Fans Around the Bay: Teal Town USA

Fans Around the Bay: Teal Town USA

it is a pleasure to be joined by eric and aj of tealtown usa known them for a long time gentlemen how you doing today it’s uh bummer that the offseason has begun but uh you know it’s it’s the excitement during this whole summer experience is going to be uh quite interesting if you’re a sharks fan i feel like the summer is equally important aj if not even more important than the season we actually just watched if if it really does play out that way well just so many changes i feel are going to be coming uh particularly on the blue line so i look forward to what this off season brings eric let me ask you this because i i feel like you have a good grasp on the historical context of the sharks as we look back at patrick marlo and joe thornton it’s never to say that will smith and mlin celibbrini are going to achieve what 12 and 19 did and numbers up in the rafters that’s ridiculous right now but at least from a starting point and who those players lived with this year and how they kind of handle and go about their business there is kind of that striking similarity at least right here and right now you could totally see it i’m just waiting for you know mlin to go “hey bud how you doing bud?” you know with it but fortunately he wears all of his clothes during interviews mlin does doesn’t doesn’t follow suit to his landlord former landlord but hey it’s just a start we’d never know you know uh i’m kidding i’m kidding uh but it’s it’s nice to see them get off the groundwork uh and learning from guys when they were living with you know patty and jumbo and in addition to throwing tyler to fully their sleepover mean on the road right now it’s a good chemistry going on and i think aj as we look back 365 days ago basically around this time last year we did not know the sharks would be drafting first we did not know who would be added to their team we didn’t know that will and mlin would be a package deal we didn’t know tyler tf would be on the team how we are right now is so different than about a year ago is there a question in there i mean do you do you feel like that’s an accurate assessment and i say that because last year there were a lot of questions i feel like there still are questions but there’s more direction to go along with those questions now uh yeah i would say i i feel like we weren’t able to say that there was light at the end of the tunnel a season ago now i feel like there is a direction but again now that you’ve got these pieces in place whether it’s celibbrini and smith and tofoley and eklund but also what you hopefully have in the pipeline whether it’s a guy like musty or shernave or beastad uh canon dickinson yeah madulan mcmullan yeah yep there’s uh a lot of i think things to be hopeful for on the on the front end uh again my biggest concern is the blue line uh ascarov if as long as he can be healthy that’s you know a big question mark but for me i just i could see just a complete overhaul of the blue line between this past season and next season yeah definitely without the puck is where the sharks i think maybe struggled the most this past season they could score goals at times but uh not being able to stop opponents just kind of knocked them out of some games i want to ask each of you this and i hope it’s it’s understood where i’m trying to get with this obviously we can see the focal points of the team 71 72 73 2 who are the under the radar players that we’re not talking about enough on the sharks if there’s a shark sleeper eric who is your shark’s sleeper not sleepover sleeper i mean i veteran wise you look at alex wenberg i thought he had a pretty solid year after he struggled with some injuries um you know i i i know you mentioned ekkan but at the same time i think celebrating and smith definitely got that that look a little bit uh uh and kind of put ekan in a distraction or ekan excuse me let me try that again ekan as a um i lost my train of just just the spotlight wasn’t on william eckan right off the get-go sure and i think that opened him up to do a lot more things throughout the year um but you look at you look at like muka mullan you look at canone who i’m i’m hoping is going to flourish for the barracuda yeah i know and i think aj too canon is one for me that a guy that there’s so much upside and there are a whole other layer of players here i think that’s that’s my point in asking this question it’s easy to fixate and focus on the obvious ones aj who’s your sleeper right now uh thompson oh okay jack thompson yeah i like you know i’m not expecting him to play top two minutes but like i think he could be a solid 56 guy uh to slot in there as a pair um i and i really like kenyon will his size translate that’s remains to be seen i know dan bole is a big proponent of his of course yeah have to be yeah so i yeah those those two guys um you know they make it real easy to root for them we’ve seen enough seasons eric to know that the last couple years they would start with maybe a little a little less expectations right understanding of the process and rebuilding and tearing down and even this year like after you you trade blackwood and granland and cc and zetland like how do you expect the team to do at the end versus the beginning i do feel like though and we can talk about free agency in just a second that after this summer going into next year for the first time in several years there’s going to be a little tangible need to jump here right there’s going to be an expectation next year how do you even start to see that we we don’t know who’s going to be there but how do you start to see that right you you i mean you look at how this team has played throughout the year yes there was a one-win improvement over 23 24 but you definitely see the groundworks you see the chemistry as we mentioned before but you look at okay this is what we actually need we don’t need it’s not like a whole oh we need all kinds of things now it’s like okay now we know exactly where we need to go for in free agency or a trade or in the draft you know there there are certain needs that this team can get and it’s i think that’s huge going into along with what you have built so far with the in the sharks and with the barracuda and then who do you have outside the organization right now there’s that direction like aj was mentioning it just was you we weren’t seeing that a year ago now you’re seeing it and now you can start taking flight and going for it aj i i feel like i’m i’m pretty sure that you guys have been around long enough that in 2014 spring of 14 you you might have said some bad things about tyler tofoley he was a bad man on the la kings and and how that series went who would have thought right after all these years now he’s a shark and my goodness people really love themselves from tyler to foley this year and granted scoring 30 goals for a third straight season we’ll do that and taking on the role of uncle tyler we’ll do that but crazy how things come i don’t even want to say full circle but a 180 like that it’s but don’t the sharks have a little bit of a history with stories like that whether it’s a rafy torres you know just welcoming a jodie shelly you know just guys that come in that you’re like brian campbell brian camp oh no that didn’t didn’t end up like that yeah yeah it kind of went a little different we went way old school on that reference no to your point that there is a little precedent of that i i just thought it was cool oh oh yeah i mean you have to enjoy the story the way that i could totally imagine to your point to over 10 years ago sharks fans not being real happy with him and then you see the way he just slides right in here and fits seamlessly and kind of takes the reigns whether you know cuz couture isn’t available then you lose granlin who was kind of a a little bit of a de facto captain so i mean just i think really fel uh felt that leadership it just i don’t know it just seems so natural and then you look at what’s going on with him and his wife uh they they kind of have adopted basically everybody on the team so it’s uh it’s been great pretty soon you’re going to see romeo over there getting free meals at the tofoley house you know just kidding uh nobody would adopt drew randy would adopt would adopt drew before anybody else did all right um lastly i think randy has an extra dog house i think he’s i think he’s in his own dog house um we mentioned uh leadership and to foley and what he’s done there and aj you and i have talked about this so maybe i’ll i’ll begin with eric and then i’ll i’ll have you finish up aj but eric in terms of a captain uh we’ve been around to see several different iterations and versions and people that have worked and i don’t know if that helps us understand what the sharks are going to do i just know this there’s multiple different options i can see how all of them would work to some degree maybe some better than others but on the outside looking in this is kind of a fun conversation to have to figure out how should this go how do you see that it it is a fun conversation i know we’ve had it on uh a couple of times uh right after logan uh was moving on from playing hockey i guess we’ll call it uh i mean there’s one i think myself and aj both agree on and and i think you know that would be like a guy like tyler to foley to do it or do you go with you know with the celabbrini you know a kid who you know in the eyes of landiskog right uh you know ta crosby is pretty young i think right crosby yeah i mean there there’s it’s it’s like uh when you’re on a southwest flight you know you have a lot of options and sorry keep going with that i got to i got to see where this one goes you have a lot of options and we thank you for choosing this captain you know i didn’t expect that eric i’ll be honest that was you went the marketing route and thank you for using southwest airlines you’re welcome proud partner of the san jose sharks by the way brody brazil proud partner of the san jose sharks more like employee but no i i you make a great point eric um aj how about you um captaincy and some would say it’s a really big deal look i think leadership is more important than the actual captain maybe um but this this as much as we can have fun with the conversation it’s serious on the inside how do you see it i’m i’m big time uh on the tfo train for this um i can understand people making the argument of celebrity is going to get it eventually so just do it now right i look at it from a standpoint of again tofo’s already showing the leadership that you would want to see in your captain you know he’s here for another three seasons based on his contract that’ll get uh celabbrrini to drinking age and um you know but there’s already a lot of pressure i would say on cabbrini because of where he was chosen i don’t think you need to throw the sea on him you know add that weight to him right now um all that being said though if you know i it’s if if you’re going to give it to him eventually i can understand that argument but i’m i’m very much i think to foley is driving the bus that’s the that’s the route i would go but uh it also goes back to something greer said where he said uh something about it being like a sacred honor right to have the sea but i’ve also read that oh it’s just a letter right no it’s so you know depends on your your point of view and we’ve seen the sharks play full seasons without like an actual captain and i mean logan was absent this year on the ice with the injury and and most of last year too but was officially captain season there were four captains yeah well four plus there were some alternate alternates if there were some road and home alternates that is that 14 134 15 i’m losing no when when was the season eric where it was like reachi had it for 10 games oh way back 0304 i think it was reachi the rotating captains alan mccauley alan mccauley vinnie donfouse and then they st they stuck it on patty from january and then he took off with it i mean that’s a unique possibility too i guess we all need to think outside the box here whether it’s rotating captain no captain um maybe we’ll just give randy han let’s see rosie rosie probably deserves it too like how do we we’ll let somebody hold the sea until we’re ready to give it out we’ll let a broadcaster hold it i don’t know who which broadcaster but see i i’m i’m also one of the things that greer said was uh you know like we’re not in any rush to hand out the sea i’m kind of quite the opposite in that i would hope that somebody is a captain on day one okay because that’s the guy you know or i should say game one cuz that’s the guy who’s going to set the tone yeah so look this is all this is all like i mean as much as logan had his day and his moment and we could all understand it’s coming and i feel so bad for him and all of that you know there is a next step of the process here and and he knows it right like it’s part of his process too and journey to have somebody else get it so i think uh it’s an interesting conversation i can’t wait to see how it all shakes out guys i really appreciate your time and i know you’re cranking all summer long with more content and shows and draft lotteryies and draft parties and uh eric there’s there is no draft in person so i don’t know where you’ll you’ll be at the draft party probably right probably at the draft party i mean um well unless unless the uh the ad drop helps get to la for the draft but i mean we’ll we’ll find a way there will definitely be draft coverage uh all all uh all up to what june 26 27th something like that yeah something like that yep all right tealtown usa aj and eric appreciate you both talk soon thanks bud

Erik and AJ from Teal Town USA join Brodie Brazil to dive into the major events coming this summer and during the off-season.