And I do think it's hard early in a season to kind of get into game timing when you're only playing two games a week.

Yeah, I've never seen a schedule like this, Jason, where...

in the first three weeks of the season, you have all of these off days.

You know, on one hand, it could be good because they have a new coach, and really most of the coaching staff is new under Peter Laviolette.

So, you know, they're playing a different system and want to do different things.

They have three new players.

So obviously a lot of practice time, but, you know, I would think that the players early on, especially after – a condensed preseason, these guys want to get into game shape, not game shape, but they want to get more reps in the games and get in a rhythm.

But the Zuccarello-Fiala injuries are just crushing, I think, to their power play because Zuccarello is really good on the power play.

And so do you agree with his approach to this?

I agree that people, the Chicago voters deserve to vote for someone that's committed to running for one office.

If you really want to be mayor of Chicago, then run for mayor of Chicago.

Don't run for two offices at the same time.

I go campaigning, Anita, all over this city and people are offended by that.

They are offended that, well, I've kind of got to back up here in case I don't become mayor.

They know that if you're running for two offices, your heart's not in it.

What is your timeline for an additional 1,000 officers?

I can't wait for that to happen.

And as an Irish Catholic Democrat, you introduce yourself in a campaign, a lot of people say, where are you from in Ireland? And I was at the Irish Fellowship.

And I know this is shocking.

I had a 10-minute meeting scheduled with the mayor of Dublin, who's younger than me, which is kind of scary.

And we talked about transit for 45 minutes.

What a great young guy.

I always happen to go over on these talks.

What two or three things are you going to do on that first day?

No, listen, Desiree, how about this?

I was just talking about this the other day.

And this is so funny that we're talking about my rookie year because...

This is so funny.

You got Aaron Donald on the other side.

No, listen.

And this is the thing.

I mean, explain.

your first Blues game?

No.

So my first year working in the NHL was in 1988, 89.

I was still in the minors, but I got to do about 40 Ranger games on radio as the backup to Marv Albert, the legendary Marv Albert.

So, you know, this was a great thrill for me, obviously.

I had worked in the minors for five years.

So I got this job as the backup on radio.

But what was it like going back last year? I know they put together this beautiful tribute video for you, but what were the real feelings like?

In layman's language, what can we do there?

Well, the ESB and the air grid and the government have already started the PR6 program in Ireland, which is a massive investment in the grid to put more electricity, to get more electricity in more places and to not have it concentrated in isolated areas.

So you need more energy on the grid.

There's probably the boom of the data centers in Ireland now.

has probably helped accelerate the need to expand and modernise the grid.

And there's a huge programme underway at the moment, which ESB and AirGrid, I've got to say, I hear a lot of criticism of various people around this and that it should have happened years ago.

All I can deal with is what's happening today and on the go forward now.

Yeah.

Three,

I believe, since I retired,

touchdown run so the hawks went 35-3 at home over musselman and coach one a very deceiving stat musselman of course a wing t team they ran the ball almost exclusively and they ran 61 plays to universities 26 but the hawks won 35-3

Again, if you were one of those analytic guys, you'd say, oh, there's no way they lost the football game.

But big plays by University.

And like I said, it's not how many plays you run.

It's how many times you get across that goal line.

And University was very efficient.

You underwhelmed?

Yeah, that's safe to say.

It's a real missed opportunity that we've got in this case.

from the federal government.

We've been calling for a $200 million package to really invest in the resilience of our wildlife.

And this $20 million is nowhere near that amount.

In fact, it really just replaces what was cut from the federal government's saving native species program in the last budget.

I suppose the other side, John, is we knew it was coming, right? You know, we had seen what had happened around the world and was the consensus that it was only a matter of time before it landed on Australian shores? Despite all of that, were we caught short in terms of preparation? Well, you know, we've had two years since it

Were you a supporter of Operation Midway Blitz and the immigration sweeps and mass arrests in Chicago?

I was not a supporter of Operation Midway Blitz.

I think what they did was wrong.

I think the way they traumatized these neighbors and these neighborhoods in Chicago was wrong.

I think that's why, uh, the president, uh, fired his, uh, uh, head of, uh, uh, the immigration department.

That's why she was let go.

I totally support that.

Have Ed Burke.

How would you address that problem as mayor?

Well, we have a $17 billion budget.

It's grown billions of dollars.

I believe when Rahm Emanuel was mayor, the budget was close to $12 billion.

Now here we are X amount of years later, and it's $17 billion.

The number one way for us to get out of this budget problem is through growth.

thirty percent of our downtown is vacant that's because of the failed leadership of the mayor it's the failed leadership of the politicians i'm running against who have been sitting there watching the mayor put the city in the state of the client when your economic engine is only sputtering at seventy percent of its maximum power The city doesn't operate functionally.

how committed you are to the city of

Like, that data seems quite worrying.

Yeah, and look, this will ...

This is a really concerning part of the, the equation with bird flu, is that, uh, we know that we can't vaccinate every bird.

It's ...

I think it is positive that the Victorian government has started vaccinating the penguins on Phillip Island and at St. Kilda- Uh, everything that we can do to try to protect our vulnerable wildlife populations in the face of this devastating disease, uh, needs to happen.

Uh, so even though there are already some sick birds around, if we can get a population of those birds on Phillip Island vaccinated in time, gotta remember we need to give two doses over two weeks, so there is still time to vaccinate a lot of birds.

Uh, protecting a portion of that population from the impacts of this disease, disease will, will really help with the recovery from it.

But, but are you concerned though, and is it possible that we may see a, a large percentage, like nearly half of the Phillip Island penguins wiped out from this?

Well, that makes

sense.

Yeah, and we've seen what happens overseas in countries when they're unprepared.

Tens of thousands of marine mammals, countless birds have died.

We've still got a window right now in Australia to reduce that damage, but we're in a critical moment where that window is narrowing.

We really need governments to commit to this.

And in Victoria, we've got this added burden that's come from we've reduced our workforce capacity in conservation and nature protection.

And just quickly, what is the likelihood that it jumps species, that a household cat catches a bird, kills the bird, eats some of the bird, the bird has bird flu, and somehow the cat catches the flu? Is that possible?

here's the problem you can talk hard on crime you can you can do all that stuff but now there's a whole subsection of voters that are going to be like well wait a second this guy just sounds like a a guy that wants to come down hard on my neighborhood and i don't you know we can't have that because law and order you start talking like that man and people all of a sudden are going to think you're one of these stop and frisk guys

no as the mayor of chicago you're going to be required to follow the law that's on the books of chicago when it comes to sanctuary cities That being said, when I'm campaigning, Ray, all over the city of Chicago, many Chicagoans come up to me and talk about the resources that it costs us to be a sanctuary city.

And it is extremely expensive.

Those resources could be used in better areas of the city of Chicago.

Heck, they can be used to hire more Chicago police officers to keep people safely.

Do I agree that Kristi Noem did the job? She did not do the job.

That's why the president fired her.

You're going to do the business of Chicago and get it done.

here's the problem you can talk hard on crime you can you can do all that stuff but now there's a whole subsection of voters that are going to be like well wait a second this guy just sounds like a a guy that wants to come down hard on my neighborhood and i don't you know we can't have that because law and order you start talking like that man and people all of a sudden are going to think you're one of these stop and frisk guys

no as the mayor of chicago you're going to be required to follow the law that's on the books of chicago when it comes to sanctuary cities That being said, when I'm campaigning, Ray, all over the city of Chicago, many Chicagoans come up to me and talk about the resources that it costs us to be a sanctuary city.

And it is extremely expensive.

Those resources could be used in better areas of the city of Chicago.

Heck, they can be used to hire more Chicago police officers to keep people safely.

Do I agree that Kristi Noem did the job? She did not do the job.

That's why the president fired her.

You're going to do the business of Chicago and get it done.

you can't go wrong with that either yeah and um so up home bangawai you've got a pretty cool set up there you got your trails and rumor has it you've got a half pipe going into the bush

yeah we've been donated um it's actually the old oreo mini ramp yeah but they get it they the maz skate park that we have there got it for them but they didn't want to use it because it's steel and safety issues and stuff yeah right they pretty much the guy who ran it like gave it to me

Yeah, it

was probably the biggest one people-wise I'd seen too.

I've gone to most of them in the last few years while I've been back in the North Island going to them.

Yeah, yeah.

That's cool.

And Hugh in Spoonworks does such a good job at organising those events.

So do you feel like a fan, or do you feel like a liaison to the fans?

Well, I, I guess, um, probably both.

Um, you know, when I, when I announce the game, it's, it's, it's, um, it's a great thrill.

It's like going to a game and watching the game, and, and I want the Kings to win.

I want them to do well and score goals, and I want the fans who are watching the game to enjoy that.

Um, you mentioned the word liaison, but that's where we have to use our abilities to get behind the scenes to talk to the coaches and talk to the players and the GM at times and ask questions that basically the fan would ask.

Because the fans want to know, you know, "Why did you make this trade? Why did you call this player up? Um, why did you change lines?" Or if a player switches sticks or whatever, "Why are you switching sticks?" Or whatever.

Mm-hmm.