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Spokane Chiefs

From the podcast: Larry Weir’s Q+A with Spokane Chiefs broadcaster Mike Boyle

Mike Boyle, who serves as the voice of the Spokane Indians and Spokane Chiefs, poses during the Indians’ FanFest on June 10, 2017, at Avista Stadium. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)
From staff reports

Larry Weir, host of The Spokesman-Review’s Press Box Podcast, on Friday sat down with Mike Boyle, longtime Spokane Chiefs broadcaster (KGA 1510-AM), to discuss a range of Chiefs topics. Among them:

Expectations

“Going into the season, I thought there’d be marked improvement in the club. And I think they finished out about where I thought they would. I thought they would make the playoffs and I thought they would play well in the first round. I thought getting to a second round would be a bonus for this team. So, they played about where I thought they would.

Certainly didn’t look that way midway through the season. The team was hovering around the .500 mark that first half of the year, and it just didn’t seem like they were clicking to what they needed to. You can back to the absence of Kailer Yamamoto, you can go to the adjustments of new head coach Dan Lambert’s systems … there were a number of things you could have pointed at. But once January rolled around, after the trade deadline, this club really put it together and showed what kind of club that they could be … not just the rest of this year, but going forward.”

Talent

“There’s been some lean years as far as talent is concerned over the past four of five years. This was the best team I’ve seen play in Spokane since the 2011 team that went to the Western Conference Final. And I think this club going forward has that in them to go that far. You look at guys … Kailer Yamamoto once he got rolling in January, he’s obviously a first-round pick of Edmonton. Ty Smith, who’s going to be a first-round pick in the National Hockey League draft coming up in June, he’s a star in the making and probably the best defenseman in the Western Conference this year. Jaret Anderson-Dolan, a second-round pick of the L.A. Kings, another high talent that is certainly going to get a chance to play in the National Hockey League. There’s a number of kids that are on their way up: Eli Zummack and Jake McGrew, who was a sixth-round pick of San Jose … a lot of fun players to watch.”

Next season

“I’ve got to tell people that if they didn’t watch this club this year, to get out and watch them next year. They’re going to be a lot of fun to watch. Very entertaining and not quite the clubs they were watching three years ago where I thought it was sort of a slovenly pace at times. This club can get up and down the ice and make things happen.”

Listen to the entire interview at https://www.spreaker.com/user/spokesman-review/0406-pressbox. You can listen to previous episodes of the Pressbox Podcast at https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-press-box-with-larry-weir.