Isau's First Radio Interview(ft. Gail Force)- Moose Tracks 4.0

[Eynhallow 412]

Isau’s First Radio Interview (Transcript)

 

The following is Isau DaMoose’s first radio interview (recorded November 25, 2020) during which he promised to keep his remarks family-rated and not to”do a Torts”.  At this time I would also like to introduce a first-time interviewer, Gail Force.  A person from whom I expect you will hear a lot more.

 

Gail:  Hi Isau!  I so appreciate your making time for this my first and, coincidentally, your first radio interview.  I understand that you have agreed not to do a John Tortorella interview.

 

 

Isau:  No comment.  (Laughter).  Seriously though, thanks for having me on.  It was a real thrill to be approached by your network for this opportunity.  So, I am pretty excited about being here with you today.

 

Gail:  I guess the first question that the fans would ask is “What’s up with your name?”  No offence, of course.

 

Isau: (More laughter)  None taken Gail.  Ya I know it is a little sorta/kinda old fashioned and rural.  But, what can I say.  You can’t choose your parents.  Anyways, I like it….it’s got some colour, you know.

 

Gail:  Who is your favourite NHL hockey player?

 

Isau:  As far as current players are concerned, I gotta go with Auston Matthews.  We play the same position.  The guy has size and a tremendous shot.  I also like that he comes to the rink ready to play.  Good pro attitude.  

With regard to older retired players my favourite is Phil Esposito.  Again we play the same position.  Phil would go to the tough areas in front of the net in order to hack in a goal or two.  I also like Phil’s colourful leadership.  He still does a great interview.

 

 

Gail:  So, Isau, you were drafted 38th overall by the Riga Reign and 14th overall by the Philadelphia Reapers.  Have you any thoughts about the draft and your position in it ?

 

Isau:  That almost inspired a Torts answer…..”no”.  But in all fairness, I was excited about the draft and pleasantly surprised that I was picked up that early by both teams, given that I had only played a total of 57 games with the Mexico City Kings @Hylands the previous season. I had no preconceived notion about where I wanted to play.  I mean, hell, it's the bigs, right ??  Or at least almost the bigs as far as the Reapers are concerned.

 

Gail:  Can we talk about the Reapers for a bit ?

 

Isau:  Sure, so long as you know that what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room.

 

Gail:  The Reapers got off to a great start going 8 - 0 before dropping a couple of close ones.  They entered the playoffs as a number one seed and, after an inspired 15 - 3 playoff run won the Founder’s Cup, defeating the Mexico City Kings in 6 games.   To what do you contribute this degree of success.

 

Isau:  Ya, we were playing inspired hockey as were the Kings, with whom I spent part of last season.  So, I know how hard they work for success.  Having said that, the Reapers @DMaximus also have a strong management group and the guys have a strong work ethic.  I was proud to be a Reaper and was particularly happy to be able to contribute to the team’s success.  The guys up front that really carried the load for us are Bouchard, @Gaikoku-hito McLaren @tcookie and Marimoto. @dariusmarimotoman  Nilsson  @RomanesEuntDomus and JGG @DoktorFunk certainly pitched in from the back end.  Just an all round great team.

 

Gail:  I notice that you didn’t mention your output.  With 19 goals and 31 assists in 72 games  Not too shabby, don’t you think?? 

 

Isau:  Well I am not one to wave my stats around too much.  But thanks for the compliment.  I have picked up the pace a bit, I guess, in the past few games.  The coaching staff has been working with me to develop my passing and stick handling skills. So, I guess that is paying off. 

 

Gail:  So what about Riga ? @hedgehog337  Will you be going there next season ?

 

 

Isau:  Well, Riga holds my contract, so I hope to play there next season.  But you know how the business of hockey works.  Unless you have a no-trade deal, you could be traded anywhere if a team needs a particular part to win it all.  I certainly hope to be part of the Reign for the foreseeable future.  They have a strong management team as well.  Just take a look at the number of early round draft picks they negotiated for in the previous entry level draft.  And take a peak at the talent they drafted.  Addy McLaren, my Reapers teammate, Cabe McJake, @RedSus Dolant Fertitta @Dolant just to name a few.  They are all burnin’ it up….   They are faltering a bit this season, but the recent acquisition of Ben McGirr and Calvin Harvey @Mrpenguin30 seems to have ignited the flame a bit.  I see them in the role of spoiler for the balance of the season.  A gratifying place to be if you don’t have the depth to take it deep into the playoffs.

 

Gail:  I am sure that the fans, particularly the young women, would like to know a bit about your personal life.  Have you a partner ?

 

Isau:  “Partner”....so politically correct (chuckle).  Ya a girlfriend, Nikki Starr.

 

 

Gail:  So what’s happening on that front given that you are here in Philly?

 

Isau:  Well, she is back home in Swords shovelling snow, hunting deer and learning Lettish.  

 

Gail:  Lettuce...what do you mean….lettuce ???

 

Isau:  Lettish, Gail.  Latvian.  In case we end up in Riga next season.  She wants to be able to immerse herself in the culture and to do that you gotta be able to communicate.  On the ice it's different...we all speak profanity. (Laughter)  About Nikki, though, you will hear more about her story in my biography, but are gonna have to wait until Season 7 for that to be published….

 

Gail:  Quite a girl.  Anything else you could share about her ?

 

Isau:  Ya, sure.  I can tell you a Nikki story, of which there are many.  I was playing in Swords at the time and we had a game against the Magnetawan River Rats.  Nikki and a few of the other girls had got together to watch the game.  They went and sat in what would be the nosebleed section of the rink.  As far from the ice surface as possible where, during the game they apparently enjoyed a bottle of purloined Screech that one of them had liberated.  I had had a pretty good game 2 goals and an assist as I recall.  So after the game I went to Nikki and said “So what did you think ??”  To which she replied “Ummmm….what colour were you ???”  Ya….that’s my girl !! 

 

Gail:  My kinda girl !!!

 

Isau:  Do we have the time? I could share another story if you want?

 

Gail:  By all means !  

 

Isau:  I have to preface this story with a couple of things.  Firstly, Nikki is a small town Northern Ontario girl.  And, like all of us from up there, kinda crinkly around the edges, if you know what I mean.  Secondly, the rinks that we played in were rudimentary at best.  The ice surface was good on account of it being brass monkey weather for several months, but the stands left a lot to be desired.  There was a wire mesh behind the nets to protect those brave souls who watched us play, but there was no barrier along the length of the ice surface.  So the fans could come right down to the boards.  This caused some fan interference, but such was life in the rock ‘em sock ‘em world of rural hockey.

      Anyway, I was playing for the Swords Slashers at the time and the team lived up to its name providing a strangely entertaining brand of extremely physical play.  We were playing the Trout Creek Dolly Vardens.  On this one play I went to the boards to get the puck and one of the Dollys came up behind me and ran the shaft of his stick up my spine.  I can still feel every painful vertebra.  So this got me PO’ed and I swung the guy around so that his back was to the boards and prepared to retaliate.  That’s when I knew I was in trouble.  My nose didn’t even come up to the guy’s breastbone.  I gave him a shove, thinking “This is not gonna end well”.  When all of a sudden the big boy went down in a heap on the ice.  Nikki had come out of the stands with her long-strapped purse and tommy hawked the guy!!! She must have had her penny collection in there!  The rink had a shared penalty box to which we were both escorted for the obligatory 5 to contemplate our sins.  The guy had mostly regained his senses and in this big old Newfie accent asked “Gosh and begorrah, lad,  what did ya hit me with. I never even seen it coming!!”  How do you respond to that ??? To this day, have never lived down how I won my one and only fight.   Yup….what a girl.

 

Gail:  I like her more and more.  Maybe I should be interviewing her rather than you.  It sounds more interesting.

 

Isau:  Ya….it likely would be.

 

Gail:  Getting back to hockey, if you had to describe yourself as a hockey player in three words, what would they be.

 

Isau:  Awwww….you are just trying to get me to give you a Tortorella answer.  OK, so, three words….. intense, efficient and team-oriented.

 

Gail:  Hockey players can be superstitious types.  Have you any pre-game rituals ?

 

Isau: Yes.

 

Gail: (giggles)  Too funny, care to share.

 

Isau:  As I got to the pros I found myself becoming patterned.  Game day meal usually consists of grilled fish or chicken with a bunch of green stuff.  I take pleasure in sitting at the same place in the dressing room with the same guys sitting alongside me.  Strangely I have to put on my left skate first, but tighten my right skate first.  We all have our little quirks, so more radical that others.  We have a guy who taps his stick exactly 93 times before every game.  Another who after he tapes his stick no one can touch it.  If someone does, he has to retape the stick.

 

Gail:  What do most like about the center ice position?

 

Isau:  I like the fact that a center is involved in the game at both ends.  You have to have some offensive punch and yet be defensively responsible.  

 

Gail:  When did you start playing hockey ?

 

Isau:  Well, a lot of this material will be covered in my biography as I mentioned earlier as well as in a couple of other short media spots that I am contracted for.  So, without giving too much away,  I first laced up a pair of skates in the non-existent hamlet of Gargantua.  Thats a place maybe 100 miles north of the Soo on the shore of Lake Superior.

 

 

Gail:  Were you at any time encouraged to be particularly physical as a player ?

 

Isau:  Thats a tough one, Gail.  I mean hockey, by its very nature, is a physical game.  So you gotta take the body and finish your checks.  In that sense, yes, I was encouraged to be physical.  If you mean getting into fights or being illegally creative with your stick, the answer to that is a general “No”.  However, I alluded to the Swords Slashers a while back.  Now that was one rough team.  Apparently, if you were a Slasher you had to live down to the name!!!

 

Gail:  If the game is so rough, injuries must occur on a regular basis.  What was your most serious injury ?

 

Isau:  Yup, injuries are a fact of life for most hockey players.  They can range from relatively minor strains to career changing events.  I have been extremely fortunate in that the most serious injury I have had is likely a hangnail. (chuckle).  Seriously though if you keep yourself in top physical condition and skate with your head up, you can avoid a lot of the situations in which you could get seriously hurt.

 

Gail:  OK, Isau, last question.  Why do you play hockey ?

 

Isau:  I guess you figured you were going to save your toughest question until the end of the interview.  In fact, it's one of the easier ones.  In short “Because it's fun”.  Really, think about it, someone is paying me to PLAY.  Doesn’t really get much better.

 

Gail:  Isau, thanks so much for doing this.  It was a slice !!  Can we get you back again sometime ?

 

Isau:  Gail, it was a rare pleasure.  Just contact my agent and I am sure we can set up another talk.

 

Word Count : 2146

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[hedgehog337 3,480]

You really did some research to mention the word ''Lettish''.  

[Eynhallow 412]

3 minutes ago, hedgehog337 said:

You really did some research to mention the word ''Lettish''.  

haha...I was going to throw in the word "kvass" after our talk a few days ago....

[fyrefly 172]

Review: This is hands down the longest interview I have ever seen, props for that. You really went into Isau's story, and that's cool. In terms of formatting, the spacing and the photos looked pretty good, My one suggestion is to maybe make either the person's name or the text bold, not both.

9.5./10

Edited January 24, 2021 by fyrefly

[hedgehog337 3,480]

12 minutes ago, Eynhallow said:

haha...I was going to throw in the word "kvass" after our talk a few days ago....

 

better start to use words ''zirņi'' and ''speķis'' too.

Edited January 24, 2021 by hedgehog337

[Eynhallow 412]

5 minutes ago, hedgehog337 said:

 

better start to use words ''zirņi'' and ''speķis'' too.

Ahhh...lets see...gray peas is a menu itme....??????

and bacon...well...I just love bacon !!

[hedgehog337 3,480]

6 minutes ago, Eynhallow said:

Ahhh...lets see...gray peas is a menu itme....??????

 

it is considered as the traditional Latvian cuisine, yes.

[Eynhallow 412]

30 minutes ago, hedgehog337 said:

 

it is considered as the traditional Latvian cuisine, yes.

How are they seasoned...and why "gray" ?

'

Ohh...wait...the peas and bacon are cooked together ????

Edited January 24, 2021 by Eynhallow

[hedgehog337 3,480]

12 minutes ago, Eynhallow said:

How are they seasoned...and why "gray" ?

'

Ohh...wait...the peas and bacon are cooked together ????

 

Just basic, salt and pepper. 

 

Nah, peas and speck plus onion getting cooked separately. 

[Eynhallow 412]

2 hours ago, fyrefly said:

Review: This is hands down the longest interview I have ever seen, props for that. You really went into Isau's story, and that's cool. In terms of formatting, the spacing and the photos looked pretty good, My one suggestion is to maybe make either the person's name or the text bold, not both.

9.5./10

Ya, that's what I get when I cut and paste from Google Docs.  Then I can't unbold.  So I get what I get.  Thanks for the input though.  It is appreciated.  The reason for the length of the interview was that this was supposed to be like a fireside chat....or and in-depth piece.  Then I got carried away with Nikki Starr's stories which are embarrassingly true.  Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Edited January 24, 2021 by Eynhallow

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