Hey, what's up, guys, busier, I want to let you know we are doing a sale on all barstool merchandise, go to Stort Barstool Sports Dotcom with the promo code podcast for 10 percent off your order. That's Stort Barstool Sports Dotcom with the promo code podcast for 10 percent off your order. Thank you very much. Hello, everybody, welcome to Episode three hundred and seventeen of spit and chickens presented by Pink Whitney for my friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the old barstool sports podcast, Family.

What is up gang? The NHL is in full swing. The league is very tight. So far, all the teams are within seven points. We had a huge trade we're going to get to shortly. But first, our greetings with the fellas. Do some mighty Ginelli in NYC. How we doing, buddy?

Life is pretty good right now. Brady's going back to the Super Bowl and I'm predicting the future left and right.

So life is life is good for this producer and unveiled basically called that trade. We're going to be getting too soon because, I mean, is is on a roll here a lot.

Yeah, I'm going to become the producer and he's going to take over my role. So it was great knowing you guys. I'm sure you're going to miss all my heart takes and actually picks and it's been real. And Lacob back as well, back on the YouTube channel playing the video games. Oh, yeah. All right, let's go.

He's like a is too much pizzazz is Mexican pussy much headbands. He looks like you get ready for a middleweight fight coming down the fucking aisle right now.

It was a gift from my old lady. What's up with wonderful gift? Not much. Dude, if you were the producer of this podcast, we'd record on Monday and they'd come out like Friday night.

Yeah. Lady, be the worst producer in the world.

Not much going on, guys. We have some big news in the around the NHL. Big trade you always like seeing that gives us something to talk about.

What else, Brady, this guy, what else are you going to say? It's it's just it's so bizarre to me that he's 43 years old and is still doing it.

And the now having as many NFC titles as Brees Rogers. The list goes on and on.

Farve Caillaud Yeah, it's it just shows a hall of a Hall of Fame career from his thirty seventh birthday and on.

Forget what he did before that. Also I went on dog walk.

Snake travel our has have you done one or two. I've done to it. Yeah I raised on two. It was my first for everyone who doesn't know snake traps. Right first. Overall if it's a five person draft then picks 10th overall fifth pits fifth and sixth. Right, right. Right. Everyone knows that.

I'm interested to hear what the topic was.

The topic was divas in sports. She had to pick one guy from the NFL, one guy from baseball, on defense, from basketball, hockey.

Unfortunately, that was a that was knock yourself.

No, I'm not going to bore you all shit.

I should have gone to the Astros miscellaneous. I think I won this draft easily, and I actually could have picked somebody that really guaranteed the win. And I, I stuck to my guns and picked somebody that I knew more about, but still. Go check it out, dog.

Who would you pick in the hockey world as your ultimate diva?

So I'll drop I well, no, I just I really prefaced it with they all said there's really isn't many divas in hockey, so I'm not even really the first pick. Avery was the first pick Carl Avery. And, you know, I said I could see is a guy who's not a hockey fan.

Right. You going to pick Avery was in the news a lot. Whatever. While when it came to me, I, I went with Lindros only because he requested the tray.

When he got Eli Manning, I said I go, we've never interviewed him.

I probably just shriveled that that possibility at some point, but. I had I had to I had to pick a guy who refused to play for the team, Antonio Brown would have had to have gone for NFL Crack-Up.

Antonio Brown was, I think, actually could win it, too. But go check it out. I don't talk about that.

Good. Since since we kind of glanced over Brady. I listened. I was tuning into the game in the midst of calling the Coyotes game, which they got hosed on. It was an icing on the last call and we won't even go there.

There was a there was a red zone opportunity in the first half and blatant hold on the Packers guy, they end up having to settle for a field goal. And as a fan, as a casual Green Bay Packers fan, I'm like, you know what? It's a playoff game. If they're going to let them clutch and grab and play like that, at least call it consistently. And I'm not going to be the guy to bitch about it. And I know that the picture doesn't look great at the fact that he had a hand on his undershirt, six feet of bowling at six feet.

That's like a blatant trippingly offensive. And you have to call everyone in my house who saw that right away, a bad call. They haven't called anything on the view from behind.

That's when you saw the picture of the jersey being dragged. Five yards is over.

Those optics are as blatant as anything and bizarre. I thought they fucked up kicking the field goal just over two minutes left for them. Got a field goal. Serves you nothing that you're not guaranteed to get the ball back. You need to stop, which they call off the fucking game.

I could understand if you're given a robiskie or something, but you're not giving it to fucking. Tom Brady did not understand that.

That true. Yeah, the the the head scratcher was was the third down, Mike.

Oh my God. He's at least to make fourth down more manageable. And then he ended up trying to zip it in there and then yeah. When they brought the field goal unit on, I was just like, oh Jesus. I went right to Twitter because I couldn't wait to see all the response. It was so. So is that, like Dave said, it was a fireable offense. Do you think that that's like a fireable offense?

I mean, is that hyperbole? King I don't think it was a fireable offense. I thought it was just a terrible coaching call. I mean, if it was his fifth year and it was like Mike McCarthy all over again. Yeah, but I don't know. I thought he thought for some reason he thought the Green Bay defense were going to stop and get the ball back, which was a calculation then. I don't know. Three of them. Nothing there.

But I think you got the MVP, which I believe Rodgers and DNA. And I bet I mean, NFL is measured in Super Bowls, not fucking regular season MVP. I know he's saying that's why you go.

Oh, I was I was going to say you maybe had on the ball there. All that's OK. You're fired up. You're supporting Tom Brady with that lid on. And congrats to him. Mind you, I'm excited for the Super Bowl because it's kind of the moment of like, you know, is Mahomes going to take over, as always. Is the torch going to be handed? I think Mahomes could go on to have just a good a career as Tom Brady.

If you think we're switching out of that first game already, you're fucking crazy, because that was the second worst coaching decision in the history of football from the first to wins over Carroll, through it over the middle, instead of giving it to to the best shot back in the game.

That was number one. This one. It's like he like he was we were getting punkt, I don't care if you tell me it's like go two percent better chance if even if you don't get it, you have them on their eight with all the time outs in the two minute warning. So even if you went for on fourth down, didn't get it's the same thing. You still need the stop. They still needed to stop.

I couldn't believe if you're a package fan. No wonder Rodgers was pissed he didn't play great by the way. Also Brady had two picks. They didn't get a first down on either one. I don't think they went three and out both times or one of them. They got a field goal.

So, yeah, three picks even. Yeah. I mean, the D won the fucking game for them clearly.

Yeah they're d they're d nice. The other game. I'm a horrible cheater. The cheater. Oh my God. I'm a horrible gambler.

I wanted the bill so bad. I've been saying that for a while. Just the city of Buffalo like deserves it. But the weeks leading up and everyone, the bills, the bills, the bills on my desk, all right, Mahomes left the game with a concussion, but all signs seem to be he's fine and he's good to go.

And you hear like turf, though, turf toe, which can be a big deal. Right. But people were talking about the Kansas City Chiefs like they were playing some some scrub unit, some teams thrown together that barely made the playoffs like they won the Super Bowl last year, their third home AFC title game in a row.

And everyone is on the bills. So I ended up I was rooting for the bills, but I bet on the chiefs because I said, listen, like it's a win win. I don't mind if I lose the money if the Bulls win, but the Chiefs are winning this game. It was it was the comparison was like betting with your heart. Everyone who had the balls, like it would be like if the Buffalo Sabres went on a run this year, which I hope they do.

And then they they met Tampa in the in the in a chance to go to the Stanley Cup final. And you're like, oh, everyone wants Buffalo Bet Buffalo. It's like it's the lightning dude.

Like it's the chiefs. So Buffalo this time could come. But the Chiefs Mahomes Kelce and Tyreek Hill. You can't tackle Tyreek Hill when you get the ball nuts. It's nuts. He's like he's like the McDavid of the NFL.

What's crazy me is this is the first time that a Super Bowl team has had home field advantage in their actual home stadium because all the teams have played close to home, but not in there.

So the NFL is rigged, is what you're saying? Yeah, with no Giants team, that was nine and seven.

So I thought I thought the craziest stat was since Tom Brady's entered the league. He hasn't gone three years without getting to a Super Bowl, that is. Yes.

I mean, first player in NFL history to play in ten NFL championship games. Twenty fourth athlete of the four majors to play in ten championship games around LeBron and Brady are the only ones to do this. In the last 30 years, we already mentioned as much as many NFC titles in one year is Brees and Rodgers have had and he's just the second started to reach the Super Bowl and both conferences. Craig Morton did it back way back in the day for Dallas, then Denver.

Two percent of all Super Bowls are 18 percent of every Super Bowl it's ever been played.

Absolutely obscene numbers. And again, Green Bay, I mean, I don't know if it's worth crying on a video online about like some people might have done, but Rodgers lost his fourth straight AFC championship game. Yeah, he was pretty despondent. I don't know if he's going to want to play somewhere else, but I know there's a lot of scuttlebutt on that. He always is into that, though.

He's always into the drama. Yeah. He like he does love that. He makes it open with that. He's not happy. And and maybe he did play his last game.

And unfortunately, he made sure to make everyone know the coach made that call as well, to let you know, I mean, whatever the feel.

So I love him. You know, he's he's I think he's one of the greatest ever. He you don't want goalies. They get a goal score out there and they kind of do the arm lifts. He's kind of he's the arm lift guy. He's like every time plays not made, he's like rolling his eyes. And it's like on the on the screen. And you're just like, oh, he could have been on a diva.

He could have been an individual if he got elected. But I didn't realize he was thirty fucking seven. Wow.

Thirty, thirty eight soon I think, I think he's my 383 birthdate or eighty two. Yeah. But December of eighty three.

So fuck them like year older than them. We looked the same. I look real good compared to that guy.

But either way, Kansas City looking to go back to back. We haven't had one of those since a local team. I root for the Super Bowl. Let's see what was the line. Kansas City I believe was three what, like a three and a half.

Right when it started, right? Yeah, I was three and a half right away. And then it did go down to three at a certain point.

The Kansas City's starting offensive tackle, I think, left like the the important one. What is it? Left side, the the quarterback tackle on it.

He tore his Achilles. They were saying at the end of the game. Yeah. So that's a big loss.

But Mahomes is Jesus for a player. Yeah. Can't bet against Brady, though. I'm glad I'm going to take them.

I'm going to take the book under cover storyline is the Kelsey Gronk I would say. I think as far as numbers are concerned, what he's done in the start of his career, he's on pace to have a better career. I mean, you look at the Super Bowls and that's another thing. But I like that that battle going on, too. Yeah.

Kelsey Grogs been quiet here, though. One huge play in the game on Sunday, but he has he seems to not really be in the mix that much with their offense.

And I know I'm kind of going against myself saying I'm going to I'm going to take the box like Whitey, but against the Chiefs. I'm not watching Brady win a seventh Super Bowl and losing money.

There's no chance. No, if I lose the bet, I lose the bet. If Brady wins. And I I'm not betting against Tom Brady. That's that's the thing that's going on there. No way.

And the Super Bowl will be played February 7th, which are roughly the fifth anniversary of Spit and Check with that first episode drops right before the Super Bowl of 2016 back in the day. So we'll all go for a nice romantic.

We're kind of in that will we have a winner in somebody's living room with a Alwar down couch?

That's all that counts is not one that I'm I'll take my lumps and that could just barely get used.

That's the reason I know it's how we use those the film chocolates. I boys. Well I mentioned our friends at New Amsterdam Vawter in the intro and now that hockey is back you're going to have to find your own shot. And what better way to do it than what the new Pink Whitney Minis. Sometimes they call them nips. Where're you from? From January 1st through March 26, we are given triplets fans a chance to win a custom pink Whitney shot machine.

This has won all the all of the bedrooms in his house with those. Yeah.

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So I'm not a big guy but. When we're on the road, there's like seven hundred of them in the kitchen, I might drink like seven in a day, just like the little one header for the golf course. Exactly. Yeah. It's like a great to sneak on flights.

We were I was drinking some on the way to Cabo in the ladies. Yeah. You're not allowed to bring your own minis. I legit that thought that that's why they were created to fly with and have a couple on one.

Can't go through security with liquids now you can't because they're under a certain amount.

It's that's just covid protocol. This, it's just because of Cauvin right now. They don't want people drinking. But normally you can bring those, you can bring Minnies through.

Oh yeah. So that's why they're called airplane sized.

We were in TSA doing some shit you couldn't get into before. Now you can take like a pack of fucking big lighters on and nobody fucking blinks before, like the pat you down and rub your grandal before they let you want to.

Like it's got us warez bring and bring in hundreds of red socks, BIC lighters to sell in other cities when they win the World Series.

That's a random hassle. Well, anyways, we did mention the huge trade since our last episode came together pretty quick. The number two in number three picks in the twenty sixteen draft was swapped for each other as Columbus ship Pier Leuchtenburg in the third round pick in twenty twenty two So the Winnipeg Jets for Patrick Lanning and Jack Ross Slovik. Dubah had been benched on Thursday after a pretty subpar effort. The trade talks really picked up momentum on Friday. By Saturday morning we woke up.

He was traded, Russell, because a Columbus native, he did not want to play in Winnipeg at all. He stayed home, never signed a contract there. He immediately signed a two year deal with Columbus worth three point eight million dollars. Patrick Lanning will be Arafeh after this season. He's making six point seventy five mil. Winnipeg is going to eat about a quarter of that bill, whereas Plup the boys signed through twenty, twenty two at five million.

So Columbus maybe has an advantage, if you want to call it that in the meantime. But either way, a huge deal, a real hockey trade, not a cap deal best. Let's go to you first. We got take so we got Jody Shelley coming on.

Who's got a way better pulse on this whole situation than us? I'm happy for everybody involved. I mean, I saw Pierluigi Dubois interview with Ron McClain right after it happened. And and listen, if you're a hardcore Columbus fan, everything he might have said, you might have been thrown shit at the television, tell him to fuck off. But he genuinely seemed like so happy about it. He explained that, you know, there's Loopt by the hockey player, purely by the person.

He just genuinely wasn't happy in Columbus. And he found a way to get himself out. And in a situation where, you know, as Jody Powell is going to mention and we have before on the podcast, his father's an assistant coach in Winnipeg for the for the Manitoba Moose. Right. So he spends time there in the off season. He's just comfortable with the situation. He seemed overjoyed about it. In return, Columbus is getting a big name that's going to draw more attention to their organization.

He's going to help out on special teams. Now, the question mark remains, if Wigney wasn't happy in Winnipeg, will he be happy in Columbus? I don't know why lineI wasn't really happy in Winnipeg. I don't know if it was. I don't know if you've heard any of this. There's been rumblings that maybe he didn't get along with teammates as well as he had expected going in where he didn't feel comfortable there. And now, I mean, even watching his interview, he seems excited to go to Columbus and make his own little imprint.

Now, Ross Slavek, we talked about him earlier in our breakdowns of the teams and what this guy can offer to a lineup. I think that they seem optimistic that he could maybe potentially turn out to be a decent second line center in the league. Now, Du Bois, I think the ceiling is very high. I think that now, as far as depth through the middle of the ice, having Chifley and imperially Dubois, you're one to that is fucking deadly.

That is deadly because ice I hadn't I wasn't ready to put Du Bois in that category of a one a center. Like I don't put them in that that high echelon. But I think he's a competent guy who can maybe play defensively to where he could shut those guys down and maybe keep up with them offensively if had to go one on one throughout a playoff series. Now he's going to be getting even better matchups. And I think that that that one two combo is going to tear the league apart.

So I it's too it's too early to judge who's going to win the trade right now. I really like it for Winnipeg because I see it lasting longer than maybe the relationship between Lione Tortes and even Lyon, a re upping there.

What do you think with all these Arafeh? So they're going to have to get them signed after this year.

And they definitely hold a lot of the power. Although you saw with with the way the games change, you don't necessarily have that essentially means nothing at this.

Here's the thing like this trade is interesting when you talk about true hockey trades. And I actually think it helps both teams. I think both teams do get better raw, which can be a real change there, depending on who they pick in the third round. Right. It's years away from. Being able to figure it out and yeah, people quickly, people say, like, you can't decide the winner yet you can't decide the winner. Four years.

I mean, how many times did you hear Suban Webber who won that trade? Now it seems to be leaning Webber. It's like, who knows things? Things take years to develop and looking at trades.

But we're also which is going to get a way better opportunity and a bigger chance fired up being a hometown kid. The other two, Juber and lining, they've both made it clear that they weren't happy where they were.

I think the way the ball went about it was kind of crazy to see a young guy man like once that shift came out, his last shift as a blue jacket and I mentioned before the year show up and do your job and doesn't really matter if you want to be traded.

It just matters what you're doing in those 60 Minutes in practice and training.

He was blatantly fucking dogging it. Yeah, is you're like, all right. I mean, I guess it's it's a kind of an odd press of a young player. And he just signed a two year deal. He doesn't want to be there. That's what you can do. But it's like handling it one way. He you know what? This is the thing you want to argue my point. He he got his wish. Whatever he did worked.

But you got to be the asshole, right? Yeah. Force the hand a little bit.

I couldn't that that shift you guys that those fucking crazy that was an NHL player. Yeah.

That was pretty, pretty bad. I mean, that's just because I thought I was under no obligation. But even that shift, it was like when a guy is doing that, how do you justify put him in the lineup?

And then if you're going to start sitting home, it's like, all right, you're only hurting your team, get them out of there. So we'll probably never know.

I think maybe his dad being in Winnipeg and being a part of the organization really did help. And that was one of the places he wanted to go. You heard Montreal was really interested.

I think there was tons, of course, that Burgettstown was probably like torn because you got to look to wire and fucking Montreal. It's like, forget it. The streets of St. Catherine Street, Renwood, fucking Montreal, jazz fans, finches everywhere, if they fucking hear that. But it's like, dude, that that team is fucking human right now. Why would you want to fuck with that chemistry?

Yeah, and they're probably asking for either that or is it Ramina off is how you say his last name growing off?

I think Renaldi Renel enough. But yeah, I'm like I said, I'm happy for both guys, you know, from a hockey player standpoint and from a if I ever had to watch a teammate do that, yeah, I'd be a little bit difficult. I wonder what those guys think of him.

I wonder if they're still good buddies and or they're just like, what a prick you we'll probably find out in a way that we will never be on Checkout's. But it is it is interesting to see how he made a case about not wanting to be there. And then he stood by his guns in full blown through it.

Yeah. And like I said with Jodi, it's like, you know, Winnipeg isn't exactly a place guys like Diana go to when he went there and he's violent. And to be happy, it was like may well stay there.

It was like the end of Shawshank shot. Oh, Jesus Christ. Hashtags actually end of Shawshank Redemption when he gets out of the prison. That was like his interview on SportsNet. What he's look it up and he's like, oh, my God, I'm going to Winnipeg. And it's just like, bro, have you ever you're going to Winnipeg, man.

I mean, in that interview, too busy. Did he did you know, I mean, we talk about church, obviously huge factor, but he had nothing but good things to say about him. He said he's a hard coach. I can take it. Nothing personal. I grew up with the dad was a coach, and he told me if a coach challenges you, it's never personal. He just wants what's best for you. And that's how I see choice.

And I have nothing but respect for him if it's lip service. Either way, he still said it. So, you know, I think there's some validity to it, but I think it was just more than towards.

I think that Paul Morris definitely has moments when he can be hard on guys.

And having said, that line has never experienced anything like what he's about to experience. And maybe this takes him to the to the next level as a player, maybe towards holding him so accountable and getting on him. And who knows, the kid could shut it down or or the kid could light it up.

It really either one of those scenarios really doesn't surprise me.

But if he does start giving that extra effort, every single game, like the way towards kind of forces the whole team to Columbus to play, imagine how dangerous he could be. Yeah.

And not a power play that they're going to he could help a ton.

And if not, you get a little Ernie Els action on the team flightline and Tortes put the fucking ball in the ring, put the helmet on.

K'Jon Well you got to think about the Yamal connection will be huge as far as him staying there going forward. I mean, he's known him since he's a kid. They're Fun Fenland. There's definitely a bond there. And I mean, if there's a guy who can kind of get that out of them, that's what we're going to stay there. You got to think of Jamal. Keep going.

And I'd be lying. I'd be lying if I didn't like to see some drama between towards some line. But if it all works out happy for him.

And I got another note here, too. This is from Down Goes Brown on Twitter. Before yesterday, the last two top three picks from the same draft were traded for each other was back in 1995. Number one pick Brian Baratta, number two, pick Wade Red was swapped. That deal happened on January twenty third. Nineteen ninety six. Exactly twenty five years to the day is the double trade.

That's crazy man. I that's just some serendipity.

Shit, that's when there's a Wizard of Oz back there working and all of a sudden Truman show us all our lives.

Truman Show my boys what we did mention. We have Jody Shelley. We're going to bring him on shortly. But first, I got a couple of sandbaggers who want to talk to you for a second.

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Jodi. Shelly. It's a pleasure to welcome our next guest. This guy was undrafted and went on to become one of the toughest customers to play in the league this century. He had over two hundred penalty minutes for three straight years and led the league one of those years.

These days, you can catch him on Fox Sports, Ohio, covering the Columbus Blue Jackets. And he joins us today to help us make sense of the big trade. That's a bunch of coming on Jodi showing how I am. I'm in. Good man.

Good to see you. Thanks for having me on. Good to see you. So it's been a while, so we got to jump right into this trade, obviously, to watch to when you guys got back, Patrick Loughney and Jack Ross.

Was this something that was ugly behind the scenes or was all the ugliness pretty much public? You know, I think it was pretty much public and it's not very often you hear the head coach say, you know, this guy wants out. He signed a two year deal. And I still and moments later, you hear that there's rumblings he wants to be traded. And, you know, it's kind of surprising for everybody. I thought right away and then I honestly didn't believe it to be true.

I'm one of those guys. It's maybe too much of an optimist sometimes, but I'm like, oh, you know, they'll work it out. They'll work it out. But then the more you hear, you're like, wow, this could really be true. And then it all kind of played out in front of us. I mean, we watched the ball practice and play for a week before his last game, and you could tell he was sending a message to his teammates, you know, kind of like, you know, he everyone knew he wanted out.

They address it in front of the team. He spoke and then, you know, he just what he did, he didn't go out play hard. He didn't go out and hold up his end of the deal. So we saw the whole thing happen. And then when the trade finally did happen, that's a big trade. I mean, that's a big deal. We don't see a lot of trades. You know, we get excited for trade deadline day, but that's a major deal that someone would trade.

Patrick lineI and Luke Tuborg with Ross Slovik. So it works out for the Blue Jackets, I think. But the way the whole thing shook out, it was messy. And you saw and heard everything I think we needed to hear.

It was definitely odd and just so weird to see that young of a player just be like, I want I want out of here. It's like it sets a weird precedent.

And I had said earlier that if you're playing as hard as you can and you're playing great, even though the news is out there that you want to trade, teammates will respect you. But it was obvious once we saw, I think, the spit and check, let's put out the shift to the one that cut the bench the other night. Last shift is a blue jacket.

He was it was pretty blatant. Like he he didn't give a shit that he ever skates tight.

Had the old trick. I don't know who's ever sat on the bench with their skates tight, but yeah, you know what? That shift was just kind of summed it up. And and when you look at I mean, if you go into any work, you're going to get any job and say, you know what, I don't want to be here anymore, but see you guys tomorrow. I'll be here and I'll I'll be here to work. I think you can get away with it wit in hockey, because for some reason, you know, you don't talk about it on the bench.

You don't talk about it in a battle. You don't if you see a guy that's just going out there, just going hard and scoring goals and crushing people like we know Dubah can do, then it's different. I think you can live with it. You know, he gets away and takes care of his business. But when you see what he did on that last shift, yeah, that's when you're like, OK, you know, we're trying to do something and it's time to move along.

You thought you mentioned there was zero signs of it before he signed this deal. I know. Ended up being a fair deal. And I would imagine in his mind, he's like, let's get locked into a decent average. That way he's easier to move at two years at five per. I don't know, I mean, I don't know, it's a deal where he's a better asset to trade, I guess if he's signed and he's a player that, you know, he's a restricted free agent, he's agreed to sign and come to camp.

He's got to be in camp to to be able to play with us. So I think it was just it was a great bridge deal. I mean, the bluejackets would have loved to have a long term, but it sounds like the longer it went, the it got. And then after that, when he got here, by the time he did show up, that's when everything that kind of turn and things got sour. So, yeah, I would just say that he had to be signed to be here and that two years was made it attractive for him to get picked up.

I mean, there was some rumblings of the relationship between him and Tortes wasn't that great. How much of it do you think that impacted his decision to move? Because he wouldn't he wouldn't come out and flat out say it.

Right. You know, I think I think it had an impact, I think he's a young player that had great opportunities here. I think with the break and the length of time being not signed, I think he just looked at himself and thought maybe he was he was crossed or something by talks, which, you know what, it was shown on TV in Toronto in the playoffs, torture, yelling at them. We've all been yelled at. So I just think it kind of it kind of built on them.

But I also think this is a player that realized that maybe like I heard all the things about offer sheets, I heard about different deals in different spots. I think, you know, talks being hard on them maybe had a little bit. But I think there's other things, factors like attractiveness to get to another market, you know, hearing from outside sources that, hey, you could be here and play for this, you know, you know, because everyone talks, you hear all kinds of things from everybody, girlfriend, agent, wife, mom, dad.

And then when you paint a different picture and someone believes it, well, it looks like that's what happened with this kid.

I don't know this kid at all. And I. I find it hard to believe that, you know, all of a sudden he's just like, I don't want to be here.

Whereas if you look to what could have happened and signs, maybe maybe to him, he's thinking, ah, they're going to offer me a big, huge deal, like, right when they can and nothing really happen, you know, and maybe like if you have an ego, you're just like, oh, that that's enough right there. Like, they don't respect me. Who knows? I wonder if it'll ever, ever truly come out. But it's going to be exciting as an analyst for you and the players and the fans.

I mean, not only you get back line and you've seen his high level and what he can do is big time.

But Rostropovich hasn't really had much of a chance, I know a little bit last year, but a local kid. So they got to be thrilled with what ended up turning out. Here is a good return. A great return? I think so.

I mean, Lynna is a superstar. I mean, he's a guy that shoots the puck. And all the talk is, can he play for tortes? Listen, he'll play fine for Tortes Talks is a guy who's had a lot of stars. This kid has great skill set. Bluejackets have a tough time scoring goals. They're powerplays struggling. And then you bring home a local kid who grew up here. Is Idle's played for the bluejackets? You know what I mean?

Rossel Vick is a great story. He's got skill. He played center and Winnipeg kind of ran out of room there. And that position had to move to the wing late on the fourth line. So all those things kind of add it up. You got to love the return. It didn't diminish the return. What Pierluigi did, you know, he goes to Winnipeg, where his dad's a coach in the minor leagues where he spends time in Winnipeg.

And then we got a local guy, plus I think a guy who's exciting to watch and exciting worldwide. You know, we don't get to see him much because he plays in Winnipeg, but in Columbus, we're going to love this kid, I think. Yeah, Luke basically turned into Peter from office space, like, what would you do, it was, as you say you do here, just completely loafing on the job.

But what I want to ask, if it wasn't strictly towards you know, we had nothing but good things about Columbus on the show, the city, the fans.

But, you know, and left. But Robiskie left now. Plup what's up? Winnipeg, which is a place a lot of guys don't want to go. And he seems happy. They're happier there. Is there an issue with the team keeping this talent? And if so, is it strictly a Yamal thing or is it a Columbus thing? And, you know, it's you know, it's definitely not.

And I'm not just saying that. I mean, all the situations you go back to Nash, you know, he left, you go back to some of the other situations. They're all different. And this is a young kid who fell out with the organization. Maybe maybe that definitely something to do with the coach and what he saw. But this is unique because they drafted him. They had him here for just three years and then he decides to go on.

You know, city of Columbus is incredible. I mean, we don't have the mountains and the ocean, but the people here, the industries that are here, it's one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. It's a major sports market. You know, Ohio State Buckeyes, over one hundred thousand fans in the building. I've never seen anything like this place. And it's unique in the sense that, you know, we don't have the hustle and bustle of a big city, but we've got everything you need in it.

And it's a special, special place. We've got thirteen local alumni. Now, I would say it's like in my opinion, it's probably a little like St. Louis. I don't know much about St. Louis. I you know, you guys know you go to the Westin, you stay downtown, you go to the rink, you get out of town and you don't know anything about it. But they got one of the best alumni there because the people, the suburbs, what it offers to their players.

So there is nothing wrong with Columbus as a market, not an organization either. These guys, your whole works his butt off. And he's done a great job. He's competitive and he was happy. I loved his comments about getting the number to move from number three to number two. So it wasn't just a little little shot there getting his his spinach buddy over.

Max Domi made some comments you said he got over there in training camp. He said, like, the culture in the locker room is like something he'd never seen before. Obviously, they the whole team seems to embody what sports is about. So other than this incident, it seems like everybody's really happy to be there and they're pulling the rope the same way. Yeah, that's a good point.

But, you know, sometimes these locker rooms that say all the guys are so great, I love the guys, it's not the best place to be, you know what I mean? It's a good place for fun. But I think it was like that before here. But now you're right. They're all pulling. These guys want to win. They've been together a long time. Folino Jones, Oransky, you know, there's a Boon Jenner. They get it.

There's a certain way here you can bring in a bad egg like Detroit used to be, chew them up and spit them out. If he's not going to go the way that the team goes, you know what I mean? And I think they have that culture here. So for me to come in, this is a guy who's you know, he's a high profile guy. He's a guy that brings some skill in here. And it seems like he's grown up a little bit.

I think he's had a good point here for the Blue Jackets. And I love those comments because that's important to have a guy to come in here and buy into what's happening. Otherwise, he wouldn't be here very long.

Just a quick one to happen. How has he been since he's been there? I know it's only been like, what, six games he's played, but is he fit and good? Yeah, you know what?

He's a guy. You know, when you go to a new organization, you try to be like, this is a fresh start. You know, I'm going to be I'm going to be a little different. I'm going to be the guy or, you know, and that leads you to try to do too much on the ice. He's might have been trying to be too too perfect with Cam Atkinson. Atkinson's a shooter. He's been trying to get him to Puck every time he gets it, trying to be a little too, you know, too fancy sometimes.

But I think like the last game we saw him play straight ahead, competitive on the park and then his skill comes out in tight. So much better. And he had met his first game to now a six game play. He's much better. He's he's fun to watch, too. It's got a little starless game. Oh, yeah.

I'm curious. You watched Puch Duba at the top of his game and kind of he's so young.

Do you think he could be a true number one center in Winnipeg? Does he have all that in them?

I mean, Winnipeg steep. They got some good, good center even a couple of years down the line.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so. This guy has never been challenged. He's been the number one. You know, Wennberg was supposed to be the guy to play with. Panarin didn't have four wemba Dubah took over. Domy comes to camp and I watched Pierluigi for the first couple of days of camp. This guy took it to another level, you know what I mean? Like he was when he turns it up, it's scary. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's built like a swimmer. He's only about twenty two years old. And when he gets mad and we want to dial it up, he's scary. The skill set like quick feet, quick hands and big and rough.

So better in the battles than the shift. I would say that that shift was very telling, if you would, that there would be the opposite end of what I mean, that was very clear what was going on.

I think I think they said going back to last year's playoff, Crosby was the only guy in Crosby. We played against Montreal for what I think it was like four or five games. He got beat up. But he as far as Puck Battles won, he's probably one of the best guys in the league. When he goes in, he's coming out with the fucking thing.

It's unbelievable. And like, he's he's smart. He's worked on things were like three on three. I know he commented a few times that he would let the guy come at him, you know, guys like you and me, because we would take the bait to we like a free hit. So we go for a hit and the guys and gals like maybe it would be like, slip us off. We're in almost the one who didn't throw the hit.

I had been no number for the guy would be in front of the net with the puck, so.

Oh, unbelievable. And looking with like a I mean you have you've all heard. We've all heard like he can shut it down a little bit.

Kind of been an issue of inconsistency. How long does talks kind of deal with it if that's going on, like does he get a little bit of a warning from him?

Like, it's tough to say if he'll even be like that. But can you see that relationship being a little weird if he does decide to take nights off?

Yeah, I think I think it could be. I mean, that's what Torch does. I mean, he's done it with his guys here. And so the guys in the room understand what's expected. So if he lets one guy, he doesn't let anyone get away with it. I mean, I saw Gaborik sit on the bench and the fourth line would go out and it would be shift after shift in the garden. I'm like, you know, it's just how it is.

And he sends the message, if you don't want to pull your weight and it's simple, work hard, play within the system and when you're ready to get off, get off the ice.

He doesn't ask much. He leaves you alone on off days. He's awesome. But you just got to bring your work boots when you come here to play.

I was just going to ask one more question. Sometimes I get the feeling that maybe some guys think that it's he makes it a little bit more about him than the actual team. And that's I mean, we had John Scott on and he wasn't a big fan at his interaction with them in New York. What's your experience with them and do you feel that that is the case? Sometimes he does tend to make it a little bit more about himself than the actual team or I have an experience at base.

I've heard that, you know, I've heard different experiences. Of course, everybody's got the different. I got to New York at a trade deadline. There were six of us staying in a hotel. I went there. I thought it was out of the league. I got traded from San Jose to there and I didn't care. I went to I went into New York with the greatest attitude because it was in New York City. I was living downtown and I was a ranger.

It was like, get out of my way. And that served me so well. I know if you guys ever had the chance to do that, but it's like when you have that attitude to do something I didn't like, I didn't dodge anything. And it was amazing and torturous. Great. I mean, it was it was a good way, a good mindset to have because I wasn't tiptoeing around and trying to do different things. I just went to work and he noticed it and appreciate it and gave me actually great ice time.

And then I actually signed in Philly. It's a whole other story, but it's I love talks. I love everything about them. I hate to hear their stories about them. There's probably some reasons, but my experience, it's been awesome. I wanted to ask I mean, he's going to his sixth season with Columbus. Now, frankly, that's a long time, especially for Toit's. But unlike previous stops, things seem to be fine. They're like everything's going swimmingly despite all the drama.

I mean, is that accurate to say, like there's no real drama with him?

Well, in the room, yeah. I don't really get a full sense that there's any drama. I mean, I think guys get pushed by him sometimes and it's not the optimal time and that's just how it goes. But I don't sense anything. He's in the last year of his deal. I think this is up the tortes, you know, I think towards having the break and this is just my opinion. He's a guy that rescues animals, horses and dogs.

I think he finds a lot of a lot of nice time out there in the barn. I think that's more attractive right now than some of these long days at the rank. That's just what I'm what I'm thinking, you know what I mean? He always says he's on his back nine. He's done a great job here, improving the culture and maybe in the next few years he'll be OK.

But I think it's up to towards they just announced a ten year extension on Twitter here. Thanks.

I wanted to get into your career, too. I appreciate you coming on talking about this whole situation at Columbus. And that's a place where you started. I was looking through the head coaches. You even had Dave King, who's a legendary head coach. I had him. How was that when you first got to Columbus? And what was it like from a new organizational standpoint?

Well, it was my first crack in the NHL. I mean, I wasn't it was unbelievable. I wasn't supposed to be there, but I was there, you know, as a tough guy. And Dave King growing up in Canada, he was Mr. Hockey Canada when I was growing up like he was Mr. Abitur, Hockey Canada. And after practice, I remember the veterans kind of looking over. I'd be one on one with Dave King doing stick and quick feet drills.

And I like I would do this. This is like Dave King Hockey School. I would do this all day. And they're all kind of like elbowing each other like, look at this, who is this guy over here? But I needed it and he was great for me and the older guys, you know, they were giving him a hard time. But I love. Dave, can you had him in Russia, right? No, I had a man in Arizona will tell you at the time and same thing with like I was a healthy scratch most most games.

After every single practice, you would grab me.

I would be doing these these knee drop drills like crossover, crossover, crossover, crossover, knee drop crossover. And it was I was like, where does he learn this stuff? And sure enough, all of it was from the KHL. So I was getting KHL training camp Big Skates on The Daily with Dave King. But as you said, it prepared you for games, especially, you know, being a being a healthy scratch or not getting as much ice time.

It kind of got you to the shape that those other guys were in. So when you did get your opportunity, you were there to step up to the plate.

Oh, yeah. And the guy got called up from the minors. I didn't you know, I was focused on fighting and he's like, you know, he didn't tell me, but he was like, if you're going to stay around and play a few minutes, you got to get quicker hands of quicker feet. So that's what he that's what he was doing.

That was a nice way of telling you this put you to the guillotine on the last thing you wanted to do.

You you then, you know, you were in San Jose. In Philly. Yeah. Stop in the Rangers, but you went back to Columbus. I don't know if you married a girl from there. You just once you played there to start your career, NHL career, you were like, I'm going to be here for good. Yeah. Yeah. I married a girl from here. It's been great. It's been a great spot for me, too, because, you know, my parents, I lived all over Canada.

My parents live in Edmonton, Alberta, which is a great town, but it's a tough sell in April when it's, you know, still thirty below, you know, you played there. So it's yeah, it's a great city. The people are awesome. But in Columbus, it has so much to offer. The organization has been great. So this has been a perfect fit for me.

Did you did you get right into the broadcasting the year you retired? Were you lucky enough or do you have to wait a year before something opened up? How did that all go postretirement?

Well, I was going to go to the KHL. I was thinking about going over to play with Sergei Federoff in Moscow. And there was an opportunity with the bluejackets broadcast on the radio to be a color analyst. And I you know, I was thinking, well, if I go there and grind it over in the KHL for a year and come back, that opportunity might not be here. So I, I didn't go over there. I got into the radio and then found my way to TV, which was a really good decision for you.

We appreciate you explaining what happened there in Columbus. And I mean, they keep losing guys, but they keep on winning. So there's something there in terms of the team morale and what guys said in terms of example. So appreciate your insight and look forward to catching up a lot of time. We can talk more about your entire career.

Yeah, we're going to get you on. We've got to get you on for the whole thing and how you ended up in Halifax for Manitoba. We'll come on and get the whole thing. All right. Thanks. Bye. It's my pleasure.

But thanks to Jody Shelley for jumping on with us, he's a great guy, I was fortunate to meet him several years back here in Boston and he's got some tremendous insight to Columbus. He's been there for a while. Great at what he does. So thanks again, George. We're going to have him back at some point, Jodi. At some point. Yeah, absolutely. He's I like I said, I'm drafted to one of the best fighters of his generation.

So great story.

Also, he went to Canadian college and then started playing pro after that. So there's not too many guys wind up going to college. Right? I think who's a guy in Anaheim? I think he ended up winning a cup. Oh.

Oh, I know who you're talking about. That's going to drive.

And I'm drawing a blank while I look it up. Why do you think about it? Hey, listen, gang, classic bears Grindley right there this Valentine's Day.

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So he went online and I remembered it all you did. You didn't have to look it up. Look at you.

He was on in line with them fucking they had a nasty line who was not on the line, but he was on the he was on the team that lost the devils and so they lost. But he went to the University of Western Ontario. Next thing you know, he was playing for the San Diego Gall's. And then he had a fucking like, I don't know, 10 year NHL career. So not too many guys who were able to go from from Canadian University all of a sudden playing to the show.

So I heard I heard Westons, one of the biggest times to ever have a time to have a drink and have a time.

Yeah. Yeah. So so when I when I got when I got pigeon tossed by Pittsburgh and I ended up getting sent home from camp. Do you remember that year.

Yes. They told me they go, don't even go to the NHL, go home and we'll work out a trade. I never ended up getting traded and I didn't have to go to the coast for like another month because there's like a gap. I end up going to Frosh Week at University Western out there. I ended up staying for seven days, buddy. We're talking hattrick Sunday. It was a fucking Gong Show, I would say. I think they ranked all the the craziest party universities in North America.

And I think it landed on four. And the party it's in London, Ontario. It's a time. And yes, I would say London. Yeah, I would say that's where the craziness is out as far as college gets.

Well, speaking of time business, it's time for our weekly divisional breakdown. And we're going to stick with the covid riddled Central Division right now. Unfortunately, there are a lot of covid issues in this division. Floren and Dallas have only played to get two games each thus far. Carolina had its Tuesday game postponed and all game since today. The NHL updated the schedule. There are seven games that include Carolina, Nashville, Florida, Columbus and Tampa. They've all been kind of randomly dropped into February or March dates.

And this is from my pal Chris Johnston. Florida has to play 54 games in two days. Dallas. Fifty four and one hundred and four. Carolina, fifty three and one hundred and Tampa Bay fifty two and one hundred and two. I mean, guys, you guys obviously played a full schedule, you know, I know that's a lot, but given that it's only five and six games, how much, how much you guys going be one down with this type of scoring.

My goodness. I mean you got to hope there are a couple teams are a team would love to see them maybe get a chance to get enough of a lead in the standings or, you know, you get in the playoffs and it's like the last ten games.

We can really rest some people, because as you get older, I mean, every other game, this is this is crazy. And injuries are going to mount up. There's no doubt about that. This division's getting the worst of it so far. It sucks for Carolina going through that break.

Florida, I mean, they haven't they haven't had covid issues, but they keep getting screwed out of playing.

Correct, because they were going to play Dallas and then Carolina. All that's worked.

But Dallas comes back and looks like one of the greatest hockey teams ever assembled. The first night in a seven nothing thrashers.

Are they playing six on four on their power play?

Well, Peevski has seven points to game two games.

It's it's that team looks hungry, pissed off and like a guy like Gary on off, he scored both games. He kind of really hopped on the scene in the playoffs on that run they had. So they got guys.

And we talked a lot about drawing a blank on his name who flies around for them right now with the long flow, OK, group hints. And and so guys like that or like making the next step where you have Sagaing out, you don't I don't know exactly when he's coming back, but I think it's still a decent time away. Yeah.

And so these guys are stepping up and Grant, it's been two games, but they have to wait to start your season and be all antsy and then get a start like they did just truck in Nashville that shows that they're right up there, right up there at the top.

Yeah.

I'm curious to know if, like, this delayed start is just all these other teams are playing and they're wearing each other out and then all of a sudden they get to step in on healthy. But I think it's ultimately going to catch up to them or any team that's not playing games. The depth depth is everything. And then it kind of makes you question, well, maybe the system with with Vegas playing five D and thirteen forwards has to do with this.

You know, when they maybe plan on resting guys on certain games, like like there has to be some type of strategy involved. If you're coach and you want to keep your guys, you know, full octane and healthy going into playoffs, if you do want to make this deep run where you got to start thinking about it now, like you're even seeing teams where they're starting, goalie won't even dress. Right. It'll go from from starting to like let's let them mentally check out.

He doesn't need to put the gear on and be on the bench, you know, I mean, I would imagine still. Yeah. Taxe squad stuff. But but in the NHL right now, they're allowing the three goalies. Right. So that was just kind of a you know, I've seen that a few times where, like, the starter will go from, like, you know, like a healthy scratch, so to speak. So it's interesting, this this whole scheduling thing, it's been a bit of a gong show in the Central for sure.

And. How about Dallas, I'm sorry, what eight of their 10 goals so far have been on the power play, eight of 12 on the year, 66 percent. I know they only played two goals, but that's still a ghastly number if you're their opponent, Anton, who doesn't get his 100th win all time as nine shutout. Joel Korver at those placed on Iaat and Jamie Ben was placed on I'm sorry not placed on fire. He missed a couple of games along a lower body injury.

I didn't think we'd see him go down like that, but apparently we did.

You fuck because if there's anyone who loves beating the Jamie Bean doesn't eat pussy joke, you, you love that. Is it a factual thing that he actually say that he doesn't go down?

I mean, he he tweeted it admitting he put it to the wrong thing. And, you know, it didn't seem like he was a huge advocate of the old kind of like he was that a body.

And he actually treated it. And it was just like not even like, yeah, I was like he was like like shitting on it. It's like, buddy, you don't have to like it. But I mean, what you told him, the guys like the pleasure always shit because we like to do it.

You know, Jay College doesn't impress either. He was adamant about saying, did you see the retreat?

I did. Jay College doing the Larry King interview show Larry King Rest in peace, one of the greatest interviewers.

What what did you get? So fat? He said, yeah.

Yeah. All right.

So I just totally ruined the story, so I'll still try. So he's interviewing Khaleed and Jay Calix, talking about how he wants the nice watch, the nice car.

He likes to look fresh, and then right at the end he goes, how did you gain all the weight?

And you know what's funny is he I never I never saw that. I saw the one when he interviewed Jerry Seinfeld. Yes.

I felt so sick. He was such a dick. Such an asshole is an asshole.

He's an asshole. He's like an asshole. He's an asshole.

I think he actually did watch his show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix. Now, it's basically exactly what I just described. He gets a car, a fancy car that he rents a fucking owns. They pick up a comedian. They go have coffee and make jokes and stroke Jerry's ego. He just seems like such a pompous dick. And honestly, Jerry Seinfeld is fucking not doing OK. Larry David, if we're going to call a spade a spade.

I mean, his comedy comedy was he was good in the 80s, but like without the show, dude, the show elevated Seinfeld to a level that people think is comedy is actually funnier than it is. Larry David fucking put him on the map more than Ray.

Try to sneak back stage to a Jerry show that I'm sorry. I think he's overrated. Dude, I people talking. He's one of the greatest stand ups of all time. He's not even close.

Dude, his show is great and it's iconic and all that all that is fine with the M.G. rated bullshit.

Did he not just release one fairly. I want to see like within the last couple of years, he put one out and he and it was not very good unless I'm thinking about a completely different comedian. But there is also that part. Remember the catwalk, not the catwalk, the red carpet. Excuse me, when the girl came up, she's like, oh, my God, I love Jerry Seinfeld. Can I have a hug?

And he's like, no. And he's just had a lot of moments where he's been a complete asshole.

Larry David's proven he can do it. He be the behind the scenes. Yeah, exactly. Me behind the scenes on Seinfeld and then actually be the still the star on Curb, which is way better.

I'm a big Seinfeld guy, though, but back to Larry King quick, because he did 50000 interviews they think he did in his life.

Do you know how many interviews that is, and he mentioned a bunch of people, you know, little things about, and they said, like he always said, the shorter the question, the better the answer. And I was like, wow.

I was like, that's great to know. Right? When we're interviewing people, we just interview Jodi Shulie. I asked him two questions.

It took three minutes to get the whole question out. It's like it's true, though.

You ask a short question, how do you gain all the weight? I told him every fucking hostess doughnut he ate for the next three minutes after that.

So how how old was he when he died? He was old seven, I think. OK, so if you went 80 times 365, that's 30, basically thirty thousand twenty nine thousand two hundred. So he was doing two interviews a day for like two or three interviews a day for I don't know what set this.

Did you see that. Fifty thousand interviews. All right. That they think he did.

It sounds about right. I mean, and it's funny, it's almost like short questions. And I agree sometimes shorter, better. But I think when you have an audience who might need a little background, because I am the king of fucking long question here, I think sometimes.

Right. I wasn't going after you. I don't know. I know you sometimes I ask the guests questions and like, by the end of it, they're like, what? I ask a question so long that sometimes when I'm talking, I forget the question that I haven't even got. Savir, no, you can't assume your audience knows exactly what you do.

But it's funny. I was reading The Washington Post and it was a column. Larry King's Long Run made the case that there's no such thing as a dumb question. That's the column I want to bring up, because I think sometimes people say, oh, that's a dumb question. It's like, you know what? You can think the questions dumb, but if you get a fucking great answer, who cares what the question was? Because sometimes we ask simplistic questions and it ends up being a fantastic fucking story.

And in the Jerry Seinfeld case, he was kind of an asshole back. So what's what's everyone talking about while that question. Right.

OK, the other thing he said, Tuba's that was really interesting was.

We've talked before the you prepare like we're interviewing this guy, and a lot of times I'm like, no, he actually said he never prepared for one interview. He goes, I want it to be just like the audience that was going to be listening to the interview and know nothing going in. So some people said that was him mailing and in his later years.

But there is definitely an argument where I've interviewed someone I know nothing.

I'm like, I'll just find out when we're interviewing them.

Well, that and like, if I know I'm going on Larry King show, I'm going to be like he could say, like one word and I'd talk for, you know, I'm trying to be as interesting as possible. You're not you're it's like you're not you're not like, OK, yeah, sure. I'll agree to do Larry King and just show up. Yeah.

He doesn't have to grind out interviews. That's very true. That's true. It's like, you know, it's not it's funny.

When he had Danny Pudi on The Kid from a community and he was like, what kind of extravagances do you have? Like a private jet? He's like, Larry, I'm on fucking ducktail, Larry. I'm on Ducktails. Like, I was like Larry because he was a celebrity. He had like zillions of dollars. He's like, Larry, I'm Ducktails here. Kind of like classic interview. But yeah. Larry King IRP. A great interview. Absolutely.

Back to the Central Division.

You Tampa's power play is just coming along. And how do we. ZIGGLER That one. All right. Check it out tomorrow. Illinois, you're on the line. How about those Blackhawks?

I did mention in Grinnell, he brought it up via text, an knock. Thank you for the quick plug here, Grenouille. I said second being out was, you know, it was only going to delay it to where he's probably, you know, getting full stride going in the playoffs, which I believe that they'll be in. And it gives these younger guys opportunities and those positions where he would be to prove themselves. And what is Dallas noticing?

They have a lot of new players that can step up to the plate and play in that top six role like they have done an incredible job of drafting and developing guys, because, you know, every year it seems like they got a few new names where it's just like, holy fuck. Yeah. What did you say, Gregory? Arnav, how do you say his name?

Gary on off. On off.

Like last year before playoffs. Who's this guy now? All of a sudden he gets it done in playoffs and now he's having a start to the year. It's like, holy fuck, another guy was going to put twenty in the back of the net.

So they know in the Dallas organization has done an excellent job, very happy for our buddy Rick bonus after coming on after a tough loss in the Cup finals, it looks like the team's ready to maybe go on another run after two games.

So that division needs to get start playing a little bit, though, right now. The Blackhawks would be in the playoffs.

So, you know that it really is. It hasn't come to form yet. There are two and all since we broke. No, Kane is still scoring like these backhand. It's he's not slowing down one bit.

Ricochet shot, chief of Chicago one. What's a two? Straight after dropping their first four shooter, Swiss kid, he got a hattrick first Hawke to scores, first three goals in the same game since nineteen thirty three.

Chicago can play getting it done eight for nineteen at a forty two percent clip. That's the reason they won the last two straight. Yeah. Also humming along here Columbus. Brandon Dubinsky went to the LTI long term injured reserve last week I mentioned. But Borowski did not start the first game for Florida. Well, I didn't know that was covered. Related. That's what he was. It wasn't a performance thing. So I just want to make an acknowledgement of that.

Duggie Hamilton, he had a streak of two hundred ninety six straight games with a shot on goal. Well, that was ended last week, failed to get a shot on. And how about Bobby Ryan, the first Detroit Red Wings to score for goals in his first three appearances with the team. Nice little rebound story after what he's gone through, boys. I think it's like I said, a very tight, intense, tight season so far. We've got thirty one teams, all between three and ten points.

A couple of surprises. Vancouver's look rough Jersey really hasn't. I don't know, man.

I think these playoff battles are going to go on to go down to the wire.

This this league is impossible right now to hit a puck line. Oh, I have six. I have six or seven Parklawn bats. I haven't sniffed one of them because everyone's so evenly matched. I, I think playing the same team a couple of games in a row, it's like it's just it's going to be a tight game.

So maybe I go against I've never touched a plus one and a half line for huge money. It's like makes no sense for me. It's just kind of going to be the way to go for me. I got to do something.

Yeah. It has been tough sledding for the puck line I laid off the last few nights. And yeah, I actually took Sunday night off. There was a lot of games. It was tough sledding. But yeah, I think teams are so evenly matched.

What we're talking about Arizona and the Coyotes I'm sorry, Arizona and Vegas, they play for four times in a row. Many more times.

They're going to be tight battles no matter what. But. All right, let's move on to the north division.

Oh, sorry. So you're just saying they play four times in a row? Because I heard today that Bridgeport.

And Hartford and Providence are the only three teams in that division. Busy, busy, busy.

Listen, this is already game a season. Their goal in 15 games against each other. You play the same two teams for 30 games.

So the Bridgeport Tigers will play 30 games, 15 against Providence in Marlboro Arena and 15 against Hartford. You believe that that's tough?

Yeah, that's how we get so annoying that it's like Groundhog Day. Yeah. It's just going to say that.

And if you're just getting to need a and if you're getting chewed up by the same sentiment night in and night out, like you can't like, go to another team where you match up better. So, yeah, that's that's that's a bit of a nightmare scenario. So I interrupted.

Would you. North Division where you go into. Yeah, I got to move along to the North Division.

Hey, how about those. How about habitants? Montreal This year's Montreal Canadiens joined the 68 69 Canadians as the only teams in NHL history to have played the first six games of a season on the road and get at least a point in each one. The Canadians. Twenty nine goals for the NHL. I know it's early, but any. No.

All right. I already I think I already have. I've made it clear I tried to get out of that one week into the season. And I'm going to talk about a guy who's really kind of made it so that this team, I don't think they're going away.

And that's Nick Suzuki and his name refigured because I'm sure that was an ask for Columbus when shopping puch to no chance.

So this guy's a first round pick. He's from London, lit up the Chinese first round pick to Vegas. And when they made that Pacioretty trade, it's one of those things where you see this elite NHL gold score going and you're like, oh, they got Nix's Zuki.

You know, we're not we're not scouts. We haven't seen this guy in junior world. Juniors were like, oh, I hope he's good. Well, they knew exactly what they were going. They were doing. Some of the praise coming out of the Montreal room is not said Corey Perry really never said much. I'd never seen a Corey Perry quote, just said he skated with him in London.

He has every skill in the book and he's the real deal. And then Drew and Carnamah, many Patrice Bergeron, he's like, I'm watch this guy play center. He's so responsible in every part of the arena, every part of all parts of the ice, so that offensively he's like gifted in a wizard down low. But defensively he's grinding to be in the right side of the park. And he's just this player who's now giving them like a whole other line.

Right. A whole other group of forwards are going to be able to score and play better because of this guy.

So Jeff Petrie leads the league in points by defensemen. I've long said how good he was, Edmonton, getting rid of him. I still don't understand that one. He's proven to be a huge top four defense who could play tons of minutes and then price.

So like you can keep talking about there as any other team not lost in regulation that's played games.

I don't think so.

And how about that mindset in the next game?

What happens like exactness Edmondson goes out challenge so hit because even when he threw the hit right away, right away. Lekan and boom, they both jump down. It's like, all right, this team, there's something here.

Yeah. I mean, that was the response you want from teammates.

But we would text in about this that hit when it happened. And when I saw that first replay from above, I didn't even think it was a penalty, to be honest. What was it like?

The DOPs said it was a textbook hit with an unfortunate, unfortunate result. And, you know, the guy is free.

I thought given his height, he did a pretty good job of getting his shoulder down to where it seemed like it landed like, you know, right near the stroke area where, yeah, it's not going to look good coming from that angle. But I mean, I don't know, man, that's if we're going to start eliminating that, that it's just going to get worse and worse and worse and it's going to become a fucking gong show.

And and. Pick your head up like the guys, like skating like three or four strides, looking back, I mean, I don't know, it's still a physical game, right.

And people are probably just upset because he came from the other side, you know, I mean, fuck a diet full of remember what he used to. If you came down on Odd Man Rush, sometimes you would come out from the other side. It's like they're essentially saying you can't cross over if you're the DE anymore to make a big hit at the guy who's got his head down. And for me, I don't agree with that. Did it look, they only showed one angle.

I don't remember which feet I was watching. But now now on the networks, they won't reshow the big hits, which is bullshit. I mean, you know, because I probably they showed one angle and it was the angle where I'm like, OK, I you know, it didn't look maybe it didn't look great from that angle, but I ain't making my decision off of that. And then they glanced over it. It was gone. So after seeing all the clips and it was like, yeah, I came from the other side, he caught them with his fucking head down his shoulder, got low enough where I was OK with it.

But once again, it's just like, oh, player safety, blah, blah, blah.

It's it's like, shut the fuck up wasn't the only hit and involve the Canadians. That raised a few eyebrows. Brendan Gallagher hit Donelle Nurse Monday. I thought it was a pretty ugly hit for aborting. I mean, the farthest away for a guy you hit a guy boarding, it could be way more dangerous or at least dangerous looking. But he didn't get a fine or any supplemental discipline. But of course, if you look back a couple of the game before that, what's his face?

Nurse hit Galaga in a similar fashion, although much closer to the boards, neither one of them got penalized. But did you catch either one of those hits I saw?

I saw the one Gallagher threw. It was it was definitely like he knew what he was doing.

And that is not. What is the saying? That is not a tree. You want to start climbing up. I'm making that up. But he wants nothing to do with Darnell.

Nurse No, no, nothing to do. That guy is a machine. So Gallagher doesn't care though. He's a rat.

He'll get in your face, do what it takes. And he probably was pissed off about that. He threw on him. But like we said with Montreal, they're all doing that.

They're all playing a certain way where they're fast and they're hard to play against since we're on the subject. Listen, Kucuk, I don't know if you guys saw in front of that. Campbell makes the same and he gets, like, pushed. And next thing you know, he's got both his knees on cavils back, just like the monkey bars. And after the game, he's a notion and was so impressed after the game, he said something like, it's push to get you guys to.

Even if this is typical with me, you try to say I'm doing it on purpose. I'll say this.

He's trying to score the tying goal, which unfortunately didn't happen for my team, which are the he's kind of got the Corey Perry syndrome where he just so happens to find himself in those situations. And he's like, I, I was just playing hard and I got pushed on the net. But I'm curious to know if Wayne Train is going to be knocking next game against.

I think they're playing again, what, tonight in Ottawa and Winnipeg is the only game on Monday night. Yeah. Oh, that's the only. Yeah, he's like the NHL. Zirkel did I do that.

Yeah.

Speaking of Toronto, McManus, he's got ten goals I'm sure. Ten, ten points so far. He leads the league tied tied with the league lead jumbo. Joe Thorne has gone to the ELSIA. He's out with a fractured rib off the Matthews Miss. Friday's game for precautionary reasons. But he came back Sunday in the Toronto power play at a nine four twenty two clip. Forty one percent. Pretty good stuff. I mean, he should with that talent.

Wayne Simmons got his first gold Maple Leafs. That was his one hundredth power play goal in his five hundredth NHL point. Congrats to the Wayne train on that. But Connor McDavid, I don't you guys watch him Sunday night. He didn't score, but he doesn't. He got to be dominant. Twenty three minutes. Twenty four seconds of ice time. This is from Dimitri. Filipovic was a great toy to follow. He had three primary assists. He set up the triangle with three minutes and five seconds left, set up the winner.

What point? Eight seconds left. Drew to penalty. Seven shot attempts. High danger chances. Eleven Lebanon three with him on the ice. I'm we're going to stroganoff every episode.

But that was just a performance by him that I know in line that gets me warmed up enough to get the analytics fixed line, get the Jurgen's out quickly. Going back to Toronto Doleac, you've got to acknowledge when they've addressed things and it's worked out like Jack Campbell as a backup. He's I think he's already got two wins. He's played great in both games. And that was I think that was a throne with the Muzzin deal. So, you know, I'm saying, like, you got to they had to draft addressed to me toughness, depth and backup goaltending.

And they're getting it right now. So let's look really good. And hopping over to McDavid. Yeah, it's that was a that's a big end to the game because they didn't necessarily have the best start to the year.

But it seems as if though, you know, the two the two headed monster starting to cook and it set in Oilers team record.

It was before they had had to guys score goals with two seconds left. So with technically one second left remaining, that was their like closest to the end of the game winner of all time. Of course, it's straight style. Can't say his name, Cologne, and they looked like disheveled, too, because they gave up the lead late and you're like, Oh my God. And then just McDavid takes over. So their record when both of those guys get multiple points is out of this world.

So it's pretty much like if you can shut down sort of by shut down, I mean, keep McDavid and Driesell to one point each. You're fine. But once they both get multiple points, you're losing.

That's how it works. So trade for Hall of Toronto. I don't know if you guys have seen the MEEMS going around to both games against Toronto. I think they've been matched up. And I think McDavid is gone pointless or hasn't hasn't gotten multiple points. So that's kind of now I'm waiting for the next game because I don't know if McDavid is the petty type, so maybe he'll attack him. Every time I put up, I put up a six piece against them.

So pull the R.V. That's a name that's been coming up. He seems to have a way better attitude. He's just trying to chip in. I mean, mind you, I think he got bumped up to that top line and he was part of that that last sequence when they ended up tying it up. So he's another guy. If if they're going to do any type of damage, he has to start having an impact because they got to start having these guys.

But he's a he's a name. A lot of positive things being said about him in the last week or two.

And he shouldn't just be a depth guy where he was drafted.

He was thrown on McDavid line at the end of the game before that. And then they played the last game together. And McDavid said he's like, it's the best game I've ever seen him play on the four track. That's what he's doing. He's like tenacious. He's getting in there and he's causing turnovers and kind of just causing havoc with. Then all of a sudden McDavid is getting space. And he even said, Connor, in the interviews, it's going to be great to see him bang on home.

At some point he's going to just give him a tap and that's a guarantee. So I think you're going to need to see this kid.

Produce like skillfull plays and create a little bit more, but at least now he's a better skater, his English is also better. We talked about that before the season. I think we went back to Finland and he played there and he feels more comfortable off the ice, which only can help you playing.

But to get a chance to on that top line, if you can just score a couple and really continue to make McDavid happy, where if he likes playing with you, it's not going to change.

It's like the coolest thing, just like work hard, make sure you're in the right areas. Make sure you get them the puck and you're going to end up. It's pretty hard to fuck up if you're just doing those things right. If you're going to put up if you have somewhat skill, you're going to put up 40, 50 points on that line guarantee.

Well, we're in the midst of talking about the Canadian division right now or the North Division.

We failed to mention we're going to be bringing on one of Canada's most famous hockey journalists ever, Bob McKenzie, the Bob father, Uncle Bob going to get to him shortly. I know it's a little late tease, but either way, we know you're going to appreciate it.

Just bounce around the division a little more. Vancouver man, they've lost five of six thirty three goals against us. Ten more than the next most calls given up by a team. They've already used nine defensemen, even though one of them's kicked when he's already got 60 points in 78 games, the fifth quickest to get to that number in the last thirty five years. But Vancouver struggling out of the gate, boys, they look lost right now.

They're just all over the place, just like no identity. Our boy Pete has not got off to the best start. I just read something that he switched agents with. Did you read that? Yeah.

So he went to Papasan. Is it JP Barry? I think so, yeah.

And that, ironically, is the same agent as Quin Hughes, same agency. So now these guys contracts are ending at the same time, or is it the same time?

Either way, there'll be anything close to the same time if it's not the same year and it does change leverage a little bit, right.

Where you got both these guys going together, it just it will change the whole dynamic, whereas you're not going to have if you had one guy set out to start a year, it's not ideal, but it could happen.

You cannot have two guys sitting out and with them being with the same agency, one of them's not going to sign and the other guy will.

You know what I'm saying? If say, brother, you got to get you've got to get both of those dudes done. So that changes it a bit. They lost. They lost extreme. I said that was a downgrade and net they got Holtby and yeah, the team, we said that will probably be a little bit of a down year, at least I did.

I didn't think that they were they would have the same group as last year just based on what they lost. Look how good to fall he's playing. So he's a guy in the ground. He wasn't there the whole time, but. I just I just think that if you look at a team that was kind of destined to take a little bit of a step back, it's them. And it's so early in the season. And when when Patterson gets going, it's like things could completely change.

But right now they don't look good.

Yeah, they don't have they don't have anything going in the some of the moves they made. When you get new guys, it takes a little while to get adjusted. Right. Like, you know, the guy behind you. How is he playing the puck to the defenseman? Now you got Schmidt in there who's logging a lot of ice, who, you know, he's got to fit in and somehow find a way to work himself, you know, better in that system.

He hasn't been off to the hottest start. So all the pieces that they lost and that they've replaced, they haven't worked out yet and including maybe not as much production from some of the young bucks. But, you know, like you said, well, it's still very, very early in the North Division. There's tons of time, man, and that's the thing is, like I said, teams might be having a hot, hot style of not a hot stop at Ottowa.

You know, they won their first game, a lot of positivity and they haven't won since.

But, you know, there's still a two, three game winning streak from being right back in the thick of things. So, you know, we'll keep an eye on everything, as we always do, and say, listen, everybody wants to keep their home and family safe, especially these days, whether it's from a break in fire, flooding or a medical emergency. Simply Safe Home Security delivers award winning 24/7 protection with simply safe. You don't just get an arsenal of cameras and sensors.

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Are a great execution there. I'm getting good at it finally after five years. But boys, this was a personal thrill for me. Bob McKenzie, I don't there's nothing to add. Let's go to Minor.

The minor hockey league story is a twenty out of ten.

Yeah, no, no complaints here. I without further ado, Mr. Bob Mackenzie. It's a real honor to bring on our next guest for my money, he's the best hockey reporter the sport has ever seen over the last 40 years. You've read him in print and online. You've seen him on TMZ and NBC, and you've heard him break down the draft and free agency with equal aplomb. Thanks so much for joining us on the Spin and Blitz podcast, Bob McKenzie.

How are you doing, my friend? Excellent. That was a very fine introduction. Well, I'll read you some really big words of the plan so far. Is that business being helping you with that at all?

Oh, you're taking shots already. OK, well, those those. I was going to say which which nickname should we have given you off the hook here? Because I hear that you create what alcohol you're drinking at the time. Bobbi Margarita. Margarita being more famous. One online, of course.

Yeah. And the funny thing is they drink a lot more wine than Margarita. But the one year after free agency, it was like July 1st, free agency. It's over. I get to the cottage and I just just for a lark, I might have mixed up a margarita. And and on Twitter, I just changed my name instead of Bob McKennitt Zimbabwe candy to said Bobby Marguerita. And everybody could not say that kind of stuff. So it's actually kind of funny, but I've had a lot of nicknames, some of them not so complimentary over the years, but that's one of them.

You must be switched over to the Reds by now, though, with the weather. Cool. Not going down a bit. I stick with red zero around. Bob, I heard that you can give me advice on any great bottle of wine under 50 bucks, and considering how well your career has gone, you have not turned into a wine snob.

I'm a bit of a wine snob, but not a big one. I don't know that much. I know what I like and I. I try to learn more and get more involved. I'll tell you what I am is is this is a bad thing to admit, but I'm a wine glass snob. I would rather drink 30 dollar bottle of wine out of an 80 dollar glass than an 80 dollar bottle of wine out of thirty dollars glass. So there's these glasses called Dolto in there, like the one piece in there that's the stem is really thin and they're really strong.

But it really enhances the the douchy white wine drinking. So not a Mason jar? No, not in the Sinja, OK.

I've been known to drink rum and coke, sort of a mason jar. So but I've got one of these and there's another one. They've got different types. This is way off topic early on. But what the hell? Here we go. It's an actual glass that doesn't have a stamp and it's got a little bit of a flat spot on the bowl of the thing. So you can you can hold on to this wine glass and swirl it. And it's like just a little knob on the bottom and it's got a flat spot on the side.

So you can lay down on a 45 degree angle with the wine in and it fits perfectly. And my pal Frank Cervelli at thinks it's a great glass. And he said to me, you know, that glass has just the right amount to do with it.

And it's so true. I love it.

Oh, that's my type of glass because that's my type of drink, Kamus, out of a solo cup so you don't even worry about.

We're already making them a chocolate slogan's on them as we speak.

Have you sign a couple like this, some of your books. But I can't believe my mind.

It's like a legend that has I said we're a month or two ago I was driving from where I live on Balsam Lake in the town then. And I was driving right through Port Pirie. And and there is a place called the Trading Post there. And they've got a big billboard. And it's usually like, you know, coconut, coconut shrimp, three ninety nine a pound or whatever and and blazing in big letters. It's like we have pink Whitney here.

So I took a picture of the sign and sent it to it because I knew you'd get a kick out of. Like I said, you truly are a legend. You made it. Yeah. Even for even in Port Perry, you're on a goddamn billboard.

You have pink. Whitney made it up there. You didn't you left out the part that you just ripped right in there to grab a bottle. But I think it's funny.

You bring you bring up like July 1st and get into your cabin for so long.

Now, you've done the whole season, the deadline, the, you know, the cup finals, then the free agency.

Has it always been that after that boom, you're shutting it down, no phone or you put the phone away? Are you not even checking text and stuff?

Yeah, for the most part. But I mean, you got to yeah. When you were on, you never fully put it away, but yeah, you would send a very strong message and the longer the longer you're, the longer I was outside and, and what have you. But actually there's a funny story on that. So I was working at the Toronto Star and the hockey news. I always had two jobs most of the time talking to they used to call me to job because I had I had a full time job at the hockey news and later the Toronto Star and then back at the hockey news.

But I was also working like almost full time hours, and that was through the late eighties and all of the nineties. So in around 2000, I it was just crazy, too much work, getting too much. And I, I told him, I said, listen, either you guys are going have to hire me, you have to buy all my time or I'm out of here. And and so we were having a negotiation. And as part of that, I put in part of the negotiation that I get nine weeks off in the summer, that from July 2nd, the day after free agency until the day after Labor Day, I'm off.

And so one of the one of the guy was negotiating with was fine with it. But there was another guy at us and he looked at it and he wanted to know why that was the case. So one of the big bosses said to me, you're going to have to talk to this guy and kind of massage him a little bit because he doesn't think you should get the whole summer off. He thinks it's ridiculous. So I'm having that conversation.

He goes, OK, explain to me why you need all of July and all of August off? And I said, well, you know, it's a really demanding job. And I've been doing it a long time and I want to do it a long time. And you don't allow yourself to recharge. The burnout factor will be really huge. And, you know, I've got to worry about my health and I want to do this for a really long time.

And he goes and the guy the guy was totally unimpressed. And he's like, yeah, well, you know what? We all work hard and we all work 100 hours a week. And I don't get I don't get two months of the year off, you know, so, you know, convince me otherwise.

And what's your name, Bud? He said I said, OK, here's here's another way to go about it than I currently have a full time job at the hockey news and I've got a full time job at PSN. And if you don't hire me here, I'm quitting and I'm going to work at the hockey news full time. And if I don't get the two months off, then I'm gone and he goes, OK, I like that answer.

A lot better to go back, maybe to hear you say it.

And then and then you became the bad father at that at that moment. There you got the night. It was like the door shutting at the end of the real Godfather two.

Is that two hours when the wife's looking at him become like the all that's. Yeah, that's that's the end of the end, too. Yeah.

And he shuts the door in case he got home that night, the horse's head is in his bed.

You went a little far, but I want to ask, how hot is it just to like kind of downshift that scoop's, which after 40 years of not impulsively report on everything you've been doing?

You know what? There's an element of that I will grant you that said, you know, it was a weird year to semi retire because of the pandemic. And, you know, I was supposed to be off July 2nd and be done, but we hadn't even had to return to play in July 2nd. And I went back and worked for a few weeks later in late July or early August. And then on August 10th and 11th, I was I was done semi retired.

And so right after that, I was still like somebody might call me and say, hey, this is going on. And I got to tell somebody and don't and and that. But it wasn't that difficult because part of the reason why I wanted them, I wanted to semiretirement because I didn't want to be a slave to my phone. I didn't want to go to a family function and worry about everything that was going on. It's all consuming and it just wears you down after a while.

And so, you know, and and some of it's really funny, like if you get a really big scoop or it's a trade or some some with a lot of juice, you really charged up and excited about it. But the reality is and my pals there in pure LeBron, Frank Cervalis and the guys that do this, that the other networks and everywhere else, what they're going through right now is more of what it's really all about. And that is this day to day hell of OK, are we playing, when are we playing?

When's the season going to start? What's the what's it going to look like? And every day it's Groundhog Day and you're there and you're harassing the people from the league and you're harassing the people from the clubs. You're harassing the guys from the PGA and you're trying to get that information. And more days than not, it's just like it's like a death march. And you're like, this is terrible. This is a terrible way to live my life.

I'm spending ten, twelve hours a day and I got nothing to show for it at the end. And we all know at some point they're going to play and we're going to have the thing. But you're you're just constantly trying to figure it out.

I was going to ask what was your favorite story to break? And then what was one that you had to hold back that was so big, but you thought that it might have been a personal relationship. And if you if you can't say it now, all good. But had had there no one.

You know what it is. It's really funny. And and I get asked a lot by young people in the business or, you know, journalism schools or whatever. When I talk to young people, you know, what advice I might have for them. And one of the things that I've come to learn, because the questions that you just asked is to keep a journal, write it down, because honestly, I get this question a lot since I've retired, you know, what's the biggest story ever broke?

I don't I don't remember. I don't remember hardly any of them. I'm sure if I really sat down and really thought about it or or went through, you know, went through tears and gutsier the archive stories or whatever or my Twitter account and. Oh, yeah, that was really bigger than. But now that I'm here, I don't really remember many of them. I'll tell you what one of the hardest stories I ever broke was and that I didn't want to break, but I did was when TSM lost the national rights to Rodgers.

And and I was I was coming back from a CHL Ontario Hockey League Stars versus the Russians in November. It was in Sudbury and I was driving in a snowstorm down highway, the four hundred highway sixty nine. And and I knew we were losing the rights and I, and I officially got it nailed partway home on that ride and it was like a full fledged blizzard. So now I pulled over to the side of the road in this crazy blizzard and I'm there with my little BlackBerry, with my hard keyboard on my two thumbs.

And I'm typing out tweets that basically says two things out of the national is known to the national right came in. So I forget how many years ago it was probably, what, five, six years ago? Six years maybe. I'm not sure.

But that was fourteen. That was a really hard one. That was a really hard one to to to break. But I had it nailed and so I broke. You broke my trade from fucking Anaheim to Edmonton, so everyone knows I got Delta from Pittsburgh to Anaheim and then there and then, you know, we actually had a pretty good run that playoff. But then the next season, we stunk. I stunk. Pronger was gone. And I'm being told, all right, well, you're not getting traded, you're not being traded, and all of a sudden, like two thirty, you wrote Wasniewski and Ryan Whitney in Anaheim, looked you up saying, put on my.

Yes.

And then the three thirty eastern. I don't even know how those things happened. 30 minutes later, Paul McCartney, Ryan went to Edmonton.

I was like, oh, you OK? That's how you found out through his tweet. Yeah.

Oh, man. So I don't even I don't even remember. Oh no you never would.

You've done it. I mean, how many of those have you done. But but if somebody asked me, how did you break that story, I probably would have said, yeah, well, with told me I've heard his dad told me exactly. Yeah. We'd call right when he heard. Let me know. Let me break the news. How is the old man, by the way?

He's good. He told me to say hello for people who I guess nobody knows but you and him became buddies at Halifax, the one of the most electric atmosphere world juniors in the history of the tournament.

Yeah, and we started there. And then I think we got hooked up at your draft, the draft party or whatever. Yeah. Yeah.

Just before that tournament. You're right. That was that summer before. Yeah. And then we we because your brother played at Cornell and my son Mike played at St. Lawrence and they played against each other. I would be in the rinks and we we started hanging out and we actually had to. Whitney McKenzie went out for a bit of a rip in Camden, New York, and that was a bit of a night to root out. So it's it's a great spot.

And and I think we might have done the same in Africa. What were the what were the what happens when you get to be 64? You forget things. But the the twins at Cornell played with your Devon brothers. The Devon brothers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Chuck Devon.

Chuck Devon. Yeah. So it's great actually.

And I think we, we might have. I think there might have been one animal off or two, but anyway, lots of good times with with with Chuck and your dad and what have you. So give my best to him. He's a great guy.

I will say that while Junior also began, when he came off to me, came up to me after one of the games he had somehow been sitting near or with Scotty Bowman.

He's like your son Dale, the player. He's a beaut. Scotty Bowman said you.

Unbelievable. Scotty Bowman. I was so fired up.

But the job at its essence is pretty much the same. But the technology is definitely made it a lot easier. But are there any aspects of the job you wish kind of stayed old school?

Well, the technology's made it easier, I guess, but it's also made it harder. And when I say harder, more work, because what happened is in the media before, like the media guys used to be just on the clock, so and you would punch out. So if you if you were a hockey writer and you covered the team, you'd go to practice, you'd write your story, can you go home? And that would be it.

Probably for the day. Same thing. You're going to do a game, so you go cover a game. Game's over, you file your story, you go home. Boom, it's done. You know, along the way, social media, the Internet, I mean, I'm so old that I remember being at the hockey news and, you know, the reporters used to mail their stories to us and that's how to date stuff was. Or they'd use a helicopter, which was the forerunner of a fax.

Faxes hadn't even been invented. It took either four minutes or six minutes to send a page. And the quality was terrible. But we'd get that and then somebody would have to type it into a system at the other end. And that's how we would get the stories. So the advent of the Internet and ultimately social media turned everybody into having immediate news breaking capability in your hand and in where before the only way to find out what was going on in another city was to pick up your hard wired phone and call another reporter and on his hard wired phone and talk about what's going on in this city.

And and now it's like, you know, I can if you follow the right people, you can you get Real-Time updates and practiced. Hey, Sidney Crosby just blocked the shot and practice. He's gone to the room. Hold their breath. Oh, it's OK. He's back. He just had a with it's so it's just it's just endless now and so. So and that's a good thing I guess for news and information. But in terms of how much more everybody has to work, I feel bad for the writers.

Used to have the easiest, not the easiest job in the world, but they used to have a great job. Just throw to practice, file a story, call it a day, go to the bar, you know, and that's back when hockey players actually drink after practice.

So did the media.

But now it's now it's like you're never off. Guys like like Mike Russo and others. It's twenty four, seven. Maybe you're the you know, you've got to know everything, everything that's going on all the time.

You mentioned the earlier days. I was talking to Shaun about this funny story regarding Gretzky during the series with the Leafs when he was playing with the Los Angeles Kings. You probably know what story I'm talking about that was ended up printed in one of the newspapers.

Oh, yeah. That was they want me to tell that story.

Oh, I want you to tell the whole thing, because I think these guys are going to have quite the chuckle.

OK, so I go to the I'm working at TMZ and the Toronto Star simultaneously. It's the ninety three Stanley Cup playoffs and part of my deal and the star didn't love it, but it was part of my deal was listening in, in May. I've got to go cover the Memorial Cup for with the rights to the Memorial Cup.

So I was off doing the Memorial Cup in the Leaf series with the Kings started and I was picking it up. And I want to say picking it up in game five at Maple Leaf Gardens.

So I I'm just parachuted in. But, you know, I'm a pro, so I make sure I do my homework. I call, I call. I think I probably talk to Barry Melrose and talk to whoever was the GM of the Kings at the time. I forget now. And and, you know, Cliff Fletcher and and Tappan's and and media people. And so I had a really good feel for what happened in the first four games. So I didn't feel like I was going in to cool.

So it's game five and it looks like it's going to overtime now. So I, I kind of decided before the night started, I'm a columnist, I got to have some ideas before the night started. The two themes for me were as follows on the Kingside. Gretzky was playing OK, but not like Gretzky and Dave. And Shaq wasn't really doing a lot for hadn't done a lot for the league city. He was there fifty ball guy and whatever.

So I had it in my mind that if either one of these guys didn't have a good game, that might be a really good call to do so. As the game wore on, I didn't think Gretzky was playing particularly well and I didn't think Andrew Track was playing very well. So games going to overtime, but I'm on deadline. And so the deal is like you don't have a lot of time to do a column. So in the intermission between the end of regulation and the start of overtime, I basically had to write two columns, one, if they want if the Kings win and one if Andrew sorry if the Leafs win.

And so so I started writing and I wrote a column about the framework of a column about Gretzky, and I wrote a framework of a column of what Andrew Chalk and both of them I wouldn't say they were ripped jobs, but because I'm usually not a guy that rips people crazily. But they were critical pieces that if the Leafs lose then and or Chuck needed to do more and needs to do more or they're going to lose the series. And if the Kings lose, Gretzky needs to do more and on.

So I as I said, I felt pretty good about both columns, but it's hard to write a column that fast anyways as fate would have it. Leaf scoring over time, and so it's the Gretzky piece that goes so now the first edition of it, I just said it without any quotes and I thought it was being really respectful because it's goddamn Wayne Gretzky. You better be respectful. And so I basically said, listen, I'm not saying Gretzky's washed up.

I'm not saying that stinks. I'm not saying any of these things. But I'm just telling you, he looks to me like there's something wrong with them. But if there's not, you know, whatever. And I did a critical analysis of some ship by ship stuff, and I said the line that was in there that really ended up becoming the touchstone was skating around like he's got a piano on his back.

And so so the piece runs. I go down to the room and I thought I'd better go talk to Gretz and find out if there's something wrong with them or whatever. So I go to the King's Room and Maple Leaf Gardens and I am asking them and I could tell as soon as I asked them, he looked to give me a little hairy eyeball, looking as if to say, like, why are you asking that? You know, I'm fine.

I'm fine. Everything's good. And I'm like, oh, OK. And so I go up and I put his quotes in or whatever and send it off. So. So the story goes. And now we're flying the next day to L.A. and we're going for game six. And I hear through the grapevine that Wayne's not too happy. And Mike, that's not too happy with the piano in the back line, didn't go over very well. And and and Wayne is we always knew everything that was said about him.

And and I used to joke that Wayne had rabbit ears and thin skin in addition to being, like, the greatest ever played the game. So anyways, the story goes now it's game six. And of course, that's the famous game where Carrie Fraser would tell you the rest of it over time. I stick on Gilmore, it doesn't get cold. And we're going back for game seven to Maple Leaf Gardens. So I can remember it's Saturday morning.

And by now I've heard very strongly that Tim Gretzky is livid, like live. And I'm like, oh, this guy, we really want to. So we're moving. We're moving out of Canada now.

Yeah. So anyways, I'm like I'm like, OK, so I remember I said Saturday morning and I can remember very clearly I was going to get my haircut and the guy who's got my hair said, Oh, big game tonight, game seven, Leifs Kings.

And keep in mind, if the Leafs win this, they're going to the Stanley Cup final against the Montreal Canadiens. It's going to be a Toronto Montreal Stanley Cup final. And so I'm getting my hair cut and the guy's going all in and it's going to be so awesome. I think the leaves are going to win tonight. And I said, no. And he goes, What do you mean? I go, no, they're not going to win.

And he goes, I think they're good. I go, not a fucking chance. And he goes and I go, because Gretzky is really, really, really pissed off and Wayne Gretzky gets pissed off. Oh, it's going to be all right. And it's going to be so bad for the Leafs tonight. Yeah. And and of course, what happens, Wayne Gretzky, I forget the golden points. You guys can look it up.

But I know he had three goals. Yeah.

And then recall the last one, he came around from behind the net and he debated off the back of his leg intentionally and into the net. And I still am not sure. But I have a funny feeling that he looked up at the press box briefly after he did that.

But but the gist of the story is that he played what he will tell you was the greatest game of hockey he's ever played in the National Hockey League, Game seven against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

That's that's a great story that you're part of that now. So now I go I go down to the now I should have gone to I should have gone to the Kings Room. To let him say or do whatever he was going to do, but you for the Toronto Star and the and the story, as much as it was Gretzky, you know, torpedoing the Leafs, I had to go to the living room and talk to Wendell Clarke and Doug Gilmore and Pat Burns and whatever.

I didn't have a lot of time. So I went down and I did that and I went into the room. And I will want to say it was Mark Osborne who is playing for the Eastern Time. And he looked at me and he goes, This is all your fault. And he wasn't he was not kidding. You pissed him off. And then this is what this is what became of it.

So I'm like, OK, back up to the thing. And then I finished, put the quotes in, call it a night or whatever. So now I'm going to cover this. I'm all going. And Gretzky afterwards was quoted as saying, you know, the piano man had one more to an awful Gretzky Bitburg that I think was quoted as saying to somebody, the piano man had one more tune in them or something.

And and whatever he might have said in the postgame interview, like, nice that I got I got the piano off.

You got the NSA, you got the piano off his back. So but but it goes a step further. So now I'm going to Montreal for the cup final. Kings and Canadians, Canadians have got the home ice advantage.

So they're starting in Montreal. And and but I didn't I wasn't there for the meeting that I was going in the day after I had to do a T.S.A. or something. So I was going in for the first day and the media day was the day before. And it's not like media day now where it's like every player. So it's like a couple of guys get interviewed. And Gretzky, of course, was going to be one of them. And and Gretz more or less teed off on me at the media day.

And and and so I was like, OK, whatever. And he goes one way and relax.

And now, hey, it all goes with the territory.

And the funny story is that before games, before game seven in Toronto, L.A., I wrote a column that I wrote. Steve Simmons from the Toronto Sun actually wrote a column that was like. Like off the charts, more critical than what I was, and we sometimes joke about it that I got all this all this attention, you know, focus, whatever, and and his kind of flew right under the radar. But that's that's another story. So anyways, during the cup final, I got the strong sense that when I was in a scrum that Wayne was not talking to me or looking at me and which was unusual because because I known Wayne a long time and he was always he's the best in terms of media relations.

You're not going to get a better to have the best player in the game like that be as good as he was with the media as often as he was, was just incredible. So I know I was in the doghouse and he was pissed off, but that was fine. And I went back and reread the column many times. And in fact, I cut the call and I put it in my wallet after the fact to carry it around with me as a reminder that if you do your homework and you're confident in what you're doing, you know, you got nothing to apologize to anybody for the next year.

I remember I didn't have occasion to run into Wayne face to face or whatever, but the next time that I did cross paths with him was when he was about to break 40 house record. And I got sent by the star to L.A. And so I was there and I hadn't seen him or talked to him the whole time. And of course, he broke it that night. And we're all in the room for the big media room in L.A. and there's famous pictures of Gretzky.

Always remember he had the white suspenders on and he said he took his top half off. He took a skates off his pants and it shouldn't Padstow on. And he came into the room and he saw me and he looked and I looked at him and I was like, I wonder what he's going to say or do here. And he just came over and he gave me a little bit of a hug and he said, Hey, thanks very much for coming out.

I really appreciate. It's great to have you here. And I was like, OK, great, we're all good.

Now, I as I know I know from experience, there's no worse feeling in the world than a reporter coming up to you and saying, hey, you you injured, you feel at home.

You just say, is it that bad? Are the feet right?

Oh, Bob, the folks in Toronto, folks in Toronto still blame you for the drought? A lot of people do. It's funny. Yeah, we had that one. Kerry Fraser and Bob McKenzie, they screwed up the the the green season in ninety three. That was unbelievable. The team with so much fun to watch Wendell and Doug Gilmore and oh my God, the and against the Kings. And Wendell is just a beast in that series. It's always Gilmor.

And that was, you know, the dead. Porcaro kind of started shortly thereafter that the game really took a turn for the worse. Know, we went through that stretch of like four or five Stanley Cup finals that were sweeps, you know, and it was the ninety five. Ninety six or in and around there. And ninety three was was a fantastic time to watch the National Hockey League and the Kings and the Leafs and the Canadians and the think of the funny even in that final know with the stick measurement and you know, shit like that doesn't happen.

Now, I read today about this fellow Phil Esposito story, and that was kind of old school as well. I don't know how many people who are listening know this, but this was a little bit more intense than the Gretzky situation, that's for sure.

Yeah. This when you get up to level. Long story short, I charge Phil Esposito with assault.

Well, that's how much time the guy's got. This may be a long story if I if I play like those ones.

OK, so. We're trying to think what's the best order to tell this story, and so Phil was the boss man at the Tampa Bay Lightning, and I knew Phil and and two things I should point out. First thing I should point out, as I tell this story, we'll celebrate right now. No, no problems there, which is which is good because as a kid growing up in Canada in the 1972 summit series, I was 16 years old.

And and and when Phil Esposito went off on the fans in Vancouver after game four because they got booed off the ice, I was sitting at home. Tell them, Phil, don't be booing Team Canada. And and and Phil, for me, the big bad Bruins and I love Bobby and I, Esposito on the slot. So and Phil was one of my all time great hockey heroes, which made it that much more difficult to charge him with assault, I guess.

But I was I was working at the Toronto Star, and I want to say it was right around the same time. I forget what year it was, 92, 93, whatever. Ninety four, whatever the lightning were in the league.

But anyways, so Phil was getting a rough ride from where you guys were. A lot of people like to refer to as the Canadian media, which in many cases back then was always the Toronto media. And and I'd written some stuff about Phil, the one thing that really stuck in his craw. When I was at the hockey news, I wrote a column and I said, time for confession, I think has exposed a lousy game. And it was basically a story saying that, you know, I thought that Jimmy Rutherford and Peter Karmanos and the Compuware group should have gotten the franchise in Florida, not Phil and the Japanese owners.

And I thought they made a mistake. The league made a mistake when they did that. And then I talked a little bit about how Phil became persona non grata and to Sabri, his hometown. I covered the two greyhounds. I'm not from the Sue, but covered them back then and and still was in trouble with his hometown guys because he was he was he owned the greyhounds. And then he was I think then things didn't go well and he wanted to move the team and people were like really upset about that.

So I did write some stuff that my static fell off. But I think Phil got it in his mind that I probably was responsible for every bad thing that had been written about him since he took over the Tampa Bay lightning from the Toronto media and the Canadian media.

So I always say this is Basil McCray's fault because Basil McCrea broke his leg really badly that season.

And it was after the game the game was over. Toronto, Tampa, Maple Leaf Gardens. I've done my story. It wasn't a particularly earth shattering night. The only reason I went to the Tampa Bay Lightning Dressing Room because I wanted to go see Rob Ramage and get a phone call of a phone number for Basil McCrea to see if your Basils had a badly broken leg. I wanted to see how Basil is doing. So I go down and I'm talking to Rob Ramage and asking about Basil.

And all of a sudden Phil comes into the room and he sees me and he looks at me and you could tell he was fired up. His cheeks were red and his eyes were kind of like and he's like, he knows you get the fuck out of my room. And I'm like, whoa, where did this come from? What's going on? I don't even know. He's mad at me. Never mind, you know, Raging Bull. And and so I'm like, Phil, what's the problem?

Like, you just get out of here. I don't want you in here. This is my room. You get out and I'm so now I got my back up and I'm like, Phil, I said, I'm allowed to be in the dressing room just talking to Rob here. I'm just trying to get a little crazy. No. And he's going get the fuck out of here. And and I go, no, I'm not going to go through after he's yelling at me and I'm yelling at him and, you know, he's coming towards me rather menacingly and and and I'm like a little bit backing up a little bit like the Phil's a big man.

And and and all of a sudden I realise this thing desolated. He's he's not messing around here. And, you know, he comes up and he basically kind of he would say, he shoved me.

I would say that he drilled me in the next lower jaw area with the he's a pretty big discrepancy, just like one of these like.

All right. One of those.

Yeah, one of one of the games get rough and rowdy, going to hit me in the jaw, the neck and whatever. And he knocked me down like that.

But so so I go, I go. I'm going back. And and I managed to hold myself from going completely down. I got my arms to break my fall. And I was there and I was kind of like laying back like this. And Phil's like coming after me again. And I'm like, oh my. So I jump up really quick. And now Rob Ramadge and a couple of other guys jump on his back and they've got him. And I'm looking at him and he's like kind of get at me and he's swearing and yelling at me.

And I'm like, Oh, Jesus Christ, you don't want to kill me. What am I what what's what's my play here like? It's funny. The things that go through your mind. I just. I've only been working at TSM for like four or five, six years, and it was part time, so it's funny the things that go through your mind. But I was there and I thought I might have to fight for Esposito here. Like, I'm not a tough guy.

Find the opposite. I'm like, I got I got cut from my minor bantam team because I was too soft. And and so I'm not I'm under no illusion whatsoever that I'm a tough guy. But if somebody is going to do harm to you, you might have to stand up for yourself. Oh, yeah. And so I'm I'm weighing the thing. Do I? And I had this one moment where he was right there and I felt like I could punch you right in the nose so hard right now because his arms were being held.

She would have been a sucker for. I'm going to get all that I need, all the help I could get. You would have been for that. That's good. That's good.

So holding yourself back. So I, I all my TV money flashed before my eyes and and I decided, no, I'm not going to do it. And then he's yelling, get out, get out, get out. I go, no, I'm not getting out. And Rob Rambert finally said to me, Bob, would you get the hell out of here? And I go, OK, Rob, since you asked nicely, I will. So I leave and I go out and I'm like, whoa, what just happened?

So I was pretty rattled. And so I walked out and I'm walking. I walked out by the Wood Street exit of me and didn't leave the building. I'm just out there and I'm trying to catch my breath and I'm not OK. What the hell just went down there I go. I better go back and try to sort this out. So I went back in and Phil was outside the Tampa Bay dressing room and I felt I go calm down and he looks at me with no thank you.

And I'm like, calm down. I go, let's talk about this. And he goes, I'm not going to talk about it and just get the hell out of here or whatever. And I said and he was he was really angry and I understood that. But I was like, well, I said, you know, let's try and sort this out. He goes, No, I'm not talking to you. Get out of here. And I go.

I go, OK, fine. I said I should just go charge you with assault right now. And he goes, go ahead, do whatever you want. And at that point, he might have made some disparaging remarks about my my my rather robust frame. He he and this and this was happening in front. I don't know if you know the Maple Leaf Gardens visiting dressing room thing, but all the family of the team is like fifteen feet away, like they're witnessing this whole thing and we're following each other and he's in.

And I go, Phil, I go, I'm trying to settle this, you know, and sort it out. We've known each other a long time, but if you want me to if you want me to go the other route, I said do what he says, do whatever you want because you're nothing until Esposito, you can't do anything to me. And that was it. So, yeah, it went off for me and I said, OK, I said, that's how you want to handle it.

Fine. And I said, Then you just remember this. You just remember this. I said, you you fucked with the wrong guy, Phil, and we'll see you later. And I walked out and I walked around the corner. There was a payphone and I picked up the phone and I dialed nine one one. And I called the Metro Toronto police. They answered, yes. And I said, yeah, I will connect you to the police.

I'd like to report an assault. And I called and I said, Hi, it's Bob Mackenzie. I work for the Toronto Star. And I was just assaulted by and Zero Maple Leaf Gardens.

I'd like him arrested and guys like partied. And so anyways, that Jerky Boys prank call.

So so, of course, now he gets he gets word, the word starts to filter out that I've done this and whatever. So I guess he went back to the Harbor Castle and. Got his stuff and jumped in a car and went to Buffalo, but he's on the run, so he hit the road or whatever, and that and Jerry Helprin's, a great guy. He's now in Nashville. He was the PR director for The Lightning at the time.

He's talking to me and says, you know, hey, listen, can we can we try and straighten this out? I said I wanted to straighten it out. Children want to straighten it out. He got the ball rolling. So I'm sorry that ball's in rolling. So screw off know that's that. And so anyways, so it's the whole thing rolled out. And it's quite a story because after the fact, Frosty Forrestal, who was of course, the great trainer for the Bruins, Bobby Hawks, Powell and whatever, you know, Frosty started telling people he killed, never touched them.

He tripped on an equipment bag and and there was a whole bunch of double talk coming out.

And you had the boys club going. They had the boys come, come. It's like it's like the skulls at Yale.

Yeah. You better believe it. And that so, you know, the star was behind me 100 percent. I hired my lawyer, you know, and this all kind of Don Cherry on Saturday night, went on hockey again and rip me for, you know, this is not how you settle a problem. You know, you settle things face to face. I'm thinking to myself, I try to do that. And Phil didn't want to do it.

So you needed you needed Twitter during all this. That would have been. Oh, no, no, you do not know. Hey, Bryan.

Leave you think that Bryan leave at the guys bad. This is the imagine the video of this bizarre existence at the time.

So anyways, and then it got even more complicated because a member of the Tampa Bay, somebody who covered the lightning on the beat for one of their papers, he ended up and if my memory serves me correct, it might have been a sworn affidavit. Or if not, he he certainly was interviewed by the Toronto police and told them the same frosty personal story that I tripped on an equipment bag and and that I wasn't very happy about that. So now my back's really up.

So I'm taking it on the chin from a lot of people. Don Cherry on national television. Everybody in hockey, you know, as you said, school closed society. They're like, this is not how we settle things. You don't bring outside people in to settle it internally. And I said, well, I knew in my heart I tried to settle internally and so didn't want to.

And he said I couldn't do anything to him. Well, let's see about that. So anyways, long story short, I guess at some point the long story long is this one, but the lightning, I guess the lawyers for the lightning probably at some point told Phil this could be really problematic for you because there were many witnesses that did see it. And this is dead to rights, assault, whatever way you slice it. And you're a Canadian who works in the US on a green card or whatever.

If you get convicted of assault, you could lose your green card. You can lose your ability to travel back and forth between Canada, United States, so that all of a sudden I'm getting all sorts of calls from people saying we should be able to settle this and and what have you. And the lightning, we're kind of reaching out or whatever. And I'm like, no, I said so. Anyway, the court date was set and it was the day after the lightning.

We're playing a game in Toronto. They're next time they were coming in.

And so we got down to a day or two before the game and and I a number of people in hockey and reached out and and said, would you not meet face to face with Phil? I said, yeah, OK, well, they have the game. Fill in his lawyers and me and my lawyers, we met in a Bay Street law office and basically you just saw me and goes, hey, things have escalated. They got way out of hand.

I said, yeah, they did. And he goes, I just want to forget about it all. Just put it all behind us. I know it's been hard on you and your family. I don't want any more trouble. I don't want you to have any more trouble. And I said, well, that's great. So I said, fair enough. So all you need to do is apologize. And I just apologized. And I said no.

And I, I had my my lawyer had said to me ahead of time, what would it take for you to drop the charges against Phil? And I said, OK, so I had crafted a letter of apology. And it was it was a long letter of apology because it went to everything. Bob McKenzie did not trip on an equipment bag. Bob McKenzie did not write things. So so there was a laundry list of four or five things that I wanted on the record, that everything the aftermath of that, it was all bullshit, basically.

And for him to admit that he did strike me and he did knock me down and I didn't reply and equipment back. And that's so Phil read the letter and he looked at me. But I'm not saying that. And I go get them to go to the game tonight. We'll see you in court tomorrow.

And you had them bent over and that. And then he would say and his lawyers are talking to him. And then we split up for a little bit. We come back and he goes, OK. And I said, I go, Phil, I go. I wanted to settle it that night. You wanted to escalate it. I said you said I couldn't do anything to you because you were Phil and I was a nobody. And I go, Well, now I told you, yes, with the wrong guy.

And now here we are. And now who's going to come to the other guy to try and get him out of a jam? I said, so I said, let's get out of the jam. Just signed a letter of apology. And and when we go to the game tonight after the game, standing outside the dressing room, we'll stand there together and then we'll tell the media that we settle their differences. We're not going to talk tomorrow. And he goes, yeah, perfect.

And that was that. So as I say, I really like Phil. I always liked Phil, but we had it out and he got my Irish up. And you know what happens when the Irish and the Italians get together? It can be all I can get. I want to ask.

All right, Charlestown. If not, then I don't know if I can. I don't know if this is a great comparison of, like, scoring your first NHL goal for you. Like, do you remember your first big scoop?

Like something where you remember notice to be thinking, oh, my God, like I'm one of the guys in this game. It's going to be brutal. What went on it? Honestly, no idea. None whatsoever.

It just happened over time where you became like the guy. And as I said, I should have kept notes because, you know, I'm not I'm not ever going to write a book about my career. I've written some books, but not like a retrospective on my career. And maybe part of the reason why I wouldn't do that is because I just don't have enough notes to back stuff up. And I've forgotten so much stuff and it all just kind of runs together.

Let me just mention the books you wrote, written yet another book. You're pretty prolific author yourself, your latest Everyday Hockey Heroes volume to tell us about this one.

Yeah, it's interesting. You know, the first book I wrote was called Crazy, what's called the Hockey Dad True Confessions of a Crazy Questionmark Hockey Dad.

And that one came out like 10, 12 years ago. And that was the book I enjoyed writing the most because it was a labor of love, raising my two boys, Mike and Shaun, through the minor hockey system. And I sometimes did some really crazy shit as a hockey dad. But I like to think on balance that I got I got it figured out along the way that it wasn't too too bad and it was a pretty good experience for me and my kids.

But I really wanted that book to come out and sort of like, this is who I am. This is who my kids are. This is what we did. And this is sort of the good, the bad and the ugly. But we we all enjoyed it and it was great. Then I did Hockey Confidential, which was a series of stories about people in hockey. And and I really am proud of the book. But when I was seven or eight years ago but the reason I did it was because I needed a new kitchen at the cottage.

And and so that was the money that would pay for that fucking right. But and that's when I realized, you know, when you're writing a book just for the money, it's it's it's hard, hard, hard work.

It's not a labor of love anymore. It's just labor. And I was really busy with my job and it really took a physical toll on me getting that book out. But I got it. I was really proud of it. But I said then I said, that's it. I'm never writing another book. Too much work for too little money. It's great when you finish it, but as long as I've got a job, full time job, there's writing a book.

On top of that, it's just too much. I'm never, ever going to do it again. I had lots of offers and stuff I didn't do. It was three years ago, Simon and Schuster, Canada, came to me and said, hey, we're doing a book project. We've already started it. It's called Everyday Hockey Heroes. It's stories of famous, not so famous hockey people, inspiring stories on and off the ice. They showed me a couple of chapters and it was it was a different kind of book.

It was about overcoming adversity or just an inspiring story. And I like good storytelling. And Jim Lang had already started doing some of the stories. And Sarah St. Peter's, the editor, they showed me some sample chapters. I said, this is really cool. I kind of like this. And what appealed to me was they said, you only have to write the introduction. You'd only have to write one chapter. You would have huge input into who we would write the other stories about, and you would orchestrate getting interviews with those people and you would promote the hell out of the book.

Would you be interested? And I said, yeah, I would. And cynically, part of the reason when I'm not going to lie, when I first I thought, yeah, if I don't have to write that much, I can sort of be an editorial director of the book and and be involved in all that with Jim and Jim's great and Sarah's great. So it was fun. So we did everything. Here is volume one. It was really good and lots of inspiring stories.

And now they decided, you know what, two years later we're going to come up with it again. So I'm really proud of the book because obviously there was a lot of shit that's going on in the world, but hockey as well. And we talk a lot about hockey culture. And I know everybody goes back and forth on that. And and hockey culture does. You know, I've been a big part of hockey culture, but I'd be the first to admit that hockey culture does need to be better, a lot better in a lot of instances.

And I don't think people need to be hockey. People don't need to be triggered when they hear that the hockey culture sucks. Sometimes it does doesn't mean it's rotten to the core, but it needs fixing and a whole bunch of areas. And so a lot of the stories in the book, not all of them, but a lot of the stories in this book reflect that. And so other stories about guys I grew up playing hockey against that were black, that didn't have the same minor hockey experience that I have in a quite white Scarbro 50 years ago.

You know, there's there are stories about gay and transgender athletes. There are there's a story, but there's also traditional hockey stories, everyday hockey heroes. So I got a story in Andrew Cogliano and everyday hockey hero. Yeah, he's the one because he showed up every day and he never missed the game until he got suspended. And so he talks about that and and reflecting the traditional core values of what we like to think about hockey culture at its best commitment, dedication, sacrifice, you know, taking one for the team, putting yourself ahead of the team, playing through injuries, playing through pain, doing all those things.

So there's a real wide mix of stories there. And Jim Lang did a terrific job search. Napier did a terrific job. And I learn what I learned so much about people who sometimes they they everybody in this book has an unbelievable passion for the game of hockey. They love the game of hockey, but in some instances, because they're different, for some reason they were marginalized or put out to the side a little bit. And those people had to fight to get where we get to be in the middle of hockey culture for the very simple reason we're white and we're men, simple as that.

So all I you know, the theme of. The book really is we just need to build a bigger tent and we need to make sure the doors are open for everybody, and if we are men and we are white, then maybe we all need to take a look in the mirror and say, what am I going to do today to try to make it a more diverse, more inclusive thing? And I think you can do that and confront our own white privilege without being triggered by the word white privilege, which is nothing more than an observational status of your wife.

And in hockey, that's not a roadblock to anything. Being a white man in hockey is the easiest thing in the world. We're not saying anybody's led a privileged lifestyle and and have silver spoons in our mouth. We're just saying it's not many obstacles as a white male in the hockey culture. That's a very fair way of putting it. Very well said, Bob. You did mention your kids. And going back to your first book, The Hockey Dad situation, Sean told me the story about how you, you and this other coach weren't getting along in minor hockey and the finals.

You ended up calling a couple penalties. I'll let you know the story for sure. Oh, you're talking to stick measurements. Yeah. Yeah, you're cut throat if you're doing this in minor hockey. Bob, come on.

OK, so I'll try and make this quick because I bought you guys long enough to know we love school stories. OK, no Firestar. So I was actually the assistant coach of the team and it was it was my son, Mike's team, and it was what we used to call the ring at round, which you wouldn't call it now because people that play ring it would get offended by it. But the ring it round was after you got knocked out of the main playoffs, you would go back and into the Constellation, basically is what it was.

It was a consolation playoff and it was the championship of the consolation. And I was an assistant coach and my good buddy Steve Seed House, who since passed away from pancreatic cancer, one of my best friends, he was the head coach. So we're playing in Burián Will Dunlop Arena, which has got demolished recently. And and we're losing in the the third period. And we're losing by two or three goals, maybe three goals in the third period.

And earlier in the series in our own rink, I'd seen the stick rack for the the other team. The team, by the way, it's minor add to their ten year old, OK, and its isolation and its concentration.

So I thought the stickleback of these other kids and they had big banana hooks or whatever, and I just thought, well, I can't believe those kids like Stan Mikita, Bobby Housetops. I never thought anything more of it. So that was in the third period of the consultation.

And we're down three. And I said to my buddies, too, I go, I go, hey, I said, let's try and get a little something. Go in. Here I go. Let's call stick measurement here. Just about every kid on this team's got like a hugely illegal and interesting. What. So anyway, so so students go ahead.

So I go, OK, so so I said no to our captain, little Katie Henry, and I said, oh, ask for a stick measurement on number eight a little. Katie Henry goes out to the referee and goes up to him. And I see him talking to the referee and I see the referee talking to him like this.

And the referee looks over at like, what the fuck? Like, seriously? And and and that. And I just look at him and I go, you measure in that.

And so now Kenny Henry comes back and no, I see him now. I see the referee really talking to Kenny. And Kenny is looking over at the bench at me. And they get these little eyes and he's like, so I see him and he goes and he goes, OK. And he can he comes over. And I said, What was he giving you a hard time about? He goes, he says, Sure, I'll call a stick measurement.

What exactly what part of the stick did you want measured?

And so now the referee's trying to one up be here, because technically you have to request I want to stick Benjamin on the curve or I want to stick measurement on the width of the blade, or I want to stick measurement on the length of the shaft or whatever. And so Kenny said curved. And so now he's gone. So now the referee comes over and he's just looking daggers at me and he goes over to the timekeepers bench and says, give me the stick gauge.

And the timekeeper goes, we don't get a stick engineer. And and so the referees are. So you see a pitch to go off the ice and go to the referees room and come back with the stick. So he measures that it's illegal. So into the penalty box, they go our power play soccer. But late in the game, by the way, there was like five, six minutes left in the game. We're down three so late in the powerplay, we score one.

And so that's great. So now we're the parents on the other team, by the way, I'm on TV. People know who I am and they're just giving it to me and and understandably so. So we're there. And I say this thing like, oh, they still got illegal sticks going on over there. I said, look, let's call another one. And and then he goes, really? And I go, I said, let's do it.

And and so so we call another one. And the referee is like looking at me, just he measures it up. And sure enough, enough into the box. There you go. So now I'm looking over at the Barry.

That's the Barry. Parents are screaming and yelling and cursing me out like you wouldn't believe. But it's chaos of the Barry Bonds, the kids on the bench and the parents, you know, yelling at their kid, do you have an illegal stick? And the coaches talking to their players and their kitchen sticks up into the stands. And I and I'm on the bench like, go, come on, boys. Look at them over there. They're on the run now.

We're down one, you know, whatever. So we like five seconds into the next five seconds into that power play, we score. So now we're down one and and and it's chaos. And so we're there and there's only there's less than two minutes left in the game. And so I say this to Stu, you're not going to believe this, but I think they've got another illegal stick out there. One kid with an illegal stick. I said, you want to go for the hat trick?

And he goes he goes, no, I think we're good now. And and so.

Anyways, we pull the goalie and I'm not sure how we had a defenseman who hadn't scored a goal all year on the ice at the time.

Nevertheless, we did this and with him with like seven seconds, with seven seconds left, the puck goes back to when we got the goalie pulled and he takes a slap shot. His 10 year old tries to take a slapshot. And, of course, it's a slicer and he just chunks it in. The puck goes up and it's bouncing and it crazily bounces. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it literally bounces in front of the goalie and goes right over his shoulder under the bar with about five seconds left.

We tie the game, we tie the game. And so now we come over and the very teams over there, the parents are yelling at me. The coach is trying to get his bench under control. And our guys come over and means to we're fired up now and the kids are fired up. And and so they go see this as the boys. We got them on the right here. Just just go for it. No defense. Don't even let's let's end this thing like immediately if we lose.

So what we're playing with house money. Just go for boys all the balls to the wall, go get the ball. And I think like twenty or thirty seconds in, we score the winner in overtime on so so the kids go nuts.

Everybody celebrates, they go back to the room and me and my buddy terminal brain tumour shaking hands and I could see everybody's all upset. And there he goes to the hospital. So I go, I go. We'll head back towards the dressing room. And I said to the other coaches, I said, I better go over and take my medicine. So I go over there. So I go over and the other parents are there. And right away they launch it.

They're yelling at me, they're swearing at me. And I said I said, oh, I said, How long have you been a parent on this team? And they go, What do you mean? I said, How many years is your kid been on this team? This is his first year. The guy that was yelling the most at me, I said, OK. I said, is there anybody here that any part of the been here on the team for three years and there a guy over there and I could see the guy looking at me and he smiled and and I said, do you want to tell him or should I tell them?

And and the guy goes, Oh, I said, OK, good, appreciate it.

Thanks. And I turn around and I walk away. And what that parent from three years ago told the other dad was the head coach of the barre team that we were playing against in that game in minor novels, our coach got suspended for deciding minor and obviously he got suspended for I think he yelled at a referee in the third period. So in game four of the five, he got suspended. So in game five, he was their kid just eight years, seven, eight years old.

He tied his kid skates up before the game, the coaches thumbs on the team. He left the room, said, good luck, boys. And the assistant coaches took over. Somebody saw him in the room tying his kid skate. So our team beat their team in game five in that same Dunlop Arena back then. And and we're getting ready to start the next series, second round of the playoffs and minor novice like. And we get a call from the OSHA to tell us that we've been disqualified because Berry protested the game because the the head coach, the suspended head coach of the Whippy Wildcats was gone in the dressing room before the game.

And that's not allowed. So. So what the I'm not calling to take measurements unless payback is a bitch.

I think I think this podcast has taught that you're not a man that you want to cross. Seriously all say that shit. If I was to ask any questions you want to take it out on the hit list, was that before or after the McSorley stuff in ninety three.

Oh it would have been after, after McSorley in the illegal fix stuff. Oh yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah it was definitely after McSorley in the Kings Montreal Cup Final Four.

That's a fantastic story. Like you say, payback's a bitch. No doubt about that. I have what I feel obligated to ask you. You share a name of one of the greatest fictional Canadians in pop culture history. Of course, I speak of one half of the great Mackenzie Brothers of Strange Fame. How much did you play that up? Thirty five. Forty years ago when it was a popular thing.

Yeah, a little bit. But it was more a pain in the ass initially because as you might expect, every bit of what my nickname. But there's a lot of guys from the Iraqi media, like when I was on the beat back in the eighties and nineties, that was my nickname. There's a lot of guys to this day call me Hos. That's one of my many, many, many nicknames. But so, yeah, I used to get that.

I used to get that a lot or whatever. And after a while it probably got a little tiring. And so, you know, there's only so many times. But it's it's funny now, like somebody even now somebody will say, oh, I bet you get I, you get a lot of jokes about your name above McKensie off and I'm. Not for 20 years, buddy, can I admit I don't know what you guys are talking about right now.

Oh, yeah, that's a Canadian. It was a nasty TV thing. It was Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas. And they were.

Oh, I know. I know those Canadians.

I know the kind of beer bottle take off the Great White North. And they which was hilarious. And it was really funny because I was coming I was coming back from L.A. I was coming back from from L.A. to Toronto, and I was at LAX and I was in the Air Canada lounge. And I ran into Dave Thomas and and I introduced myself to him and I said, hey, thanks for nothing. And he goes, What do you mean?

And I said, My name is Bob McKenzie. And he goes, Oh, don't blame me. That was Rick Moranis, not me. And we laughed.

And so I got to ask you about your music tastes. Now we're going to go to different places. Let's start off with people, Mr. Worldwide, another one of your your self given nicknames with this guy at the cottage when he's chucking weights around this little weight room in his garage, loves to bump it to Mr. Worldwide.

And I. I think I think I did it more than I will say this. Did the people there's one particular pit bull album in particular. It's an entirely Spanish. It's there's no English. It's called Dale. And there's a there's a really catchy tune on it that I liked. And when I was I got a concept, two rowers. So when I'm on the road that that tune really fires me up. So I would play that, like, really loud in the garage.

Now, Mike and Sean would be at the cottage and they would like this. It would be like that moment that I fell in love with you on Twitter when you said you tweeted out, I'm looking at my dad right now and he has his shirt tucked into his underwear. I need to know, Dad. Yeah, OK, so that's you.

So Mike and Sean needed a new dad when they see me out there on the road with the pit bull. So that was really the I probably play it up bigger than that. It's expensive, the visa or something like that. And it's like tennis. It's all Spanish and it's on the. It's fun, they like to meet the soccer dad, you're going to be like mom buying stock on a bike, retired, it's a purple tracksuit thong and I'll get the official name for it.

OK.

Tragically, hip was another bad I wanted to talk about. I've seen some of your Instagram stories and you got that bumper in the garage as well. I know you were also you were pretty close to gordon downie, were you not?

Yeah. I got to know the guys in the band a little bit back in between the up to here, which is their second album, first full album. Their very first release was considered an EP, but it was an album which is called The Tragically Hip but then really launched the national stardom in Canada would be up to Here album and then came Road Apples. So it was between up to here and the release of Road Apples, and they were playing the Concert Hall Young in Davenport in Toronto, right across from the Canadian Pirates, also known as the Masonic Temple.

And I. I love the hip. I love their music. I do the first two songs. The two big hits after release were Small Town Bring Down and Last American Accent. And I really like both those songs and then went up to here, came out. I got that and that's what I know. And in thirty eight years old and New Orleans is sinking and all the great songs on there. And so I talked to a guy in front of L.A. from Morgan Frost that I talked to him and he he knew a guy who knew a guy who is part of the management or whatever.

And so I was able to go in and get a pass to go and see him play the Masonic Temple, the concert hall young in Davenport. It was a hot, hot, hot night in August. And it was it was like ninety five degrees and the humidity was like up around one hundred. It was just a steaming hot night and it was one of the one of those special moments. And it was a fantastic night. And and the guys in his management said, Gordon, some of the guys know you from your work on TV and the newspaper, the hockey news or whatever, their huge hockey fans made hockey pools and stuff.

So they said, come back after Bill Gates leave backstage passes. So I got to be gored that night. And we created a little bit of a friendship over the years. And, you know, more than anything else, all the tragically hip music, just it it just speaks to me like nothing that I've ever listened to. And so that's my jam. That's my band. And and my my great pride in life is that I took Mike and Sean to hip concerts very early and they'd probably be no more hip concert to me because I could never go to their concerts because I was always working.

And especially on July 1st, they always played a Kennedy show and I was always working. But Mike and Sean have gotten into it and they got hip in their blood now. And so I feel like I've done my job as a good dad.

Did you get a chance to go to the show in Kingston? I didn't go to the final show. I went to I went to the the one of the last of the three Toronto shows the week or two before they played in Kingston. I, I, I was celebrating. I think it was my sixtieth birthday on August 16th that year. And and that Saturday of the final show in Kingston was a night that myself and my wife, Cindy, Mike and Shaun and and their better halves.

We went out for my birthday dinner at Jacob's Steakhouse in Toronto and we taped the the hip stuff. And we came back there, Sean's condo, actually, and watched the part of the show, part of the show. But then I still got it on PVR on the on my here. And I've watched that show over and over again because there's nothing, nothing like it to me already in that. Yeah.

That's kind of like a national thing, like seem like the entirety of Canada was was watching those shows toward the UN, this pretty, pretty emotional stuff. But I just got one last one for you.

I know the games probably in the best position it's ever been in other than labor issues. What are the biggest issues the NHL might face in the next five to ten years?

It's a good one and I haven't thought about that one. So the labor issues are always interesting. And I mean, the CBA has done for a good long time now, or at least we think it is.

You know, I guess the biggest one, I suppose, is going to continue to go down the road that we talked about with diversity and making sure that the hockey culture and that the NHL reflects the changing face of the game and the changing face of society in Canada, the United States in the world over. But I suspect, too, that there's an. And I haven't even I know nothing about this I just saw anecdotally on on Twitter yesterday about that story in the Swedish second league or whatever, about pure clothing and the question about did they throw a game and stuff like that.

So we haven't we haven't had the opportunity yet in the National Hockey League to have the full partnership between the NHL and legalized gambling. And so I suspect over time that's going to be something that is going to need to be navigated around on a lot of different levels. And I really don't know much about all that stuff because I knew that it was coming in at the tail end of the time when I was getting ready to depart the scene on a day to day basis.

So I don't need to know a lot about that. But I suspect that's an issue that will be an important issue in terms of how it's handled by everybody, in terms of the information will be it injuries and trades and all this kind of stuff. There's there's got to be a lot of layers to that whole thing of setting up the hockey industry with the gambling industry and obviously and hopefully for the financial betterment, because, I mean, this is endemic.

We're going to be in the economics of this is going to impact the game for so long. I just I feel bad for the players. I feel bad for the owners because there's there's no way you can compensate for all you want. But at the end of the day, the numbers are the numbers and it's just a matter of when everybody's going to pay back the money that. Well, we really appreciate you coming on. This is awesome comment, and that's that is our set of assets, campfire stories, just some old classics.

And you've been around for so long, so congrats on all your success. I know it's semiretirement. I don't know when that the official no more Bob Mackenzie breaking news will happen, but what a run you've had.

I appreciate it, guys.

And the song here, I'm looking at it now, Mr. Three or five or point s p i, e and S.A.S. and then at De la Verdad and then it's featuring somebody called Gentled Zona.

You get a couple of margaritas and Bobby you get shaken. Yeah. For Shakira.

Shakira hits the hips. Lula Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Tended to baby Bob. This was awesome. Thanks. I don't even get a chance to dive into the kids but we'll have you on again. You could tell us more stories about you fucking around with Adam. Minor kids calling legalistic penalties late in games in consolation and consolation games, but payback as well.

So it wasn't needed that three years earlier.

You don't start, you finish them. Hey, Rough Rudy, you and Phil Esposito, I can get you. Yeah. Get you some of that post I like. I'll get you a new kitchen. Yeah, I'm sure you have a new boat by the end of it. The love ad, by the way, was well done.

You like that. The Watson gloves. You how much weed I smoke before that sells. Carlebach you wait wait. Do you see the McDonald's one coming out. Although it will already be gone. This comes out.

I said as much as you should sell your gloves or whatever. Sell my books for me please. Every day volume to buy it before Christmas. It's a great book. It's, it's probably not as fun and frivolous as Butis by James Duthie by his book to. There's a chapter on me in there where I scored on Tretiak, but that's another story for round two.

Let's do a Chicot on his lake at his lake house. But thanks for the invite. Thank you.

To get the fans of Best Twenty Promo Code, they'll love you forever.

I'll tell you something called me on guys. Take care. All the best. Huge thanks to Bobby Mac, man, like I said, a personal thrill for me to interview this guy. Canadian hockey put the cream of the crop. They do it. The best show was a true honor and joy to talk to Bob McKenzie. And he has some fucking awesome stories to tell. But moving right along beside you and playing with you, Bruce. I know.

All right.

So, Bruce, one of my buddies created this electronic toothbrush. It's unbelievable. He sent me one about a year ago and my teeth have never felt better. So when I went to the dentist the last time and I told you guys that I had 10 cavities, I felt like the biggest fucking loser. And I was like, oh, no. Like, I think that they're going to eventually come on as advertisers because I love the things so much and I talk about it now.

They're going to be like, yeah, I'm not going to be trusting somebody who's got a toothbrush when they have ten fucking cavities. Am I wrong here, Wit?

No, I would have said shut up is why we use what you use. You're an absolute Diet Coke mouth, Mountain Dew man over here.

So I have actually the the the invoice type thing of what to say needed to be replaced is right over there. It's a it's on a sheet thing. So I put that in my pocket and I went and got a second opinion. I go see a guy. I don't explain anything about my mouth. He looks at it. And I said, So do I have any cavities? And he's like, there's like a, you know, one little thing here that it might be starting, but no, no, you're all good.

So I go from a place where they tell me I have 10 cavities to go, getting a second opinion to the fact that I have zero cavities, zero with. I don't get how you can I showed him the sheet and I said, what do you what do you make of this sheet? And he and he he looked at it and he had a smirk on. And then you look back and you never want to throw the other guy out of the box.

He goes, I think it's aggressive and I'm trying to make some dough.

I don't know. I don't know, but it's uncomfortable because I by then, this is how she feels not it's like maybe say like three, ten, ten.

Yeah that's a weird second opinion. That's like finally have a fucking seven brain tumors that are malignant. And then I go, oh, by the way, that's just ahead again.

Like that's a huge fucking difference.

So the good news is, is now Bruce can get a proper ad read and I can pump this toothbrush up because I brush my teeth for about ten minutes. Every time I just hit the button, there's six different settings. It's very reasonably priced, I think, as a two year warranty. The battery last two months now I sent you one. It's unbelievable.

It's my teeth are the cleanest they'd ever been.

So here's the kicker. All these electronic toothbrushes, they sell the tops of them for like 20 bucks a pop or even more in some electronic toothbrushes. You can't even get the replacements unless you buy a whole new unit. So, yeah, that's the scam. You can set up the subscription. As I say, it's subscription. You can get three, four under twenty bucks and they send them out every six months. And that's your toothbrush for the six months.

So it's a it's a great fucking it's a great product and it's helped me clean my teeth to the point where even after not going in for three months, I had zero cavities.

Yeah, there's a lot of folks they'll use the old analog toothbrush instead of going digital, even though dentists recommend electric brushes because they're more effective. Check out.

Bruce is redefining what it means to have a perfect smile because a healthy smile is a perfect smile. Get 15 percent off your brush, toothbrush, kit and refill plan when you use the promo code check. Let's at Brutsch Dotcom. That's fifteen percent off the promo code. I see. Let's when you go to brush dot com that's b r u u sage dot com by all means. Check that out. Like I said, it's got a full week battery life magnetic charged in compact travel case.

If you get the subscription thing, you won't miss any new fresh heads.

That's what you need. You need to keep the checklist clean if you can.

Where I got to ask you one last question. So I bought a four pack cleaning plan from the prior place. I have two of them left. Do I call back for the difference?

I mean, not being cheap or do I just cut my losses here?

Well, it's kind of little payback for them. They were trying to make money off you and you already paid them for this, for cleaning.

And it's kind of an odd companies brought in a coupon to the dentist, like I saw this in the Scottsdale Mariner. Can I get this? But you should go back and get the money to kind of like I did with the when I went back to the dealership, when they rip me off with the carburetor that I needed.

And there's always a very valid when she found out, he was like making shit up. That just goes to the depths of my gullible ness. I'm just the guy who gets ripped off all the time.

We are going to talk about the East division. Yes, my job is not to apologize because I can zero thoughts.

First off, Sunday, Buffalo going L.A., Omak. He got his first one after his dad passed away. I don't know if you guys happen to see the photo. I'm not sure if he took it, but it's a picture of him just kind of looking heavenward after he won the game. Just a really tender scene, man. I mean, obviously, losing his dad is a nightmare. He wasn't home for it. He's you know, he plays in a different country and he had to go play hockey and he took them a couple of games to get to.

When did you guys see the picture? Afterwards. The his reaction, you know, it's it's six, seven games of the season. When a guy reacts like that, you realize there's a little more to it. And there was one photo, he looked up and it's like, you can't help but get moved when you see a situation like that.

Yeah. And it's clear what it was that mattered to him. Definitely brutal to see that and so happy for him to get the win. And this division is what we said. It is probably the best division.

Washington is the other team. I was just my brother hasn't lost in regulation yet, so.

I think the big story is what happened with that, with that team in that club and a way from the arena and you can kind of describe they saw Buffalo on the schedule and they're like and I and I took Buffalo.

Oh, my God, they got all these guys and they still lost that first. And they don't need no stinking masks. And they didn't have Wilson the next game and just got them in a shootout. But what happened, actually. All right.

Washington was fined one hundred thousand dollars for breaking covid protocol when four players were seen reported to be commiserating mascots in the same hotel room, which is against rules.

It was Alexandrovich and Demitri, all of ileus himself. Some song off the new goalie and Kuznets off. They're going to miss at least four games each. Apparently, they were just hanging out in the room together in lavae, said, hey, we understand the rules. We have stopped. We didn't pay attention. My son was hilarious. I know his bronze, in fact. But my son was like, hey, I think the big thing is it's a respecting these guys didn't follow the rules.

If you put yourself in a bad situation, that's on you. I mean, hilarious. You get suspended and you get a second match and trip you on the side. But bottom line is, these guys broke the rules. I know what's his name of wife. She chimed in and she posted that over love have the antibodies. And then she was kind of sarcastic saying the virus only works in hotel rooms and I'm playing other teams do the same thing.

So I was a little bit of a mess for the Capitals. But at the end of the day, I don't know how much it's going to affect this season. I don't know.

No, I don't think it'll affect their season. The thing to me that is always go ahead. Well, I was going to tee you up and say, like, yeah, the rules are in place. And, you know, I'm a rule follower.

It doesn't make this it just doesn't make a ton of sense to me. I mean, these guys are in the showers together like they're they're spitting and coughing all over the bench.

It's just it's oh, we buries a pass from Kuznets off and they're hugging each other off, reading each other's face.

And then you can't sit in a hotel room. They I don't know if other people in the room have no idea, but it's just seems so crazy that you're doing everything all the time at the arena right next to each other.

And then when you get to the hotel, you can't you can't have there doing the program celebration right before they go in the tunnel like Hocutt in each other's mouths at this point, because, I mean, we've all seen that whole routine. Could you play the audio of Ovechkin yelling to Oshi as he's coming out Grindley? Oh.

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.

I mean, this guy is an absolute farm animal, but listen, if they broke the rules, dislikes that, they broke the rules, changing a little bit of rest for the weapons. And I don't think it affects anything moving forward. And, you know, a little bit of drama to talk about.

Yeah, I don't think you can beat them too much. I mean, I think after nine, 10, 11 months, not everybody out there has abided by what you should.

I mean, these guys are Russian. The Russians didn't even go didn't even exist in their country.

They're like the border, that's all.

And if they if they do have the antibodies, then, yeah, if you are told by a doctor you can't catch it, then you know, you're not going to give a fuck about it. But either way, we're not going to beat up on the capitals. Too bad the league already did that as well. Tom Wilson did leave the game Friday with a lower body injury. He should be back soon. And Carnamah Michael debuted on Sunday. And what's pretty funny about this kid, he was, of course, just on Team Canada, the world juniors.

He used to dress up as Alexandrovich King for Halloween and now he's a fucking timidities. I know as as we get older, because you start seeing all these kids, their idols were the guys that are younger than us. Yeah, nobody's showing up like you think or me, but he just puts on huge ears and sort of jerseys.

Actually, I lied. There will be people dressing up as you now because Kanelli made a what do you call it? I sell stalkings t shirt with Whitney on the back.

This thing is that you guys, we won in ninety seven. I've talked about it once or twice.

And this t shirt jersey is so authentic and so I might not, I might not take it off.

I'm not so limited amount will be going on. We're going on sale.

I signed my ticket, sold out my cause.

They're sold out in ten hours. I think 20 minutes. I think these things go I think they go quickly.

I me one so I can I can clean my tires off Grenelle if I get sick I can't get a pink.

Whitney, take your shot machine. Can I at least get a Ryan Whitney Quebec p t shirt jersey.

We need a wellin Tiggers one for my minor hockey. We're black and white. We're dynamite.

We're you guys do the Sharpstown Osier chant. Yeah because we're black, white and yellow. We're black, white. We're dynamite.

This was black and white and red all over. I don't know the newspaper. But, Bob, I don't always OK, I just clicked, and that's a good read, as in Ari Adeeb. Yeah, I was like color on my because there are a lot of red ink. No, no, no. OK, pass that. I got it. There's a it's a different word.

1934, a joke making if I can contact double clutched.

I double clutch on a lot of your jokes man. I listen to the podcast to get them. That's all right.

In the east, we also got a shout out the New Jersey Devils Park, New Jersey Devils.

I mentioned Ty Smith before the year, I think, or maybe after the first episode of first few days, few games. And he went on, I think he's looking to become only the second defenseman to ever have a point in his first seven games. Maric Zied Licky did it, is that correct?

All right, I'm going offshore.

I mean, there you have it written down, but I'm I'm pretty sure that's correct. Where he is now approaching kind of game change your offensive defenseman status.

He says he's got the skill. He's very small. Well, I shouldn't say nowadays nobody's very small in the NHL, but undersized and has changed the team. And now mainly it's J'accuse.

Oh, my goodness.

That's what it's like last year. Like J'accuse, because you're the first of all, you're in the NHL. But he was coming from the national program, right? Ginelli, it's he could have easily spent a year in college.

One hundred percent. And you know what, it didn't didn't really matter because he's put on that weight and he looks like a different player. He's got seven points in the last five games, I think. And he showed that like, all right, look, Franjieh right now in New York doesn't have a point through five games. It doesn't relax, relax, because J'accuse looks like a different player.

I think you nailed it with with with mentioning Laferriere and him not having a point where some guys take a little longer, like Coppo Caco, I mean, I think he's got to tuks now. But, you know, I don't think, you know, he's he's probably not where they'd expect them to be at this point when they drafted him. So, yeah, it's it's so comforting as a New Jersey fantasy, this guy pop off the way he has and he's starting to shoot the puck.

You know, that last one he scored was a fucking laser. You did see the one in the first couple of games. And he came down the wing and he tried to take a slap shot. And it seems as if, though he's still getting used to his body and his way, that clip was played.

It was the puck was bouncing. It was at the end of his shift and he, like, fell as he hit it. But it was totally because of, like, the way the puck is going in. Everyone's like, look at this first overall pick falling over.

I was like, well, I wasn't I was saying more like, I'm more excited for him to get even more used to his body and probably put on even a little bit more weight to where he's now. He's on well, on his way. He looks great so far this year.

Palletizing Ty Smith does all the cooking and cleaning like him and J'accuse live together. So we have a N Kucuk situation where we just use J'accuse came out. I was like, yeah, he does all the cooking and cleaning for us.

Well, sounds like a hazing, but then if I can give me the permits for our boys, we can't talk about New Jersey, but I'll talk about that. Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood's got Wedgewood Blackwood to own along with a nine four eight nine one nine No. Wedgwood with a one on one nine three seven two point zero one one out. The goal is that the Jersey right now, man, and that one of these teams that I think of surprise people early on.

Again, it's very early, but the goaltending has been key to what the success has been so far and went forward.

He I think it was his first win in the NHL since twenty seventeen.

Yeah, he was he was in Arizona for a little bit. Yeah. Well I mean he grinded away in the minors for a long time and I saw a little like a postgame interview where he was like talking about his entire family, you know, stood by his side as he just did his best to try to get back to the NHL. And now, Aaron, Dels picked up the waiting for the whole wavered or I don't know what it is with him.

Contract visa, who knows? And and Blackwood, is he injured?

He's injured, correct. McKenty Black Watari, he was hurt for a couple of days, so he's getting a chance that he might not get dels there and but still to take advantage of and get that win and look that good. The first game he struggled, then get a shutout.

That's big time, is happy for him in the locker room. Didn't covid protocol, too. If there's ever been a goalie tandem with wood with the last name ends on wood like Blackwood notes. Yeah, it sounds like a good so anything but black wood and Wedgwood. It's you know, when you're doing notes it's like it kind of jumps out at you. It's not a common thing for two goals to have the name and my same four letters I'm feeling you talking about the devil's piqué suban.

Let a couple of bombs fly and they clap. I knew New York Ranger Brandon Lemieux twice do that, Jeff.

I mean, we're talking about a bad shift early in the game. We'll talk about a hard shift. Brian, you man, he took two. Lykins stayed out there doing what he thought was the killing.

A penalty enough I can play because the way he stuck in there, he was doing the one one one leg kick and swimming around there. I didn't really have much teed up for that that that topic. What do you think?

I think you should probably read the notes when I said no, sir.

Well, I mean, that's that's not a topic. I got shot while I was comfortable. I don't want you here. I'm just.

Yeah, no, it was more of a segue into the next thing, which was Boston. Brian Trent Frederich. It's like an absolute shit to be Szubin when the Bruins and Devils played. I mean, he's a young kid. I think he's technically a rookie this year. He's been around for a while.

He's like, you got he did his best. You have to see him. You have to see I love you, man.

Here we go, galaxy. Here we go. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a movie that's kind of reminded me of when you said that to the. Yeah, give it all you got. Give it all these like he was calling them out because like, I'll go you when I'm ready.

I think he said they didn't end up fire. Piqué threw him down. I actually got a penalty on that play, which I don't know if he necessarily deserved. But Frederick, he's St. Louis boy. I saw our boy Jannsen tweeting about him, talking about that. Of course, he's he's looking to get in the mix. So all the people from the low in the Bruins took that kid in the first round.

No one, he probably was going to be a first line player, but that had to be such an impactful, you know, middle six guy that they decided, fuck it will take him. And I'm interested to see what the kid does going forward. And speaking of Boston, David Crèches has now the fifth most assists by a Czech player ever after yoga Leisz, Vinnick, Crossville and Jake Vacek pretty big accomplishment for Creg.

I think he's probably one of the most underrated superstars over the last decade or so in the league.

Yeah, I wouldn't say superstar, but I would say one of the best playoff performances you've seen. I mean, every single time the Bruins have a run, I always say he's one of their best players. It makes sense.

He's quietly gone about it for fifteen years.

This is his career now.

Yeah, kind of like a Patrick Lyosha, New Jersey, where he just is, like, so consistent for so long. I would I would say he's probably not going to be a Hall of Famer, but just a guy that like I probably like a ring of honor type guy.

Yeah.

I think his number will be retired. I don't know. I think it will be wet. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't argue that.

I mean, I think I think he is a kind of a low key personality. So like he's not like a dominant guy. So you don't hear or see him as much in the town.

But what he's done, his playoff performance is speaks for itself, I think. Absolutely 100 percent. Forty six will go up.

They're going to have that ring of ring of honor jammed up at one point. Yeah. Yeah. The old teams, man, they are running out of numbers. That's why I was surprised that Brendon Dillon, who we interviewed recently, played for three teams and none of them had that number four retired yet.

So. All right, moving right along, Buffalo's Dillon cousins, he got his nice first touch. Any job. I mean, that was just an absolute snipe. Speaking of Buffalo buddy Jack, he's got seven points in six games so far. Dale Hall, six points in seven games. I mean, Buffalo. I mean, I know that the record's not ideal right now, but these guys are playing hard, man.

What they are, they just need goaltending, man. They're no goaltending has been brutal. Like they're up three, two. I think it was I think they ended up winning the game in a shootout or maybe it was even the game before. But they're up three too late. And then I think it was back from score from behind the fucking goal line. And it's just like so deflating. And they're trying to look for their first win in regulation, I believe.

And luckily, they I think I believe it was the game that they won in a shootout. But if they can get some stops, you know, they're a gritty team and they look good offensively. Just need some stops, maps in the way they need stops.

The islanders, they need to score goals. They keep them out of their net, but they don't score either. So the team is good and they're going to get in the playoffs, unfortunately, but they can't score. And that's what I've said forever.

Just nine goals so far within five games. I mean, conversely, they've only given up eight, so they are winning. Varlamov Is that back to back shutouts? Three and Ozil found a nine eight eight eight percentage oh three three goals against.

They don't really those impressive Clutterbuck should get a statue if I could walk them up like that. All those numbers since he threw a dart in his neck and warm up well and boy out of boy Clutterbuck.

But I mean those that's Trott's hockey. I guess at the end of the day, like, as long as you score more than the other guy, it don't matter. Yeah.

Basel is having a blast. All right. I play Tampa in the playoffs. All right, boys, let's move along to the West and of course, Vegas, five and one 10 points is leading the division right now.

But this is a pretty tight division because they played four games versus your boys in Arizona this week. But you go down the bottom of division. Anaheim and L.A. both have six points. So everything's pretty tight so far. What have you seen so far?

Paola's been been great. Yeah, I thought they're going to be a lot worse than they are, but yeah, even Colorado hasn't. I mean, other than that big blow when they haven't been like lights out.

I've watched Vegas four games in a row now. Just yeah, they they they look very strong and Fleury is playing really well. He hasn't even gotten much lead time, I think for I think for like 60 or 70 percent of the time he's been in that they've been tied and he's squeezed out the win the other night, had a great shutout, made a couple of key saves. But yeah, it's it's it's going to be a climb to the top.

Like, no one's really popping out that much other than Vegas right now.

I know Colorado's kind of kind of weird, like it's you'd think they'd have more going on and they're fine in the position they're in.

But you think they would have had a little better start L.A. because they they you just when you think they Kopitar may slow down, he's got ten points like six games already.

So he's look phenomenal.

And a guy they got a guy notice they got in a trade from Toronto, the Carlgren Ström.

Yeah. I actually got to play with them for a minute there in Moto and he's just this thick. He can skate, loves thrown his ball around.

He scored an awesome goal on Sunday night or maybe Saturday night for L.A. So they're giving guys chances, right?

They're in there at a time in that in that organization where prospects are going to get opportunities.

They're going to get a chance to play like I like that I follow. He's got four points already. He's look good at times, like he's playing more minutes than he would on another team. So if Carter and Kopitar can continue to play well and Daoudi like, who knows, right? I mean, yeah, Byfield isn't playing right.

I'm not sure about Bio-fuel, but I was going to mention Adrian Campi, a guy I want to call her Cup with the Manchester. They definitely so I can't wait to watch them when they play against the coyotes to get even a better look. But yeah, after that I think it was that overtime loss to Minnesota. They've been they've been playing a lot better.

And I wonder about Vegas if their record might be a little bit misleading. They've trailed Auburn, tied after the second period and five or six games they get a little late game magic.

So that's a record that can last.

I mean, you can't play with fire that long and that power play just to four twenty so far. That's a team that should be doing a little bit better in that regard. We also had a swap of veteran demon in this division. Has Colorado sent defenseman Ian Cole to Minnesota for defensive end Greg Patterson? Both guys are in their last year of their deals. Pattern is making two and a quarter mil call, four and a quarter mil, although Colorado is about a quarter of that.

However, today, Monday, Colorado did put Patton on waivers. If he's not claimed, he'll likely end up in the taxi squad. You've got to think this is a cap related move either or both teams just.

Well, it was it was it had a lot to do with Bone Biram showing up in Colorado and he played his first game. He dangled gets a laugh. I think he dangled somebody. But all of a sudden it's like a left shot defense, kind of a future career guy for this team.

So Ian Cole becomes expendable, but it's a typical Bill Belichick. Aaron goes out and gets a guy who's familiar with Stanley Cup champion. And I think where Minnesota is, that's a guy who could fit in really well there. I mean, he's going to play peek. He's a prick to play against because we got the chance to.

Being completely right, and you saw like there was a lot there, I mean, I use a first round pick. I think I've been stripped of his confidence in St. Louis and then went and found it in Pittsburgh. And then he had even you know, I think he's been pretty successful since he's been over in Colorado. It just says his number is not great. I think he's making. He was making for I believe Colorado retained 800000 of it.

Is that the the way the deal worked out? But, yeah, I think that he's a good experience guy to maybe run off some of the run off and help some of the young guys in Minnesota, but also add some stability to that back end where I think Bill Garenne, I think he's like all in on this season.

I think he easily thinks they can make playoffs. I was down in them coming in. But the feeling out of Minnesota is that they think they have a very, very good team. And it looks as if though it's that way early on.

Yeah, Minnesota beefs up their D with coal and obviously, like what? Said they made cap room for the bar bovines at Balbo Bynum situation.

So it's kind of one of those deals that basically helps out both teams. I mean, cap money matters more than ever before this season.

No doubt about Colorado's now at the cap floor. Yeah, they've been they haven't taken away again. Yeah. But they're also going to get a little more maybe you'll find that that they might not have had before. So and also Minnesota.

Minnesota has been their best stop through five games since the twenty eight twenty nine season. Carol Capri's off leads the team with the goal and five assists in six games. That powerplays thinks it's seven point four percent. But you got to say early on, if you're a Minnesota wild thing, you got to be happy with what you've seen so far.

And then you see the clip of him in practice doing that silly trick from behind the net. Then, I don't know, I forget who the shot was on, but he ended up going between the legs down the wing and he got oh, he got a lot on it. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I mean, any time a guy goes through his legs like that, especially at full speed, it's fucking pretty wild stuff. Speaking of pretty wild stuff is I know we texted about this during the week. Andrius, I have to see you. His first three years with the Kings, he had one shot on goal in each game and he scored on each of those shots. It hasn't happened in seconds since 1960, actually, since shots have been tracked since nineteen sixty.

He's the only guy who's done that to score one goal on one shot in his first three games of his.

That'll give an advanced analytics course at a stroke. And you say he's a good player.

What do you mean? He was forty three percent kushima it's impossible to keep up. And speaking of the Kings and Kopitar, he he's actually tied for the lead in points as well. He's got a goal in nine assists. Boy Nate Dog out in Colorado. He's the fourth avalanche to hit five hundred points out the SEC. Hey Duke and Forsberg. And we did mention by him already what a sick dish on his first goal over Amico, Rantanen and Witsell.

Let's see Minnesota Zach Faricy Tasch Joey Molin West Fourth Most game winning goal by a Usborne Play Ever JRA Imola tied at ninety two and the aforementioned Bill Yaroun had seventy seven. And of course we can't mention game and goes without bringing up Pokerface and Glen Anderson from the Edmonton Oilers.

Don't change pokerface because I think that predate you. We had Halsy on the first time like Glenvil was drunk at a party and like bragging about it and he said, Oh I remember you guys told me the story and he was he just wanted it on repeat.

I love that tune. I love that. I listen to that whole album, that Lady Gaga. That was when she went the futuristic route. Right.

My Pokerface Traffic Jam jam, no doubt. I bet my favorite was L.A., Alejandro, L.A..

Alejandro, you remember that one? I guarantee you I've heard it. But you give me that original beat. I can't think of it. I was so taken aback when we. Sure that's not Shakira. Shakira. No, no, no, no. I know.

Handle my my my old man loves Lady Gaga. One of his bucket list thing is to sit front row at one of her concerts. No word of a lie.

It's like, was this before the movie as well, Paul? I actually haven't even asked him what he thought about the movie. I guarantee you, he that he he gets, like, awkwardly quiet, like what that is like.

You find out he's been writing letters and said he's a complete stalker.

Dear Stan, I never heard of that song. Yeah, no, what a fan. What if I get a call from my mom and say, hey, dad's in prison? He's like Lady Gaga. His personal security put him in a full Nelson and dragged him out of the house.

He's wearing one of your old socks you used to use.

He broke into our house and was like taking her panties for her panty drawer.

Oh, he'd be, like, smelling her extra microphones and shit if he likes her that much. Like, I think it's all right. He's all about the voice, not the actual.

She has an unreal voice. I never heard that song The Edge before until she sang it like a cappella on Stern and like I had like, fuck goosebumps.

Oh, she is as talented as that. She's like, she's a freak. I'm so good.

The upbeat version is actually worse. But that yeah. That once you did you get a schedule like a great like. Grandfather and Stern, that was like fucking goose bumps. I think that I think, oh, man, I hope I'm not making this up.

I'm pretty sure you are. Where she she she used to dress all crazy and like, she'd have these ridiculous costumes on. And and I guess Tony Bennett was like, hey, you're, you know, beautiful woman.

Like, what are you doing with all this?

You don't need it. And then she started like dressing more normal and shit.

I think he was very talented. Let the music speak for itself instead of like. Yes, I think I don't know what to say.

I kind of like the flame in your dress a lot. Yeah, maybe it's one of the it's one of the restaurants.

Put it over the hot stone. Yeah.

Like you said, she's she showed up in like in like space outfits and shit. She's she's off her rocker. Yeah.

You ever see her a documentary on Netflix. Because, you know, I watch it though. I love that movie. She was in with Bradley Cooper.

Oh, wait for star ending. Oh, that's the movie that I thought you were talking about. And you Bauer's plan. Was that the one you were talking about when you brought it up earlier?

Yes. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah. No, I'm talking about the five foot two, the guy. It's the documentary of her on Netflix. It's really good because it's like gives a whole synopsis of her career and stuff.

And yeah, she's someone like I don't have any of her music on my fucking phone, but I admire the hell out of her.

That makes I got two, three albums downloaded and the other new are going to get where we are going to be getting to more documentary talk later. The Tiger Woods talking. Oh yeah. I liked it a lot.

You guys, you have anything more on the West you want to add? Oh, Chaika. Oh actually I had that. Yeah, we can get to that right now.

If we talk about the oats, he's like banned from the NHL for the next year.

So the NHL looked at the scenario and what actually happened and decided this do deserve to be punished. Go ahead, Rear Admiral.

Yeah. Former Arizona GM John Chacal was suspended by the commissioner for, quote, conduct detrimental to the league in game one quote, and he cannot be involved with NHL business and through December of 31st of this year.

So, I mean, that's a pretty harsh penalty for a guy who was a GM and he can't fucking mess around and it seems for the rest of the year because he had an illegal workout. But I mean, one of the things you've got to pay the fiddler, he's the Analytica bad boy now.

I think he just wanted to establish his fucking dominance. And I mean, you got to he gets a couple neck tats. Yeah. Yeah. He's look like his neck.

Tat is like Courcey in Spanish and English. Right in across. That's a that's a pretty big whack from the league. So listen, I don't know, like the like the hard, hard core details of exactly why he got punished as hard as he did. But I mean, yeah, there were some things that he did that weren't great and people weren't happy about around here. And I'm sure some people here are happy to see that come down. Still sucks that we lost our first rounders, our one first rounder, because like, if things go if things go very south, all of a sudden, if you get the first overall pick, we've never gotten the first or second overall pick in our organization history since it's been here anyway until this year when you can't even use it till until this year if it happens.

And now we're going to we're going to fucking make playoffs. But anyway.

Yeah, Analytica bad boy, John Chaika fucking I, I, by the way, kind of gotten leading the team, kind of leading the team with two goals for assistant six games.

Kessell got four goals in Anaheim to John Gibson to one and two with the nine three eight and a to a one one shutout out.

He's been keep Anaheim every game thus far. The real deal he has, he is the real deal.

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So I heard moving right along we got a lot of etc. news as I turn it on the newsletter that I sent out to the boys. NBCSN will no longer exist by the end of the year.

This is the channel that's been carrying the energy for the last 15 years. Well, the NHL deal is up this year. The league's looking at multiple patterns for the next year. That might not be. A network could be with two or three, and I think the NHL actually has leverage this time, they don't have to just take the first deal offered to them. And I think the first thing the league should do, which is bring back Gary Thorne, who just got laid off from his Baltimore Orioles job for My Money, the best play by play announcer ever.

The league should do what they can to bring him back and replace my camera guy when he when he was crushing it with ESPN, he was as good as they got in the announcing game and then 13 years with the Orioles and they just let them go. So I'd love to see him back in the mix.

Absolutely, man, and we'll keep abreast of that situation, so I know lot people like, you know, NBCSN has gone this. This is not bad for the NHL. This is good. They are in a better position they've ever been. The last deal was 10 years to 200 million. This could be a billion dollar deal.

So things are looking up for the NHL if one billion dollars, even if it's half that, whatever, it's like things things are going better than they've ever been. So also, the NWA kicked off their bubble at Lake Placid. We usually don't pull off a New York teams on here, as we know. But in this case, Team Barstow's own Honey Badger, Kelly Baverstock, has suited up for the New York Riveters. They won their first game the other day in the bubble.

So thanks for the T to whoever sent us the Rivers t shirts. All his boys, very appreciative. That's a great logo, too, by the way.

Business looks Erica CentOS, who's doing tons for the NWSL right now, Erika Nardini, she's telling it for them.

I got my T-shirt repping who who is the video of the one girl throwing the hit?

Oh, it was it was a monster hit. That was Susan Stevens. Ask open pauperized. So I was going to bring this up. Have they ever considered making women's professional league, at least maybe not international play, maybe adding contact, or is that like a faux pas with the girls be in agreement?

To do that, I think is the reason they probably don't.

And for whatever reason, whether his physical or whatever, women get concussed at a much higher rate for men need the same thump as his guys do for whatever reason. And they do get concussed. It's such a higher rate.

I think that's why they don't want women get concussions easier than men. Is that a fact? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I'm believe it.

That's not what seems crazy to me. But you have the facts to support it. We interviewed them in the Kazami.

It was yes, it was Christ probably four years ago. And when researching for it I was like kind of stunned to see how bad the numbers were. Like it's like, wow, they get concussed at such a higher rate. And, you know, I don't know if it's a physicality against thing or genetics thing or whatever, but, you know, if these girls are going to be concussed at that high of a level, then you probably don't want hits.

But I agree with you like that. You want to see in the game.

But I'd be interested to know what the girls think of it if they're like, no, no, that's just not part of our game. Sure. I would say like that clip ended up getting crazy views. I'm like, why is there a massive open? I said being thrown in the end WHL tournament inside this in this bubble. And it garnered a lot of attention. It just sparked my curiosity. Is, is this something that they would potentially introduce in order to to have more people interested?

I don't know. No.

I think maybe we should bring on one of my former proteges, Kelly Baverstock, like, go stop it. Let's bring her on up in Toronto, Toronto, Muskoka, rather.

Yeah, absolutely. We should get her on because it'll be good to get some insight on that. Moving around lots some hockey news that they did start the season with pucks embedded with tracking technology, but they were changed out back on January 19th because they weren't up to snuff. That is to say, the Pucks did in the league did not receive the same precise finishing treatments as during the twenty twenty playoffs. I don't know why or how that happens, but it's expected that the new supply of tracking packs will be available soon and they'll be back and after use in quality control doesn't ask if there are any problems with the recalled pucks.

Brad Marchand said, yeah, they would go net the nets, which is a joke about the Bruins inability to score early on and progress a media darling that he loves.

And poor Greg Rochinski, one NHL players, said the pucks were, quote, terrible and, quote, don't slide, adding that the players had voiced their displeasure with him. So, yeah, the league's trying to do the right thing as far as measuring stuff and whatever.

They fucked up putting these chips in the box and instead of keeping with them, they took them out and they replaced them. So live and learn.

So they're not going to try to fix the technology and reintroduce them or they oh, they just you know, they're going to make sure the next time they do it, they do it right now.

Why they didn't do it right. I like what I say.

Fuck off with this shit. Like, what do I need to know how fast the puck is moving? And like, it's it's all about the field. Some of these guys have been playing with the same pucks for their whole lives and that they're going to change up the feel of it like there's got to be different reasons, though.

There has to be plans in terms of what numbers you're going to get then just being able to say like, oh, it's going to last one hundred percent.

But like, so. So then what? So then the broadcast is just going to be fed up with these numbers is what the puck track like. I don't know man. Like at a certain point I'm like, fuck off with this shit, let them play with the fucking OG pucks. If it's if it's if you're trying to do it in order to garner attention, you know, because they think it would help grow the game. Fuck man. Sure, I guess.

But am I am I a little bit too negative with these chips in the pucks?

Folks, I think it's affecting play and guys are like noticing that. Then you're like Wall, come on. That has to be one a rule in terms tell me and tell me anything.

Tell me what the fuck those pucks are telling you. And then and then at least we can all make a judgement on it. But this is a joke like. We are partly through a year, they got like switch out the pox, put the fucking rubber pucks in the play and fuck off with this Analytica toy shit in the park. Come on.

That's what they ended up doing, taking the old pucks from the previous season. I guess the ones they had for the playoffs worked. And then whatever guys were noticing these little ratchet up to the player pool.

Do a player pull how many guys want these chips in the box? Then we'll fucking talk.

Yeah, I mean, we want were still in the game chip in a jersey.

But chip out of pocket, you know, you're messing with the fundamental fucking angry. Come on, Gary.

All right. We wouldn't put a chip in that shoe. Is that lack of Air Jordan?

Put a chip in your sketches, Gary. Come on.

Hey, Tuesday night we had ten no one picks planned all at the same time, Ovechkin said Eric Johnson. Patty came to the hall the night Doug Aaron Ekblad, Rasmus Dolin, Jackie Hughes and Aleksi Franjieh.

Pretty good man. Like we always talk about the talent in the league spread out everywhere. It's good to see man. Every night we got tons of good players. Even if it's a bad team on, you're going to have at least two to three good players on it.

If you guys see that fucking video of the Kazakh goalie, he went nuts.

He threw a stick Wawel glove that another step going to the bench far above any snap shows.

I'm going to Caras compression improvidence. That's a true snap shot right there in absolute league.

Conor McGregor, Dunsford second round. I don't have a fucking bet against them. Everyone that mother was betting on everyone. Barstow's second is Dick and it's like, dude, he was like a four to one favorite. I wish I checked the odds because I probably would have played the underdog man. Guys, old man, I don't I don't think he's the same fighter as he was fucking five, ten years ago.

Right before the fight, my girlfriend looked at me and said, I'm telling you, don't take McGregor, take the other guy.

There's no chance he wins. I'm like, no fucking way. I'm like, no. You see, she has no clue. No UFC. She's like she's like, I will bet you anything. Conor McGregor does not win this fight. And we were going at it about it in fucking look what happens.

It looks like. So you laid fucking four to one of McGregor. Yep. Yes, I did.

And I look like an idiot now.

Wow. I think that McGregor this is such an outsider's view.

I know I don't know a lot about the UFC, but when he came up, I think he was like never going to be outworked by anyone.

I think his preparation was like it just seemed like he was so into his craft and now he's so Hollywood and he's he knows that his name is going to draw the fight.

Like, I don't I would guess his work ethic is not what it is, not at what it was when he was really dumb.

I think focus focus would probably be more like the same thing, right? Yeah. Because they are you do need a lot of that going into a fight. I don't know much about the fight game either. I don't think he's going to go away because as far as ratings, I think they like the last I think for the five top UFC rated pay per view buys have been him and his name still huge. So right now, he said that he's going to do the trilogy against the same guy.

Whether that guy wants to do that or not, I don't know. I think he wants a title fight and then he could also go back to Gia. So what if he's fighting? I'm what I'm dialed in. I want to know what the fuck. He's a clown show. It's a circus.

And I want to watch it for everyone who's like, if you've ordered a rough and rowdy and this may have been technical difficulties, it can fucking happen at the highest level because ESPN plus apparently like how I didn't get the fight, how you couldn't even get the fight, I guess it was like broken for so many people.

It's like, oh, my God, you think you can get the gif after what? Just wait and get the gif after that. So I do. Yeah.

I mean, I don't know if people if it goes five rounds and it's a legendary fight, I mean, it's like the issue is buying it. And nowadays with technology you still couldn't have these people couldn't get it.

I said the same thing I said most of the time you're like, oh, I want to see it. But how many times do you leave yourself after being like, Oh, I wish I would have bought it? Oh, it's like it's never it never lives up to the hype and then. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yes. So, yeah, it's welcome.

That's the Robby Fox who's appear at Barstool Sports. I mean, I love Robby man. This kid was an intern for Riggs back in the day and now he's defiant on private planes. The fucking Abu Dhabi would with what's his name, fuck Dana White. And don't you know what?

I want to want to know that part of it was a charter jet.

Not that not a PJ, but a charter. Oh, still. I mean, no, no. All he did fly there with him. Yeah.

It was a whole media thing because, you know, the covid situation, they don't fucking, you know, Randall coming on a flight for him that he's worked hard.

I mean, it seems like he legit goes at that like that's his thing. UFC he's become tight with with Dana White. And if you can get that guy in your corner.

It's going to just keep getting bigger and bigger in that sport, so I'm happy for him. I mean, I know his boys macgregor's pretty crying after the loss but he got to interview him. I saw.

Let me just say what go. No, no, no. It was just good. Good to see for him. Yeah.

And I think he, you know, he knows he went Robbie does, he acknowledges he's a kind of fanboy and he still covers it like you know, like he'll say I like the guy but he got his ass kicked. Like some people just always like kiss ass. He's able to acknowledge that he likes a guy and say, hey and still be impartial. So I like Robbie, man. He's he's great at what he does also because we talked about the tag documentary.

What did you get a chance to see it. Oh, I watched it.

I watched it last week after we recorded.

I thought I thought the online crying about it was way out of line. I thought it was very brazen. I thought it was what they did. And you could say everyone there, no one talk. He doesn't talk to anyone anymore. But yeah, but those are people who Tiger got cut out of his life. They weren't vindictive after. They were just saying, hey, here's our perspective on him. And I thought that was the most insight into Tiger Woods.

I've never gotten anywhere 100 percent by the people who knew him the best. And they weren't pissed. They weren't mad. They were just like, hey, this is the deal. And it's clear with that. His father was like Dr. Frankenstein. He made a robot. And, you know, you wouldn't have Tiger Woods, the champion, without the crazy like the battlement. It's like you had to take the whole kit and caboodle humanized them.

That just completely humanized them. I've always been a Tiger fan during that period of time where he was, like, so successful, but yet he seemed like agitated by the media. I never understood it. I was still a fan of it. Obviously, after everything happened, there's probably a lot of secrets being kept to where I probably created them to where he had, you know, he had the double life going. But holy shit for him to to be able to to turn it around, man, and get through that as a human being.

It was cool. I felt like a little greasy watching it here in the story from his, like, ex-girlfriend in high school, just being like, yeah, essentially his old man wrote me a letter breaking up with me and like, forced them and how he was so controlled. And I don't know, I felt like it wasn't information that he probably want to divulge. Same with the body at the golf course in the fact that he was talking about him and his old man, you know, Crushin checks behind.

I don't think it was gossipy, though. I thought it gave insight into, like, his mentality, like the fact that, yeah, you've got a ten, ten year old kid and your father's banging fucking broads in a trail like you don't think it affects you until twenty five years later when you realize you got to marry you.

So is this something that Tiger Woods signed off on or he. No, no, no. Right, right. So it's kind of information that he probably didn't want out there. And there were so many people divulging like how deep rooted it was and maybe why it got there. I don't know. I felt a little bit dirty watching it. But ultimately, he's one of the if not, he's probably the most significant athlete outside of Muhammad Ali like that.

Right. As far as world renowned and yeah, in the last fifty years, he's the best organization.

He's better at all. He's better at golf than anyone's ever been at a sport. That's that's what I say.

When he was at its peak, when he was at the best that he's ever been, I think he was better at golf than anyone's ever been at their respective sport.

If you like the documentary, I, I, I mean, I enjoyed it for people who said it was a hit piece. I don't know, man, I couldn't agree with that less. Now here going say you've got to go read the book, but if you want more that that documentary was based upon a book by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian called Tiger Woods. There was a number one New York Times best sellers and you got ten times more info in the book.

You got a lot of the same stories in the documentary. But if you want even more, that book is incredible read.

And it really shows, just like the documentary did, just more in depth of how he became who he was. And so you look at like his life and you look at how good he was at golf. And the weirdest part was the the perfect image. And they were so adamant about it was this pristine human being. He was just an amazing golfer. And then off he was perfect golf off the course. He had a beautiful wife. He had kids, all these sponsorships.

And it was like once people start seeing in the documentary, the couple of the people that spoke I hated the guy with the bow tie was such a little wreck.

What he did on screen, you sucked. And he's talking about how. But what are you saying is true?

Is that like the country, the United States or the world, they they like want to see the people at the top fail. And it's like it's drama and it's there are people who are rooting for you to just go down if you're at the top of your profession. So people are out there gunning for him. And then the way he treated the media, that makes it even more different where guys. All right. You're going to make it clear you hate us.

Well, there's going to be some people that aren't going to keep covering up everything for you, Tiger. And so the story originally breaks about the cheating and like the Rachel Uchitel and like he does the cover of Men's Fitness so that National Enquirer. I thought that was where it got a little girl, and so when you start hearing about all these women, he's banging in like it wasn't a double life. He was living like a thousand different lives.

And so all goes back to his father, though.

And now it was crazy seeing his emotion after he won the British Open. And his father was the first major one since his dad had passed away. And he's hugging his caddie, Steve Williams. It's like. This guy's dad was such a scumbag, I don't really feel bad saying that like what this guy did and read the book and it goes even more in-depth of what this guy did. He had other kids. He didn't fucking even talk, talk about or see.

He was not a good person. But he still it's it's his dad, right. He loved them. And and the thing is, like, you see, like you said, are you 10 years old and you're practicing and your dad's given some hot blonde a lesson and then he's taken in the Winnebago, like, how are you going to be a normal human being?

Yeah, like, I don't want to say, like, Tiger's not at fault for anything that he did, but like, dude, I don't know, man, like, you're fucking raised and you look up and your hero is this guy that's pulling these scumbag moves day after day. It's like they're on tournaments, they're traveling for tournaments. And and Earl Woods is like banging women.

It's like, how are you going to be like a a person with, like, principle and values growing up with that?

Like it's not even hiding. It was a bizarre thing. And it's like, go ahead. Like, not to say any more. Right. But it's just like just being that open about it.

It's just like that's like that's got to be damn where you're taught like oh is this what is this normal. Like I am I allowed to talk about this at the dinner table. You combine that with no childhood. I mean, he was programmed to be a golfer like his girlfriend said, like she added a lot to that, that like me, like he was just a nerdy kid who was fun when he went home, the girlfriend in the house.

But other than that, it was just robotic golf shit all the time. So he never had that. Like, it's not an 18, 19, 20 year old shit. He never the college thing. He was just a golf nerd who never, like, showed his OK. So when he was married, he fell into that whole routine. He still had these unscratched fucking inches. And then you out Michael Jordan and fucking Charles Barkley in Vegas.

I mean, and I'm sure they love their names being mentioned in that to. Oh, you think they didn't give a shit. They did nothing wrong.

I mean, is the one, you know, not, you know, had the infidelity, but. Yeah, I mean, he was a kid because he was never fucking he never had that experience when he should have had it because he was pushed into this or pushed into that. And, you know, he did it too late in life. And I don't know, it's just a fascinating story.

It's fascinating. And for every Tiger Woods, there's nobody else like Tiger Woods. But for all these parents who do try doing this, the kid, there's thousands of kids who end up fucked up from it. So it's like you can't raise your child the way they did. I mean, it worked out. He's the greatest of all time.

But I saw the people who were speaking in that documentary. A bunch of them kind of pissed me off like the girl.

It's like friend. It's like how like I just would have liked to know the friendships on a couple those people. And the one, though, that I didn't disagree with is his caddie, Steve Williams. You know, here's the argument he tiger Tiger probably made.

That guy might have made like thirty million dollars caddying for Tiger, you know, so it's like Tiger's looking like I don't owe this guy shit, but for what they went through and like what he did to change the game of golf and like to become the most famous, maybe the most famous person on the planet and then boom, forever, you're done like that shows how like he was just born and raised a certain way where he will cut you out of his life and ask you this.

Now, how do you feel about the fact that Steve what was his last name? Williams.

Williams. When was he moving on to quick to another to another golfer because he ended up going with Adam Scott. So was that kind of you know, so that wasn't what happened.

So when he got past the story, he tells is he asked what Tiger was injured. Can I caddy for somebody he wasn't? And I think I mean, I don't know about Tiger a bit like you to even ask that your dad to me like, but.

Then he went on with once he was fired, he went on with Adam Scott, so it totally made sense at that point. He's like, all right, I'm going to go to one of the other best golfers in the world.

The craziest thing Steve Williams ever did is he won like a random tournament with Adam Scott. And he's like, this is the best win of my career. It's like, dude, you want 30 majors with Tiger.

Like, you just won the Bridgestone Invitational with Adam Scott settled on the pro-am.

There's a pro, but certainly not a hit.

Certainly want a hit piece. And if you like the documentary, the book, Tiger Woods goes into a way more detail. Yeah, I thought it was very well done again, not not a hit piece is busy as far as what you were asking about. Yeah, he had said that.

Steve said I asked Tiger, can I caddy for him? And he said, yes, you could. And then the day of the tournament, not even Tiger, one of Tiger's reps called and said, don't caddy for him. And he's like, well, I already told him I am. And you already told me I could. I mean, again, who knows?

Maybe Tiger's I'm sorry. But either way, the phone I think the themen would like what you said is that there were this documentary made of people who he is emotionally cut out of his life who all know him. And again, it wasn't like they were vindictive or mad. Even the fucking Braudis to hook up with Rachel Uchitel. If there was someone was going to be vindictive, it would have been her. And I thought she was like, pretty spot on.

Like, you know, she wasn't like a scorned lover. Yeah. She loved them. And and by the way, he told every fucking body hooked up.

But I think it was like going to come. I'm going to come. I love you. I love you.

Because every brought on a fucking show is in love with them. But like, she even wasn't delusional. Like I was in love with Tiger Woods. But I thought her her input was pretty essential to the documentary.

But how about how about his line after causers? I get where you can do like he's like fucking get me again.

When she said that, I was like, OK, all right. This guy. Yeah. I get what you can. I mean do I mean, good luck in there that we're not going to bring up.

There was some rather tawdry, disgusting details on that fucking documentary as well.

The Perkin's with the Perkins Weight Watchers. Absolutely. Yeah, well, leave it. That is because you're disgusting. And oh, and one other person, I got to say, giant fuck you to that Billy Payne loser. I thought the press conference that he gave.

Oh, my God. Oh, fuck. Guys, dude, you're like running a golf club. Oh, my God. That was all that was like that was just like none of those guys fucking cheat on their wives.

Like, I'm not going to say names of the plenty of guys that cheat on their fucking wives. And I'm going to, like, hang Tiger for that. That was like pure racist bullshit. Sorry.

All right. I just took over your anger right there. Yeah, he took his past.

No, he reminded me how fucking stupid it was. Yeah. This guy fucking cheated on his wife and they made it part of the Toy Story as if it was relevant to the I was like our hero.

Let us down dude.

Yeah. Yeah. Overdramatic run the Masters. Yeah.

Well, at the name of the fucking thing, the Masters fucking says it. All right boys anymore. Tiger notes before we get ready to finish up here. No, I brought it have ten cavities. Oh God. I hate one more note here.

A long time Toronto Maple Leaf. George Armstrong died Sunday at the age of 90. He's a hockey all family. He helped the Toronto Maple Leafs, won the Stanley Cup four times back in the 60s, and he was one of the first players of indigenous descent to play professional hockey, played all of his twenty one seasons in the NHL for the Leafs twelve as the captain. He was also named one of the 100 greatest least of all time, and he had his number ten retired by the squad.

So us guys here on spend Checketts would like to thank I'm sorry. I extend our deepest condolences to George's family, his many friends in the Toronto Maple Leafs family on the loss. Obviously a legend of the game. Sorry to hear it. We want to extend our condolences, boys. Did you have any other stuff you wanted to add? Folino sent a tweet out just about how his father would talk about them all the time and how unbelievable of a man he was.

So, yeah, it's a tough, tough loss to the hockey community for sure. And it's fucking not a great way to start out the year. Right.

But a life well lived 90 years, Hockey Hall of Fame, Stanley Cups in Toronto and also win it all.

Sorry, what. But I said he did it all.

He certainly did. And we also want to acknowledge to the Boston sports app has opened up in Michigan right now.

We've only been in Pennsylvania, but if you are Michigan, you can bet online what your phone, barstool, sports app, us guys, our checkout's we've been coming up with Sportsbook Sports Bar Stool Sportsbook at Isais Bar Stools.

All right. So I know you're right. Check it out. If you're in Michigan, Pennsylvania, it's awesome stuff. And ideally, we're going to be more states. As long as more states keep legalizing gambling, we are going to be there. It's good stuff. We're coming up perhaps every day. What's a Monday night prop?

I know it's already going to have played, but we at the USA, Brady could shocking Quinn, who is both of them, to get a point tonight. We got boosted odds. It's going to be awesome. We look to two Canadian teams.

So let's let's root for the Americans. We figured out a way to do it with Checkout's Propp. So we're going to be doing the stuff. Oh, yeah, the guy. The corner. Again, there's no segment this week because I don't know the lines until they come out. There's only one game Monday. Just follow me on Twitter. Follow me on IG. I'll give you my picks. Boys.

Anything else before we wrap up Maritimers, you guys asked me what people are named from the East Coast and I had about a thousand Maritimers.

You fucking there aren't even Canadian our time.

Maricopa's the beginning of each episode. What's that mean. Like what we fucked up the week before.

Oh, that would be the whole to our podcast.

So yeah, I'm with you now.

Everybody have a fantastic week and we'll see you next week. We'll be. As always, I'd like to thank our dynamite sponsors haven't split tickets big thanks to our long time friends over at New Amsterdam Theater and Pink Whitney.

Huge thanks to our new friends over at TaylorMade. Keep an eye on Schwing Street.

Big thanks to everybody. A Blue Nile. If you haven't checked them out yet, by all means do, especially if you're in the market for an engagement ring with just some regular jewelry.

Huge thanks to our friends. It's simply safe for keeping everybody safe at home. Big thanks to our new friends at Barouch for keeping our checklist nice and clean and a huge thanks to our long time friends over at Rollman for taking care of the fellas.

Have a great week, everybody.