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Hello, everybody, welcome to Episode 313 of Spin Checklists presented by Pink Whitney from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the barstool sports podcast, Family. What's going on, boys? Happy holidays to everybody out there.

Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Let's go to the boys and see how the holidays where my Grindley producer. How are you doing, Ballhaus? Reality. What's going on, guys?

Holidays were great. I hope you guys enjoy yours as well. What I'm excited to hear about the kids holidays. I love hearing about little kids getting presents, so look forward to hearing about that. Other than that best of episode, you guys know these ones do the best. So excited.

Yes, kid got a 401k set up. You got a fucking Bentley and maybe a maybe a car.

That's not a car I would never leave. My mother in law tried giving him like a Mercedes, one of those toy like he's not having a Mercedes. I guess first car is going to be a shit box. It'll be safe. But I'm not getting him a sick car. If you get your kid who doesn't work just like an Escalade or a sick brand new car, you're an asshole. I'm fired up for this episode. I didn't mean to get negative right off the bat, but what's going on?

Usually very that's a what's up?

But he said I'd give my kid a Bentley. Are you shit me? I'm just teasing. I'm just teasing. I like it. I like poke in the fire a little bit at the beginning of the episode because then we get elect electric with poking the bear. How is your Christmas business to get everything.

Yeah. From Santa. You were hoping for what.

You know what I say. No gifts. And you know, we ended up doing a little bit of an exchange. I got my girlfriend. She's got these knives. I forget the name of them and she might be hearing me tell the story.

Was it the one from the NHL Network infomercial?

If you don't know, they're Japanese. The Japanese knives, if you like, tapped your fawzy, I would completely chop it off. So that's probably that's why on tap your Anzu.

That's what I'm going to do. No, not injured. But anyway, I got her knives. She ended up get me these slippers. Awesome. She got me a backpack for hiking, the one that has the CamelBak in it that you could suck out of the straw. So simple gifts but very thoughtful. And those knives are unbelievable. I'll get the name of them, but you can send them in every year and they'll sharpen them and send them back.

That's how intense these things are. These are like The Last Samurai. You're going to see me in the kitchen, like Tom Cruise with the slicked back. I can chop it up my carrots. Oh, my God.

Hey, you're going to LA. Are you are you going to have that straw, like, go behind the ear?

Like, it's almost like an ear piece for for an assistant coach to uptalk, or is this thing just going over the shoulder, goes over the shoulder, shoulder a whole lot of like my rattail back in grade six over the shoulder and Bill saved and that shoe box.

Oh, you mean like I still have it? I think I said that at the time that you would you definitely saved your ratel. Everyone knows somebody who saved their right, their crepes.

What about you with dog also I this I never told you guys this one. I forgot about the time I had braids and I still have the picture of it.

So, you know, we've got I think you've put this picture out there prior. Oh really. Yeah. Yeah. To talk looking like Betaworks from ten. I mean we haven't even talked since the sandbagger, which is fucking crazy. I know. We haven't actually.

What did you did you are do you still do the present thing. You big on that. I think the older you get the less likely like no we don't like presents.

We did some. We did some stalkings, but I obviously shoved like a monster ring at the bottom, so had to get something.

But, you know, the wrap stuff, you you just you just slowly just kind of get things throughout the throughout the year that I think of that she may like not even anything expensive, maybe funny stuff, maybe a bath bomb.

But every kiss begins with K. Is that where you got her. And I said, yeah, which dog wouldn't walk past the K let alone. Oh that's where I bought all the wedding rings. I've lost the jarra.

I go to Jarrad's or maybe it is a 35 year old. Christmas was great because Rayder got a year older. So he's I said he's 80 percent there like he was there. Like any new Santa is coming and Santa brought presents. But he wasn't at the point where you're waking up at five a.m., you're going downstairs, you run in your parents. I'm like so fired up. Whereas his cousin, my nephew is a year older. He was the night before.

So I think that it was great because he was excited. But he still he still slept in. He still chilled. He wasn't like dying to get downstairs. So he opened a million boxes. The problem is he's opening these presents and then he's like, oh, open it, open it like, oh, marble thing. And I'm like, oh, all right. The open, he plays it for two minutes, opens the next president, then you got to open that president up.

So he unwraps it. We then open, put it together, took like three hours to do it. But it was awesome.

I'm so grateful to be, you know, home. And obviously it's a little different this year. We weren't together with tons of family, but immediate family and parents and things like that. So I had a blast. It's crazy that we haven't spoken since the sandbagger.

You should just get them like weird shit from around the house and pack it up. If he's only going to play for it with a minute.

Oh yeah, he'll be, he'll be the one thing you think he'll be all fired up about. He's like beat it. And then he's playing with the cardboard box.

The Amazon ship isn't to say that a lot of money they played at the wrap and basically locked in his head in the box like, I don't know where that thing came from.

So sandbagger, though. Well, we're going to ask Ari what he got, we got to ask you, since everybody's talking about it. All got his his Playboy subscription back.

How are you guys?

Yeah, I really wouldn't call it resubscribe.

No, actually, I don't even think they do a paper paper issue anymore, do they?

Maybe like once a year or so I heard you say you get the CDs from when you buy them ten for a cent and then you of the house Columbia House.

I still have all my CDs. I still it on me. Actually, I went down the basement to get my bad Santa DVD to watch the night before Christmas though and do that one funny thing that happened Christmas Eve.

Now this is probably only funny to parents out there, so maybe you three will be the judge here if this is going to bond with everyone else and it doesn't have kids.

But like I said, my nephews, one year old or cooperage, one year older than Rayder. So their buddies, they're always wrestling. Ryder loves dinosaurs and cars. Those are the two things. So Cooper has an enormous present from his grandmother, my wife's mom. Enormous. And Ryder has one, too. Now, it wasn't his big butt wrap and that was their big gifts, Christmas Eve. So everyone's getting ready and the girls are reading Twas the Night Before Christmas because she's, you know, doing good and reading.

And it's a great little I'm crushing Kamus and it's awesome.

And let's open the presents now. Kids hear from the grandparents.

Cooper opens up his present, it is an absolute monster, is it Matchbox, the toys toy dinosaur racetrack that was six feet tall.

Ryder looked and saw and he sprinted over like you'd never imagine.

Life like my mind. And Cooper's a veteran. He's the older cousin. You know, my present writer. Come over here, open your eyes and open your present. He rips it open.

It's a play doctor's kit. It's a stethoscope, it's I look at the scope, I looked at my mother. I said, Miss, are you kidding me?

His favorite thing in the world is the diagnosis and the cars. And Coop, she's like, Cooper asked me for this in August. I don't give a shit. I was dying. I've been so sure enough.

The rest of the night, Cooper knows what's going on. He's sitting on the box of this thing going, I love my president. Tauntings an hour.

It was an hour to play with the stethoscope, but it's cool to be a doctor. You'll be in debt for 12 years before you make a cent after medical school. But I just remembered that.

So we can move on a little bit.

We got to talk about already cockblock his stories, his I'm what just came into my head.

I interrupted you to make me laugh. Go ahead. All right.

Honestly, I'm not even sure I had a gift story. I didn't I didn't really get any gifts. I don't ask for anything. I didn't ask for anything in twenty years. So I get I get whatever anything is gravy. At this point, I don't have kids.

So Chris, when you want something, you go get it. Yeah, that's that's what I always say to my wife. Yeah. If I want something made by a man who can wait till fucking.

Have you ever received drugs as a Christmas present.

I mean, my brother probably gave like eighths and quarters to each other over the years and we don't even give us any more like years ago. I might do it like you give me a hat, I give you a hat. Just save the fucking hassle. Like, you know, it's a wash. You know, I don't I don't give a shit how much chocolate smirch where you give an outdoor.

I be honest, nothing like what's fucking old man. I'll tell you that.

No, I had my butt. My dad my dad paid for it. My dad paid for it. Might dear a monster order, but people love the merch. It's great gifts.

Absolutely. But my brother made actually my brother's birthday was two days after Christmas.

I had a little family get together yesterday, but the athletic type that don't look good on me, I'm I'm a little chunky. So, like, I give that stuff to my my brother. He's a little more athletic fit than me, so I don't need to accentuate my curves.

Some would say wearing tighter clothes while being a little bigger is actually a great look as well.

You just say, I don't give a shit, I'm out here. You're just like, I don't know. I think you could pull it off. All right.

If I was Greg to have a Valentine, maybe with accompanying muscles, but I don't even have those.

So I went to and check out Spanx are already had a fucking Cardassian NBG man's ear.

On a serious note to everybody who is sending us messages and Instagram photos and Twitter photos of all the stuff you got, whether it was Pink Whitney or the merchandise Grenelle. He did an amazing job on the merchandise, guys. He sent us all packages. I actually ended up going over to when I was having a car wash the other day. I had a bunch of the stuff and I'm like, you know what? Let's give it away. So I stood there for an hour and a bunch of people came by a bunch of Chilcote's fans and was able to not only give away some merchandise, but those pink Whitney sticks.

People are going nuts. For those I got, those things are what a what a gift those were. I got those off to everyone. You know, what I would compare it to is the Tickle Me Elmo. You're like, if you got one, everyone was like, they're fighting for it. Like the Black Friday sales.

You guys weren't, Ralph, a Cabbage Patch kids like they were like legit riots over those fucking things back in the 80s. There was documents back then.

Oh, they were. Yeah. Hideous dolls. They were just they were just one of those phenomenon. And you can't really explain.

And I mean, people are fucking robbing them from stores. They were like people fighting over them and shit.

I my sister got one where if you like, you got the spoon with it and then you went up and it was like the baby would start talking like like that was like innovation. At the time that I was growing up, that was about the time that I walked in on her getting thumped by her now husband, by another guy named Paul, the only people she calls her name, Paul Latza.

Did you guys had not have locks on your doors at the Bissonette house between you?

I don't think I was allowed to lock my door. Looking back, why do you think I didn't have a gun? I didn't. I didn't have a lock. I didn't have a lock.

We got to get Yolly on and talk about, like, raising me as a kid. TATSUMI Yeah, I think the parents need to make an appearance on these on this part at some point. Hey, how about I was going to drop off those sticks because I got so many of them. I was like, oh, I'll leave them and then I'll tweet out where they are.

I was like, oh, wait a minute, there's ten there's ten nips in there, like some fifteen year old kid on Twitter and just go pick it up and get end up getting arrested. So luckily I didn't do that. I didn't have any merch left because I had talked at all.

I put mine on eBay a couple of bucks besides Saks, the merch. And then and then for just me fragrantly signature then throws it up on eBay.

Hederman Gluckstein, let's talk about the sandbagger. Another great thing, g.g helped Ed as well. Last time I didn't say that we had chased Porsche and help out and they help out with this launch too. We had over 11000 people at one time watching sandbagger with your hands and hazy. It was an absolute riot. The chirps were flying. I, I my wires crossed at the end there. I mean, I mean that's, that's as mad as you're going to see me on a golf.

I know my old lady at the time that you were mad, I knew at the time that you were furious, you were trying to hold it, and though you were dying, laughing, do it for them, for him to break out the shot clock at that point, the twenty second hole it was I was it I was laughing because it was so funny.

But I also I also yelled back as we drove away as a scumbag move or something because it was, it was.

And you were pissed. I think you were planning on just firing a dart in there and we got it done. We got it done. Now I am starting and this is kind of this is well-deserved.

This is like the heat I'm starting to catch right now is so well deserved. It be compared to like when I was minus three on a home Saturday night, hockey night in Canada, game in Edmonton, we lost five. Nothing right. Like this is how deserved this is.

But people are on me about my party.

Yeah, it's it's let me say this. All year when I was talking golf, people would bitch and whine. I said putting was an issue all year. It would come for a little bit and then it would go for a while. All of these sandbaggers, it has not been there at all because I'm never even sniffing making pots every pot short. The the stroke I'm putting on the ball is so short. It's disgusting. It's like a stroke in the bedroom.

No offense. Oh sorry.

No. Oh no. Oh no. Frickin not based on reality.

No I don't think either I, I need next sandbagger. I'm not leaving a short. I don't care, I don't care because it's so embarrassing. It looks pathetic but yeah. I need a glove.

I think that Keith, Keith and Kevin showed how funny those two guys are. They are just hilarious nonstop.

But let's not forget they both they had a couple different ones.

They both had like a two, three footer for the win. And I think that's karma.

And we like if I was Kevin on the on the second playoff. All the twenty eight. Nineteen twenty four. I would have never gone good. That's what I was surprised at, that's why did I not did I bring it up? I say you go, hey, good, good. And then I was like, yeah, you. Yeah, you want to go, you want to do that? And he's like, Yeah, that's fine.

I was like, oh, the way they were hunting. I know.

And then I made a phone call and I was going to say it was karma for what Jan said on the first hole on the tee box because that was just I but he put me on my heels on hole one. That's why I couldn't find my game for the first six fucking holes. I couldn't even keep it on the fairway. For those of you who didn't watch it, they had these, like, lighthouse things there as what do you call them?

The markers for the tees. Yeah, tee markers were lighthouse's, they were LightHouse's.

So I said, oh, that's kind of cool.

I stick with the theme Boston Harbor with the Lighthouse and Ganzer. Yan's under his breath because looks like looks like what's in your mom's top drawer.

Hazy, long and hazy, swinging like mumbled it.

Well, he was doing practice swings and I knew it was funny because I saw Kevin and I was like, what? And then he told me I was like, oh, I couldn't even spit it out. I was I was on my heels so bad I set it back and complete broken English and you still understood the joke. And so but at the end of the day, a fun round. Thank you, those guys, for coming out three a.m. in Boston.

And we're going to be doing two and we're not in Arizona. We're not going to tell you guys who to be hounding us for a couple of months until we release it. I'll golf wasn't the only extracurricular activity the chick lit crew took part and we were a part of the 12 trivia challenge, we were the number one seed. Somehow we played one trivia game all year. We were the number one seed being busy. And the whiteboard joined us and we ended up losing to the yak.

I don't know if you guys watch to listen to whatever. We had a one point lead and then Steve and Jake fucking he knew who six pence none the richer insist that he actually I didn't know his sister Hazel was. I thought it was Blues Traveler. So we ended up blowing the trivia in the last round. I don't know.

I wasn't disappointed of all time because they were the worst music fucking questions ever. So I can't even be mad that I lost to those answers because they were just like I would say, both of you guys carried your weight.

I was probably the weakest link, as we would all suspect or witchel education. Thanks a lot. But it was a fun time. And I think it I mean, as far as other other guys that were on it, it was Ronn and Big Cat. And I think a lot of people end up tuning in after it was released on YouTube.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. If you haven't seen it, check it out. It's in its Twitter feed on Checketts. But is Jeff sname?

The law is at law, but D is his middle initial. Why does he put his initial? I don't know, but we're talking about it, so I guess it's a good idea.

That's your name. It's pretty badass, as I always love. I have him on my phone. Is GDL. Yeah.

No, 100 percent. You're right. I say it every time I say oh Jeff dealable. I'm wondering why does it. I know if there was like you think his reasoning to do it was to sound bad badass.

Well, he's a movie guy. I think maybe it's kind of inheriting that like what's going to what's going to sound cool? People's fucking nicknames business. Who the fuck am I to talk to? She has a nickname in the league. And then I tattooed it on my arm like a clown. All right. I was going to go. Oh, all right. Since you since you brought up Jeff DLO, I didn't get his recommendation on not to watch it.

I love watching that midnight sky with George Clooney. Hands down, probably the worst movie I've ever seen in my life.

Yeah, I couldn't believe it.

I was like, why would George Clooney be in this movie? It was it was the worst thing I'd ever seen.

It's funny. He actually texted me right before the trivia and said how bad it was in a couple of people text me so I didn't even bother putting it on. I'm curious if it was worse than Wonderwoman 1984, though, which was pretty bad.

Oh, no. Now we got the we're going to get in trouble for the I'm going to watch that just to make sure that's worse than what the one I mentioned did.

All right. Well, moving right along here, we're going to head over to a different segment. We know 20/20 has been a brutal year for everybody, but we do have a bright spot here.

We get to talk about the best players in hockey from 2020 because we've paired up with E.A. Sports NHL to announce the 2020 team of the year.

Out of 36 nominees, six will be chosen as the best hockey players of 2020 and a three forwards two defenseman and a goalie. This is for the calendar year 2020. So this goes back to way before the stoppage includes the bubble in the Stanley Cup final. And today we're going to start by announcing the 36 players nominated. They're going to have a spit and chocolate snake draft on January 1st. Our Boy Best is going to make his award show debut and announce the winners in a special video.

But first, we're going to mention the players. Narita Mafia starting off with Sena's.

We got Nathan McKinnon, the Andre Sitel, Mika's Bennett, yet Sidney Crosby, Austin Matthews and Elliott Patterson, AQAP. Moving on to the goalies, we have Carey Price, U.S. Suros Cadart, Andre Wesolowski Kanala Hollerbach, Elvis Mosley Skins game. Moving right along to the deep we got Ryan Suda Roman, Joseph Ivan Prober up. Victor had been Quinn huge help JFP Theodore a left wing. We got Dominic Kubelik Jamie then Mike Hoffman Temi Panarin Alex Ovechkin, Kyle Carna on the right side of D we got Mecha, John Klingberg, Seth Jones outs, the tarantula, Kevin Chaton, Kirk and John Paulson.

And on right wing we got David Pasternack, Patrick Kane, Michael Rapidan, the key to Koocher up Mitch Mannah and Mark St.. All right, boys, if you saw this last year, you know, there was some serious heat going out to the winners, there were some custom skates and a goalie mask that our buddy Jordan Benenson wore at the skills competition. So we'll have some more of that. But let's get cracking, see who picks first in the snake draft.

If you're not familiar with a snake draft, it's like a fantasy football draft. The last pick of the first round picks the first pick on the second round that it just continues to snake through. Hence the name snake draft. So what's up, boys?

You ready to go? Because we're going to see who the best GM on the podcast is right now. Absolutely. And we're going to pick from the hat to make it fair. So whoever gets picked first gets to pick which position they want to draft. And so this is the real deal with. All right.

So many first name drawn. Let's see. We have. This is where you're going to be picking. I'm going to pick forth, oh, he wants the four or five o'clock to four or five very, very, very savvy move.

I think you guys are going to be heading into this one. And I already have a strategy in place. All right.

So now we'll pick the next one and it'll be football first if we don't decide, OK, I just let the listeners know.

Next up, we have Jeanne Ginelli, what do you want? Take numero uno, boys.

What an idiot that's been up to the plate. Yes. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. All right, next up, see who picks. We have our SO. I'll pick second. I'm not going to make this complicated. What dog will pick third? All right. All right, first of all, you already have first overall teed up first overall as an easy pick for me boys, Nathan McKinnon. Twenty five points and fifteen playoff games last year.

It's a no brainer. Absolute no brainer to me. First, overall pick Nathan McKinnon.

OK, congrats on the victory. Just put that one right in his lap. Yeah.

I mean, I don't know if he's going to wait about two hours to pick again and there's some many good players out there. But still. Yeah, McKinnon was up there.

Everyone knew he was probably going to be number one overall pick.

But where do we go from?

Here is the question with, all right, we're going to go between the pipes and I'm going to go with the local guy. I don't know, because I'm in Tampa right now. But Andre Wesolowski, an absolute horse all year, a horse drawn out during the playoffs.

He could have easily won the contest, might he didn't. But either way, he's my first round pick. Andre Wesolowski.

Yeah, I was talking to myself about, you know, you grab a goal, you're a superstar center and.

I don't know, boys, it's I'm not going with the goalie, I decided that I just don't know how you don't go out and you get the Andre total. It's I mean, you can talk all you want about how much of a guarantee McKinnon was tried to for me superstar and the season he had with McDavid out.

We'll talk we'll talk to my team at the end of this 20 twenty take on the German.

What do we got this first round? Putting me in a tough bind here, but I'm going to have to go back back to the well where it all began with the Pittsburgh Penguins, I need leadership. I need to control the middle of the ice. What are you looking up like that for? You thought I was going Matthews didn't you know? I did. I did. You go back to the guy who's been there, done that three times, Sidney Crosby.

He's going to be my senior center iceman.

So when picking the best team at twenty twenty, you're just picking a guy for what he did in two thousand ten.

Yeah, that's great draft.

He had a great playoff. If you think that Pittsburgh loss was on Sidney Crosby. Oh, that's putting words in my mouth.

I'm saying that you're a lot of a lot of you think that you have to you have to convince me that Crosby is one of the best of all time. I'm just saying we're picking for twenty twenty.

I mean, I don't know this.

Well, I got the next pick so you don't mind. I'd like to announce it. I'm going to go Patrick Kane on the right side. So I got said passing the Kaner.

You know what, I like that pick, but I also like a certain player to have to my right side, another European who when healthy, when healthy this past year.

Actually, no, I'm going to switch that up, I'm still sticking on the right side, but I look down a little bit and I'm going with Kutuzov, I'm going with the Stanley Cup champ. I'm going with the guy that along with Brayton Point was the first two teammates have more than 30 points in a playoff since Crosby and Malkin years ago. So right now, I got Driesell Center and Kutuzov is my right wing.

Good luck, guys. That's a decent start. That's a decent start. We'll see in the third round late.

Yeah, it's not too shabby at all. I suppose I should put somebody up my middle right about now. So you know what?

I'm going to go down our boy up in Toronto. Hosta Matthews, fantastic year by the kid. He's always had a good year. But how do you not take when he's on the board right now?

I guess keep in mind, folks, we're going to let you guys vote on who's assembled the best team with the snake draft. And right now, it's got a pretty, pretty decent squad. But I think I'm going to surprise a lot of people at the end here. All right. All right, boys.

My team is going to score goals. That's what we're going to do this season. Ninety five points in seventy games last year. David Pasternack is my number.

Tupac Shakur. That's who I was thinking. And then I'm going to play fast and we're going to score goals.

So you got McKennitt, you got McKinnon and Pasternack. That's right there with me. We tried to cut you off, but I got the cup.

I got the cup.

All right. I got to fill in. Let's see here how the left wing. All right.

Where you know, it doesn't really go twice. Yeah, he does. I do indeed go twice, thank you, which is my second pick, my second take, I mean, five games recently had him on the podcast have to go with Seth Jones, just an absolutely wide Knauss on the back.

This guy can't have race absolute horse on the back end.

He's probably third on the list on this guy. Can't drive. Oh, he's all right, everybody.

I'm up. I'm going to take the left wing from the New York Rangers who butchered Temi Panarin.

He's an absolute stud. He's so much more valuable, I think, than a left wing.

You just crushed my heart. I was my next pick.

You want to get your heart crushed a little bit more because I got I got dried sidel. I got couture off. I'm going to chuck on back to my back and I'm going to grab a guy named Victor Hedeman.

How do you do in the playoffs? Hey, twenty. Twenty. How is the twenty twenty best team at twenty twenty. Doing. Oh I'll have two of the best players on the Stanley Cup winning team along with the best player in the league from Edmonton. So thanks for coming to this draft guys, but I'm all over Hedeman.

I got back to back pick picks here and I'm going to compete with your squad here and I'm going to go Khail mcca the best young defense from the game.

Speaking of video games, you might as well be playing a video game when you're out there and then going back with the next pick to secure my up front. I got Alex Ovechkin, the guy who's on the cover here of the NHL 94 throwback game that NHL twenty one put out. So yeah. Twenty one. Excuse me. So that's who I got.

I got the four guys dialed in right now and I'm sitting pretty and not as pretty as the wet dog because now what I'm going to do is I'm going to finish off my DeBois, I'm going to finish off the deep end. What am I going to grab? Who am I going to grab?

I'm going to grab the guy that had the most points in the regular season by a defenseman, John Carlson, who had seventy five points in sixty nine games. That's over a point per game. This team's decent. I'll say that.

Go ahead. All right.

Yeah, it is decent, he said on Adine added up. You know what? Yeah, you know what? We got that young puck moving defenseman. I can't resist. I'm on the left side. Twin himself, Quin Hughes. All right.

So going to solidify my defense with the Norse trophy winner, Roman Yoshie. Easy pick for either. And then I'm picking again and I'm going to solidify the back end and I'm picking Carey Price and Goal. Price, we're going to get around goalie's, let's see. All right, I need the fence, ma'am.

I'm going to go with.

Time limit. All right, Alex Pietrangelo, right side of my day, no brain.

OK, I'm just going to finish off my steam or not finish off, but get there. So I got the cup winners. I got great. I'll just go and I'll grab the best in the winter. I played in Winnipeg, guys, corner Halbrook this draft. So I don't even I'm not even taking a left wing.

I'm going to play five on four in this one voice. Thanks for the title. They sent me some stuff.

Send me a belt. GM of the check this year. You got two picks.

I'm going to go back to back here. I'm going to go probably one of the most underrated defensemen out in the west place for Vegas was probably overshadowed a little bit by the young guns Quinn Hughes and Kelmer Carr. But I got Schey Theodore. OK, that's a pretty silky smooth and nice, silky smooth back end for me between Kelmer car and and now excuse me. Say, Theodore, I had to pick my goaltender, you pick Connor Hollerbach, so I'm forced to go the young route Elvis was Lykins will be my goaltender.

I know we need I know we need a little bit of experience back there. But he's not he's not shy of being thrown in the pressure cooker by John Tortorella. So there's my squad boys.

You took a kind of hard I like got a draft.

You can't draft well, who had better numbers last year? I don't know, I just look at the year. I just think Carter hardily was so good. I mean, I'm not talking to the because I just think the pick was hard. I think the pit was picked was hard.

I went, you got, I believe, a left wing, a left. But I'm not taking a left wing. No, I will just take somebody just to carry around the other four players luggage because I mean, actually, you know what I like thrown I like throwing teammates together.

I got two guys from Tampa, get two guys from Winnipeg, the American Stud.

Unreal. Wheelz, Kyle Connor, game breaker. Thank you. Wild card.

Thank you. Thank you. That's a good that's a good team. Well, I'm a little jealous. I like my squad, but we'll see how people vote. I got I got a nice young back end with the great legs. Legs feed the wolf. Folks, just remember that. All right, I'm going to finish my roster off here with the right wing.

I'm going to watch the playoff animal himself. Mark Stone, an absolute beast all season long, especially in the playoffs. So he's going to fill up my roster. And we go. All right, guys, I think it's an easy pick for me here. It's what have you done for me lately? I look at the Stanley Cup finals. What other team is there besides the Tampa Bay Lightning? It was a Dallas stars on the back of who?

Jamie. Ben, I need a little grit my line up. So I'm taking Jamie Benn 19 playoff points and finishing in last.

I think it's going to be between being what I think there's not even I think it's like a runaway. A runaway.

Well, we'll let the fans decide because we're going to put our teams up. We're going to list the snake draft and you guys are going to vote on who the best general manager. And this is all brought to you by EA Sports, NHL twenty one. And we're going back to twenty twenty for these picks. We'll let the fans decide. Looking forward to seeing you guys that are a little drive by. What do you call G award show. Drive by a show.

Drive by award show baby first best on the spot.

We are going to read off our teams just to summarize this thing right off my team.

When it's my turn, I'd like to read off my team myself. OK, let's do it.

Let's do G was the first picture we all agreed his team first.

A lot of negative connotations towards my team don't really respect that at all because my team stacked Nathan McKinnon, David Pasternack, Seth Jones, Roman, Yochi Carey Price and Jamie.

Then that's a great team, his team better than we were giving them. But it ain't the wounder better.

But it just sounded better when he realized that you forgot about McKinnon because first overall pick was so long ago and Roman Yochi getting Roman Yochi in the fourth.

As with my fourth pick, that's a good pick. All right, I'm up next, can is my goalie second round as the Matthews's Masina Temi Panarin from my left winger when he was on the left side of the deal, Alex Petrenko on the right side of the D and Mark Stone to give a little grit to that forward line on the right side.

I want to go right there. Yeah, I'm going to go I'm going to go right ahead. I got the best no enteral Abuk and that I got on Lefty Victor Headmen. How's that guy? Decent on the right D. I get the guy with the most points last year's defense and that's John Carlson on the left side of my my forward unit. I'm running around with Kyle Connor. He flies. He's got no problem keeping up with my Sunderman Leon title.

Just a dominant offensive performance all season long and on the right wing. How was Nikita Koocher of season guys? How did that end? So that's my squad. All right.

I've got a young back and I told you about it. Shay Theodore Cale mcca in met with Mersch Lykins. He won't be getting many shots because we'll be spending most of our night in the offensive zone with Alex Ovechkin.

He's one of the one of the cover boys with the tenth advisor. He's going to be tickling the twine.

Who do I got who I got on the other way.

You get over to Patty Kane, you got Patrick Kane might don't want to Con Smith. What a one might have won three Stanley Cups. He's got the experience. Who else has got three cups. Sidney Crosby. My sentiments. So about experience and a young back end with some young legs in that you guys are toast. Thank you very much. GM of the Year of the Spit and Chicago's podcast, Paul Bissonette all brought to you by NHL twenty one EA Sports.

And once again, we want to say a big thank you to our friends over at Sports NHL. It's been an honor to help them announce the 2020 team of the year. And once again, our boy bids on January 1st is going to make his award show debut and announce the winners in a very special group to look for him at that time. Once again, big thanks to our friends over at E.A. Sports NHL. It is an honor to collaborate with them.

I've been playing this game for almost 30 years, so it's pretty cool for me, even as an old timer. And a lot of the fans, a lot of the listeners voted on our teams in the wet dog. You look like the the best general manager of the crew.

Yeah, that was that was a hell of a performance by myself. And I think when I got tritone cultural, you could say, I don't remember the exact order I went, but having those two doesn't really matter. You're left wing and then headmen and carleson together.

It was just that was it. And then I threw I threw in a winning goalie. So it was it was it was fun to do business with you guys. Hopefully we can all be NHL games one day. You guys all get relegated.

Oh yeah. Soccer term. I don't even know what long term IRS and I call Elliott Freeman about. You want me to be a GM? They said I got to go into that.

We got to go into that move by the lightning.

Well, that's what people were saying online. They said I was as good a GM as player. So, yeah, I probably finished dead last behind Ginelli there. And you did a pretty good job, too, IRA. You were getting tired, pumped.

Yeah, I didn't think it was too shabby. I mean, I thought was like I said, most people don't pick goalies that early, but I don't think too many players had a better twenty twenty than Wesolowski did.

So I'll stand behind that pick. But before we get to all the transactions, because there were a lot of them, we got to talk about the world juniors. Man, that's the big story in town right now. Started Christmas Day. Huge bamma for our buddy Kirby. Man, I know we always had the check. That's ball. He got the opposite of that poor guy, breaks his wrist. The last exhibition game looked like a pretty innocuous hit, too.

But just that's the way the fucking cookie crumbles. And hockey sometimes. Chicago just tweeted before recorded. He got surgery. He's going to be looking at a four to five month recovery. So get well, Brother Kirby, we're heartbroken. Fire was awful to see.

I guess you'd have to call that the checklist dump. Is that what we're going to be labeling it as? Yeah. Yeah. When Brunelli I think you sent the video over to the group chat, it was you see him pull his hand out of his glove. Right. And you're like you're hoping that the jersey just looks weird. But ultimately, it didn't look great. I ended up seeing a picture of it. Horrible fluke injury, guys. Then the debate ensues.

This guy played in the NHL last year. Yeah. Why is even there right away? I want to shut that down. You talk to any big time player at the NHL level and majority have been to that tournament. And in order to get to the level of where you're going to be able to, you know, rise to the occasion, you have to experience it at these different levels of play. And I believe they asked Jonathan Tay's about it before the tournament and he said if it wasn't for that experience and gain that confidence, being the guy at that level, I don't think I would have went on to had to have the career that I would have had.

And for this kid who, you know, he played two years of Junior Seau, he never really had the opportunity to be the guy. Right. He he makes the team at a training camp as a as a nineteen year old with the Hawks. I think he has a very solid rookie year. The stoppage happens. We have him and he talks about finally getting ready because people don't understand that full year and what it takes out of you. He goes on and has a strong playoff, you know, and established establishes himself.

Is it even more like kind of like, OK, this guy is going to be a full timer and like we might have a, you know, a weapon on our hands here to take, you know, take on tapes and canes, roll when they may go on no brainer going in that tournament to try to get that type of experience a fluke injury. And now he doesn't get to experience that. But what I was going to throw it over to you this game and every player who becomes great can attest to it and gets the NHL is it's going to test you.

The game is going to test you. This kid thinks he's going to go gain that experience. And before the tournament even starts, after he gets to see on his crest, he gets that stripped from. And it's probably such a let down for him. He's sitting there watching on TV. Probably try not to be bummed out. But as I said, this game will test you. I think that. It was so innocent looking, that's what was awkward enough, he went to hit a guy it didn't look like much.

And when you said he pulls the glove off, a lot of times you'll see that if a guy might think he got cut right where it's kind of a panic attack. So to do that, you know, something severely wrong.

And that's why right away I was like, oh, I felt so bad. And when you talk about the decision of going and I've seen this argument everywhere, I don't I try to put myself in Stand Bowman's shoes and Kirby dog shoes. If you're going to look at it, I certainly don't wish like I could have to deal with the issue. Stan Bowman is doing is dealing with right now.

Excuse me, but if you're sitting there and this kid comes to you and he mentioned to us, he called his agent, I want to play and the season isn't going right.

If this if they if this was a normal year and this kid starting off and he's playing top two lines, he's not going. It's this is a crazy situation.

And I don't think he would have gone. He didn't he didn't go last year. So you have to look at this year being so different and such an odd circumstance in terms of not only do you go and represent your country and play in a tournament that, as he told us, he dreamed of playing in every Canadian kid, it's your dream.

Not only does he get the chance to do that, well, he's also looking at it like I'm going to be flying in these games buzzing right into the regular season.

So this year it was like. How would you argue against him going like, I understand the everyone comes out? Well, there's plenty of young young stars that teams didn't let them go. Yeah.

And in the end, it looks like they made the right decision. But you can't. You've got to look at look at this as your stand bowmen.

This kid called your agent calls you. You're thinking, all right, well, he could get injured, but like, how are you going to how are you going to approach every single situation like that? He could go dominate and then come in and have an unreal second year.

Like, it's so easy after to say this probably consulted so many other guys, too, and ask these questions. And he's like and exactly like you said and I didn't bring up that point, is assuming that he goes there with that team and gains that confidence is already in midseason stride because he's experienced that and he takes that confidence from not only last playoff and last season and goes into the season.

They have a good start. Well, I mean, as far as a career standpoint, it kind of skyrockets your your trajectory. And I know I always go back to that word because it's the longest word I know and I love it. But that's I mean, we've seen it happen a million times, so it sucks for Kirby talks such a fluke injury. We're sorry for the storm, but all in all, I think they made the right call at the right time.

And I like the decision. So, yeah.

And as of this recording, the first two games of group play have been concluded. Russia beat us Christmas night five three was actually a good game. Russia was up for one US pulled goalie got within a goal. Russia got the empty net.

Canada absolutely pummeled Germany. I mean, you had to feel bad for the Germans. Sixteen two. You know, they had the covid situation. They were nice in a full lineup. And, you know, on the other end, you know, if you're a Canadian kid, it's like you can't stop playing. I mean, you could like like James Duff, the recent guest said all you can do is stop celebrating. Really. I mean, you can't stop playing like otherwise.

You're not doing your job out there.

Well, not only celebrate, you're trying to get these guys, these reps to early in the tournaments. Finally, GameSpy, let's go here. These guys haven't played hockey for a long time either.

And unless I'm wrong, which has happened 5000 times on this show, goal differential ends up coming into play in this tournament.

So, dude, light it up, man. This is fucking you're one step away from the NHL for the most part. All right. You're a step away from from pro hockey. You're a little bit away from the NHL. Sorry, you guys lost sixteen two. It's bad luck that they lost the players from covid.

But fuck you, if this isn't ten year old hockey. Yeah. I also read online someone did say that it goes to goal differential when it comes to head to head. If it were for position, the second tiebreaker. Right. So obviously they're not going to be in a tiebreaker with with Germany, I believe. But OK, then take that point away. Right. But that's nor here nor there where and that might not be the case. I read on Twitter.

And you know how oftentimes Twitter tells the truth at four six nine six nine. Yeah, but oh fuck no. I forgot the original point I was going to make.

Oh, it's the first game of the tournament. Where are you going to do I mean, every guy has got to get their legs into it and they've been sitting there in their hotel rooms for three weeks, all horndog, young, dumb and full of cum, ready to go and put on a show for Canada.

And I just the only thing that the the only issue I have with that game is to try to figure out a way we're in this tournament. It's more competitive because it really you're waiting for Sweden, Russia, Canada, US, Finland at the end.

So I don't know if you make the tournament smaller. That's unfair to these these countries you get in. But I've been watching and it's been it's been great hockey. I mean, Russia lost last night to check the Czech goalie was out of his mind. The Russia game. First we can go over Canada, the ship pumping of Germany, and then they played Slovakia and watch the game.

That was a hell of an effort by Slovakia. Those that, by the way, I heard on the broadcast, they even had a first round in fifteen years.

The country, Slovakia was shocked by that.

Who was it? Who was the last one? No clue. Didn't look it up. Just heard. I get shit for that.

If I brought that info and didn't have a guy, right.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, dummy. You know what you do? You know you do.

You would have asked the question that you just asked after saying what I said. That's what you would have done.

So fuck off. And the other thing about Slovakia, that was incredible.

They won the world championship in 03 and in 02, they didn't even get the chance because they were like they had to play in to get into the the Olympics and they didn't have they weren't allowed to bring their NHL, their NHL players or the NHL season was going on. So those guys couldn't play. So they never even got into the O2, Salt Lake City Olympics. But that's a hockey nation that showed up against Canada. I mean, to lose three one with an empty net, Canada.

I watched that and Biram guys. Amazing.

And so is Drysdale. Those two are playing together. It's like, how are you supposed to get the puck away from either one of those or break it out with ease every time? But I don't think it's going to be as it is easy for Canada, as a lot of people thought, because I'm watching Sweden. They look awesome, although that Lucas Raymond just got injured, the fourth overall pick last year by Detroit, he went into the boards awkwardly.

I don't know if he hurt his back or you look like you couldn't put weight on his left leg. But it's always going to it's always great.

Once you get to maybe the semis, the quarters are still be good, but it's there's always going to be games that are blowouts in this tournament and people whining and complaining fucking they're 18, 19 years old.

Trev's digress from the Americans.

Oh, so the passing on that kid, I think he'll come on Chilcote's. I met his dad at a big game last year. I went to brought Ryder to his first big game and like four days later, covid it in the world shut down. But I was watching him. He was unreal. I was talking to his dad. He said his dad listens to the show. So at some point, Trevor Xigris, you see him lighten it up in Anaheim.

We also had some supplemental discipline film like the old NHL here, one game for Braden Schneider for violation of rule one. Twenty four checking to the head neck area versus Germany. He got tossed halfway through the first period. So it was basically a two game suspension, more or less. No argument here. I mean, he didn't maybe mean to do it, but he did it. And also Austrian defenseman Phillip WEMA. Wow, I'm sorry if I'm Anglicize on that, but his was a little more blatant.

It was definitely a blindside hit. He caught USA's Patrick Moynihan. Absolutely fucking just caught him blindside one of those. If that was in any gel hit, he's probably getting fucking dollars.

Wilson He's getting his head cut off the town square milita his parents. Yeah, yeah. I can't wait to see it. First game of the season.

So, listen, I'm old school, so those are those that suggest you can't do that anymore.

Those are the ones the one was directly over the head. Rock'em Sock'Em. Anybody, anybody listening who used to watch the Rock'em sock'em saw some videos.

Those were wordlist amazing videos. You could sit there and watch them for seven hours in a row. The same one he used to always talk about. We should start a new one.

Rock'em CENCOM Rockeymoore comes on sock'em board trade market.

He's going to craft. Just get the get the domain covered.

Hey one of the little touch I've noticed is the linesman at least a couple of the games. The first puck dropped one on the come up and says, lady, let's do that hockey. Like just when you thought that phrase was born out, that guy might have made it cool again. And then another one might have been the same linesman. He says, shake and bake. He dropped a little Ricky Bobby line out there, just, you know, goofy little touches like that.

I think those are fun men.

Who's the NHL guy? Always doing it. Always. Well, the referee.

Yeah, he yeah. When he's given like the calls on the mike, maybe he's trying to be the next W McCallie.

I mean people are going to know his name after he's barking at the players. He starts talking.

He calls them out. Yeah. Oh well still on a stick battle, a battle of the referees.

All we did was we glanced over my first glimpse anyway of is it Stutzer the first play, the first quarter of his tape job.

Yeah, that's not the crime scene.

It's worse than posterboard on the totem pole vertically and then horizontally just along the middle of the blade.

Looks like a big dick. Just looks great out there, though. He's got a fantastic shaft in the head. It looks like a dick boschert. We should put a little peephole on the end.

Then it'll start sniping little white little strips of white tape as the cum coming out.

Yeah, yeah. He should do a black version. And then with the white little white dropcam stands with clear, it goes up to his gloves.

Yeah. I'd, I'd be putting clear tail tape over it to stop it. Stop it around.

But he has, he flies around his skating stick, he's been playing in the DL so he plays against men. He'll be a lot of fun to watch.

And I'm always, always going to have some games that are exciting this year, I guarantee you that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, we can jump right into them. I, I had him a little further down. But the sense man, that continuing to load up for the upcoming season, they picked up Derek Stepan from business, Kayode for a second rounder and twenty twenty one they had three second round is already.

So it was probably easy to spill on even if the analytics folks thought I was an overpay. He had one yellow left at six point five dollars million cap hit, but it's only two million in real dollars, which means a lot more. The senators, senators also applied defenseman Braiden, Coleman and Fullwood, Cedric Paquette, and a second round in twenty twenty two from Tampa Bay in exchange for Marian Gaborik and Ronda's Nelson's long term injured reserve deals. One of those mutually beneficial deals, Ottawa gets a couple of veteran Coweta guys and Tampa Bay gets a little cap relief.

What was your take on that as well?

I mean, getting back a second rounders. Great. You know, he provided a lot of leadership here. He was a great 200 foot center. I think as time goes on, I would say that he was probably a one B at his best point in the NHL. He was never like a top and center, but he was very consistent, having fifty sixty point seasons while being very good on the penalty kill. We talked about providing that leadership.

He's great in the community. Like all positive, his production offensively has slowly declined. And I think that they saw an opportunity considering the assets we've not only lost to certain situations and for certain reasons, a way to replenish that. And the second rounders is a big deal moving forward, given the lack of assets that we do have. So best of luck to step. Thank you for everything you did for the organization. A guy that when you know, as a media member, when you interview someone, you know, you're going and being like, yes, this guy is going to talk, he's going to articulate, he's going to be nice.

And it's and he was a great guy. So best of luck step and great work. Bye bye. Army to get an asset there and on the rumor mill. Don't know if it came across the wire yet. I think the fact that coyotes are signing Derek Brassard.

Yeah, Gisèle Gaiam Lattin Dress said that they're working on a one year deal.

So yes. And and I talked to Elliott Friedman, who said that he looked into it and it seemed as if though that was going to be the case. I talked to Elliott mostly because of this long term IRR situation that I still have no fucking clue about. He tried to explain it to me. It's just it's the occurring part of it. I just don't get it, man.

You can get confused, man. It's it's a lot of details. So a lot of so but there was a lot of banter online about the fact that this long term IRR thing is being manipulated a little bit too much and. Part of me agrees with him, although that would be being a bit of a hypocrite, considering I compliment Derica on this, he wasn't the first GM to do it, but he he was he's probably been the one to manipulate it the most in order to take on long term our deals, but gain assets from other organs, Jesus Christ, other organizations in order to do it.

And Gord Miller had a tweet in here. I'll read it. So we'll be here for another six hours.

I don't know. I don't think he wrote he wrote this.

I think this loophole needs to be closed. Cap relief for long term. Your reserves should only count for players who are playing for that team. At the time they went on long term, they are not acquired from someone else. It's it's legal, but it's cap circumvention. So you're seeing a lot of these gems right now play cap, where they call it cap gymnastics.

I kind of like the term is.

Oh yeah, it's silly by the rules because you don't I mean, and just like just text me and say maybe explain it. Basically long term injury reserve is like, for example, Alex Dean, he now he basically all but officially retired. He's not going to play hockey again. He just didn't put his paperwork in, but his contract is still alive. So what the blues do is they put his contract on long term injury reserve, which allows them to go over the cap up to whatever his money is.

Now, if you have two or three players in this case, the Tampa Bay Lightning, then you can go way over the cap. Now, I don't think we should yell at GMs in front of us because they're playing by the rules. I mean, if you've got a guy on your staff who can find these angles to make it work, then fucking by all means, do it and look at this.

Well, so I agree with you. I saw his point and I was like, OK. And then after I talked to Elliott Freeman, he brought the point of like, well, considering the CAPPELL, some of these teams are in because of the pandemic, this would make for a very difficult logjam. And also, he says, what's one of the most interesting parts about the NBA? Some people will completely disagree, but the amount of action and transactions, because it creates all this, oh, my God, another fucking stars get in line like it's just more action happening where these teams who are in the midst of competing can make a run for it.

It creates fan engagement. So after hearing all the different perspectives, I could see why a team who's maybe been, I don't say shafted by it but hasn't been able to use it at all, would be more know for it than a team who has ended up getting out of their cap situation and or acquiring assets because of taking on these long term contracts. I'm more for it than against it. So I just wanted to hop in and tell you that I agree with the point you're making.

And I should follow up.

Obviously, we just talked about the sense the temple was on the other end of that. They dumped three point thirty five to Ottawa. They took back almost seven and a half million in salary. But again, that's all long term money. It was a mutually beneficial deal. But also Nikita Koocher off as speculated, he's out for the regular season due to hip surgery. So he's going to go on long term injured reserve as well, of course, other people.

So why don't you get the surgery before it's like, well, that's none of your business. Like, he got it now.

I mean, do you think the plan was to miss him for all year? Guys like whoever says that biz, you want to know who the teams that get shafted by it. They're not the teams that don't get the chance to do it. They're the teams who are competing against Tampa. RECHT Correct. And it's like, argh! This year they might be kind of screwed. They got a science rally. They got they got it. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, they're fine.

And they get Kutcha back for the playoffs. So, yep, you guys are right.

Don't blame the teams. Don't blame the GMs, blame the league, blame, you know, the NHL. Not pointing out that this could happen.

I guess it was it was just a bit odd. I guess if they would have seen it as such a big problem, they would have addressed it when they figured it all out this off season. Right. So they saw it as something moving forward. I think it's for the betterment of the league. They decided not to do anything about it because of the issues that I mentioned with the cap not going up and all these issues that are created. So I just thought it created some good discussion.

And some fans who watch maybe don't understand why certain things are happening and like what long term there is. So hopefully we did somewhat of a good job explaining it. I don't I don't know if there's a cap as to how much you can take on of it. I don't know how much of a cure occurs. Is that the word I'm looking for?

A cruise about Tampa is going to start the season with seventeen million uncapped commitments on long term injured reserve between Koocher off Marian Gaborik and Andas Nillson, the concussed goalie who played for Ottawa last year.

So what is the word a cruise have what to do with this? So basically, in some cases, if certain teams put guys on long term IRR, they're able to save cap space in the long run.

I would drugs that year. No, I believe it's through throughout the course of that season. So this is once again where I have no fucking clue what I'm talking about. I just think I may have somewhat understood it well enough to bring Walshe back.

Alan Walsh back to explain this to our audience.

Well, obviously, we're talking about Tampa Bay. We also have the note. They ripped a pair of twenty three year old restricted free agents and forward Anthony Ciarelli in defenseman Eric Chernick. They also signed defenseman John Rucha, who was UFE but opted to stay with Tampa, Shirley Stein for three years, fourteen point four mil. That comes out to a four point eight dollars million kapit. He's coming off ACLC. He had a career high forty four points last year, nine points in twenty five playoff games.

He's obviously a key part of that lineup pal, who we haven't met yet, but Dmitri Filipovic said excuse me.

There was a two month stretch last season during which the lightener went. Twenty six, five and two to turn this season around when five verse five on five goals with Anthony Shkreli on the ice with twenty nine and four in favor. The lightning.

Unbelievable. You know something you don't necessarily always want to have an impact at all.

Summarize it is they just basically got a circuit type up front. So they have this three year period where they're able to stall to see if these guys are able to blossom into what that the strong part of the core group is and hopefully bang out a few more cups. And if they do, those other guys will be towards the end of their deals and they could figure that out then. So they're they're not going anywhere. They are not going anywhere.

These guys, Shaunak was also coming off ACLC. He signed three as eight point eighty five million, just under three million dollar cap hit. So he's an animal.

That guy's tough as shit and plays hard. And that's the perfect type. I'm not going to say bottom pair defensemen, but, you know, four or five, six men that they need that makes them so difficult to play against. It's not just the skill with headmen and Sawaguchi it's the grit like the Bogosian you know was there last year like Sirnak mean. So it's just an all around sick team I play with as you did.

Yeah. He was in Ontario fighting on. No, I don't think he understood the language very well, I think it just came he told me this once, I remember, and I didn't I don't know. I didn't know if he was going to end up developing. But then I saw him play for the lightning. I'm like, oh, no. L-A gave up an unbelievable prospect. This he was like Drogo six two six three, just like a brick shit house, very mobile.

I just wasn't sure what was going on between the ears. But he's he's obviously figured it out.

A couple of the notes on Tampa route to sign two years, two point six mil for one point three Kapit and GM. Julian Breezeways said Stamkos is expected to be ready and healthy for the start of the season. And one Quitno going back to Ottawa, they did sign up to his three year entry level contract. That was basically a formality, but we still want to make note of it. Speaking of free agency, the last big forward name in the market with the guy who everybody was waiting to see what he did, Mike Coffman, he signed a Pito with the blues.

He will be in camp January 3rd. The reason he's going to be on a PTO, which is a professional tryout. Basically, Lewis has to get their money straight. They still need to get Stien and TerraCycle officially on the long term injured reserve, which I just explained. So essentially, he's waiting in the wings. And unlike business with PTO, Hoffman will actually be on the St. Louis off roster.

This fucker is a fucking layup, but I was all man.

There were so many good daggers coming out of.

Yeah, somebody said, next thing you I always thought the hockey puck, the next stop chick let's co-host to next stop, unfortunately was Russia. He better not hope he's going there.

Then it was Chicot but but yeah. I mean people. OK, so I sent a tweet. I'm going to guess that this isn't what the what his agent told him it would be like when he was UFA.

Now granted, this year's a Gong Show, but all these people are like, well, he's obviously going to he's going to sign a deal there. He's going there. He's going to sign a deal. They've got to figure it out. They've got to get Steven on the LTI. Are they wait till the season starts. I say. Yeah, but even if he signed the deal, it's probably a one year deal. It's probably one year.

This guy is probably looking at five years. Twenty five. Twenty seven million. Everyone was saying so. Yeah, it's been a bummer for that guy. But if he goes and lights it up this year and and things get back to normal next year, fans back in the building, who knows what happens in the summer then. But still, it's a tough year for him to go. Really prove it again.

Luckily, he's on a nasty team and if he has to prove it, why not do it with a I would consider them a cup contender. Again, they got a lock up done.

They also have to figure out, like it's not going to be that easy replacing Pietrangelo. It's like saying Louis is really good. But PAREXEL Braco didn't have a great year last year.

I know he needs to bounce back. Yeah. Toschi stock bubble. Yeah, very tough.

Five minutes a night. Forty point number one demon. I think they're going to get it done by committee. They got Falke locked in. They got Krook now they get they got a pretty solid back. And I hear what you're saying when you're taking a guy who lugging that much I, I said in the lineup, you know, you've got to you've got to replace that piece. But it's clearly a risk. People are saying he's going to replace Steve in that price range, probably four and a half to the five range.

And, you know, I guess if if it's a hot start, they can sign them in February. Is the rule now similar to like a la bank situation, although he was restricted? You got, you know, the one one year, one million, and then at a certain point the season, which it was January 1st, I believe this year, now it's going to be in February where they could end up locking him in long term.

So it's still a gamble. It's it's crazy. But that's the team you probably want to do it with the go.

One other note before we get to other signings here. The NHL schedules actually came out since our last episode. They're going to be doing basically what I would call baseball style schedules. We're going to one city playing two, three games. They might have a random spot in the road here and there. These teams are going to be playing fifty six games in four months. The non Canadian divisions, like I said, they're going to be playing their division rivals eight times each.

We're going to get ten battles of Alberta, which is obscene. Montreal and Ottawa at one point going to play each other four times in a row and L.A., Anaheim are going to play each of the five times in a row in April, May for the last four and six nights. Like do like I said before, beating the drum. How how much of these fucking teams going to hate each other? I mean, five games in a row and non playoff situation.

And then you might play them in the playoffs, too, if it pans out that way. It's crazy. I'm sorry, I look extreme and return to the game, so anyone worried about Team Sweden? I'm not stupid. He's back. He scored. I think that we mentioned this before about the battles in the minors.

When you play the teams that many times and we talk about this last episode, we did, but the schedules hadn't officially come out. That's OK.

Fair enough. Fair enough. It's it's I actually saw a good tweet. Shit. Who was Justin Bourne? And he mentioned that this year, like, teams are going to get into the playoffs based on the energy that you can produce, because it's one of those things where you talk about the baseball type schedule. You got three games in four nights. You're playing the same team, at least two of those games, if not all three, who at the end of those games, at the end of those Grind's HL type schedule can muster up the energy to just basically outwork teams.

That's how you're going to get points at the end of these runs. These teams go on. It's like not working because everyone's going to be exhausted. Everyone's not going to have their legs are going to feel different than they usually do throughout the year.

When you get your time off, you get the all star break. Now it's going to be about who can figure it out. And just in the third period of these late games that you're exhausted and feel like shit.

And that's why I feel like Columbus is going to be a dark horse. I don't know what their odds are. And we're going to get in the gamblin corner once the season starts rolling around.

But yeah, Columbus man Greg got lucky.

They got lucky. Get in that division to. They got a lot of good things going with the Metro. Yeah, just talking about the blues here. So we want to go back some actually a story come over the Russian site, Sport 24. Now, we want to make it known these quotes were via Google Translate.

So, you know, take that for what it's worth. But Tara, Sanco was allegedly disappointed at not being named captain. He said, I think it's OK on certain leadership positions after eight years at the club, but everyone has their own opinion. Alexey, who was Telecinco agent Alexey, expressed it and has every right to do so. I personally focus on recovering from injury because there are so many people who say that TerraCycle will never play the same way.

I have a tremendous incentive to come back and prove these people wrong. Basically, this article is saying that Tanya was pissed at not being named captain again. It's translated from a Russian site via Google.

So I think you should probably add that into the weight of what you're listening to because it would be like it's completely false, possibly.

Yeah, well, he was actually saying, like, I'm so happy. O'Reilly's captain. What a choice.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the complete opposite. I'll say this is if if he was dead serious and he was a little bit disappointed, maybe, you know, the way it is over there just goes based on seniority and how long you've been there in the time you've put in with that club. And maybe he felt considering O'Reilly had just came over, you know, that he hadn't put his time in with the organization in order to be rewarded with the C.

I just I mean, I don't know. I feel like that organization's done a pretty good job of reading the room. And I think they know who the right guy for the job is. And it's tough to not pick the guy who essentially was your I would call him the spiritual leader in that cup run. I feel like everybody jumped on his back more than anyone else.

And no disrespect to Tara Sancho's top level scorer, one of the best in the league in terms of like putting the puck in the net. I mean, he's thirty goal minimum. It seems like every year there isn't one GM in the league.

If they had Ryan O'Reilly and Vladimir Telecinco, that would make TerraCycle the captain. And I don't even know if the GM did it. I'm sure it was coach.

I'm sure it was a bunch of different people that that is that is a no. There is not even an argument.

I get I get the sense that's a locker room that speaks for itself.

Yeah. It's just it's just it's a no brainer. Ryan O'Reilly, this guy does it all. This guy's the best players in the NHL. And I think just it wasn't even it wasn't even a second thought, man. It was I think we I think we made fun of the fact it was even news.

Yeah, you did. Yeah, that was a surprise.

Like I said, I think the key words here quotes via Google Translate from a Russian sports website.

So, yeah, you might not have basically what he said might not have been what was implied by the quotes. So and if he is pissed, well, you know, that's his right to be.

But all right. Moving right along way to see another practice scrap and cop for fucking Saint Louis. And we obviously talk about checklists on the show a lot.

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No, but on a serious note, so the rabbit rush, these, these electric toothbrushes, they get expensive. They get up there in price, especially if you're buying them at. The dentist office, where they're like two hundred bucks, this one, I think is just over one hundred bucks, right. Or maybe just under one hundred bucks. And the biggest part of it, though, is the heads, the replaceable heads, which some companies, they don't even offer them other ones.

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I love the guy fucking twenty miles out of the city making fun of city accents over here. I place a lot of signing's since the last episode, so we're going to run through them here.

Montreal signed a pair of veterans, Corey Perry and Michael Frohlich to one year deals worth seven hundred and fifty thousand apiece. Hey, look, last year Corey Perry had five goals during the regular season, everyone saying he's all done blah, blah, blah. Guy was a monster in the playoffs, scored five more goals in the playoffs. Tremendous leadership, got his nose and dirty everywhere.

And you got to think, man, if the Canadians can snag a playoff spot, who else would you rather have come playoff time? The guy like the warm weather, wet dog McDavid.

I'm talking for a fucking seven hundred fifty thousand all time of the year. There is these bussel. Yeah, I love the signing. And I read right away that Toronto really kind of was looking at Perry. They ended up with Wayne Simmons and look at the look at the I'm sorry, Montreal excuse me. Montreal was looking and wanted Wayne Simmons. He goes to Toronto. They end up getting Perry for way less money.

So I think that if you if you look at his regular season, you might say, I don't know. Is is he is he done? But he's a playoff type player. He's always been able to kind of elevate his play once the springtime comes. Now before in the regular season, win an MVP scoring 40 fifty years, no doubt dominant player. Now it's different. But just getting to the playoffs, I don't know how much he'll do to help you get in.

But once you're there, look out that team. I don't know. I don't expect much from them.

I know that they've made some severe changes and and it's been discussed on what needs to happen. But I don't know, like looking at that division in the league as a whole, I don't think the Canadians have a chance of winning the Stanley Cup. I think I think Bert Burger van there wanting to beef up a little bit. He's got a big back end. They got the goaltending. They picked up Josh Anderson, which is he is going to be ready to go for regular season.

I know we got shoulder surgery, but as far as forwards, they were fairly small coming out of the season. And they've they've beefed up a little bit with especially with him in the bottom six. So I don't mind the move. And I think if the goaltending in the back end turns out in the fifty six game schedule, I could see them being a team that squeaks in.

Yeah, that's, that's a whole thing. Hit business like hot starts. If it seems slow, get out of the gate. It could cripple the whole fucking season.

So we get a bunch of other signs and I'm going to roll through. So you boys want to chime in. Give me a cue here. Goaltender Ryan Miller, he's going to be back with Anaheim for a fourth season in his eighteenth NHL season. The forty year old agreed to a one year deal worth one million. He'll spell John John Gibson when needed. New Jersey signed restricted free agent goalie Mackenzie Blackwood three eight point four dollars million deal comes out to two point eight dollars million.

Kapit friend Kevin Weeks had the scoop on that one. The twenty four year old was New Jersey second round pick back in twenty fifteen. He just finished his ELC as well. This is his third NHL season. I'll tell you man, for a team who hasn't been that great, I mean seventy games played. He's dirty to twenty four and eight with a two seven to nine one six five shutouts. Those are pretty respectable numbers for a team that hasn't been in the playoffs and has struggled to score.

So the future looks good for that kid. Another unrestricted free agent. People wondering, Michael Granlund, he's going to stay put. Nashville, like I wrote in my blog, does everybody who goes to Nashville loves it there. Whether you're a hockey player down for a bachelorette party one year, three point seventy five dollars million deal. He'll be twenty nine in February at seventeen goals last year. Nashville also added unrestricted free agent forward Eric Horler, signing him to a one year, one point seventy five dollars million deal.

The twenty nine year old finished last season in Florida after being dealt in the Vinny trochaic deal, had twelve goals, twelve assist and forty eight games played.

The L.A. Kings signed Andrius Atanasio to a one year one point two dollars million deal twenty six points and fifty five games last year split between Detroit and Edmonton. Look who I think.

I expected a lot more when he got to Edmonton, I thought he dealt with how fast he is and there's been tons of questions about maybe his hockey IQ because in terms of having all the tools when he's on, it's crazy game breaker. So that could end up being that could be a really good sign. I mean, you look at last year.

Why am I fucking drawing a blank? Who with Ottawa. What the hell's wrong with me? You declare who I mean, right? I mean there was a little different where he'd been really kind of suitcase ing around. But if you can find his game and figure out a way to be successful, like, consistently be an awesome value deal for them.

Yeah. You're always hoping that he's going to be the one to pop off. Like is that he's the name that you're like that you hear so much about him. Like, you know, in Detroit we thought he was going to be ready to take the next step. And I thought the entity to clear comparison was perfect. And we talked about him last episode getting the one point seven million in Florida. And we we did. Yes. All case where he mentioned and you touched on Ryan Miller.

I feel like he's like the Vince Carter of the NHL. He just keeps getting deals. I would say he's probably the one of the highest grossing goaltenders of all time. Right. Would that be a fair he's probably made over seventy five million that could pull that up on CAP finally to get what it looks.

What's your guess as far as millions?

Ryan Miller's career. I'm going to guess 65, what I'm going to say 68, actually, I'm going to I'm going to change it up. I thought I thought for sure, 60.

I think you guys are right around there, but it could end up being maybe maybe 70 career earnings, estimated career earnings per cap friendly. Sixty one million three hundred ten thousand.

Still a really good fucking career. Holy shit. Yeah, that'll do. Absolutely.

You can have some fun post-process playing career when you cash out 61 unless you're an NBA or below it all moving right along.

Local boy, kind of Shary. He signed a one year deal with Washington for seven hundred thirty five grand, undrafted, twenty eight year old UMass product. He of one two cups with Pittsburgh. You get traded the buffalo back in twenty eighteen. Then that dealt back to Pittsburgh this past February. He's in Washington, as well as former Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson. He signed a Pekoe traditional PTO, I should say what the capitals he spent his last ten seasons with Ottawa.

He's obviously Henrik Lundquist, who while Bill mentioned that while we're here, he tweeted out on Monday that he was going to be getting open heart surgery for the medical issues downwith. And I know guys, when used to have forty years ago, open heart surgery was like a huge deal. And not to minimize it, but heart surgery has come along so far in the last like twenty, thirty years. It's almost like a routine thing. Now, obviously, if you get it done, it's not routine.

I think Henrik's in good hands here. Obviously it's it's a major surgery. But at the same time, the technology and heart surgery has been absolutely incredible the last two years. So we want to wish Henrik the best. Obviously, he's a friend of the program. We love the guy. And I think everything's going to be fine for him. And ideally, we'll see him back in the league next year.

Like you're saying, they used to have to, like, cut open your chest will be like two or three inches.

Well, they still do. But it's just that I mean, literally, like 40 years ago, if someone was going for heart surgery, it was like, you know, do the fucking rosary and sit around and be scared. But now it's like the technology and the medical advancements are so good that, you know, I'm not that minimizing. But if you hear someone's going in for surgery as compared to, say, maybe cancer, you're like, oh, OK.

Well, there's not a lot of situations where people come out and have have difficulties because the medical technology has been unreal.

And I'm sure they'll take if you actually think about surgery with a cutting open somebody's heart like and that that like happens daily and works. It's like when you sit in an airplane, you're like, how am I flying right now?

I'm not even high either, if you think about that shit. You're kidding me.

Yeah, exactly. Man, it's it used to be brain surgery.

It's still a big deal, but it used to be like, you know, a little more iffy, I guess.

Is it probably a good way to put it? Whereas nowadays, if someone in your family got to go in for a treatment or procedure, it's like not say it's not a big deal, but it's certainly not the big deal. It was forty years ago, so I moved a along.

What did you what did you say before the Henrik Lundqvist thing about Greg Anderson going on a PTO?

Because I know what I was going to say is holy that does Washington love Pittsburgh sloppy seconds or what he's got room to say?

No, I feel like any guy they don't sign Washington picks up. They just love it.

But Pittsburgh used to put the smack down on another. Oh, that's Childs. If you can't beat them, join them type thing. But it is it is weird how often that happens. That's me being a penguins jock sniffer.

I'm sure I'm having one dopey poopy pants because you guys are picking up the sloppy seconds.

All right. A couple more here. Restricted free agent Casey Mid-State, another friend of the program he signed with Buffalo, a one year deal worth eight hundred and seventy five thousand. He still just a twenty two year old kid. He spoke last season between Buffalo in Rochester, the wild with the sabers. He had four goals, five assists in thirty one games, played in one hundred and seventeen games. He's got seventeen goals. Twenty two assists. Let's see.

That's a guy that wants to take the next step. Let's go, baby.

This high pick up a high pick that that I think tons of potentials there. It's like. All right, well time to get this thing going. When hits like that one picks like that don't hit. That's why you end up being in the base sabres.

Yeah, I'll make it. I'll make this argument, though, in Buffalo. I feel like it's so rushed in. The microscope is so big because they're just praying that the next prospect is going to pop off to be a top player in the league when guys, that's not necessarily the case. Like if you got a first round draft pick, your guy might end up being like a solid top six player. So definitely one guy, though, I'll be keeping an eye on this season.

And I hope he lives up to the expectations that were at the beginning of last year.

Yeah, no doubt we're rooting for him. Like I said, he's still only twenty two, man.

Some guys a little bit, young man. It's just. Yeah, you're right.

All right. Moving right along, unrestricted free Agent Kyle Soderbergh signed with the Blackhawks a one year deal worth one million dollars. The thirty five year old Swede had seventeen goals, eight assists in seven games. In Arizona last year, business, how much game is this guy got left? He's been around. He's been a pretty steady performer. He's solid, good net front presence. He'd be good for I mean, they're probably second unit. Who knows, maybe on the first, because those guys, those other guys are just buzzing around.

But I think he's a solid player with a lot of game left. I mean, he was great coming over Colorado and he was, I think up until one point the leading scorer for the Coyotes in the regular season. He might even finish the leading scorer for the Coyotes in the regular season. How are you laughing? What are you laughing at? Look it up. Nice radio guy.

Nice radio guy right there. And one last one last time, James. One last unrestricted, unrestricted sign, and I'm saying you might not know the stats, fuck, well, look at them. I'm trying to pretend I'm trying to back them up here. I was actually trying to defend my boy. She's going to look it up. He's the producer.

And in fact, I know I won more unrestricted free agent defenseman Slater Kucuk, signed with Edmonton.

Twenty six year old had a goal and nine assists and forty two games played with Chicago last year. That's the last of the unrestricted. I have a couple of the notes. After returning to the NHL for two seasons, Ilya Kovalchuk went back to Russia. The thirty seven year old signed a two year deal with avant garde and Omsk that always say that. What? Yeah, that's pretty good, actually. Thank you. He spent last season between the L.A., Montreal and Washington and Bui's.

We get to give credit to the BHAGAVAN here. He signed them in January. He put up six goals and seven assists in 22 games played. Then Bergsman flipped them to Washington for a third rounder in twenty twenty. And then Montreal used that third rounder to bring in Jake Allen for a little back up the price. So that's why sometimes moves like, what's this guy doing?

It's like, well, I'm going to add an asset here and hopefully I'll do good and we can turn them into something. And that's what the bhagavan did. I love the burger van.

He's just cranking away right now two days and then get a needle shoved in as he's on the Russian gas. He's probably got Murkoff flying the stuff over Yaama Jagow, who is two months older than me.

The old guy in the podcast, he's still at it. He's playing at forty eight years old in the Czech Republic for his hometown Kladno. He's got twenty four NHL seasons, four in the cage, all nine in the Czech League. One hundred and fifty four at the National Games. I mean a man. It's like this guy. I think he'll play least 60 of teams keeps. I don't know.

I think he'll play until he can't get a contract. Really. Yeah. Again and maybe not any league but he'll be in the IIHF when he's seventy five in Nottingham.

Yeah, I'm in Cardiff. I'm going to revive my career, go back out, but we're going to be like this year. Ten goals. Remember, remember the video of the two former CFL guys coming out. I think, I think T.S.A. did originally. But you know, they must have had like an old rivalry, but they're like fighting with the canes on stage. That's going to be us in the corner battling for pucks. What the fuck are those four for peg strollers?

Oh, the tennis balls on the bottom.

Yeah, I really like the guy from Family Guy, the old guy. Does he. How do you talk like them. The old guy from Family Guy or the pedophile out there was there was a pedophile in the old guy, I can't tell him right now.

Yeah, well, I was the same guy, right. I wish it would have been a lot funnier. Yeah, The Simpsons was.

Meems. I'll do it. Jason Johnson. Hey, that's my book. Yeah, that's it. But there is it's a fine line between the old guy in the pedophile and Family Guy.

Good. Good God.

All meshed them two and one there. All right. We get to send congrats to long defenseman Derek Engelen.

He retired up at 11 NHL seasons and seventeen pro seasons, the last three with his hometown Vegas called Knights. The thirty eight year olds going to work with the Vegas Golden Knights Foundation afterwards, including playoffs. He played over 700 NHL games, one hundred and twenty seven points and six hundred seventy one regular season games. The team actually did ask me wanted to be moved that the last deadline. But he was, you know, he hadn't been part of the regular lineup, but he opted to stay put.

Like I said, Vegas is home to him. He played in Vegas his first years of pro way back in 03, 04, when they were still on the East Coast, I'm sorry, in the East Coast League affiliate. Then you won the twenty eighteen mark Missier trophy for leadership and biz. I know you played with him for about three years and Wilkes-Barre Scranton, I think might have crossed paths with them too.

But if not an unmanageable guy and oh one game. OK, ok, fair enough. So similar to Scuds whereas this guy was I don't know if Scuds ever played in the coastal, but he was playing the coast, ended up making it to the American League. And just one of those guys that like coaches love, he shows up every day. You know exactly where you're getting. He works his bag off. He gets his workouts in. He doesn't say Bouchet.

He would step up and fight whenever he had to. And he was a tough he was tough man in the American League early on. I think he was doing it a lot more. And as his career went on, he was just that kind of solid top four defenseman who who played physical. Maybe towards the end he became a, you know, a five or six guy, but unbelievable teammate. He turned his career from for me to what I thought was going to be a career HLR to an unbelievable seven hundred NHL game career.

And I couldn't be happier for the guy and a great teammate.

And we always talk about we have talked about Shawn thought and he hit six hundred a couple games, over six hundred NHL, which is to think about that long of a grind in the age before you even get to the show.

Anggun at four hundred and ninety regular season East Coast League and NHL games. I mean that's six full years of just like sticking with it, like you said, and and being just tough to play against that. I think that if you look back, if you were to ask him, I'd be curious. I'd love to interview him maybe at some point this year. But if you if we could ask him, like what?

What do you think? What do you think had made it so you could last that long, it's by being a great locker room guy and just being so hard to play against, that's consistent thing for him. You never wanted to be on the ice again. So you fight anyone to give a shit. I've actually fought him when I was with the coyotes for one. While I survived, I was happy. So congrats. We'll get you on the pod.

We're actually going head to Vegas at some point, so we'll get him live for.

Absolutely. I think the 18 mestrovic, that's a feather in a cap, usually a guy's name, a more name, guys. And no disrespect to Derek.

You know, he wasn't, you know, a ponts might or a fucking Naris trophy candidate.

But the fact that they recognize what he did in Vegas that first year and also we should mention, I think one of the most memorable moments of his career is when he gave that speech after the shooting.

Unbelievable.

And and that season took off and what Vegas did and he was a Vegas resident who played in the coast and was like, oh, my God, I'll never forget. It was, unfortunately, Roberto Longo to do the same type thing for a school shooting, I remember in Florida.

But just those moments, those guys are kind of really helping people and doing a great job describing what's going on.

Well, he actually met his wife when he was playing there in the East Coast, and that's what brought him back. So he's a hometown kid. And where you nailed that man when he gave that speech that was there playing against the coyotes that night. And I was in the building and, you know, he got up there and after he was done talking like, holy shit, dude, you just like kind of out of body experience. You fucking nailed that.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, boys, we're going to mention New Year's Eve is here this week. You want to stay ready for the festivities and say goodbye to 2020 with DHV Detox.

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Hey, what was that? I'm not feeling as shitty as I normally do and as somebody who when I do drink, I drink a lot. You know, I'm getting older, guys, I feel the effects of it. I don't take to feel like, oh, age, I went from 20 being able to jump right up. No problems to now. So check it out.

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Take nine packs and then send back the box and then you just go. Yeah I just signed up for new credit cards to get my money back. Yes. What do you say that forced you to take that out. I'm going to do that. That is, that is is you know, I take about four or five hours. Yeah.

He's got a good working relationship with them, so. Yeah. All right. Moving right along, we got some great news for the ladies who play the game. The Izabel Cup is going to air on NBCSN. It's going to be the first time that woman's pro hockey will air live on a major U.S. cable network.

And that's huge news. I mean, we've obviously seen the Olympics over the years, but to have women's pro hockey on NBCSN is great, especially our friend Kelly Babcock. Proud to say I coached her up it up with.

Oh, come on, you're going to say that you're absolutely guy, OK? You know, she's going to be playing for the ISO ball cup. I coached in quotes, coached her up at Lake Winnipesaukee in Moscow. That was a true watch.

Ruano. She's the Honey Badger man. Yes, she has. What what did you tell her to do? How did you coach her? In what way?

I told her honestly. I said, Kelly, honestly, no bullshit. I said, just keep doing what you're doing. This is because, you know, you're fucking forcing these guys to play battle.

You're taking this serious.

Yeah, she was done I legit because like those guys, like I mean, she's obviously a pro hockey player, but she was the biggest bulldog on that team was like, so I'll just do what you do and these guys are going to follow you. And that's what happened.

I'm going to get a job in the coast, see what it can really do. I don't want to put this guy on another.

No, look at the single elimination ISO Ball Cup series I'm sorry, ISO Cup semi-finals are going to be shown live Thursday, February four at that talk much at five thirty pm and then eight p.m..

The winners of the semifinals will advance to the final on Friday, February 5th at seven p.m. in addition to NBC's. And the live coverage will also stream exclusively on NBC Sports dotcom in the NBC Sports app. So by all means, check these ladies out. The ladies game has gotten so good in the last twenty five, thirty years. It's great hockey.

I don't know if the schedule is going to align, but we should do like a live streaming of watching a few games. I don't know. I mean, wouldn't be a bad idea to gamble on them too. I'd be a blast. So maybe we can get our fan base.

Definitely. Definitely. Definitely. Definitely. That's we'll get it going. So congratulations to the ladies. Well deserved.

Absolutely. All right. Let's scroll along a few more notes here. Notes, yachts, the yachts, fans busy. They're going to be allowed in the building in a limited capacity to watch games. They haven't put a number on it yet. But I'll let Whit make the fucking obvious joke about not it's not about personality.

If they say anything, we're cutting it out.

He's got to look after you got shot clock by Yance.

Maybe when you guys are here because we told everybody I don't know if for some of you people who didn't listen to the last podcast, we will be starting the season in Scottsdale, Arizona.

We will be together. We're going to be all together. We're going to watch. We're going to some live streams. We're going to do some sandbaggers. We're going to get some live interviews with some local guys. And we're going to have some fun to kick off the year. Guys, that's going to be a great first couple of days. I think on the Thursday there's probably 10 games, eight to ten games on tap. So we'll be doing a couple streams.

We're pumped. And speaking of Coyotes fans, some of the most loyal out there, they want to see that New Jersey in action.

You know they do. The mesclun much I love that shirt, a couple of the notes here, Steve said the Red Wings plan to name a captain, but they haven't determined how they're going to announce yet.

I would be shocked if it's anybody other than Dylan Lockin who gets to see for the squad. So I agree. We'll keep an eye on that. There's been an offside rule update, a play, a skate will not have to be in contact with the blue line in order to be onside. I know that's been a lot of it's a bone of contention, but all these goals where guys hovering over the blue line, but he's not touching it. So it would result in a non goal.

So that given a little further clarification on that rule. So, yeah, I think if if it's obvious a guy's skate is hovering over the line, you know, as he fucking offsides. No, I mean, he's not touching it, but what else? I like the rule change.

More offense. Why we can't why we can't play offense here. Goalies are hard enough to score nowadays.

And I'm still bitter about when I had Piqué Zubaan assuming the score the first goal of the Stanley Cup five years ago at fifty to one and they fucking overruled me. I'm still better at how much did you lose.

How much would you have won. I would have won. It was either three or three or four grand maybe.

Maybe five minutes. I'd have to. I don't know if I could pull it up. Yeah.

And he scored. It was like a count that I was screaming and then like, they fucking took it down. And the worst part I was like, I couldn't stand because it was conclusive. But they never gave a conclusive replay afterwards. So that bit of a saligari had the ref shot where I was.

Don't bother him anymore. Mark Messier, he filed a lawsuit over a wheat company BS saying that he lost five hundred thousand dollars in an investment in Destiny Bioscience. He alleges the company used his celebrity to raise thirty million dollars in funding, said he was given a personal guarantee he would not lose any money. Does he need to team up with another Hall of Famer to maybe rectify the situation? What who?

Stevi Stephen Bong rips. Not not the ones that I'm affiliated with. Fucking weed industry is popping right now, man. It's going crazy, especially the United States, Canada. It's a little bit difficult because of the restrictions and they need to figure the fuck out because it's embarrassing and, you know, because, hey, I like smoking dope. I want to kind of get a little thing going in Canada. Seth Rogan tried to make cockblock them, so naturally.

Yeah. So, yeah. So the loophole is and I think him and Snoop are the only like names that are somewhat associated to anything in cannabis relation north of the border. But they do it to where it's their company. They talk about it in interviews, but they can't promote it. Seth Rogen doesn't even follow his account. So it's it's yeah. So it's kind of this odd structure. And there's no branding allowed in Canada. So it looks like a medicine bottle because they deem it as medicine.

That's how it all got legalized. But but it's hard.

It was to get pink Whitney and imagine how hard it is to get weed going there.

Yeah. So I mean, Ostara, he probably has it figured out now.

He just drives over the border with his own station car. Yeah. So I don't even know what brought us to that. Oh. Because Messiaen's final loss sucks.

I mean, you know, I don't they raised thirty million of funding. I mean he's, he's basically saying that I put them down and they told me I wouldn't lose any and now I'm parkinsonia.

I think, I think métier probably knows, like if you're investing in a company, there's risk involved. But unless you. Yeah, somebody can promise you that you won't lose any money. But unless it's in writing, it's like there's always some sort of risk when you get involved. That's let's get them on to talk about. I'd love to hear him say, yeah, I don't want to talk out.

Yeah. So let's talk about your five hundred grand you lost and that lead company.

I got more I got more in common with them on that side of it than I do the hockey ability for crying out loud. Right. All right. Me and you're in the same boat with that.

So you should be joining my squad in the same boat as far as we'd smoke. And I was I can imagine at this point, unfortunately, my message might not be the only NHL or a former NHL to get fucked in on a money level.

According to Andrew Zeta Norske at at a Zagorski, Alexander Radloff has been defrauded around one point five billion rubles, which comes out to about 20 billion USD by a Russian bank who lost its license but kept accepting deposits from Radula if it was some Russian site. Again, I can't vouch for the veracity of it. Sergei Tachograph, a lawyer for the Stars Stars Forward. I'm sorry I said strike like he's a soccer player away from the stars forward in the Russian national team.

Radula said the hockey player was deceived by the bank to which he transferred his salary. The quote here, Sasha is coming to Russia this year while the quarantine is in place. We are trying to understand the documents and understand this is a bane of deception. We tried to somehow resolve the issue to meet these people pre-trial and the world order. They began to run away from us. These are like fucking crazy fucking science fiction.

You run, but you can't hide. If radula of the warthog is coming after the first, the first athlete will announce his problem. Others will follow him. But we have the biggest country. Bhushan Radula have invested about one point five again billion rubles, which is only only 20 ml. So I don't know.

I guess when you're an American, you imagine waking up with knowing you had 20 fucking sheets, González.

How would you feel and dive off the roof of my car? I couldn't pay for those anymore.

I might as well jump off of it till I had one of those, like waist belts with like like loto a hundred dollar bills when he flew from Russia. No, it was he put his money in a boat over there.

I actually I was in an Italian bank that was in Russia. I think the crazy thing is, I mean, if it could happen to a Russian, imagine some of these imports that are over there. It is so nerve racking to really not know if it's for sure going to be going down the way they say it will not, it said.

According to his lawyer, the unnamed bank deceived not only Radula but also several other athletes. It's reported that Radloff is in Moscow.

He will not comment further on the situation, which is certainly understandable. And you get fucked out of 20 million dollars, allegedly. So the tough week for a couple of current sounds like the time one of those ads popped up on my screen and I signed in and then gave it my credit card.

You know you know, the guys call you on the phone. They're like, I'm going to take this bug off your computer. Yeah, I was simply a similar situation to show biz.

I know you have one other thing or maybe David Bobrick. I know you had that written down and I'll list of topics.

This is one of the biggest YouTube stars and. Oh, yeah, the biggest. And he's he's been handing out gifts like MacBook pros, and that's what he constantly does. He's a great guy and he gives out cars, dude.

He gives out like Lamborghinis, Ferraris, like he gives it, he gives out like some big boy gifts.

Oh damn. I would have took an iPod for crying out loud. Fucking a Lambo, Rambos, Tesla, the whole caboodle.

But there's been a large number of people he's posted that have been wearing Chiclets gear.

I think it's just his best friend from home. I think his best friend from home named Mike is just a big Checketts fan, always wearing chickens here. So, Mike, if you're listening, ReachOut will DM. Yeah, we'll get you some merchandise. You can wear it more.

Davido I'll trade you and NBT two for a for a Lamborghini. Make sure I win the next round.

Yeah, my buddy give me a Lamborghini once and then two hours later from hotbox lobbies.

Why not buy said my buddy. Give me a Lamborghini once but then you get pinched for hotbox two hours later.

Oh, I didn't hear the beginning. I just heard getting pinched for hotbox and now is back in the day. Well, probably still. Chaston used to lead the league in stolen cars for a long time. Like basically in order to ensure your car in Charlestown thirty years ago was like way higher than any other city in the state. Any other.

Here's my surprised face. I watched I've watched a bank robbing movie about your neighborhood. I like the cars is like that's like stealing a pack of Pogs.

Oh, by the way, what I happen to be watching that, my old lady Wytheville in the last week and I just took a picture when I was in it, dude, that fucking tweet got mad.

He laughed. You guys retweeted Grenelle.

It was like fucking a shitload of faves, not like fuck keep score.

Which one for the the random picture. The one with Blake Lively with my fat fucking face in the background the way I just like it because she's a rocket now it was me.

You can see me. It's day. Yeah.

Hey busy. I know we talked about the movie earlier. You brought the midnight sky with George Clooney up. I mentioned Wonder Woman eighty 84 stunk. I watched the documentary on who called The Painter and the Thief.

Wow, what a fucking movie, man. It's not for everybody. And the first five minutes, the movie is that a woman has two paintings stolen from her art studio by this like drunk guy on a bender.

And she at the trial, she goes to and says, you know why? Like, she like best referendum and says, why did you do this? And then they go off in this kind of well, not really adventure, but this like kind of friendship over the next couple of years. And it's one of those movies you just like, holy fuck, man, what am I watching? In the end, it was like a jaw drop, like the last scene.

It was like, holy fuck, I don't want to even say too much more about it. And it might not be for everybody. I watched it and I was kind of like flabbergasted when I saw it in a good way. It was just a stunning documentary like this. This woman, like, wanted to befriend the guy who stole, like, her Otwock. And then they kind of have this sort of relationship, not in a sexual way, a friendship relationship after it was just a very a different kind of doc.

I want to recommend that. And again, once again, I watch Ted LASO yet again. You have you guys watch this yet?

I know, but everybody's everybody's harping about it because it has to do with soccer in which we're on the soccer bandwagon. Right.

But honestly, you don't have to know fucking anything about soccer to watch it, because I don't I put it on on Apple TV and I've watched it two or three times already.

It's such a great show. I know. I've been singing his praises. You've been stroking to show off like crazy.

But if you see the replies I get, like, everybody loves them. And I watch it again over the weekend, my old lady.

And we like this show like it's so rare now. Busy for a fucking TV show to make you. Feel the things this show makes you feel you're in a good mood you like, it's an emotional rollercoaster and after the season, I mean, I get fucking tears in my eyes from Jason Sudeikis, the guy on Saturday Night Live used to dance The Runner man. He's so good on the show, man. It's just it's a show about just being a decent person that makes you feel good.

So I get to recommend it enough. I got a documentary now, soccer, soccer documentary, and I actually will say I don't even think you need to be a soccer fan to enjoy it.

It's called the class of ninety two and it's about six kids that one of them's David Beckham. While kids and men, they grew up playing soccer together. Not not necessarily. They did not grow up playing soccer together. But they were young enough though. But they were they grew up they grew up together, like on Manchester United.

Right. And they they became one of the greatest teams ever in England. And these kids were all young. They were all young. Lighten it up like international stars. And I just thought it was unreal. I think it's on Amazon Prime. But I would say if you're just a fan of sports in general, you enjoy this class of 92.

And I think what if it's a good doc, the category or whatever it's about? Doesn't matter if a documentary is that good. You don't give a shit what it's about.

But if it's about. Yeah, I guess that's it. That would be a good argument because I'd say some some topic about science I really, really don't care about. But if it's that good, you're saying I might care they get you to care about. Yeah.

I mean have you ever watched The King of Kong a fistful of quarters. No. OK, it's a documentary about two guys battling for the high score all the time.

And OK, so I would like that because I'm like, oh, I've seen that in the greatest documentaries I've ever seen. It's oh no.

Maybe I watched the Pacman one. Oh oh.

I go, I go like maybe there's a dog or there's more, there's more video game once king of Kong, a fistful of quarters. It's about like Donkey Kong high score. I shot at Kendall Square in Cambridge years ago and it's like, what the fuck is this movie? You watch it and you it's crazy that a documentary about such a crazy topic. You so good. There's a good guy, a bad guy and a well constructed documentary man.

If it's done well, it don't matter what it's about. You on either way.

I did. Did the guy beat the game in his living room at one point? I'm not spoiling anything. I have a small fuck. Yeah, I can't. I can't spoil. That's how stupid I am. I didn't even realize I said a spoiler. Did he just spoil it. No, not all. We're going to we're going to beat it out.

Whatever I said, not he didn't spoil anything but I was going to throw the other one about Pacman like I like, I like oh I like. What is walka welcoming. No PAC man. I like, I like, I like went back, managed to eat but I like, I like, I like, I like.

That was like the Sonnyboy back and the there was a song to a PAC man was fucking huge back in the day.

Yeah. That was awesome. Let's go for it. I bought, I bought the arcade sized one. I have the arcade. Do you really. Yeah. In your house. Yeah. And I have and and and Galla is a Galaga Galaga headquarters there but no of course not.

I don't know. And I just pumped, I just pump.

I used to I had a big sign that you could, you could only press like you couldn't press your turn to try to break the high score because you people you know what I mean. We don't have to pay for cause you keep going.

Yeah, we we interviewed Pasternack. I did this E.A. the whole rollout. I did. What was what do we end up doing? Ginelli It was kind of the award show on wheels, so to speak. The content piece is going to come out, but we had to interview Pasternack for one of it. And he had that deer hunter or Buck Hunter. Oh, that's a good one. That's that's one of the ones he's gotten. His golden tee would be ideal to have.

Golden Tee would probably be the next big one. But I think I'd prefer that Buck Buck Hunter over gold.

But and back then, like my generation of video games, you couldn't beat them. You just kept playing and playing and playing like you didn't win, like at a certain point.

Like, yeah, exactly. You're right. Yeah.

Because I'll give a shout out to my my old man's buddy, Mike Murphy. He was the Pacman legend at the Knights of Columbus. Nine hundred ninety six thousand. I'll never forget it. And he ate the key. Remember, Pacman, go the middle and eat whatever bonus fruit was. When you got to a certain level, there's a key and it was five thousand points. He had nine hundred ninety six thousand eight the key, which should have put them over to a million and the score just froze.

And we were all like, oh this is like nineteen eighty two, the Knights of Columbus, because no one ever went broke. One hundred thousand, let alone almost a million. And he should have broke a million like the fucking screen froze the sign that was in.

They didn't make the game to go that high. Yeah. For good. The only thing I'm going to say about that documentary that I watched on video games was that that became a problem at one point because these things were it was common that they would freeze. So is that are we talking about the same one?

No, no. We got we get you got to go now. I'm not even being a dick. No, it's King Kong is a different duck.

But I'm curious. That's all right now. Oh, you don't know. There's lots of video game docs, but. Oh, no, no you.

But King Kong by all means, check it out.

If you haven't, I'm going to find the other one I'm talking about. Anyway, we've gone long enough. What else do we got here? I that's all I got. Unless you boys have anything that I haven't unearthed in the last. So if you have any abar school fund, donate to Small Business School Fund. Oh, I got to take Spartz to fund was one. And I think that people will occasionally. You know, they're like, oh, I don't have who are you to tell somebody to to give money?

Right. But if you think five dollars won't make a difference, I promise you you're wrong, because if if enough people do that, it's like it's just adding on.

And and I have I have a really close personal friend, restaurant owner I've brought up before.

I know a lot of people in the industry, as everyone does. I think one is it one in five Americans work in the restaurant industry. Is that a true stat?

My family's bar.

So. When you can do something like this to help, let's keep this thing going, it's over eight million now. I think they can raise 30 million. I mean, it's just it's only eight, nine, 10 days old. So it's been amazing work. And we started that guy Lemonis, I believe, call them out. And I just think it's amazing to see these videos of him calling small business owners and then almost immediately getting emotional. It's life changing.

It's people who have put their whole lives, their blood, sweat and tears into years and years of building a business. That's the greatest thing about United States. You can come and you can just build a business if you're smart enough, if you work hard enough and these people are just, yeah, their lives are being ruined.

And so, like every little one that every little business that's saved is such a game changer.

And I think it's a great thing going on right now.

Well, not only that to the effort that he tried to put in over the break in order to make it all work. And you could see when he's on these calls, he's like swatting away other calls coming in, like he has been working the lines nonstop. And as you said, one of the one of the businesses that got saved was actually in Wilkes-Barre and it was Choco's bowling. I I saw her. I used to remember that. I used to go to Choco's bowling alley.

Same here. And I was like, oh, my God, I couldn't I recognized it right away. I was a great video. I saw a smashed up one. But yeah, just an amazing thing going on. And the saddest thing about the Marshall Fund is there will be hundreds of thousands of restaurants that still won't get get help.

And it's so it's like you can never do enough right now. And I feel so bad for people who haven't done anything wrong. They've done it all right, actually, to get where they've gotten right. It's being taken away. It's and it's not like a bad decision. It's just shitty fucking luck.

And it's great. It's great is what Dave in Boston has done.

It's kind of pathetic that, you know, our company has done more than the fucking.

The government has for small business owners that it's pathetic that no one else is doing it. Yeah. It's just so embarrassing. It is.

It's embarrassing on so many levels that, you know, again, it's every politician.

I swear to God I am them. I think that the biggest scumbags, they only care about themselves. None of these people have lost a dollar. No state workers have been laid off.

It's an absolute disgrace. These people, they fucking talk out of one side of their mouth. They do the other. It's this whole pandemic has taught me that politicians are full of shit because in the reality of all things, being a politician is somewhat of a cushy job until all of a sudden something like this happens and you actually have to do work and none of them have done anything.

Yeah, it's it's disgusting. Like, frankly, you know, the reality is they've given citizens twelve hundred dollars in the last fucking year.

And meanwhile, these loans that I never get paid back tax cuts for fucking the loaded, it's a fucking embarrassment. But again, kudos to Dave Koo's The Bastards stepping up and taking care of these businesses. Unfortunately we can't do them all. And I work for small businesses. I work my uncle's video store, metals grocery store. So I mean, yeah, it wasn't my heart and soul, but I understand the mentality and the effort it takes to work at these places.

So and of course, all the people and all the people donated. Of course. Thank you, guys. Absolutely. We have one of our supporters. I think his name is, well, theri online. He's he's following the stocks. He threw in ten grand. So there's been a lot of people to really step up and make a difference. So we thank you Chilcote's fans for doing so. And I think that's a very positive way to end it.

Yeah, one more thing I wanted to mention is so we're trying to do more sandbaggers and we want to get, you know, continue to do them.

Now, they're not easy in the big production, but we're kind of not grinding. But it's always work finding a place to have them. So if you're a golf course, no joke. Reach out to reach out to me on Twitter. Richard Grenell, it's we need a boat.

We need two cards for the four players.

We need three to four other cards. And we need a hole open behind us in a hole open in front of us. Now, that's why some golf courses can't handle it. But if your course is willing to do it and it's not a shithole, no offense.

Call us. Hey, male chick.

Let's get barstool sports dotcom.

I'll go to a chicken pot. I don't give a shit. I don't know. Fuck. Yeah, I just don't know if that look great on camera. I don't, I'm not saying it wouldn't be fun. I'm more thinking about the product but still. Yeah. I'm not trying to chirp anyone there while indirectly chirping. Um I just think that if you want to reach out and you'd like to have a set your course, let us know.

Love it. All right, boys, great show. A lot of fun even mentioned that we got the best stuff. So enjoy all the best stuff we did we did from the top. But that's how it was.

OK, over the course, I had a tough fight. A tough back end here, too. That's right.

Well, hopefully everybody enjoyed all the best stuff because there was certainly plenty of it for our esteemed producer Mike Grindley to pull from. So good job, Mikey.

Don't you did the best world. Thank you so much. Enjoy it and have a happy new year on twenty, twenty one.

Happy New Year, everybody. Have a great week. We'll see you next week. All right.

Now, here's the part you've all been patiently waiting for the best of twenty, twenty two from the latter half of the year we had here. And first up, we have Letterkenny Dillane Playfair describing shitting himself. So on that note, we'll send it over to Don't Play.

So I have my own unique experience with shooting of the pants, and it starts with sobriety, actually, so I am taking a month off drinking and doing sober October and I buy a six pack of kombucha.

So you go to this party. I didn't know this at the time. I know. Now Kombucha, when drank in excess, serves as a laxative like a really effective laxative. So I get a six pack and Cambridge, I go to my buddy's party. I drink it all night. Siang, I'm like, OK, this sober October is overrated. Let's let's get into one. So, you know, we're about 12 hours into in October and I've already fallen off the wagon, end up getting into one.

The next day I'm meeting my buddies and we're going out to my pals cabin on the island for the long weekend and we get on the ferry. So I live in Vancouver. We're going to Vancouver Island. And it's like a two hour very beautiful ride.

That is we've got to hop in there. It is gorgeous. Anyone who goes to Vancouver, I recommend if you're going over the island, take that ferry out to Wassan, correct? That's right. Yeah, it's beautiful.

It's beautiful. And the bathrooms are you know, the stalls are floor to ceiling, so you can't see who's in the stall. That's a that's a tidbit you're going to want to have as the story progresses, so the boys go to the top deck and they're going to get a breath of fresh air. And I'm walking up the stairs and I and I have what completely disguises itself as a normal sized human fart. And let me tell you this. When I when I release the floodgates on this one, it wasn't a little squeaker.

It was by the time it was done, I didn't even need to go to the bathroom anymore.

I just needed to throw out what I was wearing because it was a complete evacuation of it was like, well, I couldn't have filled up like a seven hundred and fifty milliliter bottle, one hundred percent or 100 percent, and a consistency like like a frosty just and horrendous.

Oh my God.

So I'm like, you couldn't stop it. Like it was like Bush gone. Oh it was.

As long as long as it takes to fart like one good one. That was the amount of time it took to fill up the underwear that I was wearing to the teeth. So I got my hands in my pocket so I can grab the edges of my boxers to keep this from going down into my shoes like that. So that it is like this is I'm not even embarrassed. I'm laughing because I'm like, this is this is a sneak attack. Like, no.

And no one could have prepared themselves for this this event. SEAL Team six summative. You see the choppers are landing on the ferry.

This is like this is a full, full operation. I'm like, boys, you got it. You got to wait for me here. Like, I'll be back. But you got to you got to wait for me. I'm going to need to aroud after this. Like, hang tight. So mind you, this is the early morning ferry. This is seven a.m. This is like this is starting your day. So I waddle downstairs and I go and I the first thing I see is, is the family bathroom, like the handicapped bathroom, whatever, you know.

So I open the door and I walk in. And in this particular bathroom, on this particular ferry, you walk in and there's like a floor to ceiling door on the one stall and a little sink. So you can't see who's in the stall. I thought it was empty. And I walk in and I swear to God, there are there are two guys in the store. And I'm in there long enough to know what they're doing, and they're they're fornicating, they're making love at seven a.m. in a bathroom stall on the ferry.

Mind you, I've just fully shit myself. So I'm thinking I have two choices to make. Either I stay here and deal with this. Then they come out and we all deal with it or I bite the bullet. I go aside and wait until they're done. And then I go back in and I swear to God, my opinion on the spot would have been like, they can deal with this.

They're fucking in a bathroom, whatever. It's all going to get weird. Let's enjoy the party. My thinking it's about to get weird.

And in hindsight, maybe I should have went with this, but I thought, well, they were here first. You know, I'll I'll let them finish up and I'll and I'll loop back once they're gone because there's no one else on the ferry. Like, I'll, I'll just go in and hover over the seat because I'm not sitting in it. I'm literally hovering. So I'm sitting. I wait.

In the benches and there's a lady two seats up for me, the only other person that I can see on the ferry, and she's in her. Late 70s, maybe, and she's sleeping and this is where it gets crazy, because I smell shit, not my shit, I can smell my shit, I know that I know my own smell. But there's a new one. And this poor woman wakes up from what must have been a nightmare and turns around and looks at me.

And I know in that moment that she's just shit herself. Because she just hit herself in her sleep and she gets out and now I have another choice to make. Am I going to lean over my seat and go, listen, lady, I know you don't know me and I don't know you. And this is crazy because it's it. And you shit yourself. I shit myself also. But guess what? The same bathroom that you're about to walk into because I know that's where you're going, because that's where I just fucking went in that bathroom.

There are two guys bolted in the fucking store and it's going to shake you because it shook me and I can't yell that at her. She's like, she's this shook cause I was on.

You're taking the gamble that she'd have actually shot herself and maybe it was just a fart. Maybe it's about right.

So she gets up and she was so I'm pretty sure that it wasn't a fart, OK? And she got us into the same bathroom that I just wanted out of. It takes the same amount of time to recognize that I recognized turns around, walks out. I look at her, she looks at me. We both have this understanding of like, this is shit. This is just shit everywhere. So she fucking she doesn't decide to wait. She's going to find another shoe on her way to the other side of the ship.

And these two guys come out and they're having a great time. They're fucking grinning ear to ear.

They had a phenomenal morning like all the swipes on. Yeah, they have their room. And so I saw and you said that. So I will in there, I fucking throw these shorts into the trash. They're gone forever. They're done. Lock the door to see that these guys had not paid. The rest of the patrons on the boat cleaned myself up. Mind you, this is all about a forty five minute endeavor. So by the time I got there, it's a while I would have just sat in that urinal.

The rest of the trip I thought about how long it would take to swim back to Vancouver, but I was in the middle of the Georgia straight ahead. I had to commit to the boat. So by the time I get back to the top of the shit, my buddies are like, where the hell have you been, dude? Like, it's been an hour. I just tell my boys. When I say this, I mean it, you will not believe the shit that I have just been through.

Yeah, yeah. There you go. There's the punch line there and there's the punchline. Vice dismount. Great dismount.

She would stand to deliver joining us, man, obviously a huge part of a huge show, UNcancel, we appreciate him so much for coming on. Next up, we have Stanley Cup winner Chris First Dig, probably one of the best guys on Instagram in the NHL. I'm sure you've been following along. We're going to go to Chris right now.

I'd like to welcome our next guest, played for 11 NHL seasons in 15 seasons overall, while he suited up for seven teams over six hundred and forty three games, he's most known for his two stints as a Chicago Blackhawks, won the Stanley Cup both times with them. Not a big deal these days. He can be seen opening on the NHL playoff games at Steeg Delicious on Instagram. Thanks for joining us on Spit and Chilcote's. Chris Christie.

Yeah, thanks for having me, IRA. I do got to say, when I hear your voice, it's very nostalgic. When I was with Providence, I flew in and they kept saying, welcome to Waldwick, welcome to Warlick. And I'm like, I hope I'm in the right city. But every time I hear you talk, I think of that moment. So thanks for having me on today.

You guys like where the hell's Wallwork? What are they talking about? Yeah, I swear, I was like, whoa, at Wolak.

And I started looking w o a h I believe w what the hell. Yeah, dude.

Well, thanks so much. It's been a long time coming. We got the chance to play together quick. In my fabulous stint with the Florida Panthers, seven games played zero zero zero minus seven. So I knew right away, like just being around you, I'm like, this guy is hilarious. And then this thing started me at some point. Stiegel, come on. So retirement's now come, dude. It's come to an end. I mean, how is everything going since I know you're you're really big into watching the playoffs would be on Instagram.

I love following you there. Yeah.

It's been different, as you know, it's it's a change of pace for me. I was talking to like a couple of the networks about doing some playoff games. And obviously with this happening with SportsNet didn't need me on. So but talking with them and doing Twitter, I've done I don't want to do Twitter because it's too much smart man.

Yeah. So I figured actually I had been watching a little bit and how he was going about it. So it's almost like if this is going to be the next thing I do, I thought I need to get some reps and I would like to see it like you did NHL Network. How hard is it to form an opinion where you're not pissing everyone off and also make it educational within like ten to fifteen seconds? So I figured this was a good way, just kind of practice and and without using Twitter and do something like that.

And so it's been keeping me busy so far during retirement, but it's different and we'll see where it goes from here.

It's also hard not to drop an F bomb when you were doing. Where do I get I'd get on. I'm like, wait a minute, OK, not check.

Let's not check. It's not check. It's not check.

It's articulated in your thought, too, without like seeing what you would say behind closed doors because you have to button it up for the network. And I don't think it was it's exhausting to me even when I do karate stuff because I'm so nervous, I'm going to say the wrong thing and the next thing you know, I'm getting fucking canceled. But as far as their opinion goes, you know, you're pretty credible. You're a really good career and put up some great offensive numbers.

And I feel like you're great at teaching the game. Like when these plays are going down, you're breaking them down as to why, you know, this guy went to his backhand or or that and fought. Would you ever consider yourself getting into something like maybe Adam Oates?

You know what? I have talked about that with my brother and another guy from my hometown. We talked maybe about that, like having an app or something where the kid can teach you what he's doing to you know, a lot of this is just a one way street of teaching, but maybe where you can. Right. They can write on the app what they're doing and then you could send it back to them, what you're thinking. And it would be something kind of like that.

So I have thought of something like that maybe in the future or you can teach kids almost like a one stop shop. It doesn't have to be like five game packages. They could just send a clip or something to that or to me and I can try to break it down and tell them to the best of my knowledge. But I think but it definitely is something I like doing now, going into coaching or doing anything like that where I mean, it would take up so much time and the days are so long.

It's nothing that I'm even thinking about now. But on a minor scale, I think it would be fun to do. It's such a grind.

It's just starting out as a coach, specially if you're going to start like the E CHL or Junior, the bus trips, like based on what you're being paid as a hockey player, it's tough to find the motivation unless you truly, truly love it. But towards the end, your career became more popular watching the video and your shifts and it was all tracked through the iPads earlier on your career. Were you like that? Fuck no.

No, it like it. And where it started for the iPads for me was actually in Florida. I think when you got there, remember, they gave us our own iPad. They wouldn't give you on that. SAT in my room the whole time I was watching the PGA app on this flat.

So that that was like the first time where I really like for me to I was playing with Kendall prior to that. And Ron Wilson and those two guys, they're not really big video guys. What they do is they like to show you one clip. And I like that, too, because you can get compounded with so much video. And then even five minutes into some of these video sessions, I find myself sleeping and nodding off and I'm like, what did I just hear halfway through?

So the way Quenneville did it was was so smart. He would show you one clip and then it would it would click in during the game. I'm like, oh, that's what you should. Show me where you're not overloaded with information, so then when in 2012 13, when they gave us that iPad and now you're starting to really watch shifts and now you're kind of like you're just overcorrecting everything in your way, thinking about it, and now they're just hammering you with analytics and all these things.

I felt like it was information overload at times and it's too much. So that's why I just put it away and and tried to let Hawkie work itself out. Obviously it didn't. And I got shipped out, so maybe I should watch the iPad.

Sigurbjörn, how how was the relationship dynamic between you and Cringle? I know you spent two stints there. I mean, was it a love hate kind of thing?

It was a love hate. Yeah, for sure. I was I was the whipping boy. Very, very easy to say. So there would be times like I would be on the bench and bowling would be on the ice, like first day. Fuck, what the fuck? And I'd like look back and like, cool, I'm right here. It is regardless. Fuck you, you know, like what the hell you know. And then he'd be like snapping on me and then even like little plays.

I remember I came in the league and were playing Colorado one night. And actually back then, like I remember in the minors, I shot the puck through my legs and I had to fight like a shift later. Right. So when I got up to the NHL, I'm like, man, I'm going to put up through my legs one time and everyone's going to see me on and the puck through my legs, you know? So I came down the wall, I snapped it through my legs.

It actually went off the barnow. And I heard Quintals on the bench is like, did he just do that?

Don't you just do that? So I get to the bench. He's like, you little shit now or do like Junior Seau.

And he's like going off, you know, and and I'm like, holy, he's done. So we go in for the period. He pulls me in the hallway, starts screaming at me again, junior shit. That's horseshit. You know, then all of a sudden I think it's over. The next day we get to the rink. He shows it on the video. Everyone's laugh and everyone laugh. And he's like, first day, fuck you, fuck you.

He's like, that's just shit.

I'm like, I got yelled out for it for like twenty four hours, you know, and then all of a sudden we get out there for practice and buff and cane are snapping it through their legs just to prove a point.

And I can't. So it was we had. But you know what goal for me was really good because he well he would get in my kitchen for sure, but he was good because when I was hot, he would ride me. And the best coaches do that. They ride their guys, they ride their horses, but they also find ways to get guys to help their horses. And I was one of those guys when I was when I was hot, I could help their horses so he would find the days I was playing good.

And I play like eighteen nineteen twenty twenty one minutes and then the next day by eight.

So you never take it personal when when you were on like the downswing.

No, I definitely did at times, you know that that's why our team was really good about it though. The guys always picked you up. You had Tay's immunities are really good buddies. Seebruck, I played Junior Acebes and Keith. We always I felt when a guy was in a shit moment, everyone was there to kind of support him. But also like, you know, I would obviously I'm not close to the players sharpies, but I would be competing with him for ice.

And I'm like, OK, I got to play better and sharp today, you know, I got to play better in this guy who's going to take my ice, you know? So there's also a competition there that we we pushed each other. Obviously, I didn't push sharp as hard as he would push me, but it was there. It was it was a nice, healthy, I thought atmosphere. But also there was a thing where Sharpie would come to me and be like, hey, man, are you good?

Like, whatever. But for the most part, I would brush it off.

But there were days where you're like, man, but this guy, that team was so deep to it's like the healthy competition for four roster spots. It's nothing is better than that in terms of growing a championship team. But I got to go. We are going to get into Chicago a little bit because I just want to start like you grew up in Lethbridge, right? Yeah. OK, so undersize. I mean, you came in in the WHL pretty much close to twenty years ago.

And it's such a different game now. And you've never really shied away at all from being physical and fighting like right off the hall. Was that kind of who you were or did you just learn that in Junior like I can't take any shit, I got to play this way because you were pretty out there?

Well, yeah, it's like I'm not going to beat up anyone, but I felt like like a lot of where I grew up. You know, how you guys talk about Boston, like and and what's the town what's that part of Boston?

That that's where Aura is in the movie scene at Charlestown. And now he makes beers, watch it once a day.

So like I'm from North Lethbridge and it's kind of like the same thing. You know, it's no one has money. It's a very you know, but people need to work hard and it kind of forms you and who you are. And so that's kind of who I always was. I had a I was a kid with a chip on my shoulder. I was pissed off and I was undersized. And again, like my teammates and Junior were like Derek King and Jay King and Derek Parker, like, if, you know, they're like, oh, my God.

And I remember he was like, oh, and then I'd be looking across the ice and there'd be like Derek Boogaard and all these guys. And I'm like, I'm I'm going to die tonight. Literally, I might die tonight, but and those days, every game was the line brawl. I was in two bench clearing brawls, one against Vancouver, one against Brandon. And it was scary. But for me, again, I. I knew I had to do something different because I was small and back then, if I remember and I'd see a guy smaller than me, like, I'm going after him.

Finally, I get to see a guy smaller than me. So you had to have that edge and tenacity and be able to get in there. And I knew that my dad would always tell me that, too. Like, you're not going to be good enough just to play on skill. You got to be a prick, too. So it was something that it molded me of where I where I'm from. I then took it and I put it into my game.

And then I definitely took it with me into the NHL, especially in the my last year or Olman and Talent told me they're like, you're not going to play ahead of journo's. And policies have laid at the time killing all these guys. They're like, you've got to do something different. So I remember I was fighting and trying to do different things. Obviously, I wasn't winning fights, but I was just trying to do different things to get up.

And I mean, I look back, I was literally willing to die to play in the fucking NHL at the start. And by the end, I was I was barely willing to get in front of a snapshot. So it's it's funny how it changed. But like for me, it's crazy what I was willing to do and and willing to play, like in order to play in the NHL. That's just true passion.

And we've talked a lot about guys who probably could have made it if they were willing to switch their games. But it's so, so hard. I want to jump quickly, though, the bench clearing brawls. Do you remember the moment when the coaches, like, go, go?

Oh, yeah, I started those. I was going to ask about the Bremen one.

What are the chances that two to hit started?

All of that was Derrick Parker was chasing two to around the ice, like chasing him around the ice. Yeah, it was I don't know. It was it was after the game the game was over and he was chasing him around the ice. There's a big brawl going on in Shaun Mazi. I don't know if you guys remember him. He was a big guy like six feet, two to thirty to forty. He knocked out someone and that's how the fight ended.

Everyone was like, holy, there's a guy knocked out, you know? Yeah, I was scared. I remember I grabbed Derrick Ranka and but we looked over and he popped him. And that's that's just how it ended. There was no whistle or anything for it to end. And then the next one was against Vancouver. That one was a melee. You had Nick turn nasty and Tristan Grant going at it.

All these guys fight back and trust made me when I was in Wilkesboro one year in two or three rounds of playoffs.

This is over it, though. I'm just like I'm over good as knee and me. Oh, let's just ah fuck out guys. Fuck you trust them. Grab your sack of shit. Yeah.

I think that Grant was nuts though. Oh yeah. He was scary.

I didn't do anything about it at the time but he, but it was a and I remember even if it was me and John Lammers we're fighting this Adam cause Shane it's like you're just going crazy, right. You're just grabbing guys. And I remember I came in and I grabbed a Saddam course change chain. I ripped it off, I threw it in. I'm like just acting like a savage, you know? Then you get carried off the ice.

And it was and I think actually Colton or his brother got punched ref that exact same instance, and Colton got suspended for like twenty games and then WHL that was like unheard of at that time.

Is it true that Colton was going to play in his face and his fists and stuff? He's basically like Terminator.

Yeah, I don't know about that. I did play with Ozzy. I play to both of them. I don't know about that. I do know Czinger well. I've, I've dealt his fists later on his career. It's like sand, there's like no bone. You know that king.

I just I've told the story before but when we had Mike Scorpion he we were playing Worster like who are you going to fight TMOS. Like I don't know, there's nobody there and Colby Armstrong's like that DJ King is kind of a killer. Heads up.

He's like nah I think I broke it all he talked about I like the kid was a killer. A bowling ball hands. Oh yeah. Do you know Mitch love.

Remember Mitch love. He's, he's coaching in sars-cov-2 now. OK, he broke Wiliams Tiger Williams penalty record when we're playing in Swift Current and he broke it fighting, joking and joking. I've never seen a guy beat up someone worse in my life. And Mitch love he's like lights out cold on the middle way. He's a, he's a middleweight. He's not a heavy.

He then gets up his shirts over his face and pulls his shirt down and they're like, he just beat Tiger Williams penalty record and he starts skating around the ice with his arms in the air like what is going on here?

It would be the craziest thing.

So I'm looking at three hundred and twenty seven pounds that year. Yeah. I don't know if it was a year or if it was a career.

That's OK. Yeah, maybe that makes sense.

I was going to ask you about playing early on with Seebruck. I was actually when I played under 18, he was our captain in the summer one which was the hardest one to make and just really a natural born leader. I believe you at first. Overall to the left, Richard Dawkins, when it was that bad, the draft.

Yeah, I don't know if it was first or second, but just an unbelievable guy. He took care of me like I was a lock on as a sixteen year old. I wasn't drafted or anything. So I walked on and from day one he took care of me. His billet was actually really good friends with my dad. So it's just such a good relationship and that. When I got to Chicago, I actually do attribute a lot of my success to him because you know what it's like when you go somewhere and you're trying to make a team.

He was like bringing me around like Duncan Keith, and he was bringing me around all these guys and making me feel like almost like I'm not like white, I belong, but, like, really comfortable.

So the tryouts when I was there, I really attribute a lot to CEIBS, just like you're you're a natural born leader. Amazing guy. And I definitely great friends with them.

When I was hanging out with them, he wasn't drinking. It all turned into Soss first.

But after a few say no, I remember that too. Like even at my rookie party he didn't drink. So he was 17 and I was 16. And yeah, I don't think it was till maybe in 19 or 20, maybe you started to have a couple of beers and I'll get you I'll cover you on this phone.

I'll drink for both of us. Yeah.

That's pretty much the other thing I want to ask you about. Your junior career was against you when you played for regular Brandon and Brett Sutter were on the team and then one of the fathers was coaching as well. What was that dynamic like? Because normally you could see like a minor hockey situation where you're favoring the kid. I feel like that won't be the opposite.

Yeah, that was opposite. Brent was hard and Brent, he was hard on me. So I played actually my last year in Junior, believe it or not. So I was a demon and he would be like, yeah, the hardest fucking player I've ever coached in my life. You know, I'd be like he would show me a clip and like I would rush the puck and then all of a sudden there'd be like nine guys back in the screen and all of a sudden I'd be coasting like slowly back in the screen, you know, maybe like you're terrible, you know.

But he also was like that with his own kid, even harder and bred as well. He for me, was I also, again, between Scott Gordon, Dale Tallon, Brent Sutter was one of those guys for me who I learned a lot from any year. I learned tough love and what I need to do to be a pro. But again, like you're talking about with his son and Brett, he was hard on them. Steger, after four years of junior, you get drafted by the Bruins, fifth round, one hundred thirty fourth overall, you're with the organization for a couple seasons.

They trade you in your second season. What was your reaction when you're pissed off? Did you expect to take us through that journey through? I was crying, I swear to God. Yeah.

On the bus and hold hold on, though, because I'm thinking. I'm looking. You had an unreal year. Rookie in the team sucks in Boston. You don't even sniff getting called up. I think you'd be like, what the fuck, man?

So I was working at Sport Chek about a year prior, not even playing defense for the Red Deer rebels. Right. And it's like I'm like my career's done right. And I'm part in whatever, just like with my buddies back home, like I'm not playing hockey probably. So at the end of that twenty year old year or nineteen year old year, they call me up and I actually play lights out and then I'm like playing soldier because Scott Gordon's like, Hey Steger, I know where you've been, I know where you come from, I know everything.

I'm going to give you every opportunity to succeed. And so that summer I went home and I put on twenty pounds. I came back at almost one ninety and I and I was playing like out like no one expected me to. Right. And at that time Scott Gordon's like, man, I think you're going to get called up. Shaun Donovan just got hurt. I believe Glenn Murray was hurt because like you might get called up. So we're on our way to Manchester and I'm sitting on the bus and I get called up to the front and Gordon's like, hey, man, I just got to tell you, you just got traded all.

And I'm like, What? So, you know how like, you're kind of I'm kind of a messed up kid. And then you're like, you get this opportunity and then all of a sudden it's like they just quit on me, you know, after what I did, like, I was I think I was seventh in the league in scoring in the eighth at that time. And I didn't even have 40 points or 50 points in the year before.

So it's like I was really mixed up and confused. And I remember being on the bus, like, tearing up. I couldn't believe it. And also about three weeks prior to that, we were in Norfolk and I was like, fuck, if there's one team I don't want to be us, it's the Chicago Blackhawks. I swear. I was like, there's no way they had all the studs, everyone. And so when he told me, he wrote it on a paper and he slid it to me and it said, Chicago.

I was like, no way. Like, I have no chance to make the NHL. No. So that's that's kind of where my head was at at that time. And I remember even Don Sweeney called me like I had nothing to do with this. And I remember I was distraught.

Wow. That's interesting. So I think players can look at careers on on online and think, oh, man, he finally got a chance by getting traded. And little did you know was the best thing that ever could have happened to. I don't want to portray. But who was going back the other way. Have Brandenberg Chance Gansky top trade for the Boston Bruins.

But you know, I think he had thirty six goals at that time or someone crazy come off that year.

Everybody this week Larry was scooping ice cream truck and down the street you will lighten up in Chicago and.

But not that time though I thought it was actually even a good trade for them. Like, wow, they got Bolkonsky for me crazy.

All right. So that year you go over to Norfolk and you continue like a point per game player, and then the next year is your first goal in the NHL where you at least got called up. But that year in the NHL had to be one of the top players in the league. And what stands out is just how physical you are playing. And that's when you just basically decided, I'm doing anything I can to get there. Like, did you know there was a chance at the beginning of that year in camp you could get called up or you going in?

Like, I got nothing set right now. I just got to go balls to the wall.

I just thought I had to go balls to the wall. And I actually and I usually have good camps. I didn't have that good of a camp that year. And I got sent down and and I was playing horrible and rock for the first ten games, like, horrible. I didn't have one point in ten games. I was actually playing fourth line to and I remember I came into the dressing room and I was like ready to flip my koblentz table and me and Mike have an awesome relationship.

And I was like, you motherfucker put me on the ice, put me on a power play. And I remember I went home that night and I called my dad. I'm like, fuck hockey. I'm done with hockey, you know, like I did everything I could last year. Now I'm playing fourth line a year later, you know, and my dad's like, well, come sell tractors with me and stuff or you know what I mean?

I was like and I thought he was going to, like, sympathize and he's like, start coming down tractors with me. And that's where I was like, well, fuck, I don't want to sell tractors, you know, I'll find that. Yeah. So I went back and I actually in the next 15 or sorry, eight or nine games, I had like fifteen points and I was like and I remember little after that I was talking to talent and then and then you got to do something different.

I was fighting and doing everything I could and then believe it or not, I was on my way. I think we were on our way to Peoria and I got a call and they're like, hey, we need you in Calgary tonight. In Calgary is my hometown. So I played my first ever game in Calgary. Steve, we obviously got to talk about the Stanley Cup in Chicago, the first Stanley Cup. Take us through that one. I mean, you played a significant role there.

Four goals, eight assists in 17 games. I mean, when you got that town like that, Chicago Hockey had been dead for a long time, then it got revitalized. That must have been a pretty sick thing to go through this six goals and eight assists. But anyway, it was it was unbelievable. I remember about two years prior to that, the same year as in Rockford, we're sitting in one of the rooms, I think it was at the Sheraton and Dale Towns.

Like I'm telling you, if you guys win the Stanley Cup here, Michigan's going to be full. And we're like, yeah, right. I remember pulling my NHL card out of the bar and they put me to the back of the line, you know, things like that. So just to see where we were and fans were like eight thousand, seven thousand. And you could anyone could get a seat to where it ended in 2010 with the team we had and the friendships it was it's still a fairy tale.

I look back, I look at videos. It's really incredible. I mean, we got to talk about the celebrations like, holy shit, I mean, that city in general, I'd say it's probably top of the party list. Rookie part of it didn't have to stop beatboxing from first.

Yeah. Yeah, I was I had to sleep on my stomach basically after because my kidneys were sore.

We don't want to get too much into it, which is coming back from the Peizer here we're going.

How about I read, though, the wrong stat line. I read the largest bug in there. No, I'm not. I fucked it up. Oh, you get pigeon. Awesome. I love that sometimes.

All right. Just what are you talking about? I'm just wondering, though, like that. So the Chicago team that the first cup when Cain scores, OK, where are you on the bench. Are you considering that like it's not in are you one of the guys? It's like no Cain or knows.

No, for me, he shot the puck and I heard a thunk and I thought it hit late and stick and went into the machine. So I'm looking in the meshing and I think it was brow or he looked over at me and we're like, where is it? Where is it? And I'm like, I think it's in the meshing. And then I'll send buzzed by. And he's like, I think it's in the Nedim, like it's in the net.

So I jumped over and I remember I threw my gloves off. Mike, this fucking better be in the net. This better be in the net. And then I got down to the end of the ice and we're all hugging and everyone's like, is it in the net or is it in the net? And I swear they say they can't find that puck. But I swear, I looked down the ice and I saw the linesman pull the puck over.

And that's when I was like, yeah, a bunch of us were like, we just saw the puck out. And then we got the word from the video guy to the coaching staff and they told us it was in, but I never seen it go in. Like I said, I was looking in the meshing. Yeah, that puck became a big mystery because everybody thought Pronger took it because he was stealing all the pucks them, but they did say a linesman walked off and I refused to answer questions about or something like a thousand percent.

I bet I know one hundred percent at it.

No shit. Don't sell that thing at some point.

So going to your end the end of your first time was Chicago. So you mentioned that love and hate with Quinn. What had just gone a little bit sour? What was the reason why you ended up moving on and going to Toronto?

Why we just won the cup. And then I remember we were it was me, Vince Vaughn and Stan Bowman. And we're at a bar and there's like a little alleyway behind the alleyway. And Vince is trying to we're just talking and then stands like a deer. I think we're going to have to move.

Yeah. And I was like, right. You know, and then I remember Vince, he's like, you know, how he talks is like, we can't trade, we can't treat him. He's playing great for us. You know, he's like, Vince, we got to trade. Chris, you know, it's kind of a funny moment. That's how I kind of knew it was going to happen. And then about a week later, I think it was around the end of June, started July, I was ended up getting traded to Toronto.

So you weren't you weren't a part of that Gong Show with, like the the qualifying offers not getting mailed out? I got a huge contract.

Is that explain people at all what what actually happened in that situation? And was it Taylor's fault or is that on like somebody else was beneath them? Dude?

Well, who all you got to ask yourself is who's supposed to do the paperwork and how does go? But I don't know who was doing the paperwork or who's not. But at that time there was me, Fraizer, Brewer, Barker and a few of us. And those couple of those guys already signed contracts. And Bacher then called me the one Daniels. Hey, I think our our qualifying offers are missed by a day. And I was like, what?

And so I told my agent because he didn't. I remember. I'm like, hey, can you check if ours is missed by a day or two? He didn't see that either. No, because we just didn't expect it was your commission. Yeah. So he's like, holy shit, it is missed by a day. And I remember kind of at that time we were talking about like a two year, one point five maybe. And and that is actually the year I was up for Rookie of the Year.

So it was like a good year. But I was it was my first full year. So they didn't want to break the bank for anything. Yeah. And so we're going we're talking. And then all of a sudden my agents, like, I think we can get to you know, I think we can get to so we're at two and it was for two years and all of a sudden it was like we just kept going and all of a sudden my agents, like we're at three point zero eight, three, four, three years, you know, and I'm I'm screaming.

I'm like, I swear to God, I was like Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry Maguire. At that point. I was like, show me the money. Like, I couldn't believe it. I went, like I said, three years prior, I'm selling t shirts and rollerblades at the airport. Check it out, you know what I mean? And and then now I'm signing a multi-million dollar contract. It was it was surreal. But that's for me how it was.

Obviously, it didn't end well for Dale, for that situation for him. But again, I end up going to Florida and playing it day. I mean, Dale, I have a really, really good relationship. So it sucked that happened to him. And again, I don't know who files paperwork, but I'm just guessing it's not not Dale.

You're like, Dad, I can buy you tractor not only to work with you. Thanks. Thanks a lot for taking me to the rinks when we were growing up. That riding lawnmower. Yeah.

So you like the thing about Chicago that's so great and it's definitely changed with the dynasty that formed there. But in terms of media coverage and like craziness, it's it's not that nuts. I mean, they have so many teams in that city and then you get to Toronto, it's like Hellboy. So it must have kind of been almost annoying in a sense, where you're coming over as a cup champion and you got to deal with this media, like, did you enjoy your time there?

Granted, it was brief or you kind of like, I'm all set now. I, I enjoyed my time there. It was tough because I didn't put my skates on till about two days before I can, you know. So I had a bit of a rough start there. I think I had like one, one or two points in my first eleven games. And I had a I bought an Audi R8 actually in Chicago when I brought it to Toronto and in my parking garage, someone spit all over it and they wrote in it like they carved in like you suck and all this stuff.

Oh my God. So I remember I didn't tell the media this is a Babcock Bab's. It was Twitter.

There was a tweet. And in private, um, but, you know, so I remembered Phaneuf was saying, hey, Steger, how's your R.A.? How's the spin on your right? And all the media kind of like heard it. And then like a few days later, I remember hearing, like, who the fuck is versity think? Not the fucking university. I think he is complaining about his hundred and fifty thousand dollar car getting spit on.

And I'm just thinking, dude, I don't care if I, I had a five thousand dollar car, it got spit on. But also I wasn't complaining to the media. That was kind of where I really realized like the fishbowl and what is like it's not just about hockey. There's a lot of other things that come along with it. And you got to really understand that and be able to prepare for that. But all in all, like Phil Kessel was my roommate and me and Phil got along well.

We were. Also together a little bit in Boston, and there's great guys there, too, so it was a good experience and Burki and me have a really good relationship, too, but it was a good experience. It was just a different one and it was a short one.

Any memories of Phil? I mean, you play with him in two different spots in terms of just how what a natural he is. It's just like, I'm guessing the pregame naps. He's just rolling out of bed at the rink.

Steger, it's sickening. I remember even in Boston, Whiteside's during camp would make me and Matt Lashof take care of him. But like so he would always take the curtains and he would take like a clothes hanger to make sure no son got in. Right. And one day I remember we're in Pittsburgh and the clothesline falls off and it's like 7:00 in the morning and the sun's wearing and he's like, oh, my eyes.

Oh, my God, Steger, turn the lights off. I'm like, stand up, Bill. Like, what the fuck? You know, it just it was like constant stuff like that. Or even if, like, the next day he'd wake up the next day, like, I feel terrible. Steger, I just I feel terrible. Like it could have been that bowl of cheese you ate with pregame. But then he goes out and scores two goals and assists and he comes in the bus.

Sakurako Stator not going well. I felt terrible out there. Holy shit.

You know, and I just think I want to kill this guy like that is the job of dealing with the media. They're like, yeah, how much flak he took for sure.

He's just an unbelievable guy. I love Phil. Chris, I want to ask you, you get treated like three times in a year, maybe one day longer than a year. What was going through your mind right now? You kind of like what the fuck? I always say one team traded, but that is another team. Once it was. Was it getting pretty frustrating for you at that stretch?

I had to tell myself that a lot. Yeah, it was just it was strange. You know, you get shipped out because of cap reasons and you go to Toronto and you're not on a great team and then you go to Philly. And I didn't play good in Philly and then I go to Florida. So kind of at that point I'm like, holy, I just want a Stanley Cup. And now I'm I've been traded like three times. I was like, fuck this.

It's really hard. It is really hard. And the other hard thing about that is, is playing with new players and and playing confident within a new system. There's something when like I'm a player that is a field player, too, like I make small plays and I need to make these tight plays. And when you're not confident and you're in a new suit, you're in a new system or you're there and you just can't make those plays. And I felt that way, especially in Philadelphia, I wasn't confident at all.

But then when I got to Florida, when me and Denine got together, he sat me down and said, you're going to use me in a big role. And and I played really well for him at the start there and until the injuries and obviously shit kicked in. But yeah, it was psyche wise. I was in a rough spot for sure.

Who are you playing with in Florida where you got things going again? Like who were you vibing with offensively?

We had an unbelievable line. That was Steven Weiss and Thomas Fleischmann. And then at about game forty eight, I remember I tore my hit and then I came back, I think another like fifteen, sixteen games and then playoffs. But that first forty eight games. It was crazy like everything was going in. We were playing so good and there was so much fun. Just Weisse unbelievable center. You didn't have to focus on playing D at all. He was just such a good to a player.

And Fleischman, one of the most underrated skilled oh shooting players I've ever played with, Fleischman was sick.

And you know how you can just let people know how good he was. Just tell him Detroit picked him in the second round. Yeah. Like he was a Red Wings. And that means the guy's probably going to possibly be a Hall of Famer. He battled injuries, but he was so smart. I remember that team you guys had because you lost in Game seven to the Devils. Was that double double overtime? Yeah, man. Like that team was pretty good.

And then you just can't get anything going in Florida. It's so difficult to like you look at that team and yet some young guys. Cool, come on D and you're like, all right, we might get going. And then it just kind of kept fizzling out. Yeah.

For sure that well didn't the lockout happened. Right. And and I had hip surgery. I didn't do myself any favors. I definitely came back out of shape. And then we had I believe it was Jovanovski had hip surgery and we had a couple issues with injuries. And then Garrison left to Vancouver. Am I wrong? I don't know. He left somewhere. So we lost some pieces and we had some injuries. And then the next year. So the lockout happened.

We didn't make the playoffs. And we come back and I was coming off ACL and a couple other things and it just, yeah, you just can find your mojo again. And that was a team we didn't have any superstars are great players, but we had a mojo to us and we we had some swagger and confidence that year and that helped. And after that, it pretty much left.

That was one town was in Florida at that point in time, had they had new ownership and started introducing the analytics stuff because there was a weird point in time there where they went very hard on the analytics and then backed off and then ended up having more control again.

Well, so I was gone in 2013, November, back to the Hawks. They just got the new owner like a day before I got traded. OK, and the only thing I remember is they had Horachek in there and I think he's a good coach. But I remember he was doing like triangle offense. I was like, what's triangle offense? Like, it was one of the weirder things I've done. But that was the only thing where when we were playing I thought was kind of strange.

But yeah, after that I guess they brought in all the analytics.

You're like, yeah, that's the NBA on TNT. Dude, this is hockey. We don't do the triangle offense, but I can't let that twenty, thirteen, fourteen season go by without talking about one of my favorite stories. And I'd love to hear your memory of it, but you were, you were such a good player and you were coming back from injuries. But like Denine wasn't playing you, he was furious. And then I just remember thinking, like, this kid's going to snap because we landed in Washington, DC at 3:00 in the morning and he was waiting at the end of the bus, had said, Steger, be at the rink at 10:00 a.m., like, take me through your whole thought process and how pissed off you were that day.

Yeah, I was fucking pissed, but but the whole thing just might be a long story, so cut me.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I love this shit. Yeah. So I remember. So they thought the whole lockout happens. He's pissed off at me. Rightfully so. I'm not in shape. Right. I then blow my ACL out and I come back like five months later to play five. Four months after ACL, a fractured tibia like, you know, I was a mess and I told them I'm like, hey, I'm shit right now, like, I can't skate my hips hurting again, which I had surgery on.

And I'm like, I'm not good. But they're like. Get in the lineup. Play some power play. Try to help. And then when I was playing, like, you know, rightfully so. I'm not playing good. So they're not going to play me in situations. But also I'm like, OK. And sometimes you're like, give me something too. So then I'm pissed by this point, like pissed and like we land in Washington, 3:00 a.m. pulls me off.

He's like, stay here, you're not in. And I'm like, fuck you, you know, fuck you. So the next day we wake up, I'm still pissed. We get to the there's like me and I can't remember who was four or five guys meet me there. Yes. Oh that's right. That's how right I was. I remember that we're like on the ice and Gordie Murphy, you know, we get out there and there's a bunch of talks and I start flicking pucks in the stands and Gord's not saying anything like he's not, but I'm kind of flicking him in the stands because I want him to say something, you know, so I keep flicking them in the stands and I go down for two on one and says, shoot the rink.

I shoot it in the stands, you know, so like, what was it? Ten minutes into practice?

Maybe there's no boxing left on the garbos. Like, go Poggio. There's nothing left. So so I remember. Yeah. Summer's like, I guess practice is over. There's no more fucking pucks left. I'm like, I guess so. Fuck, you know. So that was it.

That was, that was the end of practice. Bagheera No. You actually let you get off the ice. Oh he was just done. He was done too. I didn't think he wanted to deal with that. He was disgusted. But the best part was like, oh my God, this guy's getting out of here like and then you go to Chicago. Look, what a moment for you. You know what?

I was so happy to go. I remember we were in the room meeting, not be right. And that's kind of like where I tell the story, like I remember asking you because you're talking about what you want to do after your career. And I was like, don't you want to do radio? You're like, no, I want to do a podcast because I can kind of speak and do things. So, I mean, kudos to you.

You followed through with that that night, too. But I was I was a little choked because at the time I thought I was going to be in Florida and you signed for less taxes. Right. And so that kind of goes into it. And then out of nowhere, I was traded back to Chicago, which I was excited about. But it was a bit of a mixed emotion, too, because I did want to kind of follow through with what was going on in Florida.

But then I go to Chicago and and in Chicago. When I left in 2010, I was at the top of my game and even prior in Florida, 2011 12, top of my game. And then they get this guy coming back. He has had like knee and hip surgery. And I'm I'm horrible. So they must have been like, where the hell did this guy go the last three years when I came back? So for for the fan base, I don't think it was easy for them and it was very hard for me, especially that thirteen, fourteen year, just the I guess the criticism and everything I was taking, especially knowing what I was going through, it sucked.

But all in all, 2014 15 happens and then you win a Stanley Cup. It obviously comes full circle and you feel pretty good about it for Steeg. I just want to go back to the salt for a minute. Teams down, Salt Natural Carolina. All these teams have had success won cups, but it seems like the Panthers are the only one who haven't had any sustained success since like ninety six. You think they'll ever find it down there?

I know Miami is like a bad sports town, but it just seems like they're the one southern team that just can't seem to latch on like every other team down there. I don't get it. The big thing for their fans is that arena. It's in a horrible area. There's nothing to do out there. So after games, there's nothing for them to go do. So that's a hard sell for a fan base. And as a team, they have pieces.

But I watch them. They're not physical enough. They they lost. I forgot that the right handed shot Domenzain just they're not in guys faces enough and sometimes might that might be you know, you're playing it's hard playing in front of an empty stadium. So there's not the extra energy there or Tampa, like they have extra energy because they got a great fan base that's that's at every game. And they got, you know, like no taxes and a great team.

So it helps, too. But then you go to Florida and it's like an empty building and so it's so different. And there'd be like a one one game, like third period, two minutes left. And I swear, sometimes I'd have to slap myself in the face, like, be like, holy shit, like we're in a game here. So, yeah, at a certain point you got to be like, OK, we understand that.

Like it's some good financial position because I think when the owner got it, it was kind of like the arena on land play. Agis values have gone up. But, you know, and I may be coming off as a hypocrite here because I work for an organization who's also had a difficult time sustaining high end success in the coyotes. But arena location is like like such a major piece. Look at Ottawa like that's a Canadian city where when they're not winning and playing well, people don't want to drive out thirty minutes to Canada.

They couldn't sell the fucking playoffs. They can't be Canada. Yeah, it's crazy. How about after a game you're in the bus because there's one way out of the parking lot, right, Nick? It's horrible. So, yeah, it's. You're 100 percent right about the location. So I got to jump to the to Russia because just to know that you got to experience what I experienced over there, was it pretty cool for you to get me out of here?

It was just a quick stint. Yeah, it was like six weeks. It I dude, I got shingles over there. No. Oh, man. City talk about a panic. Yeah. So I got there and like they treated me good. It was fine. Obviously it's a lot of lot is different there. Right. A lot different. But I got there and I don't know if it's the bacteria in the food, but I was fucking shit in like 40 times a day.

I'm like, holy hell, I can't keep anything in my stomach. And I remember talking to Kevin Dollman. Yeah, he was over there. I was like Dolz, like a mess. Like, I'm I can't eat. I can't do anything. So then like three weeks later my buddy comes out and I got this like, rash and I'm showing the doctors and they're like Exuma. Exuma, my buddy is like, man, there's like blisters.

So I send a picture to my doc in Toronto and he's like, and you got shingles. I'm like shingles, you know? And I'm I'm now sitting in a hotel in St. Petersburg and I'm telling the team I'm like, I can't I cannot do this. Like, I cannot play. My back is on fire. It feels like someone's burning you with a pen, like literally with a pen. So then and then like there's a little bit issues with my family's days at that time, too.

So I was I was super stressed out about the whole situation. And and then my wife was just pregnant with our new baby. We're we're trying to. And she got pregnant right before I left. I was going on, man. Yeah. And fuck, man, it was just a hard situation down at that point. And that's where I was like, I just got to go. I got to go home. But, man, I don't know if any of you guys had shingles.

Holly it is brutal.

Yeah. It's caused by stress mostly. Right. Yeah, well, yeah. But you went to Sweden after that, though. You kind of finished up the season in Sweden, right?

Yeah. So about four months later, a Swedish team bought me out. I had a couple opportunities to go to, maybe a couple of Swiss teams. They were going to pay my Buy-Out for me to come in and one of my buddies was the captain of the Swedish Hockey Club. So I ended up finishing and Fact actually had a really good time. The hockey's like rugby on ice, so it's just it's not hockey and the rather easy over there.

What is in Switzerland? So Sweden, man, it's physical. They don't call anything like. Would you agree with that? It's rugby on ice. I remember even going to North Americans. I'm like, I might as well just play rugby right now. This is fucking brutal, like the way they don't call anything. And there's so many talented players there, like in that league, that Bocephus brother, I was like, this guy is insane. And then I looked at his point, he had like thirty points and fifty games.

I was like, what is going on? But like the holding, the hooking, the reffing is just atrocious there. It's so bad. So but besides that living, if they could figure out the reffing in Sweden and the rules, it would be an unbelievable place, especially at the end of your career to go play. But that's something that they've got to figure out because it's just the hockey is is not up to where it should be, I think, in Sweden.

So I just don't understand the rugby reference, is that the way they're like?

So if a bison shit, if you get boxed owning your own end, like, I remember I chipped the puck out of my own zone and a guy came in front of me and boxed me up, like from my own zone. There would be like little plays. If you're going into the corner like a 50 50 puck and you're holding someone on your back, a guy which is bear hug, you pick you up, move you and then take the puck, you know what I mean?

It was just like and the other thing is in Sweden, they played these five man pressures. So it's just pressure points all over. And that's what Chicago is actually trying to do because they have all the Swedish coaches. But you can't do that in the NHL because the ice is smaller. And also the pressure point, if you miss someone in the NHL, it's a penalty or if you hook them. But in Sweden, the slashing like on your hands and all that, that's why you can high pressure there and the ice is bigger, too.

So if you get beat, you can still kind of get back. So that that for me, it was just like it was a it was a scrum all over the ice then to get to the net. No chance. Or get into the net. Sounds like the ninety five devils. Yeah, it was put to sleep by describing it that I'm telling you it's they got to fix that over there because the players are elite, like these guys are set.

I mean, you guys talk about Targaryen loss of our Los Angeles at all. I want to take a piss.

Or have you guys hit on these teams later in your career, not to mention that you you were lucky that you were able to finish your NHL career with the hometown flames? I must have been quite a thrill for you.

Hey, yeah, that was that was awesome. There's no way I could have handled that early on in my career.

So it would have been all over the front page of the paper. It would be so bad to play in your hometown early on in those days. But now at the end of my career, I have my family and everyone. It was it was an awesome experience. Bradshaw, having brought me and I was at the Oilers camp and I decided to go to Calgary, it had a bit bigger of a role, I was told by Tre and they followed through.

They gave me a role and it was just an awesome experience. We made the playoffs that year. I remember that. Funny, actually. A little story. We're in a bit of a schneid during the season and I have a buddy I always bring around. His name's nuts and he's a bit bigger. But anyways, everyone thinks that when we turn the corner that year, it was because Golitsyn let us have beers on on the train. But what happened was, is a little bit before that, I put my buddy in the sauna, he got naked and I put them in the sauna and so goodrow and Monohan would go in the sauna every morning and they get in the sun and they're like sitting next to this naked guy.

They're like, who the hell is that guy? So they come out and they're like, Rob Pascals naked in the sauna right now. And then all of a sudden my buddy comes strolling out and it's him. So that was kind of like a moment on that season. I remember that kind of loosened up the boys. And we actually went on a heater after that and made the playoffs. It was it was an awesome time and an awesome experience.

They're all thanks to your DeGennaro buddy. Yeah. What a nickname.

Nuts. That's nuts. Yeah. Oh, my. I do know that at the end of the next year that that was probably it in the NHL. You know, you're going over to Russia thinking maybe I can get back in the league. What's the approach there mentally?

I think a little bit of both that last year in Calgary. So I didn't get allowed to play in Switzerland because my hip was not in good, you know, it wasn't good. So I came back from Switzerland and I actually went to Edmonton. So it was like porn again, like written. It's actually been torn for about two years, but I was just playing with it. And then that year in Calgary started off. I heard it in camp and then in Dallas and I turned on it and it tore.

And I remember like asking the doc, like, can I play? He's like, yeah, you can play. And it's just not going to be fun. So kind of at that point I was like, well, I got to try to play again. And then going into the next year, there wasn't anyone who was interested really. Maybe I had a possibility with one team. But again, like it it didn't look like a good option.

So then Russia came and had a couple of offers in Russia and Switzerland. So I figured if I go to play in Russia, maybe I play good, maybe I can get back in the NHL. And I went there and obviously just stressed out and it didn't work out. Then went to Sweden and actually I played really well in Sweden. And that's why then I came back the next year. I played with Rockford for a little bit. But man, I was getting hit every shift out there and then the ups and downs.

And I remember talking to Brian Campbell after the game and he's just like I asked him, I'm like, what? When did you know it was over? He goes, when I couldn't deal with the highs and lows anymore. And I'm like, man, I can't deal with them. Like, I can't deal with the highs and lows. I still felt I could physically do it, but I knew my chance in the NHL was over and I wasn't willing to go through those highs and lows and also take a young kids spot in Rockford.

If I'm just going through the motions, it's not fair to those kids either. Knowing what I went through at that point in my career, I didn't want to take that from another kid. So it was just like it made sense for me to wrap it all up there in November and then go actually play the Spangler Cup. And that's when I knew it was done.

Can you describe that to like maybe fans? Like, what do you mean by that? Like, just the pressure, especially as an offensive player to put up points and when you're going through a slump, like how it's affecting your mood and how you are away from at the rink and also the social pressure, especially in markets where the media is a little bit crazier than ours. So it's just like you're riding this constant wave. And I don't think people understand how much it ages you as an athlete.

I've never heard that described the way Tupi did. It makes so much sense because you could when you're younger are the highs are great. The lows, I'll get back and then. Yeah, although it's like I don't know if I'm going to get out of this low.

No, it's damn near depression almost. You know, you're just you're you're sitting there and then you're waiting for the next game. You're like, OK, if I play good, maybe I can feel good tomorrow. And then you play that game and you play like trash and you haven't got another point in like three games like, oh God, maybe.

And then you leave the rink and Rockford know it well and it was fun there. But you're right, it's you're back in the minors and you're supposed to be a good example for these kids, too. Right. So there's a bit of the pressure there, too. And I was just. I just couldn't go through it anymore. OK. You're probably going to give us the best breakdown of anyone possible event got on the show. So you experience Kaner when he's a little bit younger and I'd say going through more of his party years.

And then you come back the second time around and talk about a guy who just really you just figured it out. Seems like he completely devoted his entire life to hockey and just like talk about the difference between then and then the second time around and also just watching him day to day and like I mean, he's going to go down as probably one of the best American players of all time, the best the best man.

So everyone's always like tace, you know, and tases, tases like a workhorse and he's dialed. But still I've never seen someone work like Kane, especially on the ice after practice. You know, when practices were over, especially near the end of my career, I'm like, I'm out, I'm not staying in. But he he stays on long, he works on his game, he even skates all summer, you know, and he's constantly working on his game and doing things to try to either keep up to par or get better.

The second time around, he was just hyper focused. You know, I you know, when games would happen, it always be funny things on ice. If I ever play them, like, what's your job tonight? I be like, I don't get the puck to me. That's your job. You know, it always kind of stuck with me like that. But like when he's playing, he's hyper focused, especially again later on in his career and even at practice, he definitely wanted to be the best, if not the best.

And it was it was something to watch. I definitely learned a lot from him. And now I got young kids and I see what he did at practice. And I know I'm kind of like a crazy hockey dad. I try to do that with them. Little things that he rubbed off on me. I try to instill in them. But he he changed. He changed a lot. But he was also a lot of the same because when he was young, he still worked.

It was just obviously on another level later on. One of the guys I want to ask you about, when you were in Calgary, you saw his first couple of years in the league. Matthew, could we've got him on the show before. What's his feeling in the NHL? Well, it's high. He he's he's a prick, man. He's nasty out there. He's exactly what your team needs to win. He you know, I watch Anton or so and I was like, God, tell him to calm down out there.

Tell him to stop going against Ryan Reaves and Wakan. I love that shit. Like, I love it because the second essay, Reeves turns the clock over. Something happens, you can hop on it.

But imagine being that annoying and being as good as Matthew Bart are like your cell and like, you know, every guy around the league in the other locker rooms, like, I fucking hate this guy is the biggest loser in the world. But it's just like, no, the minute he gets on your team, you're like, this is what this is a piece that you need to win.

It's unbelievable. Exactly. And then and then you add the element of chucks, an elite player, an elite player. He's a leader around the net. He has high. His hockey IQ is sky high. Obviously, he doesn't have the ability of economist David or those guys. But what he can do in and around the net, below the goal line, he's a lot like his old man like that. He sticks his butt out and he can hold guys up.

The best players can all hold guys off, especially in tight areas. And he's one of them. And he can create so much. And man, it's just you have so many different elements of a player, and that's why you get Mazzuca Chuck, and that's why it pisses off everyone. But I love it. And I remember during that year when he was getting suspended and he was doing some of those things, the elbow doughty, I remember I pulled him aside and I'm like, don't change.

I'm telling, but don't change. Maybe maybe you can toe the line a little bit, but don't change because you need to be, you know, in some cases that gets those guys into the game.

They need to be like that in order to gain the juice.

One hundred percent, especially in today's game. Right. It's hard sometimes. Oh, my a I don't I like the old game because I like the emotion involved. I do feel like some of the regular season game becomes a little bit too much like a video game nowadays.

I don't think so. This is a fair word to use, but just feel like, I don't know, maybe shorten the schedule to make games more intense. Shirkey says something that calls it like a sun skate or it's robotic.

They're robots. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're talking about this. And when you retired, you kind of had a lengthy what you wrote and were very open about the fact that maybe you had a chip on your shoulder at all about all that stuff. Like looking back now in the way it all went down. Do you have any regrets? Are you are you happy with how it mapped out? And like, what would you have done differently?

Maybe the biggest regret I have is not taken that lockout seriously. I did not think we were going to play. I did not. Do I agree with you?

Like part of I don't know why that was.

What was I thinking? Not going to play hockey do you didn't go to Europe? Oh, I didn't go play hockey.

I was watching the university team back in Lethbridge. Like I was like my buddy was the coach you were having, you know, we'd have drinks and and I didn't skate. I just put my skates on and pushed pucks around, you know, seemed like I should have done exactly what you and I have that regret because you're getting. So much money, but not so much the money part, but the window is so small to do it, and I think I let my guard down a little bit that summer.

I just came off. I had actually double groin surgery, then I had hip surgery. And then I showed up kind of fat and I blew out my ACL. So it was just like karma a little bit I feel for me.

And what makes it even tougher is do you want a Stanley Cup? You're younger, you've made some money. So it's so easy now to look back at the time. You're like, I'm fine. I'm going to light this league up another five, six, 10 years. And it's just so not the case every time.

It seems it's not when you let your guard down, man, especially in this league, it'll catch up to you real fast.

Well, I got to ask you this because I'm using air quotes, but like a kid from last, you had no chance to play in the NHL and you ended up doing it and you were so successful and like playing against you, playing with you had so much respect that the day you did retire, was it emotional? Like, I remember myself kind of breaking down, calling my dad. Was it was it hard for you?

Yeah, 100 percent. I remember you know, I call my mom. Everything I did was for her, you know, my mom and my grandma and grandpa. I like without them, you know, like we couldn't afford to play hockey, you know? And my grandma to this day says, you know, if it wasn't for hockey, she would probably be dead or in jail, you know what I mean? And that's why they did what they did to keep me and my brothers in the sport of hockey.

So all this stuff near the end of my career, I'm just like, man, I wish I could go on for them mentally and physically, but I just couldn't do it anymore. And I almost felt I was letting them down after what they did. For me, it really tough times in my life. So that's why I wrote down, was for her was for my with my mom and especially my grandparents.

Well, man, I'm so happy we finally got John and I think it's pretty much up to you. Whatever you want to do, hockey media wise, I think the way you've kind of approached what your Instagram does and not just talking about goals, but just stop in little place. I really enjoyed it and I'm pumped. You came on and so congratulations on a great career and looking forward to catching up with you in person at some point, hopefully.

For sure. Bizos, an honor. Thanks for having me on. Thanks so much.

Did I go one more quick one for you. Who do you like for the cup. I like Tampa Bay. OK, yeah.

To be I don't have money on MLS. I think our fan base is really going to enjoy this man. I'm like this was this is awesome. Feel free to reach out. You can come on any time and know. Yeah.

Maybe, maybe if you figure out what's next, whatever it is. Come on. We can pump that you know, you know how to pump your knees up. Yeah. Know for sure when we will meet.

Whoa, whoa. For example, it teaches you how to stick candle and you can get beers delivered in left. So. Exactly.

I could have the office portion of the app or you teach kids how to put rubbers on and call a growing number and be respectful. That's why they want their money back.

Like what happened? She got her right that fine. All right, buddy. We'll talk to you soon. All right. Take care, guys.

Thanks to Chris for joining us, man, definitely one of the characters, the game, he's certainly a funny guy and you should be following him on Instagram if you're not already next up.

Well, you know this guy, the wet dog, he tells one of his all time great stories about getting into the wrong car.

Yes, he's thirty seven year old guy getting in the wrong car. Let's hear from the watchdog himself.

Any time I get a late night texts from Ryan Whitney telling me that I need to remind him to tell a specific story, you know, a good story is coming on this podcast. So I'm excited, no doubt about that.

The raconteur himself will get to him in a sec. But first, dirty dog in the desert, Paul bears nasty bassinette.

I'll just I'll just piggyback what you said. Nothing makes me more excited than when we hop on a Zoome call and website.

Is Kreiss not? You guys only talk about, like, setting up some ridiculous expectations for a story. I'll get right into it since, you know, to don't want to talk about anything but me, I freeze.

Sorry.

Sorry I wasn't punching you in with those clowns. All right.

So a lot of times, a lot of times you wake up and, you know, it's just a certain mood. You got nothing to do because I know you know what I'm saying, RJ, everyone knows you're awake and bake, you know. All right, baby, you love so good. You know, so my weekends. So so this goes back to the car issues.

This isn't really related to any car issues. This is more Ryan Whitney issues. Not talking to third person. That's a clown move. But I have a nice guy at the store and I got I do two things.

I got to get Applegate pork sausages. They're already cooked. You just throw them on the stove and they heat the perfect. And I had to get orange juice.

So, you know, sometimes it hits you a little different in the morning and you're just out to lunch, I'm standing in front of the Applegate.

They have like three different boxes right there, three different colors, but they're all saying the same thing. All I'm seeing is like the same thing. Gluten free, no trans fat.

I'm like, what is the difference? Three different colors. What is the difference? I know I am like, why can't I figure this out?

Well, I wasn't reading where it says chicken, chicken sauce, chicken, apple sausage, pork sausage.

I just was totally out to lunch. Took me ten minutes to figure that out.

Listen, I'll get back to that. I go outside now because my car had broken down two days after I bought it last week, they gave me a loaner.

It's it's a Escalade blue, like light blue bluish. You know, it's got its own individual. Look, I don't know if I'd ever buy this color, but it's like you're not going to mistake your car once you get this color car as a loaner.

Maybe the reason they actually do make those colors.

So I walk out of I walk out of the the store and I'm walking to the car and I see the car and I get into the car and. I go to start, I'm like, what the fuck I look, I'm like. This is in my car, I turn around the guy whose car it is is standing by. Tell goes, what the fuck are you doing?

I am so out to lunch. I said, listen, listen, I know what this looks like.

I have this car. From from it's a loan from the dealership, I have this car, but I drove my wife's car here, which is a white BMW. And I walked past I walked right past the car, I drove there because I thought I drove my loader in the front seat, kind of started.

And the guy I thought he saw me get in and he was walking to the store what the timing was. And and he just was like, what's wrong with you?

But it was an honest mistake.

And I remember thinking, oh, my God, I think you have to stop the morning activity of maybe adding some creativity. I was going to give you some leniency, assuming that you'd driven your loaner and then just mistaken that there was to there. I would have been like, oh, shit. OK, well, you got inside. I think I might have done that at one point with a black Jeep Grand Cherokee, the most common fucking vehicle there is.

But like. Yeah, the fact that you drove your wife's car, that's fucked up, man. That's all. I was just so embarrassed.

And to end it all off, I bought the wrong sausages. I bought the chicken once. I took me ten minutes and I still got the wrong one. So I don't think the story was that good. You guys kind of shriveled me with the way you teed it up. But still, like, you know, you you do some certain things.

It makes you question, well, I have high expectations when I thought it was tremendous to start off the show. Well, when I thought the wet dog, he's always got another story up his ass, his golf story from this year. Take it away. Right. Can I explain what happened in a golf match to me last week quickly? Sure, sure. So my brother and I, I know I mentioned and we lost in the semifinals, but I had to explain how we lost.

We're on the 18th hole of this match now. I'm playing with my brother who's getting a stroke off me. I'm playing against my buddy Danny, who's a firefighter, he's a Boston firefighter, and so was his partner, Peter Eyerly. Danny's saved like 53 cats in his career as a Boston firefighter.

He's leads the league in saving cats. So he brings this stick. Peter early. We have a great match on 18. We're tied and Shawn's choking. So is Danny. Sean, my brother pounds driver down the middle, and he then hits a six iron to like. 12 to 15 feet, I'll call it, just a perfect shot, he's now putting four, three, two. Danny hits this shit bag, drive to the out to the left, awful swing, but it stays, you know, just in the trees.

He then takes his three wooden, rips it up, tries to get it up top. The hill is probably like 245 out. It rolls to the bottom of the hill.

So he's now got about like a 80 yard shot up the hill to the elevated green. He's hitting his third shot. Sean's just waiting to fuckin putt in his birdie. Three, four to. Danny then chunks this ship to the top of the green, he fucking barely gets it up there and it sits down and rolls just to the front of the green boat, 50 feet away from the pin.

And what is he proceeded to walk around the park for 10 fucking minutes and then stand behind him and buries the thing for four three.

We were already, in our minds, had won the match, which is exactly what happens in Matchplay.

Whenever you think you win a hole, the fucking miraculously, the only thing that could happen against you happens. So he sinks this monster Patos an unreal. There was a bunch of people there watching.

They're like, I'm like, are you kidding me? Danny for three while Shaun still has a pot to win. And he just said that he made a good roll, but he taps it in four, four, three down in the playoff next hole, when we go down, one goes down and up and we go down. I hit a bunch of shitty shots. I end up having like a five foot putt for par to continue the match. I miss it.

We lose. It's over. Oh, so fucking you're trying to go to the semifinals, to get to the finals, to, you know, when you're going to win some good money, you're going to win the member guest, and then all of a sudden a guy hits a 50 footer on you to force a playoff and then you lose ten minutes later in that playoff hole. It was the most disgusting loss I've ever had. Shout out to Danny, what a pot you sicko and shout out to his partner.

Peter Yates kid was pounding the ball. So it was just an upsetting. And then the other thing.

The other thing. So then USGA four ball that I qualified for with the one armed bandit last year. I talked about it on the pod and I was so excited. Well, then it got canceled because of Corona and then they decided to not allow the people who, you know, got into the tournament to play in the next year's tournament. I went on a podcast rant about that, I believe, as well. So what happens? We come up to Monday, Monday of this week.

We have the qualifier again. It's now. All right, buddy. We got fucked last time. Let's go and do it again. Let's go get it done again is on our side. So we got there.

Indian pawn this place in Kingston, Massachusetts.

Let me guess. Nitrites. Let me guess. It's a nice track. Yeah, it's a nice track.

It's a nice track. Yeah. I mean, the Greens are usually really fast.

They weren't like super fast to stay. But nonetheless, let's go do this.

We go out and we're hitting it really nice.

This first of all, we both hit it fifteen feet part. So we're thinking to shoot like seven under.

Second of all, fuck my buddies kind of in trouble, I had driver five, the holes like five fifty.

I hit driver five to about 10 feet short of the green and then easy, easy little chip up the hill. Tap in, birdie. Let's get us on the board while I fucking chunk this chip. You know, leave it like ten feet short. I missed the pot God damn it. We should be too. We should be one under through two right now. We could even be to like that's that's, that's on me. But I said to my partner, I got to get that up and down.

Fuck. So we go to the next door. My buddy misses a kind of a six foot slide over still even. And we go to the fourth hole and I stuff one to an inch, a legit inch, whatever. We're on the board now, one under. We think we need six more of these things.

We get to the fifth, the fourth all or whatever, the fifth hole, par three down the hill, make an easy par. We get to this short, short par four sixth hole. I hit my five wood up 40 yards short of the green. I hit it on. I'd knock in the birdie. There we go. Now we're to wonder, OK, we need five more think guarantees.

It will now what is started happening in this round of golf to get into a United States Golf Association event?

The wind is fucking howling. Twenty five mile an hour, steady, howling, affecting every single shot when it's in your face. Your club is up by three. When it's down, when you don't know what club to hit. I was like, this place is playing hard as shit.

And all of our my knee and my one arm bandit partner, our in our group, we all agreed on like I think the number might be like five.

I think five might get in this year, and there's also alternate spots that we wanted to we wanted to get, so whatever we fucking go out there and it's playing very hard and on par seven, eight, nine, my body makeup Qik par on nine I three putted.

He was in trouble. He gets up and down from a shoe box and we don't lose a shot. So we make the turn into under. We go down 10. Both of us hit it to five feet. We both knock in the birdies. Didn't even matter what. One of us just needs it for the car. We both did. So now we're three under through ten. Here's what fucking happens at ten.

Ten, four, I'm getting off the tee, and this USGA rules official says, hey, we got a big problem just like this. I'm like, what? Like I'm like, my mind is racing.

I'm like, what the fuck could have happened? Like for this dude to be that Adam and this engaged in, like, telling me we got one, our bad guy crushed his old lady or something.

Yeah, that's it. I was like, dude, like, did you catch your wife, like roasting your body last night in your own garage? Like what the fuck is wrong?

What's the problem? You're five minutes behind pace. It'll be a problem if we have to talk to you again.

Oh my God, that's so funny either.

So listen, I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? So me and the one on Bannan have our caddy, Mikey Powell is this kid's the man. He's he's just doing a hell of a job. He's carrying both our bags. I'm like, dude, give us clubs. My partners are running. We all start running. Because if you get a fucking penalty, if you get a shot of slow play penalty, you get knocked. STROGOFF They'll fucking hate you for a stroke in your round.

So we are we go up to the eleventh tee, which is probably one of the hardest holes in the course was downwind. So we all hit fucking real quick. I hit Driver, pounded it and we just all run, were sprinting for guys carrying their own bags.

Me and the one armed bandit and the caddies are going to hit in the middle of the fairway.

Dude, I'm I'm literally breathing heavily. That's just catch up to the group in front of us and in this quick.

I hit Jaromil hits from 140, hits it to like 15 feet, right of it, I'm I'm 81 yards in. I fucking smash this drive. It must have rolled out 100 yards. And I flip a 60 degree wedge up to five feet.

I run up the hill. I'm Mark. And I'm like, fuck that. Right? I go over, I get my putter.

Jaromil like tries to like, calm down a little but hits a spot literally just misses Tapan par. I'm like, dude, I got a five foot uphill done.

I'm like, all right, I know we're in a rush, but you got to just calm down and make this. I miss it.

I'm like, oh mother fucker. But during the oh my. The one armed bandit, he's like, do lots of holdsclaw.

We're feeling it now. We're feeling it now. We only need fucking for four more birdies, even three or two with this weather.

So we go up to the next all. I fucking hit it out of play like an asshole into the woods. I have to chip out. I have a putt for four a.m. has to have a proper putt for four because he missed the Greens short. He was in the fairway wall. I missed my seven footer for par and then I'm like, oh my God, Drew's got seven feet.

Fuck he cans it so high. Three under we stay at three or under. It's unreal. Next hole par three. We, we both hit it.

Drew hits it in the rough but he got it up and down and I have fucking twelve feet staring right up at the flag hits the lip and just, just does one of those dirty ass mother Frager lip out.

Disgusting but whatever. We got a birdie hole coming up next. Come on, let's keep doing this. It's a par fours three like two hundred and eighty yards. But you can cut the corner if you hit this big slice and like, slice it onto the green. So I just hit a five year to one hundred yards out there. Amul does it.

Our caddy's out there celebrating because he's fucking drove the green on the par for.

I hit my six year degree to like fifteen feet. It was a shitty shot and this kid now has the two but he's the pin was on the bottom shelf of the green, he's on the top shelf so he hits this pot that rolls down the hill and rolls to like nine feet. Should have been a birdie. Should have been an eagle putt from off the pins up top. Well I missed the fifteen footer and then this kid fucking misses the seven footer on a great show.

Not only do we not birdie birdie the par three that I fuck on a birdie eleven when I'm running around like a lunatic sprinting and can't breathe then we don't birdie thirteen because I miss the uphill putt on the lipo and then fourteen my buddy drives the green. We don't birdie that one either. So it's like are you fucking kidding me. So we get to the next hole to get down dogleg left. We both hit it with one twenty out and we both hit it just right at the pin.

Fifteen feet like one guys one foot in front of the other is perfect.

We're going to get a read we both missed. Like Are you kidding me. Still stuck at three under with all that's going on. And then the fifth, the sixteenth hole, the same exact thing. We both hit it on the green. Neither one of us made the part. We're like, all right, well, we got it. We got an 18th hole, par five, but it's dead into the 30 mile an hour wind and a two hundred and fifteen yard par three is the seventeenth hole.

And we need to at least make two five under like at least. Right. Seventeen. We both missed the green right in the rough.

I'm like, oh man, what a bummer. I get up to this ball. I swear to fucking God I had a premonition. I was like, I'm making this shot. I'm literally chipping this in.

I'm going to do this and Drew says, Do you want to go first, do you want to go first? Oh my God, dude, I'm going to knock it in, dude.

I fucking knocked it in. Get the fuck out of here.

I hit a high pitched shot and it landed on the ground and started rolling towards the green. And the kid on the other team trying to qualify goes in the fucking hall like that.

And it goes, think, oh yes, there's one. There's one we're not for. Get us to five. We're in this fucking tournament. Let's go high five, my buddy. I go to the insane insanity.

I just go I said I was going to do that. I was so mentally fired up. I'm like, what the brain can do is fucking insane.

Is like the best moment of my summer.

You'll you'll laugh when you hear the rest of this.

So I get to 1818 is like five seventy dead into the wind. Oh my.

It was like through 220 yards the fairway. I hit this thing as pure as I could, dead straight, dead nuts. And I had like three twenty in. It was it was it was an absolute honking wind right in your face, but I got it in the fairway to a point where I had to lay up with four iron and then I had to hit another five iron because I hit a bad four iron.

So either way, Jaromil is in the trees. We need to birdie this hole. He's in the trees. I'm in the middle of the fairway. He hits this ridiculous punch hybrid through the trees like 200 yards. He he he hit it about one hundred and eighty yards and still had two twenty to the hole. But it was unreal shot just to even get out of the get out of the shit and get back in the mix. So then I hit my layup shot awful four iron.

I'm trying to hit this thing like 200 yards. I had this awful four iron and it goes like up into the hill, into the rough. I'm like a you got to be kidding me. So one armed bandit, he's in the rough takes out his three wood. It's 220. I'm like, this is playing to forty five and ropes this three wood to six feet.

No way. He's got six feet for the birdie to get to fucking minus five.

I go over to my ball in the rough. It's on the upslope. I'm like I think I have to hit a six iron because I was like a buck seventeen to the wind still and I'm like do it. Actually it's on a slope like this. So the six will turn into a seven iron. I need to hit a five iron because it's because it's going to go right up in the air. So I do. I hit this thing. The wind takes it, it's drawing towards the hole.

It hits the green and bounces and releases towards the pen. I'm running to the fairway as Jeremy was going.

Going oh going oh for Eagle to get to seven under a no for eagle to get to six under going.

Oh dear.

Radio screaming And I can't even see as I'm running around the hill the fucking ball rolls down and leaps out of the cup, rips out of the cup because it was going too fast off the hill and settles seven feet beneath the hole.

So I was like, oh my God, we're high five.

And it didn't go in, but holy shit, we got to birdie looks. We both looked like we were dead on eighteen. We can get this thing to five hundred right now.

We got a chance. We both missed the part, dude, no. Now, now, now, here's what you're going to laugh. So at the time, I'm like, dude, that that's it, I go, five was a chance, at least as an alternate and with us getting in last year, if we're alternates this year, we'll get in. They were taken to spots and they were taken to alternates.

So we're waiting around all day because we came in the clubhouse lead was 500.

We were in second place.

Now, there were some really elite teams of some bigtime amateur players who live around here that were going out in the afternoon. But the wind was still heavy. I said, who knows? So we waited around all afternoon and some of these teams made the turn.

And at the turn, all of these teams are like, well, we're minus two under or two under or two under.

One was three under. And we're like, hey, these guys could go out and not light up the back. And like four, we could be standing in a playoff at four for an alternate spotter to get.

I got one. I got I got one on one question here. Yeah. Is the wind still Hakin? Here's the thing, this, just as I was about to bring it up, right, as these elite, the elite troops, because they pack all the really good teams together in like three or four different times, you know, two times for the afternoon with. Right.

As they went out for the night, the second nine, because they teed off and it was honking. And I'm like, this is good. And then they came in with scores that were just like ours.

And I said, this is good. And then the fan turned off.

It didn't turn off completely, but it turned off into like a chilly fall day where there's a little wind, but nothing like the 25 mile an hour gusts we were dealing with.

So we waited around an eight under game and a seven under Caven, and then there was two six others and then a 500 at the forefront. So we didn't even if getting the spotlight last year, we didn't even sniff beer at all and then possibly get and we sat around that thing all afternoon hitting balls, thinking we'd have a shot and drove home with nothing but failure. And the fact that we were fucking high five and going nuts after I chipped in to get to get it to four, read on 17 and we're screaming at each other about that ball getting in the hall on 18.

If you ever see what ended up happening, we would have looked like the biggest fools of all time. But it's still it's trying to get to us. That's my goal. It happened and I got screwed. With the tourney getting canceled next year, we'll give it a go. But it was an exciting round.

Well, I got to things that club championship was a nice appetizer to the real golf story. And fuck that, Marshall. It here is the thing about the marshal and what happened last time, boys, with the story when I got it, remember, the marshal came up on 17, said, what's your score, guys?

I said, Whoa, whoa. That's not something a marshal asks. We're trying to get something done right now. Get out of my head space, buddy.

Well, this time this marshal says we're late, we're sprinting around and I'm I sprinted a 400 yard hole because of no reason.

Oh, I forgot the part about the marshal. I spotted a 400 yard hole for no reason, then missed the most remarkable part of the day to get us to 400 through 11. And it was all because I was out of shape and out of breath. So we go up 12, you have to walk uphill and then you hit downhill. And I hit it right near the cart path. And there's another marshal there. And I'm like, Peter, this guy is the man, this older gentleman, Peter from Mass Golf.

Mike, Peter, are we on the clock or are we going to get put on the clock? He's like, what? He looks at the sheet.

He's like, you're not even you're not. You're playing too fast.

You're fine right now. It's like, oh, my God.

The guy up there is telling me we got a big problem. Like his wife left him with the dog. And you're telling me that there's no issue at all. So it was a wild day. And to get in the house at sixty eight and sit around and think you have a chance only to see the medallist's be eight under double your score, it's it's a little humbling. I tell you what, man, that might have been one of the best golf stories I've ever heard from you and I'm sorry you didn't get in, but it was very entertaining.

I think our fans are really going to enjoy. Thanks to our Paul Ryan Whitney for yet another golf story, I know you guys like that stuff. And next up, we got a few clips. These aren't the full interviews, but some interesting clips. We want to show you a couple of Stanley Cup champions we are fortunate to get right after they won the cup. First up, Patman won two cups in two years. So let's go to the big rig right now.

Watching your team there, you have these top Antoun, you're talking about Koocher, but the minutes were spread out. I mean, I think the was pretty good points right around 20 minutes. But you were over 12 for the playoffs was pretty important as a as a as a coaching staff and as a team. Like, let's get everyone going, let's wear them down that way with four lines.

We did a good job of that. I think towards and we kind of got guys because I don't know if you guys, you know, pay attention. We went seven and 11 throughout the playoffs until we lost game one. To gosh, these guys are just kind of destined, to be honest with you.

I think they're just tired of playing with Sadie and me and Sadie sitting there just like we don't want to go rotating wingers like, you know, what are you going to touch the.

But he's like there like we get all this conference on the on the on the top. And then I go down there. Yeah.

Got God. It's like Russian roulette every but every time they're getting the bullet got out of control. Was a coach. Can you go.

He's like. No politics, no excuses, like I said, the backup goalie set up the backup. So I asked this to cholera, but it should have been a question for you. Is the winning it last year with having everyone's family in the room as opposed to this year where it was pretty much just the people who were tugging on the rope, small amount of family members was a little bit more intimate and that you got to share that time just with the guys who had won it.

Not being not distracted, but your attention everywhere else.

Yeah, that was good. I thought, you know, there's no distractions. Obviously, we didn't have any family members come in, just mom and dad flew in. So that was, you know, you know, a mom and dads are they kind of stay away through their things. So that was kind of unbelievable. Feeling like seeing the guys celebrate, you know, seeing guys get emotional. You don't really see that kind of because people are kind of scatter hugging their mom and dad's hugging their wives, hugging their kids.

So you got to see, like, everyone's emotions throughout the locker room. And, you know, you get to see different personalities come out the locker room partying and hanging out. So it was unbelievable, obviously, what families there. But I think it's nice to win on the road and, you know, bring it back home. And, you know, the next day we got to see him. But I thought it was neat just to be with them.

How our night together and, you know, enjoy it and, you know. The I'm kind of curious, like the difference between the two teams, in your opinion, like things you can kind of think of, they were so different. I mean, I know you were down three two to Dallas. Dallas must hate your guts. You get them in game seven and now they're looking at, like, the fatboys beat us again.

What is wrong with you?

They definitely think more like like. Well, he was out there both years, Jamie, bands like Fucking Maroon.

If you think they would sign me by now that.

Yeah, money GFA go three for three, brother. I know the first I heard of it.

The difference though, are there any different like are there any differences between the two teams when you look back on it or is it that kind of just stupid question.

It's kind of like this question.

What do you mean winning it different years? And how is that experience? Was that was that. I try to ask questions that certain fans would would want to know. I find like have you. But Chuck, the bug chugged a bottle of wine yet. I don't know. Like what do you want me to ask you.

Honking Pink Whitney.

Yeah, no, I mean no.

But I mean obviously two different storylines. Right. Last year was, you know, last place to first place. We're more of a grind. You exhaust you down, go to Underdog's Price and won the Stanley Cup. You know, Boston might outplayed us in the first 10 minutes or 15 minutes of game seven like, but we found a way to chip away, chip away.

We had goaltending this year. covid had in a bubble.

You don't have family around. We have a skilled team. But you can we can also grind you down low and make you guys tired. And we adapted to that role, you know. You know, it's a good sign when one of your leaders is cutting off and telling you to dump the puck in. And obviously, he's he's kind of like, you would have loved me. He would have loved, you know, I mean, he was coming back to the bench telling guys to get pucks in don't turn Fox over, you know, get it low.

It works. It works. So when you got a guy like that speaking up and taking a whole new role, a leadership, I mean, it's amazing. I thought we had four lines that played all four different kind of styles of play, but can hurt you below the top of the circles, too. And I thought our defense I thought we had the best we have the best defense from the team, which Victor had been probably in the league doing something or doing something.

A lot of defense will probably never come close to doing. You know, Ryan McDonagh in in his face, Lucian coming in fight, Mark Matmata and Botel coming in. I mean, shot chancre search took a whole new step.

So, I mean, we I mean, Tampa does have the best goalie. So, I mean, it's totally two different things.

The tax, the Patman awesome guy love chat with him, we're going to talk to his fellow couple, an intimate from this Bastia right now, Harvard product, Alex Calon.

From the halls of Harvard to the canals of Tampa, this guy has been on quite the ride lately and now he can go by Stanley Cup champion. Congratulations and welcome back to Spin and Check. That's Alex Cohen.

Thanks for having me, guys. So how's it going, brother? We know you're not sober right now, but how are you feeling after that bug?

No, it's been fine, man. Like it's been it's been a long week for sure. Today was great. We got to go with the bucks, took care of us.

They brought us to the game. You know, we didn't get to bring the cup on the field or anything because of covid, but it was fun. And we've got I got to meet Jazelle quickly in the street.

It was a good day, but it's been a great week leading up to all the events and stuff. A little different because of covid. But I've had so much fun. Yeah.

Take us through you know you guys get it done. Game game six it all goes down. And then what was kind of the celebration like? How long were you in the locker room? When did you find what was the whole night like after.

So I don't remember the exact time line when we wanted must have been like because the games at six, right? So I think it probably finished at nine, nine, 20. We probably left the locker room at twelve thirty one. Yeah. I mean, you could see the scene in there.

It's probably a little different because not everyone's family was there. My dad was there. It was awesome for him to be there. But at a certain point guys are like, we got to we got to kind of get out of here. And we had a big room at the hotel where we just kind of, you know, enjoyed it and we got an early flight out. So not much sleep, but like guys are fired up to. That's why a lot of us are a little tired on the plane.

Oh, you think?

I was like, I wonder if guys are just going to wait up until the plane ride, then shut it down. I saw happen with the cords might snooze.

And we were I remember at one point we were sleeping in Pat Maroon was just got so angry, like two guys.

And like we got we got to keep a tight timeline. So we're going to drink. Jeez.

Well, that's one of the questions I was going to ask you. Do you think it was a like given the families weren't there and I know that you guys want them. They're given like they've been with you the whole time.

But was it a little more special at the fact that you guys were actually able to enjoy the moment, basically just the nucleus of the team and the people who were tugging on the rope to get the job done?

Yeah, I mean, I don't I don't know how it would have been the other way. I think that's probably a good question for Pat Brown. But it wasn't even so much like that night. It's been this whole week like we haven't been going. To borrowers with the car, we haven't really been doing that, we've just been done private parties with the team, with the guys that have been in the bubble, obviously we go to the Bucks game.

I went golfing one day and stuff like that. But every night we've just gotten that group together. And it makes it special because, you know, the players sacrifice a lot. But thinking about the train or sixty, fifty four of us in the bubble altogether. So you think about those guys have families and stuff for them to be a part of it. It was great.

Well, you talk about the bubble and how much of kind of a grind it was, at least from the guys we've chatted with.

But I'm wondering, at the end of all of it, was there ever even kind of a moment when somebody spoke or just the celebration so big it was never really like somebody stood up and said anything once the game actually ended.

I don't think so, I just know I just. No, I don't think anyone. There was no time for anyone to go. I mean, we had a nice moment. Right wing brother cut in, our owner just couldn't be there, which was which was tough for him because, you know, he put in so much into this team, but we got him on a face time on speakerphone. And that was probably the only speech after that.

It was just, you know, beer jumping on guys, you know, execution style. But Alex, we've all seen doc talk.

We know you're pretty smooth on a jet ski, but I got to ask nobody try to make sure you got a life jacket on that Stanley Cup before you went for a ride there.

Well, did you see there's one picture I posted there.

I have a life jacket on, actually, because I remember I told stand or stand around the cup and I'm like at some point during this parade, I don't know how I'm going to do it. I'm getting on a jet ski. So just be ready for me because I'm coming to steal the cup. And he's like, that's fine. So I ended up getting on a jet ski and there's like a couple of police officers that gave me, like the side, like they're like the one of them just like just put on a life jacket.

Right. I'm like, all right, I'll see you later. And then when I got back up, there was kind of areas in the parade where there were more people, like in front of the waterfront. And I remember when I got it and just left it in front of all those people on my jet ski, it was like probably the best feeling in my life, to be honest.

It was it was really special. Yeah. I was going to ask you that, what does this do for doc talk now and the fact that you met Jazelle today? I would put a million bucks to the fact you try to weasel your way in there for a while. What time was that? Were the worst time being her.

So like there was a couple of people we we took pictures of today. We had to stay in our suite, but there was a couple excursions and we met like the park's owner and there's a couple of people that wanted to take a picture with it. And then someone came up to Stammerer like, hey jazelle and like her boy and the daughter want to see the cup. But that's fine. I think he asked Hedgeman means like, no, I'm good.

And I'm like, Oh you're not going Calgro. And then Koocher. I've heard it and I've never seen Kooch get up so quick for anything. But he ran and at first we were kind of worried because she didn't, she wanted her kids to be in the picture.

She didn't want to be involved. She's like the kids love the cup and then advances like, like we got, we got to get what you're like, you're like one for one, we're doing one for one.

Trade off like this is more important for us to get the picture there. But she was so nice. You know, some people just have like an aura when they walk in the room. And she she had and it was like she was super nice and I didn't get a chance to throw in the talk. I was like, I don't know if it was the right time, but I probably should have. She probably just laughed. I mean, I agreed with whatever I said, but I guess she was right.

Check in with us and just let you know. Thanks. Unbelievable.

Well, a slow game for I thought you were going to get the winner, but they tied up late and Shaddai gets it done. Right. But then you go to game five. Look at a close. Oh, just a heartbreaker and double. But take me in the locker room after I'm assuming. No dogfaces just. Hi, boys. Let's get it done in game six.

How'd that go? You know. It was very similar to when you look back at our series against the islanders, I think they end up winning Game five in overtime and I thought that was a game we played pretty well. And they end up shouting like broke his stick and they come down a two on one or whatever. And I remember someone said like, hey, this is just like the Islanders series, guys, we're going to be all right.

But even the others, you're a little worried because now Dallas might pick up a little steam or momentum from that overtime win. But then I remember when we started to play the game and even guys in the locker room were watching. They're like the boys are dialed in, like defensively we were pretty good. So, yeah, we everyone stepped it up for that game in game six.

That for checking display in the first two periods. Like just talk about the additions like the Colman's, the good old guys coming in. And, you know, I think people at the time thought, wow, that's a pretty heavy price to pay. But those guys were fucking big. They were unbelievable.

I think when you think about that line, there is coalman to drill gaud.

And in the Columbus series, they were huge for us. But those are guys like Gordo Wood for check for three minutes straight. If he could like, he would go through the glass to the front row if you could. That's just the way he plays like he's an Energizer bunny. But you know, those guys are so big for us, so the dishes are so big. And I forget he said, like, you know, I think the best for checking team retrieving pucks.

And that's not something that people think of when they think of the lightning. But, yeah, that's a huge part of why we won. Like you said, that first period was it was great. And like I think that, you know, you talk about everyone knows about Headmen and Kutuzov point, but I don't know, you play with Ciarelli, the whole play off man, this guy's young. He's won everywhere. You got to think like the future for this dude is just insane because what a skater what a player he is.

Yeah, I think I remember looking back when you when you watched the criteria and the hatred against Philly, like now against Pittsburgh a while back and everyone was talking about how this guy was going to he was kind of coming into his own. And I think that's kind of similar to Australia right now. In his career. He's gotten some selkie votes and playing with him. For me, it's it's a treat because he's so good defensively. And as you get older in the league, I think you kind of start to find things offensively.

And since he's been the league, he's became a better offensive player as well.

I don't want to see you guys weren't challenged in that, but you guys were never really even close to the brink at all during the playoffs. Did confidence ever come close to even wavering just a little bit or you just kind of riding that same wave, the whole playoffs?

We were we were talking group, but we're not whenever you're in the playoffs and you lose a game, I mean, you never get like that first game we play Columbus. And I went to what it was at four or five overtimes. Like if they win that game, things could have been a lot different. I think we we were pretty fortunate. One of those situations, you know, there's the one shot take breaks and then Perry scores. But other than that, we we did pretty well in the overtimes.

I don't think at any moment we're ever truly worried, but like, you know, you want to be in those situations. So, yeah.

Stammer. I was going to ask around the exact same question, but your experience is different because you've been there with them longer. Yeah. And I don't know when the news came that he wasn't going to be able to start playoffs, did you guys realize it was going to end up extending as long as it did? And just like what was the feeling like throughout the group, knowing that you're not going to have one of your main pieces?

Well, I remember when they announced covid in the season ending and Stammerer had already had his surgery. And we're like, you know what, this really sucks. But we're like, if we're trying to look at a positive side, like Stammerer will be ready, like he's going to have this extra time. And once playoff starts, he's going to be fine. And then he gets he has a kind of a hiccup and we don't think much of it.

And it kind of lingers and lingers and lingers. And at a certain point, we're like, this guy's probably not going to play a game for us in the playoffs. And we're kind of devastated by that. He's sixty goal scorer. He really helps our power play. A time in our power play was kind of struggling a little bit at the beginning of the playoffs.

So he worked so hard in the bubble. He was working his bag off. And in Dallas, he's like, I'm I'm ready to go. And once he said that and he was in it, we didn't know like until I think it was the day that he was playing. But once we found that out, guys, he didn't he wasn't like, hey, I don't need to play for I haven't played in forever. I don't want need to be on the first line.

I don't even need about Powerplay. I just think I could help. So if you get me out there, you know what, these two minutes and whatever, forty seconds and he scores that goal, I think I know you talked about it when we were on the bench and like how crazy it went. When you think about how hard he worked to get back in the lineup and how important it was to him, because no matter what anyone says, he's a huge part of this team.

But if he didn't play one playoff game, it would have been a little bit different for him and his mind and for him to come out and score a goal that potentially, you know, helps us win that game is huge for him and for us, obviously.

And just being there that long, the captain, the loss to Chicago, it's like so, so happy for that guy. I mean, I've only hung out with Sam at one time, but just a great person, so, so excited for him. We're talking injuries now.

My question is, we had Coop. He was like near tears. It sounded like Hedeman was never going to play hockey again, like before the first round. He ends up winning the court. Smith with ease. Did you guys like what was that with that? A little gamesmanship. What was going on there? I don't even remember how was here. No, I'm not joking, though, I know that's before the Columbus series Cooper came out that day was remember that?

I thought he injured it like the year before. I'm like, oh, my God. They just had been like, fuck, they might get swept again. No offense, but but we're looking at the press conference.

I mean, give them an Oscar now if Hedeman didn't have anything wrong with them. I don't remember honestly, he is our answer. I'm sorry. Yeah, I don't know if I gave something away there or nothing, but whatever.

But guys were like, you guys know how it is, and we had guys, I don't know the over release the injuries that I had, but like I was shocked some of the guys could lick the Stanley Cup with their achy joints and like, playing through, like, you know, vitamin T shots every, you know, pretty pretty great for them.

Pretty cool. Like you mentioned, your father was there. Just, I'm guessing just a special hug between you guys getting to just be a part of that that he lifted over his head. Did they allow him?

I think at first he didn't want to.

He's like, no, I didn't. I didn't I didn't win. I don't want to. He came on the ice and, you know, my dad's not really like an emotional guy. I've never seen him cry in my life. And there's a picture on my Instagram. I posted it. It was kind of as I was talking about, like at 1:00 a.m. when everyone was kind of leaving the cup was just sitting and it wasn't like anyone left the room and it was just him and me side by side.

And, you know, it was like a really special moment.

He was getting teary eyed. I was getting teary eyed. And it's like, you know, you did it, man. And I was like, we did it. It was because, yeah, that picture is like, you know, Theriot, it's a really special moment. The mayor did it, I mean, your father had more to do it, you won the cup than I did it for the Bruins. So your father definitely could have.

Yeah. Yeah, no. Yeah. I'm going to go back to the bubble for a second, regardless of the of one of the guys talk about the bubble, I don't ever bring it up again.

All right. What day is the glory hole thing? Because the gloryhole thing is that when people are talking about everything that's going on in the bubble, I will say when we first got to the bubble.

Our hotel was a little different because it was like all the teams that were already in the playoffs and we don't play game for like a week or like an important game for a week and a half.

So it was like an all inclusive resort trip for a couple of guys. I mean, I remember at one point, Oreshkin and and Patman found a scale and they were doing a way off on the pitch.

Everyone was betting on who was going to wait.

I heard the crew and a push up competition with Krosby ref, and it was a scoring.

Unbelievable.

Won't get into it. But that was that was one of the funnier when I saw that. I mean, everyone was like, you know, he was like, there's no way you're way, way more than you.

He's like, you know, the scale. And I was pretty fun. That's incredible.

What would you feel overall? Great. I know a lot of work. A lot of. And, you know, so. I'm not going to complain about it. It was a tough situation for a lot of people, but you really have to give a lot of respect to the the NHL and the pay for setting this up. No, there is no one that had the we got tested every day. There was no coronavirus that was was tested positive.

The way they set it up was unbelievable. Like in Toronto, we got to use BMO Field. We could do whatever we wanted. Edmonton was great. Just walk to the arena. It was a little long, was tough being away from the family. But in the end, for them to pull this off was really special.

I give kudos to NHL and the P.A., so I got a video sent to me of Matthew Joseph pulling the trigger outside of a hotel or something, just so called. Anyone else really stick out to you of just being extra lost in the celebrations?

And if you say nobody, that means it was you.

Oh, no. It's also someone I think there was a couple of guys. I know one kooch.

Oh, yeah. Oh, jeez. I don't know if you guys saw the parade, but he grabbed her on her while he was doing a speech and caught a beer down his throat twice.

The first time was pretty funny. The second time like you're going to go for her and yeah it was kooch kooch is the best. So when he when he gets going, he's pretty special. It's funny, I played, so I played in a golf tournament at Paul Márcia and his house is on the course and it's amazing to hear about, like, that guy. He's the most loved owner I've ever seen. I think, like every person in the city does so much for the community.

He's done so much for that team while also not being like two hands on, if that makes any sense. So I know you mentioned him before, but what a what a moment it was for that guy in terms of being loved by everyone and then finally delivering that championship that it seems like it's been a while.

Yeah, I mean. When you talk to people in Tampa, I think he's one of the most important, if not the most important people in Tampa. Everything he's doing downtown is really growing the city. But I mean, he's been my only owner, so it's kind of tough for me to tell. But you guys know how to talk to players and how certain guys get treated and stuff. And there's nothing that if we ever asked for, he would he would say no to.

He takes care. Such great care of all of us. So, yeah, nothing but great things to say for Mr. Bennett.

I was going to ask you about team toughness and I. Lukashevich trade and bringing him in or the signing. Excuse me. I thought that played off huge, especially against the islanders when they were pushing back a little heavier. And of course, the addition of Paddy Maroon and how strong is there on the wall. And he does add that team toughness element. Do you think that was so vital for this year? And I think overall as a team, you guys look like you're standing in there a little bit more like for the physicality stuff.

I mean, for sure, I don't know how much guys will talk about it about the year prior, but I think that's something that we lacked for sure on our team. And I think there's a great picture if you see like the Islander series and before, I think I when I got suspended or something or goodrow did something to announce and a couple of them came onto the red line, a couple of these guys, and then Pat Brown and Bogosian just went up and stood them right in the eye.

And then Schenn got into a couple of fights and stuff like that. And I think that was like the moment like, you guys listen, you got that John Johnson is pretty tough, but we're going to we're going to stand in there with you guys. We're just as tough, if not more tough than you guys. I know.

I know. It's not summer like it typically is after a Stanley Cup, but what are your plans to unwind traveling? We're just going to go up to a lake. What do you what do you got on the menu?

I got golf. I don't really have much planned. I'm going to play a lot of golf. I know. The tough part is we don't know, like how we're going to have our days with the cup because of. Cowritten guys living in Europe, and I know for me in Montreal right now, it's like it's like a 14 or 20 day quarantine, so I'm not in a hurry to leave here. I'm going. So I think the cup stays here for about two months, so I'll probably enjoy myself as long as I can.

You'll stay as long as that things around you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, plan A, we can't thank you enough for helping out. And I know it's been a crazy couple of days, including today with the box, which by the way, I bought that a six and a half huge cover by Tom Brady and the boys for me. But man, congratulations, starting with dog talk. We chatted with you, then you became an influence and then you go on to a cup champ. So we were really happy for you, man.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate.

Helen Keller, do you mind if I ask you one more I wanted to ask you about Coop and the fact that, you know, given in today's NHL, sometimes when teams don't meet expectations, especially when you have a very strong group, sometimes they give up on the head coach a little early. How much were the group just pulling and voicing? No, this is our guy. And eventually, of course, this year pull through and he kind of finally gets the Stanley Cup he knew we were going to play for him this year was really important, I think, for the players and for him.

And everyone stepped up. He's been a big part of this organization, I think, for eight years now. Everything he's done for this team, I think it was huge for us to share that with him.

Actually, we had one more GMs. Bui's had a question she wanted to ask via Biz. What was the first must have food for you when you get out of the bubble.

We haven't really that whatever a drink.

And we got to I once I thought we were going to go out to dinner at a nice steak house in a private room, and we just we went to like a pizza place and they shut it down and we just had pizza and beer. It was great.

Anyway, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Congratulations, brother.

Thanks. Thanks very much.

I hope you appreciate that clip of Alex Calon, always appreciate talking to him. Next up, we got a clip of Bill. I know he hates the nickname The Game seven, but he's earned it. Stanley Cup, one of just the Williams. Let's roll it.

You get to L.A., I mean, I'm sure you got over the trade pretty quick once you get settled in. All right. Yeah, I mean, it was it was it was different, I mean, wow, I'm going there and going to Manhattan Beach.

And I remember when I got traded, I had to call my wife because she was teaching. And I said, hon, we got we got traded to L.A. and she had just we just been there a few years, bought a new house, that whole thing. Right. And I was like, don't worry, I'm going to find us a great house and it's going to be awesome.

So I went down there and I sure you guys have been down there because I'm sure you've been down to Manhattan Beach and you go look.

And I'm like, I never heard of it. I'm going to I'm going to go find a cool house. So I'm walking the Strand there. And I had no idea. I'm walking the Strand and I'm picking up little pamphlets they have for, like open houses and stuff like that. And I'm like, oh, this is nice. So they don't have the prices on there. And then I realized why they don't have the prices on there, because I called and asked about this house and they're like, oh yes, eight point five million.

I was like. I mean, we might not be living on the beach yet, I got to say this unreal one bedroom in El Segundo, though, you're going to love it. You're going to love it. I'm going to take a town car every day to the rink and we're going to love here. We're going to be nice. Kobe was living in Beverly Hills, I think, on that.

I mean, those are the first few years in L.A.. I mean, it's certainly not like the team that ended up like. You know, winning a Stanley Cup, you got to experience those two years prior the build up and like these studs coming in when Kopitar and Daoudi just came in and just dominated right away, like, how did it feel? Kind of get into that team becoming a guy who's everyone. Everyone's looking up to your Stanley Cup champ.

You're getting older. I mean, what was it like there at least the beginning? Yeah, it was it was awkward, it was it was an awkward game, it was just a really awkward make up of of of guys. And obviously they were rebuilding. And Dean Lombardi was like his first or second year there. So he's slowly trying to build what his vision was. And I think as a GM. Right. It doesn't it doesn't happen quickly.

Right. You have a vision that's it's like a couple of years old. You need some work to get to there. And, you know, eventually he got his team and he got his guys there that that that he trusted and guys that he wanted to roll with. And we slowly just crept up, lost in the first round loss in the second round and then just kind of just got better and better every year. When Daryl came in is out where you guys needed, I know Terry Murray was a coach before that, I believe.

And I mean, you probably have a million sadder stories, I would imagine. And he was just kind of a hard ass. And I know that you guys at some point locked him out of the room or a team meeting anyway.

So let's let's get into that a little bit. Yeah.

I mean, I think everyone has played with and probably for Daryl has had some stars. I think maybe every Sutter brother. I don't know all of them, but I mean, Darryl is Darryl is was in your face. But he was kind of like a little condescending in the fact that he's like, what you want to play tonight? Is that what's going on? You don't want to play. All right. That's fine. And, you know, it's like, no, I do want to play, like, put me out there, you know, he's like, not forget about, you know.

So I remember this one time when he was in and we were in. We're in Minnesota. We're in Minnesota and we're playing a game and whatever February or something or maybe March and, you know, kind of getting close to playoff time and.

After the first period we came out, I think we're tied or maybe even winning, and I heard him come in and he was like mumbling behind me. And I was like, boy, something's going on here.

So if, you know the Minnesota room, the coach's office is is right next to the to the dressing room. And you can't see them. But, you know, they're right there. They can hear everything we're saying. Right. So everything's all quiet.

We didn't have a great period. We were terrible. We were great.

And all of a sudden, you know, all of those those aluminum folding chairs, one of them comes flying right out of the room and hammers the bathroom stall and we're like, whoa, what the hell was that?

And all of a sudden, the coaches start flying out of there. All the assistant coaches and everybody, they start running out of there in another chair comes flying out and he's just losing his mind. And the coaches don't know where to go. Right, because they're like, where do we go? So they were just hanging in the dressing room with us while he was losing his marbles. And, you know, we're looking at and we can't see him.

Right. So we're kind of going like this, like, what's he doing in there? And, you know, eventually it calmed down and you left the room and then he came back and he kept everybody on their toes. I tell you, it was it didn't matter if you were an assistant coach or a player scout. I mean, this guy was was when it was game day.

It is game day. And, you know, I remember when Billy Rafferty come in for his team meetings and Billy to have his hands in his pocket and started would just go, Billy, what the hell are your hands in your pockets doing?

Get ready. It's game day.

And Billy would be like. I don't know what to do with my hands now, right? I mean, what movies that answer, you know, Ricky Bobby, Talladega Nights Nights.

Yeah. So every time in the meeting that he'd have his hands, I kind of like he or whatever, just not in his pocket. So he was punched in fists ready to fucking go.

He was awesome, coach, exactly what we needed. We want to ask about 19 year old Drew Doughty.

What was he like in the room? We heard some stories about him. Yeah, I mean, he was yeah. Has he been on the podcast we haven't had on yet? I think I've texted him a few times. No answer back.

Rachel told us, though, that he slept through the gold medal game in Vancouver. So we knew he was an animal.

He'd be an absolute he's been an absolute treat to have on because he says whatever. Right. And that's just do you that's kind of like kind of like whatever baseball Manny being Manny. It's just like Dewey and Dewey. Right. It's just it's it's just kind of what he is and how we went to a golf tournament once and he was you know that you know that golfer Kevin Na. Yeah. Walks in every pot. Yeah.

So they had, you know, the board there and they'd be walking around and you'd look and he goes, why is that guy's name not available?

And we were like doing this, his last name and Americans talking.

But can he play hockey though. I tell you that. And that guy will create a film that first cup in twenty second for you.

But first in L.A., Jonathan, quick, absolutely incredible that that performance he put on that year, was that the best goalie performance you've ever seen either as a teammate or even an opponent?

Best performance I've ever, ever seen. I mean like when they I mean they didn't even have to announce the winner. It was just like, I just just give it just give it to them. Like there was nobody else that could have gone to it. He was so good and he was so dialed. Not one game that you're a little bit suspect of them, like, oh, he doesn't have it tonight. He was just on. And the things that he could do, he has his own style.

Right. And I it's just what he does is competitiveness.

And he was it was a great friend and what an unbelievable run he's had. And I still think he has more left in the tank. But I mean, what are your what a what a playoff you had there that that was one of the most dominating run through the Stanley Cup playoffs.

I mean, you guys lost, what, four games, one to two to before the finals and then two in the finals.

And they went on three benders while doing it. Of course they did.

The Los Angeles Kings run them through the whole league.

Every series. We were up three nothing and every single serious player was the only kind of pressure we had. Well, playoffs, we had pressure up pressure every game. But like, the only time it was like, oh, let's go. Here was when we were up three, nothing in the finals. And New Jersey won the next two games to Jersey.

And you're like, let's let's buckle up here and finish this off. So there was there was it was an interesting read, totally different from the twenty fourteen. Think tanks that just the way it was a true honor to talk them guys, a legend of the game, so we appreciate having him on. We move on to the next topic. If you're looking for the number one place people go to for audio books and spoken word entertainment, look no further than audible.

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It's good stuff again. Audible dot com iPods or text pods to five hundred dash five hundred.

Next up, this is one of my favorite interviews we did all year, Rick. Bonus man. The guys coach in the league for thirty years and that very insightful, very gregarious guy. We really enjoyed chat with him.

So without further ado, here's Rick Boner. It's an honor to welcome our next guest to the show. His coaching career began 38 years ago when he was a player coach for the Eagles, Sherbrooke Jets, or Reg Dunlop style. He's been behind the bench for more games as a head coach or an assistant than anyone in NFL history. And of course, he just led the Dallas stars to their first Stanley Cup final appearance in 20 years. And he also played 173 NHL games after the break in with the Atlanta Flames.

Thanks so much for joining us, Rick. Bonus.

Gentlemen, how are you doing tonight?

We're doing good now that we've talk to you. First off, we want to say hats off. Congratulations on the run. You guys had come up a little bit short, but it was a hell of an effort. Everybody was rooting for you. And second, where you unwinding after this ridiculously long season?

Well, right now we're back in Dallas. We're going to spend the month of October here. We've got a summer home up in Nova Scotia, Canada, and that's where we're going to head for November. Of course, it's not a summer home now. It's a fall. So anyways, we're going to get up there for November. But listen, it was a great run, very proud of the guys going into this whole thing. You had to prep your players an awful lot of of the obstacles that we were going to face in terms of your living conditions.

So the players had to buy in before we even got there, that you're living in a bubble, you're going to be very there's going to be tough constraints on what you can and cannot do. So the players had to be in the right frame of mind going into that bubble. And our guys completely bought in. They did so here in the three weeks of training camp prior to going to Edmonton in terms of looking after themselves and staying out of restaurants and staying out of clubs, whatever, so they wouldn't get the cold and they were coming back committed.

So that carried over into the into the bubble, into the playoffs. So we didn't have a great round robin, there's no question. But once the playoffs started, our guys again, they had completely bought in and we got an awful lot out of them. I'm very proud of their efforts, very proud of their commitment, because, again, people don't understand how tough that was living in that bubble for nine plus weeks. And the team that can handle it the best was the team that can keep advancing and hats off to our players for handling it as well as they did.

And that huge commitment for not only them but their families. A guy like Corey Perry has a two month old boy, Griffin, who didn't see him for like over 11 weeks. Care, left his family in Slovakia middle of June to come over. Doesn't go back until this whole thing is over. So it's not only the players that made sacrifices, it's their families and their children that made huge sacrifices as well. So, again, I couldn't be more proud of our team.

Rick, I love your philosophy of saying if you win, we'll give you a beer. And I just I considered a genius. It really worked. I brought it all the way to a couple of wins away. Now, at what point did that click into incentive incentivize them with al-Qaida in 1990?

Oh, yeah, exactly. Exactly. No, we hope they were three could do much away from the team. But again, we have this big sweep. There was card tables and ping pong and a golf simulator in there. So the guys really did a great job hanging out there. I don't think they were. I know they were drinking in there. If they were, however, the only place they could have a few beers was in their room.

You couldn't go to a bar. There's nothing open. So so they had a few beers in their room. Good for them. Whatever it took to get through that man, you had to do it.

Rick, I'm curious, as the game's changed in the past few years and you've seen more player coach relationships where it's not necessarily the hard ass coach that has as much success anymore.

You've seemed to always be a guy that's been very close with players you've coached where there is a head coach as an assistant. So I'm just curious, like when you stepped away from playing and became a coach, did you know right away you were going to be a guy? I mean, I want to say players coach while also holding guys responsible. You were very friendly and didn't ever make them feel like threatened, like some coaches have in the past.

Well, I'll tell you the story. And I wasn't a good player and I admit that. But there was one game and I, I sat on the bench the whole game. I didn't get a shift to take place. I went into the coach the next day and said, Coach, give me something that I can work on so I can actually get on the ice and play a little bit. And he looked at me, said, well, you've got to work harder.

And I looked at him and I said, Listen, man, that's all I've got is work, so I can't work any harder. So I kind of said to myself, you know, if you're going to and I wanted to get into coaching there. I knew that when I was twenty five, twenty six years old, I want to stay in the game, but it's easier to get into coaching. You're going to be honest with the players and you're going to have uncomfortable conversations.

You're going to have to tell them things they don't want to hear police. You're going to be honest and upfront. They don't like it. They don't like it. They get mad at you. They get mad at. But it's better and and right and Paul know this as well, that a player wants to know where he stands and they know if you're BSN them and just be honest, look them in the eye and just tell them the way it is.

Don't don't make things up and don't hide behind ugly things. It is an issue with the player you've got to deal with. And so I'm not a guy that gets labeled a defensive coach, offensive coach players, coach hard, but I've never been one of those guys. I just said I'm just trying to be me and I'm going to be honest with my players. I've always believed and even in the 1970s when I started, there was a lot of hard line coaches that do it my way.

And I was never believe that either. So I'm always trying to build a good rapport with my players. I've always tried to have open communication is probably cost me a couple of jobs over the years being like that. But that's OK. I'd rather do it my way and verifier me, they're going to fire me, do it my way. So I was just trying to be have an open line of communication. And again, Pollara, I know you've got to have uncomfortable conversations.

You've got to tell players things they don't want to hear and then you hope they can handle it like a man like go to pro.. So that's kind of my philosophy. The whole time I've been a coach is that I'm going to be a good communicator. The door's always open. I'm going to talk to them every day as much as I can and will let it go into place now. That being said, you have guys that don't like you can be a little upset at you.

And that's all part of the program. That's what we all signed up for. So that stuff doesn't bother me either. As a coach, if you're honest with your player and you're telling him exactly how you feel, then that's all you can do, then it's up to the player to deal with it.

I would say you probably got put to the test right away, Rick. I mean, you are 27 years old, player coach in the NHL. How awkward would it kill your teammates? I mean, when they fight with you over ice time with like, how do the personalities clash when you're doing the player coach thing?

You know what? When we did that was the first year Winnipeg, we put a team in the American Hockey League. They've been in the old central high threat for years and they decided to put a team in the American League. Well, honestly, we weren't ready. We didn't have enough players to go in there. We are actually bringing the guys out of the Quebec senior league and retired from playing pro for a couple of years. But we needed bodies.

They were just thankful to get a job or playing hockey again. So in honestly, it wasn't that big a deal. I had been the captain of the team the year before. So as a player, coach was always supposed to be for a couple of months. It ended up being the full year. And then the next November I was twenty eight and they fired Tommy Winnipeg. They asked me to come up and be an assistant coach then, and I was younger than some of the players, so but I really didn't have any issues with the players.

I was again, I was the captain being the leader of the team. So I just kind of took that role and just went with that. But really no complaints about ice time.

I did myself more than I probably shouldn't, but I give other guys ice time, so. But it was funny to come off the ice and just go stand behind the bench and in here, given the coach, there's one story. I share this with everybody. So in Shirebrook, the penalty box was right beside the players box. So somehow I in a way, I I'm getting intentional misconduct or whatever. So I'm actually standing in the penalty box, leaning over the glass and coaching the team.

And the referee comes over, he's yelling and screaming out, you can't do that. You can't do that. You got to sit down and shut up. I said you should be in the rulebook where I can't coach in the penalty box. And he looked at me and he had no answer and he skated away and that was the end of that one. So when you player coach, it was different. The pop up for sure.

You got the megaphone across this big voice. What part of your job you're drawn up plays from the box. I was I was going to ask you the opposite. If you're like Jackie Moon, like right now plays where all the guys who do all the work to find your back backdoor for Tappan's, that's what I would like. That would have been what is a had coach for sure. First power.

You run the half ball, second power player up to the point eight in the minors. I wasn't good enough to get the power play, so I wasn't going to get by. So I wasn't put myself anywhere near a power play because then I know I would have taken some a little slut abuse from the guys, but I stayed off the power play the club.

You mentioned golf earlier, the simulators. Your son Ryan tells me you're you're like a junky golf junkie.

Yeah, no, I love the game. I think most hockey players, you get the summer. You know, I really enjoy the game. I used to be really good. Then we had kids and I stopped playing. And then the boyfriend, Ryan and Ricky, my older son, got older. We started playing again. So you know what? The best times of my summer when I've got my boys on the golf course, there's four hours out there, just the three of us and whoever else is playing with us and no phones trying to talk to.

It's quality time, so that's the highlight of my summer when I get to golf with my boys. So no, you're not golf. You tick tock, tick tock on the golf course. No, take it out on Instagram.

Rick, no. First of all, they'd have to explain exactly what that was to take a couple of holes.

But here's my Twitter feed. None of that.

Yeah, well, I just like I just started shaking when you said you you became bad when you had kids.

I got a young guy, so. I know. Oh, man. It gets a little tougher, but I'm a golf junky as well, so I love hearing that. I want to get back into the into the coaching the questions about just the beginning. I mean, I think you were 36, 35 years old. You get the Boston Bruins had job 91, 92, a nine year old, Ryan Whitney, was loving that Bruins team Raybuck.

And what a first year you had. I mean, it was just an incredible run. I think you guys lost in the third round. But take me through how excited you were to get an original six job that young with the some of the players there on that roster.

Yeah, that was a big thrill. It was my first real head job. I spent nine years in the jet organization from eight years of playing and playing assistant coach and all those things we went through. But in the spring of eighty nine, they had fired John Ferguson, senior in Winnipeg. There was big changes going on. I could have stayed in the organization, but I had a chance to go to the Boston Bruins and I had always been a fan of Harrison.

So really, I went to work for the Boston Bruins because of Harry. I coached two years and the farm team up in Portland, Maine. So that was a great experience. But think it was a big thrill for me to coach the Bruins because growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, we were always closer to Boston than we were Montreal. And my mum brothers had lived in Boston. So every winter dad would take me down. We go to a Bruins game.

Every summer we go Red Sox game. So New England in the maritime provinces, in Canada, pretty much the same great people and friendly people and lifestyle, the whole thing. So to go and actually coach the Bruins was obviously a big thrill for me. The only bad scenario was Kamela only played nine games for and that was the year he had his big hip issues or thigh issues and he only played nine games. I think we went seven and two with Cam in the lineup announced by and I see him Cam.

Maybe if you had been hurt so much, I might have kept that job a little bit longer. It didn't work out. We had a great year. It was a thrill. Coach and Ray Bourque never seen a guy like they're still having coached anyone like Ray that could play and dominate the game as much as he could and would come off the ice after a tough minute shift. The rest. Twenty five seconds. Look at it. Not an easy way to go again.

Just a great player, great captain, and just an outstanding person is a big thrill for me to coach Ray and Cam. You know, Eurocentrism came in and had a big year. Stephen Lynch had a big year for us, but that was the year I think we went through. Fifty six fifty seven players. We had a ton of injuries. We just kept bringing guys in and out the lineup, trying to find something to work. We really didn't become a good team until after the Olympics.

And as an adult, Joey, journalist Steven Hines came in and then we really took off as a as a really good team. So and then they carried us through the playoffs. And and that was a big thrill. But, you know, I mentioned earlier probably cost me a job and doing things the way I was. Well, prior to me coaching the Bruins, it was Terry Rally, long time Bruin, big, tough guy, fan favorite, Mike Milbury after him, long time Bruin, big fan favorite.

And then I came in and nobody knew who the hell I was and I did it. I was in the yelling and screaming that my country work and I just did it the quiet way so that, again, that's the way I wanted to coach and that was the way I was going to do it. It probably cost me the job there. And that's fine. I get to do it all over. I do it the same way. We've got to do things your own way.

But for me, growing up, a Bruins fan growing up, Red Sox fan to actually have a chance to coach the Bruins even was for only one year. It was a huge thrill and a big part of my career. I'm very proud of that year. We had rhythm and I wish we could have been longer. But that's how you roll with the punches, right? Yeah.

I always wanted as a as a Bruins fan, Rick, why you only we're only here for one year considering the success you had. I was in Cincinnati. You weren't a Bruins type coach, basically, because you want to yell and scream was of that is sort of synopsis of it.

Yeah, basically, that was it, and they wanted Brian Sutter to come in as soon as Brian got fired in St. Louis. I know Brian's career. I think he was always trying to trade for him. He was your typical Bruen player. And I played with Brian. S.A.M. is a great person, great captain. And they wanted to come in and coach the team, and that's fine. I wasn't going to change the way I do things. And again, Brian was more like Mike and Terry, and Eric just thought it was a better fit.

So that's if that happens, you go with it.

And I know he didn't have them all that long, but Atomos came out to that team. He was another addition. Did you know how good he was before you got him? Did you realize what this guy is? Even better than I thought.

He's better than I thought. And a great person, again, just a great passer and composure with the park and smarts and the ability to see the ice to play with me and just great, great year play with Adam. So we had great we traded Greg Craig Jeanny and Stefan Kantele to St. Louis for Adam, and that was a great trade. Eric made great trade, bringing Adam in a big part of the success of that team. Just, you know, a small little blade, but just a tremendous pastor of the park.

And all you have to do is look at those numbers. And he played with Adam. But Adam was a huge help to us. Great leadership in the room, great leadership on the ice, just a very calm demeanor. And again, with all the players that we had coming and going that year, Adam was the perfect guy to come in and just he would settle things down. And he was a great guy to coach. And he was a big part of the success of that team for sure.

Ottawa Senators, were you there? Their expansion, your. Yes, it was a long.

Yes, with a sigh, that was you're probably the reason they changed the rules to make it so much easier for all these expansion teams, considering the start that you guys had was at one hundred percent, the most difficult year as a head coach you've ever dealt with. Yes, and that was without a doubt, that's why they changed the rules the next year, I think when we dropped we came in with Tampa nine to every team to protect two goalies, I think six, seven defensemen and basically 10 or 11, 12 forwards.

So you were getting everyone started strangling. You were getting there eight to nine defensemen in depth chart and the 12 to 15 forward and the depth chart. So we were so bad that they did change the rules the next year when Anaheim in Miami came in. Now, the one thing Tampa did right away was they went out and they tried to get their improver. They solidified the goaltending situation right away. We didn't make any trades going into it. They said we're going to have four or five tough years here.

We're going to build to the draft. If we lose, we lose. But we want to build through the draft. And so that philosophy is fine. If you're in there telling everyone, don't worry, you're going to be here with you know, when this thing turns around, you're going to be here. Well, they fired the gentlemen. They'll Bridgman, the general manager when you're into it. So that kind of change things in a hurry.

But they get Ottawa was so bad that year that they did change all the draft rules the next year. And I'm Lammy and they certainly loosened up a lot for these teams. We paid Ottawa paid fifty million, I think, to get in the league now. What a six, seven, six, six fifty seven fifty. For the teams that are paying that kind of money, they deserve to have a good roster. And just look what we're seeing in Vegas the obviously three years ago.

So good for them. But yeah, we were bad. That was a tough year. I think we didn't win on the road until just about the end of the season. At that point in the league, you would even if you got into overtime, if you lost, you did not get a point. So we getting to overtime was a thrill for us. But we weren't getting points for losses in overtime. But it was one of those scenarios.

And Paul Ryan, you guys rely on long enough when you're looking at your lineup and then you're looking at the lineup on the board and you're saying, oh, my God, I hope they see me tonight. They bring their game. We've got a really good chance. But that's that was a tough year. But it was challenging personally from a coaching perspective. I had Ellington with me and I had AJ Maguire with me. And it was a challenge every day.

I mean, I said, listen, guys, this is going to be tough. We're coming in with a positive attitude every day. So no matter what happens, you're coming in the next day, be ready to go and be energized. And Ali was great and AJ was great again. We did with the best we could. And we were just a bad hockey team as simple as that.

Yeah, I was on I was on a couple of Oilers teams. It's in the coach, you know, they they come in some days and they're just so upset and then they think, all right, well, two weeks later we get to maybe try to be the nice guy. I guess you understood from the beginning, we're so overmatched. It's it's no point just ripping guys heads off.

You know, the guys are working their butts, you know, when they're working, you know, when they're competing, you know, when they've given you everything. OK, that's all you can ask for is a coach. Now, if they're dog and they're not doing things that well, that's one thing. But we had the guys worked their butts off that year. I got to say that we really we just we're not very good at that. And when you take that approach that's out there, that's what that's the problem.

And all the trash buckets around the league in the roster, you imagine what's having to watch me watch the our work the half hour excuse me, fucking R.A. would have been a backup goalie on that team. You should have been a player coach on that team, too.

Yeah, you probably could to help. And unbelievable.

It wasn't just the first to you within a three plus season and it was a struggle to get any better.

How frustrating a gift for you and B, did it affect your confidence in your job at all?

It did for sure, you know, and I think you look back on, it's easy to second guess I take the Bruins to the conference finals and my dad always told me, you know, you probably jumped a little too quick because I think I got fired in Boston on a Monday and then hired in Ottawa on a Friday that same week. So I probably jumped a little quick. But you know, what they make the promises is everyone's going to be here five, six, seven years until we get better.

And I had a young family and I wanted my saying we had moved to Portland for two years, in Boston for a year. I wanted to get them in an environment where, OK, we're going to stay here for four or five years and that it ended up happening that way. But it was more from my family. I knew it was going to be a struggle, but it was more to get the family settled down. You always feel bad when you're moving around every couple of years.

So it was important to me and my wife, Judy. OK, we got to get them in a little more stable environment here. So that's really basically the big reason we took that job. I had another year in Boston. I could have said out, but that's not the way I want to live. I want to get right back into coaching. But again, it was a challenge made me stronger maybe is your confidence at times? Absolutely.

When you're getting pounded today to every night, you take a good look at yourself. And I know now I'm a much better coach that I was then. I probably wasn't ready for that job in terms of I was a young coach taking over an expansion team with that kind of talent. I was probably I look back, I know I could have done a much better job. But that being said, that would have probably meant another three four wins.

It certainly would have meant 10 or 20 more wins. But it helped me. Your question yourself, you take an honest look at yourself every day, and it probably made me stronger in the long run. Probably made me a better coach, right?

That's right. When I ask you next, what kind of lesson or lessons does a tough experience like that teach you over the long haul?

Well, again, you look at yourself every day like, well, we lose, but the first person I look at is me. I don't point fingers. I said, what could I have done? Better preparation, sister tactics, whatever I always look at myself for. There is a lot of that going on here. So but again, it challenges you and it makes you look at yourself and it makes you look at the way you're doing things and it makes you look at the way you're playing the game and it forces you into those situations.

And you're not going to sit there and say, well, we're not we're not very good, so we're supposed to lose. We never took that approach at all. And that's why Alan was a big help and he was a big help when we challenged. We challenge ourselves as coaches every day. OK, do we do the things here? Are we taking the right approach with this player? We take the right approach with that player. We're using them in the best of their situation.

So it was it was a lot of soul searching and taking a deep look at ourselves every day. And again, I think that's why down the road I'm probably better off for it, although that was a living hell. I got to tell you, that was tough.

I would not want to wish that on anyone to tell you that, given your personality and we mentioned those expectations when your head coach maybe to be a little bit louder and firmer, did you settle right into being an assistant for those long periods of time when you're in Phoenix and Vancouver? Very well. And Mike, were you able to connect even more so with the players, given that kind of how that's allowed to happen more naturally, being the assistant?

Yeah, I enjoyed that. I actually did when I went to Phoenix, you know, Bobby Trance's as a rookie coach in the league. So I helped him a lot. And I really enjoyed our six guys are got to worry about here, what with the goaltending in the penalty kill. So I really did enjoy that. The ability that you build, as you guys do, the more time you spend with your players, the better the report you have with them.

And when you have this, a small group like just running the defense and working with the goaltenders, I really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed my time in Vancouver doing that, working with young guys like in the Edler and watching them develop a young Kevin Bieksa, helping them become good pros and real solid players for the team and helping them with their careers. So I really enjoyed that. And the same thing when I went to Tampa working with Victor and the young defenseman we had there at the time, and Sergio came in a couple of years later.

So I really do enjoy that role, just working with the young defenseman, working with the penalty killers. And again, you're working with a smaller group and you and you do build those bonds with the you are you do become closer to that smaller group than it is with the twenty twenty five guys. Yeah.

Your son said you became very close with Tesler and Bieksa was Bieksa. One of those guys, like every game he do something to make you laugh. Just Turpan guys on the bench.

They were the best friends and I think I had to break up a fight one day in practice between the two of them. So those who would keep you on your toes. But I'm playing just great competitors. And Kevin Bieksa, I'm not a big winner, but a huge heart. And we're a tough competitor, absolutely fearless. He would take anybody on. He would take a run at anybody if things were going good for the team. You can see he chased the game all over the ice to get big hits and get everybody going and was the same way, like he was a hard nosed guy, great skater, big strong guy who loved to compete and loved to annoy people.

So the two of those guys playing against every night, it was tough for the opposition. But again, just great competitors and great guys, again, working with young players. You see them get married, you see them as kids, and you see them going from young players anxious to go and watch them grow into men with families like that's all part of the process. As I age. I am. So I've really enjoyed that. But I love working with those two guys.

They were they were a handful, but a lot of fun, I will tell you that.

I can't imagine the things you get to see the twins pull off, let alone in games. Also in practice.

I mean, what was it like being around two guys that were that perfect together and that that able to dominate in a way that really hadn't been seen before, just knowing where each other were the entire time there on the ice. You know, as a coach, there are certain guys you stay out of the way, you let them play right. You don't beat the twins or that you just stay out of their way and they're going to play the game their way and L.A. and try to make some changes here and there.

And they're going to play that way. They were so much fun to watch. And those blind passes. And the worst thing you can do when you're playing against them is chase them. They want you to chase the puck. Right, and chase them because they're just going to make you look so bad. But two of the nicest kids in the world, just a great, great players, great confidence, great poise with the puck and an unreal passer, Danny unreal finisher.

But just to watch them and frustrate the other, the opposition with their blind passes and no one looks and put them into areas and all of a sudden Danny's their Heynckes there. It was a lot of fun to watch them. But again, certain guys, they're so good, you just stay out of their way and let them play. And that's the kind of approach we took with them. And just I guess it's fun to watch them play, but if you're a father and you have a daughter, you would want them to marry someone like the twins, just the best people in the world and true competitors.

And they showed up every night like it was your leadership just on the ice and practice showing up every day, ready to go like you never had to get out and you never had a challenge. And they were ready to go every day in practice. They were ready to go every night of the games. And they were just fun to be around just because you just before the game you started, OK, they're going to be OK. They're going to help us win this game tonight no matter where the matter.

Four games in six nights, back to back. It didn't matter. They showed up and played. And just a real, real thrill to be around those guys. And again, watch them play and frustrate the opposition so easily. And they made it look so easy because of their ability to read off each other. So great.

Do a recall when you said that you would you would want your daughter to marry was pointing to me on the Suzume chat saying, oh, yeah, he's going to chime in there.

This is heard that a lot. You son of that. A guy. Yes, of.

That's right. That's that's the kind of shit that's going on behind the scenes here. If I could switch to this guy. Just drags on me nonstop.

Rick, anywhere in your commercials, on TV all times more to going to find what window is the time for hard song, that commercial that be how painful it is.

Let's be honest, Rick, you can just lay into us right now. Been nice to one of you. Now it's your time to listen to us.

No, they're pretty good. The mister that is the overpower you with the what was eighty four miles slapshot on the Boston man Brian. Wow.

I shot four tips. Rick. You know how it is coach. We try to tap.

You had your eyes up and you're looking for six. Yeah. You were this unselfish guy back there trying to find the open guy on tape somewhere that where you can deflect the. Yep.

OK, I've actually I've actually mentioned you before because, you know, Shane O'Brien guy played for you and we got together one night. We got together one night in Van after after a game and he's eight, which is unbelievable for the game bonuses.

Torkanowsky says watch out for this witness on the powerplay. He's a great pass. You pumping your tires. He loves you. I was like, oh, my God, I have a new favorite coach in the National League.

Yeah, well, I'm sure I showed enough clips of you doing that, putting sticks in your eyes up and moving across the line. So you were very good at that.

Yeah, but he got kicked out of his BILLETT house and when he was doing this, based on this anniversary, there's many, many men who would want me to marry their daughters as well.

Oh, let's talk about the Dallas stars. I mean, we kind of you know, we want to start off with it. I would imagine spending all that time and there was such a special group. And coming up short, it's probably been hard, but. But what have you dissected from it now after after there's been a little little bit of time to kind of just what happened. Yeah, no, you guys been around long enough to know that everyone who has always win the Stanley Cup, they say you've got to be healthy and you've got to be lucky.

We wish we listened to Tampa one day be the square. They were the better team that sure, we wish we had been healthy and taken a real good run at them. And we took them to six games. But we feel with a healthy lineup that we could have done even more damage. But again, give them credit. They they had lost. We lost a lot of key guys. It's unfortunate you get to that stage that you're not healthy.

But just because, again, all the sacrifices you make and you get to the finals, you want to be able to put your best team on the ice and give you the best chance for it, but then you roll with the punches. That didn't happen for us. But again, it's a coaching perspective. You can't ask for more than what our players gave us. They gave us everything they could. That Game six, you could tell for two years we had nothing left in the tank.

We got we crank it up to the third, obviously facing elimination. And it was great to them. But again, from the coaching perspective, I couldn't ask for more than our players gave us. We wish we'd been healthy, but that's again in playoff hockey. You're going to get your injuries. We had our share, but we we walk out of there, we're holding our heads high that we went as far as we did. We're all disappointed that we can come that close in two games away from winning the cup.

So hopefully that's the motivation for next year that we can take this team and take it to the finals again and take another run at it. Now, as you guys know, this league is tough. There's no guarantee you can get in the playoffs, for starters, especially this Western Conference. A lot of great hockey teams out there. But if we get the commitment from our players that we got in that nine week bubble, then I like our chances of getting back in the playoffs.

And we have taken another good run at it. And I know if we can get back into that finals, that will have better this time around. But yeah, I couldn't be more proud of the guys from a coaching perspective. We got everything we could out of them. They were out of gas and that's happened. So we're we will take that motivation in the next year. And we're hopefully we can build on that one guy.

I think I mean, we were familiar with me in Boston, but maybe a lot of people weren't. Was the Hanton who Dobbyn? I mean, he's kind of been a one, a one B a backup. He's been in a bunch of different roles. And he really wrote this team, I should say. The team brought him to the final. Which type of character does he bring to the locker room? Every team he's on, he seems to be like the most popular guy in the room full of anthrax.

Our experience with them like to say, listen, he's a fun guy. He doesn't take it too seriously. He was on the ancient practice. He has fun. He's got that Russian accent. You never know what's going to come out of his mouth.

So he has he enjoys the game like you want your players.

You're playing. We all know the grind. We go through a regular 82 game schedule. Everything else you've got to enjoy coming to the rink. That's a big thing for me, too. As well as a coach. I always wanted our players to look forward to coming to the rink, that it's not a job and we never looked at it as a job and just come to the rink. He's in a great frame of mind. He's ready to work.

I talked to him getting off the plane when we landed. That's remember to show me a great job. And we had a great run computer. He said, I need a computer. They can cut my leg off, but I'm still going to compete. That's the kind of attitude. Yeah, but he's just really well liked by the guys. He's a lot of fun. And, you know, you go as you like playing in front of he's certainly at the top of the list.

The guys love playing in front of you because they know you'd be a hard thing to describe his style. And I'm not a goalie expert in terms of style, but his style is is his job description is stop the puck. So whatever it looks is unorthodox or he just he'll dive in front of shots. And that's just the type of personality is that's the type of competitor he is. But he's got a great sense of humor. The guys love being around them.

And that's all that matters, that they love playing in front of them. And he competes and does everything he can to give you a chance to win the game.

At the beginning of last season, Jamie and second got called out by the was it the CEO or the president?

Excuse me. Yeah. Yeah. Were they aware that that was going to happen?

And how much of a 180, if in fact you thought there was, you know, validation in what he was saying from their play? How much of a 180 did they make after those comments? And was it something they just chuckled off or did they take it extremely personal? They did not know what was coming. None of us did. They had been off to a slow start. They would be the first to admit that. I think on the surface they chuckled.

Goff deep down, it really, really bothered them. I think anyone who gets a call like that from the president of the team, it's going to bother them, especially with the notoriety. That whole statement over the broader would be brought to them and to the team. So that was uncomfortable. But again, I think on the surface that bothers deep down, if you're a competitor and which they are, it has to bother you, has to bother you.

When you get called on like that, you get singled out like that, that you're the air. You're the reason the team is struggling. You've got to give a lot more. So it was unfortunate. I give them credit because it didn't it didn't really affect the way they played. They kept working until they got things going. But I know it hurt them very much. And you would talk to them and you'd never know that. And that's you know, that's been true.

Professional, OK, we just got dumped on. OK, we're got to deal with it. But we've still got to be there for our teammates and our team, which they were. So a tough time for them. I give them credit because, you know, you don't remember any complaints from them or attacking back at the president. So they dealt with it internally. Did it bother them? Absolutely. Would you have known it was going to bother?

No, not by the way they handled it. So just being good good pros and good teammates, putting the team first and they again, they just had to move on from that.

I mean, you talk about getting the chance to coach rebook and how close you became with Victor had been in his rise to becoming the best defense in the league. And now you get a chance to work with this Muresk.

And I can't imagine, you know, seeing somebody that there is this quick this fleet of foot at this young of an age just coming to his own, especially this year and in this playoff run. So how exciting in his coaching and how exciting is it excuse me, coaching a guy like this. And what is what is this what is the ability here that he could have in the future? What's his what's the ceiling ceiling. Great.

Nice nice guy. Got married daughter.

Great years on the show together. You got, you got each other's back. Miralles got neurosurgery written all over. You got to remember he's twenty one. It's a victory. Six, seven years to figure it all out. And you know, as a defensive end young defense, it takes a long time in this league. But the one thing about a couple of things, first of all, it's is he knows how good he is and he's very, very humble.

There's no arrogance. There's no cockiness to him. He's coachable, but deep down, he knows how good a player he is and how good a player he's going to be, which always struck me about me when I noticed that last year in Niger is his poise with the puck. He handles the pocket like he should be in the league seven, eight years. It's unreal, the poise, the confidence that he has with the puck. He's totally different player than Victor, a different size.

This is far more physical because of the size Will Miro is not the biggest guy, but he learns another angle. He's like Nicholas to that way. Just angle the guy, use your stick, put him in a bad situation. And that's where Mirror was so good defensively. But when he gets that puck and he wants to take off, just it's unreal what he can do and he can make something out of absolutely nothing. And sometimes the power play to break out is completely out of sync.

You pull the goalie is completely out of sync. I just give the partner in trouble. They'll figure it out, going up the ice. That's how good he is. But he's such a humble, humble guy. And but when I was coaching with him, just when I was focusing on the D last year and for the first couple of months of this year, he's one of those that when we're watching the game, I'd say you just see that.

Yeah, got it. And you don't have to show a video because he sees it and he it and he takes it and he come up here. It's a miracle I got it. And some guys some guys need a lot of video. They've got to see their mistakes. They don't because the game happened so fast. Mirel knew every time he made that, you know, exactly what had happened. And when we're you know, we point out individuals to remember last time we play this guy, watch for that movie.

I got it. And he does is hockey IQ is off the charts. This is just a great, great kid. But his ceiling is Shilpi. And at some point after two years, he's not getting the recognition that he should be because because they're in Dallas. And I don't think, you know, we just don't get a lot of recognition down here. Last year in the playoffs, I had a bunch of me when we played St. Louis, that secular bunch of media texted me after a while, God, I should have voted for me or I didn't know he was that good.

And now we go here again this year. Is Norris Trophy going to win by going to the playoffs and then they're all saying to me again, we should have brought in more from zero, but he does have a story written all over them. And again, you're looking at a kid is 21. There's only been in this league for two years and he can be a dominant player. You look at that game six against Calgary, we're down three nothing.

We're not playing well at all. If you look at Maroc morale, we need something you don't get to power play goal gets us right back in the game. That's the impact he can have on a player when you need a big play, whether it's defensively or offensively helping the power play. He delivers and he wants is another thing. He wants to be on the ice and got a lot of guys, good players. But in the pressure situations, there are 20, 30 seconds.

They can't wait to get out. Mirror wants to be on the ice and when the game's on the line, he doesn't want to come off. He wants to stay on the ice. So he wants the ball. And I love that about him. He's just so he's far more competitive than his physical play will tell you. But again, he wants to be the guy he wants. It's his team. Basically, he will take this team over and it'll be Merrill's team, Rick Natasja.

But that's got to be music to your ears when you're on the iPad. I remember that. Well, please remember that plays are going on, right?

Oh, yeah, right. Yes. And I was when I started coaching this league, I was younger than some of the players. Now I'm old enough to be mural's grandfather.

That just happens over time, I guess. Exactly.

You guys got some pretty good young players up front, too, who's like the one guy that surprised you, where you're like, oh, my God, this guy is like game is accelerating at an insane rate because, you know, there's a few household names now that you guys made it as far as you did. As far as the heavy right doesn't give you a chance. Excuse me, Gorgie, I believe. Is that how you pronounce the Russian's last name?

Carry on. I'll carry on our Gary on our Jesus Christ.

Sorry about the stuff that I know those two guys. So Denis's with us all year. He scored 20 goals. So, listen, we're the fastest guys in the league right now. He's a threat going down the wing and he's able to be the defense and why and cut into the net. He is serious that way. So tremendous upside with him. He came up from the minors. You only played eleven games for us. He scored one goal, but he had an impact on every game that he played.

In fact, there was one game in Colorado. A member for Belski grabbed me between periods and give me I want to play TV so the players on the bench and his teammates see he's very effective for a little guy, very effective on the boards, makes plays. He's fearless. That game. He scored three. Well, you know, we were expecting him to score any so that offense was nice and won the game for us. So there is a lot that Dennis has far more offensive upside than TV.

He will be a much better to a player, but they're both young kids with great futures ahead of them and a big part of this team moving forward. I want to bring up two guys who came over in the off season, Corey Perejil.

Pavlovsky, how important were they have a sense of where they are not just on the ice, but in the room as well during the cup run?

Well, their impact was really in the playoffs. It really was. And you can see you can see the experience and you can hear the experience. So in the locker room between periods, you'd hear Corey speak up, you hear him speak up at the right time saying the right thing and just as important in the right tone of win to get after them a little bit or when they're clamping down. So the tone of what they were saying and the words of what they were saying were very important, then they would get on the ice and you can see their experience.

They weren't panicking with the puck. You put Corey top of the circles down in the offensive zone. He's he still has the great and still has a great poise. And he made a lot of good plays. So you can. And so that's good from your perspective that OK, in the heat of the playoffs, you still have to make plays. You still have to have poise. And Corey did that. As good for Belski as we all know, is Ryan.

And I would love playing with him because shooting for tips is great around the net. Try getting that stick on pucks and rebounds and tips and deflections. He's the best at it. So we scored a lot of huge goals for us because of that ability around the net using a stick, but also the poise of where to put the puck on the goalie to get it in behind them. You didn't panic with the puck around the goalie slamming into his pads.

He put it in the right spot, scored huge goals for us. But that's the experience that they have and that's the value that they brought to us with this playoff run. So we really got as far as the two of those guys for sure.

Well, Rick, I know it's kind of been made a story that we're not exactly sure what's going on next year. If you wanted to come back and earlier in this interview, you made it sound like you would be in trying to get back to the finals. Do you know what's going on? Have you even thought about how much longer you want to do this? You're a dinosaur in the league. You've just been here forever. I don't think anyone ever wants to see you go anywhere.

That's a compliment, by the way.

I'm a dinosaur as a compliment, OK?

Yeah, I was I was like I was a minnow. I was a cup of coffee. You've just been there forever. Can't get rid of you.

I'll take that as a compliment. Consider the show the company. I'm with you right now. I'll certainly take that as a compliment, but I will I will be back next year as the head coach. Jim, Jim and I had talked about that. We talked Monday. I needed some time after I did, you know, probably because we had went to the finals and I really enjoyed that whole experience of being head coach. Again, I haven't had that experience so for so long.

So I really enjoyed that. When I took this over, we just said, look, we'll talk about it at the end of the year. And I said, then maybe I go back to being the assistant of the job I really enjoy as well. But I really did enjoy this whole playoff run. So you and I talked on Monday. They want me back. I'm willing to come back. We're going to talk next week about a contract.

But at this point, I will return next year as the head coach. How much longer we're going to go? Who knows? As long as I always tell Julie the kids, listen, the first day I wake up and I don't want to go to the rink, then I don't going to retire. But I still love getting up. I still love going to the rink. I still love the practices. I love the games. I love that comes with the job.

So long as I'm enjoying it, I'm going to keep as long as they want to hire me, I'm going to keep coming back.

But you forgot to mention Bud Lights in there and that you like. Yeah, well, that keeps you going. That keeps your sanity.

Congrats. I'm glad to hear you're going to be back from the plus. It's a little bit easier when it's not the 93 senators out there either. Right.

And he had nine thousand bud lights. Yeah. Yeah. That might be undercutting that.

You're right. Thank you so much for joining us. Sorry you guys fell short there, but a magical run. You guys will bounce back. You got some young studs in the pipeline and and you're going to get your star goaltender back to. We certainly hope so, you know. Thank you, guys, I really enjoyed the show, really enjoyed talking to you. So all the best to you guys going forward as well.

Thanks. I appreciate it. Have a great offseason. I.

Big tax, the rich bonus man, just a great guy, you could see why so many players around the league respect the guy, love the guy and go balls out for him. So huge thanks to him. Next up, this is a little some different.

We did we brought on Jay Weinberg from Slipknot, the drama from this metal band. His dad was in the Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Just a different type of interview. I think a lot of people enjoyed it. Hopefully you will, too.

So let's send it over to Jay. Well, our next guest is played in front of giant sold out venues while wearing a mask, and he's played some gold in his day, but just not at the same time. He's a big guy who likes to thrash around his drum kit while working his day job for the band Slipknot. It's a pleasure to welcome to the show our very first heavy metal drummer, Jay Weinberg.

Thanks for joining us, Jay. All right. Thanks for having me.

So are you in Nashville right now? I know you moved on there, didn't you?

I am, yeah. I've been here for about five years. I grew up in New Jersey and I moved down here, you know, kind of like from one hockey loving place to another. And and. Yeah, but I've been been down here for about five years. That's what I wanted to ask you.

A Devils fan as a kid used to have season tickets. Now you live in Nashville. It's hard not to get sucked into that whole Nashville thing. I know I've seen you with a Predators jersey. So you watch sports bigamous. Now, who are you rooting for? What's going on lately?

Yeah, well, I you know, I wasn't expecting I wasn't expecting to get, like, wrapped up in kind of the pres mania. It really happened. I mean, I kind of moved down here right at the perfect time. I supposed to become a fan. And also, I mean, really getting into hockey at the time that I did, being a Devils fan, like, I've kind of lucked out in some ways, you know, being being a fan of these teams, but coming down here in like twenty, fifteen or so, you know, the team was really just starting to pop off and all of a sudden it just they started to become this contender.

And it was really exciting to watch. I didn't really know much about the predators at all. I had stopped playing hockey back when I was in high school. We can get into all of that. But but I kind of like I was at this juncture where I was playing, it was either kind of, you know, be half assed at hockey and music or commit myself to one or the other. And I you know, I ended up pursuing playing music all the time.

And it was around the time that there was the lockout had happened in 2004. So I had kind of like my attention was drawn elsewhere.

And it took me moving to Nashville to really like all of a sudden now there's this team that's popping off like crazy that people didn't expect necessarily. And then, of course, with the, you know, the cup run that they made, that was completely insane. And, you know, being here and seeing how the team completely transformed this city is pretty wild. And it was it was kind of magnetic at the time that I that I moved down here.

You know, you kind of fell back in love with the game. I mean, you got you got to an area where you saw how big it was and it was just it just became important again. And the second part of the question is you got drums in your bedroom, dude, like be like a hockey player having his gear next to his bed that you just ripped the drums right when you get up in the morning.

Well, you know, it sucks living with neighbors and playing loud ass music with, you know, big drums and cymbals and stuff. You can't really play the kind of music that I want to full force. I have you know, I have a great tool, you know, this this electronic drum set behind me. And that's kind of been what I have that on the road. Actually, we're fortunate. We travel around and we have kind of like a mobile studio that we're always playing in throughout the day when we're on tour.

And so if I can't, I might, you know, loud ass drum set and my neighbors will get mad at me if I'm wailing away on that. At least I have this that I can, like, keep my chops up on. And and that's been a lot of what I've been doing lately is just like playing, you know, because I don't actually even have my my real drum set like here. I have no place to play. So, you know, when when we're forced to not play shows because of what we're all enduring, it's been a huge help to do this stuff that, like, you can't even hear it downstairs.

Is that the reason you moved to Nashville? I know it's a massive music scene. I think people assume it's just mostly country, but it's all over the map, right?

Yes. I you know, I needed to like a change of scenery coming from New Jersey and it'll always be home for me. But I knew people from here. There's a lot. Yeah, I know it gets a lot of a rap of, like, you know, it's it is a huge country, you know, in pop kind of place. But it there's like a really rad, you know, hard rock, heavy metal, punk rock kind of scene here which which really, you know, brought me in and a lot of like a lot of tour production kind of family.

People are here. You know, there's a popular tour called the Vans Warped Tour that I had done years ago. And a lot of people that work on the tour actually live in and around Nashville. So it was a place that I wanted to come to where I was like, OK, I know people down here really didn't know much other than like I had played in Nashville a couple of times and have my, like, favorite spots that I'd like it out on tour or whatever like that.

But I never really spent that much time until I moved down here. But quickly, just like fell in love with the place. I mean, like, you guys have been down here and just seeing what you know, what what an amazing city it can be. And it's like instantly you get that vibe when you come here.

Yeah. It's hard not to like the women are beautiful. Great live music. Good. Hours, and now they got an elite sports team who just got their asses handed to them by the by the coyotes. Now, I don't know if you saw the picture online. This guy was on top of the painted car, the coyotes painted car, and he was smashing it with the sledgehammer. Yeah, I think for having your car, by the way.

Yeah, you're welcome. So you have to eat your words a little bit, of course, being a hardcore Reds fan.

I thought so. I thought, all right. So, you know, yeah. I thought I might have to eat crow on that one. And that's fair. I mean, that was a that was a tough series to watch. I don't think you'd get any different answer from any other fan that that was.

Yeah, but hold on, though. I think game one, you guys could have challenged the Avs a touch bit more than the way that they did.

So let's not necessarily let us get too big here. That just came off the worst performance I've ever seen. Very fair.

So the connection to the podcast is you reached out when Gomez came on and of course, you said you lived in New Jersey. You actually got to hang out with quite a few of the players. And that's probably where your love for hockey escalated.

And that it was. Yeah, it was. And it's such a crazy story that, like, you know, I never connected with any sport other than hockey, really still. But when I was like nine years old, my dad, who you guys might be familiar with, play drums for the Conan O'Brien TV show. He's played for Bruce Springsteen for the last 40 something years. So not a big deal.

So he had gotten I was probably like eight or nine at the time, you know, struggling with trying to find a sport that I wanted to do, like baseball or soccer or something like that. And he had gotten asked by the New Jersey Devils like, hey, you know, we know you're in New Jersey.

And there was some kind of like pre-season intramural, you know, red red team, white team, kind of, you know, pre-season sort of thing. And they wanted some kind of like like celebrity coaches or something for for one of the teams. So they asked him to do it. And I had never been to a hockey game. None of my family had ever really been to a hockey game. And he was like, yeah, all right, I'll do it.

Can I bring, you know, can I bring my son? And. And so they they let him bring me. And I remember very distinctly I was on the bench when when this whole thing was happening and Sheldon Sawrey came up, I was sitting right on the bench and all of a sudden he comes up and he's like coming over the boards and his skate almost comes and like, takes off my head. And that kind of that kind of instantly, like, drew me into hockey was that like I can I could get my head literally, like, chopped off my cock.

That's why you're in Slipknot.

Yeah, right. Actually, there's a lot of parallels with that. Like, I, you know, this band that, like, I felt was going to like, eat me or something like that. If I didn't if I didn't come to every show. And then lo and behold, I ended up joining years later. But but yeah, that's where that's where it all started, was like was that. And then we ended up, you know, coming to more games and stuff.

And my whole family got into it like my my mom. She didn't want to go to a hockey game. She didn't really she wasn't really into it. But we brought her to a game. And I remember, like, some deflected shot came like out of play and launched right. For, like, square between her eyes and the guy right in front of us, some guy right in front of us to put up his hand and palm that's deflected shot it like broke his hand with that guy, though.

Yeah.

And easily saved my mom's life at this hockey game. So she was roped in just like I was like, oh, my God. Like anything can happen in this sport is ridiculous. So that's where that began, you know, and that was in like nineteen ninety nine, I think. So what a time to become a, you know, a New Jersey Devils fan.

Make you sign the sticker. So fucker, you set it.

By the way, if that story finished off with you, say in your mom took one in the forehead, I was going to beat you guys. Guys got to get off the board.

And then she became the lead singer, right? Right. Exactly. Yeah.

That guy who broke up was like, what's your last name? Oh, can I get a front row tickets for the next 80 for Springsteen toys.

So so yeah. To to add to that, you know, the story about how I reached out to you guys originally was I was listening to the the Scott Gomez story. And as I was listening, I was like, oh, my God, he's telling this story exactly how I remember. And I was ten years old back when that. You know, I'm sure your listeners remember his story about going to the Bruce Springsteen show. I love that he got dragged like he didn't want to go.

I love that he didn't want to go. But but yeah, like, they had just won the Stanley Cup and we had been, you know, getting friendly with those guys and stuff. And they played one they played the the band played one show, the old Continental Airlines Arena and and like friend Dan. CO brought the Stanley Cup to the to the show. We were all hanging out with them. That was great. And then a bunch of guys came to to Madison Square Garden and I think they played the garden like the next week or something.

So then Gomez and Bobby Holyoak, Marty all came and it was it was insane. We ended up I was I was texting you. I was like, dude, I got it. I got to tell you, the rest of the story that he left out was that we ended up playing like an hour of street hockey on the loading dock at Madison Square Garden with guys like who are totally off the clock. But they ended up, you know, playing this full on street hockey game with like 10 year olds.

But they were like breaking a sweat. And I think I was on Scott's team and we ended up winning what he called the Stanley Keg. You just grabbed the guy that was like, you know, by the loading dock and was like knocked him out over my head. And it was madness.

But, you know, yeah, that must have been so cool for you to go through that. Who was the most competitive out of all the players?

I think Bobby I think Bobby whole league might have been the most competitive. He was definitely like throwing checks to like 12 year old kids. And that was pretty incredible to receive like a Bobby wholely check. That was kind of incredible. Jay, you played goaltender.

How did you end up in the pipes? I always say it's usually an older brother that throws because he's not sorry if you don't listen to this fucking job.

Marty Brodeur short of street hockey ball out of his face and he threw a Skillshare Adam catch.

Yeah. You know, I had always been drawn to to the goaltender. I think in the same way, maybe subconsciously, that I've always been drawn to, like, the being the drummer in a band like this. I think there's something to be said. Like the the drummer is usually the weird guy in the band and the goalie is usually the weird guy on the team, you know, so so there was something about it. I think honestly, I started because I wasn't that great of a skater and I was like, OK, well, I'll just like stay here the whole game.

And then look, you know, I found out that you have to be up and down and all. You have to basically be one of the best skaters on the team. I didn't know that when I started being a goalie, but part of it was that, you know, that, yeah, the pressure that I that I really enjoyed from the you know, from playing. And I thought that was like the most high pressure situation you could put yourself in on the ice.

And and. Yes, and some about it resonated with me. And I think then, you know, taken that and, you know, that ended up translating to being a drummer, you know, like I think if you have a if you have a shitty drummer, your band's probably going to suck. And if you have a shitty goaltender, your team's probably going to suck. So that's kind of, you know. Yeah. So that's the comparison.

You would say the drummer's the goaltender of the team. One hundred percent.

Yeah. Why is that for people who don't know music. Well, I definitely feel like the pressure's on when you know when, when you're trying to. I think as a drummer, if you're if you're not holding shit together, there's no way you could have you know, you could have the best guitar players and best singers and everything like that. But if your drummer is not holding it together, it's just not you're not going to make that great music sound like shit.

Yeah.

And I think I think if you're you know, if you're working in a similar way from a hockey standpoint, you know, if you're working out from the crease, you could have a team full of stones playing. But if your goal is just letting everything in, it's not going to work.

I'd like to see I'd like to see a break away challenge between R.J. and Jay right now. You can get could good score tomorrow. I mean, you know, probably if I close my eyes and take a swig and.

Right. We could try.

I still I still play a little bit. I still you know, it's something that I haven't completely pull away, so I might be able to hold my own.

So we know you're crazy. So would you take a Shea Weber shot from the blue line? Would you would you stand in front of that? Oh, my God. Maybe, maybe to like God, that strikes me as like maybe the red line. Yeah. Push it back to the red line. Maybe I would just say that I could that I that I.

But that's like one of those guys, you know, that was like tough guys that just want to be shot in the shoulder just to say that they got shot or something like that, like Taser on that much of a Taser.

All right. I think I want to get his head cut off. So he played hockey, right?

Exactly.

Animal in that are going to get you in a bad position so you can wear it slipped it slipped on a mask and warmups. If I if I can sign up for that, I would love to. Nashville's Ebor guy right here. We could change this.

You'd probably be wearing a bondage outfit in the bubble, considering there's no clothing rules they took out. The players aren't wearing suits. You said is not the gift.

No, that's just showing up for the game. Yeah. Look, look like the average Joes uniforms before they got there. Real ones in dodgeball.

So I'm curious. No, I'm sorry. I'm curious.

I feel like everyone would think like your father, this legendary drummer all these years with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, like he he may be taught you at a young age how to play drums, but you didn't start playing till you were 14 years old and just kind of came natural to you.

Yeah, he kind of wanted me to find it out for myself. Kind of like the way he found it out for himself. You know, like that was never and honestly, that to his to his you know, my parents credit, they they just wanted me to find out what I wanted to do. And they didn't see hockey come in like they didn't see that as like, oh, he's going to want to be a hockey player. But there was nothing like, no, you shouldn't play hockey.

You should focus on, you know, becoming a drummer like me. That was never anything. They just saw what I was passionate about. And I didn't show a passion for playing drums until yeah, till I was like 14 and I really discovered the instrument. And then it was like then they just wanted me to foster that interest and be like, OK, he wants to play drums twenty five hours a day, like, you know, let's let's get behind that.

And we never had any conversations. Like, he never sat me down and gave me lessons because I was playing drums to get away from school like I didn't want to have extra school after school. So he just he just let me play along to my Ramones records and my Metallica records. And just as long as I was working hard at it and was having fun, he was like, hey, that's that's you know, that's what I did. So I want to foster that for for you.

So that's kind of you know, it's pretty laissez faire with that, you know, Jair, a drum kit and a drum set, the exact same thing.

Yeah. Yeah.

Get anything I wrote down Kit and when you call it a sound, I felt like an asshole afterwards. I thought I butchered it. But I want to get into that a little bit now. Slipknot, like you said, that was a band used to go to the concerts when you were ten years old and pretend to be one of the members. Does that famous picture, you and your dad, and then you recreated it years later when you became a member of the band.

How wild was that? Take us through that whole journey from literally being a fan of a band to becoming a member of that band.

Really crazy. And, you know, it was something that happened, of course, gradually over time, just being friends with the guys. I mean, the first heavy metal show that I ever went to was a Slipknot show. They to give a little background to the story, they came on the Conan O'Brien show and they were promoting their first album back in either ninety nine or two thousand. And and they came on and instantly my dad was like, oh my God, this band is insane.

They were these crazy mass and these outfits, this music is out of control. Like my nine year old son is going to love this. And and so they were like, yeah, hey, any time you in the family want to come out to a show, you guys should come out. So the next summer they were about to put out their second album and they were on the Ozzfest tour. So I'm ten years old and I go to Ozzfest for the first time and I go see Slipknot and Slayer and Ozzy Osborne and this and that.

And my mind was blown wide open. And but it was cool because, you know, we struck up a friendship with these guys and my mom didn't want to sign off on it. She was like, this is not good for my kid, but she got to meet the guys and was like, hey, you know, they're just they're they're artists.

This is their art. They're cool guys. They're all you know, they're they're all family, man. And I can I can get behind my son listening to this crazy music. And so so. Yeah. And, you know, I just started doing my homework on this music and learning all that I could about it, where where these bands come from, what inspired them and this and that. And all the while, you know, they would come to town once a year, maybe a couple of times a year.

And every time they saw me, I'd be, you know, a little bit taller. I'd be a little bit more knowledgeable about this kind of music. And then, you know, like thirteen years later. So fast-Forward, I ended up filling in for my dad with Bruce for a period of time and then, you know, went off and played in a bunch of different bands. And then the circumstance happened where they needed a drummer. They they asked me and I didn't even know it was them, really, but they they're kind of family asked me like, hey, can you come out here and audition for a band?

And they didn't tell me what it was. But I you know, I flew out to California and I got a phone call. Just get out here and audition for some band. It turned out to be them. And then, you know, the next day we were working on what became, you know, the first Slipknot record that I played on. But, yeah, it was a you know, it was just out of our friendship that we had started, you know, 13 years before that when I was like 10 years old and they just took a shot in the dark side of their, you know, their friend that they had seen grow up in this kind of music community, give him a shot.

And, you know, thankfully, it worked out.

Was that the first time you'd ever experienced the creative process in making an album or you at that point had they had a lot of the songs and tracks laid out?

We it was kind of somewhere in the middle with, you know, it wasn't it was definitely my first experience on that level of like I mean, my experience making records at that point was like, OK, well, we have all these songs. It'll probably take us like a week or two weeks to, you know, to record this. I thought at the beginning, if I was fortunate enough to continue playing with these guys, I was like, all right, this is going to be a long process.

It'll probably take us like a month or two months. And then I'm taking like seven or eight months to record that album. Just because, you know, so many guys is nine guys in the band and a lot of stuff happening where it takes a lot of time to get it right, you know. But what kind of stuff?

Oh, just, you know, not I mean, just the hard work in the studio. No crazy or anything. I mean, rock stars. You said you there's nine of you in the band like that. Would I mean, you know, we've seen the stories laid out. I mean, there's documentaries about it. There's a lot of egos involved at that high of a level. Not saying that's the case in your band, but to keep that many guys focused on one creative process would be very difficult.

I think it's all rooted in just the music, you know, and I think it was cool because, like, they knew that I knew the music that they were making, you know, because I had been a fan since, you know, almost the beginning, you know. So they knew coming into it that I would have the right mentality that they were like, OK, this guy gets where we come from. And so coming into that process, our guitar player, Jim Root, he had written quite a bit of material on his own.

And so it's kind of like I had a template, basically, you know, we they asked me to to get in a room and play their back catalog, which we did. And then they were like, OK, he can hang with our old songs tomorrow. Let's see if he can hang with some of our new material. So he had a couple of demos that that he was working out. And and and so they threw me in a room with a drum set.

I played what I could to to that. And then it ended up being like a month and a half or something like every day. A new song. I'd listen to it in the morning, go into the studio and just lay down drums on it all day. And they threw that at me for, like, you know, about a month and a half or so before we actually started, like tracking our record. So there's a lot of, like, record, listen to it, rerecord it, spend another week on it, rerecord that kind of you know, a lot of that stuff it takes takes time to get it right.

But so, yeah, that was kind of coming in in this interesting moment of working on that album. And then we got to the point where we were actually like building stuff out, like from scratch, just like, OK, let's go into that room and hopefully come out with a couple of songs. So we ended up doing that for that record, toured on that for a couple of years. And then after that we ended up spending like three years before, like writing our our album that we put out last summer.

And that was like the a fully immersive, like collaborative project that was probably a step further than than the record we had done before that.

I think it would be absolutely crazy if we left the rink shrinks out of a best of podcasts. So let's go to a little clip of the rink shrinks from our time in Boston.

So I call this one Papa Rambo goes nuts at Şeref. This is from a cannon. He didn't say his town, so we're just going to go with real Weimar's severe.

Severe. But I know this sounds that Hall and I have a hard time keeping track of all these little towns this place has.

So Kinnane, I was referring to a gold medal game at the Banten mine, a hockey turn with two pretty solid teams. About two months into the second period, I had a parent screaming about I was going to kill me. I look over and he's climbing the glass with a knife in his hand. Guy is full on screaming about how he's going to stab me and kill me and run me over the parking lot. I had kicked out his kid from the game for spitting at another player on when he was celebrating after scoring a goal.

So clearly it stems from the trough. The trickle down effect is a trickle down.

Oh, my God.

Like he got scored on either he scored the goal and spits on the guy and, you know, and then, you know, obviously police were called and all that type of stuff. But I mean, talk about a guy that needs to be listening to the rink shrinks on the way to the game in the morning.

Are you kidding me? Well, I think he needs some meditation tapes or something.

He needs to he needs maybe some breathing. I thought, you know what?

He needs to put the knife away. Now he needs a skipping rope in the corner. He needs to get that's maybe that's what they do. They get out there and channel your energy elsewhere. That was one of the stories you told last time. Oh, that was a good one.

And I call this one. The coach gets Milbrett in the stands. This is from Ontario and it came from a summer hockey tournament. So this is from a ref's perspective.

Again, so coach acting like an idiot knew no shit about hockey. After the second. We had enough of him and tossed him the game. And he opens the door, yells, you know, hey, go.

You know, sometimes it's very, very explicit talking about the referees mother, which which is a Hugh Jackman. Brown lost that when that happened. Yeah. Lost his mind.

So this is the the referee. I snapped off my bucket, jumped into the stands and started smashing him. Other parents jumped, jumped in. My partner's joined me in the stands. One bad one, dad got body slammed and at two vertebrae broke in his back. The guy went after a pretty sure aid from a straw for a few weeks. To top it off, the arena attendant trying to break up the fight was my dad.

Hey, the ref sounds like a complete lunatic. Yeah, he's a psycho. He's he's like the bar bouncer guy who got taken away from being the bar bouncer because he was too much of a snob show and he was like just waiting for one of these fucking customers jaws at an alarming rate.

These stop.

But I mean, it's hilarious because all these guys, like I mean, know who you're messing with, first of all. But it's like you're in a rink, like enjoy the game with your kids.

Right. Like it's these people are out of control. And hopefully they you know, they can start to run into the rink, shrinks and learn like, hey, it's only a game like this is a summer tournament game. Like guys, they're in shorts and a t shirt. They probably got a cookout going outside afterwards. Like, just chill out, like enjoy it.

I can't get to our next interview, we did mention earlier, it's the holiday season and people do like to celebrate, but they need to celebrate responsibly. And from December 16th through January 1st, law enforcement officers across the United States will be increasing enforcement on impaired drivers. And our friends over at Nizza want to remind you of two important things drive sober or get pulled over. And if you feel different, you drive different, get high, you get a DUI.

It's pretty simple. The consequences of drunk driving, like getting a DUI, the bad man, your insurance goes up, possibility of a crash or worse, kill somebody.

They're always there following you like the wave ready to crash at any moment. So drive sober or get pulled over.

On average, a DUI can set you back 10 15 grand and attorney's fees, fines, court costs, lost time at work, higher insurance rates, car towing, more the guilt of killing somebody. Christ always remember to plan ahead. If you were going to be celebrated, if you plan to drink, plan for a sober driver, take you home. Is your turn to be the sober driver.

Make sure you take it seriously. Don't drink anything at all. Not even one drink. A DUI covers more than just alcohol. Drugs that make you feel different will make you drive different and you could get a DUI. Always remember, if you feel different, you drive different. Never drive high, drive high, get a DUI. I know New Year's Eve is coming so guys and gals be smart. Do not drive while you are impaired in anyway.

Enjoy your holidays folks. I think we might have saved the best for last year.

I mean, one of the best young dynamic players in the league, Laish Pettersen, AK Party. I love talking to this kid, man. Some about the Europeans. They did just bring a little something that maybe the North Americans don't. This guy is a unique character, fantastic player.

So let's send it over to. My next guest is one of the bright young stars in the NHL. He's won Rookie of the Year, both the Swedish Hockey League and the National Hockey League, while a rookie in Sweden.

He also led the league in points in both the regular season and playoffs before winning the MVP of the playoffs as his team won the championship. And in his first two NHL seasons, he's tallied one hundred and thirty two points in one hundred thirty nine games and has been named to All-Star Games.

Thanks so much for joining us on the podcast, Pettersen AKP. How are you doing?

I'm doing good. Thanks for having me. Oh, it's my pleasure. So this is your very first podcast appearance?

Yeah, it's my first podcast on and on. Yes, my first one.

How about those intros? Those are nice little higher pump.

I don't mind people depressed press.

The Corps is falling in love with the first guy, so. Yeah. Awesome.

So you're just a are you just a music guy on the way to the rink, things like that. You never listen to any podcasts. Are you just saying you never bet on one?

I'm a big music guy. I listen to a lot of music, not country guy or and the place a lot of country in the locker room, but.

But, you know, Besser is going to be pissed that you said no country now. Yeah, yeah. Me and him having a debate about that.

He's not happy about me, your general head, which is OK because he says you belong in the circus now, not for any rude reasons, but he says you can juggle very well and you could ride a unicycle. Can you do both at the same time, though? Yeah, I can't. Holy shit.

This kid's the real deal. Give them the MVP.

What is what is the beginning of you riding a unicycle and being able to juggle as well as doing it together? How did that all start? How old are you when that goes?

How old was I out of the womb? Yeah, two years old.

All but maybe 12, 13.

My dad was very good at going in unicycle and he I was listening to him a lot. I still do. And he told me if you get good at unicycle, you're going to have better balance at hockey. And I was like, I worked on it. I got good at it. And then I don't know why, but I start juggling. So one day I had three tennis balls. I spent like three, four days at the backyard back home in Oregon where I'm from, and spent three, four hours until I could do it.

And then once I got good at it, I started doing with bowling pins. Oh yeah.

I mean, you're going to be like the red panda at the Rogers Centre between periods. They're going to have to pay you twenty million a year.

Yeah, I'm up for it. I would that would be unbelievable. The first ever player in NHL history to do that in-between period entertainment.

Yeah, I know. So but get it with balloon pants. And then I added both together and. Yeah. My. My brother always chirped me about it, that I could join a circus whenever I saw. Yes, sir, you mentioned your dad and he drove a Zamboni when you were kids, you basically just skated every single day as much as you wanted as a kid.

Yeah, I've been getting a lot. I mean, I come from a small town or village. I know. I always say it's it's three three thousand people lives there, so it's not bad at all. So, yeah, I know that has grown. Somebody had the key to every door at the rink and basically all my childhood, it was school. That dropped me off at the rink, got home, had dinner, and then back to the rink for practice and bedtime and then the same thing all over again.

So that's that's in the winter.

Are you summers off Rescate in the whole time? Summers it was soccer growing up. Yeah. But as soon as the ice got back back home, I, I was there right away. But yeah, I played soccer and and hockey growing up.

So do you follow all the drama in the British Premier League and all these high end soccer leagues?

Yeah, I do. I'm a I'm a big fan of soccer and I watch it a lot. I don't have a I don't follow it a lot nowadays because time difference and everything. And I don't have a favorite team, so I'm just a fan of the sport. No, no.

OK, you're your typical typical Swede that speaks perfect English. And I know you guys take it growing up. Was it was it a little difficult for you two years ago, your rookie year? Have you pretty much been completely easy, easy speaking English for a while now?

I was I was OK in English at school. I mean, I did. Like like high school, my only mindset was I'm going to do everything to pass the test because I want to because I want to play hockey and that's what the reporters need.

Yeah, exactly. No, I think it's the same here.

But I never passed or got asked to be interviewed.

I know. So so I think actually a person can. Tell you guys a story whenever you guys get that opportunity, I guess my first development camp, I was not good at English at all, like. And he has a. Very funny story when he's basically telling me that I kind of like shrug him off and didn't want to talk to him because I was nervous talking about it, I guess I wasn't comfortable talking English yet. So but I've learned quickly, like moving here, here, English and everything so pretty.

When you were a young kid, were there any Swedes that you modeled your game after? I mean, you could score and passed you equally good. I mean, I would say Fallsburg. I know he had probably a little more grit to his game, but who did you marry?

First of all, it was pretty for. But let's remember his. Or old days back in modem where Orion play for two games. It was a very successful two games. I actually had the privilege to see your last game in your career.

Wow. Oh, my God. That was the are the last period you were at that game. Yeah. You remember to get it. I do.

I remember I began to pizzas dash three absolute liability in his own ad, but he did have a secondary assist on the power play was thrilled. Washboards three that's for sure.

No I was that I was dash three in the first period and one of them and one of them I went to turn in my ankle, completely gave out and I hit the side of the skate and I fell and the guy grabbed it, threw it in front. It was like it was like a legit like at the first home game of the season. I'm an import. We lost like tonight before we got waxed the night before on the road. And I'm horrific.

And I went and I retired after that period, the first period, and I sat on the bench for the second and third. So we watched the game together. My last pro game to play like eight of twenty minutes P dash three and throw a pizza against the worst team in the league.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Well, you're not exactly a great performance for the all with dog in the satchel.

I might I might have asked my brother for a little background check because while you were doing some prep work for this project, where was your brother playing then?

Is he is he in Barcelona now?

He's back on the team I play for before Vancouver.

Well, actually, before that, I want to ask you, you played for Timyra for a year because my best friend Matt Merly played for Timyra for a while, and he he lives in Sundsvall. He loved it. He married a girl from there. And he told me that it was so big when when he was playing there to try to get up to the S.H..

All right. Like your division, too. And so I saw that you played the one year you lit it up and you guys weren't able to advance into the into the big league, say you, and instead you went to Voxer or signed, say you had gotten Timyra and would you have stayed with them that year?

Were you moving on no matter what?

That was. Talk I had, like all the time, like during the season with my agent, with friends, with family, my brother. I yeah, I'm pretty sure I would have stayed because Tamraz close to home, it's where I have my I played it for five years and you would have gotten them there.

It would have been like that much more special, I would guess. Yeah, exactly.

And. You know, things didn't go the way I want and I'm happy with the with my year in that club, but it would be cool to.

To bring Tamir up and play one year and as a child are kind of talked about it earlier as far as like who you looked up to growing up, making the transition, knowing you had as much success over there, were you nervous about coming over to North America to play?

And was there any of these older veterans from Sweden who you reached out to in order to talk to you before you did so, I mean, given the instant success you had?

Yeah, I was I was nervous. I didn't know how. I mean, initial list, the best league in the world, and I didn't know how well I would do and. And, of course, some small and skinny on that, so I don't know how well I would perform, but. We had four guys and four Swedish guys on the team and they helped me get comfortable and everything, especially Mark Ström, he took me under his wing right away and I'm very grateful for that, but.

And first, NHL game against flames, and my first shift lasted 10 seconds because our D absolutely destroyed one of the flames guys. And my next shift, there was a fight. So I was like, this is the NHL.

We got sick leave exactly the way they talked about it over there. Yeah.

So I know I was like, I can live like this. Were you more scared of coming over here and experiencing it for the first time or fighting Quinn Hughes at rookie party this year in the lobby of a hotel?

He wouldn't say yes to.

If I heard you guys wrestling in the lobby at rookie party in the hotel room, it goes fast. Oh, and who tatou out? I mean, we're we're having a good time.

Both of us might have been a little a little tipsy.

That's OK. That happens. It was on your credit card. It was it was a great night. I think we just Russell adenoid. I don't think we had a winner. I think our teammates broke us loose. And there you go. And. I know you guys got a funny relationship, I heard a story, too, that he was driving up the hill and it was icy out, and then he he, like, pretended to start slipping.

But then the car actually did start slipping down the hill, did it not?

Yeah. Yes. So. So it was snowing a lot, the Vancouver and I don't know how slow the workers like. So if it's snowing, the snow stays on the roads for like two or three days before they get rid of it. So our people collecting a pension, doing nothing. Yeah. Podcast in the closet.

So we we were going out for dinner and I walked because I was driving a sports car and. And that and that does not work well in snow, so I work with Quinn to his Toyota tough car and.

Second quarter, yeah, I had to get a check on him, but yeah, so we were going up a hill and I was already, like, freaking out because I was afraid we were going to slip and hit someone. And he sensed that. So we were going up. And then they like scream, oh, my God, of course, what I looked around, there's no one there, and then he just starts laughing at me. So they got me.

Well, a boy who cried wolf.

I knew you had a Vancouver shirt when you were a little boy, as everybody knows what a Google it. But what did you know about Vancouver before you got there? Anything.

Of course, since. Is still here about the city. And so. Good hockey players there, but especially are good people, they are outside of hockey and doing work with the community and all that and the big hockey city. And I mean Hawk in Canada, and I think Hawk is the biggest sport here among cougars, so it's a it's a blast playing here. To take me back like the draft, it's in Chicago, I think. Did you know you were going fifth?

Had you did you have any chances of going higher? Like, how did that whole day go? And then after was there a special night in Chinatown once you get to go top five fifth overall. I went the same.

Nice meeting you plug for himself.

That's we have to hear about that every episode. Well, I just try to get every fifth overall pick ever so we can review them all. And I could bring it up every time.

But you were serious now. Yes, he was dead.

The game you saw the game you saw about that was not at the prime. That was that was pathetic. I agree.

Yeah. The draft. After the combine, both Tronto and Couer flew me out to kind of meet me more and do testing Lullabye. So Vancouver was a team that showed the most interest in me.

And but when they were doing the draft, Vancouver didn't talk to me, so I still wasn't sure if they were going to pick me, so. But then. My agent said usually before a draft, the camera guy comes and stands in front of you before a pic is called up and and when my camera was off the camera, guys was in front of me. So I knew they were going to pick me then. But, yeah, I was still a little nervous and all that.

So how old were you when you knew you were much better than the other kids you were playing with when you realized, holy shit, I'm pretty good?

You actually were very young because you're very young. Unicyclists was that was the tipping point.

I'm better than everyone.

I want to talk about how you got so into fashion. You're like I see you posting all the time. I mean, I saw I don't know if it was at the all star game when you wore that James Bond villain outfit.

Yeah, fun thing. If people zoom in on that pic, it's not stripes, it's letters. And what does it say?

You mentioned. Oh, she was she OK, so that's like so you love that high end designer? Yeah, I mean, I've always been into fashion and now in making. A lot of money I've been I don't know if taking can get myself a little bit if you need to treat yourself. You're always pretty sharp dressed plays in the NHL. Yeah. I mean, there's some tough outfits on the team, especially peaty, like I mentioned a few minutes earlier, a dual threat out there.

People don't know if you get a pass shoot or whatever. What do you like that to score a goal setting a guy up, the one scoring?

Well, it's a full fledged.

You did a little bit of that and playoffs. And that's one of the things I wanted to talk about, too. Like maybe there, you know, that was your first experience. Obviously, the physicality of it goes up and then you guys end up playing Minnesota and then St. Louis. I felt that points in both series. They were trying to get you off your game physically, but you ended up playing a point, a game like, you know, what were you thinking going to playoffs the first time?

And ultimately, how do you think you handled it overall?

Yeah, I mean, first playoff. I knew, like, all all the intensity gets up and physicality. And so my mindset was to play hard and not shy away from anything and and I'm very happy with how well we performed in the playoffs. One game away from making do the conference final, but I know I think I handled it well, I think we did well as a team. And and I mean, there was, of course, a lot of cross checking on me and all that, but I'm used to it, so.

Yeah, yeah, taking the beating is part of being one of the best, I think that you've definitely had to experience that. But you talk about the playoffs and it was being successful, but you also bring up dream and I get the chance to play and play with Marquee in the minors in Florida. A little bit unreal, guys. Very happy to see this deal, but must have been tough to see him go. What did he mean?

What did he mean to you? Just taking you under under his wing when you came over?

Yeah, I mean, that was that was tough for me. I haven't experienced the business side of NHL, so. And Marshawn was, of course, a friend for life for me. But he's been. Taking care of me, like like telling me like small stuff to think about. Not to wear something to wear like a crazy hoodie on. I'm like, wow, we're going dropkicks.

Oh my God, this is I was with Marcie when people were telling him these things. It's come full circle. It really did register with them.

Oh, that's that's awesome. Nice. So, yeah, I listen to him and I'm trying to tell these things to Quinn, but he's just telling me to shut up.

So you guys are too close in age.

He's probably beat it. It's fun. But yeah, I was it was tough seeing Marcie leave, but it's business and I'm very happy with the contract he got because he said, where would he be bringing you out around Vancouver.

I'm sure that was you know, if you said he put you under his wing rock, was Roxy a frequent spot? What are the young guys even going there anymore? Is that even a thing?

Roxy, I actually saw their best one night.

That's right. I think we did run into each other at the back bar. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I was like, how could you put my drinks on that little guy over there in the corner top right there? Yeah, that guy with the guy with the Tugun that chug chug.

Yeah I know, I know. We've been going out to jail on a lot. So I'm trying to see where we go too much, but OK, drop out myself, but there are no jail time, but yeah, rock sets. I've been there, I think three times and. Three for three onewhere place, I would say just get out of there. Are you skating right now or are you just like working out how you approach and when whenever next season begins working out now skating once or twice a week.

And my trainer back home, Robert, back that I. The he army me special and I follow them, and we were talking every day about the work that I'm going to do for the day, so working out the drink Monday to Friday and Saturday, Sunday off. I was going to I was going to hop in about the training, you see a lot of these high end players doing a lot of skill work in the off season as far as hopping in the ice and all of a sudden they're doing all these movements in and out of cones.

Are you doing that on the ice as well as getting in the gym every single day?

I'm doing like I'm doing more of my stuff, more strength stuff, because that's what I need the most. But I'm skating once or twice a week to still keep that going.

But I'm spending more time in gym than on the ice during the summers, just getting small for the off season three, maybe trigger all inclusive down south with the veins popping.

Right. I mean. People don't think I work out, but I've been working out my whole life. I just don't. I used to hear the same thing. Don't worry, these fifth overall picks, they come gunning after our bodies.

Just prove it on the ice. Body shaming.

You know, I think Wayne Gretzky weighed 170 pounds, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Now, I'm not sure about the Canadian rules. Are you allowed to go back to Sweden if you wanted to? Are you stuck in Canada? What's the situation with that?

Yeah, I. I could go back today or tomorrow, but when I come back for next season, whenever that starts, I have to count it for two weeks and I don't want to courting again. So just how cool. Yeah.

So and I'll say what would be like bad timing for me to go home because all my hockey friends were starting their season and all my non hockey friends are either working or studying, so I would have no one on my schedule. So that was why I stayed here.

I want to go back to the music for a second. I know there's a lot of metalheads in Finland, but what kind of music are you into your metal head, too? I mean, I know you from Sweden, but I know that area like the world likes metal for some reason.

No, I'm not a metal head. Not a country until you scream BPM guy from Sirius Satellite Radio, you know, BPM is no beats per minute.

Calvin Harris, those guys are a little bit. I like the deep shit. I like depos.

I like like chill music, hip hop, like songs like Drake, hip hop. So.

I like to listen to a lot of music, I like to listen to like slow music to like or you like that RB nana, I would say to put a couple of candles on that.

A note. Did you just sing a note for us? No, no, no, no, no, no.

Oh, that was actually really did sound like a song there you get a great company for my terrible singing.

I'm not I'm not going to perform for you. Oh, come on.

Try for all the Vancouver fans. Listen, would love to hear you sing. Right.

I'm a little tipsy. I'm still shy to sing. So nothing but, you know, as long as it's no like Kenny Chesney.

She's from Boston.

I tape like Ed Sheeran luminaires Lewis. They like those type of music.

I got I got worked over by my wife. She said, well, not not always here. Not not not in a good way.

She brought me to a concert. We're going to this concert. Ed Sheeran. I was like, what?

He was unreal was by him, by himself on stage for two and a half hours.

He was rapping. He was singing. It was I've been a huge fan since.

And she worked me over after the concert. That's something I want to do to go to a concert like that, never been to I only been to like concerts when different like EDM plays, but I've been to like Ed Sheeran or Coldplay concerts.

So you bring up, you know, right now, if you were back home, your buddies who are work and they go to work all day and like, I would go through that when I was playing home for the summer. Right. But what are you doing with your time? Like during the season? Practice ends. You got nothing going on. You gaming, are you just hanging out? How do you spend your free time during the year?

Yeah, I play golf. Big golfer, play video games, Call of Duty. For tonight, not so much anymore, NHL, FIFA, NBA. So I play a lot of a lot of video games.

So from what I've been seeing on your Instagram, too, is like I think you're you're more interested maybe on the content side of things opening up that, you know, I don't want to call it a revenue stream, but I mean, like a guy like LBJ did it in in football, there are other guys who are doing it where you kind of like the way they're going. I know Austin Matthews is a big guy about Posten, what outfits he's wearing, tag and the price tag and and also getting on video more.

Yeah, I mean, I want to like you said, I want to start streaming. I want to try to build my brand and be more out there and show personality because. I think it's definitely hard to show like outfits or fashion, because we have to wear suits to all the games and NBA and football, they can wear whatever. So that's why I've been trying post a little bit more like fashion post on Instagram lately and still have more to come.

Yes, we're just trying to be a fun guy for people to follow, and I'm having a good time doing it, too. You did that video.

The kid did a little dribble demonstration and then you went out, bought a basketball and did a pretty good imitation of a map. That's the stuff you like.

Yeah. So people are tagging me in it. So I saw the video and and there was this Twitter account telling me to at least Pettersen can please do this. So first of all, let's do it. So when I want the entire board of basketball and instead it took thirty, thirty one thirty six sixty seconds and people loved it. So and just a quick thing like that just make like I'm having such a good time with it and the people enjoyed it too.

So it goes a long way and the fans love it. I was going to ask you, just from living in Vancouver, is there anything else outside of playing hockey like you go out and do, whether it's right around the seawall?

I go Scootering Alert's. The the founder of Spin, he is a Kanaks fan, so he saw me and Quinn. And driving a spin scooter in Tampa Bay, so he's like, yo, this made my day, let me send you guys some scooters. All right, send us some and you send us four to me, Cranebrook and 10 of them. And we've been ripping them ever since. So, so far, when's the last time you rode a unicycle?

I was a while ago this morning while I was doing ABS. I mean, it's a part of the workout routine. Put a little. It's been a month since last time, actually.

You won a gold medal, world champion. You can call yourself a world champion forever. I was that in Denmark.

Twenty eighteen. Like, take us through that tournament. What was your role on the team? How did that all go down?

Um, yeah. That was a fun time. I mean. I didn't play, I got I broke my thumb, not tournaments, so basically. Yeah, but he's like, actually, I didn't get a gold medal.

What? Thanks for bringing it out. Oh. Well, yeah, then, yeah, that was fun. It's playing with that was like my first opportunity to be would be around NHL players and it was a good experience for me to see, like how they preparing for games, like how they are just normal people having fun playing hockey. And I mean, I was star struck with so I'm going to play it because I've been watching them growing up and now they're playing for the country with them, so.

I was having a blast and then I guess, Suess, I got to break away and I, I hit the post and broke my thumb so I missed the rest of the tournament. But just the games have played and still be with the team during the whole tournament was also a memory I'll never forget. Yeah, let's talk about your coach for a sec, Travis Green, he's been your coach for the two years you've been in the league, guy seem to really like playing for him.

He's a former player himself. Does he just let you run wild out there? Is he have you any kind of leash?

What does he tell you on or or does he use to run pretty hard himself so he can't say shit about the holiday?

Yeah, you ain't fooling me, Travis.

He's I think he's still running pretty hard. It's great. I know he and Travis is good. I like him. He lets me play my game. And I mean, he's always giving me, like, small tips what to think about. So many have a good. Yeah, I was going to say connection, but again, the rapport relationship.

Yeah, relations rapport is a good one, but it's great.

You know, I struggle with the words you might have better English than me. So I want to be part of a connection first, too. But then out of it, it's a little romantic. And then I would have done the same thing.

You just put the r my first light the candles. Let's get it going to pop and I'll get that Canelli. This is one of the young studs, the league. You probably you know, you're darn into the social media and all the craziness. You have a question for him.

Oh yeah. You did a video at the on the bench, guys. How'd that go? You played someone there, huh?

Oh yeah. That was so fun actually. Yeah, I like being a goalie, so I told her you played soccer, but growing up I played soccer the whole time I played soccer goalie. Sorry. We had a goal in our backyard back home, and of course, my brother is older than me, so a young guy goes in the net. So that's where I got the interest of playing a goal. And then I I don't know when I start playing in that and hockey and I just like it.

Your brother must have been a huge influence for you. He still plays over there. We mentioned that like growing up. Was he was he giving you beatings or were you just always doing everything together?

What was the relationship like where we were? We've been having a lot of battles in. I don't know how many fights are we've had or how many times our parents broke us lose from. I think it was one time I swing the like a floral stick over his neck or something, and then, yeah, we're we're going hard on each other. So both of us hates to lose whenever the other guy, one other guy got rattled.

So you made a joke about listening to your father once in a while earlier on. I'd imagine that you guys are very close and he's a big reason for a lot of your success.

Yeah, my family means everything to me and they've been my support from day one and are still my support. And the way I am today with like two people is because of them. So. They've been an influence to me this whole time, and I wouldn't be here without them, so. You even brought so that you have some nice chemistry together, we see a lot of kind of dynamic duo throughout the league as some guys just click with for no reason, just get out there and just kind of share the same mentality.

Yeah, we think Cauchy pretty similar. I mean, he likes to shoot on the past, but all is against the law.

So it's a little fun, but that's pretty much it.

Yeah, no, I mean, we're good friends off the ice and that just transforms to have good chemistry on the ice. We're hanging out almost every day during the season, so, yeah, it's just yeah, it's fun.

Do you think he's got better hair than you think got better hair or do you think you guys you guys compete for product advice?

I don't know if he used it. Oh yeah. He uses some products and he did. Wrong. Yes. The better hair. I got to admit that. Yeah. It's some of the best hair in the league.

I mean, you brought up golf, so I got to go in there. When did you start playing? What's the handicap like with this? What's a golf background?

Handicap now is four point two holes. We can play boys. No shit. Oh yeah.

That's hand. I mean, if you can juggle on a unicycle, you're handy guy.

OK, so I'm lefty on hockey, but I play golf, right. Same same here. But maybe I'm a lefty.

Maybe that's what you are putting. Are you putting left now? No, I'm putting it right.

But say if I play baseball I play lefty. Same here. That's where the same so far.

So if I throw a football I throw it right.

If I throw a baseball, I throw lefty avice first I right in my right I throw my left.

It's off. I think we're ambidextrous, but obviously it's the fifth overall pick thing.

I guess it just, you know, Sarbaz as I think every time it mentions fifth overall the Quebec we term, we need to have people out to tell that motos story just to remind them.

Yeah. Just to bring them back down a little. I love hey, is there any sports you're not good at?

Obviously, basketball, because I watched you dribble, but anything other than that, I mean, I'm not that good of a dribble at basketball, I can shoot the ball, all right. But I'm not a good dribble. That move or that dribble move that I did is pretty easy, but I'm not like a good tennis guy.

Like, I feel like a lot of the things I know are in the tennis is not the same in Sweden.

Yeah, I love playing tennis. Yeah. My grandpa had a. He has a court on this on his yard, so every time we visited there, we we always play. So, I mean, a tennis game my whole life. Who's your favorite player to watch Federer the goat?

I'd say that's part of what I was going to ask the next hour. I was going to ask who are like your your favorite celebrities? If you could meet a couple of people, like, who would it be?

Yes, they. That's a hard one. Really, I thought for sure you would have a few of them that you were going to bang off. Yes. OK, so Steph Curry is Steph Curry, LeBron James. King James of what? What's the other one is another NBA.

None of those two, which doesn't like how they dive so much.

So he definitely wouldn't like soccer. He thinks that. I know.

I like I like soccer. I like soccer circles diving. I just I'm just not a big NBA guy. But obviously we know what those guys athletes.

So if you could change one rule in the NHL, it'd be the fact that you're able to walk into the rink or whatever outfit you want to wear besides a suit.

Yeah, I would yeah, I would like to dress the way I want. OK, when we have Batman on, I'll tell them, I'll tell him that you're asking for it.

Yeah, cool. You can have his shoes, the vehicle and make a team role for them when you guys are in the bubble.

They said players can dress how they want, but I know some teams made guys with certain things with the Vancouver make you guys wear.

Yes. So we didn't hear about like if we're going to have an outfit. So I was like getting like kind of excited to to wear whatever I want, but. Three or four days before we left to Edmonton, we get slack pants, we got a blue golf shirt and nice Adidas NMD shoes, and you were loving that.

You're lucky you're on the Kalki look. Yeah, I mean, I brought some outfits if if we're going to change for one game, but no, that's all I got.

You got one all.

I was asking what he does. Kill time. You're a big movie TV guy. Watch a lot of Netflix and that type of stuff.

What do I care? I kill a lot of time playing PS4 and Xbox. I have both because all the guys in the team play Xbox and all my friends back home play PS4. So that's the ball. So watch Netflix, TV. We still live on scooters, go shopping, go shopping, we'll hear on the air. Hey, you're living your best life, man. You deserve it. We want to thank you very much. I think you bring up the game and hopefully we'll see you streaming with Quirinale at some point.

I think that would be a killer combo, maybe at least even help your following grow more. You get you get sick of everybody but your name or your name was a disaster for the first year and a half.

Yeah, I know.

I mean, people still here in North America still can't pronounce the Swedish way or say the Swedish way. So and the Swedish way is Alia's pettijohn. That's that's what I try to do at the beginning.

I don't know how good another version, though, is like a mixture, I think of the both. Yeah, I like aesthetician but I like it. Ileus Pettersen.

All right.

Well, everybody, it's great to finally chat with you. What a what a first few years you've had in this league. And we appreciate you coming on.

That's the man, just an awesome interview, a lot of fun talking to me, just like I said, a great character of the game, pretty unique personality. So listen, we also want to thank our fans, you guys. We're nothing without you. We say it every year, whether you listen on Spotify or iTunes or you watch it on YouTube or whatever.

We can't say how much we appreciate the support you guys give us. I know there's a lot of options out there and people might not like us. So people do, but we love you guys. And again, we're nothing without you. And we cannot thank you enough for the support, not only this episode, every episode during the year. We love you guys. We're going to be back.

We're going to kick ass in twenty twenty one, coming to the live shows, buying the merch. Everything everything you guys do. We're nothing without you. So I just wanted to throw that in there as well. All right. Absolutely.

And while y you said that you've been doing a killer job on the YouTube channel, we're also going to have a best video on YouTube channel as well, which you're going to be taking care of. So and while we're g hats off to you, buddy, you've been kicking ass all year. You're the man behind the scenes. You make us all look good. So thanks for doing that. Thank you, IRA.

I really appreciate that. And there is there's really nothing I love more in the entire world than than working on this podcast and working with you guys. And there are so many people that that help us behind the scenes. You know, Terence Chase, Dale Parsha, everyone at Bar Stool has been so helpful for us, but most importantly, the fans, you guys have stuck by us all through 2020 and we are so excited to see what twenty, twenty one has in store.

We can't wait to get out and start hanging out with you guys again, start doing events again. So let's knock 20, 21 out of the park and I can't wait to see all you guys again. I love you guys so much. Absolutely.

Bellison Happy New Year. Everybody will be back next week with a new episode.

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Take care, everybody. Have a fantastic weekend at. Shy, shy. With best shine want to shine?