32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Craig Anderson

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

The Buffalo Sabres goaltender is playing in his 20th NHL season and feeling good. While swinging through Toronto, Craig Anderson sat down with Elliotte to talk about playing summer hockey, how he handles stress, his love of cars, hardships along the way, playing in Ottawa, the infusion of youth in Buffalo, his pad design and how his son Jake helped design them, the toughest/easiest hands to read in the league, if he will be back for another season and what he does with his pads in the off-season.GET YOUR 32 THOUGHTS MERCH HEREEmail the podcast at [e-mail] or call The Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.Music Outro: sir WAS - Waiting For The WeekendListen to the full track hereThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Sportsnet.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Who scored on you in practice today? Everybody. I find that very hard to believe. No, some days you don't have it. New gear and all. I got an excuse, yeah. I got an excuse, all the new gear. Welcome to an interview edition of 32 Thoughts to Podcasts

presented by GMC and the new Sierra AT4X. Now, this is one that I was really bummed that I couldn't be part of. I really like Craig Anderson of the Buffalo Sabres. Elliot, you sat down last Friday with the goaltender. This is a pretty wide ranging interview as well. You talk about the pads and taking them home. You talked about his love of cars, how he almost quit in Colorado, how his son designed his goalie kits and plenty on his wife, Nicole, who's a cancer survivor and

just one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I had a chance to meet her a few years ago when I was doing a show on NHL Network Radio, just an outstanding person. And in this interview, you want to clear something up early. Craig refers to people, a number of people, by their first name. Do you have a scorecard for us for who he's talking about? Yes. But first of all, I did want to say there were a number of questions that you wanted and he said, I wish Jeff was here and we edited that out. Nice touch.

Nice touch. So just there's four people he speaks about. He mentions George and that's one of the first answers. Anybody who's around the Sabres will know who he's referring to. That is George Babcock, a long time on the equipment staff with the Sabres. As a matter of fact, his 2000th game, I think, was three years ago. So he's been there forever. That's who he's referring to.

Crawford is Mark Crawford, who was an assistant coach with him in Ottawa. I could see how some people might think he was referring to Corey Crawford, but no, it's Mark Crawford. Justin is his longtime agent. That's Justin Duberman. And the coach in Colorado, Joe, is Joe Sacco, who's now an assistant with the Boston Bruins. So that will help you fill in on some of the people that he's referring to. So when you talk to people about Craig Anderson,

when you talk about the person, one of the things that you always hear, Elliot, as you well know, is great teammate, loved by the guys. When you talk about him as a goaltender, and one of the things that people like goalies have always marveled at is he has a reputation of being able to read shots the blade better than most, if not all goaltenders. That is one of the unique skills that Craig Anderson has. What are we going to hear here?

And what are your thoughts on Craig Anderson? Well, he does discuss a couple of those things, but it's very clear that people are going to learn that he's much more appreciative of things now than he was then. What's the old, I think it was Mark Twain who said it, what's the biggest problem with youth? It's wasted on the young and that we don't really understand what we're going through and what we're experiencing. And he would be the first one to admit to you. I don't want to give too much away, but anderson was very reflective he uh he was definitely in a mood to talk and we benefit from it and the audience benefits from it like i said off the top i like craig anderson a lot i think you're really going to enjoy this interview here he is buffalo sabers

net minder craig anderson on 32 thoughts the podcast so here's the first fact i heard about 32 Thoughts to the Podcast. So here's the first fact I heard about you that I really want to find out if it's true. In the summer, you do not take your goalie equipment home with you. Is that true? For one season so far. Oh, okay. So this was the first. Yeah, it's not a common thing.

But no normally normally i would never leave with my gear um even in ottawa i would have them ship it it'd get shipped two months later show up my door i'd put it the warehouse or in the garage for whatever and wouldn't look at it for the most part so yeah after this past season i just left it and didn't think anything of it i called and told told actually George and I said, George, can you make sure when I get up there, you hide all my gear, make me have a scavenger hunt. Cause I really don't feel like skating the first day either,

but no, it was all hanging there. I just found maybe three summers ago, I would skate on my own without, you know, without treatment, without getting, you know, the, you know, what I normally get on a day- you know without treatment without getting you know the you know what I normally get on a day-to-day during the season and I'd end up being hurt and I missed two three weeks anyway so it was better off just not to skate um and then just you know kind of hit it hard when you get back so in the summer I heard you do play like you play defense or whatever I'm like the extra 11th guy when someone can't make the game for the beer league team you know full cage everything just you know make sure that it's a good skate work

on blocking shots and getting in the lane for guys and get chirped a lot for that beer league you're not supposed to block shots some some habits are hard to well i don't have faith in the goalie there sometimes you know so it's fun to get out and do something different it's less strenuous on the hips and joints, but still able to get the cardio. And, you know, that's still that same, that cold air skating, that same effect. See, the way I found out about this was I asked,

we see so many goalies, their bodies break down. And because the torque you guys are putting on yourselves is so incredible. And I asked, how are you able to keep such a level at 41 and one of the things people told me was you don't do it in the summer no i stopped gosh um the last time i fully skated in the summer like was probably um well lou was with vancouver because he brought down francois allaire to skate so it was like vocoon roberto and myself out on the ice and that was like kind of like the last time that i would

do the summer skates like we do all the goalie drills this that and the other and then a couple summers later i would do it but i'd get hurt like i got hurt twice with uh pure gruel coming down and doing some goalie drills and like like by day three, the knee would hurt or the hip would hurt and be like, all right, well now I got to take two weeks off. So I just stopped it all completely the last few years. How good a defenseman are you? Awful. Can't skate.

Great shot though. You can shoot it? Yeah. So how many goals are you getting in a beer league? Not many. You know, I'm more of just like tee it up, hit the glass type type of guy. But did score once from the red line, five hole. That was nice.

We still lost like 5-1, but I had the goal. Did you say anything to the other goalie when you scored? No, but they all know. It's always the same people. So in Florida, there's not like a lot of players down there. There's not a lot of teams. So you play the same like four teams over and over again and um there's this one team that has no face masks like they literally go no face i'm like you guys are nuts like yeah we're all military guys we're like all right well just get out of the way because i have no idea where my shot's going so

um but no it's good rivalry it's it's fun it's good to just kind of get out with a bunch of guys it's just to have you know a non-competitive, fun, easygoing night. Well, Roberto Luongo in the Hall of Fame game, he played forward. Does that mean that when your career is over and you come up for these games, you're going to play defense or forward? I don't know if I'm good enough. He looked pretty good. He looked dialed. I know his pace is a little bit slower in those games,

but the pace is, I think, quicker than what I play at in Florida, and I can't keep up down there. So I'll probably have to bite the bullet and probably play, you know, stand up, kick, save style, um, and actually put on the pads. Now, the famous story you've told about yourself is that when you were young, I guess you were at the might age and you went into goal during a game and you never look back. When you get out there and you play defense in the summer, does any part of you say, I wish I hadn't gotten a goal and I would have stayed out here? Not at all.

Not at all. No, I was an awful forward. Awful. Yeah, I just, it wasn't my personality. I got hit once as a kid by this little heavier kid going up the wall. We were still squirt, so we weren't even like checking, but I got rubbed out. Didn't this little heavier kid going up the wall. We were still squirt. So we weren't even in like checking, but I got rubbed out.

Didn't know like which way was up. And I'm like, I'm done. I'm out. Like that was just because I skated out in the summer just to kind of, I guess, keep working on your skating. You know, as a kid, you're always like, oh, the best skater has got to be your goalie. That was what you're always told. So I would skate out in the summer hockey when I was a kid, play the spring team or whatever, and kind of bounce in and out of the net with the forwards.

And like I said, I got hit once. It wasn't even a hit. I got rubbed out. And I was like, this is not for me. I'll take the eight-ounce puck all day long. You're sitting here now. You're a Buffalo Sabre. And just in preparing for this, Craig,

I spoke to a number of your former teammates, a number of people who know you, and they all said the same thing. They said that no offense to anywhere else you played before, but people say that you're happier now in Buffalo at this point in your career than you've probably ever been. Would you say that's true?

Yeah, I would say for the most part um I'm just that much more experienced I understand the game better I understand life better understand the coach's point of view better expectations are different you know the expectations of myself and kind of the stress you put on yourself is different I think you know you kind of go through your career I mean I was happy in Florida you're playing in Florida you're back up you're hanging out there's no pressure there's no stress like you play well great this that and the other and then kind of as you proceed and now you get a bigger contract or you go to a team where now you're the number one guy you got to think about about that. Now the team's on your shoulders. It's a lot to process.

And when things don't go the way you want them to, you force, you pressure it even more, and then things kind of get worse. So over the years, I've learned to kind of take a step back and look at it from a different point of view. And, you know, I think what really hit me was a few years back, Crawford's been around a long time, and I remember having a conversation with him. He was one of the greatest guys I've ever had breakfast and lunch with

away from the rink. At the rink, a switch went off, and it was a completely different man. But away from the rink, you could sit there and have a three-hour conversation with him over lunch. He said something to me that sticks out in my head, is that you have to look from a coach's standpoint. Everyone's going to make mistakes, but which players can offset those mistakes so like you take a guy like eric carlson for you know for

all those years he would generate so much but when things aren't going well he's not making those big plays everyone focuses in on the bad plays right well he's always made those bad plays but when they're offset you know if he makes six great plays and one bad one well nobody cares he's plus five right so crow is like if i can get every player to be plus three plus four on all the plays they make we're laughing from a perfectionist point of view or from a goalie point of view you only hone in all that guy he messed up there and he messed up there and it's like you focus in on the negative where from the coach's standpoint you know that's where kind of things started to switch for me was that this guy's plus four on chances for and against like for he gave up two but he got us four right so like we didn't score on the four maybe the two went in that night but

over over the course of a season that plus four is going to end up being better than than a guy that's even right so if a guy's doesn't generate anything but doesn't give up anything, it's kind of finding that juggle and trying to find the positive things. And that started a few years back and that's kind of when things started to change for me for the most part. It's amazing because someone said that to me.

They said that earlier in your career when teams would talk about what happened in a game, you would be like, well, this went wrong and this went wrong and this went wrong. And right now they say when you talk about games you talk about the young sabers players and you say well this went wrong but this is how they're going to learn from it and these are all the things that are going right like people have seen that in you craig they really have no i mean like i said i

didn't do it myself right it's from talking and having conversations with you know even with donnie or kevin or whatever like you know they all see the good in everybody right and and everything is always positive and I've never really understood early in my career why the coaches were trying to be so positive all the time but now I get it right now that I'm that much older and that that much more experienced I understand that the confidence is such a mental side of things that if you just keep hammering the negatives and negatives a it's no fun because you're always there but b it just wears on guys and then now it's like all right well it doesn't matter what I do I did five great things but nobody sees the great things right you make five unbelievable saves you landed a bad goal what

does everybody look at bad goal bad goal and we just we're just conditioned to that and until you can kind of switch that, which Canadian media won't do that, but from a player standpoint, that's where you really got to sit down and look at the video and go with your coaches and say, hey, whatever everybody else is saying, who cares?

Like 10 great things, two bad things, 10 great things, you're plus eight. Let's work on that. How do you manage stress now better than you used to? Oh man, I don't know. Kids, that's probably the easiest you know their life's more important than mine now so you know worst case scenario i think i remember reading i read mind gym for about five years straight there kind of in the middle of kind of everything kind of when i went through waivers back in the day i got into

one of the boston psychologists said hey here's a book for you mind gym mind gym um and i talked to a few other players i've read it too that i know and there's a lot of good small short stories and teachings in there but one of them was you know about a pitcher and you know and she's like how do you deal with stress he goes well i got a family at home i've got a cabin in the woods and i love to fish so if this doesn't work out i'm going fishing you know and that was like all right well like so as you kind of go through your career you want to make enough money where you don't have to work and you want to get that stress out once you get kind of past that and you're like all right well now i can go home and you know be with my family and hang out and not have to stress over how am I going to make payment,

how am I going to do this. Once all that's gone, it's just carefree. I bet that one of the ways you relieve stress too is you drive. Yeah, it's fun. What's your car? I know you're a big car guy. What do you get into? I bought, this was, gosh, about eight years ago now,

I bought an F430 Scuderia, so like a special edition 430. I kind of bought it. I lost my best friend over all-star break that year that summer and then like a month later i'm like i just went and bought a car i'm like you live once let's do it um and just kind of kind of had that held on to that um but race cars i mean i'll drive anything got corvettes we've done miatas we've done Porsches. We've done, like, open cockpit Radicals. You know, anything that gets you on track kind of gives you that rush, that competition feeling without, you know, it's kind of safe. I mean, you're racing for a plastic trophy at Beer League Racing is kind of what it is.

So, you know, you've got to be smart enough not to put yourself in situations where, you know, you can crash or, you know you got to be smart enough not to put yourself in in situations where you know you can crash or you know accidents happen that you don't think your mechanical failures happen but for the most part you're not going to go door-to-door with a guy into a corner when you're racing for a four dollar trophy um you're out there to just have a good time and it's kind of a workout i've heard you say it really helps with your hand eye. Hand eye, you got to slow everything down. But yeah, it's hand eye. It teaches you how to block everything out.

Because if your mind isn't in the car, you're going to crash. You can die. There's lots of things that can kind of go wrong, right? Same thing on the ice. If your mind's not where it needs to be, guess what? You're not going to be very good. So it's kind of a good like mental not test but a mental kind of a skill or mental challenge to kind of get in the car and

you know park everything go on track stay focused for your 20 30 minutes kind of like a period and come off and then get back to reality do you like speed or do you like handling around curves uh more than handling yeah i don't care so much about the top speed but yeah going through a corner and you know one one and a half g's is quite the impressive i mean again it's a competition with yourself it's figuring out how you can be better how you can be more consistent um you know you work with a coach from time to time to to talk about what you're doing and where you can go and how you can improve. And I think as a human, as someone that wants to have growth and development, that's some of the best way because I can take everybody out onto a go-kart track, racetrack.

It doesn't matter what it is. There's a competition. There's a place to grow and develop and feel that like and feel the growth. And you feel it pretty much instantaneously because you can see your lap times come down or you can see like, Oh, I got through that corner better. Oh, I slid that sideways and I caught it. Like there's certain aspects to it that, that make it enjoyable where you get excited about it. What are you more passionate about driving or goaltending? I've always had this conversation with Justin. I play hockey to pay for racing.

Not good enough to get paid to race cars. So, you know, that's the honest thing. I mean, most of the time, most of the guys that are driving race cars are, uh, self pay. So very few guys get into that realm of, of making a living from it when they do it's, it's, you know, like anything, it's the elite of the elite that get paid to play, play hockey. And the same thing with, with auto racing. I want to take you back. You were drafted twice, first by Calgary for a second by Chicago, Calgary, you didn't sign a Chicago. You did. Do you remember where you were on, on those two days and what your expectations really were? We were in Boston for the draft for the first one and then Florida for the second one. So you did go to both.

We went to both. Yeah. Florida was hot. I got sunburned after the draft for the first one and then Florida for the second one. So you did go to both? We went to both, yeah. Florida was hot. I got sunburned after the draft. Well, you do look a little bit fair, so I can see you burning easily. So yeah, that was good. I don't know. I think draft day is exciting for anybody. Just to have the expectation that someone told you that, hey, you're going to be drafted.

You're probably going to be somewhere around here and here, and it happens. I mean, it's an exciting moment for a young guy, and it's no different for me. And, you know, I think when reentering the draft, you see a lot of guys drop in the draft or maybe not even get drafted. And then you also hear about the college guys that don't sign, and when they get drafted, so they go free agent. So, like, there's, you know, it's a whole world that you don't know anything about. And, you know, you learn as you go learn you learn from day to day on it and

you get to meet everybody you get drafted you go up shake everybody's hand and you don't know anybody you don't remember anybody's name and then you get put in a box to hang out with the other guys that get drafted and then you know you go right right off to rookie camp pretty much is how that worked you know first week of July, you're in rookie camp. The other story I was told about you was you were worried that when you were in Colorado, this might all come to an end. Yeah, it was really bad that second year. That you were thinking that maybe your career was over. I thought my career was over a few times, to be honest with you. I thought it was over after waivers through chicago three times

um got some back to the minors after that then the agent i had tried to sign me in russia to get out of whatever it was i don't even know ended up staying in florida anyways but went back to the minors and you know after playing a full season in the nhl so like had a lot of reality check or aha moments were like hey we're not doing something right let's kind of look at with myself and see where i can be better or see what i can change and that's what you have to do if you start the reason i got put in those situations because i was not necessarily pointing the fingers but for lack of a better term, pointing the fingers instead of looking in the mirror and saying, all right, things aren't going the way I want. What can I do to change things? Not why is that guy doing that

to me? Or why is this guy like that happened a few times, some humbling moments for myself to, to get back to where I wanted to be. What was the biggest lesson you learned or maybe the hardest moment for you? The hardest moment was don't be satisfied. What was the biggest lesson you learned or maybe the hardest moment for you? The hardest moment was don't be satisfied. I made the team in Chicago and I was satisfied hanging out with Javi Bullen as the starter. Javi was making $7 million and I was the 500,000 or 425 backup

just hanging out, made the NHL. I'm hometown, this is great. Happiest guy around. And then before i know it things weren't going my way it's funny trent yanni because i said i had the second best job in the world in the room of somebody when i was in there and i think trent heard that i had the best job in the world thinking that hey you're just happy to be the backup you know he had the conversation he said the world thinking that, Hey, you're just happy to be the backup. You know, he had the conversation. He said, what do you mean?

You're the happiest guy in the world. Like you're the backup. Like, I'm like, well, you know, so I love that. You can't be satisfied. I mean, I've, I've talked with many race car drivers, you know, um, you know, one guy that I'm pretty close with Johnny O'Connell, he's like, stay hungry. And that's the thing. It doesn't matter how old you are.

It doesn't matter where you're at. Stay hungry. Don't be satisfied. Were you surprised when Ottawa traded for you? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was a last place team traded with another last place team. Who would have thought?

I thought, like I said, again, in i was we were bad i was bad i mean everything was just i mean it was just it was like a black hole of death there in that city that season after having such a promising year they'd be before yep and we went young we went super young we got rid of a bunch of veterans we went super young and again that's we couldn't figure out how to get out of the hole. And again, it all spiraled. I remember having conversations with the goalie coach. I had a conversation with Sacco. Shortly after those conversations, I was traded.

So I have no idea how it got there or what came to that. But I mean, we did turn down money. We turned down a short-term deal there. And my dad's always a one in the handthe-hand instead of two-in-the-bush kind of guy. So we were kind of thinking, we'll take less money, get more term. And that's what we ended up getting in Ottawa. When we got there, we took less money but got more term. It gives you the time to have a down moment and get back on your feet.

There's not a lot of people who would do that in that kind of situation. I've talked to players about that before, that when you're not going well and a team gives you a contract offer, it's almost impossible to say no. Like not a lot of people would have done what you did in that situation. Yeah.

The offer was made before the season. So after our run, when we lost to San Jose in six there, so we had a great season right so that was my first time being a starter i played 71 games i was you know fifth in vesna voting whatever it might have been and we thought we had a leg to stand on and they were like no oh you can get two years at xyz whatever it was i don't even know and we were like no let's make it four and we'll take a little bit less like nope two years this is it like it's all we got and that was my understanding of the whole day i mean this was gosh what 15 years ago now so whatever the details of it all were we wanted more term we want you

know four six year deal to buy yourself that off year right and just have that off year right away like it just we were in right then and there you're like man you hope that the year before is enough body of work to get you another deal um you know and fortunate enough when i got traded i had such a great finish plus the body of work was able to get something done and ottawa was the place i understand where you learn that people love you for you like the fans the city yeah i think from a canadian market that place is one of the best places to play you know first conversations with Chris Neal Chris Phillips Alfie being there I mean Alfie like lived there he still lives there

um Philly and Neeler kind of engraved themselves into the city and you know that town is awesome they were great to all their players the best thing about being in a Canadian city is obviously you do get recognized the fan base they were so family friendly like if you were out with your family you were at dinner you were at whatever we went to you know the pumpkin patches whatever it was like you were left alone the only time that i really hadn't like a stop to talk to people grocery store for whatever reason you're walking around the grocery store and you got stopped in every single aisle.

Someone had to have a conversation. So you got to just stop going to the grocery stores. Did anyone ever buy your groceries for you? No, never nothing like that. No, I was just, so I literally, I became friends with all the local restaurants and just, hey, I'm picking up or hey, save me a spot at the bar, I'm coming in.

And you'd sit at the bar bar you'd have your meal in peace you know and you'd get a kid here and there to come over and you know ask for an autograph or a picture but for the most part you were you were left alone at restaurants and you know when you were done eating you know maybe when someone was on the way out you'd get stopped but like for the most part it was it was great you loved it there it was awesome i heard you really it's under it's an undercover good city there's a downtown has some good nightlife there's you know you got the football you've got the university you've got the restaurants there that people just don't know about because you have to be entangled into the city yeah to kind of know where to go you know if you stay

out the brook street and you got canada and that's it you don't you don't get to experience what ottawa has to offer so know, I think eventually when the city does get the rink downtown, if it does happen, that'd be a great thing for just the players to have another respect for that city. You know, you're going to get your number retired the more I keep asking you about this. I don't.

No. The 2017, I remember that run. I still remember Carlson's pass to Hoffman in the Boston series. What do you remember about that year? Um, a lot, a lot of life lessons there. You know, that was the year where I left the team. Yep. Came back to the team.

I left the team. I came back. It was just, it was one of those years where, um, Guy Boucher was, yououchet was you know i remember the start of the season right gibouchet is the new head coach and he's got a win now mentality and hey this is what we're going to implement and you know he sat down with every single player because he didn't know anybody so he sits down with every player brings him into their office has a conversation with him and kind of gives us his background of he's x y and z this is kind of player i and this is the kind of coach i am this is my educational background this is where we want to go but you know the main thing was what makes you tick what's craig anderson like what does he want to do what is what is eric carlson

like we you know he went down he had a conversation with every single player that year before the season started and you know he truly cared about each individual and you know that's huge you know, he truly cared about each individual and, you know, that's huge, you know, to get people's confidence and, and just to have someone believe in them. That was probably my first experience with, with him as far as having that conversation. And, you know, so it was a lot easier when you go into them and say, Hey, like I need to take some time off. Things aren't, aren't, aren't right. It's like, all right, you need, you know first um and that was great you know and that that started when brian was there and that that trickled down and you know even when you know pierre took over same thing you know phone call to pierre hey pierre my wife's been diagnosed and blah blah and he's like and just go home like

that's where you need to be and then hammy got got hurt. And I was like, got to go back. But I remember we were about to go on a Western swing, played in Pittsburgh. We got beat like eight to two. And I was just not there. I was not there. I was like, I'm about to go on this two-week road trip. My family's in Pennsylvania, you know, in Easton, Allentown, Bethlehem there. And I'm supposed to go to California.

Like, this doesn't feel right and i was thinking about that entire game that game that we lost eight to two the whole game i was thinking about that i grabbed pure gruel after the game i go pierre i don't do the team any good the way i'm mentally right now i need to go home like no questions asked i just need to go and he goes all right got a flight from pittsburgh to allentown the next that night and that was it sat for what two three months didn't do anything carried my wife up and downstairs took her to treatment battled through that and then you know when the time was right when she kind of went through all that mentally i was like all right i need this i need hockey right like i

just was so emotionally entangled in with the family that i was like i need an outlet and i'm like i'm ready and that's when i went back and pierre came to jersey there where we were and we got ice for a week and then i went out practice for another week and then you know we went on that run saturday's broadcast will be our hockey fights cancer night most important question how is how is Nicole doing she's good we're I think we're just over five years out now um you know I think her biggest you know thing is just this is the new normal trying to battle through the reactions or the kind of the aftermath of, of treatment. You know,

and I think, you know, she's finding, she finds time and energy to, to help others. Right. So anyone else that's going through something or she's got her network of people that are going through that,

that have gone through or going through the same treatment, you know, so there's some common conversations there. But she loves helping people and just having conversations and being there for people. And you know, at the end of the day, her, her first and foremost job is her passion is our kids and, you know, make sure they're where they need to go. And after that, it's, you know, who she can help. She's so selfless thatless that you know she sometimes needs to take a break and take some time for herself too the thing i i admired the most about her is her spirit

um you know you're more of a laid-back person at least to us she's not afraid and and out there in her spirit it's i don't know if i would be right in saying it but it's almost like opposites attract and you're such a great pair she She was always the social butterfly, loves being out and about. I mean, things have kind of, you know, once you get a family and you start to kind of get intertwined with all that, you know, you start to kind of be more of a homebody, but you know, she's always, she's always been the social gatherer, the party planner or the you know just make sure that everyone's involved right she doesn't want to leave anyone left out at the end of the day she wants to make sure even if she doesn't love you know she doesn't like well she likes everybody but like if someone she's not

getting along with yes she doesn't want to make them feel left out at the end of the day she's always sees the bigger picture and everything and and you know um she's italian so she'll make sure she'll tell you to to go fly a kite and you're you're this and you're that but hey come on over for dinner um and that's just the italian way is go fly a kite the actual language used no but i don't know where we're at here but anyways you know i think you know then she gets that from her grandma. Her grandmother was the same way. She would, you know, start yelling and screaming. And then, hey, can I bake you, you know, what can we, let's get something out of the fridge.

What are we making, you know? So I think, you know, life's too short to be mad at people for a long time. And I think she's, like I said, big picture, do what's best for the kids, do what's best for the group. And, you know, like I said, she's selfless, puts everybody else forward. best for the kids, do what's best for the group. And, you know, like I said, she's selfless, puts everybody else forward. Listen to 32 Thoughts, the podcast, ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime.

And that will do it. The Oilers see their five-game winning streak come to an end. But everyone everyone everyone cheering for Craig Anderson who records his second shutout of the season the 35th of his career and an emotional time for he and his family but his family is on the ice congratulating him right now you You don't see this very often. Every single guy, a game in October, every single guy come over to their goaltender, give them a hug. There's a lot of emotion there.

You've got two types of family where you're a professional hockey player. You've got your nuclear family, your family, but then the other ones that extend to that dressing room. That's a heck of a moment and very emotional. It's beautiful. There's things that you see in sports or in life that you're never going to forget, and I'll never forget that game in Edmonton. What's the first thing you think of?

Surreal. I mean, it didn't happen. There's no way that happened. I mean, I was in Pennsylvania the day before. I flew all day. I got picked up at the airport from Carl and Clarkie. We went to grab dinner. I got to the hotel.

I got a massage from Sean there, the massage guy that night. And morning skated. I mean, I hadn't skated for like three, four days. I hadn't done anything like i just and then for that to happen i mean it wasn't it wasn't supposed i mean it was supposed to happen but it you can't make that up you know it's like there's more there's something else in the universe doing something than than we kind of fully understand and those are the moments that you realize that you're not you're not alone there's something else going on there's there's a bigger power there's a bigger something

whether you want to believe it or not there's in that moment that was supposed to happen do you ever watch that game again you ever watch the ovation again no i mean it popped on there for a few you know every once in a while it pops up there but no i thought it's not really when you walked into the dressing room after the game what was that scene like i think everyone was just kind of i mean i don't know tears of joy you know i mean everyone was emotional i mean i was the most i was emotional wreck i think guys were just in disbelief you know like did this really just happen i mean i wasn't i mean i was stressed before the game because like i said you hadn't practiced for three days i had a morning skate

i just traveled like and to get to edmonton from from pennsylvania from philly is not a direct flight so like you're going through hoops to get there so if you had to tell that story of like hey like this guy didn't practice for three days and you know i mean it's like the e-bug story right like it's not supposed e-bug story, right? It's not supposed to happen, but it happens. That's just kind of the way it goes. What do you remember about the playoffs that year? Things were happening at the right time,

at the right spot, right? Like, Clark, he scores a big goal in overtime in Boston. He wasn't supposed to be playing. Right. Carlson Reddy doesn't shoot it here. A pass't supposed to be playing. Great. Carlson ready. Doesn't shoot it here. A pass to the side of the net. Score!

Ottawa wins again. Ottawa Senators win the series. MacArthur got in close. Really close. And he's a hero. What a story. Clark McArthur, who has scored one other goal in this series, coming off a season and a couple of years

where he has not been able to play because of concussions. What a marvelous story for him. What a marvelous story for the Ottawa Senators. Unbelievable. That's what I mean. So much had to come together that season to go right, to get us to where we were. I mean, Carl was playing on a broken foot.

Clarkie missed the whole year with a concussion. I missed three, four months. It just wasn't supposed to. I mean, we treaded water all season long to get get into the playoffs and then just get in that's that's the message i mean you just get in you never know what can happen i still remember that overtime uh game seven pittsburgh and how close it was and i i've talked to players before who say that when they lose a series like that they can't decide if they want the team that beats them to win the cup want the team that beats them to win the cup

or the team that beats them to lose the cup because they don't want to think they could have won it. Did you have any thoughts like that after it was over? No, I think at that point, like, you know, the message from Nicole was that, you know, you finished treatment, right? So, like, I went back and play. I was like, all right, well, if this is it, this is it. You know, you got your family, you got your kids, like

there's bigger things in life. Like that was kind of like the first true, like, Hey, I can walk away and say, Hey, like I got bigger and better things to do with my life as far as family, kids and that kind of stuff. So I like, I don't know. know i mean i'm happy they won i mean you know it just shows a show that i don't know how we would have done nashville i i never i i always mentally nashville's a tough place to play the fans get on you they play that stupid song when they score i mean my kids went to one of those games and the whole fans cheering that anderson sucks my kids are like what are they talking about? It's a tough place to go in and play.

So who knows? We may have gotten swept. I don't know. No way. You don't know. No way. We both played the same system. We literally both played the same system. So Pittsburgh already had the roadmap to win against Nashville because they just beat us with the exact same system.

So who knows? If you got both the 1-3-1 with the left D-lock, who knows what you got both one, you know, the one, three, one with the left D lock, who knows what team would have won after that? Who knows? I don't know. Let's say Sens. Get everybody mad. Let's say Sens.

Yeah. Who knows? I don't know. Did you watch Alfredson's induction? No. I mean, I caught, you know, bits and pieces of kind of everything. And, you know, obviously Instagram is great where you kind of get, you get the gist of it all and you get to the highlights but dude he's such a great guy yeah he was oh man i sat next to him on the plane when i when i first

got there and we'd always play whatever on the ipad and games or whatever but he always went out of his way to make sure everybody was included big mental health guy yeah but i think that's part of it right like you know he made sure he went talked to all the wives and girlfriends he went and make sure he said the hello to everybody like it was just and it didn't feel forced you know when he did it and that's tough because it would be forced if i had to go try to talk to everybody it's it's just not my personality and he i don't know if it's his personality either but he made it seem like it wasn't forced and he was able to do it and he had a connection i mean same thing with with oki with our team now like he's you know he he's he's a guy that can go up to all the wives and girlfriends have a conversation ask him how

they're doing and it's natural right like that type of connection the type of leadership and you know that's that's hard to find and when he when he, when he got, when he got a guy like that, it's memorable. I'm glad you mentioned Ocpozo because, uh, one player who will remain nameless said that, uh, one of the things they thought was really impressive that happened in Buffalo was, I guess there was, there was a team meeting last year in Dallas when things weren't going very well, and they said that you and Ocpozo were incredible. Now, I don't know how much you're going to tell me about that,

but I'm going to ask you about what happened in there, as much as you can say. I think at that point, I think I just kind of came back. I kind of watched for two months from the sidelines, and we were struggling. We were struggling. And it's been that way for a while in the organization and and he was like all right well what can we do from a player's standpoint what

can then that's kind of how the start of the wheels get the turn like it's different when a coach says right the coach isn't in the battle he's not entrenched in in the battle and day-to-day on the ice and this was an opportunity to step up and say hey oaky what what can we do as a group to just set expectations for ourselves right i think that was that was the goal was to set expectations obviously there's always outside expectations but at that point there was only 32 games left i don't know whatever it might have been i just have to go back and look and i think my first comment was i'm a realist i'm realistic i understand where we're at i understand what we have here i understand where we're going

and what's our expectations as a group what do we what do we want to do? And it was kind of a rhetorical thing of just to get people to start the wheels turning. And I said, with 32 games left, can we be 500 after this? Can we be 500 over our next 32 games? And we ended up going, whatever, 19, 10, and 2. Whatever it ended up being. I don't even know. But that was pretty much the message of, here's our expectations and here's how we're going to get to them.

You know, without getting into all the details of it. That was it. I mean, it was, I don't know, 20 minute meeting or so. But there wasn't, it wasn't like a huge dialogue. It was just, hey, this is my experience.

This is what I see. And this is how mentally we're going to get through the next 30 years. You can pack it in and go 10 and 20 over the last 30 games. And yeah, it in and go 10 and 20 over the last 30 games and yeah, let's go play golf. Like that's, that's not fun. That was the message.

And Okie was fully supportive of, of that. I mean, even Donnie and Kevin were, were supportive and they thought it was great. And you know, it's, it's always different when it comes from within that makes it mean more because it's kind of a joint venture versus someone just kind of telling you what to do you know the team's in a tough streak right now but i think this is

different like i look at the talent here and i think it's tough to win in this league it's my personal opinion i don't play you can tell me if i'm wrong i just look at some of the pieces there and i say it's gonna work it's going to take longer than everybody would like. And the tough thing in Buffalo is it's been a tough decade, so the fans don't have patience, which I understand. But I look at the pieces and I say, I think this is going to work. Well, I think my personal opinion, it's not if, it's when. And I think that's kind of what your message is here just now

is that it's not if, it's when. Again, it's something that's going to have to come within, right? We're not outsourcing. We're not trying to fix it from bringing in other players. It's the belief, right? Kevin believes in what he's put in there and in that room, and Donnie believes in that room, and our players, we believe in that room. So it's just a matter of now fine-tuning the details that the difference

between winning and losing is such a fine line that right now we're teetering on that line but we're just on the wrong side of it so start the first 10 games we were on the other side of that line right so like it's just trying to find that happy medium and the teams that do it well and do it consistently are you know teams that we need to look to and say why are they doing it well and do it consistently are you know teams that we need to look to and say why are they doing it well and why are they doing this consistently and just try to mimic them dellian's for real right dolly is for real i mean he's what 23 years old he's already played in the league for five years like you know what you get with them right it's spectacular again we go back to the crawford conversation of does he get you plus four tonight

or is he getting you minus two right the chances he gets that the plays he makes he's always a plus player and when you sit there and break down his game there might be a play where you're like man what are you thinking there but there's also five plays where you go man like this guy is legit this guy you know pucks on a string you know and like i said you got to look at both sides of the coin and say he's doing a lot more positive than negative even though everybody likes to focus on the negative especially when you don't win powers for real powers is coming along i mean was he 19 years old gosh you're putting a lot of pressure on a guy to play top line minutes right now with all their injuries that we're kind of having and you know he's kind of stepped in and held his own and the great thing about injuries is they

give opportunities you can't look at what you lost it's what you have and we've got a guy that's going to be a humble guy the guy for being a first overall pick zero ego and that's tough to find a guy that has zero ego so you know he's learning he's learning i think he's coming along great and let's be honest i've got bad days you've got bad days he's gonna have a bad day everyone's gonna have a bad day but in the grand scheme of things you know definitely a positive outlook thompson's for real i think he's following up on his last season so far. You know what I like about Tage is that he's got the skill, but he's also arguably our hardest working guy, practicing games.

I mean, when you look at the tape and you watch him in practice, it says something about his character. Samuelson for real? Sammy, I mean. I heard you really like him. Sammy's great. Yeah, I heard you really like that guy. Sammy, again, focusing on the negatives here,

last year learned a lot, right? There was a lot of moments where you're like, man, what are you thinking here? What are you doing here? And then when you really break down the game and you see what all he brings to the table, you're like, man, all right. Like you start to have more belief in him.

But there was a play in Columbus. i remind him all the time too um in columbus my left corner seven seconds to go all he's got to do is just eat the puck or throw up behind the net he blows a tire puck kicks out into the dot i kind of go to swipe at it they pass it back door empty net now it's like it was 6-2 or 6-3 at the time now it's 7-3 he skates off the ice shaking his head he's he's like down and out like you know going to ride the bike all pissed off i i go sammy just be glad this didn't happen in a 1-1 game you know and you kind of see a little bit of a chalk i'm like dude don't worry i mean listen like it's gonna happen there's gonna be nights where you're no good and then you make a bad play but just be glad it's six two right now and not you know not one one you know and like and i've seen his game just completely growing like

i'm not saying that moment was a turning point or anything by that but i'm just i think that's maybe what's what he needed at that moment in time to say hey like it's okay let it go let Let it go. Let's move forward. You know? And, you know, again, that's one thing where a young guy where I know when I was young, I wouldn't let anything go. You know, I'd be like, Oh, I'm all pissed off. Call this guy. This guy blows. This guy stinks. What like, that doesn't do you any better. It doesn't get you better. Right. And so I think that's what I've learned. And that's what I'm trying to pass on to the guys is this, you know, take some of the good out of it. Yeah. Look at the bad, say, all right, what can I improve here? But also, Hey, you did this, this, and this, and let's grow on that. Three more for you.

Number one, what's your oldest piece of equipment? I try to get new everything every year, like neck guard, cup. Um, right now I would say maybe skates. I don't know. Staff's trying to get the staff's trying to get me in the new ones right now. So I don't know. We'll see. Okay.

Tell us about your son, the artist. You know, he's got a creative side, Jake. He's, uh, kind of been the guy that you just drives you nuts sometimes at home. So you're like trying to find things for him to do. So, you know. Design my pads. pads yeah we gave him a back in whatever i think it was 16 maybe maybe i don't know when it was maybe it was 2018 we had a sheet that you know of the the logo for the bryans was using for the that color scheme and

gave a box of crayons and said do something for the next hour just get out of her hair um and then we were in i think we were in a car ride this summer and i was getting the texts from henry from bauer and sending me like you know all these different color schemes for the gear and i'm like i'm like nicole do you like any of these she's like no not really i'm like jake what do you think he's like i don't like those either i'm like all right so i text him back i'm like hey can you send me me the online configurator for the pads? He's like, yeah. So he sends me the link. I give my phone to Jake, and Jake starts messing around with it.

He comes up with it. We take a screenshot, and I send it off to Henry. He's like, all right, we'll make those. And then we made a red one. So that was, I mean, he's got more creativity than I do. Good make work project. It occupies him, right? He's the type of kid that if he's bored, he's going to got more creativity than i do good work make work project it occupies him right he's he's the type of kid that you know if he's bored he's going to drive you nuts so we like to give him

things to do from time to time and be involved you have a reputation as being excellent at reading players hands who's the toughest who's your biggest challenge right now i'm going to stick with my in-house team and that's victor all of a sudden all of a sudden yeah he's the toughest guy to read right now yeah what does he do i don't know he shoots in different spots all the time he's always uh his release is really good um some guys are just really easy to read i don't i can't really okay who is really easy to read the young guys really all the young guys they're not smart enough to like well i don't know if you've ever had a conversation with marty brudeau but i remember marty saying i always used to give the guy gloves high because i know he'd shoot there and then i'd just stand

there and catch it i do that in practice to the guys to see if they got their head up and they do they look right in the spot you see their eyes light up and then you just move over and they hit you right in the pad and they get all mad it's like guys i'm telling you what i'm doing and you're not smart enough to figure it out where vick's kind of figured out and some of the only guys they figure it out and then you know once the guy kind of figures it out then i'll you know play a little bit more legit like i like to play mind games from time to time like there's most of the time you know i'm trying to be legit butterfly be on my and play hard and play that way um and then there's just some guys you just can't do that too because they're just not ready yet they haven't figured out that i'm messing with them

enough to figure out it's just it's like a cat and mouse game like so for a young guy i'll do that for him for maybe two shots but then on the third one i'll play legit like it's not fair to them for me to play like a 1985 goalie all the time i don't know i think that they should learn no because it's not coming back but like i said you don't want to get them into that habit but yeah five years ago i wouldn't have cared i've been like whatever i don't care about practice and and that's just again it's understanding your your audience right i think your practice habits have to be good and there's a time to mess around, but there's also a time to compete, and it's finding those moments to have fun yet compete, and that's kind of where I'm trying to... It took me a long time to get there

because in Colorado, I didn't practice hard, and in the first year, I had such success with it, and then the next year, I hadn't figured out how to compete in practice, and the year didn't go the way we were going, and then the coach was like, hey, you're not practicing hard. What's going on?

So I've had the ups and downs. I mean, it happened in Ottawa, too, where I didn't practice the way we were going and then the coach is like hey you're not practicing hard what's going on so like i've had the ups and downs i mean it happened in ottawa too where i didn't practice hard and it looks bad and then the guys get all pissed off but again i think i've kind of found that balance where you know the guys i think the guys realize now that i actually play that way sometimes so like i do have to play like that in practice sometimes because i it carries over into the game. I'm not your prototypical Luongo butterfly in every shot. It's just not who I am. So if I do like that in practice all the time,

then I won't be ready for myself in the game. So again, it's balance. And I think as the experience goes, I've gotten better with my balance. Will you be back next year? Oh man, come on. My kid said no already. He no i already asked him is that but what do you say i get it it might change but i'm just saying he said no i asked you know like this is hard this is this is hard on the family this is hard on the kids yeah um i

did go home twice during training camp they've've came up a couple times. They're up again for Thanksgiving. So, I mean, it's hard. It really is. But, I mean, they're at a point now where, you know, he wants to go play mini sticks with me and go to the rink with me and go to the baseball field. And, you know, when you're not there, it's tough. And then you try to shoehorn it all in the summer, and then it's like now you're overbearing for those two months.

So it's like trying to find that balance. Again, it it's balance so we'll see how the balance of the season goes and see where the conversation goes but i mean physically i feel great um mentally i'm in a great spot so you know i found a routine that works um you know from day to day and you know we just played back to back and unfortunately had to get in there for the second one, but I feel pretty good after that. So you don't know. I mean, one hit and you could be done.

That's the thing, right? Like in one hit, life changes differently. Fortunate enough, I was able to kind of get back to my normal last year and kind of play through it. And the summer was good, so we don't know. Selfishly, I want to see you play, but I understand it for the kids. I know. Dominator was in the other day, and I asked him how old he was when he retired.

He said 43, and I'm like, I don't know. Don't know. He did put the bug in the air that he was 43 when he retired. So I don't know. Okay. Don't know. Thanks so much. Yeah, no worries.

I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed it. I did. It was awesome. Thank you. Thanks so much. That's Craig Anderson, Buffalo Sabres netminder. Really hope you enjoyed that interview.

We have another podcast coming out as usual Friday morning. That'll be the news filled one. Hope you enjoyed this interview. We have another podcast coming out as usual Friday morning. That'll be the news filled one. Hope you enjoyed this interview podcast. Taking us out is a multi-instrumentalist who isn't afraid to blend genres. Joel Westberg, stage name Sir Wass, mixes hip hop with textural synths using pop

structures. It's pretty good. From his latest record, Let the Morning Come, here's Sir Wass with Waiting for the Weekend on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. I'm just waiting for the weekend First few days been in the deep end God knows it is a big deal To be some peace of mind.

New day, new rain. Gotta learn how to look. This state could turn into rain