It’s been a great Stanley Cup tournament so far but the Washington Capitals are in a tough spot in the Carolina series. Leonard Raskin and Nestor pimp the puck as the good old hockey game makes spring better when the games go to overtime and memories are made.
Nestor Aparicio and Leonard Raskin discuss the excitement of the Stanley Cup playoffs, with Nestor rooting for the Maple Leafs and Leonard reminiscing about the Maple Leafs’ history and the intensity of playoff hockey. They also talk about the NHL’s international appeal, particularly the Four Nations tournament and the upcoming Olympics. The conversation shifts to sports management, with Leonard expressing his disapproval of the Ravens’ handling of Justin Tucker and his own decision to boycott games for two years. They conclude with a brief mention of the Orioles’ season and upcoming events in Baltimore.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Stanley Cup, Maple Leafs, playoff hockey, Orioles, Ravens, Justin Tucker, hockey memories, Caps, Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto, Edmonton, Vegas, NHL, Maryland crab cake tour.
SPEAKERS
8
Nestor Aparicio, Leonard Raskin
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, A, F, 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call this thing Baltimore positive, and we’re positively into Greek neswe spring time. The Orioles are home, the ravens are quiet. Everything’s going on. I’m at the concert season this week. We’re going to be out in Las Vegas this weekend doing the Maryland crab cake tour on the road. And you know, I will not order a crab cake any in any state that doesn’t begin with Maryland. So I’m in Nevada. I will not be ordering a crab cake, but it is the crab cake tour. It is a Maryland party. It is a pool side at the Encore with my pal, Howard Perlow and lots and lots and lots of business folks, folks like this guy. Let her ask a joy just now, he will not be in Vegas poolside, but you did, if you were there, you’d know 500 people, because it’s kind of crazy. I start dropping names, they might wind up on the show this weekend. What a week, right? I mean, with the Orioles, Justin Tucker, you’re all caps out, and they’ve sort of hit the skids a little bit here, in a sort of a weird way. And I’m sort of rooting for the Maple Leafs because I’ve been to Toronto, and I just want to see everybody in Canada get naked as the 51st state run down. Everybody’s crazy. If the Maple Leafs were to win the Stanley Cup, the country would go nuts. Yeah. I mean, it would be one of the biggest stories in sports in the world, really, because I don’t even know what I could compare it to. Dude, it’d be like Rangers.
Leonard Raskin 01:28
What do you mean the New York Rangers? Yeah, they won the cup. Yeah, they won. So Toronto, they’re just,
Nestor Aparicio 01:37
you’re trying to compare it to a hockey thing,
8Leonard Raskin 01:41
worldwide thing, I don’t know they’re, they’re the Charlie Brown series, the cups. Yeah, right, like that, right? The Maple Leafs are Charlie Brown, the red one five. They get to the playoffs. They get close. Every year. They get into the playoffs. They play decent, and then they choke, and it’s like Lucy took the Stanley Cup away. But
Nestor Aparicio 02:00
the thing with the Maple Leafs is they are the center of the center of the epicenter of the universe of hockey, and they haven’t won in my lifetime. 67 I was going 68 right? So I for me. I like the caps thing. I know what it’s like. I picked the cup up. I did it all. It was fun, by the way, every time I go to Vegas now I pass the New York, New York, and the thing there, and I have flashbacks to, you know, all that, so I’ll make sure that I do that hanging out with the couple, especially night. But that’s right for the caps and this time around, um, gotta get tough. Yeah, man, start playing better hockey. The President’s cup. Don’t mean anything this time and trouble,
Leonard Raskin 02:39
right? Yeah, yeah. It doesn’t matter. You gotta, you gotta play today and every day you gotta go out. You know, the commercials that the NHL is running about winning the cup are fantastic. It takes everything it it rips you out. It drains you out. Every team is at their best. Every goalie is at their best. The games are, I mean, there’s been an odd or odd game or two, but every game is two to one, three to two. You know, it is tough, tough. Playoff hockey. Different playoff hockey. It’s a different brand of hockey, and the caps got to step up and score some goals here against a hot Carolina Hurricanes team that’s that wants that cup in Florida is playing tough against Toronto. That’s been great. All the series have been really amazing. The the Edmonton Vegas series, Vegas won the game with point four seconds to go on a play where the guy just threw the puck over and the leading goal scorer in the league for this year, scored into his own net for his team to lose with a half a second to go. It’s it’s utterly crazy. It’s been a great, great time. Makes my wife very unhappy. She’s not a hockey fan, so me watching the playoffs is not us watching a movie or doing something lovely as a couple, because she’s not a hockey fan, but this time of year, playoffs are going right now, two games a night, just about and I’m I’m in, I’m watching. And then we got the birds. We got Zach Eflin back, so we have a pitcher, and our Japanese friend is pitching, so we got two pitchers and and maybe Dean Kramer’s pitching, so we’d have three pitchers, and that might be good enough to get out of this April showers and bring some May flowers. Let’s hope that the rest of the month they they find a way to win.
Nestor Aparicio 04:33
8You know what? Man, I gotta talk hockey with you for a minute, because, yeah, you, you jarred my memory. I have so many hockey memories, and I never get to speak of them, right, right? So, in 2006 I’m I met my wife at a hockey game. You’re aware, yes, right? Yeah. I met my wife at a at a minor league at a Manchester monarchs hockey game. She was a season ticket holder there. They were a new hockey team. Was a brand new building in Manchester, New Hampshire, and I met her there. You know, we. The short courtship. We came here. We got married in oh three, I think I told you I saw the cup get hoisted in New Jersey at Brendan Byrne arena. I told you that last week we we had a limo hockey, mag and cam. We all went up Scotty P we got tickets, and we went up and saw a game seven, knowing we would see the cup hoisted right that was Anaheim, where the other one and New Jersey Devils. I thought that the Stanley Cup final was Carolina and Calgary. I said last week it was Caroline in Edmonton and it was 2006 I did not see the cup hoisted. And I’ll tell you, I remember exactly why. I can tell you when this was May and June of 2006 2006 my wife and I spent most of May in Amsterdam. We went to the World Cup. We went to see us play Czech Republic and Gelson Kirchen. We saw them play Italy and Kaiser slaughtered in a very, very famous draw game with Italy that was played 10 on nine. There was a fight. MCBRIDE had a bloodied head from a head butt. But this is World Cup. So we went to the World Cup. My knee was ripped up. I had a terrible knee surgery. I had a knee flap in Europe. And we we came before we went to Europe. We went to game though, after we went to Europe. Now, before went to Europe, we went to game one and two of the Stanley Cup Finals in Raleigh. So I saw game one on June 5, Game Two on June 7. Then we went to Europe for two weeks, and then came back and I had knee surgery. I missed game seven, and I had tickets, and I gave them to my cousin. Game seven was played on June 19, so June 1, the first game was June 5. And the reason I bring this up is you said I Carolina. At Carolina, they’re like the Harford whalers and whatever. No, they Leonard, you and I talk a lot about hockey in the 80s. We I dropped Mike Gardner, Dave Christian and Scott Stevens and Rod langway reference, absolutely, I could drop all of that, right? And you and I were both famously at to me one of the greatest sporting events I’ve ever witnessed, which was the the Pat LaFontaine, yeah, Bob Mason, you know, the 87 Easter hockey game. Google. It, kids. It was 38 years ago. We were at the game. I was there. You were there. I sound like it. I sound like an old fart now, right? But, and I think about these memorable things that I witnessed, I mean, I witnessed the caps oust the Islanders in 1986 at up in Nassau Coliseum with Phil Jackman and the the islanders, people were, were throwing trash on the ice at the old Coliseum up there. I mean, I’ve seen so many hockey games in Hershey, all over the country, all over she’s fighting right now too. Yep. And I’ve been to a lot of games. I’ve been a lot of playoff games. I’ve been to a lot of Stanley Cup final games, probably, I don’t know, probably been the 30, maybe 35 Stanley Cup Finals games. I went up to Philadelphia when they were in the finals with Scotty b i was there the night that that lyndros got his head taken off across the middle Scott Stevens, the whole deal I was, I was center ice that night at, you know, in the old building, the new best seen a lot of hockey, I’m going to tell you, right? And by the way, you mentioned the Rangers winning the cup. Yep. I was at game five that night in New York that they could have won the cup. They didn’t win. They wound up when it’s but like, I was in New York at the garden that night, and the place was on fire, and they were down a couple goals in that game. Messier, scored two goals. Place went crazy. I have never been in a building that was like that Metallica concert at Virginia Tech last week where they felt like there was an Earthquake. Earthquake? Yeah, I was in the building in Raleigh, game one of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006 I just looked this up. It was June 5 of 2006 I was with my cousin and his little boy. Now, this is 19 years ago. His little boy’s 26 now, right? But I had four tickets. They were in the upper concourse, maybe 12 rows above the net. It’s a cozy rink. I mean, it’s not, it’s an older I’ve seen concerts there and stuff, but it’s, it’s in Raleigh. It’s ruckus, dude, they they gave up three goals in game one to the Edmonton Oilers. I’m looking at this here. Edmonton scored 818, in 1623, in and then 1717, it was three nothing. And then in the beginning of the second period, Carolina scored three goals in a row. Tied it in this beginning. So three down, three up. I thought the place was going to be I would tell you it’s the loudest I’ve ever been in any place in my life was Carolina. So you think, Oh, just Carolina.
Leonard Raskin 09:48
They love their hockey in Raleigh,
Nestor Aparicio 09:50
I would tell you it’s the loudest building that I’ve ever witnessed for a hockey game.
Leonard Raskin 09:55
Yep, they are in I think that, and the Old Boston Garden, you. Was incredibly loud. It was blow there. I never was a really close crowd. They they hung over the it was, it was steep and they were close. It also didn’t have air conditioning. Well, it was, you know, pretty brutal. They used to skate around to fog to raise the fog, Bobby, or Bobby would come out on the ice and skate circles to lift the fog.
8Nestor Aparicio 10:25
The good old hockey game. It’s the best
Leonard Raskin 10:26
game you can name. That’s right. And so now we’ve got to see you love hockey so much. When I when I was a little kid, my father took me to hockey. He was he worked for the clippers. Okay, so your dad took you to clip. Took me to clippers games back when I was a little kid. And tell me what year you was your first club boy, I don’t know. I can tell you mine, 7273 late 60s. Late 60s. 6086.
Nestor Aparicio 10:50
I remember my dad didn’t like think much of hockey, and again, later in life, you know me better, but like, I didn’t know my dad had lost his son, and I was a replacement child, and anything I wanted I could get, and I was four years old, and I think my dad took me down to the circus and maybe Harlem Globetrotters, and I knew my way to the building. And I don’t know why I wanted to go to a hockey game. I have no idea my dad would know nothing about hockey, but he took me, and I fell in love.
Leonard Raskin 11:22
8Yeah, I went hockey, I skated. I was a little kid. I loved it. I had sticks, I had pads, I had jerseys, I had a Bobby or jersey. It was the greatest thing in the world,
Nestor Aparicio 11:32
and I feel the same romance. And in East Baltimore, there were kids who played hockey, the Elliott family, up in Eastwood on the hill, they turned the basketball court into a hockey it was a it was a roller hockey rink. Yep, that they everybody played roller hockey. He played, but there was no movement to go to skip jacks or clippers, right? I’m the only one that
Leonard Raskin 11:52
went so I grew up in apartments in Randallstown on Liberty Road, and there was a big parking lot for Pep Boys. We climbed the fence, we set up goals, and we play street hockey on the parking lot of pep. Were you Manny mower? Jack? I was a goalie. Dude. I stood in goal and stopped at all. That was my saying. I was, I was in heaven.
Nestor Aparicio 12:13
Well, I mean, when the caps won the Cup, where were you that night? Sadly,
8Leonard Raskin 12:17
on the couch. Well, I was actually standing up screaming in the okay, but like, like, what did that mean? Because you’re like, Oh, you were, it was unbelievable. I had tickets to the next game, the home game. I didn’t think they were going to win it out there. I thought they’d win it at home. I had tickets to watch
Nestor Aparicio 12:30
them win Well, end of the second period, when they were losing, Jen and I were making plans to CTS,
Leonard Raskin 12:35
though over at MGM brands, it was not looking good. But then the comeback hit, and I was screaming and crying and and I was was unbelievable. It was a perfect night, by
Nestor Aparicio 12:45
8the way. I got a little fun thing. What am I? Because you sponsor the show. Leonard Raskin is our guest. Raskin global. He does money. We’re gonna do baseball, football, just we’ll do all that. But you love hockey. And I like, I like talking, because no one else other than Eddie, Frankie Vic Howard share. I got a couple of puck heads in my life, but none of my friends in Dundalk ever wanted to go to CAPS games with me. Are gonna have the capital center, by the way, AC DC. I found my capital center ticket from the rock tour, so I’ve been there. I was there. Yeah, I’m going down to the dump and route John to see AC DC here this week. So, you know, I’m kind of into all these memories. But the hockey thing for me from the beginning was I had such love for it, because no one else was into it. And I’m talking mid 70s, you know what? Talking about, the blades came wha then we played the Clippers in the ECHL, playing the eerie blades and the Richmond rifles, and then they came in with the North Stars. And we had, you know, John Fontas and, and Warren young and, and they were the the green and gold and, right? I mean, yeah, they were the North Stars for a minute or three, right? The penguins and Uber ACO hockey. For me, I’m so blessed because it was my entry way the journalism. It was a place I could get a press pass and go and work, because no one at the paper. Everyone looked down their nose, right? Nobody’s covered, and they went away, right? Bandits and like all of that. And I always said, Leonard, had I managed my money differently in the 90s and not become crazy? You’re trying to hire other people and do all that. If I had a billion dollars, I would have pissed it away and bought a hockey team. If I were Kevin Plank, I would have bought a my absolute hockey team, absolutely, and would have turned it into the savannah bananas for
Leonard Raskin 14:32
lack of a spread, right, right? There’s no doubt. Because I love hockey.
Nestor Aparicio 14:36
I love taking my kids all of that. It would
Leonard Raskin 14:40
be, it would be amazing. There’s no team here. There hasn’t been a team here. Good old a Poland kept that away and and the crowd, you know, there’s not a place to see it. So I went down to Washington and became a CAPS fan. It’s the only Washington team I enjoy. Uh, everybody asked me, who you know? Who do you follow? I’m like the ravens, the Orioles. Well, who do you follow? In basket? All, nobody. Who do you follow?
8Nestor Aparicio 15:02
Flyers, fan, right? Come on. No, that’s never gonna happen. Never have a good mascot. The gritty things are good. You know, it’s silly, silly. Well, it’s a good answer to the fanatic, at least I think, well, I mean, I you want to do baseball? Do you want to do football? Pick one or the other, and we’ll do the other one next week. Yeah, let’s
Leonard Raskin 15:19
talk some football. What happened this week? A football move has been made. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 15:23
okay, what? Where are you? And is I would ask this Trump, and I don’t want to go down that lane, but like, Trump could murder anyone, and would still have, apparently, your support, 75 million other people I don’t know, but, like, I don’t know, but Justin Tucker, like, whatever the Ravens would do, including drafting this kid who zero tolerance, got him thrown out of Virginia, got a welcomed here. So, like, I don’t know where, they have no ethics. They have no accountability. The owners not has thrown your it was a football.
Leonard Raskin 15:53
8It was a football move. It was a football. There’s nothing
Nestor Aparicio 15:56
they could do to make you not go and sit in your seat. I mean, I that like, oh, sure, no,
Leonard Raskin 16:02
no, no. I didn’t go for two years. I didn’t go for two years. I stayed out. No, I stayed out for two years. You know that I went to London, got you right? I went to London and that, that turned me off completely. I was mortified. You know, I get the whole knee thing. I get it. I didn’t get it on foreign soil, against the US national anthem, and then standing for God Save the Queen, was utterly repulsive. And then they got what they deserved. I hate to say it. They got a lashing by the Jags. Think it was 70 to nothing or something like that. Every play they screwed up. They offense, the defense. You put them in the penalty box for two years. Two years I didn’t go to a game, and then COVID hit. Did you like
Nestor Aparicio 16:46
eat the money? The Tick? Did you not give them money? Was it money come hard? What was it that pissed you off the most? I mean, above and beyond patriotism, which is at the root of this,
8Leonard Raskin 16:57
oh yeah. Then I just didn’t go. I kept the tickets because my wife wanted to go occasionally, my son went to a game or two, and I sold them. I sold all the tickets. I had eight PSLs. I got rid of them all. I sold them all. Oh, I kept two. I kept I kept three. I’m sorry,
Nestor Aparicio 17:15
rare you put them in the penalty box and came back. Yeah, I
Leonard Raskin 17:19
did three years old. Price, yeah, I did three years away. I sold my PSLs, got rid of the parking passes. Kept one. I kept three seats in the club level, which is where I have my seats. But I got rid of every I had eight tickets. I
Nestor Aparicio 17:33
8got letter. You’re a money guy. They don’t suffer financially no matter what. Like the stadiums got is 20% empty half the time. And like tickets are sometimes they’re not, sometimes they are, sometimes they’re not.
Leonard Raskin 17:48
By the ravens, I think they’re sold, I don’t know how many,
Nestor Aparicio 17:51
but they win a lot lately. So they have sold their tickets.
Leonard Raskin 17:54
People that own the tickets that can’t reach selling is
8Nestor Aparicio 17:58
the back end of the Wembley knee, the back end of whatever. Back interested back end of whatever. Justin Tucker will be it. The owner is making $200 million a year. Tucker’s
Leonard Raskin 18:09
gone. Tucker, yeah, they got this new kid. What’s it? Loop, loop. Tyler loop, correct. Tyler. Fruit Loop. Fruit Loop. We’re gonna have to see what this kid’s all about. Chicago Loop. Chicago Loop, I’m with you. There we go. Apparently he kicks,
Nestor Aparicio 18:23
although I did see Fruit Loop ice cream the other day, and the ice cream out weird.
Leonard Raskin 18:27
8You kick 70 yard field goals. Uh, he’s got the big the big leg. They drafted him. First time they’ve ever drafted a kicker, and he’s going to win the job. And they said they made a football move, which means cutting costs. They cut Justin. They didn’t mention anything about anything. And I think they get away with, I think, from a PR standpoint, they get away with getting rid of them for a football move. And from a lawsuit perspective, didn’t they lose a lawsuit to Ray Rice when they cut him? Maybe, yeah, they let him go. They lost some money. The money, lost a little bit of money. Yeah, right. But my point is, they lost a little bit of money, and then they’ve rehabilitated him in the league, made him a showpiece against violence against women, and Justin’s gone. And who knows where he’ll land or what’ll happen? My guess is he’ll be kicking somewhere in this league, because that’s the way the league is. They look the the Browns paid to Sean Watson a quarter billion dollars. He’s thrown like five passes for them, and now they have five quarterbacks. So the league tells you straight up and it doesn’t care. It doesn’t care
Nestor Aparicio 19:38
look and you don’t care that. They don’t care. Well, I’m just saying, I mean, at some point you did, most people don’t care. Leonard, I’ll find people that are pissed at the Ravens or whatever and go or don’t go, or just say I’d rather be on my couch, or it’s too much money I could find. I’ve seen a lot of
Leonard Raskin 19:53
people. I’ve seen a lot of people that have left. I’ve seen a lot of people. I know a lot of people that got rid of their tickets, so
Nestor Aparicio 19:59
they have to backfill. That, and that’s a business issue, if it’s a business issue, but when the restaurant’s half empty and still make it 200 million It does, doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what they do. Whereas the Orioles have the exact opposite thing, right, like the orals. Better figure this out. Much like hockey, we talked all this Hockey. Hockey has to, like, sing for its supper. Hockey has to sell ads, sell
8Leonard Raskin 20:20
things and they’re selling and they’re selling is the Four Nations. I think the Four Nations, in mid season did an amazing service to hockey. Next year, it’ll be the Olympics. I think the nationalism around hockey is huge. The players are phenomenal. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 20:35
it feels like everybody’s on board internationally, whereas we’re in a horse racing week here and we can’t get the Kentucky Derby winner here, like, when there’s chaos, like there always was in boxing, because there weren’t federations in the mafia ran, right? You mean, like, Well, I mean, and then there’s the well, we’re going to be a monopoly like the NFL and do whatever the hell we want. And they are. There is a point where these niche sports, like hockey, the NBA, went from niche to rich, and based on what whatever it’s going to be
Leonard Raskin 21:04
China. I think that’s what hoisted them. And then they they got China. And the world want the the league wants China. The networks went China. So they got big money for it. The NHL is, is pulling it off. They’re doing it. They’re filling seats. The playoffs are. You can’t see an empty seat in an arena the TV. I mean, the fact that it’s on TNT and TBS is kind of odd, but ESPN has got it on every night.
Nestor Aparicio 21:30
8Won’t you find the game? That’s that’s the issue. Rich, you and I go back to the Pittsburgh, we can’t find the games 30, right? Remember, right.
Leonard Raskin 21:39
So, so then we got the o’s and we’ll see what happens. You know, they got to fill the stadium, but right now they’re getting paid, so we got some pitching. We could win. Here’s hoping. Letter
Nestor Aparicio 21:49
Raskin manage money. He manages some American Dream out at Raskin global. You can find out all that he does. It’s, you know, once we get past April 15, people don’t think about it much, but always good time to manage your money. Think about you absolutely. Think about Leonard. You can find him out all you can find him out on the front of our website. I’ll catch back up with you. What more baseball to talk about next week as we get through this thing. Happy May to you. Enjoy your travels. I’ll check back in with you soon. Happy Preakness, Lena Raskin joining us here. Do not bet on sovereignties, not in the race. I reached the Bob Baffert earlier this week. We’re going to have Donna brothers on this week. My friend Dick Girardi is going to join us talking all things racing. We also get a big golf tournament this week down in Charlotte. So big week around here. Big week of rock and roll. Big week of fun. The Orioles are home. We are W N, S D am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive you.
