32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Johnny Oduya On Travel, Coaching & ATUNYA
Episode Date: March 29, 2022He is a two-time Stanley Cup champion and the founder of Atunya, a training apparel brand. Johnny Oduya joins Jeff and Elliotte to talk about life away from professional hockey, his travels to Kenya a...nd Thailand, creating Atunya and the challenges he faced during the pandemic, he shares some Stanley Cup memories, the importance of fitness and healthy eating, coaching hockey and a tells the guys a few funny stories from his days in the NHL.Check out Atunya and all their products here: https://atunya.comMusic Outro: Matt Berry - Summer SunListen to Matt’s entire discography on SpotifyThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: WGNThe 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.
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Elliot does Peloton every day, so I will...
We have some nice hoodies and sweatpants, so you don't have to be Duncan Keith.
Johnny Oduya doesn't talk publicly, or at least that's what we thought.
Welcome to 32 Thoughts to the Podcast, presented by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup.
Now, Johnny Oduya, you may know as a two-time Stanley Cup champion,
playing on a number of NHL teams, including the Devils, the Thrashers, the Jets, the Hawks,
where he won cups, the Stars, the Sens, and a single game with the Philadelphia Flyers.
And as we talk about in this interview, people were surprised when he reached out
and said he wanted to come on and talk to us about his career and promote his new endeavor,
which is called Atunia.
I'm going to talk more about that in a couple of seconds.
We were surprised.
Everybody around us were surprised,
but eagerly so.
Like we don't hear Johnny Oduya do interviews.
We didn't know how it was going to go.
Was it going to be a quick 10 minute chat,
maybe a cozy 15 and wrap it up?
We ended up talking for like 90 minutes and edited it down for clarity and
conciseness, mainly chopping out parts by, you know, me and Elliot.
But all the good Johnny Oduya stuff is in there. Fascinating guy.
When he played, you know, paired with Nick Chalmerson in Chicago,
as much as Keith and Seabrook got the headlines,
Chalmerson and Oduya were fantastic en route to Stanley Cups.
Really good, solid, smart hockey player.
One that every single team could use.
Really happy to do the interview.
The new endeavor he's part of is called the Tunia,
which is an athletic performance brand of training apparel.
So whether it's compression shirts and compression shorts and hoodies and sweatpants.
And by the way, if you go to the website at tunia.com,
be better than yesterday, great tag,
check out the hockey sweater.
It looks so cool.
With that, we'll let you get listening to it.
Here's Johnny Oduya, a really fun interview.
Great guy, wonderful hockey player,
and businessman now,
helping spread hockey all around the world.
Here's Johnny Oduya on 32 Thoughts, the podcast.
Enjoy.
Pleased to be joined now by two-time Stanley Cup champion
and someone who now, Elliot, is dabbling in the world of fashion and
clothing and athletic wear. He is Johnny Oduya and he joins us on the podcast. Johnny, thanks so much
for doing this. How are you today? I'm very good. Thank you for having me. Pleasure is all ours.
First of all, where are you right now? I am in Stockholm, Sweden. Stockholm, Sweden. And
when we think of your career,
we'll think of the two Stanley Cups, certainly.
We'll think of the time in New Jersey
and we'll think of the trade that took you to Atlanta
and the Chicago Cups and paired with Chalmers.
And we'll get into a lot of this stuff now.
But when you look back at your career now,
what are some of the things that jump out at you right away?
Is it
just too obvious to say the two Stanley Cups? Well, good question to start with. No, I feel,
of course, that is hallmark time of my career, but I also feel very fortunate and I've been,
I think I've seen anything, not everything you can see in the NHL, but I've been in small cities.
You know, Winnipeg is probably the smallest one.
It's also probably the coldest one.
And with diehard fans.
And then I was in Atlanta where it's hot, warm, and nobody cares about hockey at all.
Or nobody cares about hockey at all.
But compared to maybe in the fan base in canada it's completely different and big cities like new york obviously
being in new jersey old traditional sports cities like chicago i feel very fortunate i feel like i've
i've done hot cold small big fans no fans, everything you can imagine. So yeah,
that is what I usually, when I look back at it, I'm very happy and proud for that.
I got a lot of questions I want to ask you because I texted around, I called around,
I said, I need some good Johnny Oduya stories. And we'll talk about some of the stops,
but I have a couple of things
I have one story I need to ask you if this is true and I'm going to credit the person who told
me it was Mike Rupp a great guy a great person yeah and Mike Rupp told me that it was almost
your fault and his fault that Eli Manning and the New York Giants wouldn't have won a Super Bowl. They won two
together, but there was a reason almost that Eli Manning never won a Super Bowl with the Giants.
And it was because one of you was driving at a crosswalk. Is this story true?
Well, I can't even remember the details of this, but we did live in the same building in um in hoboken when i when i
first moved down there i was one of the first guys that moved away from you know the more uh
the parts up in in yeah the smaller towns around the practice rings i moved down when we moved to
newark and uh i don't remember exactly if i ran over or almost ran him over at the crosswalk,
but something like that. I do remember though, when they won afterwards and it was complete
chaos everywhere in the streets and everything was beautiful. But yeah, I don't have that many
more details of that, but I'm going to ask Rapper about actually he said he said in a text that you and him almost
killed eli manning in a car while he was on a crosswalk yeah that could have been true
wait a sec wait a sec okay so i know you can't you said you can't remember everything here
but if someone was going to do that would it it be you driving or Michael driving? I would probably blame that on him.
And, you know, he talks a lot too.
And he really gets excited.
And, you know, he talks a lot when he gets excited.
So maybe we were having a deep, loud conversation.
And one of us or none of us were paying attention to the road.
So that could have been true.
Yeah.
The other story I heard, Johnny, was, and it was really funny that a few players said, wait a sec, you guys are doing an interview with Johnny Oduya?
And I said, yeah.
And they go, you're kidding me.
And I go, what do you mean?
And he goes, there's not a guy who likes to talk about himself less than Johnny Oduya.
I can't believe that he's actually doing an interview.
Yeah.
And that is probably true.
So for me, if I could pick,
I would probably not talk about myself that much.
No, it's nothing against media per se.
It's just, I don't really like that,
but it's good because now I can train and do that.
And I think also now there's different things
that I do that have a cost
that I think is more important than me.
So then I have no problem talking about that.
And of course, the vessel is through me, so to speak.
So then there's a purpose.
And I love doing that, actually.
There's a couple of interesting coaches that you've had along the way.
And there's one that I want to ask you about specifically as a defenseman.
want to ask you about specifically as a defenseman. When you were with the New Jersey Devils,
what did it mean to you or what was it like having Larry Robinson around? Elliot and I talk about Larry Robinson every now and then. I still think that he's as revered as he is in the
game. I still think it should be more. I think he's one of the all-timers. What was your experience
like with Larry Robinson? Well, I love Larry.
First of all, he's a magnificent, fantastic individual as a person, as a human.
He's just magical.
And I think coming into New Jersey in my first year, this defensive machinery, i think a few places i think in the nhl ever in time that had that kind of
feeling around it and the the way they pursued and focused on the defensive game and the team game and coming in to that for me it was quite surreal in the beginning i think i really got
to learn how to play defense and how to do it and of course also having marty brudor marty in the beginning, I think I really got to learn how to play defense and how to do it.
And of course, also having Marty Brudor, Marty in the back. If you play good and you play smart,
there's going to be no goals, you know? So it was quite interesting. And it was so many games back then we won one, nothing or two, one. And it was just, it was unbelievable, but the coaches,
not just him, but the whole coaching staff at that time was something.
I don't know how many NHL games they had in between them.
At the time I was there, the first couple of years, I had Larry, of course.
I also had Jacques Laperrier, which was actually the D coach that I had my first year.
And I love Lappy too.
Just very calm, smart individual with a funny sense of humor.
We watched a lot of videotapes and I watched sometimes when I didn't have a tape to watch on my games.
He's like, Johnny, Johnny, you played good.
Now we're going to watch the other guys.
I'm like, okay, do that.
So no, it was just fantastic.
So him, of course, helped me a lot.
Scotty Stevens was there at that time as well.
And, you know, helped out with special things every now and then.
Tommy Albelin was around the team at that time.
And it was just, you know, if you want to play defense, like who else is going to show you how to do that?
It was just unbelievable.
So I got a really good start in how
to yeah really develop that sense and awareness and all we talked about all the time is where to
position yourself basically so you need to understand where to put yourself at all times
and that is also some of the things i actually teach younger players now that it's not just
actually teach younger players now that it's not just about how fast and where you can skate and what you can do which is something that's moving into the game more and more I like that part
I think to get the hockey is getting better but there's also something around building awareness
and understanding the game and developing that sense and that skill as well which
yeah I was very very fortunate with that in the beginning.
I'm interested in that, John.
So when you teach kids, including playoffs,
you played, I think, 956 games.
When you teach kids, what are the rules of defense that you teach?
What do you say to them?
You have to do this, and you have to know this.
Yeah, we work on basic awareness, I would say. And one thing that I like to do now is I put
together a mindful defense camp with one of my skills coaches, Daniel Broberg, which is a
fantastic skill coach here in Sweden. And we've done these a couple of times and i told them initially
i want to i want to have 12 year olds so i want to teach 12 year olds how to play nhl defense
game basically and some people are like maybe they're too young and they won't understand
and i'm like no let's try it and we tried it so from 12 and then up, I wanted to bring them awareness of different situations, what
can happen, and also what happens if you do a certain thing.
So preparing them for different types of scenarios, basically, because some coaches would like
them to, if you're a defenseman, like you to go attack fully in the corner.
And some of them wants you to angle and position. And some of them wants to play overload defense.
And there's so many variations of what can happen.
And I want to expose them to that.
And if I can expose them to that, maybe they won't use it now for one or two years.
But eventually, they're going to run into that.
And having the understanding and not seeing
that for the first time i think it's super important because the game now has changed
you need to be ready way earlier when i came in i was 23 or 24 and i think i was the youngest
defenseman on the team at that time and we had six guys in new jersey that was over 35 i think
or something like that so now that the league is younger, players are younger, there's more speed,
and you need to be ready way earlier. So if you're 16, 17, and you've never been exposed to any of
these things, and you think you're going to play in the NHL two years later or three years later,
that I think is a challenge. And you might make it if you're one of those top 00.1% skilled defensemen
that can do that.
But defensive game is more than just the puck handling.
And how do you do that before you used to come in and, you know,
you would have two or three years in the minors and you get to learn
how to play the game and, you know, that time is, uh, is basically gone now.
So I think it's so much more important to learn those things way earlier and they're
adaptable.
They can do it.
I mean, some of them are doing better than, than some of the older players that I coach
now.
So it's like they pick it up so fast and they understand.
So it's super, super cool.
So I love doing that.
What role does physicality play in all of this?
Like when you go around a bench now, like anyone can do this,
go to if you're near an NHL bench or American League bench
or at any level, really high level,
where once upon a time we would always hear coming from the bench,
finish your check, finish your check, finish your check.
Now we hear good stick, good stick, good stick.
Is there a role still with physicality?
We know it's diminished, but what, if anything,
is the role in physicality playing defense right now?
In New Jersey, we always talked about positioning first.
So you can go make a hit, but you can't get out of position to do it.
So if you do that, that's fine.
And sometimes, of course, depending on situation in games, you can try to make that big hit,
maybe with the intention of changing the momentum, for example.
So then it might be useful.
But if you're running around all the time and you have no control of what you're doing
because you want to collect hits, I think that's a very bad strategy for a defenseman and
for me it was always more of trying to absorb hits and actually get the forwards to hit me
because it's actually tough for forwards also to run around and hit people just ask any forward
and you tell them to go around around and get 20 hits in a game that's super difficult to do they're
going to be gassed out so for me it was almost
the more people chase me and the more they hit me and if i'm smart and i can move the puck
then come and hit me as much as you want you're the one that's going to get tired you know it's
almost like a boxing game where you defend yourself the other guy is punching punching
punching punching you're just defending deflecting defending deflecting and then when the time is
right you know you're just going to get the puck and you move it so if you're not afraid of getting
hit and you know how to protect yourself and you can be smart around that i think it's a really
good way and especially if you're uh you know if you're smarter or smarter but a smaller player
that can move then you should use your skating b and position first. And if you can finish checks, of course, do it.
But if you run around without awareness,
for me, I don't think that's a good way to defend.
And as you talked about with the sticks,
that was something that we talked very early on.
I agree with you that this is the new hitting.
And the game is so fast that it might be difficult to even get to
forwards because they're so fast and getting away so it's interesting to see the development and
like I said I some of my friends and other people say that they don't like it they think it's odd
it's not like it used to be and there's no hitting anymore and I don't agree fully with that. I think maybe it's not as much in the regular season.
But, I mean, I watched some of the playoff games.
Not too many now the last couple of years.
But I think the intensity is there.
And the hitting is there.
And the momentum shifts are there.
And, like, all of these things are still there.
So, although the personnel players look different now.
So, they focus on different things.
Johnny, are you going to coach someday?
All this stuff is so good.
I do coaching.
That's what I said.
I coach younger kids.
No, no, no.
No, no, no.
I know.
But I understand that.
But if I'm an NHL team listening to this, I'm saying this is a guy who could work with our prospects
or this is a guy who could coach our young defensemen.
Do you have any goal towards that kind of thing?
No, I think my work is more outside of the teams.
Of course, if there's individuals that want to reach out and do that,
that's possible, and of course through the teams also.
But I don't know what that would look like
i kind of like it as it is now where i can do it off the grid so to speak and i love to help
players so focusing on the individual players and what is needed for them and how i can support them
that's something that i i like to do and if that's true team or agent or you know
whatever it doesn't really matter to me but i want to focus on the players and the ones that
really wants to learn and excel and absorb new information and develop let me ask i've asked
you about physicality let me ask you about shooting as a defenseman because that's changed
as well like long gone are the days of the gotta have the big clapper from the point.
And you're like those days it's,
it's from,
from a bygone era,
teaching shooting for a forward is different than teaching shooting for a
defenseman.
That's an Elliot and I,
a while ago,
we're talking to Tyler Sagan,
the Dallas stars and bringing up John Klingberg.
And I think you were with Dallas when John was first starting in the NHL.
And listen, his reputation is like,
he shoots high from the point
and it's heads up in front of the net
because he'll throw them in there high.
But how do you teach kids to shoot from the point?
What's important in 2022?
How do you shoot as a defenseman?
I agree with everything you said.
Oh, that's going to go right to his head, Johnny.
I just want you to know that.
That's my new ringtone now, John.
Thank you for that.
That's great.
I don't know if I'm the best person to actually talk about this
because I'm not a significant goal scorer in the NHL.
So that might be one thing.
But other than that, yeah, I agree that it has changed.
I think you need to shoot on moving pucks.
So, you know, just loading up and shooting, I think that's difficult.
If you can shoot, find one-timer positions where you can shoot off the wall or off broken
place or off place like that.
I mean, I scored some of the goals I scored on the end of my career was just shooting
off people into the net, basically.
So getting the puck into the net and getting it through, that's some of the things
that we're working on. And then of course, I think I take influence from these guys you're
talking about, Karl Makar or Klingberg or whoever it is that have this ability to move. And for me,
that's not just the shot. That's actually how you move your feet so that is a skating practice just as much
for me anyway as it is shooting the one i looked a lot at when i was younger was um it was nick
lidstrom how he had the the ability to grab pucks off the wall if you're on the blue line he can
grab it off the wall just take one too smooth almost like i don't know like a duck wiggle with his tail and then he would
just like shoot pucks that would somebody would tip in like holmstrom was in front tipping them
everything and um i tried to practice that as much as i could and now it's almost like there's a 2.0
level of that where there's multiple fakes and moves and turns and And Duncan Keat was fantastic at this.
And I watched that up front closely, of course,
how he had the ability to move and move his skates
and they create opportunities.
So yeah, shooting off, moving pucks, I would say, yeah.
Let me ask you one more super geeky question
so Elliot can roll his eyes at me here.
How do you instruct defensemen on what to do with
rolling or wobbling pucks? Because it's one thing for a forward, like around the net,
wobbling puck, like shoot it every time because no one knows where it's going to go,
especially the goaltender. So you do it. Is it the same for defensemen from farther out?
What do you do with a wobbling puck? Where is the wobbling puck and where am I?
You're on defense. The puck has squirted back to the blue line, but it's not flat.
You're at the point and that puck has squirted to you, but it's wobbling.
That's a good question. It depends. It's the read question. It depends on the speed of the puck. If
it's coming really fast at me, I probably won't swat at it.
If it's coming slower and I sense that if I miss it, I can get out,
then maybe I would swat at it and try to shoot at it.
Yeah, I've scored some of those goals too where it's impossible for the goalie to save it.
It's just bouncing and getting in there.
So I would say if the puck is coming really hard,
I probably will try to stop it with my body, get it down.
If somebody's attacking me, which usually forwards do,
if you're on the blue line and there's a bouncing puck,
they should attack me.
And if they do that, then usually I would back out
and then collect the puck and try to do something with it.
But yeah, it's a read situation.
It's difficult to know exactly what to do but yeah
all right you got any more scenarios merrick that you're gonna run on here is it i like to get like
hyper geeky on this kind of stuff i could i could do this all day johnny no that's good like actually
i have to say i found that all really really interesting um the other thing i wanted to ask
you was about is some of your travels you know know, you played in Thailand a couple of times in your career, including after you left the NHL.
And I know, and I think it was last summer, the summer before you can correct me that
you and Oliver Shillington went to Kenya together and you worked on doing some roller hockey
there to try to grow the sport.
Um, just what was it like playing in Thailand and in some of these places where maybe
we don't think about as normal with hockey, what was your experience like there? Yes, I went to
Thailand during the lockout and had nothing to do, or nothing to do, but I worked out here with
the team. I skated a little bit, but then as it looked at that time, we were not going to start
before Christmas. I'm like, I got to do something. i found a team in thailand so a lot of suites go to thailand in the in the winter time
and yeah basically me and my friend went there we looked it up and they thought first that
there was it was a joke uh that they're like why are you gonna come here but it wasn't and they
were really surprised when i showed up at the airport.
It's like, yeah, it's actually you.
I'm like, yeah, I want to skate.
So yeah, it was fantastic.
It was just one of the best things I think I could have done at the time.
It was a beautiful hockey community with expats and ties and everything mixed together, playing in a league.
I could have the ice for myself at times with a couple of players,
worked out a lot with that.
I had hockey clinics for some of the kids
and skated with the other players at night
that played some, you know, some shinny games
and some other games they had.
And I was there for, you know, a month or two or something like that.
And I still have ties and friends that I still talk to now from that time, of course.
And when I have the time to come back,
go back, I do that.
And we had this
tournament that we played
and we actually won also. It was super cool.
It was the first thing I
won. I never won anything before.
This was before the Stanley Cups.
So I was so happy that I actually
got to win something in in thailand so that the the thai um was not a national championship it's more of a
tournament with different teams from other cities as well actually around the southeast asia so
it was great and now i think the tournament's uh growing and i've seen a lot of canadian teams
signing up and go and play in there
the game is growing a lot they're building one or two new rinks now i think in downtown bangkok which is great it's more than they build here in stockholm so i don't know what that says but
yeah it's been really fun now i'm looking trying to get back there and hold a skills or a youth
camp in um uh at some point in december this year
i hope as a new rink i think it's done by done so it's wonderful it's just it's great it's so
nice to go to these different places when there's hockey community and hockey players are lovely
like that you know anywhere you go you always feel like you're a part of the part of the gang and
feel like you're a part of the part of the gang and it's very welcoming and happy and and it binds people together through the sport so it's fantastic and what about Kenya with with Oliver
Shillington yeah so Kenya is a little bit different of a project of course they also they actually did
the big the the lions there did a photo shoot not too many years
ago, I think with Tim Hortons, then they brought them over from
Kenya to Canada and skated with Sidney Crosby and kin and maybe
also and did a big photo shoot around that. So they had hockey
there and have had it for some time. They have this old square
rink in a in a hotel that hotel that they play at. When we were there
this summer, that rink was closed. So we skated in the park. So they have this big parking
lot in the center of Nairobi where they clear out on Sunday. So then they play roller hockey
for three hours. And there was also some speed skating going on on the side and this was a um you know a base
and a photo opportunity and brand building opportunity also for uh attunia the sports
brand out then i'm creating and we wanted to set the base with this and it was so cool i've been
looking for projects in kenya to do some type of charity work and combine it with something.
And this worked out great.
I mean, my dad's from Kenya.
My roots are there to some extent.
And it was just a wonderful thing.
And now we have this beautiful project where they already been doing this.
So we just plug in and play.
And we're having a photo venissage exhibition actually now
in stockholm here in two weeks where we uh we're taking all these beautiful photos of uh different
environments and players and all these things and now we we're gonna do a charity event with that
to try to feed the project even more so there's a lot of good things and touch points that it's very nice for me. And
they're great at delicate individuals that are there are
also amazing. You know, we were there, we brought these little
plastic pucks, you know, the ones you use on asphalt. Yeah,
yeah. Yeah. And we brought those and we started to play and me
and Oliver, we're kind of looking at each other like this
is going to get you know, wild and and they were holding they were holding back on us and and they were
full-fledged you know blocking shots with no gear this plastic puck if you get that on your knee you
break your knee like they don't care about anything and hard-on full passion just most
passionate hockey players you can imagine.
And some of them are from probably one of the toughest parts in the world.
Uh, you know, some of the ghettos outside of, uh, Nairobi, which are enormous, you
know, and they take their skates on and they skate 45 minutes to get to the park.
They skate for three hours and then they go back block shots and they're like,
yeah, it's just amazing individuals. Yeah. It's not something that, something that that you see every day and i think oliver had a similar experience
i think it was very eye-opening and humbling for him as well when we spoke about that and
so we love to do more more more stuff like that it's very nice so yeah you know johnny like
athletes are athletes if you're a good athlete you can do a lot of different things but the roller blades and and learning how to control on a stick it's so unique and so different so
i just wonder for kids who've never been exposed to that kind of thing before
how long does it take them to to master it or to to learn it or to become comfortable at it
oh that's a good question i think it's similar to playing
hockey so they're on the ice and they've been doing this for a long time so we're not the one
that started that project which is super interesting so now we just uh we supported skates uh through
marsh blade was one of the sponsors for that so they gave them we you know we have like 25 pairs
of skates or new new inlines that we brought down.
And that was magical by itself.
And then, of course, we donated jersey for them to play in.
We're looking at donating sticks, getting into programs with some of them to go to school and doing all these things.
So they're really good skaters.
They're really, really good skaters.
There's a lot of speed skaters, too.
A lot of the girls do speed skating also. So they have this big like roundabout on the other side
that they do. And they're good skaters really, really, really
good. So yeah, like I said, for us to just tap into that project
and try to develop it further. I mean, there's talks about maybe
creating a real rink, for example, wow. And, example, and getting sponsorships and stuff around that.
So I think there's a lot of these places around the world
where hockey is very cool and that you don't think of,
and it's a really passionate community.
And for me, when I see this, this is the pure form of love for the sport.
And it doesn't matter if you're in nairobi or if you're in the
back street of playing street hockey in in canada somewhere for me that's the same thing that you
know there's no lights there's no cameras there's no there's no media and uh yeah and and all of
these things are gone obviously we we were the ones filming now but uh it's something very pure
and beautiful around that and And we're trying to
recreate that feeling in individuals and for me also in myself. I think the selfish purpose of
that is it really gives me a lot of joy and drive to be able to feed into these projects.
You know, that's probably a good entry point then to ask you about it, Tunja. You mentioned
that a second ago. This is a high-performance athletic gear that you've created.
Take us through it from the root to the fruit.
What's the idea and what's the execution here?
Well, the first thing I learned was don't start a clothing company during the pandemic.
People still need clothes, John.
Yeah, I know you said that. but uh yeah it's also difficult to
produce and do all these things but no it's something i've been looking for for a long time
i mean i've been in i do a lot of i wouldn't say weird things nowadays but uh i've been into this
kind of holistic approach of doing things for for some now, I wouldn't say 10 years, but almost,
maybe eight at least. And how do you build not just sustainable clothing for once,
but how do you build sustainable players or sustainable humans or whatever you would call it?
And I find that super interesting. I I mean I'm involved in a breathwork
studio that we also opened here in Stockholm that it's kind of the same thing of developing
individuals and obviously with clothing there's something that you wear and everybody can see so
it's kind of the marketplace or the showcase and then behind that you can build a lot of other different values and
we have the the mindful approach that i love competition i think it should be there but
there's also other things that if you over compete so to speak that you might lose and if you're not
aware of that and then that would be a deficit i I think, in the long run. And we talk a lot about, you know, environment nowadays
and also the diversity for the game.
I think it's a super interesting question. There's a challenge in hockey
that is, it's a beautiful community, but it's also
very traditional. I actually had a
talk with Matt Sundin the other day. We had lunch and
we talked about when Nike was trying to get into hockey. Nike is the biggest brand in the world.
There's no other sports brand that's bigger and they could not do that. The money wasn't the
problem. They didn't have the ability to get in there and expand that
market and take it over. That's also true for actually brands that come from hockey.
It's very difficult for them to transcend and be something outside of the sport.
And for me, this is super, super interesting and something that we can work with and try to bridge
this gap between what is the hockey world like and can we expand that and work with
that and push the boundaries a little bit to also make it more applicable and suitable for the rest
of society. So we want to keep the traditions to some extent. We don't want to change everything,
but we also want to develop all the time to become more and also attract maybe different
type of individuals.
So in Sweden, for example, the demographics for hockey is quite tight.
And to sustain hockey and develop it, you know, in a couple of years, if we don't do
that here, we're not going to have that much hockey left.
It's just going to be a certain amount of people that would play and we're going to
lose a lot of talents.
So we need to develop this and we need to have this different approach.
And through Atunia, I can work on all these levels.
I can work on, you know, the sustainability, of course, both for athletes and in the clothing,
but also how do we develop the sport and really become growing the game in a good way,
in a sustainable way.
I think that is really important.
That's something that I like to do.
So what are your short-term goals and your long-term goals there? When we look at this in
maybe a year, Johnny, what do you hope to see? And maybe when we look at this in 10 years,
what do you hope to see? Yeah, of course. Now I want to sell some clothes. I think that drives
a lot of the products and everything that we do. So that's one thing. But of course, I want to be able
to sustainably build this so we can feed into all of these projects that we do and create a picture
of a hockey player that's maybe a little bit different than we're used to. So in the same way
as I've been doing in Thailand, it was 10 years ago I was there and promoting the game and something
happened there and this sparked something.
I think through the brand, I can do this in multiple places.
And my hope also is to do it in other sports where maybe some other sports are quite traditional or heavy in some places.
And you can view it in a different way and get a different look at it.
And I think that's useful for the rest of the world, to get away a little bit from that traditional way
of looking at hockey and how it has to be,
because it could be anything and everybody can play it.
And that's why I also love street.
Like now also we're doing a tournament
in Stockholm this summer as well.
And there we're not going to have the inlines.
I want to make it even easier.
Just bring your shoes, a stick, and some gloves,
and you can play the game.
And if we can bridge that,
maybe we could get more individuals
into getting interest for the sport, basically.
And also having the street vibe,
then the urban community will start to also attach
with the brand a little bit more.
So we can live outside of the sport.
That's what I'm trying to do.
So I have a brand that would have the ability to bridge these two worlds.
That's what I see in front of me.
Did you do all the design on this?
Because the stuff looks great.
Like it looks super cool, Johnny.
I can't take all the credit.
I have some unbelievable people that I work with.
So they give me usually a lot
of options and then we weigh them back and forth and creators everything from art directors to
designers to production everything is yeah it's a lot of work from their end and I think the result
is is good of course like everything else we're developing things all the time becoming better
getting feedback and uh yeah it's just a fun it's a fun journey it's like i said it's difficult
it's difficult during the pandemic but i think we learned i think we learned a lot too during that
time that uh we had to be really mindful because we can't get affected what's going on in the
outside world a lot of things are uncertain.
A lot of times, like now, we have a different situation here in Europe, as you know, as well.
And this instability and these things that we can't affect from the outside, we had to learn to be mindful ourselves, basically, and walk the talk, not lose in focus, and doing what we feel is the right thing.
We'll put some links for Etunia in the show notes.
So anyone hearing this right now, we can direct them there.
I want to ask you about a couple of things about the Stanley Cup,
and the first one specifically.
Take us back to Game 6 in the series against the Boston Bruins.
You win the Stanley Cup.
It's a sudden comeback by the Chicago Blackhawks.
You're on the ice.
You feed Dave Boland.
He scores.
Joe Bickle from Caves and Kane in 1844
in the 5th third bank third period.
Gilmerson, Hawk line, right wing.
Put it ahead to Boland.
Racing over the Bruin line.
Gave it up for a lead.
He fires from the right circle.
Stick save made by Rask.
Here's Oduya.
Drive.
They all in his car.
It's Boland in front of the net.
Oduya fired a shot and deflected it on Rask.
He left the rebound in the paint of the crease.
And there was Dave Boland to drive it home.
58 seconds away from the Stanley Cup are the Chicago Blackhawks.
They lead the Bruins 3-2. This place is stunned. And so am I. At what point after you made your pass did you think,
whoa, that's a game-winning goal?
Yeah, that was a weird 17 seconds.
I felt, number one, I felt really good that game.
I still remember the feeling I had before the game.
And I don't know if it was, yeah, because I thought we were going to win,
but it was just something about that game that I felt on point,
really focused and super clear everything.
And the game before, I didn't.
I had a tough game the game before, but we won that one.
Thank God.
So it was nice.
But what did I think?
No, I think when I shot that puck, we just looked up and it was not that much left.
And I think both of me and Hammer and me or me and Kruger, we just looked at each other
and nobody, we didn't really celebrate we're
like okay what's going on and this is weird and uh yeah we just looked at each other and then
basically i think me and hammer were still going to be on the ice maybe crooks also actually so
we just came back to the face of circle and we're like okay what the fuck's going on
and it was just super weird it was so strange because it happened so fast yeah
and yeah I didn't even think about what happened I think until months afterwards and you know I
of course then when you win you're just you win so then you're happy but yeah I remember the the
feeling of looking at the clock on top of you, in front of the goal there or on top of
the back of the goal and just, okay, 17. And then just, yeah, this is not done. You know,
that was the initial thought I think I had. So when you think about your favorite memories or
your favorite parts of the journey, what are the things that, you know, jump into your head, Johnny?
know jump into your head johnny oh um well there's so many things wow like i said in the beginning i feel enormously fortunate that was one of the question when somebody somebody asked me i was 37
you know i stopped playing now three years ago and they're like oh you could play a little bit
longer you're still in shape and you can i'm like yeah i can be greedy or I could be extremely grateful and really embrace what I got.
And then for me in the next step, like I'm doing now, is that is there things here I can use that is useful for others?
Then I could do that maybe instead, instead of playing until I'm 45.
And there's a there's a long stretch. There's a lot of things to learn in the in the other world.
So I needed the time to do that.
But I've learned, yeah, I felt very fortunate the whole time.
So many different teams and winning and losing.
And like I said, hot and cold teams and big, small cities, teammates, like everything's
just been, I had, you know, eight, nine different type of coaches.
I've learned so many things.
And I remember sitting on the bench
in 2015 i think it was the the countdown of the last couple of seconds and you know time just
slows down at that point and you sit there and you watch and you're just watching around like this
united center the place is full everybody's screaming and i remember how slow those like 10 seconds but i was in this complete
it's just this point where everything is connected to and it's quite hard to describe but it's one of
the things that i i wish for everybody on this planet it doesn't matter if you play sports or
whatever you do that you at some point in your life will have the feeling of that that you you
can connect so many dots and that you go through this journey and when you get there it's almost
like it all it all repeats itself and i don't know i don't know if that makes any sense but
you get these like flashbacks and all the things you're describing I was just very at ease and very
grateful and then you know the buzzer horn the horn is the game's over the horn rings and then
it's party for a week you have no idea what's going on and then life is back to normal a couple
of weeks after whatever but but um yeah it was magical and I watched that I mean I I tried to
watch the last Stanley Cup game that I think, whatever, usually it's
like game six or five, six or seven or something like that, when somebody has the chance to
win.
And if I missed that, I usually watched the rerun at the end just to see that part because
I relive it every time I watch it.
And I watch the players and the feeling that they have and how happy they are.
And I watch the players and the feeling that they have and how happy they are.
And when I talk to young individuals that might be struggling and
you know, don't see their way forward or where to go,
this is what I try to not speak about, but I try to live in the way that
they will get that feeling from me. So that will be the part that they can see that,
okay, that is why we do this.
We're not in this for buying the new cars
or buying the new house or buying all these things.
It's just these simple moments that will line up eventually
and will give you an experience that you cannot pay for.
You have to work to get it and have the experience to get it.
I remember when you guys won in 2013,
it was Michael Hanzus and it was Jamal Mayers.
And when you won in 2015, it was Antoine Vermette.
And you played for a while too
before you won the first time,
but I can only imagine what it must have been like
to celebrate with those players
who had never won before and had been around longer.
That must be the kind of person that you're talking about there as much as anybody else.
Yes, I think Kimo Timonen was there too.
Yes, Kimo Timonen, great guy, great guy.
Yeah, no, for sure.
And I also remember, this is actually a fun story, but I remember that in 2013, we were celebrating
afterwards and, you know, I was drunk and crazy and like, oh, big party time.
I was hoisting around a cup in the bar somewhere and I put it down and I was up with my friends
jumping around and I look over and Duncan Keith and Patrick Sharp was sitting on the
bar with a beer, just like one beer, no crazy party, nothing.
They won before.
So maybe they were like, okay, we're tired of this.
But they were sitting there and they were watching me.
And when I looked at them, they looked at me and I sensed that they were super happy.
They're like, this is so fun to watch this guy having this good of a time.
It's actually true.
It's something beautiful around that when you
you watch somebody else when you already kind of been in that space before and you don't need to
jump around because you're jumping around inside anyways and you understand how happy they are and
what what is going on and that is uh it's super super cool it's really nice i love that part of
of the game and i would love for everybody.
Of course, everybody can't win the Stanley Cup, but there's different things how to approach that
and get that into your life.
Okay, I got two more for you.
First of all, you talked about Duncan Keat there.
He's got the reputation as being the most unreal physical conditioned athlete.
But I also heard, Johnny, you were a guy who was in great shape
or is in great shape, was always very careful
about what you put into your body.
Did you and Duncan ever go head-to-head in fitness competitions?
What is the one thing you will not eat?
And who did you ever play with that you looked at them and said,
I cannot believe how little you take care of yourself.
That was a lot of questions though.
Okay.
So first of all,
you versus Keith,
you versus me.
We're saying Keith,
I have,
I wouldn't say I have no chance,
but he is a physical and mental phenomenon.
So I think a lot of his power is not just in his body,
which it's actually in his mind and his mindset.
Yeah, he's a great friend.
And I admire him a lot.
I love being in Chicago for that reason.
Getting in there was, you know,
like this revelation and opening up for me
where all of a sudden all these extreme things
and weird things that I
thought that I liked to do that I couldn't really do it other places then that was possible to do
in Chicago and it was actually it was seen as something positive like you wanted to do something
extra to win so okay go ahead do that it was no problem so we tried the you know a lot of
different things when it comes to training or food or supplements or whatever it is.
So that was a really fun time.
And of course, Duncan was in the forefront with some of us with that.
I think me, him, Taser, Sharpie was in there too for a little bit i think and um kruger of course uh we we wanted to try to push that as
as much as possible and see where how can we any edge we can find you know then we wanted to do
that and and duncan was uh of course the specimen i was at the one time it was actually it's kind
of funny because sometimes it would show up things that he'd been doing for like two months and I
didn't know he was doing it and I'm like oh you're doing that too and it was almost like not like
when he was hiding something but but I don't know it was internal competition no no it wasn't but
it was it was great it was wonderful and he's he has a lot of speed and he he can be really intense
but he can last also for a long time so he can do both which is not unusual and i think that actually comes a lot from his mind as well and the way he trains and
all these things so so that's super super cool and uh you know he would yeah he'd be yelling at me
coming to the bench and i was tired and he was like yelling at me a lot of times especially at
the end there i i took some face-offs in the defensive zone, and then I would just go change.
And sometimes he was pissed off because he thought I was too slow going to the bench,
you know, after the shift.
And he was yelling at me to get on the ice, get on the ice.
And it was like this, it's almost like the roadrunner, you know,
when you hold them up and the feet are going.
And as soon as I came to the bench, he just like took off right on the ice.
But he's fantastic. and what was the other
question so so what what don't you eat what is like your no way i'm i'm probably more now i
wouldn't say i'm more strict now yeah probably more strict now i play around more with my diet
now than during my career because i can i do different type of fasting protocols or I eat
certain a certain way for a longer amount of time because I can now because I don't have to perform
at that level I think that could be difficult if anybody's listened to this that that wants
to play around a lot with their diet I would recommend maybe not doing too much but whatever you feel is good so i will eat basically everything it's not like
oh if i eat that then i'm gonna fall apart i think that's a very bad way of approaching food
i think you can eat almost everything the question is how much and how often you do it so
i would not eat you know wheat products for. I don't eat that very often. Very
seldom I do that. I just feel better when I don't. I sense that I sometimes get a little bit almost
like swollen and inflammation in my body when I do. I don't eat that many dairy products.
I mean, other than that, I mean, I eat fish and veggies and grains, depending on like rice and quinoa, potatoes and these things, depending on how much I actually work out.
But sometimes I go straight ketogenic diet where I take out almost all the carbs.
So I play around.
I do a lot of different things there.
But it was a long time ago that I had a, you know,
spaghetti carbonara,
for example.
There's a long time ago.
Pizza,
regular pizza.
I usually don't eat either.
I have some gluten-free options at times that I eat,
but that's mostly for the cheese.
Actually.
There's a lot of cheeses.
That's difficult.
Sometimes I eat burgers.
Good,
nice grass fed burger. If there's a gluten-free bond, I can difficult sometimes. I eat burgers. Good, nice, grass-fed burger.
If there's a gluten-free bun, I can do that.
But a real burger, homemade, I really love that.
So I don't think I'm too crazy, actually, anymore.
It's not too bad.
It's not too bad.
No, it's kind of normal.
Not too bad.
Okay.
And my last one is, who was the worst at taking care of themselves you ever played with?
Who was the worst at taking care of themselves you ever played with?
Jesus, this is the question you're going to get haunted for, right?
It's the last one, so go out with a bang.
Go out with a bang.
The last question.
In Chicago, we always made fun of Cipsy because he was like the human trash can.
He would just put down anything he could.
I don't know if that has changed now.
I haven't talked to him.
But yeah, I mean, Dustin Bufflin was kind of like that too.
He loved to eat a lot of different things.
What a phenomenal athlete.
Yeah, he is just one of a kind.
Great guy too.
Listen, you spent a lot of time with us today.
We really appreciated this.
We had no idea where this was going to go,
but it went to a lot of special places.
You're a really special guy.
Johnny, thanks so much.
We wish you all the success with the new clothing line as well.
It looks fantastic.
Details will be in our show notes.
Thank you so much.
Take care.
Be well. I look forward to catching up down the road.
Yes.
Thank you for having me. Thank you. Breaking. Take care. Be well. Look forward to catching up down the road. Yes. Thank you for having me.
Thank you.
Breaking out of the box. Yeah.
Oh, man, that was a lot of fun. Great guy. If you get a chance, check out some of his clothing
brand. Atunya.com is the website. As we're in the sun, we're taking you out with something warm.
Matt Berry is an artist who isn't afraid to dip his toe in several genres,
from folk rock to New Age synth,
even bits of country rock and psychedelia to boot.
Berry is a multi-instrumentalist whose vocals complement his lyrics.
From his latest record, The Blue Elephant,
here's Matt Berry with Summer Sun on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. I can walk every mile
Tell me that I can fly.
Oh, I, oh, I. Hey.