What is going on New York Rangers fans and welcome to episode 24 of the Flying V podcast.

I'm your host, Vince McCogliano of the Athletic and I am really excited about today's episode, in particular because of our guest, someone who has been a mentor to me over the years,

a person that I grew up reading, and then got to call a colleague for a number of years,

and really helped me along the way, especially when I first took on this Rangers beat seven

seasons ago, now at home, enjoying retirement, but kind enough to join us on this week's podcast. Him and I actually happen to be talking about something else, a project that I'm working on, that I'm getting a little help from him on. And I was like, hey, well, we're chatting. You want to just go and kind of riff on the podcast podcast and he was like, yeah, let's do it.

Of course, I'm talking about Rick Carpinello, who was one of the people who preceded me

on the Rangers beat, both at the journal news, lohud.com, USA Today, where I previously worked,

and then went to the athletics. So him and I have kind of had a similar path here as far as the places where we've worked,

obviously different stages of our career.

But Carpe is the best.

Like I said, he's been awesome to me over the years.

And even though he is playing a lot of golf these days, not working a whole lot, enjoying retirement.

It sounds like he's locked in.

I don't think he's on the phone a ton or working sources or reporting things out, certainly.

That's not his job anymore.

But I can tell you, I think he watches pretty much every Rangers game.

You guys might see him tweeting still.

We texts sometimes during games catching up the other day.

It was very clear to me that he is very much in tune with everything going on with the Rangers.

So we're going to get some fresh eyes, a fresh perspective, somebody who has been watching

this team for a very, very long time.

And it's really a fun conversation. We thought it was going to be

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