By Brian Metzer
As you all should know by now, our pal George Von Benko goes one-on-one with Ray Shero on three occasions each and every season. He talk to him right before the games start following the pre-season, at or around the NHL’s trade deadline and right before the team goes on the hunt for that elusive fourth Stanley Cup Championship.
The content in these conversations is always great stuff, but the best thing about them? George allows us to post them here for your auditory pleasure!
During this chat George gets Shero’s take on all of the following:
- The Penguins off-season roster moves, including the re-acquisition of Rob Scuderi
- Marc-Andre Fleury and his expectations heading into the season
- Tomas Vokoun’s blood clotting issue
- Jeff Zatkoff getting his NHL chance
- What we can expect from Sidney Crosby as he enters his prime and his ninth NHL season
- Olli Maatta’s surprise roster spot
- The arrogance of outsiders who have criticized the Penguins inability to get back to the Stanley Cup Final since 2009
- Much, much more!
Hopefully you will enjoy this chat as much as all of the past ones! As always George will be back with his deadline chat later in the season.
You can listen to the interview via the player below — the interview ends at roughly the nine minute mark, but the file plays on due to a recording glitch on my end. Sadly, I didn’t have the software with me to edit it out. So once you hear George and Ray sign off, the interview ends — no hidden tracks!
If you a fan of sports, which I am assuming that you are if you are reading this blog, then you should check out George Von Benko’s new book — “Sports Talk.” You may remember his previous efforts, which focused on a number of local sports icons, called “Memory Lane.” Well this one was inspired by a box of over 200 old taped radio interviews that George conducted with a number of national sports icons.
“Sports Talk” and Von Benko’s previous two books are available at all Bradley’s book outlets in western Pennsylvania, selected Barnes and Noble stores and at the Uniontown Public Library.
George will be at the Heinz History Center Book Fair on Dec 7 selling and signing copies of Memory Lane, Memory Lane Vol 2 and Sports Talk. Get down there and meet the man and buy the book!
***George Von Benko is a sports historian and is always good for a story that I hadn’t heard before. You can hear him weekly on his sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio in Uniontown airing from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. George is also the voice of the University of Pittsburgh Lady Panthers basketball team and serves as the primary back-up to Bill Hillgrove for the University’s Men’s Basketball broadcasts.
