Kieran Culkin on the "Variety Awards Circuit" podcast 27th April 2023:
Host: Also, I have to ask you [about] Tom and Greg, man.
Kieran: (laughing)
Host: I mean, it’s Jack and Ennis [the two lead characters in Brokeback Mountain]. It’s the most beautiful thing. It’s the most beautiful love story on television. (laughing)
Kieran: It’s pretty great, yeah.
Host: It’s great. And I know you auditioned– or wanted, or read for Cousin Greg?
Kieran: No, they sent it to me to read for Greg, and I knew that I wasn’t.
Host: You knew.
Kieran: I knew right– before even reading the first line of dialogue that said, "Greg, 26" and I think I was like 36 or something like that, and I was like, okay, well the age is wrong.
Host: You have aged remarkably though, by the way.
Kieran: Why thank you. [Explains about how he ended up asking to read for Roman instead; the rest is history]
Kieran: But [back to] Tom and Greg, it worked out well. Tom and Greg, while we shot the pilot, you know, the way that Adam McKay is very like, fluid with the cameras and sort of– it’s very alive. We’re at the softball game, and he yells out to the cameras like, "go to Tom and Greg!" and very far long lenses, cameras turn, and they know to do a scene that they hadn’t rehearsed yet, which was the, "Will you kiss me?" (pauses) That thing at the very beginning that was like, "Will you kiss me, Greg?" They hadn’t rehearsed it. They hadn’t blocked it, they just started doing it, because it was like, I guess there’s still more film left, go, do that part! And I watched that from the other side of the field, and went; Oh, this thing. These two guys is– this is the show.
So Dafuq had an interview with one of the ST theory channels, specifically EliteCameraman, which I know quite a few of you do not bother watching because of the AI voiceover. So uh, yeah, I watched it for you so you don't have to. I'll say this, Elite Cameraman and Dafuq do actually keep in contact with each other, so these are actual messages from Dafuq himself.
Any personal thoughts I interject below will be marked with || thought || and is not part of the interview
[ID:A series of Discord messages between EliteCameraman and Dafuq?!Boom!
EliteCameraman: First let's start with more general questions and after these I'll move on to more specific questions about the next episode
Which episode are you most hyped for in the foreseeable future?
Dafuq?!Boom!: 73, 74, 77, 80 are all fire episodes tbh
EliteCameraman: Also you said that we'll be getting more episodes compared to before after episode 79 and since now that season 24 is starting how do you think the upload schedule will be and how long the average episode length will be because the last couple episodes before 71 were quite the long episodes.
Dafuq?!Boom!: I was expecting the episodes to come out faster, but stress after 70 pushed hard, so I started of slow and still going quite slow. I'm also trying to improve combat in the episodes which I think takes quite some time. I think at some point soon episodes will be rolling out faster.
EliteCameraman: Who is your favorite character in skibidi toilet?
Dafuq?!Boom!: I have multiple
EliteCameraman: Are you excited for any new characters that you'll be introducing like the detective cameraman who was in the secret scenes? ||from the full season 23 video||
Dafuq?!Boom!: There's many more old and new characters coming in very soon.
||I skipped a troll question here. it wasn't that relevant, but it was about some fake troll scenes dafuq made about the naked microwave man||
EliteCameraman: blud must be trolling
How do you think the astro toilets will effect the power scales? because from what we've seen so far they seem like they can actually hold off against the titans but it looks like they have a different plan.
Dafuq?!Boom!: We have yet to see the strongest yet.
EliteCameraman: A lot of people have been wondering about simp cameraman ||browncoat cameraman|| and if he'll ever return. And as you know I'm quite a fan of simp toilet because of his incredible beliefs. Can you give us some info about if he'll return and if he does, will he still side with the alliance or join the dark side.
Dafuq?!Boom: I have some interesting plans for him.
||so browncoat confirmed as not dead?!||
EliteCameraman: (crying skull emoji)
Did you ever see a theory that guessed everything correctly even stuff that we haven't seen yet?
Dafuq?!Boom!: No theories have guessed entire plot correctly, but partially some were very close
EliteCameraman: How long will episode 72 be?
Dafuq?!Boom!: 3-4 minutes
EliteCameraman: damn blud's been grinding fr fr
This episode truly will be a new beginning for the series for the first time ever we got a conclusion for one of the evil characters and the last battle really had some crazy consequences. Do you think people are ready for what's about to come?
Dafuq?!Boom: Y'all ain't ready.
EliteCameraman: You said we won't be seeing the titans in episode 72, are we going to see a different P.O.V from the last fight in the bunker once again or is it fully uncharted territory from now on.
Dafuq?!Boom: Not bunker, but with territory of Alpha-Hills complex (huge territory).
EliteCameraman: We saw that all the titans have suffered some damage, normally whenever they go back to the bases for repairs it takes them about 10 to 20 episodes to come back, will it be the same or will we see them getting fixed on the fly just like how they got upgraded on episode 69 part 2?
Dafuq?!Boom!: Now that the Alliance is dominating and pushing Skibidi Toilets, they don't have plans to retreat. Unless something truly unexpected happens.
||that doesn't sound ominous at all||
EliteCameraman: Also about the astro toilets, how was the claw astro toilet able to speak English while we haven't seen any other toilet speak normally? Does it have to do with their helmets because they all seem to have helmets and we don't know their uses.
Dafuq?!Boom!: Skibidi Toilets posses all earthly languages. They just chose to speak on their superior, far more complex "skibidi" language.
EliteCameraman: Thx for the answers bruh, now Imma leak it all.
Josh Clark and Kenneth Nash chat with Josh Bogorad, play-by-play voice of the Dallas Stars, about the unique playoff run the team has embarked on. The guys hear from Josh about how different calling games is with the current bubble restrictions and how he's adapted to doing off-site broadcasts. Plus Josh dives into some of his favorite moments of this year's playoff run so far and what it's like to get to call iconic moments. LOCKED ON STARS - Part of the Locked On Podcast Network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
I’ve transcribed this for you so that we have text quotes -- thank you Google Read & Write for Schools -- but you for sure should listen. Anyone who is a hardcore Stars fan will love everything about this. It’s mostly Josh pumping Dallas up and YOU LOVE TO SEE IT.
Episode length: 40 minutes.
Post length: LONG.
Key quote: “But I also think that there’s also a bit of a disservice to the Stars and just how good they were in the regular season. When you start 1-7-1 and you dig yourself a hole like that, it’s very easy to kind of forget about the fact that for the next more than 50 games, they were the best team in the NHL by a landslide. I mean, it wasn’t even close. Not the conference, not in the division, but in the entire NHL. They went on this ridiculous run! That’s more than 50 games! That’s not a small sample size.”
CLARK: Welcome into the Locked On Stars podcast. Happy Thursday to all of you out there listening and tuning in. I'm Josh Clark, the Dallas correspondent to NHL.com joined by my co-host Kenneth Nash, Site Expert at NolanWritin.com. And we have a special guest today. Yes, it's a special time of year for the Dallas Stars, so Kenneth and I thought ‘why not try and get on as many special guests as we can?’ So today we have the man that you more than likely muted your TV to listen to on the radio over the past month or so. Josh Bogorad, the play-by-play announcer for the Dallas Stars. Josh, it has been six months since we last had you on. We're happy to have you back and actually talking hockey this time.
BOGORAD: Yeah. I missed you guys! It’s, it’s a much better time to be doing this, so. We were in a bit of uncertainty and now, we’re uh, getting ready for a Stanley Cup Final. It seems like a pretty good spot to be in.
CLARK: That, that’s like the definition of 2020. You know it could be yesterday, could be a month ago, who knows what was happening? And now all we know is Dallas Stars are four wins away from their first Stanley Cup in 21 years. And so it couldn’t be better right now to be talking to you, talking about Dallas Stars hockey in general.
And, before we, you know, dive into the full conversation, just wanted to ask: how have the past couple of months been for you? I guess, let’s say, the months from March when we last talked up until July when training camp started? But also the last two months as well. Just how have things been at home?
BOGORAD: Yeah. I mean, things, things were kind of like they were for everyone back when we were talking. Nobody knew what the landscape was going to look like, and so then you fast forward to July and, you know, you had the Return to Play agreement and then Training Camp. And it’s crazy to think about now because it all has gone on just so fluidly and we keep getting these reports of zero positive tests, and there have been no hiccups whatsoever. Everything has just run so smoothly.
But there were all these checkpoints. There was Phase 1 and Phase 2 and Phase 3, and so even when we were getting ready and we were going through Training Camp we were seeing other sports finding outbreaks or, or, cancelling or postponing. And so, it, it was really weird in that early going because everyone was prepping and we were going full steam ahead but you also realise that the elephant in the room was like maybe something was going to come and, and just knock all this off before it started. And fortunately, that didn’t happen. And then it just started to settle into hockey.
Again, now that you’re down to three teams at the time that we’re recording this, and within a matter of days or hours it's going to be two teams, um, it -- the beginning of this tournament was just so wild because it was essentially March Madness in hockey. Waking up in the morning for AM hockey games every single day, and then six games and five games and, you’re wondering ‘alright if this one goes to overtime, is that one still gonna make it in time?’ It was, it was just a unique way to consume games and it was such a cool reintroduction to the sport. And so, as a fan of the sport I got swept right up in it because the games were outstanding.
I mean, right from the qualifying series. I remember that first game. You’re seeing guys fight that don’t usually fight and every single check is getting finished. And it was that moment that you realised, after the Exhibition Game was done, you’re like ‘This is, this is Stanley Cup Playoff hockey!’ And, like, this is for real. And it’s just been a breakneck pace since then. It’s been, it's been a tonne of fun. And then from a Stars perspective, I mean. My goodness what a run this team has been on.
CLARK: Yeah absolutely. Like you mentioned, it was great waking up -- I think it was that first Saturday morning -- and just sitting down on the couch with breakfast and not moving until dinner because it was just hockey game after hockey game. And so, to be in quarantine there are worse places to be than sitting on your couch watching 5 to 6 hockey games a day.
But now I'm wanting talk about -- now, as you mentioned obviously -- what an incredible 6 or 7 or 8 weeks it's been for the Stars now since entering the Bubble. Um, but wanted to talk to you because you have actually been in a bubble of sorts yourself when calling games. Uh, for many that don't know, if you watch Stars Live, if you watch the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Fox Sports Southwest, Josh and Razor have been in the creative Studio of Fox Sports Southwest where some of the creative directors and the content creators work.
Uh, but it's interesting Josh because you've been calling all these games -- instead of having fans, you know, 5 feet in front of you, 20 feet behind you, kind of all around you, immersed at the American Airlines Center or whatever other arena you're in -- you're now calling ‘em 15 feet away from Razor and you're kind of in your own little crevice of the creative studio. And I wanted to ask: how has that been? ‘Cause now you’ve called, uh I guess, adding the round robin games and everything together 20 plus games at the Fox Sports Southwest Studio. How's it been so far for you?
BOGORAD: Yeah. It's, it's been, it's been crazy because I've never done anything like that before. And so at the beginning it was so strange to walk in the room. I’ve called so many games in my life and my career and various different elements and press boxes and cities. And each one has its own unique qualities, but they all have had one very common thing and that is that you could see the ice! Like you could actually open your eyes and see the game in front of you. And this was different. I mean you're, you're watching TV and then calling that way. Um, so at the beginning for those Exhibition games we had different feeds, and, um -- the guys at Fox first off are so incredible.
The people at Fox Sports Southwest -- I mean, you probably know this better than most, Josh, but uh, the undertaking that this, this was, to put this together. Because there wasn’t months of planning. This was ‘alright, they’re gonna play, we’re gonna do remote broadcast, everybody in these [?] figure out how to make it work’. And do it in a matter of a few weeks. And, and they did everything they could to make our jobs as easy as possible. So strange as it was, they still, they did everything so well. And honestly I could spend 45 minutes just thanking people. Um, so, so they were so fantastic.
But at the same time, you’re having to relearn a way to call a game. And, and you probably don’t think about it that much if you’re just watching a hockey telecast but, a lot of time to bring the audience closer to the action they break away from the wide camera shot and cut to something in the corner. Because there’s a collision coming in the corner or there’s a puck along the boards and players are fighting for the puck and trying to see who wins a wall battle. Or because they made the arenas look so great in the Bubble, they’ll cut down to a tight shot to get all those graphics in the background. It looks like a really cool shot.
And if you’re at home watching the game, these things all subtly, they, they change the way you consume the game for the better. And they bring you inside. If you just had one camera going back and forth and it was just one shot for three hours, it would be boring. And there’s really skilled people who make calculated decisions by the second as to how you will best be able to view this game and take away the story.
But when you’re calling the game and you’re actually calling the play-by-play, a lot of times those cutaways prevent you from seeing the puck at that exact moment! And it doesn’t really matter if you’re watching because you can very quickly readjust when they, when they cut back to a different camera. But when you’re calling and there’s just this break and out of one of those corner battles, you don’t know if the puck went down or up the wall. You don’t know if it went to someone in the slot. Um, when someone dumps in a puck you don’t know if a team went for a line change. If they’re showing a graphic that takes away the scoreboard. You don’t know how much time is left in the period.
Like all these things that if you’re there, present in the arena, you’re responsible for your own eyes and you’re constantly scanning, and looking at different things. Like how much time is left on the Power Play? Where’s this guy going? And where’s the puck? And is there a late change coming? And who’s the trailer on the play? But you kind of get used to picking up all of those things because you're in charge of finding them. And when you’re limited to a screen, it becomes a different way of doing it.
And so, none of us really knew what to expect in terms of how to call a game off a screen, when for lack of better description, your eyes aren’t really your eyes anymore. You’re at the mercy of this screen and what someone else is picking for you. But I remember that they gave us different feeds to help with that. So that you would always have a wide shot, you could always see the clock. So there would always be a wide shot, you could always see if there was a line change happening behind the play. So if someone dumped it in or the puck gets cleared at the tail end of a shift, these guys get off the ice or not. But you then had to train, like well which monitor do I have to look at? And in some of those early games I remember thinking to myself, ‘man, why is this director showing that right now? It makes it so much more difficult!’ only to realise that I was looking at the wrong monitor. Because I had 4 to choose from and I had never done anything like this. And um, there was a learning curve.
Honestly, it was a lot of, it was a lot of fun to be back in any capacity, and the games were so good. And then it was fun to kind of learn to do it this way. And um, and then as things have moved along, once we stopped with the television productions and we’ve gone to only radio for the last couple of rounds, I’ve gotten the feed that everybody at home has gotten. We’ve been one feed. So. Basically, like, you’re watching on your couch. That’s exactly what I’m seeing when I’m seeing it. And, uh, we’ve just called it that way. And that posed, again, a few challenges that you’ve just kind of had to adapt to.
Um, but I think that the craziest thing of all this is: after doing it for a couple of months and 20+ games as you mentioned, all of a sudden you walk in there and it doesn’t seem all that abnormal anymore. When you describe it, it is. And when you’re doing it, you certainly realise some of the things you’re missing by not being there, but we’ve done it for so long now that it’s just kind of become routine.
CLARK: Yeah. It certainly, I think, I guess that's kind of what you could, you could apply that to just about anybody that’s either working in sports for the Stars, or working, or just as a fan at home watching these games. It’s just kind of become that new routine. Not having any fans. Not having any, uh, except having artificial crowd noise, the whole works. It’s been an interesting ride. But regardless, the Stars are still on that ride. We're still enjoying it. We’ve got plenty more to talk about with Josh on the other side of this break. We’ll get to that when the Locked On Stars podcast continues in a moment.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
CLARK: Back here at the Locked On Stars podcast. Happy Thursday to everybody out there. I'm Josh Clark, the Dallas correspondent to NHL.com joined by Kenneth Nash, my co-host and Site Expert at NolanWritin.com. And our play-by-play announcer for Dallas Stars hockey, Josh Bogorad. Josh, I totally hogged that first 10 minutes. Just you and me. Kenneth may just have been a fly on the wall at that point. So, it's my turn to not hog. Kenneth, the floor is all yours.
NASH: So gracious of you, Josh.
CLARK: I know, I know.
NASH: *laughs* Thanks, Josh. Uh.
CLARK: You’re welcome, you’re welcome. Go ahead.
NASH: Uh, so for the Josh that everyone actually wants to hear from --
CLARK: Oooh!
NASH: -- and not the Josh we all hear too much from…
CLARK: Oooh!
NASH: Uh, I do have a question though. Josh Clark and I both have some experience doing kind of play-by-play broadcasting work in college. Obviously much much much smaller scale but there’s, there's obviously --
CLARK: MUCH!
NASH: -- a process you go through -- MUCH! D2 private university, much much smaller -- But. There’s obviously a process you go through when you're preparing for a game in kind of a ... for me I know it was always -- I did a lot of baseball -- but there was always a rhythm to the game that you got when you got there to the park, and you can kind of your normal things your normal, I guess, step by step things you go through to get ready.
And I know that for you, for you and Razor, you do a lot of your prepping at, uh, I believe morning skate and you get to meet with Rick Bowness, and kind of do a lot of your work there for the game later that night. How has that process kind of changed? Obviously you're not getting to do a lot of that. So have you had, like have you found a way to adapt? Is it not as big a deal as maybe somebody might think it was? What is your kind of, you’re, you're prepping for games that obviously you aren't there for. How, what does that look like?
BOGORAD: It's a really good question. And probably one where it's easier to think about if you have done broadcast before because prep is such an instrumental part of all this. And there’s different parts of prep, but you kind of keyed in on the big difference which was no access. Um. No morning skate, and this unfit to play designation? I can’t ever recall going into this many games where right up until puck drop, most people didn’t even know who was playing. And, um, that’s a very strange thing, and so. That changes line combinations, that changes so many things.
I know that for me, I always enjoy -- I’ve done so many games but I never stopped watching the pregame warmup. Not morning skate, but the pregame warmup in the arena like 40 minute before faceoff. Um. You could just start to see, you know, what players look like if you’re not as familiar with seeing them. Get to know your guys blindly, you just know exactly who they are. But identification pieces. Who’s skating on what line with whom. Um, maybe if someone looks like they’re nursing a little something or they’re wearing their jersey a little differently or there’s something that sticks out about their helmet.
We didn’t get to see much of pregame skate and then they were doing cutarounds that when you have all these monitors to see something you weren’t really in charge of it so you couldn’t really track. Um, and so I think those were the biggest things where, you know, you just had to prepare for the game. You know, a lot of it’s the same, and with a few missing ingredients where you’re not in the locker room that morning, chatting with guys about any questions you might have. And, you’re not getting to know what the lineups are going to be in advance.
There were definitely things that were different. But then, the crux of your prep is really, you know, studying teams, and studying rosters, and familiarising yourself with storylines and coming up with interesting things that you can tell the audience and you don’t necessarily know which will become more of a story as the game unfolds, and just being prepared for any direction the game might take you. And that all remains exactly the same. But those other ones that you mentioned and I kind of focused on there, you’re just without those. So it’s like anything else, you just, you just kind of have to go on without it and adapt like we have with so many other aspects.
CLARK: Yeah it's, it's certainly been weird. And I know -- I'm sure every hockey broadcaster’s standpoint and even, you know, players -- it's just such a weird time overall. And the fact that the Stars are now one of the final three teams standing, maybe that, as you mentioned, Josh, kind of helps us to get into a routine, and helps it kind of become part of that normal that we’re getting used to or that we’ve become used to.
I now wanted to talk kind of a bigger picture with you Josh because obviously on August 3rd the Dallas Stars began round-robin play, and obviously things didn’t look very great. It looked as though a couple ingredients were still missing. It really looked as though the team wasn't necessarily on the same page, and ready to take that next step getting into the playoffs.
And now here we are. They’re 4 wins away from the Stanley Cup and they really look like the team that we expected them to be back in September of last year -- a whole year ago, gosh. Last year we expected them to be this calibre of team that could contend for the Cup. But this playoff run has been so much more. It's been made up of so many incredible moments.
I mean, every night after the game, whether it's just the Stars Live show or whether y'all got the call on Fox Sports Southwest, watching those Stars Live segments, getting to see your call lined up with highlights and other -- applause to the Fox Sports Southwest crew being able to do that for us on Stars Live, but -- I wanted to ask just, for you in general: these, all these big moments, and all these heroic performances by all these guys, what are some of the highlights in your mind that you're going to take away from this run and never forget as long as you live?
BOGORAD: You know it’s, it’s.. I think anytime you get this deep, you're going to have signature moments. Because you don't string together in the Stanley Cup Playoffs a run that takes you to a conference title and a Stanley Cup Final without getting them. The margin between winning and losing in hockey is just so thin that usually you're going to get a couple of moments along the way.
With this run, though, it really does feel like almost every single night you have at least one, and in some games multiple, like enormous moments where you could look at things that maybe are forgotten and on another scale they would be the biggest goal of the year! And that’s how wild these twenty games have been.
Um. I mean, if you’re asking for the ones that honestly I will remember forever, um, it’s: Kiviranta’s game 7 overtime. It’s Gurianov’s conference winning goal in overtime. Because if you just look at the sheer numbers of how many times that’s ever happened, I mean you’re talking about the entirety of the NHL, and there have been 45 game 7’s that have gone to overtime. 45! That’s it. In the entire history.
So for Joel Kiviranta to win a game 7 and get the Stars to the conference final for the first time in a dozen years, doing that and completing a hat trick, and he scored the key late goal in regulation, and when he woke up nobody expected him to be in the lineup, I mean that is, that is an unforgettable trifecta right there. It’s crazy that that happened. He instantly became a household name in Dallas, and throughout the hockey world. And I think because this second round had been this ceiling that the Stars had flirted with but hadn’t been able to break through for over a decade, it made it that much more special.
That moment is just something, you know, it’s one season later to the game where Pat Maroon ended the Stars’ run. And to come back there, I remember thinking as that game went to overtime, it’s basically been what? 16 months? Since that May game at Enterprise Centre and we’ve been through a literal global pause, and everything that’s happened that you could -- there’s been a Winter Classic, the coaching changes, there’s been signings, I mean, there’s been so many storylines with this team and I mean here you are, just got this Mulligan 16 months later.
And it was, it was such a crazy spot to be in where Colorado had also lost in the second round in game 7 the year before. And it’s like one goal is going to determine what the story of these seasons are, what like the 2 year stories of these seasons are. And um, and then for him to get that goal, it was just, it was such a cool moment. It was so great to see the players, the coaches, and the executives, the guys in the suite, Jim Nill and his staff. And I was so happy for so many people, and the Stars fans.
And it was wild! And you’re thinking ‘alright, that’s kind of as good as it gets’. And then a week later, here comes Denis Gurianov in game 5, and you punch your ticket to, to the Stanley Cup Final on an overtime goal. That’s the 39th time in NHL history that that’s happened. It’s the 5th time EVER that it’s happened by a rookie.
And, these, these things, these don’t happen a lot. And I tried to, I tried to convey that over the air in our postgame and just in some interactions with fans on social media. I’m so happy for Stars fans right now, because I know how long so many people have waited for moments like this. And these are moments. These are plural. These, I mean these are so many incredible moments. Um. And they, they just don’t happen a lot. There are people who have spent their entire lives as younger Stars fans waiting to see something like this because they weren’t around in 2000 or weren’t old enough to remember it. Um. This is a generation of hockey fans that are experiencing this for the first time. And so, to get here in any fashion would just be so remarkable. To do it in the dramatic fashion in which the Stars have done it? That is just, it’s just so so great for the organisation, for the players, for the fans, for the staff. I’m just, I’m just elated for all of them.
And so I know I got off on a tangent there, but like it’s those two, it’s those two moments that they just have to rise above the rest. And then how do you leave off Joe Pavelski’s goal with 12 seconds left which saved their season because they were going to go down 3-1 to Calgary? Or Radulov’s overtime tip off of Klingberg’s shot that same game? Or Oleksiak’s game winner after the Stars blew a two goal lead in the third period? Or Radulov’s goal 31 seconds into overtime in the conference -- like, like my GOD, how are there this many?
It’s just. The two have to be the series clinchers because they have to be. I mean, they’re record breaking historic moments! But you also have to add that asterisk that you might want to single out these two but also there are a dozen others right behind it that on any other given year those would take the cake. And when you put it all into the same postseason, wow. What an incredible ride it’s been.
CLARK: It’s certainly been -- that’s the word for it: “incredible”. Unexpected. But hey! We're here for all of it. And I think you put it best, Josh, on Twitter, saying they have a flair for the dramatic and honestly it’s like they're just leaving us waiting, it's almost like that cliffhanger. They’re leaving us waiting to see what unexpected incredible moment is coming right around the corner in the next game. We’ll talk plenty more with Josh Bogorad about this magical Dallas Stars Stanley Cup Final run right around the corner when Locked On Stars podcast continues in a moment.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
CLARK: Back here at the Locked On Stars podcast, wrapping up our Thursday episode. Hope you’re all doing well, hope you’re staying safe out there. I’m Josh Clark, alongside my co-host Kenneth Nash, and our special guest of the day, play-by-play announcer for the Dallas Stars, Josh Bogorad joining us. And Kenneth, again, I’m gonna be gracious. I’m gonna leave the floor to you. The stage is yours. You and Josh have a great conversation. I’ll just sit back in the backseat and listen.
NASH: *laughs* Thank you for that. Uh, I’m curious -- first off, I have to agree with you Josh, it’s really interesting, it’s crazy to think about all the, all the iconic moments. You think of playoff runs as having one or two, like you said, but this, I mean, it’s just this playoff run for the Dallas Stars has just been moment after moment. And some of it is that they put themselves in some tough positions.
But, I'm curious looking ahead now to the grand finale of the big prize on the table, looking to Stanley Cup Final, obviously we don't know who the Stars are going to be playing -- maybe find out later tonight -- but I’m curious, what -- when you’re kind of looking ahead and looking at this team and how they're built and these players and this coaching staff -- what are some, I guess some themes that you’re kind of, that stand out to you um for this team in the Stanley Cup Final. Maybe a strength and weakness or something like that?
Because I think this -- while I think this team expected to be in this situation I think we would all be a little bit hard-pressed to say that at certain points of the season we thought this was legitimately on the table. And so there, I’m curious, basically, long-short, how do you look at the Stanley Cup Final for the Dallas Stars?
BOGORAD: I think, I think that this season as a whole has just been a team where when they’ve put it together they really have looked like they can beat anyone. And then in stretches where they haven’t, they've looked like a team that just is struggling more than just your average struggles. I mean, the 1-7-1 start, even though it was so long ago, like that was still the same team. It wasn’t like some trade or personnel switch or coaching change triggered a turnaround. It was just it all kind of just fell into place.
I mean, it seems like the common denominator has been: they needed a moment. They needed that spark. And sometimes it went games without them being able to provide that spark. But then once they did, they just, they just turned lethal. And I think that they are an extremely scary team when they’re confident. And I think they’ve got reason to be confident because they’re a good team.
I know that on the national landscape a lot of people call the Stars a surprise that they’re here. And I think that that's fair. I know that they were underdogs against Colorado and Vegas. Colorado and Vegas are outstanding. But I also think that there’s also a bit of a disservice to the Stars and just how good they were in the regular season.
When you start 1-7-1 and you dig yourself a hole like that, it’s very easy to kind of forget about the fact that for the next more than 50 games, they were the best team in the NHL by a landslide. I mean, it wasn’t even close. Not the conference, not in the division, but in the entire NHL. They went on this ridiculous run! That’s more than 50 games! That’s not a small sample size. But. Before it ended, before the pause hit, they had 6 games where they couldn’t score. And they couldn’t win. And so when you start with 1 win in 9 games and then you finish with 0 wins in 6 games, then that’s 15 games that kind of grab the headlines and steal away the 54 games that were in between where Dallas was the best team in the NHL.
And I think what’s happened now is they’re reminding people of who they were for that very long stretch which basically began that Minnesota comeback just before Hallowe’en and went all the way through mid-February. And they were a very very good team. The thing that they’ve done in the Bubble that I think probably is unexpected is, whenever they’ve given up more goals than they did in the regular season, it was a case in the regular season where they just couldn’t catch up. They couldn’t win a track meet. If the game turned to 1, they were gonna lose. They played 69 games. They won 1 of them when allowing 4 goals. And then it became just a regular occurrence in the first two rounds against Calgary and Colorado.
And I think that that makes them more dangerous than they’ve ever been, because what the Stars do right now is they win the game that they’re in. They beat the opponent that they’re facing. If it turns into a run and gun game, then they’re gonna find a way to beat you in that. If it turns into a goaltending duel? Then they’re gonna find a way to beat you in that. If it turns into a physical game? Then they’re gonna find a way to beat you in that. And because of that, you’re just seeing this incredible record of one goal wins.
And again, if you want to write this team off from a national landscape and say well they don’t belong here, just finding ways to win, but at a certain point if you do it enough? It stops being coincidence and it starts becoming your identity. And I think that’s what they are heading into the Stanley Cup Final. Whoever they meet, it’s gonna be a tough matchup. But the Stars are confident in what they bring. They’re confident in the game they’re playing. They’re getting contributions up and down the lineup. It feels like it’s a different hero any given night.
The defence is such a big part of the offence, which was the focal point for Rick Bowness coming out of the pause, and then it’s just exploded in a way you only could’ve dreamed of. And their goaltending, the story with Khoudobin is great. But this isn’t an out of nowhere story this season! He led the NHL with a 9.30 save percentage! I know it’s this fantastic ‘he’s never been here before’ story, and it is -- for the postseason! He’s been a career backup who’s now playing like a Conn Smythe Trophy winner. But he did it all season long too!
So, I think a lot of the shock and a lot of the comments that you’re seeing from national people is that they kind of never saw what the Stars did because they weren’t necessarily paying attention to the Stars. And if you’ve been with this team throughout the year, then you’ve seen a transformation throughout time, and certainly the offence suggests that here in the Bubble. But the conference final looked a lot like what Stars fans saw for a 54 game segment where Dallas was the best team in the NHL. They hold, they counterpunch, their special teams are better now than they’ve been at any point in the year and that’s obviously a help. They get great goaltending, they get timely saves, they get timely goals, they protect leads, they come back…
For as little as this team scores, most people would be shocked to know that they led the NHL, tied with Washington, in comeback wins this year when they were trailing at second intermission. Because they don’t put themselves out of games, either. And that, to a T, is who they are. They’re a team that believes they’re going to win, no matter the situation, no matter the opponent, and when they’re confident and they’re playing like they’re confident, and they certainly are right now, they are an extremely dangerous team. And there’s a lot of teams right now maybe wondering how in the world Dallas got the better of them, but when that list grows, it’s because they deserved to get the better of them.
CLARK: Yeah. Like you said it's really not that they -- it's really not just coincidence at that point and Kenneth I talked about it a lot over the past month or so how it's been so impressive that they seemed to just flip a switch every single series.
Like Calgary, as you said, a lot of time it required a comeback, it required five goals in a game here and there. Colorado, it was that run and gun style of hockey. Take risks, high flying. And then Vegas, they were able to flip back to their roots and play strong defense-first hockey, suffocate them -- suffocate a one-goal lead in the third period.
And it’s just been so impressive how they continue to rise to any challenge and it's almost as if they say ‘we're not going to lose we're going to do whatever we have to do not to lose and you're not going to stop us regardless’.
So it’s been an impressive run so far. We've had a lot of fun. Josh, I know you’ve had a lot of fun. Some calls that -- I know Kenneth and I have said this and I’m sure some Stars fans will agree -- some calls that we, you know, you hear them once and you can recite them 20 years later and say ‘this is exactly what he said when Joel Kiviranta or Denis Gurianov scored the game-winner and took the Stars to the next round’. It's been an incredible run and Josh, we can't thank you enough for joining us and can’t thank you enough for continuing to, as Grubs would say, I believe it's ‘fill our audio cavities’ throughout these games and throughout this magical run.
BOGORAD: That's, that's really nice of you to say. Thank you very much. It’s been, it’s been an absolute blast. Um, I -- a lot of people have reached out through all of these moments and I can’t thank them enough. You kind of, when you're in my line of work you hope you’re fortunate enough to have these moments to call and it’s been so much fun to do it. And um, hopefully there’s a few more here coming up in the next week or so.
CLARK: Yep. Well, we cannot wait to hear each and every one of them. Hopefully have you on here in the next couple of weeks to talk about whatever happens and off season and whatever else is coming down the line for this Dallas Stars team. But for now, as the Stars are doing, we’re staying in the moment, enjoying every game that comes to us. And Josh, once again, thank you for joining us today. Uh, hope all is well and hopefully I’ll be able to sneak down to the creative studio here in the finals and come say hey because I haven’t, haven’t seen really anyone else since Training Camp and it gets lonely upstairs during those games.
BOGORAD: Yeah, you know, you know the right people. I imagine you can make it past security down there, so. Gimme, gimme a call if you need a reference or something, but I’m pretty, I’m pretty confident you’ll be able to make it down there. I look forward to seeing you, bud.
CLARK: I’ll see if Jason allows me to walk downstairs. Like let me come in. I’ll bring my mask, I promise. But thanks again, and hopefully we’ll talk to you soon, Josh. But until then, good luck in the final!
BOGORAD: Always a pleasure chatting with you guys. Take care.
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