Rays Lose on Opening Day After Holding 7-1 Lead & Lightning Rally but Lose In Overtime

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Man tough days for the home team.

If you think about it, the Tampa Bay race opened their season.

They had a big lead, give up a lot of runs in one inning and wound up losing.

And then at least the Tampa Bay Lightning managed to get a point in their game against the Kraken.

But let's start with the race.

And, you know, there's a lot of places you can kind of look at and say,

well, you know, the race aren't really picked to do much.

A lot of people think they're going to be last in the L East.

And it's mostly the lineup and, you know, just the lack of protection and things like that.

I don't think anybody necessarily questioned entirely the pitching.

If they did, you would maybe look at the bullpen and that's what got them.

It was unbelievable, Steve.

I know you didn't see like the beginning, but man, they were up what, six to one at one point.

Seven to one.

Seven to one.

They trailed one nothing and they tied it at one.

Right.

With Iran does home run.

Yeah.

And then they score six runs in the top of the fifth inning or sixth inning.

Mm-hmm.

And you would think, that's what I kind of turned it off because I had lighting to work.

And it was, you know, up to seven, one more good.

Then you text me.

Yeah.

They blew it.

I'm like, what?

Yeah.

Seven to one lead, man.

They had a 45 minute top half of the next inning and, you know,

Ian Seymour, I mean, he didn't retire a batter.

That's who really got them in trouble.

The five runs for him, I believe?

Yeah.

And then they brought in Clevver and he allowed two singles in a sack fly.

And then it was seven to six and then they brought in jacks.

And, you know, you were thought that he was probably their best closer.

And he allowed a sack fly that scored the tying run and he got a couple of strikes.

And then, you know, Burleson, Alec Burleson crushed one about 400 feet, 432 feet.

And that gave him a nine to seven lead.

So it didn't matter who was out there.

They just, they started swinging the bats and getting guys on.

And, you know, I know it's opening day.

And, you know, they're not going to go 0 and 162, although that's the pace they're on.

So on overreaction Fridays, what you're talking about?

Overreaction opening day.

Absolutely.

Now, they're off today, which is interesting.

It's probably a good thing because the weather's really bad.

I guess in St. Louis today, supposed to be, it was really hot, supposed to cool down a

little bit and they'll play.

Most likely they'll get rained out and they'll play again on Saturday.

But, you know, they start the season nine days and nine games on the road.

But I, you just, you hate to blow a game like that.

It's like, of all the things, you know, scoring runs is going to be a problem.

They score runs, starting pitching.

You're not really sure of it and get a really good start from Drew Rasmus.

And in fact, had it not been, you know, such a long inning they had themselves on at the

plate.

He might have gone back out there, but it's game one, you know, and I mean, so.

And he's a pitcher.

You're trying to limit his innings this year.

Yeah.

You have a six run lead in the sixth.

Of course, you're pulling him out.

Mm-hmm.

Like, I know some people are like, you should have left him in.

No, not game one with 45 minutes on the bench.

Like, you think your bullpen's good.

The six run innings should be should, you know, six more than enough, yeah, with what

four innings to go to pitch should be fine.

Like, well, that's the thing.

Like, you, you won't typically, you won't get one of these blown leads like that.

That many runs once in a season and they did it on opening day.

I mean, it's just like, you're not supposed to use those, those cards up so fast.

I guess on the positive was that they did push across some runs and look, St. Louis is

not great.

I think when the seasons over, they were picked to win fewer games than the raise were

and at saying something.

I mean, this is not a great cardinals team.

But nonetheless, you know, you don't want to blow the biggest lead of the season in game

one.

Well, the biggest problem is the bullpen in that inning.

I think every batter got the two strikes.

Yeah.

And they couldn't finish it.

Couldn't put them away.

Yeah.

Which is not like race pitching.

No.

But last year they had problems in the bullpen, too.

Well, they did.

And, and, you know, I don't know that they've adequately addressed it.

I mean, we'll find out.

Obviously, you know, first game was, was not the way they wanted it to go, but I mean,

a lot of their metrics said that they were just unlucky last year.

And so they reloaded with pretty much the same group now who say it is on the aisle.

Well, you lose Pete Fairbanks is in Miami.

Yeah, that's, that's big.

You know, you almost scored too many runs.

And that's six ending so that you brought Seymour in instead of a higher leverage in

it.

Really.

Right.

Although, you know, not that jacks and Clevenger looked that good once they came in.

But no, but he kind of already made a mess of it by that time.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

He didn't retire a batter, by the way.

Seymour.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it was a little shop of horse.

I was tweeting outside and Lee Seymour, you know, I was like, he's getting racked.

I felt for Kevin.

I mean, you know, you always want to have a good day opening day.

And the great thing about baseball and the bad thing, perhaps, too, is that, you know,

you can't react or overreact to any one thing.

If you, if you win 13 to nothing or you lose 13 to nothing, it's just, it's just one

game.

And it's a six month Odyssey, almost seven month tour that you're embarking on.

So if you're going to lose your mind after one loss or one win, you're going to have a

tough time getting through it.

But nonetheless, I think, especially when no one's expecting anything.

And then, you know, you kind of go out there and kind of mess up what would have been

a great opening day.

There's, I'll tell you what, St. Louis, for opening day, that's a healthy place to open.

I mean, you talk about pageantry.

Oh, yeah.

You mentioned Cincinnati, which played the day before.

No, they played yesterday.

Oh, they played yesterday.

That's right.

They played the red side.

Same time as the race.

They did.

And those, you know, those two are epically great cities and Cincinnati had always been

where the season would open.

Anyway, I saw, saw a picture of downtown just absolutely jammed to the rafters.

It was incredible.

Every year, it's that way.

Yeah.

I mean, it's like a street carnival, but, but there's a lot of energy in St. Louis as

well.

You know, they brought back all the, you know, all the grades.

I mean, you saw LaRousa and IZ Smith and, you know, Mark McGuire and all these guys.

But you know, once you get past all that, it's, it's just baseball and they're not a great

team.

And to have that kind of lead now, the one thing that was, was really obvious despite

the race jumping out to a pretty good lead.

I mean, offensively, they did some things nice.

But the one thing that's obvious is they, they walked Junior Kim and Arrow in credit

him for taking those walks, but he walked four times.

And who behind them in the lineup, are you going to fear?

That's the thing.

I mean, he has no protection, man, they have, they, it's going to be, and I, I credit him

for being patient enough not to chase, to be honest with you, you know, because a lot

of guys would, would be up there just swinging, but he took the walks.

But man, to be walked four times, it's like, yeah, that's going to be a lot of that

this year.

He's just around pitching, you know, any chance they can get to, to avoid his bat and,

and even in the last inning, they did it, you know, and, and the race loaded the bases

in the last inning with two out and, and Palacios wanted to strike it out, but, so they

still had a chance right until the final pitch.

But that, that's going to be, that's going to be tough for him, you know, for as great

as he is, you have to have a guy in a position where he's going to get pitches to hit.

And if there's nobody behind him, if they have any chance at all to get them, you know,

give them a free pass, intentional or unintentional, they're going to do it, you know, and, you

know, it's going to be, going to be tough for him to try to weight that out and not, not

chase things.

Yeah, I mean, we've talked about the, I mean, the line of, and I, I can't remember who

it was today tweeted out, but like the race, batting order starts like some of the best

in the game.

Yondi Diaz, Jonathan Ronda, Jr. Kamenero, yeah, it's nice, but then it falls off quick big

time.

Like, you know, it just, there's, there's nothing there and they're going to have to figure

something out.

Yeah.

A lot of young players, you know, that, that you're having to live with.

And of course, they got some injuries, Taylor walls is out, not that he's your big

batter.

He's not a bad.

Yeah, he's not exactly on swing for you, but, um, I mean, Gavin Lux, you're expected some

offensive production out of Lux.

Yeah, a little bit, you know, um, look at the rest of it, you know, looked well.

I mean, they, they played some defense.

They did, they did some raised things, but anyway, him said had three hits.

That was good to see.

Yeah.

He got a couple, he got a couple of knocks.

That was nice.

Um, and he was, he was the one actually, I think I believe he might have been hitting

behind.

Yeah.

Kamenero.

Yeah.

So, uh, that certainly gave him some pitches to hit.

And so he could be, he could be a benefactor of that.

But yeah, and in general, um, now, Kamenero's errors, errors weren't good.

I mean, I had two in the first three, I think the first two balls hit to him.

He butchered.

Yep.

You know, he kicked and they were routine ground balls.

Um, one was a bad throw, uh, but yeah, he had trouble, he had trouble from the start

at third base.

And he'd been working hard on his defense and these weren't, these weren't tricky plays

or anything.

They were just sort of, in fact, they were almost two routine.

Like, one was just a big crow hop to him and he closed his glove a little too soon.

But, um, you know, just one of those things.

But yeah, it, uh, it could have been a nice opening day when and now they're going to

go.

Oh, and 162.

So, yeah, well, you know, I, I, I, I, they had to lose a hundred.

Here we go.

Same old race.

One of them is, you know, in baseball, you always say, well, we'll play tomorrow, but

they're not playing tomorrow.

They're actually off.

And that's so weird to me that you do most northern cities.

So the race always open at home, so you don't think about it.

That's true.

But the northern cities, because they don't know what the weather is going to be like.

An opening day is a big ticket day and pageantry.

So almost every northern team that doesn't have a dome or roof, they open and then they

have a day off and then they resume the series and it's because if the weather was bad

on opening day, then you push everything to the next day.

Yeah.

But you always leave that little extra, extra window there.

Yeah.

So the race oftentimes would go get that on their, you know, third series of the year when

they start on the road, you know, because they always start usually the first two series

at home.

Right.

And then they would go on the road and usually, you know, it'd be a, in New York, a

Thursday and then Saturday, Sunday or whatever.

So but now you just get it for opening day instead.

They say to preserve opening day in the northern cities.

Any other weird thing and this is just sort of like last year, you know, last year with

Steinbrenner, they, they front loaded a lot of games at home because they thought it

would be much harder and it was hotter and they thought they'd have rain outs.

They didn't have any as it turned out.

So, you know, they had a lot of home games early and then they had that stretch where they

played like 19 out of 22 on the road and the three at home are against the Dodgers and

that kind of buried them.

But this year, because they wanted to give the trop as much time as possible to be repaired,

they're playing the first nine games, you know, this road trip starts out.

They got nine games on the road before they come home against the Chicago Cups.

So I mean, you just hope to keep your head above water a little bit and maybe knock out

of closest to 500 record as you can.

But it's a tough way to start the season too, you know what I mean?

You don't, you just want to kind of, like I said, stay, stay as close to 500 as you can

and come home and hope to have a good home stand.

But look, you win the next two and, you know, let's meet loaf and you're fine.

Yeah, I understand that.

And this is the team you want to do it against.

Like I said, I don't think the Cardinals are picked to winning divisions here, you know,

and was a libator was one that pitched against them.

Yep.

Former race prospect.

Yes, he was.

Yes, he was.

You just kind of a crafty left hander didn't, didn't throw particularly hard, but, you

know, puts a ball in play and, and I thought they had some good at bats.

I thought they did some, some nice things offensively is just, you just don't see a team get

that kind of a lead on opening day six to one and you're just kind of, or seven to one,

you're kind of cruising and, and then all hell breaks loose like that and you wind up losing

the game.

So disappointing to say the least, no, were you able to find the game on TV?

You know, it took me a few tries.

I'm not going to lie.

I had to read Mark Tompkin's story a couple of time.

They had, they have a link that you can click and if you plug in your zip code and your

carrier, it'll tell you what station it's on, you know, and I was able to find it on

spectrum that way.

And it was, it was not perfect though, like, it was weird.

So, and I don't know if anybody made a thing of this, maybe, you know, because you've been

an engineer in these type of things.

So when the broadcast started, there was a lot of ambient noise kind of like field

mic type stuff, you know, you could pick up sort of that home of the crowd and whatnot.

And then it would go out and it would just be the announcers with no noise behind them

at all.

Then it would come back.

That means they probably were having some issues, mostly.

Okay.

Yeah, because it was going in and out as far as the field mics go.

And so you hear a crowd, didn't hear nothing, you hear, you know, doing stats and those

guys.

And then we'd come back in and out.

Very annoying that way.

And I thought that the pictures were fine.

They were pretty good.

In the broadcast, of course, you have the same announcers and everything.

But yeah, just production wise, there was some stuff that they were working some kings

out.

I thought.

It's the first game.

I mean, it's going to happen.

You know, these are major productions and it's switched from, you know, scripts to or

Fandall to, to in-house major league baseball.

So these are major undertakings.

You're going to have some technical issues.

And they didn't announce until just what a day before the season, where you could get

these games locally.

The teams didn't announce till Thursday morning.

Yeah.

It wasn't just the race.

It was the Tigers and it was the, yeah, it was that was because of major league baseball.

They said, right.

Well, major league baseball took over the production of these teams that, right.

Fandall's basically closing shop in a month or two once the NBA and NHL have done.

And so they took it in house and they're the ones negotiating the deals with spectrum or

Comcast with direct TV with, you know, all these providers.

And so it just came down to the last minute, either trying to get the best deal or whatever.

So like direct TV came out on Wednesday and announced they were carrying the games.

I have direct TV and it wasn't, the channel wasn't there till the, till Thursday morning.

Yeah.

Even though they announced it Wednesday.

I didn't see it in my guy till Thursday, spectrum the same way.

So I'm sure some people had some issues finding it.

Yeah, and I ended up plugging in my zip code in the carrier and I was fine.

And I, you know, I got the pre game.

I got everything that was with it.

They definitely have some kings to work out production wise, but it was fine.

No, I don't think, I think they're not doing a pre game show on road games.

They did today for opening day.

They did today.

So is that, is that a one off, you think?

I think you're right.

Yeah, for home games, they'll have a pre game, but not on the road.

Not from the road.

Yeah, today was a one off because of opening day.

Okay.

Yeah, that makes sense.

That makes sense.

And on the radio, it sounds, it's the same sort of production and everything.

Yeah, I heard they had some technical issues there for a little bit too, but they got

resolved quickly.

Oh, is that right?

I saw some people online saying it, so, huh.

Well, it's early in the season for everybody, I guess, certainly was for the bullpen.

And that's the thing, you know, the baseball, it's an every day or almost every day, kind

of like, you know, six month grind and soap opera with your fans.

You got to kind of follow these guys.

And they're not, you know, they looked and felt a lot like the race, right?

Like not a ton of big names, like you said, top of the lineup is good as anywhere.

And then you get into it and you're saying, well, they're going to have to pitch really

well and they have to play defense and they can, and it looks like they got the guys to

do it.

I mean, Rasmussen had he not had a 45 minute sit down would have probably gone back out,

but it's so early in the season and last year they held them to five innings anyway,

that you're not going to blow the guy out, you know, in the first game, you know, after

he sits for 45 minutes and runs them back out there.

But if you get that kind of starting pitching, even if you didn't have the long break,

being up six runs, going to the six, I'd have pulled him anyway, I would have to knowing

that you want to limit his any save the innings, yeah, because he's, you know, still recovering

from two Tommy Johns, right?

And he's giving you what you need.

You got a six to one lead.

He'll pitch more than last year if he's not healthy, but not, you know, they don't like

to increase your innings more than about 20% year over year.

Right.

And if it's not six to one or seven to one, I mean, maybe, maybe it's not even see more

they come with right away, you know, if it was three to one, he may have left him in.

I was okay.

I get that.

Yeah.

The six run lead or he may have brought a different reliever, you know, who knows?

May may have had a little more urgency as far as as far as the closers go, but the way

he set it up and then, and then, you know, the guy failed to record it out.

So you're not expecting that.

You're expecting him to get somebody out.

When you're a reliever and your ERA starts at infinity, five runs over no innings.

That's hard.

That's hard to get that down by.

You'll be, you'll be pitching until August, yeah, because you don't get, you don't get

many innings like, no, not going to have enough and you're going to need shut, shut

out innings on top of that just to, just to get it back down.

Yeah.

ERA.

Not good.

That's a tough debut.

Really was.

Did you see who hit the first home run in baseball this season?

No.

Oh, I did, the way I did see it dog in Pittsburgh, Brandon, he hit, he hit two bombs, but that

was the first one in baseball this year because the, was it the first thing he did not have

a home run last night and there's seven, nothing shut out of the job tonight.

So, yeah.

So Brandon loud, first time up, he hits a big fly and it was funny because when he hit

the ball, no one really reacts, you know, he just kind of gets under it and, and he kind

of stands there for a minute and you're thinking, okay, fly out mid-right field and that's

some of gun got up in the air, man, and it got into the first row and, and just barely

into the first row.

So he hits that out and he comes up again and he absolutely blasts one.

So yeah, welcome to Pittsburgh, Brandon, loud, way to feel the moment, man.

Couple of big bombs, big flies, which, look, they're going to miss that.

I mean, if you put him in the raise lineup, you know, and you got a little bit more protection

for Kim and Arrow, then you're that much better.

But this is one of those decisions the race made because what, they were sort of out of options

with them, this is last year and they're going to see was making, well, last year, yes,

that's correct.

And making 11 something million in that range, right, could be 12, could, it's somewhere

in that range.

And either you, you trade them now and get something for them or you, you lose that after

this year.

So, you know, and the weird thing was, is that, you know, of course, the pirates had

Paul schemes going, yeah, how about that?

Who saw, who saw him getting tagged?

First time not make, it's first time you ever giving up five runs in, in, in, in a, first

time not getting out of the first.

First time I saw a young woman winner is not kind of the first on this first start of the

next season.

Right.

And, and typically his whole routine, you know, he's 10 and 10 last year, but his ERA

was like under two.

His whole thing was he got no run support.

They go out there and get him a ton and he can't, he can't hold it.

Yep.

Yeah, I didn't see that one coming, did not see that one.

He still threw the ball hard, I mean, it wasn't like, you know, there's something wrong

with his arm or anything, but, um, yeah, the pirates couldn't get out of their own way.

They finally get some, some offense, the Paul club's not bad.

I mean, again, hey, they started investing in it finally after a hundred years of doing

nothing.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

I mean, a hundred million dollar payroll for the first time, yeah.

And I still maintain one of the, you know, we were up there last, last August for the,

for the bucks preseason game and, and, you know, it was a gorgeous day and so maybe I'm

tainted that way, but I still maintain one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful

ballpark venue.

It's top three in my book.

It's unbelievable.

I mean, it's right there on the, on the river, um, gorgeous park, you know, statues outside

of, you know, guys like Clementine, in other words, and it's, you know, right downtown stadium,

you can walk there, um, from, from most of the downtown, it's just, it's, it's phenomenal.

It should be, and has been a rocking baseball city, you know, and, um, so it's good that

they've invested a little bit in the product.

You just, again, things I didn't think would happen on opening day, you know, Paul Schienes

can't get out of the first.

I mean, you know, you just don't, uh, you don't necessarily see that coming, but it

did.

So that's what's great about baseball, man, as a, as a, that's baseball.

You stick around and you're gonna see a lot of weird things, but you do like to get

off to a good start.

And, you know, the fact the matter is, is the race may win this series, you know, they,

they, they, they really could, we got Joe Boyle pitch in Saturday and Stephen Matt's

on Sunday.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They got to get something out of those guys, which are, you know, I mean, Boyle is, he wasn't

going to be in the rotation until they had an injury to like Pepio, right?

He was going to start in Durham.

Yeah.

But Pepio goes on the IL.

So Boyle takes over the two spot, Nick Martinez battling, but I think a hamstring.

Yeah.

So they pushed him back from game two to game four.

Yeah.

He's supposed to at least be in this first rotation.

Yeah.

He's supposed to start the, the, the first game in Milwaukee.

Right.

Yeah.

We'll see if he's able to do that.

So yeah.

They'll get a day off.

Chance to regroup.

You know, they'll see, uh, whatever you see in St. Louis, I don't know the Clyde Stales

or something.

They were on the field.

The arch.

You got to go to the arch.

You got to go to the arch.

Yeah.

Got to go.

Go to the arch.

Um, I spent a little time in St. Louis.

My wife worked there for two years.

She was at the post dispatch.

She loved it.

She loved the city.

Yeah.

Go to Budweiser, uh, you know, brewery.

There you go.

Mike Shanahan's restaurant there.

Yeah.

Every minute.

Yeah.

I have been to that one.

Yes.

It's a good one.

Yeah.

Not far from Bush.

So.

Nope.

Yeah.

I've not been to the new Bush stadium.

The old Bush couple time last time was there was the last year it was in existence.

O five.

So they opened in O six and I've not been back to St. Louis since.

So.

Yeah.

So I'm going to get back there.

It's a great baseball city.

It just is.

And it doesn't matter if they're good or not, they're going to draw three million.

They just are last year.

They didn't.

And that's, you know, really?

Yeah.

They started to tail off at the end of last season because they were bad.

Yeah.

They were epically bad, even for them.

Yeah.

Well, I, they're a young team in many ways.

I don't know that they're, they're picked to do much, but they showed a lot of grit.

I mean, you can be down seven to one on opening day.

And I'm always going to crawl out of that, but they kept stringing together at bats.

And so they did.

So.

One down and 161 to go.

But I got them losing 100 is come out and say it.

So they'll win like 95.

Well, that's what happened last time.

They traded Corey Dickerson and you're like, yep, losing 100.

It's over.

Yeah.

And then they showed me.

Yeah.

I have some thoughts on the Tampa Bay Lightning.

That was quite a game with Seattle Kraken.

They managed to get a point, but did not win that game.

So we'll talk about that first.

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So I have not seen Seattle play this year.

I don't see him much until they play the lightning anyway.

You didn't stay up nine days ago at 10 o'clock at night for the game, actually 10, 20

hours.

I think I might have watched part of the first period.

I'm not exactly sure.

But I was thinking to myself, boy, if you're a hockey team or you're any team in Seattle

right, and you have to come east, that's a hell of a trip, even on a charter flight,

that's a good six hours or so.

But there they were, and the lightning played pretty well, I thought, for the most part,

they got to get off to a better start.

They started slow again, like they did the other night too.

Yeah.

They got down two goals and then started playing.

But is this the second game at home or the first game at home on the road trip, second

moment?

Tuesday they did the same thing.

Now they came back and won that game.

Yeah.

Six to three.

Yeah.

Tonight, they had, I believe if they haven't changed it, they outshot attempted Seattle 74

to 34.

Yeah.

I saw that they had 70 something shots attempted in 32 blocked.

Yeah.

Well, that's incredible.

That's a credit to Seattle if you're going to block that many shots.

It is.

Although Cooper said after the game, like, you know, 32, come on, that's on us.

Like we got to, we got to either take better shots or get them through.

Like, you can't have 32 shots blocked.

So what do you do?

Is that you're supposed to pass it at that point or?

Well, either you, you know, figure out how to move around the guy.

Yeah.

You know, you get in a better position, you know, there's all kinds of things you can do,

right?

Make one more play.

Make it move.

Make a extra pass.

Make it, you know.

Right, right, right.

There was, you know, and I heard Cory Perry, who already has a face, you know, that's pretty

beat up in his eyes black and swollen and all of that.

Now, some of the fight he had Tuesday night.

Yeah.

So he got into a couple set twos and you're not really supposed to fight when you're already

beat up like that and you got stitches, you know, and he don't care.

I know he don't care.

But like it's, it's just not a great idea.

And yet, so I don't know if it was Perry that said this or one of his teammates after one

of the between periods when they were interviewed was like, yeah, you know, that's, that's, you

know, we're going to stick up with each other and that's fine.

You hear that hockey line?

But it's almost with the Tampa Bay Lightning this year after what had happened to them,

you know, against Florida the last few years.

They now embrace this sort of pugilistic reputation, which is, you know, we're bringing, we're

bringing the fight to you.

We're not going to wait for you to come after us.

We're going to go ahead and they take, man, they take a ton of penalty minutes.

They, I think they're the most penalized team in the NHL.

They lead the NHL in fighting majors.

Fighting majors.

It's not even close.

Yeah.

They're like 10 more than any other.

So that's not a coincidence that that's, that's, that's sort of intentional.

That's your DNA at this point, you know, it's definitely intentional.

Now they're not going into games going, hey, we're getting into three fights tonight.

No, but, but when you get into three fights every night, then that's who you are.

But I think they're sick and tired of teams targeting them.

Yeah.

But are they still getting targeted or they, are they just have a hair trigger reaction

these days?

I think they're sick and tired of it.

And anytime they feel that they're getting targeted, they, they're responding.

They're sending messages.

They're spending a lot of time in a box, man.

I'll tell you that.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Now, their penalty kill has been really good this year.

Of late it has been.

And typically a fighting major, typically you both go off.

So it's both going.

Yeah, they, yeah.

I mean, you might get an extra two for roughing or an initial penalty, but typically the

fighting, it's not like you just went on the, on the penalty kill for a long time because

of the fight.

Right, right.

Like I said, doesn't mean they don't say no.

You started it.

You're getting an extra two.

That does happen.

It's, it's, it's using up energy.

It's sort of mucking up the game a little bit, you know, there's no, no flow to it.

It just, I don't know.

That's true, but, but for instance, Tuesday night and Cooper talked about this after the

game and the players did too, like the fight that Perry got into and then, uh, who had

the other, I forget who had the other fight, uh, a savern down in the fight.

Like that woke the team up.

That energized the bench.

And that happens.

And I'm okay if it's just, if that's the intent, you know what I mean, or the result,

that's fine.

But I also think they're, but this is, this is like every night.

I can't watch a lightning game where they're not brawling somebody and a lot of times they're

the ones that started.

I mean, I'm not saying they're not making a run at their better players and they're trying

to stick up for each other.

That happens.

Mm-hmm.

But it, I just don't know how you can have, first of all, any kind of offensive rhythm

if you're constantly, you know, playing on the power play and then the power play will

give you penalty.

Well, if you have, if you have the power play, yeah.

But if you're, if you're on defense and you're giving them an extra man advantage, right,

that's not going to help you offensively.

And it just, it just seems like every time I watch a lightning game, it's like, oh, here

they go.

You know, that they're, they're brawling every single team they play.

So that's, that's sort of what they've settled on.

Well, and I, but I also think they're into, it's partly sticking up for themselves.

And I also think they're trying to send messages because, you know, look, Florida physically

beat them the last two years in the playoffs.

No question.

And the series were close and, and the lightning had chances to win them both.

And, you know, last year was, every game was a one goal series or one goal game in the

third period, you know, they probably gave Florida the toughest competition they had in

the whole playoffs.

Yes, Florida one in five games, but like I said, every game was a one goal game.

And the third, Florida dominated a lot of the other teams along the way.

But you know, part of it is, is the book is, is go rough the lightning up.

Teams don't think they can take it.

And so the lightning this year, it appears consciously or, you know, just at an instinct

is said, we're tired of this.

And we're going to stand up for it, particularly in the regular season, right?

You go lose two points on a random Thursday night in the middle of season when you're,

you know, in a playoff position.

Is it really hurt you that bad?

But does it send a message for that, you know, when you could play that team in the playoffs?

Maybe not.

And maybe it will.

We'll see.

But if you spend that much time in the box in the post season against good teams, guess

what?

You're not going to win post season.

Well, but I also think there's a difference in, you know, are they going to react that

way in the post season because the other team's not going to react.

It's more physical.

There's a lot more scrums and, you know, pushing and shoving a little around the net.

But there's not the, let's go drop the gloves and fight in the playoffs as much.

There's not because teams don't want to get out.

They want to make sure they don't go on the penalty kill in the playoffs.

Yes.

It's more physical.

It's more.

There's a lot more clutching and grabbing.

There's that stuff.

But there's not as, you know, the first couple games of the playoffs sometimes.

But after that, it's kind of settles down to where the team's kind of know where the

line is.

And no one wants to cross the line because they don't want to give up a free power play

to somebody.

No, you don't.

And the teams in the playoffs, you generally all have good power plays.

Yeah.

But in, in, in, to your point, like in the last couple of post seasons, especially with

Florida, they've made run at their best players and they've knocked them out of games and

out of series.

Yeah.

You know, and I think the lighting you're tired of it.

That's what they're trying to prevent or head off.

They're trying to say, hey, you're going to mess with us.

You're going to, you're going to pay for it too.

Yeah.

You know, that's, that's the message.

I want to us in the hospital.

We put one of yours in the morgue, you know, and I think it's just different.

It's not, it's not what I'm used to seeing when I watch the lighting, but now it's, you

know, it's, it's clearly intentional at this point.

You don't lead the, you don't lead the NHL in penalty minutes by accident, because they're

very skilled.

I mean, they still have a ton of skilled players, but because of that, you know, and then,

you know, getting Corey Perry back, he's not afraid to drop him.

That's for sure.

Nope.

It was great because he got, he got jacked up too, and he came off the bench.

He was hurt.

Came off the bench and got the, the tying goal, make it three, three.

Yeah.

He drew the penalty and then he scored the power play goal, three seconds left on the

power play.

Yeah.

That was, that was revenge, you know, serve cold, but, um, and they were still able to

get a point.

And I thought the, the game that, the shot that beat Vassy was kind of from a weird angle.

Didn't, you wouldn't expect them to not stop that one.

Yeah.

I don't want that back, but it also Brandon Hagel broke his stick.

He did.

And so he can't play with the broken stick three on three.

He went to any, you just can't play with the broken stick period.

Yeah.

But actually three on three.

Yeah.

He went to go get a new stick.

So now you're playing three on two.

Yeah.

But I think Vassy would ultimately want that one back.

Yeah.

It was just a weird angle and, um, he was able to squeak.

I think he thought the past was, he played the past.

Mm hmm.

Yeah.

I mean, it was entertaining game.

It's just, you know, but now we've got another point.

The magic number goes down another, another number.

And they're down to how many, what eight games is that right?

They got 11 games.

11 games.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I know we're wrapping it up here soon.

Yep.

No, April 15th will be the final game for the lightning.

April 16th is finally the regular season for the NHL.

Are they likely to improve or does it matter at this point like who their opponent would

be in the first round?

Well, I mean, right now they're the two seed in the Atlantic division.

Okay.

I mean, you could catch Buffalo for the one seed, but, um, it started today.

You're playing Montreal.

But that would be the, the Worcester, you know, if you catch Buffalo, now you're going

to get the wild card.

So it could be a lot of, because it could be team for the Metro as well.

So, yeah.

Just keep moving points.

Yeah, you got two games this weekend, both at home, auto at one o'clock on Saturday.

So that.

And then Nashville on five o'clock on Sunday.

I might have done that out of a game if it wasn't at one.

That's an early start.

I get kids are kids day.

I know, but my kids are in dance until like six.

So I get it.

I get it.

There's that kids.

A lot of kids have sports and things, but, um, but yeah, they're so they're home at one.

And then I'm going to take them Sunday at five.

That's early.

Sunday at five is a possibility, but I hate to announce this because that's when they lose.

And then next Saturday, they're home at five o'clock on Saturday.

So, you know, that's good possibility.

We'll see how they play.

I want to jinx them, but it was, uh, it was entertaining game.

It was, uh, you know, got down, came back rallied and then, and then unfortunately for them,

it didn't, didn't finish.

So tough, tough day, night double header for Tampa Bay fans, you know, kind of took that one on the channel a little bit,

but did get a point as far as the, as far as the lightning go.

Um, March madness, uh, is, uh, back in action.

Three big 10 teams in the elite, they'd already, yeah, yeah, big 10s having a hell of a year.

And, uh, I, I assume Arizona won.

I turned it off every time Arizona is the one non big 10 team to win on Thursday.

I'll be honest with you, the little bit that I saw them.

I don't know many teams are going to beat those dudes.

They're really good.

I mean, if you're going just on talent and, and reputation and what they've done,

but they've lose two games all year, what they, what you've seen out of all year,

there's three teams that are, that are the cream of the crop.

And they're all the first seats.

It's, yeah, Arizona, Duke and Michigan.

Yeah, those are the, those are the three best teams all year.

Yeah.

And I don't know that any of them are going to lose, you know, until they get to the final four.

Yeah.

So I think we're going to go chalk through this tournament for the most part, but we'll see.

Well, you do have a nine seed in the elite eight with Purdue.

So yeah, Purdue, producing it.

But, you know, there's not that, that big Cinderella, you know, there's no.

Florida Atlantic necessarily this time.

And we got four more games tonight.

So it's a hell of a time of year.

I mean, you know, I love having March madness on late.

Raise playing every day, lightning still in it.

It's a great time of year.

You know, it's good, good time of year.

You got golf.

I think the masters is coming up here before long.

Yep.

Now the two weeks.

Yeah.

So a tradition like none other.

So yeah, that's a good viewing.

And NFL owners meanings are next week that I will not be at because they're in Phoenix.

I might take something called the vacation, at least for my date.

Yeah, I know for my daytime job.

We'll see.

Every time I, every time I try to get out, they pull me back in.

But I actually have a little time off, wrote a story.

You can check that out in the 10 Bay Times, 10 Bay.com about the Bonte David.

And the Hall of Fame.

And let me just say this and you can read the column.

We'll talk about it next week.

No doubt in my mind, none zero that he's a Hall of Fame player.

And I believe he'll get in.

I don't think it'll happen.

The first two, three, maybe four times that he's in the room.

If he gets to be a top 15 finalist, it took around a barber.

I think was there three times.

John Lynch was there, maybe seven or eight times before he got in.

But unquestionably.

And you can look at the stats.

If you just do a blind draw and you put out a bunch of numbers, and I did that for the column,

Joe McCoy challenged us to do just that.

And you don't pay attention to things like probals of which he just had one.

You would come up with unquestionably that, you know, okay, this guy's a Hall of Fame

or this guy's a Hall of Fame or well, then he must be a Hall of Fame.

Because his numbers match up to anybody, any off ball linebacker that's an inside linebacker,

we're talking about Brian Lerlocker, Ray Lewis.

Those are the kinds of numbers that the Monte David has.

And, you know, playing that many years, when I said longevity has its, you know,

has its benefits, but the, the plays that he made.

And all by the way, just to kind of finish this thought,

he's fourth all time in tackles for loss.

And what's significant about that?

Well, the top 15 in NFL history of the top 15 in tackles for loss, he's the only linebacker.

The other 14 or defensive lineman, why is that important?

Well, if you play on the line of scrimmage, right, you've just got to penetrate one yard.

You're going to get tackles for loss because, you know, you're, you're a 300 pound man,

a 280 pound man, a 270 pound.

So you're just, you know, you make a swim, you make some penetration, you hit,

they hit the A gap and maybe you drop a running back for, you know, a loss of one.

And so you do that season after season after season, you're going to pile up a good

number, a good amount of numbers.

He had over 170 tackles for loss, which ranks fourth all time.

And he's the only linebacker.

So he's coming downhill, yeah, facing 300 pounders and making plays in the backfield.

I think I saw Brian Erlacher was like 138, like 40 behind him.

Yeah, it's incredible.

I mean, to be fourth all time and be the only non defensive lineman in the top 15 is,

all I can make his Hall of Fame speech today, his pitch today to the committee.

And maybe I will one day, but it shouldn't be a hard set.

The one thing that people are going to say, he's made one probable.

Well, you know what?

So did should do our Sanders.

Right.

So are we going to say he's, he's, he should be considered because of his one probable.

Well, I thought we were already putting should do in the hall.

Well, some people are apparently, but, yeah.

But, but, you know, that just goes to show how absurd the Hall of Fame,

the, uh, probable voting has become, but what, what you can ignore is the fact

that he's on the all decade team.

Now that, okay, you make an all decade team.

And that was something that hurt some of the other Bucks players, um, that,

that, uh, you know, didn't get in right away was that they weren't all decade.

John Lynch was one of those John Lynch because he started in like 94, um,

he was kind of between decades.

You know, his best 10 years was started, you know, happen in the middle of one decade

in 94, 95 and finished in the second half of the other.

And so he didn't have that.

Well, the Wante David does.

And to me to have that sort of sustained success that you're, you know,

one of two inside linebackers picked to an all decade team really matters.

And he should be.

So, yeah, as I, as I look at the numbers, I'm like, I, because I always thought,

well, tackles, you know, those are sort of nebulous and, you know,

whose list are you looking at and any tied with Derek Brooks and all that.

That's kind of a longevity thing too.

But no, the plays that he's made, the tackles for losses, the force

fumbles, I think you had 33, 34 force fumbles.

The fun will recover just a splash plays and all of that.

He, if you didn't know, you'd, you'd pick, you know, linebacker A or linebacker B

and he'd be going like, yeah, that's Brian or Locker.

That's Ray Lewis, you know, that, oh, that's the LaVante David.

And they're all, they're all very much the same, you know,

they're all very much the same.

So, anyway, check it out in 10 Bay Times, 10 Bay.com.

I thought it was interesting what, what Joe McCoy had said and others about LaVante

David. Hey, make sure you get on down to Brightening, Boutique International Plasma.

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Let them know you heard about it here on Sports Day Tampa Bay.

Thanks for listening. As always, for Steve Gerstner, Gumrich Strout, 10 Bay Times.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

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