that's That's an eight-foot comebacker for par applause that's That's well done. That's uh, you know a t-ball that looked unplayable and you're getting up and down from the fairway and salvage and par That's that's very impressive young lady. That is very well done So, yeah, I mean you guys are doing pb and jays. That's great. I I'm I'm blown away by how many of you eat them Yeah, like I'm the it's knocked me out today Yeah, guy in the text line said I had two last week No cheap easy taste good What's the problem? What's the issue? you know Butter Bing butter boom And I'll probably piss people off with this statement, but I don't have a lot of white bread in my house And I don't know if I'd want pb and jay on anything but white bread Like a pb and jay on wheat bread doesn't even sound right to me Okay bread spread If you say so I'm not gonna argue with you. All right You're getting upset with me. So I'm I'm gonna leave it alone. No, I'm no, I'm not No, but very interesting. I you're the first person Who I've ever had a conversation with Who Didn't eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches growing up And you explained it simply, you know, your dad didn't like peanut butter. Therefore your mom didn't have it in the house I get it. It makes all the sense in the world but I had literally never heard of that. I'm like, wait, you grew up without peanut butter and jelly sandwich Like the cheap sandwich that I had if you will like the you know, this right the no meat sandwich that I had as a kid Would be a American cheese And mayonnaise a cheese sandwich. I mean that is something that I had as a kid We did not have peanut butter and jelly that peanut butter in the house ever Wow, but we you know Whether it was salami a lot of bologna, David a lot of bologna like I didn't grow up a rich kid A lot of bologna. Yes, and mom would get the ring, but we had the meat grinder mom would get the ring bologna Grind said bologna up grind to pickle up throw some mayo in there ground bologna sandwiches were big in our house I had a lot of bologna not ground A lot of bologna sandwiches. Yes But both, you know the the oscar meyer bologna packet with the you know, those thick slices of bologna that are just awful I had those and I had the ring bologna and ground bologna But pb and j just it didn't make the cotton meller house for whatever reason j p peterson next Ready to launch your business get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs Shopify is specially designed to help you start run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand marketing tools that get your products out there Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time from startups to scaleups online In-person and on the go Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com Welcome back to Miller and Moulton. Text the guys what's in your mind at 21,000. That's 21000. And now here's David Moulton. 22 minutes to the top of the hour, J.P. Shadrick will join us then. The other J.P. in our lives, J.P. Peterson, is kind enough to join us now as he's gearing up for his show, which is week days, 10 to noon live. Fanstream sports app, fanstreamsports.com. Follow him on X at J.P. Peterson's show, J.P. Top of the morning to you. How are you? Oh, man, as I told you guys, if I was any better, I'd be farting confetti. Look at this thing. This is this is paradise. This is where we live, bro. And usually every day there's manatees and dolphins just running back and forth here. So it's just it's a beautiful place to be. I love Tampa Bay. Looking at the water, looking at the pool. I mean, he's got it going on, doing the doing the hit from the veranda. I love every bit of it. Hey, we wanted to talk to you about the rays and we'll get there in a little bit about the lightning, but we kind of stumbled into a poll question today because Rich Stroud wrote a piece about the the Bucks asking, you know, talking to the Tampa Sports Authority about stadium refurbishing. And we just threw this out there because we think in order to get another Super Bowl, it's got to be bigger. And we both think Tampa deserves another Super Bowl. I don't think it happens until the stadium gets bigger and they do some things. A great if the ship had to go in order to get another Super Bowl, would you and the people of Tampa Bay be OK with it? Well, let me say this, I think it makes a great poll questions because it's either or. But I would like many things I would say, I think we can do both. I think we can do both. So but if you if you if you nail me down on it, I'll say we can do without the ship if we if if we're going to build something big and grand, but I would air towards I think we could do though. There was a column written the other day in the TBT, one of their many nasty negative articles that they've written constantly about the stadium being in Tampa. And it asked the question about we want firetrucks, not baseball foul balls. And I was like, you know what, I think of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh and some of these other places can figure out how to buy firetrucks and do baseball stadiums. I think we can too. I think we can do both. You know, I think we're big enough that we could buy firetrucks and build baseball stadiums. But yeah, I think I could do without the ship. That'd be fine. We said that you'd have to keep the cannons, though. Yeah, you need the cannon. That you know, we'll keep the cannon somewhere. Exactly. Got to fire the cannons if we have to sacrifice the ship. OK, a part of the reason that we have you on is that no one's more in touch with the Tampa Bay Sports scene than you. And that's and that's not just blown smoke. You've proven it over 20 plus years. OK, so we wanted to gauge just how the whole stadium idea is going over now that each side of it has a chance to dig in, OK, and make their points and fight their daily PR battles. Are the rays winning? Are they losing in the court of public opinion? I think there's been a lot of negative about that negativity, as I said, in the TBT. And as you guys know, social media is a place for negativity. And that's where it goes. I think I think behind the scenes with the city commissioners and the county commissioners who are the people that count, frankly, I think it's still very positive. I think they see the framework for a deal as Alan Klandonen has said, who's on the TSA board and the city commission and others have said that are in similar positions. It's 80 percent done and the framework exists for a deal. Now, outside of there, there's a lot of noise, a lot of negativity. There's no question about that. And now, quite frankly, with the bucks jumping in at the 11th hour, this is not a great development. I think it's also, you know, and I love a lot of people over there at the buccaneers, but that's it just seems like a very selfish move at this point. They had plenty of time to come forward and do this in concert with the rays and work together coming in at the 11th hour. And I don't know what their intentions are, frankly. We have no idea they may have intentions of building something that they want to finance completely on their own. We have no idea what their ask is going to be. The, you know, Ken Hagen of the county commission has said, we've set aside money for the bucks or what they need, what we think they need. We don't know because they haven't come to us. But this and the county has reached out to them multiple, multiple, multiple times to say, what do you need? What do you need? We're dealing with this race thing. We need to hear from you. And it's been crickets. And now suddenly a week, two weeks before a vote, they come forward. Yeah, it's not. Yeah, I just, I don't. Again, I love a lot of people over at the buccaneers. I don't think that was a very community minded thing to do. But again, we don't know what their intentions are. And until we find out, we know they want to build a massive stadium project. That's what Rick Straub reported. That's what Joel Glazer, I believe, said out at the owner's meeting. What that means, where it is, how it's paid for. We have no idea, but this is just the first salvo from them. And it just comes at a really bad time, in my opinion. You know, as I was telling you before we were out, I've been in Tampa for a while and more in tune now with this city than I've probably ever been in my life because I didn't need to be before. I didn't live here. And I don't live here now, but, you know, I'm watching South Florida put a football stadium up on campus. We've, you know, when you go downtown from when I used to go to lightning games and I've not been to one to one a long time, but I've been downtown a handful of times. It's amazing the growth in such a short period of time. And a lot of that has to do with the owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning and what he's developed in and around that stadium. We have a baseball owner who said he not only wants to build a stadium, but is trying to emulate what they've done in Atlanta to build up the area around it. JP, what if the Glazers done anything for Tampa? And I'm not trying to be rotten here, but they've always had their hand out and said, give me as opposed to, hey, we want to be helpful. And they've not been popular owners, have they? I think that's turned around, frankly, from the original stadium debate of 30 years ago where they were vilified and probably rightfully so. Because I wasn't here for that whole debate. I got here just afterwards after the stadium was built. But the people I work with, like Chris Thomas, were very, you know, very critical of the way the Glazers handled that situation. They were supposed to pay for half the stadium. And there were thoughts that they would and they never did. And the deal that they got was a really, really sweet, hard deal. That being said, we paid $190 million to build Raymond James stadium. And what did we get out of it? We kept our NFL team, which is immeasurable in terms of the growth of Tampa Bay. Imagine what we would be without if we'd have lost our NFL team in 1996. Are you kidding? And gone to Orlando. Orlando would be what Tampa Bay is right now. Not that Orlando is bad, but it's not what Tampa Bay is. So I think it was the greatest investment we ever made. I'll say that. And I think the Glazers have done a great job in the last 10 to 15 years under Brian Ford of really turning around their community perception and PR in the community. They've done a lot of great stuff with the Glazer Foundation. They've really done a great job in the community. I think the last 10 or 15 years that the kids have kind of taken over. And I think that's been a huge part of it. Brian, Joel and Darcy, I think, you know, they're the most visible ones here. I think they've done a fantastic job. So I don't want to, I don't want to hit them too hard because I, and I think they've been good owners through the Brady years right now. I'm questioning what their financial commitment is right after a very, very mid free agency where they went bargain basement, right? I mean, that's not debatable. And they've really not done a whole lot of expenditures. So right now, I think it's a bad time for them. I think it's a bad time for them. And they need to come out and be very upfront about what their demands are, where they stand with the raise. And that's not their, that's usually not their bag. They don't, they're not out front answering questions. They don't like doing that. And I think this is, this is an incredibly important time for this area and future growth of this area. And what the, what the Glazers can bring to the table along with this raise group is incredible if they work together in that area to do something for the community that's going to be absolutely a generational transformation and take us from what I think is just below a big city tier to write in that, that, that conversations with the Dallas Atlanta and New York, all these places that host these incredible events. And who hosts it better than us? They don't have this. Dallas don't have this. You know, this is incredible. It's, and I want them to work together. I don't want them to be the working apart. That's just dumb. Well, I think quite frankly, Tampa is probably going to be competing with Miami because you figure they're going to come to Florida every five to eight years for Super Bowls, but they're probably only going to pick one city. And right now Miami is certainly in the lead quickly about the box before we go lightning. Did they make a mistake bringing bowls back? There's a lot of noise from people who are leaving kind of like, yeah, Todd Bowles has run its course, blah, blah, blah. Okay. You in recent days have talked about how the ownership just loves them, but are they mistaken? I think they are. I think they are. And I love Todd and I hate, I hate criticizing the guy because he's such a good dude and I root for him so much. I just think the world of him as a human being. I really, really do. But as a head football coach, we've got eight years now of real time data to look at four years with the Buccaneers. He's a 500 coach. That's what he is. Um, and if that's what you're, if you want to be mid and you're accepted of, you can talk about divisional championships in this, in this time of, of, you know, your schedule is six games in the division. The rest is against the NFL, right? And those division championships really don't need, need much to me. You know, it's, it's, they're a 500 team. That's what they are for four years. Is there are, are there other organizations around here that are keeping a 500 coach after four years? I don't see him. I see, I see John Harbaugh getting fired. I see, uh, some very McDermott getting fired with much better records. Hell, Tony Dungey got fired with a much better record. So I don't, I think it's a big mistake. And all you got to do is look at Mike Evans. Mike Evans took much less money to go to San Francisco. Cause he wanted to be a lifelong Buccaneer and he left being, and he, because of what's going on here. He doesn't believe in it. And most of that, you know, Todd Bowles is the guy at the top and Jason Light. They have to wear that when you're iconic guy who wanted to be a buck for life suddenly leaves and there's obviously lots of reports. And I've heard the same thing that there was some friction with the organization with Mike Evans. That tells you something really, really wrong is going on. No doubt, no doubt whatsoever. It's a Hall of Famer. It's a Ring of Honor guy. He's a special player and he left to go to the, maybe the toughest division in the league because he thinks he's got a better shot there. That's tough to take. Hey, we've been all over Kutcher off. David said he's the MVP. I think David's right. I think it's going to be tough for a few reasons. He's Russian, McKinnon's Canadian. I do think that factors in, but do, does John Cooper, in order to get coach of the year, does he have to win the division, be number one in the East? Cause there's a guy that flat out deserves it. And I, and I also think losing the Olympics to Canadian voters, even though it had nothing to do with the NHL will factor into these votes, JP. I think everything you said is spot on. And now I'm going to say something that you might not like. Who gives a rat's ass? You know, these are mostly Canadian hockey writers that are caught, that are, that are making these decisions. And at this point, I don't care. There's definitely a bias against Kutcher off. There's definitely a, well, I don't know what the hell's going on with Cooper. The guy's been the best coach in the game. It's not even close. The records are what they are, but these are individual season awards. And you're sure, Lindy Ruff looks great. You know, it's always going to go to the team. Nobody expected to do well that did well, right? It's never going to go to the guy that's done it for 13 years in a row, been to the playoffs, 12 times, five finals. I mean, has dominated with consistency throughout his career and wanted every level. So at this point, it's like, who gives a rat's ass? Just go win a cup and it's fuel for the fire. At this point, I hope they keep snubbing them because it just brings more fuel to the fire and it doesn't really matter. Do they need headman to get out of the East or has this play this year been such that quite frankly, you know, his return would be a luxury? I think his return might set them back because he's just not the same guy right now and I, I don't know. We've all tried to find out exactly what's going on. It's being kept kind of private, so it must be somewhat serious in that, in that realm and I don't want to, you know, speculate about anything. I just know this. He hasn't been the same player all year long, whether it's injury or other things related. He's just not right right now and putting him out on the ice kind of messes up the pairings and, you know, you hate to say anything like that about the Hall of Famer and it has nothing to do with his legacy. The dude is, he's the greatest, you know, and he's one of the greatest defensemen of all time, but, you know, this is something that is not Victor Headman and to try to force him out onto the ice, I think does the team a disservice and I think Victor sees that as well. So I think we're going to move on without him into the playoffs. These defensive pairings have really settled well. The emergence of Darren Radish has just been unbelievable. It's one of the greatest stories in hockey that we're probably ignoring. This guy was a healthy scratch early in the season. Now he's setting the lightning record for goals for a defenseman. It's just it's unbelievable. JJ Moser has become one of the best defensemen in the NFL, very defensive minded. So and the young kids have stepped up. They're faster and they're playing well. So I think, you know, I think it's better for the team at this particular point that that he doesn't come back and that's no disrespect to Victor Headman at all. It's just he's not the same player right now. Fifteen seconds. Who scares you more in the East? Carolina Buffalo or somebody else? Carolina, Carolina. I think they've got a lot of good. We just don't match up well against them. And but their playoff success, they've always torpedoed themselves. So they always look great on paper, but they don't get it done. So but I still would say them. And their top goal scorer stop scoring and their goalies forget how to stop the puck. Exactly. Later, they go into the playoffs. He's JP Peterson, host of the JP Peterson show. It's weekdays, 10 to noon. Fanstream Sports app, fanstreemsports.com. Follow him on X at JP Peterson Show. JP, all the best. You and the family will talk to you around the vote. Thank you, Mark. I owe you a lot. Come get sounds like a plan, my man. Be good. All right. See you, man.
