Florida Panthers Radio Color Analyst Billy Lindsay joins the show to talk Cats! Lindsay theorizes that Zito and the Panthers have concluded with their moves. How serious is Matthew Tkachuk's injury? Billy clarifies how severe a groin injury can impact a player's movement... proving Tobin wrong. Billy gives his take on Seth Jones being happy to play with Bob again. How does one deal with a goalie who does not want to talk to anyone on gameday?
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00We'll be going to be on the edge of our damn seat tonight with the cats on the ice, dude,
00:06on the ice.
00:07Let's go out to the Toyota of Hollywood guest line, shop hundreds of toys and get your number
00:12one Toyota dealer in all of Florida.
00:14Shop over 2000 toyotas on sale at one location at Toyota of Hollywood on four 41 between
00:18Hollywood and Sheridan and Toyota of hollywood.com.
00:22You'll hear this man on the call tonight with Doug Plaguen's Lindsay joining us here on
00:28the show.
00:29Doug, thanks for taking the time.
00:30Really appreciate you.
00:31Yeah, no problem.
00:32How's everything going?
00:33It's going good.
00:34It's going good.
00:35It's exciting times in Catland as it always is right now with all the deals that are happening
00:39and they're playing good hockey, Billy.
00:41What is a time like this for the guys on the team when, when changes could be happening?
00:46You know that it's a possibility, but you're also, you know, you got to keep the task at
00:50hand and you're playing good hockey.
00:51Is this a fun time for the team or is it still a little challenging to keep your head together?
00:56It's nerve wracking as the player going through the trade deadline, but it looks like Bill
01:00Zito has made mostly of the moves that he's going to make.
01:02I'm not sure that he's going to pull the trigger on anything else he addressed.
01:07The biggest need that we needed a right-handed shot defenseman that who could do something
01:10offensively and that was Seth Jones and with Spencer Knight going to Chicago needed a backup
01:16goaltender with some veteran experience.
01:19So VTech Vanishak comes, but as a player, you're always worried a little bit and once
01:23the deadline is over, everyone goes, okay, phew, this is our hockey team.
01:28This is it.
01:29This is who we have.
01:30And now it is time to just hit the gas pedal and go as hard as we can.
01:33And you can see that finish line.
01:35And this is when everyone around the league just starts to say, okay, then why for those
01:40playoff positions?
01:41It's a, it's, you'll see about as good a hockey as you can down the stretch until you get
01:46to that playoff time.
01:47Billy, is this, um, to me, this is amazing because the team that won the Stanley cup
01:53got better and, and that rarely, usually you'd lose a lot of guys, you know, teams come and
02:00pay big money for your free agents and you don't have the luxury of being able to actually
02:06keep the same guys, but they've managed to get better.
02:11It never happens.
02:12Yeah, that's true.
02:14It's hard to do.
02:15And, uh, Bill Zito has been really crafty at it and got to give up on the other side.
02:20You look at Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay does with Julian Breezeball, their GM and their coach,
02:24they've been able to keep their Stanley cup window open a long time.
02:28And it continues again.
02:29This year, Tampa Bay was aggressive at the deadline yesterday and brought in a player
02:34that had won cups.
02:35So there's a ways around it.
02:37It is hard to, to, to stay in that Stanley cup window and be competitive in a salary
02:42cap era.
02:43You have to be smart.
02:44You have to know what you're doing, but we've layered it out here with our ownership, uh,
02:49Mr. Viola down to our GM there, Bill Zito, and it's Bill Zito's job.
02:54All he has to do to ownership for Mr. Viola is just go, can I, can I spend this amount
02:59of money on this player and bring him in if Mr. Viola okays it, then it's okay for Bill
03:04Zito.
03:05It's his job.
03:06Mr. Viola won't interfere.
03:07And then once the GM gets the, gets the, gets the players, he hands them over to Paul Maurice
03:14and Paul Maurice is at his own discretion to employ him however he wants.
03:19And, uh, I don't believe Bill Zito has any say in that.
03:22So you have that, that chain of custody that goes down and you're able to, to work around
03:28it.
03:29And it gets really tough.
03:30You have to jump through a lot of hoops in the salary cap era, but you have to have commitment
03:34from the very, very, very top, uh, which is your ownership all those through all the way
03:39through the organization.
03:41And that's what they've been able to do to hit down here in South Florida.
03:43And that's why it's become successful is that everyone has a job to do.
03:48If you have the ability to do it right and you work hard, uh, then you're going to be
03:51around.
03:52And that's been the basic philosophy for this Panther group and team.
03:56And Bill Zito might win GM and he's been up for the last couple of years, one of these
04:01years, he's going to win GM of the year.
04:04From your standpoint, Billy, cause you've been through all the eras, right?
04:07You've seen the growth and everything they've gone through is, does it, does it blow your
04:11mind now to hear guys like Seth Jones say like, this is the standard.
04:15And like, this is the destination you'll want to be at.
04:17Like, what does that, I guess, mean to you to hear how far it's come?
04:21That guys just are dying to be here.
04:23Yeah, it's fun when you get a, when you get a winner like that in South Florida with all
04:28the amenities that we have down here with the sunshine and everything that you can do,
04:34it just makes it that much more special.
04:35That's why I fell in love with the place.
04:36When I first got off the plane here, we had a great bunch of guys and a great team.
04:41And when you're around a special group of players and you get to do it down here in
04:46South Florida, it becomes very, very attractive.
04:50It wasn't attractive when you're losing, but it is, you can ask players, do you want players
04:56get off the planes from other teams, especially players that come in from Winnipeg or wherever
05:02in New York.
05:04They got the sunglasses on and they're happy to be out here, but this is a, that's 24 seven.
05:10That's our life.
05:11We go on the road trip and you get to come back here and do that.
05:14So we've set a high bar and a high standard, what it means.
05:17And it started to, if you wanted to be a Panther, then you were going to be around.
05:22If not, you were going to get shipped off and that became kind of the high standard.
05:26Now you've got a bar that you're expected to play at and it's, it's a dream place for
05:32a lot of players to come to.
05:33It really is.
05:34Uh, Tampa Bay sort of has that same sort of reputation, but the way that it's going now,
05:39free agents, everyone talking around the league, you can get players to come here pretty easily.
05:45Uh, we were talking about this, uh, right after it had happened.
05:49We were, you know, obviously we're glued to, to the four nations cup, but Maddie Goodchuck
05:53suffers the groin injury as a hockey player.
05:55How tough is this injury?
05:56I mean, Leroy and I have gone back and like, I, I'm not too worried.
05:59I feel like he's going to be okay for the playoffs, but Leroy is telling me it's the
06:02worst injury an athlete can have.
06:04So, uh, how tough of an injury is that's come back from, from a hockey player standpoint?
06:08Yeah, it depends on the severity of it.
06:10I've had, there's groin soreness and groin pulls.
06:16And I I've had, I've had like just minor tears in your groin that through training camp that
06:21you may be asked to sit out just a week or so.
06:24Um, if you tear it fully and it becomes a time that it, it's a process that you have
06:31to go through ice and just getting it stronger and stronger and stronger, but it's, so there's
06:40varying degrees, I guess the simplest way to put it, a real bad groin pull is hard because
06:45that is everything that you do in hockey.
06:48That is the one area that's going to be stressed out because every stride you take, you're,
06:53you're going to feel it in that groin.
06:54So on the severity of it coming back, it's, you got to make sure it's 100%.
07:01It can't be 99% or 98%.
07:03It's one of those injuries that if you come back and it's not 100% and you, you did the
07:08wrong turn or wrong tweak, uh, you're, you're going to injure it again.
07:12So that, that's where probably the precaution and everything with Matthew Kachuk is that
07:17no matter what, once this player comes back, he is going to be 100%.
07:21We look at it for Leroy.
07:23I think we were both on the same page there.
07:26He's going to be all right, dude.
07:27I could show us.
07:28It's going to be all right.
07:29I told him from firsthand experience, you don't understand how serious a groin injury
07:33is because everything is attached in some kind of way.
07:38Every movement where your core is attached to that groin.
07:42And so when you twist, you turn, you step, everything is affected by that groin.
07:48So if he's missing substantial amount of time, it's because like, yeah, you need to
07:54shut it down.
07:55It's not a, he's like, he'll be back in a couple.
07:58No, it groins don't work like that because you say, oh, it's a sore groin.
08:02People don't take it serious, but yeah, you can't laugh.
08:06You can't do anything.
08:07It's all up in your stomach.
08:08It's the worst.
08:10Yeah, it is the worst.
08:12And, but that does also depend on the severity of it.
08:14Like you, you can, you can tweak your groin and it's sore and you might have a, just a
08:19minor tear in there, the ice and everything.
08:23And all of a sudden you sit out one week and it starts to feel pretty good.
08:26You're able to strengthen it up pretty, pretty quickly.
08:28But if you really do tear it and rip it inside that groin, then to your point, every
08:34movement, if you're sitting on the couch and you try to sit up, good luck, it's going to
08:39hurt like heck every, so I guess you're exactly right.
08:43I guess you're exactly right on the point.
08:45It does, it does every, it does hurt everything.
08:48Um, there's just a varying degrees of what you can do to it.
08:53And some people when, you know, with minor groin tweaks are able to play through it even
08:58at some point, if it's not serious enough, but this, this looks like it's on that serious
09:02side and does lead you to believe that everything that he does and every maneuver that he
09:07takes, even sleeping, you will feel your groin if it's hurt that bad.
09:12Billy, the other problem is, is that hockey doesn't do its players any favors because
09:18they go lower body injury.
09:20It could be anything from a broken leg to a stub, big toe.
09:23You have no idea.
09:25So you just make assumptions about these injuries because the description of the
09:30injury doesn't really tell you what's going on.
09:34Yep.
09:34Lower body, upper body.
09:35That's what you, it's a beautiful thing.
09:39It's different.
09:40I mean, the national football league, because of the betting and large parts, you have to
09:44disclose if it's a hangnail, if it's going to go, or if the player is not going to be
09:49able to be, be available, you have to know the exact nature and for whatever, for
09:53whatever reason, right.
09:55Oh, I don't want you to know anything.
09:57Like, I don't understand that some injuries, I can understand if it's a risk that's
10:02hurting you, there's something that they can attack and come back.
10:06But if it's an injury that like, say a groin, that no one's going to be able to
10:11come back and attack you and hurt you at your, with the groin.
10:16So come on, say it's, say it's a groin injury, no one's going to care.
10:22Okay.
10:22He's got a groin and when he comes back and plays, he's not at further risk or
10:26jeopardizing it by an opponent trying to attack that, that part, there's no way to
10:33it.
10:33Um, you can have a leg strain, calf pull, all those kinds of kind of different stuff.
10:38And that's, uh, I just, whatever reason that's closed shop, whenever someone gets
10:44injured, they don't want you to know about until, until they absolutely have to put it
10:48out there.
10:48Well, my favorite was the last game.
10:50I don't know who it was, but it was like, Oh my goodness.
10:53He he's barely getting off the ice.
10:56I'm like, Oh, that's going to be serious.
10:58Look at him.
10:58He's like, he's struggling to get over to it.
11:01Like two minutes later, the guy's back on the ice.
11:03I'm like, what are you doing?
11:07No wonder why do you say lower insane sport, right?
11:11He looked like he needed a stretcher to get off the ice and, and about two minutes
11:18later, Oh, back on shift.
11:20Yeah.
11:21I believe that was Gustav Forslund.
11:24Why?
11:24Like he, he went over to, I'm like, Oh my goodness.
11:27He's.
11:28Oh, I hope he's okay.
11:30And like, a lot of times you'll, you'll block shots or you'll, even if you get
11:37cut in the face or something that, that comes into the nose or you might even
11:40break your nose into that kind of scenario.
11:43But if you're blocking shots, you can get hit in all kinds of different
11:46areas that really, really stings.
11:48Especially if you get it in the feet and it just feels like a thousand
11:52ants are biting you at once.
11:54There's just kind of that, that tenseness.
11:56And you just need a time.
11:57Yeah.
11:58Then once you go there and the big thing is just don't take your
12:01skate off a lot of times.
12:02Um, if you get hit, because once you take that skate off of any kind of
12:06swelling is going to come immediate.
12:07So they just tell you to keep that skate on, or if you've got to go get
12:11stitches back in the dressing room, uh, they, they do it as fast as possible.
12:15And same thing with teeth.
12:17Uh, if you get teeth nicked up that are, uh, knocked out, they'll, uh,
12:21take a quick look at it.
12:22And those are the, those are the kind of injuries that you'll, you'll see.
12:26Most hockey players won't miss a lot of time for with either something
12:30in the facial region that is just something that needs attention, that
12:34they can come back and play.
12:35They just always told us, man, that's a long way from the heart.
12:42Everything that's a long way from the heart.
12:43Uh, they, they say you should be able to go.
12:50One more before we get you out of here.
12:51We were listening to Seth Jones press conference the other day, and he was
12:54talking about how excited he was to be back with Sergei Bobrovsky, but also
12:57mentioned how he's a guy you don't talk to and goalies, I guess, are weird.
13:01Cause there's, there's a superstition with whatnot.
13:04And he's one of those guys, but can you explain to us in a locker room?
13:07If you had a goalie like this, what does that mean?
13:10Does that mean like you don't speak unless spoken to him?
13:12Do you just ignore him?
13:14Like, how does, how do you deal with a goalie who doesn't want
13:16to be spoken to on a game day?
13:19Yeah.
13:19John van Biesburg was like that.
13:20You're fine.
13:21We under, you understand the routine of everyone, uh, what
13:25they're going to go through.
13:26You, you play so many games, especially this late in the season.
13:29And Seth Jones has been around Sergei Bobrovsky.
13:32He understands everything that goes into his game day.
13:36And it's clockwork for most people.
13:38What they start from the time they get up to the morning skate, to the time
13:41they eat lunch, their nap, uh, go into the rink and then especially
13:44once you arrive at their rink.
13:47If you had a camera inside that dressing room, you would be amazed.
13:51It would be like clockwork when everyone, this person would
13:54enter here at this time.
13:56This person would go there at that time up until you go onto the ice and
14:00everyone has a time when they will tie their first skate, uh, to look at.
14:05Okay.
14:05Time to get dressed.
14:06Uh, this is what time I get dressed.
14:08Uh, this is what time I drink my coffee.
14:10This is what time to go onto the massage table.
14:13So you get so accustomed to a routine, uh, that everything.
14:18So if a goalie doesn't want to be talked to, they, uh, you understand
14:21and you understand, understand that's, that's part of their plan.
14:24They are crazy to begin with half of them, which is, uh, what
14:28makes them unique and special.
14:30They got one job to do at the end of the day for most of us.
14:33Hockey players said the goaltenders aren't in any meetings or anything.
14:37You have one job for us.
14:38And that is stop the puck.
14:38You got your own coach that handles you.
14:42So they're, uh, they're beautiful minds and they love the way they work.
14:48You kind of, you just kind of learn, uh, what kind of gold, what your goalie is
14:52and what he needs or doesn't need and when to speak to him and when don't to
14:56speak to him, man, that's so strange, but also I get it, they are, they are weird
15:01creatures and Bob, uh, is, is so crazy about his discipline and his, uh, and
15:06his schedule, they've actually had to tone it down with him about his work.
15:10At some point, once he got later on in his career, he wants to be on the
15:13ice so much and work so hard.
15:15So trying to prolong it.
15:17And I believe that gets a lot of practice time off now and a lot, a lot of extra
15:22time just to kind of rest because it, because his workout routine is so, so
15:25heavily involved, it's crazy.
15:28Billy, thanks for the time.
15:29We really appreciate it.
15:30Let's all right.
15:31Have a great day, everyone.
15:32Thank you so much here.
15:33I'm tonight on five 60 WQM with Doug plugins.
15:35We got cats and jackets tonight from Emory bank arena, having a
15:40conversation with a hockey person.
15:43Like as a football player and I know what kind of football player I was.
15:48And you see some of these guys, half of their chicklets aren't theirs, right?
15:55They got scars from various ridiculous injuries, getting hit in the face with a
16:00puck, right?
16:02I mean, I split my lip one time during the game and I thought I was going to die.
16:07Right.
16:07Because they had to go in the back.
16:09I had to go in the locker room and get the Rambo stitches.
16:11And then I went back and played and everybody said I was crazy.
16:14I'm like, no, these guys are crazy.
16:17They're not lower body injury.
16:20Now you believe me yet about the groin?
16:23Not really.
16:23He didn't seem that concerned.
16:26He really didn't seem that concerned.
16:28Crazy.
16:28Dude.
16:28Was it?
16:29He seen that concern?
16:30Oh my goodness.
16:31I mean, he was like, could Chuck could be back this week.
16:34Maybe, but we're going to take it easy.
16:36And also then he went, I did not see it.
16:39I think I saw that.
16:40He saw a way where I had thumb surgery.
16:43Cause he had a, Oh no, no, no, dude.
16:45Look, my thumb moved.
16:46Like he wanted to do them, but please don't do that.
16:49He wanted to do them both at the same time.
16:50I wanted to do them both at the same time, but then I realized
16:54I wouldn't have a wiper.
16:58Like I would have to, I would have to what?
17:00But dad, you can't do that.
17:03Still will be rough.