Eddie Garcia is a California-native who has followed the Los Angeles Kings for as long as he likes to remember. He started a podcast with his long-time friend Doug Stolhand after reading a story in a local LA newspaper about a few average Joe's that started their own successful baseball podcast. Eddie approached his friend about the story, and they sought advice from the baseball podcasters. 3 ½ years later, Eddie and Doug are the only hockey podcast featured on FoxSports.com, and the Puck Podcast has followers from all over the world, making it the number one rated hockey podcast on iTunes. Eddie had a few minutes to go over his thoughts over the success of his show with me, along with a few thoughts about growing up in LA as a hockey fan and rumblings from around the league.
He had to know that he could not get by without talking about his co-host though. Eddie explained that Doug Stolhand, who also works for Fox Sports in the marketing department, is truly as cynical as his listeners think he is.
“Doug is very cynical. I'm not as quite as dry and cynical as he is, but I think that its a good mix for the show.”
Eddie also revealed his reason for becoming such a big hockey fan. No surprise coming from a California boy.
“It was Wayne Gretzky,” Garcia boasted, “Even people in California who don't know anything about hockey knew who Wayne Gretzky was.”
“Gretzky coming here... peaked my interest. Obviously I was completely drawn in by his amazing talent.” He also had no quarrels with admitting that hockey analysts were right when they said that Gretzky was the reason for two more teams popping up in San Jose and Anaheim. “Its really true,” he said.
I brought up the fact that Eddie's favorite team, the Kings, have been quite the surprise to the rest of the NHL. With Anze Kopitar still in the tops of the NHL scoring race and the team hovering around the 4th place mark in the Western Conference all season, the Kings have been turning heads since the git-go. Eddie confessed where he thought most of the success stemmed from.
“I think its a lot of maturing of a lot of their good players. I think we all expected that it will happen to a couple of their guys after a couple of years. Lots of players just seem better than they were a year ago.”
He also made sure to give credit to those that common NHL fans may not realize deserve it. “A lot of people may not know a guy named Wayne Simmonds, he is a gritty guy who will fight and has a lot of skills.” He also went on to say that Ryan Smyth, while healthy, has been a great addition for the Kings.
But the Kings cannot be discussed without bringing up starting goaltender Jonathan Quick. The young American-born goalie is currently tied for second in the NHL in goaltender wins with 17 and is currently outplaying the projected starter for Team USA, Boston Bruins' goalie Tim Thomas. This may stir up some controversy as the Olympics are getting closer by the day.
“I got to be honest,” Eddie said, “the way that Thomas has played lately and the way that Quick has played lately, I would say the top three guys would be Ryan Miller, Craig Anderson and Jonathan Quick with Thomas being a close fourth.”
A recent hot topic for the NHL has been hits to the head. Many players this season are experiencing concussions and other health issues due to this violent act, so I found it necessary to find out Eddie's stance on it. He was very vocal in his beliefs.
“I would outlaw hits to the head. Period. Its still shocking to me that hits to the head are legal. If you put a shoulder to the head, that's legal.”
He used a very distinctive example in his explanation. “If you saw the hit that David Booth took from Mike Richards earlier this year, you see that and think that's a good decision? Hits like that could be devastating to players.”
Getting on a lighter subject, Eddie was asked who he thought was the best team in the league. Currently topping the NHL standings is the San Jose Sharks. As a Kings fan, it seriously pained the man to admit his answer.
“I hate to say it but I have to go with San Jose. I don't know what to make of the Sharks. One of these days you gotta think they are going to translate what they've done in the regular season to the post-season.”
“Although they are playing great right now in the regular season, they're going to be defined by what they do in the post-season. The regular season doesn't matter; its what you do in the playoffs.”
The Puck Podcast can be found on iTunes, or the show can be listened to every week on puckpodcast.com. Eddie and Doug also are very active on Facebook.com, so they invite their listeners to become fans of the Puck Podcast on their Facebook group, as well as follow the show on Twitter.com.
The entire interview can be found on YouTube.com in a three-part series.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3_lZJxkbvM
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEQrmkIpjrU
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4Em5jOyKMc
Keywords: anze kopitar, craig anderson, david booth, jonathan quick, los angeles kings, mike richards, nhl, puck podcast, ryan miller, ryan smyth, tim thomas, wayne gretzky, wayne simmonds
