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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 20, 2016

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us. As you know, the 2016 NHL Awards are this Wednesday at 7 p.m. eastern at The Joint, at The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino's state‑of‑the‑art concert and entertainment venue in Las Vegas.
Joining us today are Will Arnett and Steve Mayer.
We'll start with the first question.

Q. Steve, you are aware that maybe on Wednesday, just hours before your show, an announcement might be made that a new ice hockey expansion team is going to be coming to Las Vegas. The question is, will your show reflect in any way the excitement and madness of this new ice hockey city?
STEVE MAYER: With regards to expansion, that is a question that needs to be answered by the commissioner or deputy commissioner.
In terms of the announcement, one way or the other, we're waiting for that announcement as well, we will make reference to that. We will have that, one way or the other, within the show.

Q. Will, if Las Vegas does get the expansion team, will you be able to handle the excitement and pressure of that in this awards show?
WILL ARNETT: Well, first of all, I hope that the good people of Las Vegas aren't looking to me to bear the brunt of the excitement of their potential new franchise. But if it were to be put on my shoulders, obviously that's something I could handle.
I do think no matter which way it goes, as Steve said, we'll just play it as it comes. I'm fully confident that we'll be able to give it the appropriate response, and respond the way it needs to be responded to.

Q. Will, I think it will come as a shock to some citizens of the United States that you are Canadian. I don't think some people understand this. As part of that, you have to be a lover of hockey. I followed your career for many years and didn't realize this about you. You're a Maple Leafs fan, is that correct?
WILL ARNETT: That's correct.

Q. Have you ever gone crazy at a game? Can you give me any of your past hockey fandom stories?
WILL ARNETT: Yeah, I mean, I've been a huge hockey fan my entire life. I don't know if I put myself above any other huge hockey fan in that sense.
As a Maple Leaf fan, I've had to endure my fair share of heartache. I don't think I've ever gone, like, nuts before. I've certainly never been part of any riot, if that's what you're asking.
I just realize, before I answer, I should look at a state‑by‑state statute of limitations.
I have gone to games and I have bought tons of gear, redundant gear, hats, scarves, done the thing where I make myself into the poster boy for merchandise. Then I bring it home and I have just tons of stuff that I never wear again.
I bought a shirt once, Wendel Clark, former Maple Leaf great, with his big smiling face on it. I wore it over the clothes I was wearing at the game. Actually lost that shirt, which I was kind of bummed about.
That's sort of the extent of it.
I do watch virtually every single Maple Leafs game, home and away, on the various hockey packages. I'm considering having T‑shirts or hats made up that say, Don't tell me I'm DVRing the game. Basically that's just for my dad. I do often I'll get a text from my dad saying, Can you believe the Leafs gave up three goals in the first period?

Q. Will, there is talk that Vegas might get this hockey team. We're having a big debate here in Las Vegas about what to name this team. Do you have any favorite names for hockey teams that aren't taken?
WILL ARNETT: Well, I've been thinking myself. I don't want to give too much away. We might incorporate that into the show. I was trying to think of, what is a good combination of like ice and the desert.
The Coyotes did a good job in Phoenix because coyotes can live in the desert, but they can also live in a colder clime. They got that.
What are you going to do? For Vegas, the Frozen Tumbleweeds. That doesn't really make sense. Then you have to go with sort of the real old school Vegas themes, like the Jackpots, that would be pretty good. Then you might get people making kind of rude offshoots of that.
You got to be careful. I think the most important thing when you're coming up with a team name is figuring out what nickname people are going to give it. You don't want to tee people up for something easy. We live in a day and age where people like me act like a bunch of smart‑asses and ruin other people's good intentions.
I don't know. I have a few ideas. We might get into that in the show, if and when they do announce that there's a team coming to Vegas, and/or if not. I don't know if I covered enough bases with that (laughter).

Q. Do you have any Vegas background? Do you come to town much, have a background here at all?
WILL ARNETT: I do. My relationship with Vegas is I've kept it undercover. Vegas is my mistress.
No, you know, I've been known to come to Vegas. For a while, David Cross and I would try to come out there, try to do it like once a year if we could or whatever, have a night of gaming, have some fun, go out for dinner. So I do manage to get out there.

Q. Steve, a question about awards shows. They all seem to follow a similar format that gets a little boring after a while. What do you plan on doing on Wednesday that makes it different and really reflects the spirit of the sport in terms of the highjinkx of the sport?
STEVE MAYER: I think given what you just said, the fact that we brought in Will to host, extraordinarily funny guy, great actor, huge hockey fan, just his presence and the funny that he brings, some of the skits we've previously done before the show, I think you'll get the comedy and the funny that admittedly I don't know if we've had in the NHL Awards previous to this year.
We've got music, X Ambassadors, performing. We are doing something that at least I haven't seen. In one of their performances, there will actually be a nomination package. They're going to give out an award during their performance. I think that's really unique. I haven't seen that done before.
There are inspirational moments that we'll lean towards in the show. We're hoping to make people laugh and make people cry a bit.
We're going to do a tribute to Ed Snider and to Gordie Howe. Gordie's sons are attending the show. Obviously with Gordie's passing just recently, that's the first time that Mark and Marty will be in public. So we think that's interesting.
Our commissioner is actually getting involved in some of the comedy, but also he'll be on stage during the presentation to Ed and Gordie.
There are a lot of different elements. I think we looked at the pacing of sort of the nomination packages. In the end of the day we are giving out our awards, that is the most important thing. We'll start with the Rookie of the Year, the Calder Trophy, and we'll end with the most valuable player, the Hart Trophy.

Q. I never thought of Commissioner Gary Bettman as a funny man. You've got him in comedy sketches?
STEVE MAYER: He's in one skit. I think you're going to find his timing to be unique and excellent. I'm not sure if Will is back, but he did a skit with Will. Will can speak to Gary's humor and his comedy, because I think his timing is excellent.
WILL ARNETT: Yeah, look, I asked Gary if he would help us in this one sketch we wanted to do. He was gracious enough to agree to it. In terms of what we needed to do, he went above and beyond.
Again, I don't want to tip too much exactly what it is, but suffice it to say his timing was great. He was very self‑deprecating before we started, but he turned out to be fantastic. He's much better than he let on. How about that?

Q. Will, how excited as a Leafs fan that you're getting the first overall pick and that it could be Austin Matthews?
WILL ARNETT: I'm excited. As a Leaf fan, you just start assuming you're never going to get anything. When we had the greatest odds to get the number one pick, I thought, Still doesn't matter, we're not going to get it. Edmonton is going to get it or something.
When they actually got it, seeing (indiscernible) up there, seeing his face, we actually got the number one pick, honestly, like my dad was saying, everybody in Toronto was acting like we just won the Stanley Cup. For a city that hasn't won a Stanley Cup in almost 50 years now, it's the next best thing.
I'm super excited. I think that Austin Matthews is a great player. If he is, indeed, the number one pick, it would be fantastic.
I got to say it's a really exciting time to be a Leafs fan. There is so much potential for the first time in a really real way, not just kind of putting pieces together, making some dumb trades for a guy who can shoot or whatever. This really feels different.
So I'm excited.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Will and Steve, for today's call.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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